Welcome to the Overnight News Digest, Saturday Science with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, eeff, annetteboardman, Besame, jck, Rise above the swamp and jeremybloom. Alumni editors include (but not limited to: Interceptor 7, Man Oh Man, wader, Neon Vincent, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck (RIP), rfall, ScottyUrb, Doctor RJ, BentLiberal, Oke (RIP) and jlms qkw.
Included in this Digest:
- Greta Thunberg lectures us about turning off the fossil-fuel tap
- Girls’ early puberty during the pandemic due to tech, not biology
- Brain rewiring after age 40
- How hearing works — not what you might think
- COVID-19 virus still sheds after vaccination
- Pulling water molecules apart to create hydrogen using graphene electrodes
- How close are climate tipping points? (Spoiler alert: close to unstoppable)
- Why your best ideas come from the shower or other places
- How can Viagra stop cancer?
- The Nobel prize winners in Physics proved that the Universe is not locally real
- 1400-year-old Native American canal found in Alabama
- Using ultrasound to cure diabetes
- How giant structures in space connect the universe and form galaxies
- Jazz — the science of swing
- Exercises to heal your spine
- Zooniverse — a citizen science project
The Guardian
Greta Thunberg on the climate delusion: ‘We’ve been greenwashed out of our senses. It’s time to stand our ground’
by Greta Thunberg
The Greenland ice sheet is melting, as are the “doomsday glaciers” of west Antarctica. Recent reports have stated that the tipping points for these two events have already been passed. Other reports say they are imminent. That means we might already have inflicted so much built-in warming that the melting process can no longer be stopped, or that we are very close to that point. Either way, we must do everything in our power to stop the process because, once that invisible line has been crossed, there might be no going back. We can slow it down, but once the snowball has been set in motion it will just keep going.
[...]
Climate change has become a crisis sooner than expected. So many of the researchers I’ve spoken to have said that they were shocked to witness how quickly it is escalating. But since science is very cautious when it comes to making predictions, maybe this should not come as a big surprise. One result of this, however, is that very few people actually knew how to react when the signs started becoming obvious in recent years. And fewer still had planned how to communicate what is happening. It seems like the vast majority of people were preparing for a different, less urgent scenario. A crisis that would take place many decades into the future. And yet here we are. The climate and ecological crisis is not happening in some faraway future. It’s happening right here and right now.
SCIENCE ALERT
Early puberty in girls surged during the pandemic, and we may finally know why
by Mike McRae
Among the laundry list of health problems COVID has inflicted on the world's population, one of the more perplexing could be an increase in the number of girls experiencing what is known as idiopathic precocious puberty – abnormally early onset of puberty.
More than one study has spotted the spike in numbers during the early months of the pandemic of what is typically a rare condition, highlighting a potential link between the virus and a trigger for early adolescence.
Now a study presented at the 60th Annual European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology Meeting in Rome suggests it might not have anything to do with the infection at all.
Rather the time spent during lockdowns scrolling through smart devices for hours on end could be to blame.
BIG THINK
The brain undergoes a great "rewiring" after age 40
by Ross Pomeroy
In a systematic review recently published in the journal Psychophysiology, researchers from Monash University in Australia swept through the scientific literature, seeking to summarize how the connectivity of the human brain changes over our lifetimes. The gathered evidence suggests that in the fifth decade of life (that is, after a person turns 40), the brain starts to undergo a radical “rewiring” that results in diverse networks becoming more integrated and connected over the ensuing decades, with accompanying effects on cognition.
Since the turn of the century, neuroscientists have increasingly viewed the brain as a complex network, consisting of units broken down into regions, sub-regions, and individual neurons. These units are connected structurally, functionally, or both. With increasingly advanced scanning techniques, neuroscientists can observe the parts of subjects’ brains that “light up” in response to stimuli or when simply at rest, providing a superficial look at how our brains are synced up.
The Monash University team pored over 144 studies which used these imaging techniques to probe the brains of tens of thousands of subjects. From this analysis, the researchers gleaned a general trend in how the networked brain changes over our lifetimes.
NEUROSCIENCE NEWS
New research throws doubt on old ideas of how hearing works
by Linkoping University
The way in which we experience music and speech differs from what has until now been believed. This is the conclusion of a study by researchers at Linköping University, Sweden, and the Oregon Health and Science University, USA.
The results have been published in Science Advances, and may make it possible to design better cochlear implants.
