Dit is ons nieuw hondje Kira, een kruising van een waterhond en een Podenko. Ze is sinds 7 februari 2024 bij ons en druk bezig ons hart te veroveren. Het is een lief, aanhankelijk hondje, dat zich op een week snel aan ons heeft aangepast. Ze is heel vinnig en nieuwsgierig, een heel ander hondje dan Noleke.
This is our new dog Kira, a cross between a water dog and a Podenko. She has been with us since February 7, 2024 and is busy winning our hearts. She is a sweet, affectionate dog who quickly adapted to us within a week. She is very quick and curious, a very different dog than Noleke.
DEAR VISITOR,
MY BLOG EXISTS ALREADY 13 YEARS AND 2 MONTH.
ON 06/08/2024 MORE THAN 2.161.100
VISITORS FROM 135 DIFFERENT NATIONS ALREADY FOUND THEIR WAY TO MY BLOG.
THAT IS AN AVERAGE OF 400GUESTS PER DAY.
THANK YOU FOR VISITING MY BLOG AND HOPE YOU ENJOY EACH TIME.
The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
Druk op onderstaande knop om te reageren in mijn forum
Zoeken in blog
Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld In België had je vooral BUFON of het Belgisch UFO-Netwerk, dat zich met UFO's bezighoudt. BEZOEK DUS ZEKER VOOR ALLE OBJECTIEVE INFORMATIE , enkel nog beschikbaar via Facebook en deze blog.
Verder heb je ook het Belgisch-Ufo-meldpunt en Caelestia, die prachtig, doch ZEER kritisch werk leveren, ja soms zelfs héél sceptisch...
Voor Nederland kan je de mooie site www.ufowijzer.nl bezoeken van Paul Harmans. Een mooie site met veel informatie en artikels.
MUFON of het Mutual UFO Network Inc is een Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in alle USA-staten en diverse landen.
MUFON's mission is the analytical and scientific investigation of the UFO- Phenomenon for the benefit of humanity...
Je kan ook hun site bekijken onder www.mufon.com.
Ze geven een maandelijks tijdschrift uit, namelijk The MUFON UFO-Journal.
Since 02/01/2020 is Pieter ex-president (=voorzitter) of BUFON, but also ex-National Director MUFON / Flanders and the Netherlands. We work together with the French MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP.
ER IS EEN NIEUWE GROEPERING DIE ZICH BUFON NOEMT, MAAR DIE HEBBEN NIETS MET ONZE GROEP TE MAKEN. DEZE COLLEGA'S GEBRUIKEN DE NAAM BUFON VOOR HUN SITE... Ik wens hen veel succes met de verdere uitbouw van hun groep. Zij kunnen de naam BUFON wel geregistreerd hebben, maar het rijke verleden van BUFON kunnen ze niet wegnemen...
21-10-2022
UFO over Saint Paul, Minnesota 2022
UFO over Saint Paul, Minnesota 2022
Some kind of a cube-shaped formation with strange light around it was filmed in the night sky above Saint Paul in Minnesota. This was filmed back in May 2022 but it was just recently published online.
Searching for extraterrestrial life will not change a scientist’s reputation, but if he/she believes that aliens exist, that might be problematic. Legendary astrophysicist Carl Sagan never denied the existence of life beyond Earth, however, John E. Mack, a Harvard professor had to face the wrath of the scientific community for his thoughts on aliens. Interestingly, Dr. Mack was a highly regarded intellectual.
John Edward Mack was born in 1929. He pursued his medical degree at Harvard where he would later practice and teach as a psychiatrist. He established the psychiatry department at the university’s Cambridge Hospital and oversaw the division for almost ten years. Mack investigated dreams and the psychological effects of the Cold War early in his career. In addition, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his famous biography of T.E. Lawrence, A Prince of Our Disorder.
Early in the 1990s, Dr. Mack revealed something shocking. He checked patients who said they had been abducted by extraterrestrials and believed them. He wrote a book titled “Abduction: Human Encounters with Aliens” in 1994 that had a case study of 13 people. In 1999, “Passport to the Cosmos,” the sequel, was released. He claimed that Abduction was a logical development from his earlier work, which included studies of T E Lawrence, suicide, and the threat of nuclear warfare: “the connection resides in the matter of identity—who we are in the deepest and broadest sense.”
Despite the skepticism of his contemporaries, Dr. Mack persisted in his quest to integrate UFOs and aliens into the realm of modern science. But to be fair, he himself was initially dubious (like any good scientist would be). He acknowledged having grown up in a materialist home, but once he started interviewing “experiencers,” he discovered that his formative philosophy had been completely turned around.
Dr John Mack. Image via YouTube screencap
“When I heard about this phenomenon in 1990, I was very doubtful. I thought it must be some kind of mental illness,” he told The Washington Post during an interview conducted in the mid-’90s. “I came gradually to the conclusion that I could not find any psychiatric explanation or other explanation except that some kind of trauma happened to them.”
What happened to Dr. Mack that made him believe and promote such outlandish claims? “These people suffered from no obvious psychiatric disorder, except the effects of traumatic experience, and were reporting with powerful emotion what to them were utterly real experiences,” he wrote in Abduction (via Vanity Fair).
“Furthermore, these experiences were sometimes associated with UFO sightings by friends, family members, or others in the community, including media reporters and journalists, and frequently left physical traces on the individuals’ bodies, such as cuts and small ulcers that would tend to heal rapidly and followed no apparent psychodynamically identifiable pattern as do, for example, religious stigmata. In short, I was dealing with a phenomenon that I felt could not be explained psychiatrically, yet was simply not possible within the framework of the Western scientific worldview.”
On January 10, 1990, Dr. Mack met Budd Hopkins, which became a life-changing event for him. Hopkins claimed to have seen a UFO on Cape Cod in 1964, and he then investigated into a neighbor’s story of seeing a spaceship with nine or ten tiny aliens land in a park close to Fort Lee, New Jersey.
Hopkins covered this story in a piece for “The Village Voice” that Cosmopolitan later published. His 1981 book “Missing Time” and its 1987 sequel “Intruders: The Incredible Visitations at Copley Woods” cemented his reputation as the father of the alien-abduction movement. He was immediately swarmed by abductees, whom he investigated under hypnosis.
Hopkins was then starting his investigation into the alleged abduction of the woman he dubbed Linda Cortile under the Brooklyn Bridge by UFOs, which would later become the subject of his third book, Witnessed, published in 1996. He gave Dr. Mack a box of letters from people reacting to aliens. “I think most of these people are perfectly sane, with real experiences,” Hopkins recalled telling Mack. But, he added, Mack could decide for himself. He was the doctor.
Mack was working with experiencers two years after first meeting Hopkins when he told his shocked fellow psychiatrists at Cambridge Hospital about extraterrestrial abduction. In 1992, he and David E. Pritchard, a trailblazing researcher in the field of atom optics at M.I.T., persuaded that university to host a ground-breaking conference on extraterrestrial abductions. “If what these abductees are saying is happening to them isn’t happening,” Mack demanded, “what is?”
Once NOVA, a popular primetime science series on American television interviewed Dr. Mack asking him if people are really being snatched from their beds by aliens and experiments onboard a spaceship. (Source)
Dr. Mack replied:
Just how literally to take this, is one of the most interesting and complex aspects of this. And I want to walk through that as clearly as I can. There are aspects of this which I believe we are justified in taking quite literally. That is, UFOs are in fact observed, filmed on camera at the same time that people are having their abduction experiences.
People, in fact, have been observed to be missing at the time that they are reporting their abduction experiences. They return from their experiences with cuts, ulcers on their bodies, triangular lesions, which follow the distribution of the experiences that they recover, of what was done to them in the craft by the surgical-like activity of these beings.
All of that has a literal physical aspect and is experienced and reported with appropriate feeling, by the abductees, with or without hypnosis or a relaxation exercise.
…There is a—I believe, a gradation of experiences and that go from the most literal physical kinds of hurts, wounds, person removed, spacecraft that can be photographed, to experiences which are more psychological, spiritual, involve the extension of consciousness. The difficulty for our society and for our mentality is, we have a kind of either/or mentality. It’s either, literally physical; or it’s in the spiritual other realm, the unseen realm. What we seem to have no place for—or we have lost the place for—are phenomena that can begin in the unseen realm, and cross over and manifest and show up in our literal physical world.
So the simple answer would be: Yes, it’s both. It’s both literally, physically happening to a degree; and it’s also some kind of psychological, spiritual experience occurring and originating perhaps in another dimension. And so the phenomenon stretches us, or it asks us to stretch to open to realities that are not simply the literal physical world, but to extend to the possibility that there are other unseen realities from which our consciousness, our, if you will, learning processes over the past several hundred years have closed us off.
Mack hypothesized that the entities might have just come from a parallel universe rather than from space. When he finally published “Abduction,” he claimed that his experiences had “amply corroborated” Hopkins and Jacobs’ research, “particularly that the abduction phenomena is in some central way implicated in a breeding program that leads to the development of alien/human hybrid progeny.” Almost all of his abductees returned with “a resolve to changing their relationship to the earth,” which led him to the further conclusion that the aliens were bearing warnings about threats to the planet
In November 1994, Dr. Mack performed his analysis on Ariel School students who claimed to encountered alien beings, which lasted for 48 hours. And, based on the results of the interviews, he came to the conclusion that the students had really experienced the event and perceived it exactly as they described it.
“It looked like it was glinting in the trees. It looked like a disc. Like a round disc,” one child witness told the BBC a few days after the incident. “I saw something silver on the ground amongst the trees. And a person in black,” another child said.
