The Light Sleeping Gene

"Unfortunately for people with the variant, the sleep perk is offset by an increased risk of heart disease and diabetes."

Are you one of those people who can get by on only a fraction of the amount of sleep that others need? Do you stay up as late as the rest of us, yet still find it in you to bound out of bed at an early hour, entirely awake and refreshed? Turns out you may be genetically inclined to needing less sleep. I'm still jealous of you, even though I guess I can now blame my sluggish oversleeping tendencies on my DNA and not just my crippling lack of willpower. Yay?
 
German scientists have recently discovered a connection between the ABCC9 gene and sleep patterns that don't include very much time spent unconscious. Individuals displaying two copies of a variant of the gene could sleep for a very short amount of time and still wake up feeling pretty much awesome. That eight hour mark didn't apply for them--they could do just fine on four or five hours, even without daytime naps or stimulants like caffeine. Me, I'm still something of a sloth after eight hours of sleep and two cups of strong coffee, so that's saying something. I used to be able to pull off reasonable days after only four hours of shut-eye, but these days the edges of my reality start to blur if I get anything less than six. So I am definitely not of the strain of human that has this particular gene going for them. 
 
Unfortunately for people with the variant, the sleep perk is offset by an increased risk of heart disease and diabetes. I guess you can't win them all. But even if you do develop a nasty disease as a result of the gene, at least you'll be awake for most of your remaining life, right? It all balances out in the end, probably.

The Science of Déjà Vu

Déjà vu!

Déjà vu is defined as a moment during which you have already seen or experienced something that, in actuality, you have never experienced. Déjà vu has happened to all of us. We are intimately familiar with a conversation with a group of friends that we’ve never had before, like we are watching ourselves talk from a place outside of our bodies. We travel to a remote Buddhist temple in Thailand and are certain that we were there before.

This phenomenon is not reserved for people who believe in reincarnation, but it certainly must be tied to this belief system. Why would something you’d never seen before seem so familiar? Why would something that had never happened to you before seem like you’re replaying a scene from a movie?

Most people, around 70 percent of the population, have reported experiencing déjà vu at some point in their lives. Perhaps surprising, however, 15 to 25 year-olds report experiencing the greatest number of déjà vu instances. It seems that older people would draw more correlations between seemingly unrelated occurrences simply because they have a greater well of experiences.

Turns out, there are two types of déjà vu. Swiss scholar Arthur Funkhouser argues that déjà experiences should be grouped into two distinct categories and given two different names: déjà visite (“already visited”) if you recognized a place that you had never been or déjà veca (“already experienced or lived through”) if you remembered an experience that you never had.  

Weirder yet, the explanation for the experience. Scientists say that the sensation of déjà vu is associated with temporal-lope epilepsy, specifically right before a temporal-lobe seizure. Déjà vu either occurs right before the seizure or during it.

Constant occurrences of déjà vu doesn’t mean that you’re unwell in the head or that you need to go to the doctor, though. However, some people with brain injuries or other medical conditions do experience déjà vu, as well.

Psychoanalyst and psychiatrists are still out on the cause and correlation of déjà vu. Some psychoanalysts say that the phenomenon is related to wish fulfillment or fantasy. Psychiatrists say that it could be related to some mismatching in the brain that causes it to temporarily mistake the present for the past.

Whatever the cause, it seems that the verdict on the real necessity and circumstances of déjà vu is still out.

Do you experience déjà vu? Do you think of it as a good or bad experience?

Ancient Farmers Responsible For Crooked Teeth

The Agricultural Revolution allowed our jaws to become small and weak and packed full of teeth, paving the way for modern orthodontists.

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he Agricultural Revolution is one of the most pivotal historical moments in the evolution of the human species. The surpluses of food allowed people to settled down and consolidate, divide labor responsibilities, create a hierarchy of government, and develop currency and uniform trade. In short, it allowed humans to civilize. However, it also have an unintended consequence that is just now being uncovered by anthropologists. Those early farmers, in creating food surpluses, also created an evolutionary trend by which the human jaw became shorter, making people’s teeth for the next 12,000 years crooked. Early farmers also, consequently, created job security for modern orthodontists.