We are social creatures. The sound of other people’s voices is important for us, and our hearing is directed at experiencing and distinguishing voices and human speech. Sound that arrives at the outer ear is carried by the ear drum to the spiral-shaped inner ear, also known as the cochlea.
The sensory cells of hearing, outer and inner hair cells, are located in the cochlea. The sound waves cause the “hairs” of the inner hair cells to bend, sending a signal through the nerves to the brain, which interprets the sound we hear.
For the past 100 years, we have believed that each sensory cell has its own “optimal frequency” (a measure of the number of sound waves per second). The hair cell responds most strongly to this frequency.
This idea means that a sensory cell with an optimal frequency of 1000 Hz would respond much less strongly to sounds with a frequency slightly lower or higher. It has also been assumed that all parts of the cochlea work in the same way.
Now, however, a research team has discovered that this is not the case for sensory cells that process sound with frequencies under 1000 Hz, considered to be low-frequency sound. The vowel sounds in human speech lie in this area.
DAILYKOS
COVID-19 virus still sheds even if a person is vaccinated: study
by novapsyche
This year, I’ve written more than a handful of COVID-19 diaries, and in one of them someone asked if it had been settled, once and for all, if the Covid vaccines (presumably the mRNA-based ones) protected the person from spreading the disease. Was it a barrier, or merely a dampener? It was clear by this year that the vaccines were effective at reducing severity of the disease, but could it stop transmission?
It appears the answer to the last is no. A study in PLos Pathogens explains that vaccines permit shedding of virus, even by those who have been vaccinated.
PHYS.ORG
Scientists discover they can pull water molecules apart using graphene electrodes
by University of Manchester
Writing in Nature Communications, a team led by Dr. Marcelo Lozada-Hidalgo based at the National Graphene Institute (NGI) used graphene as an electrode to measure both the electrical force applied on water molecules and the rate at which these break in response to such force. The researchers found that water breaks exponentially faster in response to stronger electrical forces.
The researchers believe that this fundamental understanding of interfacial water could be used to design better catalysts to generate hydrogen fuel from water. This is an important part of the U.K.'s strategy towards achieving a net zero economy. Dr. Marcelo Lozada-Hidalgo said, "We hope that the insights from this work will be of use to various communities, including physics, catalysis, and interfacial science and that it can help design better catalysts for green hydrogen production."
A water molecule consists of a proton and a hydroxide ion. Dissociating it involves pulling these two constituent ions apart with an electrical force. In principle, the stronger one pulls the water molecule apart, the faster it should break. This important point has not been demonstrated quantitatively in experiments.
Electrical forces are well known to break water molecules, but stronger forces do not always lead to faster water dissociation, which has puzzled scientists for a long time. A key difference with graphene electrodes is that these are permeable only to protons. The researchers found that this allows separating the resulting proton from the hydroxide ion across graphene, which is a one-atom-thick barrier that prevents their recombination. This charge separation is essential to observe the electric field acceleration of water
THE CONVERSATION
Climate tipping points could lock in unstoppable changes to the planet – how close are they?
by David Armstrong McKay
Continued greenhouse gas emissions risk triggering climate tipping points. These are self-sustaining shifts in the climate system that would lock-in devastating changes, like sea-level rise, even if all emissions ended.
The first major assessment in 2008 identified nine parts of the climate system that are sensitive to tipping, including ice sheets, ocean currents and major forests. Since then, huge advances in climate modelling and a flood of new observations and records of ancient climate change have given scientists a far better picture of these tipping elements. Extra ones have also been proposed, like permafrost around the Arctic (permanently frozen ground that could unleash more carbon if thawed). of the warming levels at which these elements could tip have fallen since 2008. The collapse of the west Antarctic ice sheet was once thought to be a risk when warming reached 3°C-5°C above Earth’s pre-industrial average temperature. Now it’s thought to be possible at current warming levels.
SCIENCE ALERT
Finally: Scientists may have figured out why your best ideas come in the shower
by Carly Cassella
It's a truth universally acknowledged yet little understood: Great epiphanies arrive in the shower.
There's an entire sub-Reddit dedicated to the effect. So why does this hot and steamy environment seem to brew such interesting thoughts?
For years now, scientists have been arguing over the so-called 'shower effect', and why it occurs. Now, two new experiments have helped clear up some of the foggiest findings.
The latest experiments were led by Zac Irving, who studies and teaches the philosophy of cognitive science at the University of Virginia, and they imply that unwavering concentration on a task may be the enemy of creativity.
