Science 2.0

Eighteenth-century socialites have been depicted as vain, silly women who were poisoned by their white lead makeup. The Countess of Coventry, Maria Gunning — a society hostess renowned for her beauty — is said to have refused to stop wearing foundation containing white lead, even as she lay dying. Why would women of that era knowingly choose to wear makeup that was killing them? Was beauty worth dying for? Or was the makeup not to blame?

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The behaviour of matter at quantum level includes a number of surprising effects, which we are lucky enough to be able to study and observe in different physical systems. Some of these effects are due to the radically different properties of particles endowed with integer amounts of spin (which we call bosons), and particles endowed with half-integer amounts of spin (which we call fermions).

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A new analysis of human remains from ancient DNA of six individuals buried in Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia who lived between 18,000 and 5,000 years ago has produced the earliest DNA from the continent, and giving some insight into how early humans lived, traveled and even found love. 

The study also reanalyzed published data from 28 individuals buried at sites across the continent, generating new and improved data for 15 of them. The dataset of DNA from ancient African foragers reveals a genetic legacy difficult to reconstruct from present-day people because of the many population movements and mixtures that have occurred in the last few thousand years.

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There is a myth that people act differently during a full moon but nurses swear by it because of perception of an increase in emergency room cases. Now demographers have linked heat waves to emergency care, except the mental health kind.

The paper correlated days with higher-than-normal temperatures during the summer season in the United States to increased rates of emergency department (ED) visits for any mental health-related condition, particularly substance use, anxiety and stress disorders, and mood disorders.

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Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) are millisecond-long bursts of radiation recorded on radio waves. They are extremely powerful - for example, during one of the brightest flashes lasting five milliseconds, as much energy is radiated as our Sun generates in a month. The scale of the phenomenon is difficult to imagine. A new study tracks down their source.

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HIV normally uses the CCR5 co-receptor to help it infect immune cells, but the receptor’s Δ32 variant effectively blocks viral entry but a 14-month success story using cord blood containing an HIV-resistance gene variant called CCR5Δ32 means HIV has been cured in a patient.

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If you watched film and television from an alien spacecraft, you'd wonder how the same government that created a CDC which needs 6 weeks to tell the public that lettuce has E. coli on it can also create "Mission Impossible" plots and shows where FBI agents win every time.

The first part is real, the last is certainly fiction. A new study finds that not only is a government database wrong, it is wrong to an extent that is worrisome when we want people to have more trust in law enforcement agencies. 

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Protection of personal data in the Internet Age is a big worry but solutions may be lacking. A smartwatch may seem secure, but the neural network processing that health information is using private data that could still be stolen by a malicious agent through a side-channel attack - one in which secret information is gathered by indirectly exploiting a system or its hardware. In one type of side-channel attack, a hacker could monitor fluctuations in the device’s power consumption while the neural network is operating to extract protected information that “leaks” out of the device.

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Erika Girardi, a "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" star, has been sued in a new $2.1 million complaint claiming she "aided and abetted" Tom in his law firm Girardi&Keese's alleged financial wrongdoings. They are being sued by the people who represented because he would get settlements and he kept the money, it is claimed.

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In the outstanding "Charlie's Angels" film of 2000, a spectacular opening sequence is just that; one of our heroines (in disguise as LL Cool J in disguise as...an African prince? It's never said who "Mr. Jones" is supposed to be, other than awesome) pops the emergency exit door on the very large airplane with her elbow to carry a terrorist wearing a bomb vest into the open air and save everyone.

Drew Barrymore, the heroine in that scene, is about 5'4" and maybe 120 lbs. soaking wet. She couldn't have done that. At 6'2" and 100 lbs. heavier, neither could I. It's great cinema but terrible physics.

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Though there are examples of fit older men, they are the exception, just as attractive young people are the exception. Yet in youth people just accept that, while in middle age men seem to take it more to heart, lowering their feelings of self-worth.

In youth, attractiveness can be dismissed as genetics. Later on it becomes inevitable due to age.

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There is little good resulting from the pandemic, except for the fantastic innovation behind the vaccines. A few months ago politicians told companies to stop being greedy and pay more money to people who stopped working when government paid people not to work, so companies paid more, and resulting inflation is causing equity to decrease between the poor and the middle class. San Francisco is telling people they need to get a 4th shot or they'll be called Republicans(1) while the governor of California and the mayors of both Frisco and LA frolicked at events in crowds of 50,000 and took selfies with exposed faces. Hardly inspiring trust.

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Creativity is one of the things that really makes us human - in fact, a number of human activities which we identify as specific of our nature, and which we believe could hardly be mimicked by artificial intelligence, rely on our inventiveness and capability of creating new objects, images, concepts, methods, or finding new purpose in old tools. Art, among all of these activities, is the quintessential result of our willful act of creating beauty - or even ugliness, if that is considered a worthy pursuit by the artist.
 

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Some people believe the immune system is dormant when you are healthy and only kicks into action when a threat is present.

Biologically, nature is always trying to kill things, we are just evolved enough to dismiss most without issues, but your immune system is working even when you feel fine. A recent paper highlights how the immune system even causes the liver of the healthy body to produce an energy source called ketone bodies and how that takes place by letting the liver burn fat during fasting. 

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Before the invention of modern science and technology, where many diverse foods can be grown in areas once considered inhospitable, the whims of nature determined what you ate, and if you ate at all. 

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Was Charles Darwin a one-hit wonder? According to scientists who take a gene’s-eye view of evolution, the 19th-century English naturalist contributed one crucial idea to understanding how species change: natural selection, or “design without a designer”.

However, a book of Darwin’s that is little read by modern evolutionists – The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals – turns out to contain valuable lessons for scientists seeking to understand how and why humans do what we do.

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A recent study found that a virtual reality experience is able to reduce stress among COVID-19 frontline healthcare workers.

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Protons are the fundamental subatomic particles. Under the Standard Model, we know that protons are composite particles with three valence quarks, which, along with neutrons, form hardons.

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Galaxy clusters grow over time under gravity and, in the present-day universe, can contain hundreds or even thousands of galaxies, as well as hot gas and dark matter. As time goes by, their galaxies burn through the fuel available and evolve from vigorously star-forming galaxies into red and dead galaxies.

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In the last few decades more has been learned about the impact of oral health on the entire human biological system. And more is being done to reduce factors that lead to an estimated 15 million babiesborn prematurely or preterm (defined as delivery before the 37th week of pregnancy) each year. Preterm babies are at greater risk of experiencing serious health problems.

Due to correlation between preterm births and poor oral care, researchers have looked at various ways to improve dental health during pregnancy, including “deep-teeth cleaning” like scaling and planing to remove plaque and tarter on the teeth and below the gum line, but that hasn't seemed to be very effective.

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