The same year, Harvard started a review of Mack’s position, but he resisted and kept his tenure. But the harm to his professional reputation was significant. Arnold Relman, Emeritus Professor at Harvard Medical School, told the Los Angeles Times in 2001 that “he’s not taken seriously by his colleagues anymore.”
Dr. Mack also received harsh criticism from those outside the academic world. He was duped by a journalist Donna Bassett into thinking that she had been abducted by aliens too. She claimed that she had been on a UFO in outer space during the Cuban Missile Crisis and witnessed Kennedy and Kruschev conversing. Dr. Mack accepted her fanciful story. She admitted to being a fraud in public, but the professor’s views on aliens visiting earth did not change. It damaged the respected university’s reputation in terms of public relations. (Source)
As a result, Dr. Mack was the subject of an internal Harvard probe. The executive branch wanted his dismissal. Professor of law Alan Dershowitz was among the academics who questioned the validity of the probe because Dr. Mack had not broken any of the Harvard school’s behavior policies.
The investigation was finished more than a year later, and the doctor kept his tenured position. But his formerly impeccable reputation was tarnished. His coworkers ceased to regard him seriously. Up until his tragic death, hit by a drunk driver while crossing the street in London in 2004, Professor Mack, a UFO and extraterrestrial abduction believer oversaw the department of psychiatry at Harvard University.
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20-10-2022
SCIENTISTS SUGGEST OUR BRAINS WORK LIKE QUANTUM COMPUTERS
SCIENTISTS SUGGEST OUR BRAINS WORK LIKE QUANTUM COMPUTERS
"AS A RESULT, WE CAN DEDUCE THAT THOSE BRAIN FUNCTIONS MUST BE QUANTUM."
GETTY IMAGES/FUTURISM
Brain Power
As physicists endeavor to build bigger and better quantum computers, a powerful one may have already been lurking inside our heads all along.
In a new study published this month in the Journal of Physics Communications, a team of scientists from Trinity College Dublin suggest that our brains could actually be using quantum computation.
If confirmed — something that will require extensive investigation — the finding could help explain why, in certain respects, our brains still outdo supercomputers.
Quantum Cerebrum
Their conclusion relies on the idea of quantum entanglement, a phenomenon describing particles changing each other's quantum state, even when they are separated by a large distance.
"We adapted an idea, developed for experiments to prove the existence of quantum gravity, whereby you take known quantum systems, which interact with an unknown system," said Christian Kerskens, study co-author and lead physicist at the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, in a statement.
"If the known systems entangle, then the unknown must be a quantum system, too," he explained. "It circumvents the difficulties to find measuring devices for something we know nothing about."
In the case of this experiment, the proton spins of the water in our brains served as the "known system." Kerskens and his team then used a special form of MRI imaging to detect if any of the proton spins were quantum entangled.
Curiously, the scientists ended up detecting a specific kind of electrical brain signal known as heartbeat evoked potentials, which they say is normally not detectable with MRIs.
What allowed them to detect those potentials, the scientists suggest, is quantum entanglement in proton spins in the brain.
"If entanglement is the only possible explanation here then that would mean that brain processes must have interacted with the nuclear spins, mediating the entanglement between the nuclear spins," Kerskens concluded. "As a result, we can deduce that those brain functions must be quantum."
Entangled Thoughts
All in all, it's an intriguing suggestion, but there's a lot more that needs to be proven. For one, the study rides on relatively recent proposals in the field of quantum gravity.
And, as the scientists in the study admit, their efforts were largely undertaken through the perspective of quantum physics.
In short, to prove their theory, it'd require a substantial multidisciplinary effort, especially considering the complexity of the human brain — but it's a tantalizing possibility, nonetheless.
For one, falling into a black hole is easily the worst way to die.
(Image credit: Brian Christensen/Stocktrek Images)
Halloween is a time to be haunted by ghosts, goblins and ghouls, but nothing in the universe is scarier than a black hole.
Black holes – regions in space where gravity is so strong that nothing can escape – are a hot topic in the news these days. Half of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics(opens in new tab) was awarded to Roger Penrose for his mathematical work showing that black holes are an inescapable consequence of Einstein’s theory of gravity. Andrea Ghez and Reinhard Genzel shared the other half for showing that a massive black hole sits at the center of our galaxy(opens in new tab).
Black holes are scary for three reasons. If you fell into a black hole left over when a star died, you would be shredded. Also, the massive black holes seen at the center of all galaxies have insatiable appetites. And black holes are places where the laws of physics are obliterated.
I’ve been studying black holes for over 30 years. In particular, I've focused on the supermassive black holes that lurk at the center of galaxies. Most of the time they are inactive, but when they are active and eat stars and gas, the region close to the black hole can outshine the entire galaxy that hosts them. Galaxies where the black holes are active are called quasars. With all we’ve learned about black holes over the past few decades, there are still many mysteries to solve.
Death by black hole
Black holes are expected to form when a massive star dies. After the star's nuclear fuel is exhausted, its core collapses to the densest state of matter imaginable, a hundred times denser than an atomic nucleus. That’s so dense that protons, neutrons and electrons are no longer discrete particles. Since black holes are dark, they are found when they orbit a normal star. The properties of the normal star allow astronomers to infer the properties of its dark companion, a black hole.
The first black hole to be confirmed was Cygnus X-1, the brightest X-ray source in the Cygnus constellation. Since then, about 50 black holes have been discovered in systems where a normal star orbits a black hole. They are the nearest examples of about 10 million that are expected to be scattered through the Milky Way.
Black holes are tombs of matter; nothing can escape them, not even light. The fate of anyone falling into a black hole would be a painful "spaghettification," an idea popularized by Stephen Hawking in his book "A Brief History of Time." In spaghettification, the intense gravity of the black hole would pull you apart, separating your bones, muscles, sinews and even molecules. As the poet Dante described the words over the gates of hell in his poem Divine Comedy: Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.
Nature knows how to make black holes over a staggering range of masses, from star corpses a few times the mass of the Sun to monsters tens of billions of times more massive. That’s like the difference between an apple and the Great Pyramid of Giza.
The fate of anyone falling into a black hole would be a painful "spaghettification," an idea popularized by Stephen Hawking in his book "A Brief History of Time."
Just last year, astronomers published the first-ever picture of a black hole(opens in new tab) and its event horizon, a 7-billion-solar-mass beast at the center of the M87 elliptical galaxy.
It’s over a thousand times bigger than the black hole in our galaxy, whose discoverers snagged this year's Nobel Prize. These black holes are dark most of the time, but when their gravity pulls in nearby stars and gas, they flare into intense activity and pump out a huge amount of radiation. Massive black holes are dangerous in two ways. If you get too close, the enormous gravity will suck you in. And if they are in their active quasar phase, you’ll be blasted by high-energy radiation.
How bright is a quasar? Imagine hovering over a large city like Los Angeles at night. The roughly 100 million lights from cars, houses and streets in the city correspond to the stars in a galaxy. In this analogy, the black hole in its active state is like a light source 1 inch in diameter in downtown LA that outshines the city by a factor of hundreds or thousands. Quasars are the brightest objects in the universe.
The biggest black hole discovered so far weighs in at 40 billion times the mass of the Sun, or 20 times the size of the solar system. Whereas the outer planets in our solar system orbit once in 250 years, this much more massive object spins once every three months. Its outer edge moves at half the speed of light. Like all black holes, the huge ones are shielded from view by an event horizon. At their centers is a singularity, a point in space where the density is infinite.(opens in new tab) We can’t understand the interior of a black hole because the laws of physics break down. Time freezes at the event horizon and gravity becomes infinite at the singularity.
The good news about massive black holes is that you could survive falling into one. Although their gravity is stronger, the stretching force is weaker than it would be with a small black hole and it would not kill you. The bad news is that the event horizon marks the edge of the abyss. Nothing can escape from inside the event horizon, so you could not escape or report on your experience.
According to Stephen Hawking, black holes are slowly evaporating. In the far future of the universe, long after all stars have died and galaxies have been wrenched from view by the accelerating cosmic expansion, black holes will be the last surviving objects.
The most massive black holes will take an unimaginable number of years to evaporate, estimated at 10 to the 100th power, or 10 with 100 zeroes after it. The scariest objects in the universe are almost eternal.
This article is republished from The Conversation(opens in new tab) under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article(opens in new tab).
Follow all of the Expert Voices issues and debates — and become part of the discussion — on Facebook and Twitter. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. This version of the article was originally published on Live Science.
James Webb-telescoop legt prachtige beelden vast van de
James Webb-telescoop legt prachtige beelden vast van de "Zuilen van de Schepping”
Voor ruimtefanaten is het een bekend beeld: “De Zuilen van de Schepping”. Het is een van de mooiste bezienswaardigheden in de kosmos en nu heeft de nieuwe superruimtetelescoop James Webb hem opnieuw bezocht.
Wat je ziet op de beelden zijn dichte wolken van waterstofgas en stof in het sterrenbeeld Serpens, op zo’n 6.500 lichtjaar van de aarde. De Hubble-telescoop fotografeerde deze ruimtepracht al in 1995 en 2014.
James Webb kan met zijn infrarood detectoren veel van de lichtverstrooiende effecten van het stof van de pilaren negeren om de activiteit van de pasgeboren sterren te onderzoeken. “Ik bestudeer de Adelaarsnevel al sinds het midden van de jaren negentig. Ik wist dat gewoon dat de beelden van James Webb verbluffend zouden zijn. En dat zijn ze ook”, vertelde professor Mark McCaughrean, senior adviseur voor wetenschap bij het Europees Ruimteagentschap, aan BBC News.
De pilaren worden verlicht en gebeeldhouwd door het intense ultraviolette licht van massieve nabije sterren. Als je jezelf vandaag op magische wijze naar deze locatie zou kunnen verplaatsen, zouden de pilaren er hoogstwaarschijnlijk niet meer staan. We zien ze alleen omdat we naar ze kijken in het verleden. Het licht dat Webb ziet, heeft er 6.500 jaar over gedaan om de spiegels te bereiken.
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NASA’s Webb Takes Star-Filled Portrait of Pillars of Creation
NASA’s Webb Takes Star-Filled Portrait of Pillars of Creation
The Pillars of Creation are set off in a kaleidoscope of color in NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s near-infrared-light view. The pillars look like arches and spires rising out of a desert landscape, but are filled with semi-transparent gas and dust, and ever changing. This is a region where young stars are forming – or have barely burst from their dusty cocoons as they continue to form.
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Anton M. Koekemoer (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI).
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured a lush, highly detailed landscape – the iconic Pillars of Creation – where new stars are forming within dense clouds of gas and dust. The three-dimensional pillars look like majestic rock formations, but are far more permeable. These columns are made up of cool interstellar gas and dust that appear – at times – semi-transparent in near-infrared light.
Webb’s new view of the Pillars of Creation, which were first made famous when imaged by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope in 1995, will help researchers revamp their models of star formation by identifying far more precise counts of newly formed stars, along with the quantities of gas and dust in the region. Over time, they will begin to build a clearer understanding of how stars form and burst out of these dusty clouds over millions of years.
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope made the Pillars of Creation famous with its first image in 1995, but revisited the scene in 2014 to reveal a sharper, wider view in visible light, shown above at left. A new, near-infrared-light view from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, at right, helps us peer through more of the dust in this star-forming region. The thick, dusty brown pillars are no longer as opaque and many more red stars that are still forming come into view.
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Anton M. Koekemoer (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI).
Newly formed stars are the scene-stealers in this image from Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam). These are the bright red orbs that typically have diffraction spikes and lie outside one of the dusty pillars. When knots with sufficient mass form within the pillars of gas and dust, they begin to collapse under their own gravity, slowly heat up, and eventually form new stars.
What about those wavy lines that look like lava at the edges of some pillars? These are ejections from stars that are still forming within the gas and dust. Young stars periodically shoot out supersonic jets that collide with clouds of material, like these thick pillars. This sometimes also results in bow shocks, which can form wavy patterns like a boat does as it moves through water. The crimson glow comes from the energetic hydrogen molecules that result from jets and shocks. This is evident in the second and third pillars from the top – the NIRCam image is practically pulsing with their activity. These young stars are estimated to be only a few hundred thousand years old.
Although it may appear that near-infrared light has allowed Webb to “pierce through” the clouds to reveal great cosmic distances beyond the pillars, there are no galaxies in this view. Instead, a mix of translucent gas and dust known as the interstellar medium in the densest part of our Milky Way galaxy’s disk blocks our view of the deeper universe.
This scene was first imaged by Hubble in 1995 and revisited in 2014, but many other observatories have also stared deeply at this region. Each advanced instrument offers researchers new details about this region, which is practically overflowing with stars.
This tightly cropped image is set within the vast Eagle Nebula, which lies 6,500 light-years away.
Take a video tour of Webb’s near-infrared light view of the Pillars of Creation. Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Anton M. Koekemoer (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI); Danielle Kirshenblat (STScI).
The James Webb Space Telescope is the world's premier space science observatory. Webb will solve mysteries in our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).
Media Contacts:
Laura Betz Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. 301-286-9030 laura.e.betz@nasa.gov
Christine Pulliam Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md. 410-338-4366 cpulliam@stsci.edu
Meet the first Neanderthal FAMILY! 59,000-year-old remains of individuals discovered in a cave in Russia are confirmed to be a father, his teenage daughter and two second-degree relatives
Meet the first Neanderthal FAMILY! 59,000-year-old remains of individuals discovered in a cave in Russia are confirmed to be a father, his teenage daughter and two second-degree relatives
Remains of a family of Neanderthals have been identified in a Siberian cave
This included a father, teenage daughter and a pair of second-degree relatives
The communities living in the caves were found to have low genetic diversity
They were also primarily linked by female migration between the groups
Remains of the first ever family of Neanderthals have been discovered in a cave in southern Siberia, Russia.
Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany analysed the DNA of 13 individuals from two caves in the Altai Mountains.
Individuals from the Chagyrskaya cave, who date back around 59,000 years, were found to be closely related, including a father and his teenage daughter, along with a pair of second-degree relatives.
This is the first known description of social organisation of a small community of Neanderthals.
First author Laurits Skov said: 'The fact that they were living at the same time is very exciting. This means that they likely came from the same social community.
'So, for the first time, we can use genetics to study the social organisation of a Neanderthal community.'
Remains of the first ever family of Neanderthals have been discovered in a cave in southern Siberia, Russia. Pictured: artist's interpretation of a Neanderthal father and his daughter
For the study, Dr Laurits Skov and colleagues obtained and analysed genetic data from the 17 remains of 11 Neanderthal individuals from Chagyrskaya Cave and two from Okladnikov Cave. Pictured: The remains from Okladnikov Cave discussed in this study
Relationships of the Chagyrskaya and Okladnikov remains. Each circle/square represents an individual (blue for Chagyrskaya, orange for Okladnikov). Squares indicate that the individual is male and circles indicate that the individual is female
THE CHAGYRSKAYA AND OKLADNIKOV NEANDERTHALS
Neanderthals briefly occupied the Chagyrskaya and Okladnikov caves around 54,000 years ago.
They hunted animals that migrated through the nearby river valleys, using tools made from stones that were collected dozens of miles away.
Evidence has been found of a Neanderthal family who lived in the communities, comprising of a father and his teenage daughter, as well as a pair of second degree relatives.
Short lived genetic variants that are shared between individuals suggest they all lived and died around the same time.
Genetic diversity was very low within the group, and evidence suggests that different communities were primarily linked by female migration.
Neanderthals occupied western Eurasia from around 430,000 to 40,000 years ago and are closely related to modern humans.
The species lived in Africa with early humans for millennia before moving across to Europe around 300,000 years ago.
They were later joined by humans, who entered Eurasia around 48,000 years ago.
Southern Siberia has previously been very fruitful for ancient DNA research, and is the location of the Denisova Cave, where Denisovan hominin remains were found.
Denisovans are another population of early humans who lived in Asia at least 80,000 years ago and were distantly related to Neanderthals.
The new study looked at remains found in the Chagyrskaya Cave and Okladnikov Cave, both about 60 miles (100 kilometres) away from the Denisova Cave.
Neanderthals briefly occupied these sites around 54,000 years ago, leaving several hundred thousand stone tools and animal bones.
They hunted ibex, horses, bison and other animals that migrated through the nearby river valleys, and collected raw materials for their tools from dozens of miles away.
More than 80 bone and tooth fragments of Neanderthals have also been collected, which revealed that groups inhabiting the Chagyrskaya and Okladnikov caves were closely linked.
The new study looks at remains from the Chagyrskaya Cave (left) and Okladnikov Cave (right), both about 100 kilometres away from the Denisova Cave in Siberia, Russia
Locations of all of the sites with Neanderthal remains from whom nuclear DNA has been extracted, with a close-up of the Chagyrskaya and Okladnikov caves in the Altai region of Siberia. The number of individuals is given in parentheses for sites with multiple individuals
Neanderthals briefly occupied the Chagyrskaya and Okladnikov caves around 54,000 years ago, leaving several hundred thousand stone tools (pictured) and animal bones
Since the first Neanderthal draft genome was published in 2010, researchers from the German institution have sequenced a further 18 genomes from 14 different archaeological sites in Eurasia.
While this genetic data provided insights into the broader history of the ancient people, little was revealed about individual communities.
For the study, published today in Nature, Dr Skov and colleagues obtained and analysed genetic data from the remains of 11 Neanderthal individuals from Chagyrskaya Cave and two from Okladnikov Cave.
It is the largest known genetic study of Neanderthals reported to date.
These 13 people were seven men and six women, of which eight were adults and five were children and young adolescents.
This included a Neanderthal father and his teenage daughter, as well as a pair of second degree relatives: a young boy and an adult female.
These two could be cousins, aunt and nephew or grandmother and grandson.
The researchers also looked at the DNA within the Neanderthals' mitochondria, and found special kinds of genetic variants called 'heteroplasmies' shared between individuals.
These are passed through the female line and only persist for a small number of generations, suggesting that they all lived and died at around the same time.
More than 80 bone and tooth fragments of Neanderthals have been collected from the Chagyrskaya and Okladnikov caves. Pictured: Dental (left) and other (right) remains from the Chagyrskaya Cave used in this study
Genetic diversity of the Neanderthals is much lower than those recorded for any ancient or present-day human community, and is more similar to that of a group of endangered animals that are the last of their species. Pictured: Average proportion of the genome that inherited the same versions of a genomic marker from each parent (homozygosity) for Chagyrskaya Neanderthals (blue), early modern humans (orange) and present-day gorilla (green) and human populations (coloured according to the geographical region - see colour key)
The mitochondrial DNA also gave an insight into the genetic diversity within the community, which is very low and consistent with a group size of 10 to 20 people.
This is much lower than those recorded for any ancient or present-day human community, and is more similar to that of a group of endangered animals that are the last of their species.
It was also found that the genetic diversity of Y chromosomes, which pass down the male line, was a lot lower than that of the mitochondrial DNA, which is inherited from mothers.
This suggests that the communities were primarily linked by female migration, and that at least 60 per cent of the women moved to join their mates' families while the males stayed put.
Additionally, despite the proximity to Denisova Cave, these migrations do not appear to have involved Denisovans.
No evidence was found of Denisovan gene flow into the Chagyrskaya Neanderthals in the 20,000 years before they lived.
The researchers want future studies to include more individuals from other Neanderthal communities, to see if this social organisation was widespread.
Benjamin Peter, the study's last author, said: 'Our study provides a concrete picture of what a Neanderthal community may have looked like. It makes Neanderthals seem much more human to me.'
A close relative of modern humans, Neanderthals went extinct 40,000 years ago
The Neanderthals were a close human ancestor that mysteriously died out around 40,000 years ago.
The species lived in Africa with early humans for millennia before moving across to Europe around 300,000 years ago.
They were later joined by humans, who entered Eurasia around 48,000 years ago.
The Neanderthals were a cousin species of humans but not a direct ancestor - the two species split from a common ancestor - that perished around 50,000 years ago. Pictured is a Neanderthal museum exhibit
These were the original 'cavemen', historically thought to be dim-witted and brutish compared to modern humans.
In recent years though, and especially over the last decade, it has become increasingly apparent we've been selling Neanderthals short.
A growing body of evidence points to a more sophisticated and multi-talented kind of 'caveman' than anyone thought possible.
It now seems likely that Neanderthals had told, buried their dead, painted and even interbred with humans.
They used body art such as pigments and beads, and they were the very first artists, with Neanderthal cave art (and symbolism) in Spain apparently predating the earliest modern human art by some 20,000 years.
They are thought to have hunted on land and done some fishing. However, they went extinct around 40,000 years ago following the success of Homo sapiens in Europe.
Since the first Neanderthal draft genome was published in 2010, researchers have sequenced a further 18 genomes from 14 different archaeological sites in Eurasia.
Vloten van UFO's verschenen aan tientallen vliegtuigen die de Stille Oceaan overstaken
Vloten van UFO's verschenen aan tientallen vliegtuigen die de Stille Oceaan overstaken
Een onderzoeker heeft in een video de dramatische beelden van de luchtverkeersleiding vrijgegeven van Amerikaanse piloten die vreemde waarnemingen van niet-geïdentificeerde vliegende objecten (UFO's) melden terwijl ze over de Stille Oceaan vlogen.
Ervaren piloten meldden dat ze in augustus en september "felle lichten in langwerpige cirkels" hoog in de lucht zagen bewegen tijdens het vliegen van Japan en Hawaï naar de westkust van de Verenigde Staten . Zelf probeerden ze vanuit hun hutten de groep van drie tot vijf heldere objecten te filmen, die leek te vliegen in het gebied van de lucht waar het sterrenbeeld Grote Beer zich bevindt.
Deze grafiek toont de locatie en data van verschillende gerapporteerde UFO-waarnemingen, voornamelijk in de Stille Oceaan, in augustus en september.
'We hebben hier een paar vliegtuigen die in noordelijke richting vliegen en ze cirkelen, veel hoger dan wij. Enig idee wat ze zijn?'vroeg Mark Hulsey, een piloot die een Gulfstream-chartervliegtuig bestuurt voor de kust van Los Angeles.
De piloot beschreef dat hij daar "misschien drie vliegtuigen " zag en 23 minuten later belde hij het Air Route Traffic Control Centre (ARTCC) met de mededeling "er zijn er nu zo'n zeven" en schatte dat ze "ten minste 5 of 10.000 voet boven de grond waren". ." boven ons."
Deze afbeelding toont de helderheid van de UFO in vergelijking met de drie sterren (binnen rode cirkels).
Gevraagd door de controller om meer details, voegde Hulsey eraan toe: " Ze blijven maar in cirkels draaien ." "Ik was een F-18-piloot bij het Korps Mariniers en ik zeg je dat ik veel onderscheppingen heb gedaan, ik heb nog nooit zoiets gezien", vertelde hij aan verslaggevers.
Chris Van Voorhis, 63, vertelde dat hij tussen de drie en vijf objecten zag, veel helderder dan de sterren om hem heen, vervagend zonder waarneembaar patroon en bewegend in een cirkelvormige "racebaan" -beweging terwijl hij in augustus van Honolulu naar Los Angeles vloog.
De ervaren piloot zei dat de objecten zich in een baan om de aarde of zelfs verder in de ruimte leken te bevinden , gezien hun voortdurende positie nabij het sterrenbeeld Ursa Major terwijl ze urenlang over de oceaan vlogen.
"De andere luchtvaartmaatschappijen zeiden: "Hé, zie je wat wij zien?" , herinnerde de ervaren piloot zich. "Het waren lichten die heel intens aangingen, je zag ze bewegen en toen gingen ze uit" en hij verduidelijkte dat het geen satellieten konden zijn omdat ze lineair en in dezelfde richting zouden bewegen.
Ervaren piloten meldden dat ze urenlang "felle lichten in langwerpige cirkels" hoog in de lucht zagen bewegen terwijl ze routes van Japan en Hawaï naar de Amerikaanse westkust vlogen.
"Het moest in een zeer, zeer hoge baan om de aarde zijn, of zelfs in de ruimte, vrij ver van alles wat een satelliet zou kunnen zijn, want elke keer dat we het zagen, bevond het zich in de rechter benedenhoek van de Grote Beer, wat er ook gebeurde. deel van de wereld waarin we ons bevonden. Het duurde zo lang dat het eigenlijk bijna saai werd."
Van Voorhis zei dat UFO-waarnemingen heel gewoon zijn onder piloten: "Van mijn pilootvrienden heeft minstens 50% een of andere anomalie gezien", zei hij.
Ben Hansen, een voormalig FBI-agent en presentator van het Discovery+ -kanaal " UFO Witness "-programma, verzamelde tussen 6 augustus en 23 september accounts van piloten van meer dan 15 commerciële vluchten voor Southwest Airlines , Hawaiian Airlines en anderen . dezelfde lichten aan de hemel als Van Voorhis.
"Veel van deze piloten hebben er alle vertrouwen in dat de lichten niet slechts in één richting gingen, maar in beide richtingen, wat zeer ongebruikelijk is voor satellieten. In het geval van Hulsey zouden ze uit het noorden komen en dan over hun schip gaan, waar hij moest zijn nek uitstrekken om ze vanaf het bladerdak te kunnen zien," zei hij.
Piloot Chris Van Voorhis vertelde dat hij tussen de drie en vijf UFO's zag, veel helderder dan de omringende sterren, vervagend zonder waarneembaar patroon en bewegend in een cirkelvormige "racebaan" -beweging, terwijl hij in augustus van Honolulu naar Los Angeles vloog.
"In dit geval hebben we een wereldwijd fenomeen van West-Japan tot Oost-Miami. Wat het ook is, piloten zien het vanaf de andere kant van de wereld," zei hij.
Maar Hansen zei dat er momenteel geen goede procedure is voor het melden van dergelijke waarnemingen, zelfs niet van vreemde objecten die een veiligheidsrisico kunnen vormen voor commerciële luchtvaartmaatschappijen.
"Racetrack UAPs" Reported by Dozens of Pilots and Commercial Flights
"Racetrack UAPs" Reported by Dozens of Pilots and Commercial Flights
A series of strange UFO incidents over the Pacific Ocean this summer were captured on video and in air traffic control recordings after sightings by dozens of pilots.
The incidents were reported to the FAA, and a researcher obtained dramatic audio of the pilots calling in the strange sightings to Los Angeles Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC), reports dailymail.
UAPs/UFOs now dubbed the "Racetrack UAPs" have now been reported by dozens of pilots from upwards of 15 different commercial flights in August and September, 2022 from off the coast of Japan to the mid-western U.S.
We provide a detailed breakdown of the intensely bright UFOs that are described as revolving in a circular pattern. New videos from Hawaiian Airlines flights, Southwest Airlines, and a private Gulfstream 650 flight are presented and different theories are discussed.
Video below: For those only wanting to see the newly released videos and analysis, forward to 14:00 minutes to see the Hawaiian Airlines video and 32:34 to see the Southwest Airlines video.
Video below: These are excerpts from radio communications between airline pilots and the Los Angeles Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) in the early morning hours of August 18, 2022. A Gulfstream 650 and an American Airlines flight both reported witnessing UAPs while overflying the Catalina and Channel Islands area.
The court of Sondrio is ready to make history. For the first time in a criminal trial, UFOs have been addressed. A story that is unbelievable occurred in Chiesa in Valmalenco, where the clash between a commander of the Carabinieri and his superiors has been going on for years. Thousands of euros were spent on an alleged fraud against the state for a total of 80 euros. And, to top it off, UFOs are at the center of the dispute.
For the first time in a criminal trial, UFOs have been addressed. A story that is unbelievable occurred in Chiesa in Valmalenco, where the clash between a commander of the Carabinieri and his superiors has been going on for years.
The commander of the Carabinieri reports everything and reports that he witnessed the events. Over the years, the reports multiply. The authority continues to record all events, sending - as per procedure - reports to the relevant provincial Company Command and the Ministry of Defense.
In 2019 the case broke out: the superiors instructed him not to send reports of unidentified flying objects and non-human but intelligent beings anymore and to silence him, his superiors charged him with fraud and defamation, but In Sondrio, the UFOs are about to enter the courtroom because the judge would have admitted as evidence a dossier on the series of sightings of unidentified objects in the period in which Alessandro Di Roio was operating in Chiesa in Valmalenco with as a result that the commander of the Carabinieri won the trial.
