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Scottish Sun
a day ago
- Scottish Sun
Why scientists believe an ALIEN spacecraft could be hurtling towards Earth
Read on for six key theories about a mystery object tearing towards Earth proposed by Harvard experts SPACE ODDITY Why scientists believe an ALIEN spacecraft could be hurtling towards Earth Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) A MYSTERY object tearing towards Earth at break-neck speed has raised fears that ALIENS are on their way here. Boffins warn that the odd entity, which astronomers are calling 31/Atlas, could be an ET craft set to launch probes on our planet. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 4 The object astronomers are calling 31/Atlas could be an ET craft set to launch probes on our planet Credit: Getty 4 The discovery has raised fears that aliens are on their way here Credit: Getty Estimated at more than 12 miles wide, it is whizzing through our solar system on a trajectory that will bring it within about 170million miles of us on December 19. A trio of scientists from Harvard University in America, led by astrophysicist Avi Loeb, have published a paper speculating whether it could be 'hostile' extraterrestrial technology. Nick Pope, a retired Ministry of Defence UFO investigator, said: 'It is not beyond the realms of science fiction that 31/Atlas could be an alien spaceship of some kind. 'Unusual behaviour' 'It's an unusual size, unusual acceleration, unusual course and unusual behaviour — those things combined very closely match a sort of mapping or survey mission. READ MORE ON ALIENS STARRY EYED Nasa observatory could finally find ALIENS as it hunts for habitable worlds 'Of course, this could turn out to be just a comet or an asteroid — albeit an interstellar one, so interesting and incredibly rare. 'The good thing is this is a testable hypothesis. 'The clock is ticking down. We will know soon enough whether we're dealing with first contact . . . or just a big rock.' 4 Astrophysicist Avi Loeb speculated whether the object could be 'hostile' extraterrestrial technology Credit: Getty 4 Retired Ministry of Defence UFO investigator Nick Pope Credit: Coleman-Rayner for The US Sun Here, Nick sets out the six key theories proposed by Harvard experts. 1. It's too large to be an asteroid. We do know asteroids in our solar system range in size but this is much bigger than average 2. Its rate of acceleration seems unusual for a natural object. The European Space Agency and Hubble space telescope calculate it is travelling at about 130,000mph. Nasa says at that speed, it is the fastest solar system visitor. Nasa's futuristic observatory could finally find aliens as it hunts for hidden habitable worlds, say experts 3. We spotted it very late. This was because it was coming in from the centre of the galaxy, where there are a lot of obstacles, light and stars. If you wanted to covertly send a probe into our solar system, this is exactly the course you would choose. 4. Its course makes it very hard to intercept. At critical points where it might do something technological, such as perform a non-natural manoeuvre, it is blocked by the sun. 5. Passing close to Venus, Mars and Jupiter. This is like a mapping or survey mission. There is a very low probability of that happening naturally — the report suggests close to 0.005 per cent. That is statistically minute. 6. We won't see it. At its closest approach, the sun will be between the Earth and Atlas so we won't be able to see it. Again, this is exactly the course you would choose, as it can do all its sneaky braking manoeuvres and changes of course without us seeing it. It might do one of two things if this is technological. It could change course and come to Earth itself. Or it could, if it's a mothership, deploy some probes that would come to Earth.
