Scientists use gene-editing technology to knock out genes in human embryos for first time

A human embryo is injected with gene-editing molecules. (Dr. Kathy Niakan/Nature

For the first time, researchers have used genome editing technology to study gene functions and gain a better understanding of human’s early developmental stages. This has helped to reveal the important role of the genes in human embryos in the first days of its development. Genome editing or genome editing with engineered nucleases (GEEN) is a type of genetic engineering in which DNA is inserted or replaced in the genome of a living organism using engineered nucleases or molecular scissors.

A team of researchers led by Dr. Kathy Niakan, a developmental biologist at the Francis Crick Institute in London, used the genome editing technology to stop a key gene from making a protein called OCT4. OCT4 is a homeodomain transcription factor of the POU family. This protein is critically involved in the self-renewal of undifferentiated embryonic stem cells which normally becomes active in the first few days of human embryo development. The study found that human embryos cannot form a blastocyst without the protein OCT4.

Before the first study with gene editing technology in a human embryo was conducted, researchers normally removed and disable genes only in mice, fruit flies, and other laboratory domestic animals to study the genes’ normal roles. The researchers spent nearly a year optimizing techniques in mouse embryos and human stem cells before conducting human embryo experiments. They had to undergo a review by the national Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority in the United Kingdom to conduct research in human embryos and after some time, they licensed Niakan and her team to perform gene editing on human embryos left over from in vitro fertilization treatments. They applied last 2015 to use the CRISPR editing technique to learn more about the active gene in their early development and now that they are licensed, they are planning to focus on OCT4 protein first.

CREDIT: SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

In the experiment, human embryos lacking OCT4 had difficulty reaching the blastocyst stage: Only 19 percent of edited embryos formed blastocysts, while 47 percent of unedited embryos did. Blastocysts are balls of about 200 cells that form about five or six days after fertilization. The ball’s outer layer of cells gives rise to the placenta. Inside the blastocyst, one type of embryonic stem cells will become the yolk sac. Another kind, about 20 cells known as epiblast progenitor cells, will give rise to all the cells in the body.  

According to Dr. Niakan, they were surprised on how critical the gene is for human embryo development, but they still further research to confirm its role. They want to know what does a gene do in the developing embryo, but the only way to find out is to see what happens if it isn’t working. The researchers have to demonstrate a resourceful way of doing it, they hope that other scientist will use it to find out the role of the genes.

"If we knew the key genes that embryos need to develop successfully, we could improve IVF treatments and understand some causes of pregnancy failure. It may take many years to achieve such an understanding, our study is just the first step."

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SOURCES:

1.https://www.sciencenews.org/article/first-human-embryos-edited-explore-gene-function

2.https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/09/170920131645.htm

3.http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/09/scientists-use-gene-editing-technology-knock-out-genes-human-embryos-first-time

Scientists witness huge cosmic crash, find origins of gold

This illustration provided by the Carnegie Institution for Science depicts the collision of two neutron stars detected on Aug. 17, 2017. The explosion threw matter, light, radiation and gravitational waves into space. The discovery was reported on Monday, Oct. 16, 2017. (Robin Dienel/Carnegie Institution for Science via AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — It was a faint signal, but it told of one of the most violent acts in the universe, and it would soon reveal secrets of the cosmos, including how gold was created.

Astronomers around the world reacted to the signal quickly, focusing telescopes located on every continent and even in orbit to a distant spot in the sky.

What they witnessed in mid-August and revealed Monday was the long-ago collision of two neutron stars — a phenomenon California Institute of Technology's David H. Reitze called "the most spectacular fireworks in the universe."

"When these things collide, all hell breaks loose," he said.

David Reitze of the California Institute of Technology and the executive director of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, or LIGO, speaks at the National Press Club in Washington, Monday, Oct. 16, 2017, during an announcement on one of the most violent events in the cosmos that was witnessed completely for the first time in August and tells scientists where gold and other heavy elements come from. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Measurements of the light and other energy emanating from the crash have helped scientists explain how planet-killing gamma ray bursts are born, how fast the universe is expanding, and where heavy elements like platinum and gold come from.

"This is getting everything you wish for," said Syracuse University physics professor Duncan Brown, one of more than 4,000 scientists involved in the blitz of science that the crash kicked off. "This is our fantasy observation."

It started in a galaxy called NGC 4993, seen from Earth in the Hydra constellation. Two neutron stars, collapsed cores of stars so dense that a teaspoon of their matter would weigh 1 billion tons, danced ever faster and closer together until they collided, said Carnegie Institution astronomer Maria Drout.

The crash, called a kilonova, generated a fierce burst of gamma rays and a gravitational wave, a faint ripple in the fabric of space and time, first theorized by Albert Einstein.

"This is like a cosmic atom smasher at a scale far beyond humans would be capable of building," said Andy Howell, a staff scientist at the Las Cumbres Observatory. "We finally now know what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object and it's a kilonova."

The crash happened 130 million years ago, while dinosaurs still roamed on Earth, but the signal didn't arrive on Earth until Aug. 17 after traveling 130 million light-years. A light-year is 5.88 trillion miles.