Instead of mulling over a problem until it is solved, the findings suggest you're better off taking a break and partaking in a different task that is mildly engaging, such as showering. This environment may allow your mind to wander freely, without purpose or direction, albeit with some constraints.
As your thoughts drift about, researchers think you are more likely to come up with something clever.
BGR
Doctors may have found a secret weapon to fight cancer: Viagra
by Joshua Hawkins
Researchers may have discovered a secret anti-cancer drug. If you thought that Viagra was only good for treating erectile dysfunction, then you’re not alone. Now, though, a new study published in Cell Reports Medicine claims that Viagra is also effective at treating esophageal cancer.
The research was funded by Cancer Research UK and the Medical Research Council, which found that phosphodiesterase type 5, or PDE5 inhibitors, can help shrink tumors in the esophagus. Additionally, the PDE5 inhibitors appear to help reverse a patient’s resistance to chemotherapy, and because Viagra is a PDE5 inhibitor, it also becomes an unexpected anti-cancer drug.
Esophageal cancer also tends to worsen more rapidly. That’s because the microenvironment (the area directly around the tumor) consists of molecules and blood vessels that have become tainted. These form a protective area around the tumor, making it resistant to chemotherapy. Using PDE5 inhibitors as an anti-cancer drug makes the tumors more receptive to the chemo.
Scientific American
The Universe is not locally real, and the physics Nobel prize winners proved it
by David Garisto
This is, of course, deeply contrary to our everyday experiences. To paraphrase Douglas Adams, the demise of local realism has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.
Blame for this achievement has now been laid squarely on the shoulders of three physicists: John Clauser, Alain Aspect and Anton Zeilinger. They equally split the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics “for experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science.” (“Bell inequalities” refers to the pioneering work of the Northern Irish physicist John Stewart Bell, who laid the foundations for this year’s Physics Nobel in the early 1960s.) Colleagues agreed that the trio had it coming, deserving this reckoning for overthrowing reality as we know it. “It is fantastic news. It was long overdue,” says Sandu Popescu, a quantum physicist at the University of Bristol. “Without any doubt, the prize is well-deserved.”
Smithsonian Magazine
Archaeologists dig up 1400-year-old Native American canal in Alabama
by Megan Gannon
In the beachside resort town of Gulf Shores, Alabama, locals had often referred to an odd feature in the landscape as “Indian ditch.” As far back as the 1820s, a handful of antiquarians and United States Army engineers recognized it as a feature that predated white settlers, but it hadn’t received enough scholarly attention to explain its history and function. One resident, Harry King, who had been exploring the back bays of the region, became fascinated with the remnants of this large trench, about 30 feet wide and 3 feet deep. On visits to the archaeology museum at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, King would encourage researchers to examine it. Gregory Waselkov, a now-retired anthropologist at the university, figured the ditch was probably an antebellum construction built by enslaved laborers.
“It took me forever to go out there and take a look,” says Waselkov. “There are lots of features like that in the swampy areas around Mobile, from logging, and from rice cultivation—there are all kinds of reasons you might have big ditches. But when I saw it, I realized it’s something different.”
Thanks to King’s urging, Waselkov finally began an investigation of the site in 2017 with a team of volunteer archaeologists. They confirmed that this long-overlooked trench is a feat of engineering and a rare archaeological find: a canal, nearly a mile long, built for canoe travel 1,400 years ago by the Native Americans who navigated the region’s waterways. In a report published online in June in the Journal of Field Archaeology, the researchers described how the canal would have connected the Gulf of Mexico with more protected bays, allowing better access between coastal fishing areas and trade routes to the rest of the Southeast.
The Brighter Side
Scientists develop a cure for diabetes using ultrasound
by Todd Alhart
Are we moving closer to the day when diabetes is no longer monitored and managed with blood sugar tests, insulin injections and drug treatments?
A GE Research-led team, which includes The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, Yale School of Medicine, and Albany Medical College, has demonstrated the ability to prevent or reverse the onset of diabetes in studies of three different preclinical model systems. The team reported their findings in the latest issue of Nature Biomedical Engineering.
The reported findings represent a significant milestone in the field of bioelectronic medicine, which is exploring new ways to treat chronic diseases such as diabetes using electronic devices to modulate the body’s nervous system.