Geneticists and anthropologists have determined that the natural differences in the facial shape and characteristics of people around the world are largely due to “genetic drift”, or random genetic mutations over the course of thousands of years. However, one characteristic that is strikingly similar across the various ethnicities is the shape of our lower jaw. When other genetic modifiers seem to be governed by chance, but another seems consistent, the logical next step is to look at what social and environmental variables may be contributing to the similarity. What does every civilization across the globe have in common? Agriculture.

Some researchers believe that the Agriculture Revolution, which resulted in a change in diet from coarse foods to softer foods, lead to a modification in the lower jaw from a diet requiring less chewing. Noreen von Cramon-Taubadel, a researcher at the University of Kent in the UK, tested the theory by studying the jaws and skulls of 11 ancient populations from all over the world, some agricultural specimens and some hunter-gatherer. What she found was that the farmer’s jaws tended to be wider and shorter, while hunter-gatherer jaws were narrower and longer. In addition, the upper palate of the skulls reflected, to a degree, the shape of the lower jaws as well, while the rest of the cranial shape was unaffected.

After testing these results against historical context; climate variation, geography, and genetic history, von Cramon-Taubadel concluded that it was not until the society had moved from hunting and gathering to farming that jaws began to shorten, becoming weaker and less robust. Research also indicated that this change was not a product of natural selection, but an occurrence of each new infant raised on the diet of softer foods. However, the body continues to produce as many teeth as our larger jaws would accommodate, which is why many of our modern agrarian jaws cram so many crooked teeth into a smaller space.

This begs the question, as we become an increasingly hands off society, are our arms going to shorten and atrophy into little T-Rex-like stubs?

 

Scientists Fabricate Light in Vacuum

Rapid mirrors collect photons from the void

 

I'm no scientist, but the field of quantum physics has always fascinated my arts-loaded head just because of the sheer illogic of it all. There's a lot of poetic stuff happening in the physical world the smaller and deeper you go--things that both exist and do not exist at the same time, things that move from place to place without appearing in between their starting point and destination. The world is made of a whole lot of weird. And physicists have just found a way to manipulate the oddity to create light from nothing.

I use the word "nothing" somewhat lightly here because it's becoming clearer and clearer that there's really no such thing. We once thought of vacuums as the absence of pretty much anything--no matter, no particles, nothing. But newer insight into the behavior of matter has shown that vacuums are full of particles that blip in and out of existence all the time. Matter and anti-matter can spontaneously happen and then disappear back into the aether. "Nothing" as we once thought of it is actually filled with tiny objects that only exist for a tiny fraction of a second. And we don't really understand why. The more we discover, the less we know, it seems. 

We've proven the existence of these flickering particles by allowing them to move objects around. If two mirrors are placed very, very close to each other, the virtual photons outside of the mirrors will push them together. Scientists have physically measured the results of this effect, known as the Casimir force. It's a real thing. The barely-existent photons exist just enough to be physically detectable.

Now, physicists at the Chalmers University of Technology have found a way to channel those virtual photons into actual light. Theoretically, creating light from a vacuum should be easy enough provided that you can move a small mirror at the speed of light. The mirror would soak up enough energy from the virtual photons to emit real photons as light. Given that it's hard to get much besides light to go that fast, the researchers had to come up with a clever mechanism to create the same effect. They invented something called the SQUID, a superconducting quantum interference device that is extra-sensitive to magnetic fields. Inside of a superconducting circuit, the SQUID acted more or less as a mirror. By subjecting the device to a magnetic field that changed direction a few billion times a second, scientists could get the surrogate mirror to wobble at 5% the speed of light--which is still pretty darn fast. Fast enough to get the desired effect, anyway. The team could detect a splattering of real photons coming out of the device. The results matched the theory. It's possible, technically, to scrape light out of a lightless space. There's no real practical use for this yet, but it's a pretty awesome demonstration of the utter madness of how the world works on the quantum level. 

