An extremely rare ‘dinosaur’ bird, the only one of its kind in the UK, is patiently awaiting a new mate while the Exmoor Zoo sets out to help save the shoebill species.
She recently arrived from the Pairi Daiza Zoo in Belgium where she was a newborn star in their international breeding program.
The unique-looking bird is one of only eleven shoebills that are currently in captivity around the world.
One of the reasons the species is under threat is because the birds are monogamous and normally rear only one chick. Also, climate change is affecting the population—with around 5,000 left in the wild.
Meanwhile, the 14-year-old bird called Abou has been greeting her keepers with displays of bowing and spreading her wings—a common courtship ritual.
But she’ll have to wait until the breeding program produces a male, so the pair can be matched and produce much-hoped-for offspring.
Exmoor Zoo Curator Derek Gibson, is beyond delighted to be in the same vicinity as one of these birds.
SWNS
“She is magnificent to behold…and if we can keep her well and she thrives – when a male does become available, then he will also come and join us at Exmoor Zoo.”
Weighing 12 pounds, Abou is 4-foot-tall (1.2m) and has a wing span double that.
Also known as whale heads, shoebills have one of the largest and most unusual bills in the birding kingdom, and live in the marsh lands of East Africa, where they hunt fish and small invertebrates.
Derek says he has been waiting 40 years for the ‘amazing moment’ when he finally got to see a shoebill ‘in the feather’.
“In reality, I’ve never been in a position to see these amazing birds in the wild.”
“They live in countries in central and eastern Africa—like Uganda, Zambia, Tanzania—which are prone to extended periods of drought, so there is a huge intensity on animals and people who are having to compete for the same environment.”
“These birds do have their work cut out for them, which is why it is so important to offer Abou a home and put ourselves forwards to try and do our bit.”
Arm and hand movements have been restored in paralyzed primates when researchers ‘zapped’ their spinal cord.
Rather than designing new, sophisticated equipment, electrical stimulation was applied to surviving nerves in severely damaged backbones, which improved motor control in the monkeys.
In the experiments, macaques with partial arm paralysis learned to reach, grasp, and pull a lever to receive a favorite treat. Importantly, they continued to improve over time as they adapted to the groundbreaking technique.
They were fitted with brain implants that detected electrical activity from regions controlling voluntary movement. A small array of electrodes were placed over the nerve roots sprouting from the spinal cord toward the muscles of the arm and hand.
“To perform even the simplest arm movement, our nervous system has to coordinate hundreds of muscles,” said senior author Dr. Marco Capogrosso, of Pittsburgh University. “Replacing this intricate neural control with direct electrical muscle activation would be very difficult outside a laboratory.”
“Instead of stimulating muscles, we simplified the technology by designing a system that uses surviving neurons to restore the connection between the brain and the arm via specific stimulation pulses to the spinal cord, potentially enabling a person with paralysis to perform tasks of daily living.”
Currently, for victims of spinal cord injury or stroke, there are no therapies or medical technologies that provide dexterity—skills that set primates and humans apart from other mammals.
The team’s method of stimulation was extensively verified using a combination of computational algorithms and medical imaging. While not enough to restore the arm function completely, the stimulation significantly improved precision, force, and range of movement, allowing each animal to move its arm more efficiently.
Importantly, the animals continued to improve as they adapted and learned how to use stimulation.
“By building a technology around the nervous system that mimics what it is naturally designed to do, we get better results,” said co-author Dr. Beatrice Barra.
The electrical spinal cord stimulation was described in the journal Nature Neuroscience, and will be tested on paralyzed stroke patients in the US later this year. The University’s Rehabilitation and Neural Engineering Labs is recruiting patients for the research.
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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY – Week of July 2, 2022
Copyright by Rob Brezsny, FreeWillAstrology.com
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
Filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard believes there’s only one way to find a sense of meaning, and that is to fill your life to the bursting point; to be in love with your experience; to celebrate the flow of events wherever it takes you. When you do that, Godard says, you have no need or urge to ask questions like “Why am I here?” or “What is my purpose?” The richness of your story is the ultimate response to every enigma. As I contemplate these ideas, I say: wow! That’s an intensely vibrant way to live. Personally, I’m not able to sustain it all the time. But I think most of us would benefit from such an approach for brief periods now and then. And I believe you have just entered one of those phases.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
I asked Leo readers to provide their insights about the topic “How to Be a Leo.” Here are responses that line up with your current astrological omens. 1) People should try to understand you’re only bossing them around for their benefit.–Harlow Hunt. 2) Be alert for the intense shadows you may cast with your intense brightness. Consider the possibility that even if they seem iffy or dicey, they have value and even blessings to offer.–Cannarius Kansen. 3. Never break your own heart. Never apologize for showering yourself with kindness and adoration.–Amy Clear.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
It’s your birthright as a Virgo to become a master of capitalizing on difficulties. You have great potential to detect opportunities coalescing in the midst of trouble. You can develop a knack for spotting the order that’s hiding in the chaos. Now is a time when you should wield these skills with artistry, my dear—both for your own benefit and for the betterment of everyone whose lives you touch.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
One of my heroes died in 2021: the magnificent Libran author bell hooks (who didn’t capitalize her name). She was the most imaginative and independent-minded activist I knew. Till her last day, she articulated one-of-a-kind truths about social justice; she maintained her uncompromising originality. But it wasn’t easy. She wrote, “No insurgent intellectual, no dissenting critical voice in this society escapes the pressure to conform. We are all vulnerable. There is no special grace that rescues any of us. There is only a constant struggle.” I bring this to your attention, Libra, because I suspect the coming weeks will require your strenuous efforts to remain true to your high standards and unique vision of reality.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