VICE.com
New Observations Reveal How Giant Structures In Space Connect the Universe and Form Galaxies
by Becky Ferreira
Our universe is connected by the cosmic web, a vast network of filaments that spans billions of light years and is made of gas and dark matter, a mysterious substance that has so far eluded explanation.
Now, scientists have spotted galaxies that are aligned in never-before-seen patterns along these filaments, a discovery that sheds light on the evolution of galaxies within the large-scale architecture of the cosmos, reports a new study. The research adds to a growing body of evidence that is exposing the influence of the cosmic web over the evolution of galaxies across space and time.
Researchers led by Stefania Barsanti, an astronomer from the Australian National University, studied hundreds of galaxies captured by the SAMI Galaxy Survey based at Siding Spring Observatory in Australia. The team discovered that the mass of a galaxy’s central bulge correlated with its orientation within the cosmic web, revealing “a memory of the galaxy’s formation” that includes the “halo” structures from which galaxies arise, according to a recent study published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Past studies have shown that a galaxy’s location in the cosmic web has implications for its chemical content, and that galaxies can be used to track the spinning of cosmic filaments, among many other mind-boggling discoveries. Barsanti and her colleagues aimed to follow up on a 2020 study led by Charlotte Welker, a postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins University who also co-authored the new study, that reported the first observational detection a relationship between the stellar mass of these galaxies, and a specific way they are oriented in the cosmic web.
COSMOS
Groovy jazz science shows downbeat delay is the king of swing
by Evrim Yazgin
We all know jazz has a certain “feel.” It’s often hard to describe, but it sets it apart from other genres of music. A large part of this is down to what is known as “swing” – probably the most iconic feature of jazz.
Jazz greats like Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong were masters of swing. Benny Goodman was often referred to as the “King of Swing.”
While he definitely knew better than most, Louis Armstrong asks the question in his song: “What Is This Thing Called Swing?” Far be it from me (a classically-trained violinist and metalhead) to tell Louis how to play his notes, but I will indulge our readers in a Swing 101.
Swing is sometimes simply referred to as the playing of quavers (also called “eighth notes” because they represent one-eighth of a 4/4 bar) at uneven lengths, where other musical genres will have the quavers at the same length.
But the exact length of swung eighth notes has remained a mystery, even though jazz has been around for almost a century. Trying to quantify jazz’s most notable feature has proven difficult. Some even suggest that such endeavours perhaps take away from the genre’s charm. Jazz saxophonist Gerry Mulligan apparently said, “jazz is a music to be played and not to be intellectualised on.”
WELLNESS52
A surgeon reveals exercises that heal your spine before it's too late
by Bennett Richardson
Apart from those in the medical field, few people know of Nikolai Amosov.
Amosov was a successful and influential heart surgeon in the early 1900s. However, he also worked as an author, and inventor, and made contributions to the field of back pain research.
In fact, Amosov developed an exercise system specifically designed to treat low back pain (1).
While I question the purpose of some of the exercises he included in his program, the basic elements of this plan can hold up under scrutiny today.
In this article, we will review Amosov’s back pain prevention exercise plan. Afterward, we’ll discuss whether or not this plan is right for you!
And here is your citizen science project:
ZOONIVERSE
Put on your hard hat and help excavate the past with Stories of St. James's Burial Ground. This team of archaeologists needs your help to give voice to ordinary folks, long forgotten by history. Read on below to learn how you can help out.
Stories of St. James's Burial Ground
Help us record the personal details of forgotten Londoners!
MOLA archaeologists have carefully excavated over 31,000 burials at St James’s Burial Ground, London, as part of the work on HS2. This volunteer project aims to digitise the handwritten burial records for St James’s, so the stories of ordinary Londoners can be told. As Robert Hartle, a Senior Archaeologist at MOLA who worked on the excavation, said:
“The Stories of St James’s Burial Ground digitization project is a unique opportunity to make a genuine contribution to our ongoing archaeological research and make connections that will shed new light on ordinary people, all too often forgotten to history.”
This is where you can make a difference, by working through the handwritten records and logging key details like names, addresses and causes of death. Your work will sit alongside the work of a global team of researchers and world-leading archaeologists and will help to make connections between their findings and the burial records.
We are running two webinars:
• 20 October: Beginner volunteers webinar
• 27 October: Intermediate and expert volunteers webinar
Both webinars will explore some of the archaeological context of the site itself and also talk about the strategy of the project.
This is an open thread where everyone is welcome, especially night owls and early birds, to share and discuss the happenings of the day. Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments.