Tag Archives: Science

Black Holes Set to Collide

Two black holes in Virgo are heading for a “massive collision,” Columbia University astronomer Zoltan Haiman said in a Columbia news release posted on Science Daily. Haiman and his colleagues believe the pair of black holes will collide in about 100,000 years, which is virtually tomorrow in cosmic time. The holes are incredibly large: combined, the size of a billion suns,

The pair of black holes orbiting each other in quasar PG 1302-102, about 3.5 billion light-years away are about a light-week or two apart — less than 200 billion miles. Understanding that a light-year is the distance light travels in a year, what astronomers are seeing in PG 1302-102 actually occurred when life had just emerged on Earth.

Black hole mergers are considered to be the most violent events in the universe. When they finally meet, they converge in a type of “death spiral.” Their merger, the astronomers calculated, could release as much energy as 100 million supernova explosions, mostly in the form of violent ripples in space-time known as gravitational waves that would blow the stars out of that hapless galaxy like leaves off a roof.

Poultry Producers Attempt Genetically Modified Chickens to Fight Bird Flu

A group of poultry producers are working with scientists to create a strain of genetically modified chickens that would be immune to bird flu.

The study is also being supported by funding from the British government.  So far, the scientists have created chickens that show “early promise” for fighting off the disease.

Over 48 million chicken and turkeys have been put down in the US because of bird flu since December.

“The public is obviously aware of these outbreaks when they’re reported and wondering why there’s not more done to control it,” said Laurence Tiley, a senior lecturer in molecular virology at the University of Cambridge who is involved in the experiments, told Reuters.

The chicks in the study, who have been injected with dye to glow in the dark and stand out from non-modified chicks, are showing an initial immunity to the virus and also have been unable to spread the virus to other animals.  The genetic codes of the birds are being changed to trick the virus into reproducing a decoy virus rather than itself.

GMO animals have been a source of concern for the Food and Drug Administration, who have been examining GMO salmon for the last 20 years.  The agency deemed the animals safe for human consumption in 2010 but continue to study them.

Opponents say that like GMO crops the animals would contribute to health and environmental problems.

Scientists Say Odds Good Seattle Will Be Destroyed By Earthquake

A group of scientists say that a long overdue earthquake for the Pacific Northwest will strike in the next 50 years and will completely wipe out the city of Seattle.

A new report in the New Yorker highlights the problems of the Cascadia subduction zone which runs for 700 miles off the coast of the Pacific Northwest from Cape Mendocino, California through Vancouver Island.  The zone is named after the Cascade Range of volcanic mountains that runs much of the same course about 100 miles inland.

The amount of time between quakes averages 243 years and because the last major quake took place in 1700, the fault is 72 years past the average date for a major quake.

Katheryn Schulz of the New Yorker spoke with Kenneth Murphy who oversees FEMA’s Region X which encompasses Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington.  He said that when the “big one” hits…either a partial giving way of the southern part of the zone resulting in an 8.0-8.6 quake or a full-margin rupture between 8.7 and 9.2…there will no longer be a Pacific northwest.

“Our operating assumption is that everything west of Interstate 5 will be toast,” Murphy told the New Yorker.  FEMA estimates say that 13,000 people will die in the quake and resulting tsunami.  At least 27,000 will suffer some kind of major injury.

Cities that are west of Interstate 5 include Seattle, Tacoma, Portland, Eugene and the capitals of Oregon (Salem) and Washington (Olympia).

“This is one time that I’m hoping all the science is wrong, and it won’t happen for another thousand years,” Murphy says.

Chris Goldfinger, a paleoseismologist at Oregon State University and one of the world’s leading experts, says that the chance of the “big one” taking place in the next 50 years is 1 in 3.

Herpes Virus Based Drug Treats Skin Cancer

A new drug that is based on the herpes virus has been shown to be effective in treatment of aggressive skin cancer.

The tests are in phase 3 trials for cancer virotherapy.  The idea of the therapy is to use one disease to attack a different disease.