You now have the power to make yourself even more beautiful than you already are. You are extraordinarily open to beautifying influences, and there will be an abundance of beautifying influences coming your way. I trust you understand I’m not referring to the kinds of beauty that are worshiped by conventional wisdom. Rather, I mean the elegance, allure, charm, and grace that you behold in old trees and gorgeous architecture and enchanting music and people with soulful idiosyncrasies. PS: The coming weeks will also be a favorable time to redefine the meaning of beauty for yourself.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
It’s the Season for Expressing Your Love—and for expanding and deepening the ways you express your love. I invite you to speak the following quotes to the right person: 1. “Your head is a living forest full of songbirds.” —E. E. Cummings. 2. “Lovers continuously reach each other’s boundaries.” —Rainer Maria Rilke, 3. “You’re my favorite unfolding story.” — Ann Patchett. 4. “My lifetime listens to yours.” — Muriel Rukeyser.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
In the coming weeks, make sure you do NOT fit this description articulated by Capricorn novelist Haruki Murakami: “You’re seeking something, but at the same time, you are running away for all you’re worth.” If there is any goal about which you feel conflicted like that, dear Capricorn, now is a good time to clear away your confusion. If you are in some sense undercutting yourself, perhaps unconsciously, now is the time to expose your inner saboteur and seek the necessary healing. July will be Self-Unification Month.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
Ongoing goals: “Bridging the gap between me and my ideal self, one day at a time.” I’d love it if you would adopt a similar aspiration in the coming months. You’re going to be exceptionally skilled at all types of bridge-building, including the kind that connects you to the hero you’ll be in the future. I mean, you are already a hero in my eyes, but I know you will ultimately become an even more fulfilled and refined version of your best self. Now is a favorable time to do the holy work of forging stronger links to that star-to-be.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
A blogger named Lissar suggests that the cherry blossom is an apt symbol for you Pisceans. She describes you as “transient, lissome, blooming, lovely, fragile yet memorable and recurring, in tune with nature.” Lissar says you “mystify yet charm,” and that your “presence is a balm, yet awe-inspiring and moving.” Of course, like all of us, you also have your share of less graceful qualities. And that’s not a bad thing! We’re all here to learn the art of growing into our ripe selves. It’s part of the fun of being alive. But I suspect that in the coming weeks, you will be an extra close match for Lissar’s description. You are at the peak of your power to delight and beguile us.
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
In her poem Two Skins, Bahamanian writer Lynn Sweeting writes, “There is a moment in every snake’s life when she wears two skins: one you can see, about to be shed, one you cannot see, the skin under the skin, waiting.” I suspect you now have metaphorical resemblances to a snake on the verge of molting, Aries. Congratulations on your imminent rebirth! Here’s a tip: The snake’s old skin doesn’t always just fall away; she may need to take aggressive action to tear it open and strip it off, like by rubbing her head against a rock. Be ready to perform a comparable task.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
Japanese novelist Minae Mizumura tried to imagine a world where all people were required to express themselves only English—and lamented what a narrow world that would be. Even English speakers would agree with her, rejecting a world purged of diversity. I hope you share my passion for multiplicity, Taurus—especially these days. In my astrological opinion, you’ll thrive if you immerse yourself in a celebratory riot of variety. I hope you will seek out influences you’re not usually exposed to.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
Imagine you’re not a person, but a medley of four magical ingredients. What would they be? A Gemini baker named Jasmine says, “ripe persimmons, green hills after a rain, a sparkling new Viking Black Glass Oven, and a prize-winning show horse.” A Gemini social worker named Amarantha says she would be made of “Florence and the Machine’s song ‘Sky Full of Song,’ a grove of birch trees, a blue cashmere knee-length sweater, and three black cats sleeping in the sun.” A Gemini delivery driver named Altoona says, “freshly harvested cannabis buds, a bird-loving wetlands at twilight, Rebecca Solnit’s book Hope in the Darkness, and the Haleakalā shield volcano in Maui.” And now, Gemini, what about you? Identify your medley of four magical ingredients. The time is right to re-imagine the poetry of YOU.
WANT MORE? Listen to Rob’s EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES, 4-5 minute meditations on the current state of your destiny — or subscribe to his unique daily text message service at: RealAstrology.com
Quote of the Day: “The major work of the world is not done by geniuses. It is done by ordinary people…who have learned to work in an extraordinary manner.” – Gordon B. Hinckley
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Photosynthesis has evolved in plants for millions of years to turn water, carbon dioxide, and the energy from sunlight into plant biomass and the foods we eat.
This process, however, is very inefficient, with only about 1% of the energy found in sunlight ending up in the plant.
Scientists at UC Riverside and the University of Delaware have found a way to bypass the need for biological photosynthesis altogether and create food independent of sunlight by using artificial photosynthesis.
Plants growing in an electrolyzed medium containing acetate that replaces natural photosynthesis
The research uses a two-step electrocatalytic process to convert carbon dioxide, electricity, and water into acetate, the form of the main component of vinegar. Food-producing organisms then consume acetate in the dark to grow.
Combined with solar panels to generate the electricity to power the electrocatalysis, this hybrid organic-inorganic system could increase the conversion efficiency of sunlight into food, up to 18 times more efficient for some foods.
“With our approach we sought to identify a new way of producing food that could break through the limits normally imposed by biological photosynthesis,” said corresponding author Robert Jinkerson, a UC Riverside assistant professor of chemical and environmental engineering.