David Reitze of the California Institute of Technology and the executive director of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, or LIGO, speaks at the National Press Club in Washington, Monday, Oct. 16, 2017, during an announcement on one of the most violent events in the cosmos that was witnessed completely for the first time in August and tells scientists where gold and other heavy elements come from. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Signals were picked up within 1.7 seconds of each other, by NASA's Fermi telescope, which detects gamma rays, and gravity wave detectors in Louisiana and Washington state that are a part of the LIGO Laboratory , whose founders won a Nobel Prize earlier this month. A worldwide alert went out to focus telescopes on what became the most well-observed astronomical event in history.

Before August, the only other gravity waves detected by LIGO were generated by colliding black holes. But black holes let no light escape, so astronomers could see nothing.

This time there was plenty to see, measure and analyze: matter, light, and other radiation. The Hubble Space Telescope even got a snapshot of the afterglow.

Finding where the crash happened wasn't easy. Eventually scientists narrowed the location down to 100 galaxies, began a closer search of those, and found it in the ninth galaxy they looked at.

Vicky Kalogera, a gravitational-wave astrophysicist at Northwestern University who contributed to the historic detections of gravitational waves, speaks at the National Press Club in Washington, Monday, Oct. 16, 2017, during an announcement on one of the most violent events in the cosmos that was witnessed completely for the first time in August and tells scientists where gold and other heavy elements come from. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

It is like "the classic challenge of finding a needle in the haystack with the added challenge that the needle is fading away and the haystack is moving," said Marcelle Soares-Santos, an astrophysicist at Brandeis University.

"The completeness of this picture from the beginning to the end is unprecedented," said Columbia University physics professor Szabolcs Marka. "There are many, many extraordinary discoveries within the discovery."

The colliding stars spewed bright blue, super-hot debris that was dense and unstable. Some of it coalesced into heavy elements, like gold, platinum and uranium. Scientists had suspected neutron star collisions had enough power to create heavier elements, but weren't certain until they witnessed it.

"We see the gold being formed," said Syracuse's Brown.

Calculations from a telescope measuring ultraviolet light showed that the combined mass of the heavy elements from this explosion is 1,300 times the mass of Earth. And all that stuff — including lighter elements — was thrown out in all different directions and is now speeding across the universe.

Perhaps one day the material will clump together into planets the way ours was formed, Reitze said — maybe ones with rich veins of precious metals.

"We already knew that iron came from a stellar explosion, the calcium in your bones came from stars and now we know the gold in your wedding ring came from merging neutron stars," said University of California Santa Cruz's Ryan Foley.

The crash also helped explain the origins of one of the most dangerous forces of the cosmos — short gamma ray bursts, focused beams of radiation that could erase life on any planet that happened to get in the way. These bursts shoot out in two different directions perpendicular to where the two neutron stars first crash, Reitze said.

Luckily for us, the beams of gamma rays were not focused on Earth and were generated too far away to be a threat, he said.

Marica Branchesi, an astronomer who has been part of the LIGO and Virgo collaborations, talks in Washington, Monday, Oct. 16, 2017, during the announcement about one of the most violent events in the cosmos that was witnessed completely for the first time in August and tells scientists where gold and other heavy elements come from. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Scientists knew that the universe has been expanding since the Big Bang. By using LIGO to measure gravitational waves while watching this event unfold, researchers came up with a new estimate for how fast that is happening, the so-called Hubble Constant. Before this, scientists came up with two slightly different answers using different techniques. The rough figure that came out of this event is between the original two, Reitze said.

The first optical images showed a bright blue dot that was very hot, which was likely the start of the heavy element creation process amid the neutron star debris, Drout said. After a day or two that blue faded, becoming much fainter and redder. And after three weeks it was completely gone, she said.

This almost didn't happen. Eight days after the signal came through, the LIGO gravitational waves were shut down for a year's worth of planned upgrades. A month later the whole area where the crash happened would have been blocked from astronomers' prying eyes by the sun.

Julie McEnery, an astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., speaks at the National Press Club in Washington, Monday, Oct. 16, 2017, during an announcement about one of the most violent events in the cosmos that was witnessed completely for the first time in August and tells scientists where gold and other heavy elements come from. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Scientists involved with the search for gravitational waves said this was the event they had prepared for over more than 20 years.

The findings are "of spectacular importance," said Penn State physicist Abhay Ashtekar, who wasn't part of the research. "This is really brand new."

Almost all of the discoveries confirmed existing theories, but had not been proven — an encouraging result for theorists who have been trying to explain what is happening in the cosmos, said France Cordova, an astrophysicist who directs the National Science Foundation.

"We so far have been unable to prove Einstein wrong," said Georgia Tech physics professor Laura Cadonati. "But we're going to keep trying."

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Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter at @borenbears . His work can be found here .

2017 Nobel Prize Winners Fly Through Microcosm "Like Google Earth for Molecules"

Richard Henderson, one of the 2017 Nobel Prize winners in Chemistry, holds a bacterio rhodopsin model prior to a press conference at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England, Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2017. Three researchers based in the U.S., U.K. and Switzerland won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Wednesday for developments in electron microscopy. The 9-million-kronor ($1.1 million) prize is shared by Jacques Dubochet of the University of Lausanne, Joachim Frank at New York's Columbia University and Richard Henderson of MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, Britain. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

NEW YORK (AP) — Three researchers won a Nobel Prize on Wednesday for developing a microscope technique that lets scientists see exquisite details of the molecules that drive life — basically providing a front-row seat to study these tiny performers in their biological dance.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said molecules can be captured down to the level of their atoms, and snapshots can catch them in mid-movement. That can help reveal how they interact.