The drug, T-VEC, could become more widely available for cancer patients next year.

The drug is a modified form of the herpes simplex virus type-1 with two genes removed that keeps the virus from replicating in healthy cells.  The virus can infect cancer cells where it multiplies and then explodes the cells.  It also creates a molecule that will allow immune systems to attack and destroy tumors.

Over one in four patients in the trial showed response to the treatment including 1 in 10 of those patients having their tumors completely disappear.  Another 16% had partial remission that lowered tumor size by half.

“There is increasing excitement over the use of viral treatments like T-VEC for cancer, because they can launch a two-pronged attack on tumors — both killing cancer cells directly and marshaling the immune system against them,” said Kevin Harrington, U.K. trial leader and professor of biological cancer therapies at the Institute of Cancer Research in London.

“It’s like an unmasking of the cancer,” said Harrington. “The patient’s immune system wakes up and attacks the cancer cells wherever they are in the body.”

The treatment has a major upside in that the side-effects are much less severe than chemotherapy.

Substantial El Nino Predicted

Scientists say that the El Nino effect is under way in the tropical Pacific.

Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology says a “substantial” El Nino event could take place before the end of the year.  Forecasters say that the El Nino is in early stages but the potential for extreme weather is real.

U.S. scientists initially said that El Nino had arrived but characterized it as “weak.”  Australian officials countered their U.S. colleagues’ claims.

“This is a proper El Nino effect, it’s not a weak one,” David Jones, manager of climate monitoring and prediction at the Bureau of Meteorology, told reporters. He said that El Nino could bring much lower than normal rainfall and enhance the country’s drought conditions.

“You know, there’s always a little bit of doubt when it comes to intensity forecasts, but across the models as a whole we’d suggest that this will be quite a substantial El Nino event.”

After the Australian model was released, U.S. forecasters on Thursday revised their statements and said that El Nino could bring much needed rain to California.

“We’ve seen continued evolution toward a stronger event,” NOAA official Mike Halpert told TIME. “Last month we were calling it weak, now we’re calling it borderline weak to moderate.”

“Stronger El Niños interrupt tropical rainfalls. That rain fall shifts and Indonesia and Austrailia become drier than average,” explained Halpert. “They’re not looking forward to El Niño shutting the tap off.”

Scientists Warn “Worst Is Yet To Come” With Turrialba Volcano

Costa Rica’s Turriabla Volcano spewed ash from its crater for about an hour which was wind-blown in the Central Valley.  Scientists are warning that this is just the beginning of what could be a much more dangerous eruption.

“There is a very high possibility that [the volcano] will reach a higher level of activity,” said Lidier Esquivel, the chief investigator of risk management for the National Emergency Commission (CNE).

The activity Sunday comes less than a week after a tower of ash over a mile and a half into the sky.

Scientists with the Volcanological and Seismological Observatory of Coast Rica reported to San Jose’s “Tico Times” the volcano is already showing the signs of a major eruption and that eruptions are going to increase in intensity over the next few months.

“The volcano is already throwing lava, it is fragmented lava that is creating the ash,” Guillermo Alvarado, coordinator for volcanic and seismic threats and monitoring for the Costa Rican Electricity Institute, said during a volcano roundtable event last week.

The continuing ash emissions are threatening health of the region.  Alvarado said that the lava fragments in ash can significantly cause problems for lungs and create risks for animals and humans.

“At this point there have been very few serious health problems to arise, but ash can cause respiratory problems, throat problems and burning in the eyes or skin.” Esquivel said. “As more people are regularly exposed to volcanic ash, we expect to see these problems in a larger portion of the population.”

The scientists said that the wind could take the ash from a major eruptions over Costa Rica’s capital city and the surrounding metropolitan area.

Nepal Death Toll Over 4,000

The death toll in the massive Nepal earthquake and aftershock has passed the 4,000 mark and local officials say it’s likely to continue a fast rise over the next few days.

Almost every member of the Nepalese military has been dispatched for search and rescue operations with focus on villages that have been inaccessible due to debris and damage.