In order to integrate all the components of the system together, the output of the electrolyzer was optimized to support the growth of food-producing organisms. Electrolyzers are devices that use electricity to convert raw materials like carbon dioxide into useful molecules and products. The amount of acetate produced was increased while the amount of salt used was decreased, resulting in the highest levels of acetate ever produced in an electrolyzer to date.
“Using a state-of-the-art two-step tandem CO2 electrolysis setup developed in our laboratory, we were able to achieve a high selectivity towards acetate that cannot be accessed through conventional CO2 electrolysis routes,” said corresponding author Feng Jiao at University of Delaware.
Experiments showed that a wide range of food-producing organisms can be grown in the dark directly on the acetate-rich electrolyzer output, including green algae, yeast, and fungal mycelium that produce mushrooms. Producing algae with this technology is approximately fourfold more energy efficient than growing it photosynthetically. Yeast production is about 18-fold more energy efficient than how it is typically cultivated using sugar extracted from corn.
“We were able to grow food-producing organisms without any contributions from biological photosynthesis. Typically, these organisms are cultivated on sugars derived from plants or inputs derived from petroleum—which is a product of biological photosynthesis that took place millions of years ago. This technology is a more efficient method of turning solar energy into food, as compared to food production that relies on biological photosynthesis,” said Elizabeth Hann, a doctoral candidate in the Jinkerson Lab and co-lead author of the study.
The potential for employing this technology to grow crop plants was also investigated. Cowpea, tomato, tobacco, rice, canola, and green pea were all able to utilize carbon from acetate when cultivated in the dark.
“We found that a wide range of crops could take the acetate we provided and build it into the major molecular building blocks an organism needs to grow and thrive. With some breeding and engineering that we are currently working on we might be able to grow crops with acetate as an extra energy source to boost crop yields,” said Marcus Harland-Dunaway, a doctoral candidate in the Jinkerson Lab and co-lead author of the study.
By liberating agriculture from complete dependence on the sun, artificial photosynthesis opens the door to countless possibilities for growing food under the increasingly difficult conditions imposed by anthropogenic climate change. Drought, floods, and reduced land availability would be less of a threat to global food security if crops for humans and animals grew in less resource-intensive, controlled environments. Crops could also be grown in cities and other areas currently unsuitable for agriculture, and even provide food for future space explorers.
“Using artificial photosynthesis approaches to produce food could be a paradigm shift for how we feed people. By increasing the efficiency of food production, less land is needed, lessening the impact agriculture has on the environment. And for agriculture in non-traditional environments, like outer space, the increased energy efficiency could help feed more crew members with less inputs,” said Jinkerson.
This approach to food production was submitted to NASA’s Deep Space Food Challenge where it was a Phase I winner. The Deep Space Food Challenge is an international competition where prizes are awarded to teams to create novel and game-changing food technologies that require minimal inputs and maximize safe, nutritious, and palatable food outputs for long-duration space missions.
“Imagine someday giant vessels growing tomato plants in the dark and on Mars—how much easier would that be for future Martians?” said co-author Martha Orozco-Cárdenas, director of the UC Riverside Plant Transformation Research Center.
This research has been published in in Nature Food.
Previous research has described how virtual training produces acute cognitive and neural benefits. Building on those results, a new study suggests that a similar virtual training can also reduce psychosocial stress and anxiety.
Physical exercise benefits our overall well-being. But for some—such as neurological patients, people suffering from cardiovascular disease, and hospitalized patients—physical exercise is not feasible, or even too dangerous. However, similar effects may be brought about using Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR).
Despite initially designed for entertainment, IVR has attracted interest from the academic community because of its potential use for clinical purposes, since it allows the user to experience a virtual world through a virtual body.
In the previous study from researchers at Tohoku University’s Smart-Aging Research Center, they found that looking at a moving virtual body displayed in first-person perspective induces physiological changes. Heart rates increased/decreased coherently with the virtual movements, even though the young participants remained still. Consequently, acute cognitive and neural benefits occurred, just like after real physical activity.
In a followup study, the same benefits were also found on healthy elderly subjects after 20-minute sessions occurring twice a week for six weeks.
In the current study, the researchers explored the effect on stress, adding another level to the beneficial effects of virtual training. Young healthy subjects, while sitting still, experienced a virtual training displayed from the first-person perspective, creating the illusion of ownership over movements.
The avatar ran at 6.4 km/h for 30 minutes. Before and after the virtual training, the researchers induced and assessed the psychosocial stress response by measuring the salivary alpha-amylase—a crucial biomarker indicating the levels of neuroendocrine stress. Similarly, they distributed a subjective questionnaire for anxiety.
The results showed a decreased psychosocial stress response and lower levels of anxiety after the virtual training, comparable to what happens after real exercise.
“Psychosocial stress represents the stress experienced in frequent social situations such as social judgment, rejection, and when our performances get evaluated,” says Professor Dalila Burin, who developed the study.
“While a moderate amount of exposure to stress might be beneficial, repeated and increased exposure can be detrimental to our health. This kind of virtual training represents a new frontier, especially in countries like Japan, where high performance demands and an aging population exist.”
biochar released Kari Kohvakka _ Stockholm Batten och Avfall _Stockholm Biochar Project _ Nordregio.
Reprinted with permission from World At Large, a news website of nature, politics, science, health, and travel.
Kari Kohvakka/Stockholm Batten och Avfall/Stockholm Biochar Project/Nordregio
Imagine if every time you threw out your lawn and garden waste, you were actively fighting global warming? That’s the capacity a new soil amendment technology hopes to unleash across the world.
This potentially-revolutionary method of making fertilizer that almost completely removes greenhouse gas emissions has received a grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies to be incorporated into 7 major cities’ landscaping programs.