"This method has moved biochemistry into a new era," the academy said in awarding its chemistry prize to Switzerland's Jacques Dubochet of the University of Lausanne, German-born U.S. citizen Joachim Frank at New York's Columbia University, and Briton Richard Henderson of MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England.

The detailed images may pave the way for developing new medicines, vaccines and industrial chemicals, but experts said such payoffs are largely in the future.

In this undated photo provided by the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge, Richard Henderson, right and Carsten Sasche at work in a laboratory. Three researchers based in the U.S., U.K. and Switzerland won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2017 for developing a way to create detailed images of the molecules that drive life — a technology that the Nobel committee said allowed scientists to visualize molecular processes they had never previously seen. The 9-million-kronor ($1.1 million) prize is shared by Jacques Dubochet of the University of Lausanne, Joachim Frank at New York's Columbia University and Richard Henderson of MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, Britain. (Laboratory of Molecular Biology via AP)

"This is a technique that is just starting to find its way into the research community," said Allison A. Campbell, president of the American Chemical Society. It was recently used to reveal the structure of the Zika virus.

The method is called cryo-electron microscopy. It's like "Google Earth for molecules," Campbell said, because it "allows the scientist to zoom in down to the fine detail (giving) that fine resolution that you want to have."

Other methods have been used before to determine structures of some biological molecules, but they run up against fundamental limitations. The three winners of the $1.1 million (9 million kronor) prize adapted another technique, electron microscopy, which uses a beam of electrons rather than ordinary light to inspect samples.

Jacques Dubochet, University of Lausanne, one of the 2017 Nobel Prize winners in Chemistry smiles before a press conference at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2017. Three researchers based in the U.S., U.K. and Switzerland won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Wednesday for developments in electron microscopy. The 9-million-kronor ($1.1 million) prize is shared by Jacques Dubochet of the University of Lausanne, Joachim Frank at New York's Columbia University and Richard Henderson of MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, Britain. (Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone via AP)

Between 1975 and 1986, Frank developed mathematical models to turn fuzzy two-dimensional images into sharp, three-dimensional ones. Henderson, in 1990, was able to generate a three-dimensional image of a protein at atom-level resolution, showing the technology's potential, the Nobel committee said.

Dubochet, in the early 1980s, found a way to cool the water in a biological sample so quickly that it solidified without forming the ice crystals that can disrupt the electron beam.

Those early advances were followed by others that have greatly improved the technique, the Nobel committee said.

"It's the first time that we can see biological molecules in their natural environment and how they actually work together down to the individual atoms," said Nobel chemistry committee member Heiner Linke.

Henderson said Dubochet "kicked off the field; he invented this method of making specimens we now use."

Speaking to reporters in Cambridge, England, Henderson also said he felt "the three of us have been awarded the prize acting on behalf of the entire field."

Joachim Frank, of Columbia University, speaks at a Columbia University press conference Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2017, in New York. Frank shares this year's Nobel Chemistry Prize with two other researchers for developing a method to generate three-dimensional images of the molecules of life. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Frank said he was "fully overwhelmed" and speechless upon hearing he had won a share of the prize.

"I thought the chances of a Nobel Prize were minuscule because there are so many other innovations and discoveries that happen almost every day," he said.

He said he hasn't yet thought about what to do with the prize money, but added: "I was telling my wife that we don't have to worry about a dog sitter anymore."

The chemistry prize was the third Nobel announced this week.

From left, Sara Snogerup Linse, chairman of the Nobel Committee in Chemistry, Goran K. Hansson, secretary of the Royal Academy of Sciences, and Peter Brzezinski, member of the Nobel Committee, sit during a press conference as they announce - Jacques Dubochet - from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, Joachim Frank from Columbia University, USA and Richard Henderson, from the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, in England as the winners of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, at the Royal Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2017. The Nobel Prize for Chemistry rewards researchers for major advances in studying the infinitesimal bits of material that are the building blocks of life. (Claudio Bresciani/TT News Agency via AP)

The medicine prize went to three Americans studying circadian rhythms: Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young. The physics prize went to Rainer Weiss, Barry Barish and Kip Thorne for detecting gravitational waves.

The literature winner will be named Thursday and the peace prize will be announced Friday.

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Jim Heintz reported from Stockholm. David Keyton in Stockholm, Jamey Keaten in Geneva and Bob Lentz in Philadelphia contributed to this story.

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Follow the AP's coverage on the Nobels here.

Origami Robot Transforms Foldable Exo-Suit

Scientists just built origami transformer robots! These are tiny bots with foldable exo-suits they change to perform different tasks. 
It wraps itself in high-tech origami sheets that fold into wings, wheels, and other forms to walk, roll, and sail interchangeably. 

“It’s almost like putting clothes on the robot to give it different kinds of powers,” says study co-author Daniela Rus, a roboticist at MIT. Such quickly customizable machines could help in almost every industry because of the very ability to change according to the need.

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The core of their transformation is a magnetic cube a few millimeters across, which Rus’ team “drove,” using magnetic solenoid coils as remote controls. To enclose this magnetic engine inside an origami body, a cube sits atop an unfolded origami sheet: a layer of the heat-shrinking material between two polyester planes. Along the fold lines, the shrinking film is exposed to facilitate folding. 

