Technology gives life and takes it away
Men can have children till the end of their lives. Women limited number of eggs and get menopause somewhere in the middle of theirs. We've been treated to the terror of women biological clock in hundredths of movies and TV shows. You have to get pregnant quickly or all is lost so it's women's main life motivation, right? Well maybe not for long. Researchers have found a way to wake some of the millions of immature eggs that remain, even after a woman has stopped menstruating and produce eggs that are capable of being fertilised. The first test of this technique has resulted in a baby boy, born in December 2012 in Japan. Women only release around 400 mature out of millions that one is born with. Previous experiments shown that there are two pathways that stop eggs from maturing PTEN gene pathway and Hippo pathway(they also suppress cell growth which also stops cells from growing into tumours so they are important). Right now the procedure requires removal of the ovaries to cut the Hippo pathway and then treatment with a PTEN inhibitor. Out of 27 women with premature menopause who went through this procedure three have had their embryos implanted, resulting in one birth and one on-going pregnancy. The third failed to implant. So this is not something you should count on but this is just a beginning.
NewScientist has a big Climate Report collection of articles explaining the latest findings shown on UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It's not a pretty picture - from animals dying due to habitat fragmentation to loss of arctic ice. We may destroy the planet before we agree to admit we do it. Even if you just look at the change of average surface temperatures all over the world and other graphs showing accelerated climate change on Scientific American it's kind of scary. Except for the deniers, of course. I doubt even being flooded wouldn't convince them.
Something that was long suspected has been finally proved - sonars are responsible for whale beachings. The deaths of over 100 melon-headed whales, which stranded on the shores of a lagoon in Northwest Madagascar in 2008, were likely primarily triggered by a form of sonar being deployed by an ExxonMobil survey vessel. This seems especially true for high-frequency sonars like the one used in this case and active sonars navies use. Usually the marine mammals try to escape but it can lead them to get trapped or the sound can damage their inner ears leaving them unable to navigate. In other words there's nothing we couldn't pollute.
Randall Munroe has an asteroid named after him and it's big enough to kill dinosaurs (or all of us). Now I'm jealous.
NewScientist has a big Climate Report collection of articles explaining the latest findings shown on UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It's not a pretty picture - from animals dying due to habitat fragmentation to loss of arctic ice. We may destroy the planet before we agree to admit we do it. Even if you just look at the change of average surface temperatures all over the world and other graphs showing accelerated climate change on Scientific American it's kind of scary. Except for the deniers, of course. I doubt even being flooded wouldn't convince them.
Something that was long suspected has been finally proved - sonars are responsible for whale beachings. The deaths of over 100 melon-headed whales, which stranded on the shores of a lagoon in Northwest Madagascar in 2008, were likely primarily triggered by a form of sonar being deployed by an ExxonMobil survey vessel. This seems especially true for high-frequency sonars like the one used in this case and active sonars navies use. Usually the marine mammals try to escape but it can lead them to get trapped or the sound can damage their inner ears leaving them unable to navigate. In other words there's nothing we couldn't pollute.
Randall Munroe has an asteroid named after him and it's big enough to kill dinosaurs (or all of us). Now I'm jealous.