Making “biochar” as it’s called, has been modernized recently in Sweden, and is done by putting grass trimmings, hedge clippings, tree branches, or any other kind of yard waste, into an enclosed space and “pyrolyzing it” in such a way as to avoid the rapid oxidation of CO2.
Turned into a charcoal-like substance, it’s not only carbon negative, meaning it removes more CO2 than it produces, but also more effective soil nutrition than other traditional soil amendments like nitrogen-phosphorus fertilizer.
On Tuesday, Bloomberg Philanthropies announced it was awarding grants of $400,000 to seven major cities in Scandinavia and the U.S. to implement the winning-project of the charity’s 2014 Mayor’s Challenge: The Stockholm Biochar Project.
Each city will receive implementation and technical support from Bloomberg to develop city-wide biochar projects and engage residents in the fight against climate change. It’s expected to produce 3,750 tons of biochar, all from lawn and garden waste from city parks, median strips, and other green spaces, which would sequester almost 10,000 tons of CO2 per year—the equivalent of taking 6,250 cars off the roads.
Normally, municipal lawn and garden waste is trucked to landfills where it will decompose and release all the carbon it absorbed through its life back into the atmosphere, as well as other gasses from the bacteria feeding on it. With a biochar plant however, every branch and twig thrown into the sophisticated-yet-straight-forward furnace is having its carbon captured almost forever.
Stockholm success
This revolution started in Stockholm, where, after opening its first five biochar plants in 2017, the city began distributing this new fertilizer/soil amendment to citizens for free, if they merely bring whatever yard waste they might have.
“If you buy something from the store you want to do it correct from the beginning, but if you get something for free you can sort of play around with it, and see how it works in your garden,” Mattias Gustafsson, biochar expert, consultant, and original member of the Stockholm Biochar Project, told WaL.
Kari Kohvakka/Stockholm Batten och Avfall/Stockholm Biochar Project/Nordregio
“Biochar, if you look at it under a microscope, it looks a bit like a sponge, so that will absorb and absorb nutrients and water, so if you put that in the soil it’s like a nutrient-loaded battery,” says Gustafsson. “Let’s say you’re sowing potatoes: you dig a ditch where you have the potatoes and you put some biochar in there, then you put the potatoes, then you cover it with soil”.
Extensive scientific research has shown that compared to traditional soil amendments and fertilizer, biochar, when combined with animal waste such as cow urine or manure, can increase yields more than 100%. A meta-analysis of meta-analyses examining the benefits of biochar in agriculture found that, especially for acidic soils like those in the tropics, and especially when combined with other fertilizers, biochar can significantly increase crop yield.
Root length, mass, and number of tips all increased substantially in crops grown with biochar, which could significantly impact carbon-capturing forest farms. Microbial content in the soil was also increased substantially through the use of biochar.
Research done at the Ithaka Institute in Nepal showed that cow urine-enriched biochar blended with compost resulted on average in 123% greater crop yield compared to organic farming practices done with cow urine-enriched compost, and 100% greater crop yield compared to the use of nitrogen-potassium-phosphorus fertilizer.
Weekend carbon capture
The scalability, ease-of-use, and remarkable reduction in the emissions from fertilizer production puts biochar at a breakout moment. With governments routinely pledging to give scientists billions to develop new ways to prevent climate change, biochar imposes only an extra step during one’s bi-weekly yardwork chores.
“It’s unique because you put the biochar into an area with the absence of oxygen, and we get a very stable form so it can stay in the soil for hundreds up to thousands of years,” says Gustafsson. “We have more cities in Sweden that are following the Stockholm Biochar Project model and more are on the way, but we are trying to get more industries interested in using and producing biochar”.
In 2019, according to Bloomberg Philanthropies, Minneapolis had been “blown away” by how simple the biochar solution was, and has since been bringing truckloads into town from a biochar plant in Missouri.
“It was a lot simpler than I imagined it to be,” said Robin Hutcheson, Minneapolis’ public works director at the time. “I think I had imagined biochar as something that was chemical and complicated and difficult to produce and difficult to use. What I learned is that it is actually simple to produce and able to be used in a variety of settings”.
Minneapolis is looking at all kinds of ways of using biochar. They have given it to local Native American Tribal governments to boost agriculture—which it has, to the tune of 30%. They’ve looked into including it with roadway reconstruction projects to boost rainwater collection, another benefit of the sponge-like biochar. They want to open their own biochar plant, after being impressed how Stockholm’s turned the heat from the production process into energy for the city’s power grid.
Now, one of the most important steps is on the cusp of being completed: the transition from a government program into a market industry. Currently in Sweden one can simply walk into a garden store and buy biochar. Most critically in the age of e-commerce, various vendors on Amazon in a number of countries will ship biochar right to your house, and while the price is high for a soil amendment, the amount needed for sowing is quite low.
“I think it’s a really important point for cities to reach out to the public as well,” adds Gustafsson. “Thank you for bringing your sticks and branches to our biochar machine, please put the biochar in your garden.”
Gustafsson thinks there will be a day when, like a weekend-woodchipper rental, people will be able to rent a mobile-biochar plant for the end-of-season hedge trimming.
“We had the idea of a small machine going around making biochar that people can rent, so definitely a thing that could be possible, someone just has to make the economics around it”.
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Social media was furious on behalf of Kevin Ford, a food service employee, who recently posted an Instagram video unwrapping of a thank you gift he received for 27 years of perfect attendance on the job.
Seeing how it contained a reusable Starbucks cup, a bunch of candy, a pen, and a single movie ticket, they decided to give Ford their own gift for his exemplary service—$270,000 in personal donations for the man so near to retirement.