Heating the origami sheet to 65° Celsius, the heat-shrinking material along the creases contract, folding into a 3-D "Walk-bot" body that can walk. Rus’ team used the same method with other origami exoskeletons creating a bigger Walk-bot, Wheel-bot, Boat-bot, and Glider-bot. 

The outer exoskeletons were fastened into place with four latches made of water-soluble material allowing the bots to remove their origami outerwear and move into a new one. This is pretty exciting because the limit is your imagination with these transformers. Shape-shifting robots could also be useful in other situations where they must perform a wide range of tasks without packing lots of spare parts, like during natural disaster emergency response operations or space missions.

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A roboticist at Imperial College London said such adaptable robots could enable surgery without cutting where a patient ingests a magnetic core and various exoskeletons that a surgeon could manipulate remotely. 

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Sources:
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/origami-metal-robots-magnet
S. Miyashita et al. Robotic metamorphosis by origami exoskeletons. Science Robotics. Published online September 27, 2017. doi: 10.1126/scirobotics.aao4369.

7 Government Officials Who Confirmed That Aliens Exist

The question of whether or not there are indeed extraterrestrial life forms has been a hotly-debated issue for a very long time. One side maintains a skeptical standpoint on the subject matter, refusing to believe in alien existence unless government authorities provide definitive proof or positive confirmation. Another side insists that not only do extraterrestrials exist; they have also visited our planet and are perhaps even walking among us today. 

And to these believers, the only reason that this reality has yet to become public knowledge is that government institutions are deliberately hiding this fact by withholding photographic and documentary evidence and by downgrading the credibility of those who have stepped forward and exposed the truth. The conviction of these believers in the existence of extraterrestrial life is further strengthened by the fact that several government officials have stepped forward and admitted to this closely-guarded secret. 

ARTICLE CONTINUES AFTER VIDEO

John Podesta – Former Counselor to President Obama

John Podesta, Former Counselor to President Barack Obama. Podesta is currently the chair and counselor of the Washington D.C.-based think tank Center for American Progress, but in the past, he previously served in the U.S. government as an advisor to President Barack Obama and as a chief of staff of President Bill Clinton. He is also known as a “longtime advocate for government disclosure of UFO files,” having provided his support in some petitions to publicly release documents proving that many UFOs are sightings of actual alien spacecraft. He has even expressed in the past that one of his failings while working for the Obama administration is his neglect in successfully releasing UFO files. He also made Hilary Clinton promise that she would “get to the bottom” of the UFO issue if she became the president.

Edgar Mitchell – Astronaut for NASA

Telegraph

Edgar Mitchell, NASA Astronaut. Edgar Mitchell was an aeronautical engineer and a U.S. Navy officer who also served as an astronaut for NASA during the 1971 Apollo 14 moon mission, which makes him the sixth person to have walked on the moon. Mitchell is also a believer in the existence of extraterrestrial beings and went so far as to say that there is currently plenty of hard evidence that we are not alone in the universe and that military authority have taken lengths to make sure that they are not revealed to the public. However, to this day, NASA has denied involvements in such cover-ups about alien life on the planet or anywhere else in the galaxy. 

Paul Hellyer– Canadian Minister of Defense

CSGlobe

Paul Hellyer, Former Minister of National Defence of Canada. Paul is a Canadian engineer and politician who is the longest serving member of the Privy Council of Canada and formerly served as the country’s minister of National Defence. Aside from his extensive political career, he is also a firm believer that UFOs are proof that aliens have been visiting our planet frequently, claiming that he had personally seen a UFO at least once in his life. He also urged world governments to unveil hidden alien technology which could be helpful in solving the global problem of climate change. 

Ellen Stofan – NASA Chief Scientist

Openminds.tv

Ellen Stofan, Former NASA Chief Scientist. Ellen Stofan previously served as the chief scientist of NASA but resigned from her position back in December 2016. In 2015, Stofan predicted that humankind would be discovering definitive proof of alien life “within 20 to 30 years.” She also said:

“We know where to look. We know how to look. In most cases, we have the technology, and we’re on a path to implementing it.”

While her statements may be indirect, to some people, it seemed like she knew more about the existence and actual whereabouts of these alien life forms. 

Phil Schneider– Geologist and Engineer for the U.S. Naval Intelligence

Phil Schneider, Geologist, and Engineer for the U.S. Naval Intelligence. Phil Schneider was a geologist and engineer who supposedly served for the United States Government and allegedly helped in the construction of Deep Underground Military Bases in different parts of the country. He emerged in the 1990s with his story that he survived a battle against alien beings back in 1979, and criticized the government for keeping the American citizens in the dark about the truth. Unfortunately, Schneider supposedly committed suicide in 1996, but the mysterious circumstances of his demise led some people to believe that he was eliminated by the government to maintain the secrecy of alien existence. 

Philip Corso– Lieutenant Colonel of the U.S. Army

Openminds.tv

Philip Corso, Former Lieutenant Colonel of the U.S. Army. Philip Corso served as an officer in the United States Army between the 1940s and the 1960s. In 1997, he published a book titled “The Day After Roswell,” in which he detailed his involvement in researching about extraterrestrial technology following the alleged recovery of bodies and wreckage from the famous Roswell UFO incident which took place in 1947. Corso also claimed in his book that the U.S. government had reverse engineered the alien technology they found at the site, which resulted in the technological advances that humanity has achieved in recent years. 