Amazing UFO sighting filmed over Medellin, Colombia – October 2022
Amazing UFO sighting filmed over Medellin, Colombia – October 2022
Check out this interesting UAP sighting footage of stationary object hovering in the daytime sky above Medellín, the capital of Colombia’s mountainous Antioquia province.
What do you think about this footage? Please leave your comment below!
Author’s report:
A friend of mine captured this object in the skies above Medellin. Said it was stationary and rocking back and forth. There was a red glow underneath. It remained stationary. He said it was one solid object and rotated upside down. Definitely not a hang glider. It remained stationary and tilted against the wind. I’ve seen hanggliders in Medellin, I don’t think this is that.
This white cylindrical shaped unidentified flying object was seen and recorded in the daytime sky above Syracuse in New York on 28th August 2022.
Witness report:
“Tic toc” shaped flying object spotted over my back yard in Syracuse, NY. 10:12 AM 8/28/22. No sound, no exhaust. We have an airport 2 miles away so I see planes flying low and the drones out of Hancock air base all the time. I watched it for about 10 seconds before I grabbed my phone to film it. It was too strange not to. Straight line cruising pretty fast.
UFO "Orb" Sighted Making Manoeuvres Over Palm Desert, California. October 9, 2022
Witness stated the following: "I am a film and TV director and recording artist. When I saw the object, I started filming with an iPhone. I was talking to someone on the phone when I witnessed the event. The object moved away from the moon, ascended, then descended making right and left turns, and seem to go straight towards the moon then quickly turned and moved away from it. I lost it after a couple of minutes due to it disappearing behind some high cloud coverage."
Source:MUFON Case Number: 125794
Bright UFO appears to interfere or jam the Witness Recording, Costa Rica, Nov 2021
Video shared on Reddit by lakecote1971, recorded on November 27, 2021 in San Jose, Costa Rica. Andrea Vargas from Desamparados, San Jose, Costa Rica says her phone was permanently damaged with that buzzing sound. She claimed the object somehow tried to jam her device.
Let Talk About UFOs And More & Our Special Guest: Third Phase Of Moon
We will be taking look at some some UFO footages and chilling with Third Phase Of Moon so grab them if you got'em because you never know who may join me.
UFOs: Hard Evidence Vol. 1 UFO Documentary Series
UFO Hard evidence is a six-part series that examines the UFO phenomenon and the mounting evidence that suggests there is something very real behind claims of UFO sightings and alien abduction, despite the continued denials by governments around the world.
This first episode explores sightings of triangular UFOs, which began to be seen increasingly in the late-1980s and throughout the 1990s, as well as some of the most intriguing UFO sightings captured on film.
The Belgian Wave – including documents that show all of the US intelligence agencies were kept completely up to date on the events as they happened, as well as radar confirmation from the Belgian air force of an object traveling faster than any human pilot could survive.
It also features UFO Researcher, Nick Pope, speaking of a particularly intriguing UFO sighting in March 1993, as well as an in-depth look at the midair UFO encounter of Malcolm Smith in June 1997. Another intriguing encounter that is explored here is a close sighting of a triangular UFO in Yorkshire in January 1998, including extensive interviews with the witnesses.
Perhaps most interesting of all is an in-depth interview with UFO investigator, Tony Dodd, who shares his experiences of huge triangular aircraft, including an incident involving alien occupants being witnessed emerging from one of these mysterious vehicles, as well as just some of the alien abduction cases, he has investigated.
Russell Callahan has studied UFO images for years, and he speaks about some of the most intriguing images of potential vehicles from another world, the methods he uses to analyze them, and finally examine what appears to be a UFO exploding over New Mexico in January 1998.
A series of episodes from the UFOs: Hard Evidence series by Graham W Birdsall of the now defunct UK publication, UFO Magazine originally produced for Quest Publications and edited by Russel Callaghan. Originally released in 1998.
This episode of UFO Hard Evidence looks at some of the most mind-blowing sightings and disturbing encounters on record, as well as interviews with various people from UFO circles.
It begins by examining multiple sightings of strange, mysterious lights over the north of England on the evening of 2nd February 1998, one of which was captured on footage by one of the witnesses. The sightings are one of the most intriguing if little known on record, known as the Pennine Lights incident.
This episode also visits the town of Laughlin in Nevada which hosts the annual International UFO Congress and Film Convention which not only offers lectures from dozens of experts around the world but the chance for attendees to view collectible merchandise and memorabilia of ufology.
Jaime Maussan also explores a video of a UFO from early 1998 that he was sent by an anonymous person to analyze, a piece of footage that is certainly intriguing and shows a distinct disc-shaped object and would appear to be very credible. Furthermore, several other witnesses later came forward to claim they had witnessed the object also. Even more disturbing, according to Maussan, many of those witnesses would later become extremely sick.
There are also brief interviews with researchers and investigators Yvonne Smith and James Courant, as well as a more in-depth discussion with former US soldier, John Vasquez, who speaks about an alleged mass abduction case from 1977, referred to as the Fort Bennington incident.
Meteor Crater is also explored, a place that the Apollo astronauts used as training to hone their skills before embarking on their respective moon landing missions. The subject of reverse-engineered alien technology is examined as the team visit Area 51. Photo expert, Russell Callahan examines and analyzes some of the controversial images and footage in history, those by George Adamski, and the conclusions are perhaps not what many would expect.
UFO researcher and author, Timothy Good also speaks in-depth about his book Alien Base, as well as the apparent disclosure of information from Peter Horsley, who claims to have met an alien at a house in London.
A series of episodes from the UFOs: Hard Evidence series by Graham W Birdsall of the now defunct UK publication, UFO Magazine originally produced for Quest Publications and edited by Russel Callaghan. Originally released in 1998.
Everyone Knows the Mask of King Tut, but Have You Seen Any of the 5,000 Other Treasures from His Tomb?
Everyone Knows the Mask of King Tut, but Have You Seen Any of the 5,000 Other Treasures from His Tomb?
To his subjects, King Tutankhamenwas part man, part god. His death in 1323 BC signaled the end of an era - the end of Egypt as an imperial power. The circumstances surrounding King Tut’s death are shrouded in mystery. Equally obscure is the reason for his unusually small tomb. And yet, thanks to Howard Carter’s discovery nearly 3,000 years later, there is no Pharaoh more well-known and well-loved than King Tut. Inside the tomb, Carter discovered glorious treasures that had lain undisturbed for thousands of years. For a culture that believed being remembered was the path to eternal life, the preservation of King Tut’s tomb has ensured that his nameless and forgotten enemies failed miserably.
An Astonishing Array of Grave Goods and The Most Intact Royal Tomb Ever Found
Tutankhamen died of unknown causes in 1323 BC at the age of 20. He did not have a clear successor but the tiny mummies of two stillborn daughters, possibly twins were found in his tomb. Due to his sudden and unexpected death, the burial was hastily prepared in a somewhat less-than-grand tomb, measuring only “3.68 m or 12.07 feet high, 7.86 m or 25.78 feet wide and 30.79 m or 101.01 feet long” (History Embalmed, 2016).
For political reasons, the boy-king was to be forgotten and his name never mentioned for the rest of eternity, a fate worse than death for the ancient Egyptians. Yet by a strange stroke of luck, Tut’s obscurity preserved his tomb from grave robbers. Then, “discovered by archaeologist Howard Carter in 1922, the tomb of King Tut yielded an astonishing array of grave goods—more than 5,000 artifacts, many of them in pristine condition. It was the most intact royal tomb ever found, providing Egyptologists with an unprecedented glimpse into the material life of a king who ruled during the 14th century B.C.” (Hessler, 2016).
It took Howard Carter 10 years to clear and catalog all the riches stored in the tomb. Most spectacular of all was the golden sarcophagus of Tutankhamen and the inlaid coffins, including one made of solid gold. Inside this nesting-doll-like assembly, rested the mummified body of the boy-King. His death mask, also made of gold, has become the symbol of ancient Egyptian finery and is considered one of the greatest works of art of the ancient world. It was Carter himself who, on October 28, 1925, lifted the heavy lid of the sarcophagus to look upon a wonder that had not been seen in 3,250 years.
“The pins removed the lid was raised. The penultimate scene was disclosed - a very neatly wrapped mummy of the young king, with a golden mask of sad but tranquil expression, symbolizing Osiris. The similitude of the youthful Tut.Ankh.Amen, until now known only by name, amid that sepulchral silence, made us realize the past. By this bespangled mummy as it lies in the coffin, he must have been a tall youth - from the top of the headdress of the mask to the feet it measures 6 feet. Attached to the throat of the golden mask, beautifully wrought with juvenile countenance, are three massive gold & faience necklaces, a pendent heart-scarab placed between the hands, crossed over the breast, which hold the flail and the crook. Below this mask, which reaches as far as the hands, is the linen covering and outer bandages, strapped in place by broad longitudinal and transverse flexible bands of inlaid gold work depending from a highly decorative incrusted gold protective figure of Nekhbet. She has full spread wings reached across the body and a human head.” (Carter, 1925).
Detail of the iconic Golden Mask of Pharaoh Tutankhamun.