The original unwrapping video was viewed 2 million times, though not everyone was as happy and understanding as Kevin, who said thank you for every item he received.
“The man in that video is my father. He originally began working at this job as a single father when he gained custody of me and my older sister 27 years ago,” Seryna added. “In no way are we asking for money or is he expecting any money but if anyone feels like blessing him he would love to visit his grandchildren.”
In just over a week, this delicate call for mutual appreciation of a good man who works at the Burger King at Las Vegas McCarren International Airport amassed a quarter-million dollars, including $5,000 from writer and comedian David Spade.
In a pair of statements, Burger King, the restaurant Mr. Ford works in, and HMSHost, the staffing company that mans it, explained the gift was a peer-to-peer recognition, and not a franchise award for 27 years of immaculate service.
“For all those years, you feel unappreciated, but you get up just like everybody else. You do your job, and for somebody to show this appreciation is just overwhelming,” Ford told TODAY in an interview. “It’s like I’ve been in a dream for almost two days now. It’s just so beautiful and awesome.”
(WATCH the video for this story below.)
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Quote of the Day: “A wise man always has something to say, whereas a fool always needs to say something.” – Hazrat Ali Ibn Abi-Talib
Photo by: ePi.Longo / CC BY-SA 2
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Rather than sending money off to some questionable and unconfirmable carbon-capture forest, Henry Emson figured he would plant his own trees so he could look into the face of society and say “my carbon footprint is accounted for.”
As it turns out, Emson realized that it was better to go big, and so planted a giant sequoia sapling for each member of his family. Now, he can plant a giant sequoia for you and yours as well, with his business of growing small sequoia groves across Great Britain seeing 700 saplings already in the ground.
One Tree One Life buys land where these giants can grow in safety, and for that each tree costs around $450. The benefit however is knowing that throughout the hundreds, potentially thousands of years the tree is alive, it will be pulling CO2 from the atmosphere and burying it in its root system. Furthermore, Britain will be populated with what is undoubtedly the great emperor of all trees.
Sequoiadendron giganteum grows in the United States natively only on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, above 3,200 feet in elevation. This, however, doesn’t mean that is the only place they can thrive. As it turns out, Henry Emson wasn’t the first Brit to cultivate these giants.
The first seeds from California sequoias arrived in Great Britain in 1853, and since then some trees have flourished—at Kew Gardens, Charles Ackers Redwood Grove in Wales, Benmore Botanic Gardens in Scotland, and Biddulph Grange at Stoke-on-Trent. Some of these trees are already 150 years old, and are already bigger than anything else found on the island.
Whether conditions on Great Britain can permit sequoia trees to reach the outstanding heights and ages of those in California, no-one can say for certain, but tree growth is very fast.
At One Tree One Life, Emson’s team is also buying land in various places, and once someone buys a tree, they can receive GPS coordinates mapped via drone to the exact location of their tree, should they ever desire to visit it.
Many carbon capture strategies have been proven to involve the planting of large regimented blocks of monoculture trees that have a terrible tendency to be wiped out by disease or insect plagues, long before they’ve absorbed any meaningful carbon stores, and releasing what little they’ve collected after they die.
Sequoias are remarkably resilient, and one of their only natural enemies is loneliness. The trees reach their tremendous size and scale based on the way in which their roots spread outward rather than downward. Intertwining with other sequoias, they hold onto each other through the long centuries, and this is why it’s extremely rare to see a single sequoia, and why the biggest ones are always surrounded by others.
A prostate cancer breakthrough could stop the tumor spreading after it becomes resistant to current therapy, scientists say.
Anti-hormonal treatment blocks the signal sent out by testosterone that stimulates tumor growth.
But eventually the cancer cells become resistant and the growth spreads through the body becoming fatal.
An international research team led by Dutch scientists found proteins that normally regulate the circadian rhythm, or body clock, dampen the effects of the anti-hormonal therapy.
The breakthrough means current drugs could be repurposed and has saved a decade of testing.
The exact process of how tumor cells become resistant to hormone therapy had been a mystery until now.
For the study, the team looked at tissue from 56 people with high-risk prostate cancer who had undergone three months of anti-hormonal therapy before their surgery.
The team examined the tissue at DNA level after the three months were up.
Genes keeping the cells alive despite the treatment were controlled by a protein that normally regulates the body clock.
This protein was found to make prostate cancer cells more sensitive to anti-hormonal therapy in the lab as well as in mice.
The researchers say there is no evidence to suggest people with out of kilter body clocks, such as night shift workers, could be at a higher risk from the disease.
“Prostate cancer cells no longer have a circadian rhythm,” lead researcher Dr Wilbert Zwart from the Netherlands Cancer Institute said. “These ‘circadian clock’ proteins acquire an entirely new function in the tumour cells upon hormonal therapy.
“They keep these cancer cells alive, despite treatment. This has never been seen before.
“Our discovery has shown us that we will need to start thinking outside the box when it comes to new drugs to treat prostate cancer and test medicines that affect the circadian clock proteins in order to increase sensitivity to hormonal therapy in prostate cancer.
“Fortunately, there are already several therapies that affect circadian proteins, and those can be combined with anti-hormonal therapies.
“This lead, which allows for a form of drug repurposing, could save a decade of research.”
The findings were published in Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
Scientists with an eye towards helping the battered American consumer have recently published a paper finding that if government health insurance provider Medicare bought 77 generic medications from Mark Cuban’s drug company, it could save $3.6 billion annually.
