The ocean will never cease to amaze the world with all its well-hidden secrets. There are still virgin underwater realms that have never seen the presence of a human being. However, today’s technology made one more step further in revealing the mysteries of the blue abyss. Thanks to a collecting gear, the team of researchers aboard the RV Investigator ship discovered 300 new species of sea creatures in just one month.

The Collecting Gear Was Crucial in This Type of Endeavour

If we take a look at a map of our Earth, it is surprisingly easy to see the extensive territory that belongs to the ocean. The abyss of the waters off the Australian coast represents the largest habitat on the planet. Therefore, scientists couldn’t deploy an extensive enough mission to scan the entire surface of this large aquatic land until now.

The team aboard the RV Investigator vessel turned to technology to help them in their efforts of exploring the abyss. They set the target in a zone that is around 13,123 feet deep. At this depth, a human being couldn’t survive as the pressure would get him or her crushed.

First things first, the team of daring scientists had to map the floor of the abyss with a multibeam sonar. Once they gathered enough data to recreate the bottom of the ocean, they were safe to deploy their gear without damaging it because of the landforms.

Scientists Made 1,000 Entries in One Month, Out of Which 300 Were New Species

The next step was to launch special equipment in the waters of the Australian Coast. This gear was specially designed to collect samples. In the end, this collecting gear returned with 1,000 various species. Out of this compendium, there were 300 who managed to remain unknown to us until the very last moment.

Most of them are unusual for the human eye. Their shape was adapted to the difficulties of the conditions that the abyss presented them with such as coldness and darkness. However, the most astounding finding was the bottom of the ocean is far from being clean. On the contrary, human activity turned it into the trash of beer cans, bottles, PVC pipes, and another residue.

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In life, small details matter. With this in mind, it comes to no surprise that crumb-free bread has the power to turn lifestyle on the International Space Station around. From the beginning, astronauts had no other choice than to swap this Earth staple food with their duller version, namely tortilla wraps. However, this situation is about to change thanks to the first spatial bread baked on board ISS.

Bread Crumbs Can Wreak Havoc on Board Space Station

Astronauts have to make a whole lot of sacrifices in order to pursue their dreams of conquering space. They have to change the way they move and let go of many products and services that make life easier on Earth for an extensive period of time. Bread is one of these sacrifices. It may not seem like much, but it is quite a challenge if you come to think about it.

The reason why no one can bring a good loaf of bread on board ISS lies in its crumbs. Those tiny particles are life-threatening if they are let loose in space. This is because they are hard to pick up. Once they are free to roam the space station, they can easily infiltrate in electrical equipment and cause a fire.

A German Bakery Came up with a New Recipe for Spatial Bread

However, Back in Space which is a German company might have come up with a solution. The bakery invented a new recipe for a special dough that doesn’t leave crumbs behind. The challenge was even bigger to not only devise a tough yet chewy texture but also endow it with the traditional taste of bread.

Therefore, astronauts on ISS are going to test the recipe themselves. However, the experiment is scheduled for April 2018 during the Horizon mission. Bake in Space is going to guide astronauts through the process of baking the very first spatial bread. There will be plenty of benefits if this project succeeds. Some experts are strong believers in the fact that fresh hot bread can energize astronauts and make them feel like home.

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Super corals are formations capable of adapting, living and thriving even in extreme areas.

A recently released study brings new hope for the salvation of coral reef formations. This paper presents the discovery and research results on the so-called “super corals”. Such structures were noted to be able to survive in otherwise extreme environments for their kind.

This new study is the result of a collaboration between the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and the International Research for Development, Noumea (IRD). Research results are now available in the journal Scientific Reports.

Super Corals, Living On the Edge and Thriving

Back in 2016, a scientific expedition traveled to a remote lagoon system discovered in New Caledonia. This was noted to house a varied community of reef-building corals, capable of living in the system’s extreme conditions. But not only that, these super corals first adapted and then started thriving in their unexpected habitat.

The area has hot, low on oxygen and acidic waters that have been associated with mangroves. As it is, the super corals renewed hope that such formations could still be able to adapt and exist in the warming global waters.

“The existence of corals living under this usually deadly trio of conditions, comparable and even exceeding what is predicted under climate change, gives us new hope that some corals will be able to persist into the future,” states Dr. Emma Camp.