Isaac Koi

Marina Popovich – Retired Soviet Air Force Colonel

Marina Popovich, Retired Colonel of the Soviet Air Force. Marina Popovich is a retired colonel in the Soviet Air Force, and a multiple world record-holder in aviation, making her one of the most renowned Russian pilots in modern history. The esteemed pilot has largely spoken about her experience with UFOs in public lectures as well as in interviews. She also published a book about it back in 2003 titled “UFO Glasnost.” She claimed that there are around 3000 confirmed UFO sightings across the globe and that the KGB and the Soviet Air Force are in possession of UFO fragments from a handful of crash sites across the Soviet territory.

Gordon Cooper – Astronaut for NASA in Project Mercury

The Black Vault

Gordon Cooper, Nasa Astronaut for Project Mercury. Gordon Cooper was an American aerospace engineer who is known to be a member of the seven original astronauts in Project Mercury, which was the United States’ first initiative for manned space travel. Cooper was also the first American to sleep in space, having spent 34-hours all alone in space during his orbital mission. In his illustrious career as a pilot, he claimed to have personally experienced a UFO sighting, and he purportedly wrote to the United Nations back in 1978 about his position on this mystery, saying: 

"I do believe UFOs exist and that the truly unexplained ones are from some other technically advanced civilization... I believe that these extraterrestrial vehicles and their crews are visiting this planet from other planets, which are obviously a little more advanced than we are here on earth...”

The claims of many of these individuals, all of whom had served in government institutions at some point in their lives, have been ignored by the public mainly because the governing bodies they were once a part of had either denied their allegations or had refused to comment on them. But does that mean there isn’t, at the very least, a grain of truth in what these former government officials have said about the existence of extraterrestrial life forms? Is it so hard to believe that there are creatures out there – possibly far more advanced than we are – who have taken a glimpse or two at our planet and our way of life? And, should aliens do exist, is it so unlikely for the world government to keep this truth from us if most of us are potentially unprepared for such a reality?

Perhaps, the day will soon come when our government authorities will deem us ready to see and hear the truth, and will finally put an end to the mystery of whether extraterrestrial beings do exist and are possibly already among us. 

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Sources:

https://youtu.be/giQ9BF3pVa0
http://listverse.com/2016/08/21/10-government-officials-who-admitted-the-existence-of-aliens/
https://www.trend-chaser.com/politics/weve-got-em-these-government-officials-admitted-aliens-exist/?view-all
http://www.snopes.com/john-podesta-discussed-alien-technology-with-former-nasa-astronaut/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/04/08/the-long-strange-history-of-john-podestas-space-alien-obsession/?utm_term=.99caf11348ed
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/04/20/ufo.conference/index.html?eref=rss_
https://www.space.com/29041-alien-life-evidence-by-2025-nasa.html
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/607504-alien-human-battle-of-1979-in-new-mexico-alleged-eye-witness-report/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_J._Corso
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marina_Popovich#Popovich_and_UFOs
http://www.ufoevidence.org/news/article162.htm

The Butterfly Effect

It has been said that “little things are merely the causes of great things” and that the smallest actions can result in tremendous consequences. Therefore, some people argue that there are no such things as “little” or “insignificant” in the world that we live in because even the tiniest change or alteration in our current circumstance has a resounding impact in our future. 

It’s a fascinating philosophical perspective, but did you know that there is an existing mathematical concept that somehow operates partly under the same basic principles? What I am referring to is the mathematical phenomenon in chaos theory referred to as “sensitive dependence on initial conditions.” While the official term may be a little too wordy, you may be familiar with this concept with its more popular and catchier term – “the butterfly effect.”

If you “google” search this mathematical term, you’ll find plenty of materials online that are related to films, books, music, and articles about philosophy and religion, all of which somehow allude to an oversimplified version of what the “butterfly effect” is. And if you’ve watched, the 2004 movie “The Butterfly Effect,” which starred Ashton Kutcher, you probably got to see a crude illustration of how the smallest changes in a person’s life can result in large consequences in the grand scheme of things over time. 

Of course, the brilliant and scientific minds in the field of mathematics and physics will probably tell you that there is so much more to this mathematical idea than that, but it has been a challenge to adequately transmit what it means to the nonscientific population of our modern society. And so, for this video, let’s try to bridge – even just by a small fraction – the gap between mathematicians and the general population in their understanding of what the butterfly effect is. 

ARTICLE CONTINUES AFTER VIDEO

Chaos Theory: A Brief Background

Quora

Now, before we delve deep into the definition of the butterfly effect, let us briefly talk about what chaos theory is in the field of mathematics. Chaos theory is a branch of study in mathematics that is directed at analyzing the behavior of dynamical systems which are substantially sensitive to initial conditions. Essentially, it deals with things which are nonlinear and unpredictable, and therefore difficult to anticipate and control. It is concerned with deterministic systems whose behavior, in theory, can initially be predicted but seems to become random over time. 

American mathematician and meteorologist Edward Norton Lorenz, who went down in history as one of the pioneers of chaos theory, described chaos as “when the present determines the future, but the approximate present does not approximately determine the future.” 