Human Noise Pollution Disrupting Bird Breeding

Think: Taking your date back to your apartment while the neighbor's garage band is practicing.

It’s now clear why, when you’re attempting to sleep in on Saturday mornings, there will inevitably be some obnoxious birdsong keeping you from actually getting those extra precious minutes of shut-eye. According to findings in a new study by researchers from University of Colorado and Fort Lewis College, the birds may be getting revenge for the noise that we create. The researchers state that, “Human-generated noise pollution now permeates natural habitats worldwide…[threatening] wildlife, and especially birds, via changes to species densities, foraging behavior, reproductive success, and predator-prey interactions.” That’s right, our noise pollution is ruining their sex lives.

Not to make too light of something that is potentially a very serious issue for bird populations and the avian food chain, but it’s a bit like the obnoxious roommate’s “band” rehearsing in the room next door while you’re trying to work your mojo on a hot date. The only problem is that this is happening globally and, to extend the metaphor, it’s all roommates everywhere.

Part of the reason for this widespread disruption is that birdsong, or particularly mating calls, are acoustic in nature and can be greatly effected by human-made noise pollution. This forces birds to leave an otherwise suitable area for breeding, and dramatically reduces the number of opportunities to breed. In addition, larger species of birds, who tend to be endangered or at least threatened anyway) are more susceptible to these disruptions that smaller species of birds. The reason is that larger birds emit lower frequency signals which are easily overpowered by the kinds of noisy disruptions that are created by people (electronic noise, music, traffic, etc.), whereas smaller birds with higher frequency signals can, in many cases, cut through the din.

The potential environmental impact of human-made noise pollution is still uncertain, but if an entire biological system is so significantly effected by it, one can be sure that the ripples will be felt throughout the ecosystem.

In the past, it was climate, natural disasters, and predatory species that were the forces manipulating a species evolution. Now it seems that human activity has become so pervasive (and invasive) that we unintentionally influence the evolution, the breeding and survival patterns, of the environment around us. Whether it’s pollution in the water, the networks of infrastructure that unwitting segregate ecosystems, or the outdoor concerts and blaring stereos that disrupt bird populations; we’ve certainly made our presence known. Perhaps we deserve the sleepless mornings.

Ancient Art Made by Squids?

When I was in college, I didn’t have a DVR (did anyone in 2001?) and I completely missed the “Walking with Prehistoric Beasts” and “The Future is Wild” programs on Animal Planet and was completely bummed out about it. When I finally did get to watch these fascinating programs, I learned that some scientists guess that someday, once humans are extinct, giant squids might be the dominant species. They were even portrayed in the film as being land animals that swing from tree to tree, much like primates. Incredible, right?

I read an article today that may help support this seemingly crazy theory. Apparently prehistoric giant squids may have made their own artwork out of animal bones. These giant geometric patterns may represent self-portraits from the squid—and that these reptile bone art pieces predate the human art that we typically believe to be the first art pieces in history.

A creative squid is not a surprise to me. They seem to be some of the only creatures on earth who remain elusive enough to escape notice from humans; we never even see giant squids until they die and wash up on the shore. This alone makes me believe that they must be intelligent creatures—and that if anyone survives this world after we blow ourselves up fighting one another, why not squids?

Every time I hear about how a giant squid was almost captured—I can only think of one that was captured and then accidentally killed as the humans fought with it, attempting to keep it for “study”—I always root for the squid. We really have no business finding and studying every creature on earth (let alone eating them)—and even if we believe we did, it would be pretty impossible to do in the first place. Why can’t we just leave some creatures alone? Why do we have to seek dominance over animals that aren’t even on land? We wouldn’t even attack squids—or whales, lions, or any other large creatures—if we didn’t have the weaponry. They’d all take us on in a heartbeat.