In addition to the sarcophagus, the tomb contained many wonders to behold. Yet the treasures were in a great deal of disorder, perhaps because of the untimely death of the Pharaoh, everything was placed helter-skelter, seemingly without logic. There were six disassembled chariots and all manner of weapons, shields, and daggers – King Tutankhamen is said to have loved the hunt. There was also a wide array of furniture, much of it covered in gold: two royal thrones, couches, chairs, ritual beds, and headrests. There were chests containing priceless pieces of jewelry and beautiful clothing made of fine linen. There were jars containing rare perfumes, precious oils, and ointments. There were elaborate shrines to the gods, including one which hosted the Canopic jars that stored King Tut’s preserved internal organs. There were musical instruments and writing implements, lamps, ostrich fans, and board games. There was food and as many as 30 bottles of wine. There were also “139 ebony, ivory, silver, and gold walking sticks” (History Embalmed, 2016). In short, every conceivable thing a young king may need in the next life could be found surrounding his body and sealed shut for eternity in the tomb. Outside it all stood a magnificent life-size, gilded statue of the god Anubis, believed to be the lord of the underworld and protector of the dead.
Because of this discovery, Tutankhamen is one of the best-known Egyptian kings. His name is referenced is TV shows, movies, and video games ranging from the Three Stooges to Transformers. And thus, despite his enemies, King Tut has achieved eternal life.
Recently, Egyptologists have been reinvestigating Tutankhamen’s tomb. Experts believe that his small, seemingly second-rate burial may, in fact, have been a decoy to distract grave robbers from the real prize. “Radar scans on those walls [of Tut’s tomb] have revealed not only the presence of hidden chambers, but also unidentified objects that lie within these rooms. These objects…seem to be composed of both metal and organic materials” (Hessler, 2016).
The most popular theory? Concealed behind Tut’s tomb could be the long lost burial chamber of the magnificent Queen Nefertiti.
Top image: Golden treasures that were found inside Tutankhamun’s tomb. ( Talking Beautiful Stuff )
The ATV-4 is just visible as it passes into Earth's terminator.
Credit: NASA TV.
As the ages pass the Moon slowly drifts away from the Earth. In conjunction the length of our day gradually gets longer. For the first time astronomers have been able to estimate the length of the day and the distance to the Moon as it was almost two and a half billion years ago. Back then, our day was only 17 hours long.
As the Moon orbits the Earth it raises tides. These bulges stretch in the direction of the Moon and on the opposite side of the Earth. But the Earth is also spinning, and that rotation brings the bulge of the tide forward with respect to the current position of the Moon. This lump gives an extra gravitational tug to the Moon, like an invisible leash pulling on our satellite. That gravitational tug boosts the Moon into a more distant orbit.
But the energy to boost to that orbit has to come from somewhere, and it comes from the rotation of the Earth. In the distant past our day was much shorter as the Earth spun much faster on its axis. But with every day that passes, it gets longer and longer.
Astronomers have known about this for quite some time and have used geologic records to estimate the length of the day in the past. But there’s a limit to what those records can tell us. New research has turned to a different kind of geologic record to estimate the length of the day.
The researchers studied banded iron formations in sedimentary rocks in Western Australia. In these kinds of formations, iron-rich layers alternate with more clay-like layers. The shape of these patterns is determined by the Earth’s climate. The Earth’s climate goes through several different variations, including one called the Milankovitch cycle, which is determined by the Earth’s orbit and the length of the Earth’s day.
The scientists were able to reconstruct the length of the Earth’s day at the time these formations were laid, 2.46 billion years ago. They found that at the time the dat lasted only 17 hours, much shorter than the current 24.
The current distance to the Moon gives us the very special phenomenon of total solar eclipses. This can only be possible if the apparent size of the Sun and the Moon are the same on our sky. While that’s true for now, in a few hundred million years the Moon will be too far away, and it will be too small to give us total solar eclipses. So enjoy them while they last.
Artistic rendition of the Chicxulub impactor striking ancient Earth, with Pterosaur observing. Could pieces of the same impact swarm have hit the Moon, too?
Credit: NASA
For decades, scientists have theorized that a massive impact caused the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event. This event occurred about 66 million years ago and caused the mass extinction of about 75% of all plant and animal species on Earth (including the non-avian dinosaurs). With the discovery of the massive Chicxulub crater in the Yucatan Peninsula (southern Mexico) in the 1970s, scientists concluded that they’d found the impact responsible. Based on all the available data, the Chicxulub Impact event is believed to have been as powerful as 100,000 billion metric tons (110,231 U.S tons) of TNT.
This blast was more powerful than all the nuclear devices in the world combined and sent an estimated 25 trillion metric tons (~27.5 US tons) of hot dust, ash, and steam into the atmosphere, creating a global winter. But according to new research led by the University of Michigan, an international team of geologists has determined that the impact also created a global tsunami. According to their findings, this tsunami was 30,000 times more powerful than the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, one of the largest and most devastating tsunamis on record.
The maximum sea surface perturbation heights of the global tsunami. Credit: Range, M. (et al.)/AGU Advances
To recap, evidence of the Chicxulub Impact is traced to the crater buried beneath the Yucatan Peninsula of southern Mexico. The crater measures 180 km (110 mi) in diameter and 20 km (12 mi) in depth and is centered offshore near the community of Chicxulub (from which it takes its name). Based on the crater’s dimensions, scientists estimate that the meteor that caused it measured about 14 km (8.7 mi) in diameter. Evidence of the impact is also found in the geological record in the form of deposits of iridium and other impact ejecta that were globally distributed.
This led to the scientific consensus that the impact that led to the Chicxulub crater was responsible for the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction and possibly the volcanic activity that created the Deccan flood basalt in India. For the sake of their study, Range and her colleagues sought to determine the effects this impact had on the world’s oceans, from the initial moment of contact to the point where it became a global tsunami. To do this, the team created the first global simulation of this impact using hydrocode (which models fluid systems in 3D) and a shallow-water ocean model.
As study co-author Brian Arbic – a researcher with the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), the IGE, and LEGO – told Universe Today via email, the simulation involved three steps. In the first step, the hydrocode was run by co-author Brandon Johnson (Purdue University) and simulated the first ten minutes of the impact. During this time, explained Arbic, the effects were nothing short of cataclysmic:
“[M]aterial from the asteroid, the underlying bedrock of the Earth, sediment, and ocean was displaced tens of kilometers above the atmosphere and (in the other direction) tens of kilometers below the Earth’s surface – in other words, a great big hole was dug out of the Earth. A massive crater was created by this impact, as well as an outward propagating “rim wave”. Most of the energy in the tsunami is due to the rim wave, but there is also a significant secondary effect due to water rushing back into the crater that the impact created.”
The maximum flow velocity of the global tsunami at each grid cell (b).
Credit: Range, M. (et al.)/AGU Advances
The second step was performed by Range as part of her Master’s Thesis at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. This consisted of putting the output of the hydrocode into two global shallow-water tsunami propagation models. These included the Modular Ocean Model 6 (MOM6), developed by co-author Alistair J. Adcroft (a research oceanographer from Princeton University), and the Method of Splitting Tsunami (MOST) developed by co-author Vasily Titov – a senior tsunami modeler at the NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Lab.
“Vasily simulated the tsunami with MOST, and the results are fairly similar to those obtained with MOM6,” said Arbic. “Obtaining similar results from two different models gave us more confidence in our results. We will examine differences between shallow-water models and other models in future work.”
The third step consisted of co-author Ted Moore – a Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor – examining the geological record of the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary for signs of sediment erosion. This revealed that more erosion occurred in the North Atlantic and South Pacific basins than in the South Atlantic and North Pacific. In short, the geological record shows that the seafloor in these regions was eroded and scoured more aggressively, with flow velocities of about 100 meters per second (360 km/h; 224 mph).
Moreover, the model showed that the wavefront propagation velocities, the speed at which waves formed on the surface, were about 200 meters per second (720 km/h; 447 mph). This is consistent with what the team’s model predicted and constitutes the best observational evidence of a global tsunami at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary. Their results also indicate that the Cretaceous-Paleogene tsunami was several orders of magnitude more powerful than any observed in recorded history. As Range described it, the effects of the impact were seen worldwide:
“It was a global impact. The tsunami was seen across the globe in 48 hours. Most coastal regions saw waves hit the coastline. Depending on where you look, wave heights could be from 1 meter to hundreds of meters tall. At ten minutes post-impact, the wave that had formed in the Gulf of Mexico was 1.5 km tall. This tsunami has 30,000 times the energy of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami.”
Plate reconstruction and drill site locations (circled) at the age of the K/Pg boundary, showing continental blocks (gray), and modern continental outlines (red), where the K/Pg tsunami was most violent (green).
Credit: Range, M. (et al.)/AGU
This research provides additional insight into one of the most important events in geological history. In addition, said Range, the research has significant implications for planetary defense:
“The Chicxulub event had many important impacts, which have been previously documented – fires, wild swings of temperature (both very hot and very cold), destruction and eventual resetting of the predominant forms of life on Earth, and more. The tsunami was another important impact, and we plan to continue studying this tsunami and its impacts on the geological record that we can still examine. Impacts from large asteroids and meteors could happen again, which is why NASA recently ran the DART mission to see if they could be deflected.”
This artist’s impression shows an ultra-hot exoplanet as it is about to transit in front of its host star. Using the ESPRESSO instrument of ESO’s Very Large Telescope, astronomers have found the heaviest element yet in an exoplanet's atmosphere, barium, in the two ultra-hot Jupiters WASP-76 b and WASP-121 b.
Image Credit: ESO
Astronomers have spotted barium in the atmosphere of a distant exoplanet. With its 56 protons, you have to run your finger further down the periodic table than astronomers usually do to find barium. What does finding such a heavy element in an exoplanet atmosphere mean?
It means we’re still learning how strange exoplanets can be.