Reuters
3 days ago
- Reuters
Biomechanics study shows how T. rex and other dinosaurs fed on prey
WASHINGTON, Aug 15 (Reuters) - Tyrannosaurus subdued prey with raw power, using bone-crushing bite force. But other meat-eating dinosaurs that rivaled T. rex in size used different approaches. Giganotosaurus relied more on slashing and ripping flesh. And the long and narrow snout of Spinosaurus was well-adapted for catching fish. Researchers have documented the feeding biomechanics of meat-eating dinosaurs in a comprehensive analysis of the skull design and bite force of 17 species that prowled the landscape at various times from the dawn to the twilight of the age of dinosaurs. The study found that Tyrannosaurus possessed by far the highest estimated bite force, with a heavily reinforced skull and massive jaw muscles. But it showed that other dinosaur predators evolved successful approaches to bringing down prey even without matching the T. rex chomp. "We found that large predatory dinosaurs didn't all evolve the same kind of skull to deal with the challenges of feeding at massive size," said vertebrate paleontologist Andre Rowe of the University of Bristol in England, lead author of the study published this month in the journal Current Biology, opens new tab. "Some, like T. rex, reinforced the skull to tolerate extremely high bite forces and the associated skull stresses. Others, like Allosaurus or Spinosaurus, went with lighter or possibly flexible builds that spread out stress in different ways. There's no single 'correct' way to be a giant meat-eater, and that's the point," Rowe added. The study focused on species within the group, or clade, called theropods that includes the meat-eating dinosaurs. They ran from Herrerasaurus, which lived in Argentina about 230 million years ago and is one of the earliest-known dinosaurs, all the way to T. rex, which was present in western North America when an asteroid struck Earth 66 million years ago and ended the age of dinosaurs. The researchers used three-dimensional models of the skulls of the 17 species, including two different specimens of Tyrannosaurus, and applied a method for simulating how structures respond to physical stress. They estimated muscle forces using digital muscle reconstructions based on living relatives of the dinosaurs - birds and crocodiles - then applied those forces to the skull models to simulate bites. "Our focus wasn't raw bite force. We were testing how the skulls distributed that force under load, and how these distributions varied by each lineage of carnivores," Rowe said. The early theropods examined in the study such as Herrerasaurus, which lived during the middle of the Triassic Period, and Dilophosaurus, which lived early in the Jurassic Period, exhibited much lower stress resistance than their later counterparts. They were lightly built dinosaurs and not well adapted to high bite forces, Rowe said. The increase in bite force and skull strength unfolded gradually over time, reaching its apex with Tyrannosaurus and its close relatives in a lineage called tyrannosaurs such as Daspletosaurus and Albertosaurus, which like T. rex appeared late in the Cretaceous Period. "In tyrannosaurs, there's a big jump in skull strength and bite mechanics, coinciding with deeper skulls, more robust bone architecture and changes in jaw muscle attachment. So the ramp-up wasn't immediate. It evolved over time and in certain lineages more than others," Rowe said. Tyrannosaurus, Giganotosaurus and Spinosaurus were three of the largest theropods, but their skulls were quite different. Perhaps the largest-known Tyrannosaurus is a specimen named Sue at the Field Museum in Chicago, at 40-1/2 feet (12.3 meters) long. Giganotosaurus and Spinosaurus rivaled T. rex in size. Giganotosaurus lived in Argentina in the middle of the Cretaceous, while Spinosaurus inhabited North Africa at around the same time, both predating Tyrannosaurus by roughly 30 million years. "Giganotosaurus was large, but its skull wasn't built for the same kind of high-force feeding as T. rex. Spinosaurus had a long, narrow snout, which is consistent with a diet focused on fishing, though we have fossilized evidence that it ate other animals, such as pterosaurs," Rowe said, referring to the flying reptiles that were cousins of the dinosaurs. One of the key takeaway messages, Rowe said, is that giant body size did not funnel all theropods toward the same design. Stronger bite force was one strategy, but not the only one, Rowe added. "Some animals win with raw power, others by striking quickly or repeatedly. What we're seeing here is a spectrum of ecological adaptations. These animals weren't all trying to be T. rex clones. They were solving the same problem in different ways," Rowe added. "That kind of evolutionary flexibility," Rowe added, "probably helped them dominate ecosystems for so long."