Billionaire entrepreneur and Shark Tank shark Mark Cuban founded “Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drug Company” last year, with a mission statement of pricing down widely-prescribed medications by offering generic versions with less overhead.
Cuban’s drugs are priced by the cost of ingredients and manufacturing, plus a 15% margin, $3 pharmacy dispensing fee, and $5 shipping fee. This can often be half, even a quarter, of what name brand companies cost.
Selling generic ingredients without patented manufacturing or formulas is dropping the prices of drugs like Actos—prescribed for patients with diabetes and retailing at $74.40—to $6.60 for 30 pills.
It’s the easiest explanation in the world to answer why spending on drugs in America, as one study found, exceeds that in all other countries.
With the FDA’s requirement to prove efficacy and not just safety, it costs a pharmaceutical company a 10-figure investment to send a drug through FDA stage I, II, and III trials. Once passed, patent and other intellectual property laws enacted years ago by the federal government allows the drug company to patent certain methods of making a drug.
Lastly, artificial monopolies are awarded by the FDA to drug companies for specific drugs, removing any market force capable of regulating prices naturally, and leaving the only possible salvation for a country with a per-capita spending on pharmaceutical drugs of $858 to be begging the very government whose laws and departments created the problem in the first place to try and undo them.
The new study from Harvard concluded that “our findings suggest that Medicare is overpaying for many generic drugs,” and CNET reports that since its publication, Plus Drugs had added a bunch more medications. Hassan Leilani, lead study author, admitted $3.6 billion is probably a conservative estimate.
Featured image: Mark Cuban by Gage Skidmore, CC license
The first serious clinical trials in humans using CRISPR continue to wow, after follow-up findings three years post procedure demonstrate that all patients but two remain essentially cured of two blood disorders.
The treatment involved taking samples of the patients’ stem cells, and using CRISPR Cas-9 gene editing to enhance the levels of fetal hemoglobin, before reintroducing them back into patients.
Initial results were extremely promising, with the first two patients becoming essentially cured. The 18-month follow-up, as GNN reported, was even more exciting, with a dozen patients treated for sickle cell disease (SCD) and transfusion-dependent thalassemia (TDT) all showing no signs of either symptoms or serious side effects.
SCD can cause a variety of health problems including episodes of severe pain, called vaso-occlusive crises, as well as organ damage and strokes, while patients with TDT are dependent on blood transfusions from early childhood.
The only available cure for both diseases is a bone marrow transplant from a closely-related donor, an option that is not available for the vast majority of patients because of difficulty locating matched donors, the cost, and the risk of complications.
These new findings, presented at the European Hematology Association Congress, found that from 75 patients, just two remain uncured of their respective diseases, in this case TDT. However their transfusion requirements have both radically declined, estimated at 75% and 89% less than previous needs.
New Atlas reports that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given this treatment, called “exa-cel,” a Fast Track designation.
The findings haven’t been peer-reviewed just yet, but the development company Vertex is hoping to submit exa-cel to the FDA for market approval by the end of the year.
It would be the first CRISPR treatment to land on American markets since the technology was developed.
Featured image: Libertas Academica foter, CC license
Quote of the Day: “There is great restorative dignity and holy self-empowerment in playing—to the best of one’s ability—the hand one is dealt, however unwinning it may seem.” – William Sebrans
Photo by: Chetan Menaria
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Quote of the Day: “It is very hard to say the exact truth, even about your own immediate feelings—much harder than to say something fine about them which is not exactly true.” – George Eliot
Photo by: Radek Kilijanek
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A group of high school seniors teamed up with a clever TikToker to give a retired Kindergarten teacher a tearful surprise.
Mrs. Hamilton retired from her job as a teacher years ago, but it’s clear she made a big impact as an educator.
When her last class of Kindergarten students were all grown up and ready to graduate cap-and-gown, Hamilton’s daughter Kim organized for them to throw a surprise that racked up 3.2 million views on TikTok.
“Hey! Congratulations. That’s cool,” the teacher said when she spotted a former student from her porch. “What’s going on?”
The one student quickly became a dozen, as they emerged from bushes, behind obstacles, and all approached their first school teacher.
“Oh my gosh. Did you know this was happening?” she asked her daughter, who was recording. “Oh my gosh, I love you all. Oh my gosh, you’re all just gorgeous.”
The video touched the hearts of teachers tuning in, with one person writing “proof they never stop being our kids after they leave us.”
lapacho tree cc license wikimedia commons mauroguanandi
Mauroguanandi, CC license
Compounds from a Brazilian tree bark can now be used to treat acute myeloid leukaemia after a new technique that delivers it straight into the cancer cell.
The disease has a survival rate of around 20% after five years, and there is a high occurrence of relapse.
Caused by an abnormal increase in the number a type of immature blood cells, it is an aggressive cancer and the most common form of acute leukaemia in adults.
Scientists identified a compound from the bark of the lapacho tree called β-lapachone which controls the increase in the number of cells involved with cancer, however it was toxic to other cells as well.
“It’s important to find new therapeutic strategies for acute myeloid leukemia,” Professor Gonçalo Bernardes, a reader in Chemical Biology and a Royal Society University Research Fellow and a Fellow of Trinity Hall College, Cambridge said. “There are a lot of natural compounds with medicinal value that can’t be used as therapies at the moment due to toxicity and negative effects in healthy cells.
“In our work, we used these natural compounds and modified them in a way that controls their negative effects and allows us to take advantage of their therapeutic value.”
The team modified the compound to shield the body from its negative effects until it is delivered to the heart of the cancer cell.