I don’t know if scientists will be able to prove that these bones are art pieces made by giant squids of the past, but I certainly love the idea of it—and look forward to more findings in the area.

As long as they don’t include the harming of squids in the process.

The Leonid Meteor Shower Is Coming November 17-18, 2011

The Leonid Meteor Shower is one of the most anticipated meteor showers all year. This is because the leonids are well known to put on quite a show in some years with fireballs and bright long tails sometimes lasting for several minutes as the sweep across the sky.

 

The leonids are fragments of the comet Tempel-Tuttle which burn up and appear as fiery meteorites as they enter Earth's atmosphere. They are named after the constellation they originate from: Leo.

 

Every 33 years or so, the leonids put on a storm. The last one was in 2001 and it was spectacular with fireball after fireball in rapid succession for at least 30 minutes.

 

However, this year's leonids are not predicted to be so spectacular but still one of the stronger meteor showers of the year. At the peak, they will probably come in at a rate of about 30 per hour. The peak should take place sometime just before mid-night on November 17 through the dawn of November 18.

 

Unfortunately, a quarter moon is expected to be in close proximity to Leo for the entire peak so the viewing of the meteorites will be obscured by this bright light. Given this, it may not be worth seeking out a place away from the light pollution of the city.

 

Even though it doesn't promise to be the best year, I will certainly be out there with a hot thermos of spicy chai waiting for the show in case it comes! It’s always lots of fun.

Mass Extinctions May In-Turn Cause Extinctions, Slow Recovery of Planetary Species

The implications for this new finding are great for the growing human demand for natural resources.

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he Permian-Triassic Extinction Event is the quintessential question in pre-history. In layman’s terms, it’s “what killed the dinosaurs?” Volcanic events, an asteroid collision, even widespread disease and climate change have been used to explain how such a massive species extinction would take place in such a relatively short amount of time. However, new research on a massive scale, of both fossil remains and chemical geological data, shows that something far more insidious could have happened, with large implications for human activity today.

The data suggests, according to Wired.com, large die-offs that significantly impact bio diversity on the planet may actually result in further extinctions from other species, and stunt the long-term recovery of bio diversity and species regrowth across the globe.  The study, published by paleobiologists from Brown University, Jessica Whiteside and University of Utah, Randall Irmis depends heavily on data from the earth’s carbon cycle during the Permian-Triassic (PT) Event and for several million years afterward. The carbon cycle, which authors explain is the flow of life’s essential elements through the Earth’s various systems, was highly erratic after the PT Event for 10 million years. Rather than rebounding as life filled niches previously occupied by extinct species, there was a long cycle of “boom-and-bust” as species proliferated, and then died off, in cyclical waves.

One plausible explanation, the authors say, is that a spike in volcanic activity immediately after the PT Event that may have  killed off enough localized species around the world that it triggered this “boom and bust” cycle simultaneously across many biomes even as species attempted to revitalize. With the dramatic reduction in diversity and complexity, comes a dramatic reduction in a biological system’s ability to weather destructive forces. The notion, which is relatively new within this field of science, is nonetheless accepted by biologists, economists, and computer engineers the world over. If a system does not have enough complexity, then they are essentially lacking in fail-safes, niche elements that allow for a variety of paths to success, profit, or survival (depending on your subject).

This has huge implications for the well-documented destruction of bio-diversity across the planet created by human demand for resources. Our over-ished oceans are already seeing this strange boom-and-bust pattern among jellyfish, as they thrive and then die off in massive numbers. Should human activity continue to create nomocultured biomes in agricultural environments, decimated oceans, and dislocated species’ populations across large swaths of natural landscape, we will begin to see these devastating effects of mass extinctions and low biodiversity. The only difference this time around is that the volcanic activity that was so damaging to life on Earth is now replaced by human demand.