Chaotic behavior is a relevant consideration in the study of different natural systems, including weather and climate. The theory is also applied in various disciplines including, but not limited to, environmental science, biology, computer science, engineering and economics.

Lorenz's Concept Of the Butterfly Effect

3010tangents

The humble beginnings of the butterfly effect as one of the mathematical concepts of chaos theory can be traced back more than 50 years ago when Edward Lorenz was a professor of meteorology at MIT and was crunching numbers through a computer program that allowed the simulation of weather patterns. On this history-making day, Lorenz was redoing the simulation he ran earlier that day, only this time, one variable was rounded off to the thousandth decimal place. He discovered that this minute alteration significantly changed the predictive pattern that his computer program had produced, resulting in an entirely different weather scenario. 

It is this surprising simulated outcome that led Lorenz to reach a stunning revelation regarding how nature operates – that tiny changes can lead to big consequences. And so, in 1963, Lorenz published his findings in his paper titled “Deterministic Nonperiodic Flow,” which challenged Isaac Newton’s classical idea of a “clockwork universe.” Newton suggested the predictability of every aspect of the universe as it is a perfect system controlled by the laws of physics. For Lorenz, there is unpredictability even in a deterministic sequence. His work soon gained ground in the 1970s and the 1980s and became a founding principle of chaos theory. 

The mathematical concept of the butterfly effect is encapsulated in this proverbial question: “Does the flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil set off a tornado in Texas?” This was the title of a talk in 1972 conducted by Lorenz during which he explained that a butterfly flapping its wings could result in tiny alterations in the earth’s atmosphere and will consequently prevent, delay or accelerate the formation of a hurricane or tornado in a distant place. 

This does not mean that the butterfly itself possesses the power to create a tornado and direct where it goes. Instead, the theory implies that the flapping of the butterfly’s wings is one of the initial conditions of the Earth’s weather system. This means that in one set of conditions, the flapping wings in Brazil could over time led to the occurrence of a tornado in Texas. And so, had the creature not flapped its wings, the tornado would never have formed. However, it is important to note that it is just as likely that a set of initial conditions which do not feature the butterfly flapping its wings could be the one that gives rise to a tornado. 

Here lies the problem posed by the butterfly effect concerning mathematical prediction. In the real world, initial conditions for a particular system can never be identified with 100% accuracy. For example, all the variables that influence weather conditions, like temperature and wind speed, cannot be known completely. Instead of an exact prediction, we are forced to provide an ensemble of forecasts which have been mathematically calculated under known but also imperfect initial conditions.
    
Hence, Lorenz’s butterfly effect boils down to unpredictability. In a non-linear system, it is impossible to make predictions about the future unless we possess perfect knowledge of the initial conditions. And should we try to, even the slightest change or error in the established initial conditions could lead to an entirely different destiny.

The Problem With Pop Culture's Take On The Butterfly Effect

This is probably why popular culture is fond of the idea of the butterfly effect. Many of us believe that everything happens for a reason, and we hope that we can identify those reasons, no matter how minute they may be. And this where pop culture’s take on the butterfly effect gets it wrong. Nowadays, the original meaning of the butterfly effect has been lost along the way since it became a favored subject matter of mass culture. Instead of stressing the unpredictability of nonlinear dynamic systems, a large number of people from the non-scientific population gained a misguided understanding of the mathematical concept with their supposition and expectation that the smallest reasons or a chain of seemingly insignificant events can potentially alter history and form new destinies. 

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A popular example often raised to explain the butterfly effect is the speculation over the spark that ignited the First World War. Some people say that it all boils down to a driver making a wrong turn while driving the car of the Archduke of Austria, Franz Ferdinand. This mistake led to the assassination of the Archduke and his wife, which was followed by Austria-Hungary’s declaration of war against Serbia. What came after that was the Germans declaring war on Russia, then France, Belgium, and the UK went to war to fight Germany. By pop culture’s understanding of the butterfly effect, World War 1 never would have happened the Archduke not been assassinated, and he would not have died if his driver did not make a wrong turn. 

Some of us would like to think that a trivial course of action was the one that triggered a series of events that resulted in a catastrophic consequence which resulted in the death and suffering of many people. However, what Lorenz’s mathematical theory is telling us is that it would have been impossible for us to accurately predict with absolute certainty whether World War 1 was going to happen when it did. The archduke’s driver making a wrong turn may have led to the start of the First World War, but then again, it would not have made a difference anyway. If the driver didn’t make that mistake, perhaps the war would have just been delayed, or maybe we would have been doomed to experience an even more terrible global armed conflict than the one that took place in real history. We would have just made several forecasts of what could have happened, but we would have never gotten every little thing right.

Before he died, Lorenz himself revealed that he was unsure of the proper answer to his question of whether a butterfly’s flapping wings can indeed cause a tornado. To him, the value of the question he raised decades ago lies in the bigger point it evokes – that nature’s web of cause and effect are often just too convoluted to unravel as it is highly sensitive to tiny changes. 