She is one of the researchers part of the mission and a marine biologist at the UTS. Dr. Camp points out that the existence of the super corals indicates potentials future reef management options. She states that these could help “support proactive management options”. Ones that could help increase a reef’s resilience.

Now, Dr. Camp and her colleagues are planning to take a closer look at the Great Barrier Reef. An area deeply affected by bleaching, the scientists will be looking to detect reef-neighboring mangroves. In doing so, they are hoping to find super corals in such areas as well.

Still, the researchers acknowledge that this is in no way a quick fix solution for the problems encountered by coral reefs and their ecosystems.

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The Juno spacecraft has been bringing incredible new information about Jupiter.

 

One of the challenges of scientific exploration is that often one discovery just leads to another question, and sometimes it leads to many more. While stargazers already found Jupiter intriguing, the arrival of the Juno probe may have only deepened our King of the Planets’ mysteries.

Juno Compounds the Mysteries of Jupiter

“We are excited to share these early discoveries, which help us better understand what makes Jupiter so fascinating,” said Diane Brown, a spokesperson at NASA headquarters in Washington.

A researcher noted that Cuban boa snakes are capable of carrying out coordinated attacks.

A scientist noted an unusual and quite unexpected occurrence as he was guiding a watching tour, which prompted him to take up research on the matter. According to his results, Cuban boa snakes not only attack together, but they also seem to be capable of coordinating such attacks and act almost as a “pack”.

A paper with the study results is available in the journal Animal Behaviour and Cognition.

Boa Snakes Act Together when Preying On Bats

Vladimir Dinets, part of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, was in the Desembarco del Granma National Park in Cuba when he noted an unusual behavior in the local boa snakes.

These were gathered at the entrance of a cave, and seemingly on the look-out. Interested by this action, he took to observing the species and recording their actions. After eight days of recordings, Dinets reached quite a surprising conclusion.

The analyzed Cuban boa snakes were resting at the entrance of a cave which held Jamaican fruit bat colonies. A nocturnal species, these rest throughout the day in the adjacent chambers of sinkhole caves. Then, as twilight starts falling, they fly out looking for food, and possibly in the fangs of an awaiting predator.

Dinets states that, after spending the day in the vicinity of the cave entrance, some of the observed boa snakes slithered into its passageways as the light started dimming. There, they swung their bodies and started dangling from the cave ceiling. This way, as the bats flew past them, they could quickly snatch them up mid-flight.

The same ritual was followed as day was about to break, and the bats returned to their cave home. Only, this time, different snakes set up to eat and in different locations. Dinets recorded the snakes’ position throughout each of the possible feeding times. According to him, these never repeated, which seems to indicate that the boas did not just choose the same or a preferred spot.

Instead, they changed and coordinated their locations so that all involved could make the most of their meal.

“There is an old dogma stating that reptiles are mostly solitary and stupid. My finding is just one of many recent discoveries challenging it,” states Dinets.

Still, Dinets points out the need for more research on the matter, which should come with a “lot of patience”. Also, he concluded that although the boa snakes exhibited a “pack” like attack, they showed no sign of the communication required by such an appellative.

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A new study showed that frozen, space-kept sperm could result in healthy mice babies.

A team of Japanese scientists raised an important question as it looked to determine if humans and animals could one day reproduce in space. To test and better study this fact, the researchers deployed frozen sperm and stored it aboard the ISS. As it returned to Earth, these same samples helped give birth to healthy baby mice.

Frozen Sperm can Help Give Birth to Healthy Mice Babies, but Here on Earth

The researchers pointed out that the ISS (International Space Station) has to deal with an average daily dose of radiation 100 times higher than that here on the planet. In turn, this could lead to damages to the reproductive system of most animals.

So to better establish the effects of living in space on animal offspring, the team freeze-dried mouse sperm. These samples were then launched in space and stored aboard the ISS. They were kept there in between August 2013 to May 2014 or 288 days at -139 degrees Fahrenheit.

At the same time, the researchers preserved an identical set of samples here on Earth, but under the same conditions. As the space-bound frozen sperm returned from its trip, it was analyzed and compared to the terrestrially kept one.

The research team found that the ISS samples showed signs if DNA damage, slightly more than the control ones. This came as quite a surprise, according to Teruhiko Wakayama, the study’s senior author.