We’ve made a lot of progress in exoplanet science since astronomers discovered the first ones in the mid-1990s; we now know of thousands of them. In 2001, researchers using Hubble data were the first to observe an exoplanet atmosphere, identifying sodium. Some said it was lucky and wouldn’t happen again. Boy, were they wrong.
Now we have the power to characterize exoplanet atmospheres in more detail than ever. One of our most powerful telescopes is the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT.) A new study based on observations with the VLT and its ESPRESSO (Echelle SPectrograph for Rocky Exoplanet and Stable Spectroscopic Observations) instrument presents evidence of barium in the atmosphere of the two ultra-hot gas giants.
WASP-76b and WASP-121b are both ultra-hot Jupiters. WASP-76b has been in the news because of the reported detection of iron in its atmosphere and the possibility that this tidally-locked planet experiences iron rain. Follow-up studies presented other explanations for the data, but the planet is still of great interest to exoplanet scientists.
This illustration of WASP-76b is based on data available in May 2020. As an object of high interest, data keeps coming in. Image Credit: By Trurle – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=89954341
WASP-121b is also noteworthy. It’s the first exoplanet where researchers found water vapour in its stratosphere. Both planets are extremely close to their stars and have orbital periods of less than two days. Both planets orbit stars similar to the Sun, with surface temperatures above 1000 C (1830 F.).
Artist’s concept of the hot Jupiter WASP-121b. A new study finds barium in its atmosphere. Image generated using Engine House VFX. Credit: Bristol Science Centre/University of Exeter
Both of these planets are known for having exotic atmospheres, but the discovery of barium has intensified interest in them. There’s no ready explanation for barium in the upper atmosphere of the planets. “The puzzling and counterintuitive part is: why is there such a heavy element in the upper layers of the atmosphere of these planets?” said lead author Azevedo Silva.
Both Jupiter-sized planets have powerful gravity that should draw heavy elements like barium to their surfaces. But instead, the barium, which is even heavier than iron, is aloft in the upper atmospheres of both planets. “Given the high gravity of the planets, we would expect heavy elements like barium to quickly fall into the lower layers of the atmosphere,” explained co-author Olivier Demangeon, another researcher from the University of Porto and IA.
Barium isn’t up there by itself. These planets’ atmospheres are exotic mixtures of chemicals alien to our atmosphere. The researchers weren’t looking for barium when they found it; they were studying the strange atmospheres as part of their effort to constrain the atmospheric composition and dynamics. They also wanted to lay the “… groundwork for new research regarding their formation and evolution environments,” as they state in their paper.
“This was in a way an ‘accidental’ discovery,” says Azevedo Silva. “We were not expecting or looking for barium in particular and had to cross-check that this was actually coming from the planet since it had never been seen in any exoplanet before.” The team also found vanadium, lithium, manganese, and other elements in the atmospheres. But barium is the heaviest element ever found in an exoplanet atmosphere.
The two planets in the study lend themselves well to atmospheric research. Is finding barium in these atmospheres a signal that we can expect to find them in other ultra-hot Jupiters? Maybe. “Both WASP-76b and WASP-121b represent some of the highest S/N datasets currently available, the presence in both of the studied planets may indicate that this heavy species can be common in the atmospheres of ultra-hot Jupiters,” the paper states.
There’s no barium in Earth’s atmosphere unless we’re watching a fireworks display. How did it get into the upper atmosphere of these planets? “At the moment, we are not sure what the mechanisms are,” explained Demangeon.
The team doesn’t overextend themselves when it comes to those mechanisms. In their paper they write, “The presence of these heavy ionized species at high altitudes in the atmospheres of ultra hot Jupiters may be evidence of unexpected atmospheric dynamics.” Further research will uncover what those dynamics are. Who knows what discoveries are waiting for us in these atmospheres?
Planetary escape may play a role in the detection. Is an unknown mechanism driving heavy elements away? The observations show that the calcium detected on WASP-121b appears to extend beyond the planet’s Roche Lobe. “Finally, we also confirm the clear asymmetric absorption feature of Ca+ on WASP-121b, with an excess absorption at the bluer wavelengths and an effective planet radius beyond the Roche-Lobe, hinting that the signal may arise from planetary atmospheric escape.”
This won’t be the last team of researchers to study these planets. Giant gaseous planets close to their stars present an excellent opportunity to study their atmospheres as their starlight passes through them. And since the orbital period is less than two days, both planets are readily observed with powerful telescopes and instruments. “Being gaseous and hot, their atmospheres are very extended and are thus easier to observe and study than those of smaller or cooler planets,” said Demangeon.
There’s reason for some caution around these results, though. When researchers discovered iron at WASP-76b, and that the iron could possibly fall as rain, people noticed. It isn’t easy to envision a world so different from ours that it can rain iron. But that iron rain discovery was called into question by another study. At this time, scientists aren’t sure if there is iron rain.
Will further research question this barium detection?
While the UK and US are only just out of the 'pandemic phase' for Covid-19, scientists are already looking ahead to the next global health crisis – and say it could be sparked by a microbe locked in a Tibetan glacier.
Researchers from Lanzhou University studied 21 glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau and found evidence of 968 microbes, most of which have never been seen before.
Worryingly, the team also identified more than 25 million protein-coding genes, including some that might influence the ability to cause disease.
'Ice-entrapped modern and ancient pathogenic microbes could lead to local epidemics and even pandemics,' the researchers wrote in their study, published in Nature Biotechnology.
Researchers from Lanzhou University studied 21 glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau and found evidence of 968 microbes, most of which have never been seen before
The researchers sequenced 883 bacterial genomes from cultivated glacier bacteria and 85 metagenomes from 21 Tibetan glaciers covering diverse habitats, including snow (bottom left map), ice (top left map) and cryoconite (top right map)
The Tibetan Plateau
The Tibetan Plateau is a key source of water for some of the world's largest rivers, which means any dangerous microbes could quickly reach a large number of people.
'The Tibetan Plateau, which is known as the water tower of Asia, is the source of several of the world's largest rivers, including the Yangtze, the Yellow River, the Ganges River and Yarlung Tsangpo (Brahmaputra River),' the researchers explained.
'The release of potentially hazardous bacteria could affect the two most populated countries in the world: China and India.'
In the study, the team gathered bacteria and microscopic life forms called archaea from 21 glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau, from 2016-2020.
Using genetic sequencing, the researchers uncovered evidence of 968 microbial species.
Some of the microbes are common, such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which is found in soil and water.
However, the vast majority (82 per cent) were found to bear little genetic similarity to microbes found in other environments.
Eleven per cent of species were only found in one glacier, while 10 per cent were located in almost all the glaciers studied.
The team also uncovered more than 25 million protein-coding genes – including some that might influence the ability to cause disease.
'Here we present the first, to our knowledge, dedicated genome and gene catalogue for glacier ecosystems, comprising 3,241 genomes and metagenome-assembled genomes and 25 million non-redundant proteins from 85 Tibetan glacier metagenomes and 883 cultivated isolates,' the researchers wrote.
The findings suggest that many microbes have evolved to withstand extreme conditions, according to the team.
'The surfaces of glaciers support a diverse array of life, including bacteria, algae, archaea, fungi, and other microeukaryotes,' they explained.
'Microorganisms have demonstrated the ability to adapt to these extreme conditions and contribute to vital ecological processes.
Some of the microbes are common, such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which is found in soil and water. However, the vast majority (82 per cent) were found to bear little genetic similarity to microbes found in other environments
'Glacier ice can also act as a record of microorganisms from the past, with ancient (more than 10,000 years old) airborne microorganisms being successfully revived.
'Therefore, the glacial microbiome also constitutes an invaluable chronology of microbial life on our planet.'
The Tibetan Plateau is a key source of water for some of the world's largest rivers, which means any dangerous microbes could quickly reach a large number of people if released.
'The Tibetan Plateau, which is known as the water tower of Asia, is the source of several of the world's largest rivers, including the Yangtze, the Yellow River, the Ganges River and Yarlung Tsangpo (Brahmaputra River),' the researchers explained.
'The release of potentially hazardous bacteria could affect the two most populated countries in the world: China and India.'
Worryingly, a 2019 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that up to two-thirds of the Tibetan Plateau's remaining glaciers are on track to disappear by the end of the century.
It is expected a third of the ice will be lost in that time - even if global warming is limited 2.7F (1.5C) above pre-industrial levels.
The team hopes the project, which they're calling the 'Tibetan Glacier Genome and Gene' (TG2G) catalogue, will be useful for researchers in the future.
'The TG2G catalog offers a database and a platform for archiving, analysis and comparison of glacier microbiomes at the genome and gene levels. It is particularly timely as the glacier ecosystem is threatened by global warming, and glaciers are retreating at an unprecedented rate,' they concluded.
'We envisage that the catalog will form the basis of a comprehensive global repository for glacial microbiome data.'
A virus particle, or virion, is made up of three parts: a set of genetic instructions, either DNA or RNA; coat of protein that surrounds the DNA or RNA to protect it; a lipid membrane, which surrounds the protein coat.
Unlike human cells or bacteria, viruses don't contain the chemical machinery, called enzymes, needed to carry out the chemical reactions to divide and spread.
They carry only one or two enzymes that decode their genetic instructions, and need a host cell, like bacteria, a plant or animal, in which to live and make more viruses.
When a virus infects a living cell, it hijacks and reprograms the cell to turn it into a virus-producing factory.
Proteins on the virus interact with specific receptors on the target cell.
The virus then inserts its genetic code into the target cell, while the cell's own DNA is degraded.