And while we cannot accurately predict future events, Lorenz’s butterfly effect concept has inspired significant advancements in various scientific fields as scientists are now less inclined to underestimate the intrinsic complexity of the world’s multitude of systems, from the atmosphere to the stock market. For the last few decades, modern science has evolved from the classical emphasis on stability, permanence, and predictability to the new-age recognition that our everyday lives are filled with instability, sensitivity, and unpredictability. And so, the butterfly effect is more than just a metaphor or a mathematical concept; it is now a symbol of modern science’s new and improved state of mind.  

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Sources:

http://fractalfoundation.org/resources/what-is-chaos-theory/
http://www.crystalinks.com/chaos.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_effect
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_effect_in_popular_culture
http://www.stsci.edu/~lbradley/seminar/butterfly.html
http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Butterfly_effect
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/422809/when-the-butterfly-effect-took-flight/
http://perso.ens-lyon.fr/ghys/articles/butterflyeffect.pdf

US Company to Start Trials Reawakening the dead

Bringing people back from the dead may seem like something you’d only see in horror movies and these attempts usually result in something less than holy, remember this kid? But later this year researchers from Bioquark, a company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania hope to do just that.

Although their process does not involve any dark magic spells, vampire blood or a pet cemetery, the study is still extremely controversial. Because this isn’t Final Fantasy and using a Phoenix Down type potion to bring people back from the dead is generally frowned upon. In a nutshell, the trial will begin by injecting stem cells into the spinal cords of people who are declared brain dead as well as deploy lasers and nerve stimulation techniques with the hopes that new neurons will grow and connect to each other thus restart the brain and bring the patient back from the dead.

Researchers believe the stems cells may be able to start up the brain again based on their surrounding tissue. Which is the same process used by some species of lizards to regrow a lost limb.

Something else to keep in mind is that the definition of death has changed in the past few decades. Before, you were declared dead when your heart stopped beating but nowadays, in many countries, to be officially declared dead means there has to be a complete loss of brain function or “brain dead” but according to Bioquark CEO Ira Pastor, brain death is not completely irreversible.

“This represents the first trial of its kind and another step towards the eventual reversal of death in our lifetime. Said Dr. Ira Pastor of Bioquark CEO of Bioquark

"To undertake such a complex initiative, we are combining biologic regenerative medicine tools with other existing medical devices typically used for stimulation of the central nervous system, in patients with other severe disorders of consciousness.

This is actually Bioquark’s second attempt at launching this study, the first trial launched in Rudrapur India in 2016 but it didn’t get any patients and the study was eventually shut down several months later. Now the company is set to begin a second trial in a new location, which is said to be an unidentified country somewhere in Latin America.

The new trial will attempt to enroll 20 patients who have been declared dead and only kept alive through life support. The patients will first receive an injection of stem cells harvested from their own blood, then a peptide formula is injected into the spinal cord which will hopefully create new neurons, then lasers will be used to help stimulate the neurons to form connections. During this time the patients will be monitored with MRI scans to look for signs of regeneration, especially in the lowest region of the brain stem which is responsible for independent breathing and heartbeat.

This may all sound good in theory but there are a lot of problems. First of all, if a patient is technically dead, how will he or she give consent? Because I’m sure none of us would actually want to come back like the night of the living dead, but probably never made what wish generally known while alive. Also like I mentioned earlier, this trial is really just all conjecture. No one is 100% sure this could actually work.

According to an editorial written in 2016 by Neurologist Dr. Ariane Lewis and bioethicist Arthur Caplan, they called this study “borders on quackery,” “has no scientific foundation,” and gave families “a cruel, false hope for recovery.”

Dr. Charles Cox, a pediatric surgeon who has studied the same type of stem cells being used in this trial also said.  “it’s not the absolute craziest thing I’ve ever heard, but I think the probability of that working is next to zero,”

“I think [someone reviving] would technically be a miracle,” he said. “I think the pope would technically call that a miracle.”

But Pastor thinks Bioquark’s protocol will work. “I give us a pretty good chance,” he said. “I just think it’s a matter of putting it all together and getting the right people and the right minds on it.

9 Strange Acts of Nature Science still Can't Explain

Nature is beautiful but it's also a cruel mistress that can be scary, completely unpredictable and in some cases defy explanation. Although we get why the sky is blue, how the Grand Canyon formed and why birds poop on our heads (they hate us) here are some events of nature that continue to elude explanation.

1.    Animal Migration

I’ll admit, I love road trips but I’m really bad at them. I tend to get lost a lot and I get sleepy 30 minutes in. I’ve splashed water on myself, I've stuck my head out the window like a dog, nothing works. Although I still can't figure out how to stay alert on long trips in the car I am very thankful for GPS, but now I feel that I’m too reliant on them. Once I followed my GPS through a college campus, another time the GPS took me through a cemetery in nowheresville Pennsylvania at night, and that’s where I draw the line. I mean, take me through a college campus I may get a ticket, take me through a graveyard in the middle of the night? that’s some silent hill stuff! My point is I NEED a GPS especially on long trips, but have you ever noticed that many animals migrate thousands of miles across land and sea, and they never have a Garmin attached to their necks.

So How do animals make these long treks without getting lost? No one really knows, though there are many theories. For example, an article in The Independent that focused on pigeon migration, mentioned that the birds navigate the Earth using visual landmarks or their sense of smell to determine their location. More bizarre-sounding theories include the concept that pigeons use magnetism to determine if they’re north or south of home; another is that the pigeons use morphic resonance, a theory by Rupert Sheldrake, to refer to what he calls the "the basis of memory in nature basically the idea that there are collective memories that are shared within species.