Still, the space-bound frozen sperm was also used for the in vitro fertilization of female mice. The team compared the average birth rates resulting from the two samples groups and noted that they were comparable. They also found that the male-to-female ratio was in the normal range.

An analysis of the healthy mice babies and their genomes also revealed only minor differences to the other offspring. As the space fertilized babies grew, they developed into normal, fertile adults, which then had healthy offspring of their own.

The study team published its research results in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Their research findings generated mixed opinions, as some underline its being a first step in the area. At the same time, others pointed out the results’ dependency on several factors, such as their Earth return.

But as the study author Wakayama pointed out ” it is too preliminary to say it is a good idea or if it is possible.”

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Thanks to Selam, an infant’s fossil remains, scientists now know a bit more about the human spine.

A recently released study brought to light new data about the human spine, which seems to have evolved even earlier than initially believed. The source of these new discoveries is a 3.3 million years old infant fossil, called Selam.

Research results became available in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on May 22.

Selam, an Old Infant Revealed New Spinal Data

The human spinal column is quite different from that of apes, one of the closest species to us in the animal kingdom, most likely due to our bipedalism. Human spines have 12 rib-bearing vertebrae while most apes have one less such structure.

Now, this early human ancestor, Selam, shows that this distinction may have evolved farther back than initially believed. Previously, this feature was first noted in early humans aged to be some 60,000 years old or even closer.

Selam is the fossil of a 2 to and half years old child who was part of the Australopithecus afarensis, an early human species. Its fossil was discovered back in 2000, in Dikika, Ethiopia, and has since been cleaned and carefully studied.

These remains present the as yet most complete spinal column found in any human relative as they still have a neck, rib cage, and vertebrae.

“This type of preservation is unprecedented, particularly in a young individual whose vertebrae are not yet fully fused,” stated Zeresenay Alemseged.

He is a study co-author and an organismal biology and anatomy professor at the University of Chicago, as well as Selam’s discoverer.

The new study used high-resolution imaging technology to study the fossil bones. Which showed that this specimen has 12-rib bearing vertebrae and a corresponding 12 pairs of ribs.

As the paper points out, this is a first in such old remains and the as yet most complete example of a modern human spinal structure.

Alemseged considers that Selam and its structure mark an important, if not key event in the human evolution. This development of the back structure eventually led to the appearance of bipedalism and all its ensuing progress.

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The Antarctic Peninsula could look very different as it is becoming increasingly greener.

The latest observations are showing how the Antarctic Peninsula is slowly leaving behind its white, icy aspect and instead, turning into a green, vegetation occupied landscape.

A team of researchers decided to analyze this phenomenon and released its study results earlier this week. These were published in the Current Biology and found global warming to be at the root of the change.

“Temperature increases over roughly the past half century on the Antarctic Peninsula have had a dramatic effect on moss banks growing in the region,” said Matt Amesbury.

The Antarctic Peninsula could Come to Look Very Different than Nowadays

He is one of the study co-authors and part of the University of Exeter. The research team analyzed moss growing on the Antarctic Peninsula as this covers some 640 kilometers. Presently, plant life exists on only some 0.3 percent of the icy continent.

But as the study reported, such areas are expanding faster than believed. The team indicates their sharp increase over the last five decades. They based these claims on their discovery of “changepoints”. These are moments in time in which the local biological activity marked a definite rise.

The change points were detected as the team was analyzing five moss cores. These are column-samples drilled from the planet. Some of these moss cores were taken from three of Antarctica’s Islands: Elephant, Green, and Ardley. These are considered to hold some of the oldest and deepest moss banks.

In turn, this helped offer a “much clearer idea of the scale” of the biological changes. Initially, the team detected them only in a single location somewhere in the south of the Antarctic Peninsula. But the drilled portions show that all the peninsula’s moss banks are responding as well.

Researchers consider that global warming causes the expansion of such mossy areas. As greenhouse gasses accumulate in the atmosphere and trap the heat, they affect polar regions more than other portions of Earth.

The report states that, if the current trends continue, the Antarctica Peninsula will be a significantly greener place in the following years. This can happen as glaciers continue retreating and vegetation spreading over the now ice-free portions.

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A T-rex’s crushing bite came with a force equal to 3 cars stacked on top of its jaws or 8,000 pounds.