“The compound that we explored in this study, called β-lapachone, is a promising drug to treat leukaemia, but its reactive properties could have undesirable effects,” Prof Bernardes who is also group leader at the Instituto de Medicina Molecular (iMM) and co-leader of the study added.
“In this work, we combined two strategies to minimise the negative effects of the compound.
“On one side, we added a chemical group to this compound that protects from its reactive properties. It acts like a mask that covers the toxicity of the drug.
“This mask is released in a more acidic environment, that corresponds to the interior of cells.
“This leads to our second strategy. We attached the modified compound to a protein, an antibody, that delivers it directly to the interior of cancer cells.”
The chemistry that was developed in this study, published in the journal Nature Chemistry, can be used for other valuable natural compounds, enabling the use of compounds with therapeutic potential that were previously inappropriate for medicinal use.
“Cancer cells have certain marks that tell them apart from healthy cells,” Dr Ana Guerreiro, co-second author of the study, added. “In acute myeloid leukaemia we know that one of these specific markers, called CD33, is present in the cancer cells.
“We attached our natural product to an antibody that binds specifically to this CD33.
“This allows the drug to go through the body without damaging any healthy cells and when the antibody encounters the cancer cell, it binds to the CD33 marker and delivers the drug.
“At this moment it will turn into its active and toxic form, killing the cancer cell.”
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Desert dwellers know it well: the smell of rain and the feeling of euphoria that comes when a storm washes over the parched earth.
That feeling, and the health benefits that come with it, may be the result of oils and other chemicals released by desert plants after a good soaking, new research suggests.
“The Sonoran Desert flora is one of the richest in the world in plants that emit fragrant volatile oils, and many of those fragrances confer stress-reducing health benefits to humans, wildlife and the plants themselves,” said Gary Nabhan, a research social scientist at the UArizona Southwest Center and the Kellogg Endowed Chair in Southwestern Borderlands Food and Water Security.
Nabhan is lead author of two new studies that explain how volatile organic compounds that evolved to protect plants from damaging solar radiation, heat waves, drought stress, and predatory animals may also have health benefits for humans.
A familiar fragrance
Nabhan was inspired to investigate the health benefits of desert fragrances after learning about “forest bathing,” an ancient practice that originated in the coniferous forests of eastern Asia and involves spending time in nature to help reduce stress and improve overall well-being.
At first, Nabhan was disappointed by the fact that the nearest forests to him are thousands of feet high in the Catalina Mountains, which reach their highest point about an hour-and-a-half drive from central Tucson.
“But then I thought, some of those same compounds are found in desert plants,” Nabhan said, “and we know we have tremendous fragrances at certain times of the year, especially right after the thunderstorms of the monsoon.”
The Southwest monsoon season typically runs from June 15 to Sept. 30. About half of the region’s average annual rainfall occurs over the course of those three-and-a-half months.
Nabhan and his collaborators—Eric Daugherty, a former intern at the Southwest Center, and Tammi Hartung, a co-owner of Desert Canyon Farm in Canyon City, Colorado— identified 115 volatile organic compounds in 60 species of plants in the Sonoran Desert that are released immediately before, during and after rain. Of these, 15 have been shown in past studies to offer tangible health benefits.
“The fragrant volatile organic compounds from desert plants may in many ways contribute to improving sleep patterns, stabilizing emotional hormones, enhancing digestion, heightening mental clarity and reducing depression or anxiety,” Nabhan said.
“Their accumulation in the atmosphere immediately above desert vegetation is what causes the smell of rain that many people report. It also reduces exposure to damaging solar radiation in ways that protect the desert plants themselves, the wildlife that use them as food and shelter, and the humans who dwell among them.”
Many desert plants produce more volatile oils during the summer to protect themselves from harsh conditions, Nabhan said.
“The production of the oily compounds is happening during the extreme droughts and severe heat waves, but they remain on the leaves until we get the onset of the summer rains,” Nabhan said.
“We used to think that during the summer rains, those oily and gummy substances were washed off and into the air, but now there’s some evidence that with humidity and the fierce winds that we get with the onset of the rain, they’re released into the atmosphere even before the rain actually falls and contribute to that incredible surge of anticipation that you feel right before the first raindrop of a thunderstorm. From there, they travel into our lungs and into our bloodstream within minutes.”
The creosote bush is one of the most iconic plants in the Sonoran Desert and is often cited as the plant that gives the desert its familiar smell when it rains. One of the healing compounds that contributes to creosote’s familiar smell is trans-caryophyllene, which actually comes from a fungus that lives inside the plant rather the plant itself, Nabhan said.
Fragrance gardens for healing
John Fowler
Armed with his knowledge of desert plants, Nabhan is part of an initiative to create fragrance gardens to promote healing and well-being around the Southwest.
In March, Nabhan and his colleagues installed one such garden at the Sonoran Desert Inn and Conference Center in Ajo, Arizona. By late fall, they’d like to complete another at the base of Tumamoc Hill, where many people go to exercise outdoors. The hill’s proximity to Carondelet St. Mary’s Hospital makes it an even more strategic location, said Nabhan, who envisions patients and their families reaping the health benefits of the garden.
“I would like to see these fragrance gardens around every hospital, community clinic and bed and breakfast—wherever anyone comes to heal, relax and recreate,” Nabhan said. “These public gardens will not only produce nutritious foods, but offer residents, out-of-town guests and hikers a powerful opportunity to sense how the desert smells like rain.”
40th anniversary of Nabhan’s book “The Desert Smells Like Rain”
This summer, Nabhan is celebrating four decades since the release of his book The Desert Smells Like Rain: A Naturalist in O’odham Country. A 40th anniversary edition of the book includes a new preface from Nabhan with thanks to the Tohono O’odham people who shared with him their traditional knowledge that offered valuable insights into climate change and biodiversity.