Officials have now confirmed at least 7,000 people have been injured as a result of the quakes.  The hospitals are full and tent surgical theaters and treatment tents have been set up in the parking areas and open fields near the hospitals.

The Nepalese government has sent out an emergency call for “tents, dry goods, blankets, mattresses and 80 different medicines”.

The United States announced Monday an additional $9 million in relief supplies for the rescue effort.  China, India and Pakistan have sent emergency response teams to the region.  International aid agencies say that Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand have also contributed to the rescue efforts.

The United Nations World Food Program said they are preparing a “large, massive operation” for the region.

A spokesman for World Vision released a somber statement to the press.  Matt Darvas said that some villages that were on mountainsides could be completely buried by rock falls.  Some of the villages that are wiped out had up to 1,000 residents.

Part of “Ape-Man” Skeleton Actually From Baboon

A team of scientists has announced that one of the bones in the “Lucy” skeleton, the “ape-man” that proves evolution, is actually from a baboon.

The scientific team reported in New Scientist that one of the vertebra was significantly smaller than the vertebra for a human being.  The scientists said after they noticed “something odd’ they investigated further.

“Baboons were a close match, both in shape and size,” researcher Scott Williams of New York University explained. “So we think we’ve solved this mystery. It seems that a fossil gelada baboon thoracic vertebra washed or was otherwise transported in the mix of Lucy’s remains.”

The researchers also released the report at a Paleoanthropology Society meeting in San Francisco last week.

“Even though Lucy is fairly complete for a mammal fossil (47 of 207 bones found), the bones are mostly small fragments with many pieces missing,” Doug Henderson wrote of the fossil in 2013. “Other specimens have been found, but they are far more fragmentary. No matter how complete, all fossils must be interpreted. Some interpretation is always left to the imagination of the person doing the reconstruction.”

Scientists Find Protein To “Turbo-Charge” Immune System

Scientists at Imperial College London have found what they call a “game-changer” for cancer treatment: a protein that will “turbo-charge” the immune system to fighting cancers and viruses.

“This is exciting because we have found a completely different way to use the immune system to fight cancer,” said Professor Philip Ashton-Rickardt, from the Section of Immunobiology in the Department of Medicine at Imperial, who led the study.

“It could be a game-changer for treating a number of different cancers and viruses. This is a completely unknown protein. Nobody had ever seen it before or was even aware that it existed. It looks and acts like no other protein.”

When the body detects cancer, it will immediately flood the immune system with T-cells which fight the cancer.  However, the body quickly reduces that output after the initial wave.  The new protein creates T-cells in large enough numbers that cancer cannot fight them off.

The protein also creates “memory cells” in the immune system to recognize previously fought cancers and viruses to lessen the chances of their return.

“The discovery of a protein that could boost the immune response to not only cancer, but also to viruses, is a fascinating one,” Dr. Mike Turner of the Wellcome Trust, told the Daily Telegraph.  “Further investigation in animal models is needed before human trials can commence, but there is potential for a new type of treatment that capitalizes on the immune system’s innate ability to detect and kill abnormal cells.”

The study has been published in the journal Science.

Dormant Oklahoma Fault Lines “Reawakened”

A new report says that long dormant Oklahoma fault lines are being reactivated and could lead to a massive earthquake.

The study, which includes researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey, says Oklahoma now must be considered possible for “a high degree of potential earthquake hazards.”

‘The majority of the recent earthquakes in central Oklahoma define reactivated ancient faults at shallow depths in the crust’ of less than 3.7 miles (6 km), said the report for the American Geophysical Union.

The study did not involve any research regarding fracking and if it had any impact on the reawakening of the fault lines.

‘Any one of these fault zones that are producing magnitude 3 or 4 earthquakes could rupture into a larger earthquake. There are as many as 12 different fault zones that are capable of producing a large, 5 to 6 magnitude earthquake,’ Daniel McNamara of the USGS stated.

Building codes in Oklahoma are not strong enough for a high earthquake.  A major quake would result in mass destruction.