A new study shows that the mighty Tyrannosaurus rex’s teeth were just as strong as the animal was big. The researchers estimated that this species’ crushing bite must have had a force of 8,000 pounds. That’s the equivalent of some 3 small cars stacked on top another and placed on the animal’s jaws.

The Crushing Bite of a Dinosaur Emerged Thanks to Crocodiles

This new information comes from Gregory Erickson of the Florida State University and his colleague part of the Oklahoma State University, Paul Gignac. Initially, the two researchers looked at the bite forces generated by various species of crocodiles.

“Crocodiles are close relatives of dinosaurs. It’s probably our best model for looking at dinosaurs,” stated Erickson.

The first step of the study involved capturing crocodiles and making them bite bathroom scales. Then, the scientists generated detailed 3D computer models. These were based on both these measured forces and information on crocodile jaws and their muscles. Put together, these helped estimate the T-rex’s biting force.

Erickson says that this method returned this very impressive result. This dinosaur’s crushing bite could have had a force of 8,000 pounds. Which means that the T-rex was “eclipsing the highest forces” of a bite from any animal known and living in modern days.

Presently, crocodiles hold the record for the highest measured bite force. The biggest living such specimens can bite with a force of around 3,700 pounds. A human bite comes at about 200 pounds or so, in comparison.

The two researchers also took a look at the dinosaur’s teeth. They estimate that these could exert pressures coming up to 431,000 pounds/square inch. This is because the T-rex was capable of chewing up even large bones. It did so to reach the marrow from within them.

Thanks to its crushing bite and blunt and serrated teeth, this mighty beast was probably able to “slice through” almost anything in its realm, claim the scientists. The two researchers published a paper with this results in the journal Scientific Reports.

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The latest study once again claims that Proxima B can, in fact, support life.

 

Alpha Centauri is classified as the star closest to our own sun in the galaxy. It is a trinary system, with three stars orbiting each other. The red dwarf, Proxima Centauri, is the closer of the stars to Earth. This is tied gravitationally to the brighter two at the center of the system. In August 2016, an exoplanet was discovered orbiting Proxima Centauri, and the newest information on this “Proxima B” has the scientific world very excited.

Can the Planet Actually Support Life?

Buzz Aldrin considers that retiring the ISS could help humanity reach Mars considerably faster.

Former NASA astronaut Buzz Aldrin is well-known for his blustery style, as well as his desire to launch humans to Mars. He is often seen in a T-shirt with the famous Arnold Schwarzenegger quote from the movie, “Total Recall”, which says “Get your ass to Mars.” Well, now he says there is one way to make it happen faster, and that is to retire the ISS.

Buzz Aldrin Proposes New Martian Travel System

The second man on the moon made his comments at a 2017 gathering of space enthusiasts and researchers called “Humans to Mars” in Washington, D.C. ISS or the International Space Station has been in operation for quite a number of years, and NASA does have a limited budget. As such, Aldrin believes that this money could be better spent if it focused on Mars.

“We must retire the ISS as soon as possible,” the American astronaut and visionary said. “We simply cannot afford $3.5 billion a year of that cost.”

Of course, Aldrin is not for giving up on near-Earth and orbital operations entirely. He believes the space agency should allow private corporations to handle most of that, while the government focuses on the bigger picture.

Buzz Aldrin even has a plan for how humanity could reach Mars by 2035. He envisions a cycling spacecraft that could continuously orbit between Earth and Mars. Passengers could shuttle up to the vehicle with every revolution for the passage to or from the Red Planet. This would save huge fuel costs, as there would be no need to accelerate with each trip.

NASA, however, is not in agreement with Aldrin on this one. They have expressly stated that the ISS is a definite part of their planned “Path to Mars”. The moon itself is also a step on that path, rather than the more direct route the former Apollo 11 astronaut is looking for.

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Scientists just announced the final installation of the Linac 4, latest linear accelerator at CERN.

 

In a special ceremony in Geneva, scientists announced the final installation of the latest linear accelerator at CERN. Known as the LINAC 4, it promises to be something special for the world-famous scientific project running under the ground of Switzerland. It could also have huge repercussions in multiple disciplines of the academic world.

LINAC 4, First Step of More To Come

“With our portable technology, they could be made inside the hospital already,” claimed Linac 4 project leader, Maurizio Vretenar.