The book explores how to respect nature and talks about what “transplants” to the desert— like Nabhan himself, who moved to Arizona in 1972 after spending his childhood in Indiana—can learn from the Tohono O’odham people, as longtime residents of the Sonoran Desert.
“These papers and the re-release of the book brought me full circle, returning me to a pivotal moment in my life when I first came to the desert,” Nabhan said.
Early in his career, Nabhan worked part time with a program called Arizona Writers on the Road, which gave him the opportunity to teach writing to young students on the Tohono O’odham reservation. As part of an assignment one day, he asked the students what the desert smelled like to them.
“One 8-year-old boy said that the desert smells like rain, and I thought that was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard. That became the title of my first book, and I’m not only so grateful to that child, but I’m also grateful to the O’odham communities I worked with later, because they taught me more about the desert than I could ever teach them as a scientist,” Nabhan said. “So, to me, ‘the desert smells like rain’ is an expression of gratitude to a community.”
Eating oily fish like mackerel or salmon could slash your risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease by nearly 50 percent, a new study has revealed.
Scientists found that people with high levels of omega-3 DHA in their blood were at 49 percent lower risk of getting the debilitating brain condition.
This was particularly true for those carrying the ApoE4 gene which doubles the chances of getting Alzheimer’s.
Study authors from the Fatty Acid Research Institute (FARI) in the US said their results could lead to a cheap, low-risk way to save billions in treatment.
The research took place within the Framingham Offspring Cohort and included 1,490 people aged 65 or over who did not have Alzheimer’s.
Researchers examined the association of red blood cell marine omega-3 docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) with Alzheimer’s Disease while also testing for interaction with ApoE4 gene carriership.
There are three types of Omega-3, DHA and Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) both found particularly in oily fish, and alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) found in plants which is not as good for you.
The study said that providing extra dietary Omega-3 DHA could slow the onset of the disease.
If those with the lowest levels were to reach those with the highest, they would gain an extra 4.7 years free of Alzheimer’s.
Study author Dr. Aleix Sala-Vila said: “The risk for Alzheimer’s disease in the highest DHA fifth was 49% lower compared with the lowest fifth.
“Delaying Alzheimer’s disease by five years leads to 2.7 additional years of life, and 4.8 additional Alzheimer-free years for an individual who would have acquired Alzheimer’s.
Although only observational, the findings published in the journal Nutrients support similar findings in the original Framingham Heart Study 15 years ago.
President of FARI, and senior author Dr. William Harris, said: “Most interestingly, 15 years ago similar findings were reported in the parents of the individuals who were the focus of this present investigation with a 47 percent in the risk of developing all-cause dementia.
“Similar findings a generation apart in a similar genetic pool provide considerable confirmation of this DHA-dementia relationship.”
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Replica Viking boat at Birka. By Sven Isaksson / Stockholm University's Archaeological Research Laboratory
Replica Viking boat at Birka. By Sven Isaksson / Stockholm University’s Archaeological Research Laboratory
Archeologists from Stockholm have located a unique Viking Age shipyard site at Birka. The discovery challenges previous theories about how the maritime activities of the Viking Age were organized.
The site consists of a stone-lined depression along what had been the shore at that time, and a series of wooden slides for launching boats. Finds include large quantities of both unused and used boat rivets, whetstones made from slate, and woodworking tools.
“A site like this has never been found before, it is the first of its kind, but the finds convincingly show that it was a shipyard,” says Sven Isaksson, Professor of Archeological Science at Stockholm University, and project lead.
“The finds of artifacts from the area shows with great clarity that this is where people have served their ships,” he added. (See the site in the video below.)
Birka has long been a treasure trove of insight into the Viking Age, and the former trading post on the island of Björkö in Lake Mälaren has been recognized as a World Heritage Site.
Previous investigations have observed several of the remains before, but it’s through the latest finds that it has become possible to take a comprehensive view.
“Through systematic survey, mapping and drone investigations, we can now show that Birka, in addition to the urban environment, also has a very rich maritime cultural landscape with remains of everything from jetties to boat launches and shipyards,” says Isaksson, who works at the University’s Archeological Research Laboratory.
Jetty or boat landing remains in pink – Sven Isaksson / University of Stockholm Archeology Research Laboratory
Ships and shipping are characteristic of the Viking Age in the Nordic countries, both for warfare and for trade. One expression of Viking Age long-distance trade is the city-like trading posts that sprang up in the Nordic countries at the time.
“It’s not just about the first urban environments, but shows an intensive exchange of trade goods and ideas between people,” says Sven Kalmring, Isaksson’s partner on the project.
Findings raise new questions
The town ramparts around Birka functioned not only as a defense, but also as a legal, economic and social boundary.
Previous investigations of harbor facilities in Birka have mostly been carried out inside the town rampart, in the area known as the Black Earth harbor area, and below the so-called Garrison. The shipyard, in an area called Kugghamn, is located instead outside of the walls.
In order to secure source material that can add nuance to the knowledge of Birka’s maritime cultural landscape, the archeological investigations are continuing. Among other things, separate excavations are beginning in a similar site—the remains of a boat landing located outside the town rampart.
Another question the archeologists are trying to answer is who was allowed to dock where.
“Could anyone land anywhere, or did it matter if it was inside or outside the town rampart? There is much to ponder here. But for us, the investigation doesn’t end with the fieldwork, we continue in the lab. By using analytical laboratory techniques, we get more information out of the fragmentary source material than is otherwise possible,” says Isaksson.
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