NASA Launches Special Satellite Watch Weather Patterns On Earth

"Data from the satellite will also help with the control of forest fires."

The goal of the special weather satellite that NASA launched recently is provide detailed data to study climate changes. It is the most advanced satellite for weather data in orbit to date. It is designed to collect more accurate data than other satellites that are currently orbiting the Earth. Scientists also hope that the data provide will help provide more accurate weather forecasts, especially sudden weather events such as tornados and cyclones. Data from the satellite will also help with the control of forest fires.

Some of the advanced data the satellite will collect is information on Arctic sea ice, volcanic ash composition, sea surface temperatures, solar radiation, the ozone layer, atmospheric pressure, and general climate information that will help study the climate changes in the different regions on Earth. Scientists are very enthusiastic to receive this data as it will be more accurate than anything else they have ever received from a satellite.

 

The new satellite was launched this last Friday around 3:00 a.m. (Oct 28, 2011) from the California coast at Vandenberg Air Force Base inside a Delta 2 Rocket. The weather for the launch was perfect with very clear skies and virtually no wind. The satellite separated from the rocket about an hour after launch and navigated after that using solar panels. The cost for this project is about $1.5 billion dollars The satellite itself is larger than one might envision - about the size of a small sports utility vehicle! It is orbiting 512 miles above Earth.

Army Treats PTSD With Virtual Dreams

The Army has invested in a project to develop a biofeedback therapy using virtual dreams to treat PTSD.

After nearly a decade at war, the United States is starting to understand the significant human costs of war after engagement. Military members that have completed their active duty, or even been placed on furlough, have returned to the States with horrific emotional scarring as a result of their combat experiences. Called “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder” (PTSD), the psychological condition is characterized by an array of symptoms ranging from sleeplessness or nightmares to panic attacks and violent behavior. PTSD has even been blamed for deviant behaviors like drug addiction, homicide and suicide. According to Heal My PTSD, a support website, over 300,000 present and former service members suffer from PTSD, or 20% of the entire population of the armed services. Recent breakthroughs, however, may have an answer for victims of PTSD.

The U.S. Army has been, by far, the most heavily effected by PTSD, with a significant majority of cases coming from Army service men and women. For that reason, the Army has funded a new project called “Power Dreaming”, in which digitally rendered, soothing, and happy “dreams” are created in a virtual world. Over 50% of combat veterans with PTSD report having nightmarish dreams frequently, which can have psychosomatic manifestations in their waking lives. “Power Dreams” are soothing and positive, and will be viewed immediately after a patient experiences a nightmare to counteract its negative emotional impact. After a patient has a nightmare, they will open a laptop or tablet, or don 3-D goggles, and watch these soothing virtual dreams. A new twist on biofeedback therapy, the U.S. Army has recently invested over $500,000 in the projects development and implementation.

Biofeedback therapy is an area of behavior modification in which people conscientiously try to calm or redirect their emotional state through manipulating their physical state. For instance, teaching women controlled breathing during birth is a form of biofeedback therapy. However, for people in particularly intense emotional states, such as a PTSD-induced panic attack brought on by stress-induced nightmares, it’s not always possible for an individual to visualize on their own. For that reason, allowing soldiers and veterans to create their own customized virtual dreams allows them to quickly engage in the soothing and positive imagery. In fact, taking cues from popular online simulator Second Life, participants will actually create whole worlds and customizable avatars in which to navigate their “dream”. In this way they are able to “distract” themselves from the stress-induced visions and physical symptoms of them.

There are security implications for service members needing this kind of biofeedback therapy during active duty. There are limitations on the use of removable hard-drives and downloadable applications on military hardware because of cyber-security concerns. However, for individuals that have fulfilled the terms of their deployment, “Power Dreaming” could be an invaluable piece to a service member’s often difficult transition back to a civilian life.

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