Reuters
3 days ago
- Reuters
Health Rounds: Blood test finds early ovarian cancer
Aug 15 (Reuters) - An experimental blood test detects early-stage ovarian cancer in patients with vague symptoms that would likely be misdiagnosed using currently available methods, researchers said in a new report. Ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related deaths among women, largely due to delays in diagnosis until after the disease has spread in the body, at which point it's harder to treat, according to the researchers. More than 90% of patients with early-stage ovarian cancer experience symptoms that can be mistaken for benign conditions, such as bloating, abdominal pain, and digestive issues. Not only have there been no reliable blood tests for these patients, but existing invasive tests often miss early-stage ovarian tumors, the researchers noted inCancer Research Communications, opens new tab. Using machine learning tools, the researchers identified multiple biomarkers - from across a wide range of molecules and processes in the body - that could be combined into a single test that detects all sub-types of the disease, at all stages, they said. Trialed at a large medical center on blood samples from nearly 400 women with possible symptoms of ovarian cancer, the test was 92% accurate at identifying those with any stage of ovarian cancer and 88% accurate at identifying those with Stage I or Stage II disease, according to the report. Oriana Papin-Zoghbi, chief executive officer of the company developing the new test -Denver, Colorado-based AOA Dx - said the findings show its potential to aid 'in making faster, more informed decisions for women who need urgent clarity during a challenging diagnostic process.' PREVENTING ELDERS' 'LEAKY BRAIN' MIGHT STAVE OFF COGNITIVE DECLINE The blood-brain barrier gets leakier with age, contributing to memory deficits – and new discoveries of the mechanisms behind this process might lead to new ways of preventing cognitive decline, researchers say. The blood-brain barrier - a layer of tightly-junctioned cells lining the brain's blood vessels - keeps viruses, bacteria and toxins out while allowing helpful nutrients and chemicals in. 'Basically, it's a mechanism that separates the central nervous system from everything else,' study leader Yulia Komarova of University of Illinois Chicago said in a statement. In previous research, Komarova and her colleagues found that removing a protein called N-cadherin from the cells lining blood vessels made the vessels leakier in the brain. In a new study published in Cell Reports, opens new tab, her team found that mice without N-cadherin could learn tasks as well as normal mice, but they quickly forgot what they learned. In further experiments, they found when N-cadherin proteins on neighboring cells interact, they stabilize a protein, called occludin, which helps form the tight junctions in the blood-brain barrier that maintains the integrity of the blood-brain barrier. Examining human brain tissue collected during epilepsy surgeries, the researchers found that samples from patients in their 40s and 50s had lower levels of N-cadherin and occludin than samples from patients in their late teens and 20s. Komarova's team is now investigating whether steps in the signaling pathway activated by N-cadherin could be therapeutic targets. 'This paper shows that actually there might be a much bigger therapeutic window for treatment of any age-related cognitive decline condition,' she said. Previous studies may have underestimated the number of deaths related to wildfire smoke in Europe by as much as 93%, according to a report in The Lancet Planetary Health, opens new tab. In new research, using daily mortality records from 654 contiguous regions in 32 European countries, researchers found that for every 1 microgram per cubit meter increase in wildfire smoke particles, all-cause mortality rose by 0.7%, respiratory mortality by 1%, and cardiovascular mortality by 0.9%. Annually since 2004, short-term exposure to wildfire pollution was responsible for an average of 535 deaths from all causes, the researchers calculated – while estimates in previous studies had put that number at around 38 deaths per year, they said. 'Human-driven climate change is one of the main causes of the rising frequency and intensity of wildfires, as it creates favorable conditions for their spread and increases the number of days with very high or extremely high fire risk,' study leader Anna Alari of the Barcelona Institute for Global Health said in a statement. 'Improving estimates of (wildfire smoke related) mortality will help better track the burden of this climate change-related threat to public health.' A separate study found that as wildfire pollution levels rise, firefighters' hearts work harder, researchers wrote in Circulation Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology, opens new tab. After fighting the Park Fire in California, firefighters' heart rate at rest would rise by an average of 1.4 beats per minute for every 10-ug/m3 increase in particulate matter. Although the increase in resting heart rate was modest, and the rate remained within normal levels, even slight elevations have been associated with increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality over time in large population studies. (To receive the full newsletter in your inbox for free sign up here)