2.     The Naga Fireballs

Every year, around late autumn on the night of the full moon at the end of the Buddhist Lent going back as far as anyone can remember. Hundreds of fireballs explode randomly out of Thailand’s Mekong River. This phenomenon is known as “Naga fireballs,”  Locals believe the balls come from the breath of Naga, a mythical serpent that haunts the river. Many scientists believe that the fireballs are nothing more than pockets of methane bubbling up from the river, others argue that whatever is sailing through the air has mass, and "must have been propelled physically. So the question is, what is propelling these fireballs. You guys ever hear of a watermelon seed spitting contest? maybe the river serpents gather together every year for the annual Mekong River Fireball Spitting Contest.

3.    The Tunguska Event

A ball of fire exploded in a remote area of Russia In June 1908, the explosion was so powerful it shook the ground and instantly flattening 770 square miles of forest. The blast reached 15 megatons of energy, about a thousand times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb. Because this event occurred near a river called Tunguska, it was Known as the Tunguska event. 

Researchers suggests that a meteor was to blame because there is a lake nearby and scientists believe that it was created by a meteor. But others say the lake was there before the event, so if not a meteor, then what cause the most powerful natural explosion in recent history.

4.    Earthquake Lights

Earthquake lights are white or bluish flashes that occur right before a large earthquake and last for several seconds. These lights have been documented for hundreds of years, but it wasn't until the 1960s, when people took pictures of this phenomenon during the Matsushiro earthquakes, that scientists started to take it seriously.

There are many theories for the origin of the lights, such as piezoelectric and frictional heating to gas emissions and electrokinetics. Recently scientists believe that the lights are caused by the natural electrical charge of rocks which are awakened by pre-earthquake elements.

5. Blue Jets and Red Sprites

Blue Jets and Red Sprits occur above clouds during a lightning storm and are only visible from space or an airplane. They basically looks like fireworks falling from the sky. Sprites are red most of the time and happen as high as 50 miles off the surface of the ground, while jets shoot directly out of the tops of storm clouds, sometimes traveling as far as 30 miles up into the Ionosphere.

Scientists think the phenomena has something to do with whatever is causing the lightning we see in every storm and that is basically all they know. The sprites seem to occur as a result of a lightning strike on the ground, but the jets seem to occur randomly.

6. Raining Animals

Throughout history random things has been documented raining from the sky including Frogs, Fish, Worms, and even blood. The prevailing theory is that waterspouts or tornadoes scoop random things up like a whole lot of fish and then transport them sometimes hundreds of miles in the sky then rain them down.

But this theory does not explain why often only a single species is in the rain. Like if a waterspout sucked things up from a lake, it should not just be raining fish, it should be raining fish, turtles, frogs, lake monsters.

7. Spontaneous Human Combustion

Spontaneous Human Combustion or SHC means just that, it refers to when a person bursts into flame for no apparent reason.

The first known accounts of spontaneous human combustion date all the way back to 1641. More recently, cases of SHC have been suspected when officials have found corpses burned to ashes but the furniture surrounding them were completely undamaged. For example, an Irish coroner ruled that spontaneous combustion caused the 2010 death of 76-year-old Michael Faherty, whose badly burned body was discovered near a fireplace in a room with virtually no fire damage.

Many scientists dismiss the theory, because of course the human body is composed mostly of water and they argue that an undetected flame source such as a match or cigarette is the real culprit in suspected cases. Others claim that because it takes a temperature of around 570 degrees to burn a body to ashes, it’s impossible that the body would be the only thing that burns.

There are many theories of course that try to explain this phenomenon. Some say the victims are alcoholics and consumed so much alcohol that their blood became flammable, other say the combustion is caused by gamma rays. 

8.    Fairy circles:

Fairy circles are strange formations of grass-less earth surrounded by grass. Almost perfect circles and researchers have no idea what causes them. What’s also strange is that these circles start off small and grow large and the circles lie regularly spaced from one another forming the same pattern across the landscape.. They are commonly found in Namibia and parts of South Africa. Fairy circles vary 7 and 49 ft in diameter and since the 1970s, when researchers first started investigating the phenomenon, there has been no viable theory that was able to satisfy the scientific community.

There are some guesses that involve termites and patterns that arose naturally from competition between grasses. There is also the local belief that the fairy circles are footprints of the gods or made by a dragon that lives within the earth and I'm gonna go ahead and throw Colosseum arenas for little fairies into the discussion. 

9.     The Marfa Lights

The Marfa lights are mysterious glowing orbs that appear in the desert outside the West Texas town of Marfa.

The lights, which are roughly the size of basketballs and vary in color. reportedly hover, merge, split, twinkle, float or quickly dart around. There seems to be no way to predict when the lights will appear; they're seen in various weather conditions, but only a dozen or so nights a year.  and of course no one has been able to figure out what these lights are.

The first mention of the lights comes from 1883, when a cowhand Robert Reed Ellison claimed to have seen flickering lights one evening while driving a herd of cattle near Mitchell Flat. During World War II, pilots from nearby Midland Army Air Field tried to locate the source of the mysterious lights, but were unable to discover anything.

Possible causes of the lights has been attributed to cars, optical illusions, ghosts and of course aliens.