The target cell is then 'hijacked', it begins using the virus' genetic code as a blueprint to produce more viruses.
The cell eventually bursts open to release the new, intact viruses that then infect other cells and begin the process again.
Once free from the host cell, the new viruses can attack other cells.
Because one virus can reproduce thousands of new viruses, viral infections can spread quickly throughout the body.
Glaciers that are melting amid rising global temperatures could be the cause of the next deathly pandemic, a new study claims.
Scientists investigated how climate change may affect the risk of 'spillover' – a virus jumping to another species – by examining samples from Lake Hazen in the Arctic.
They found that the chance of a spillover event increases with the melting of glaciers, as the meltwater can transport pathogens to new hosts.
Killer viruses that have been frozen in glaciers for hundreds of years could reawaken as temperatures rise and the ice melts and flows to new locations.
Viruses need hosts like humans, animals, plants or fungi to replicate and spread, and occasionally they can jump to a new one that lacks immunity, as seen during the Covid pandemic.
A warming climate could bring viruses in the Arctic into contact with new environments and hosts, increasing the risk of this 'viral spillover', the experts warn.
Researchers in Canada wanted to investigate how climate change might affect the risk of 'viral spillover' by examining samples from the Arctic landscape of Lake Hazen. The experts are pictured at Lake Hazen drilling holes to collect sediment
Lake Hazen, seen from above in this NASA image, is the largest High Arctic freshwater lake in the world
WHAT IS A VIRAL SPILLOVER?
A 'spillover' event describes a virus's jump from one species to another.
An example is the spillover of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid, from a bat or pangolin to a human.
A spillover contrasts with a 'spillback' - a virus going from humans back into wild animals.
The new study was led by researchers at Department of Biology, University of Ottawa in Canada and published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
'Spillover risk increases with runoff from glacier melt, a proxy for climate change,' say the researchers in their paper.
'Should climate change also shift species range of potential viral vectors and reservoirs northwards, the High Arctic could become fertile ground for emerging pandemics.'
In the past years, many viruses such as Influenza A, Ebola and SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes Covid) spilled over to humans and caused 'significant diseases', the study says.
Evidence already suggests SARS-CoV-2 originated in horseshoe bats, although it's likely the virus passed to humans through pangolins, a scaly mammal often confused for a reptile.
Likewise, it's thought the lethal outbreak of the Ebola virus in Western Africa between 2013 and 2016 stemmed from bats.
The researchers focused their study on soil and lake sediments from Lake Hazen, the largest High Arctic freshwater lake in the world.
The team sampled soil that becomes a riverbed for melted glacier water in the summer, as well as the lakebed itself, which required clearing snow and drilling through more than six feet of ice.
They used ropes and a snowmobile to lift the lake sediment through almost 980 feet (300 metres) of water, and samples were then sequenced for DNA and RNA, the genetic blueprints and messengers of life.
'This enabled us to know what viruses are in a given environment, and what potential hosts are also present,' said study leader Stephane Aris-Brosou, an associate professor in the University of Ottawa.
In the past years, many viruses such as Influenza A, Ebola and SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid, spilled over to humans and caused 'significant diseases', the study says. Pictured is a rendering of SARS-CoV-2
WHAT IS GLACIAL RUNOFF?
Glaciers are slowly moving rivers of ice, formed by the accumulation and compaction of snow on mountains or near the poles.
Glacier runoff means all melt and rain water that runs off the glacierized area without refreezing.
Global warming is expected to increase runoff at Lake Hazen in the Arctic, researchers say.
But to find out how likely they were to jump hosts, the team needed to examine the equivalent of each virus and host's family tree.
'Basically what we tried to do is measure how similar these [family] trees are,' said study author Audree Lemieux.
Similar genealogies suggest a virus has evolved along with its host, but differences suggest spillover, and if a virus has jumped hosts once, it is more likely to do so again.
The analysis found pronounced differences between viruses and hosts in the lake bed, which is directly correlated to the risk of spillover.
The difference was less stark in the riverbeds, which the researchers theorise is because water erodes the topsoil, removing organisms and limiting interactions between viruses and potential new hosts.
Those instead wash into the lake, which has seen 'dramatic change' in recent years, as increased water from melting glaciers deposits more sediment.
'That's going to bring together hosts and viruses that would not normally encounter each other,' Lemieux said.
Also, animals and protists were found to be the most susceptible to spillovers, while plants and fungi showed a lower susceptibility to spillovers.
The experts stress that they are neither forecasting an actual spillover nor a pandemic, and that the likelihood of such an event 'remains very low'.
They also warn more work is needed to clarify how big the difference between viruses and hosts needs to be to create serious spillover risk.
Animals and protists are the most susceptible to spillover, while plants and fungi showed a lower susceptibility to spillovers
But they argue that warming weather could increase risks further if new potential hosts move into previously inhospitable regions.
'It could be anything from ticks to mosquitoes to certain animals, to bacteria and viruses themselves,' said Lemieux.
'It's really unpredictable... and the effect of spillover itself is very unpredictable, it can range from benign to an actual pandemic.'
The team now wants more research and surveillance work in the Arctic region to 'mitigate the impact of spillovers' on humans and other species.
'Obviously we've seen in the past two years what the effects of spillover can be,' said Lemieux.
HUMANS HAVE HAVE GIVEN WILD ANIMALS DISEASES NEARLY 100 TIMES IN A REVERSAL OF THE ANIMAL-TO-HUMAN TRANSMISSION OF KILLER DISEASES LIKE COVID AND EBOLA
It's widely believed that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid, was spread from wild animals to humans.
But a 2022 study claims that humans might give viruses to animals more often than previously understood.
Researchers reviewed published evidence of human-to-wildlife transmission events, with a focus on how such events could threaten animal and human health.
They found a total of 97 examples of human-to-wildlife transmissions involving a wide range of pathogens, from M. tuberculosis, measles, influenzas and hepatitis B.
These pathogens likely spread from humans to wild animals in multiple ways, such as wild animals' contact with human sewage.
Affected animals range from the Asian elephant, European hedgehog, rhesus monkey, gibbon, giant panda, harbor seal and many more.
The study refers to 'spillovers' (a virus's jump from another species) and a spillback (a virus going from humans back into wild animals).
Volgende pandemie wordt mogelijk veroorzaakt door smeltende gletsjers, zo waarschuwen wetenschappers
De volgende pandemie zal wellicht niet voortvloeien uit een virus dat afkomstig is van vleermuizen of vogels. Vermoedelijk zullen smeltende gletsjers de grote boosdoener zijn, zo schrijven wetenschappers in het vaktijdschrift Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Het nieuws over ijskappen en gletsjers die zienderogen verdwijnen door de klimaatverandering overspoelt ons. Hoe dat komt kan je hieronder bekijken (zie video). De Zwitserse gletsjers smolten nooit zo snel als in 2022, de smeltende Groenlandse ijskap zal leiden tot een grote zeespiegelstijging en er vielen doden na een gletsjerbreuk in de Dolomieten. Een ander mogelijk gevolg van de smeltende gletsjers zou een nieuwe pandemie kunnen zijn.
Dat zit zo: tal van virussen en bacteriën zitten momenteel ingekapseld in gletsjers en permafrost - bevroren ondergrond die (normaal) nooit helemaal ontdooit. Wetenschappers vermoedden dat, zodra deze toch ontdooien, de oude virussen en bacteriën opnieuw kunnen ‘ontwaken’ en fauna infecteren. Om deze hypothese uit te testen, verzamelden onderzoekers van de University of Ottowa bodemmonsters in de buurt van Lake Hazen in Canada, een zoetwatermeer dat omringd wordt door gletsjers.
Uit deze monsters identificeerden de onderzoekers virussen die sterk gelijken op reeds bekende virussen. Vervolgens bestudeerden ze de lokale fauna en gingen ze op zoek naar potentiële gastheren. Tot slot ging een algoritme aan de slag met de gegevens en berekende het de kans op een echte infectie met een van deze virussen. Wat bleek? De kans dat virussen een nieuwe gastheer infecteren, bleek daadwerkelijk groter te zijn op plaatsen met veel gesmolten gletsjerijs of permafrost.
Uit eerder onderzoek was al gebleken dat gletsjerijs virussen kan bevatten. Opvallend, deze virussen overleven niet ondanks, maar juist dankzij het ijs.
Uitbraak van miltvuur
In 2016 is er in Siberië overigens al sprake geweest van een uitbraak van miltvuur - een ziekte die een steenpuistachtige huidinfectie, longontsteking en een vergrote en ontstoken milt kan veroorzaken. De bacterie die verantwoordelijk is voor deze ziekte zou afkomstig zijn geweest van bevroren permafrost dat via een rendier bij de mens is terechtgekomen. Vermoedelijk heeft het rendier besmet water gedronken, is het dier ziek geworden en heeft het daarna een eerste persoon rechtstreeks of via dierlijke producten besmet.
Bacteriën en virussen
Bacteriën en virussen zijn eigenlijk overal: in de lucht, in voedsel en in water. Bacteriën planten zich daar op zelfstandige basis voort, maar virussen hebben een gastheer nodig. Sommige virussen komen bij deze gastheer terecht via voedsel, water of knaagdieren. Andere virussen doen dat via muggen, de lucht, seks of een aanraking.
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Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 73 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
Op deze blog vind je onder artikels, werk van mezelf. Mijn dank gaat ook naar André, Ingrid, Oliver, Paul, Vincent, Georges Filer en MUFON voor de bijdragen voor de verschillende categorieën...
Veel leesplezier en geef je mening over deze blog.