This Hayden Planetarium space show led to a cosmic discovery
"Encounters in the Milky Way" at the American Museum of Natural History explores the motion of our solar system through the galaxy, using scientific data and visualizations to explain how these cosmic movements have shaped—and continue to influence—our position in space. Gabe Singer has more.
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Daily Mail
35 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Scientists identify strange 'communication' of non-human intelligence in Earth's oceans
Scientists have found the source of a strange form of communication in the ocean that they say could help them locate extraterrestrial life in space. Researchers from the SETI Institute (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) revealed that large 'smoke ring-like' bubbles coming from underwater were created by humpback whales, which researchers believe is their way of greeting nearby humans. It's the first time scientists have seen whales sending out these unique rings while interacting with people in the wild, and the SETI team said they show an intentional attempt to get the attention of humans - just like saying hello. Until now, the bubble rings have only been seen while humpbacks were gathering prey and when males were making a trail of bubble rings to attract a mate. Researchers said it's quite possible whales have been trying to communicate with people for years but the phenomenon hasn't been studied until now. The team added that these bubble rings could help researchers refine their search for an alien intelligence in the cosmos, opening a door to spotting unusual signals from space that we normally wouldn't think are meant for humans. Study co-lead author Dr Fred Sharpe from the University of California-Davis said: 'They are blowing bubble rings in our direction in an apparent attempt to playfully interact, observe our response, and/or engage in some form of communication.' Now, the institute's WhaleSETI team is studying if this could be a sign that intelligent marine animals are trying to talk to humans, in the same way that aliens from a distant ocean may try to contact Earth. The SETI Institute is a nonprofit research organization dedicated to searching for extraterrestrial intelligence and studying the origins and nature of life in the universe. Scientists analyzed 12 bubble ring episodes that involved 11 different humpback whales between 2019 and 2023 in the wild. These rare reports came from naturalists, citizen scientists, and researchers who revealed what they saw on social media, during interviews, or at scientific conferences. In total, the witnesses spotted 39 bubble rings from whale-watching boats, research vessels, private ships, and airplanes. The study, published in Marine Mammal Science, found that bubble rings were produced in three main contexts: feeding, resting, and curiosity - which was the most common purpose. There were nine instances of humpback whales blowing bubble rings near boats and swimmers. The whales in these cases were consistently seen approaching boats and people in the water without any signs of aggression, splashing their tails and spraying water out of their blowholes. The researchers said this was a clear sign that the humpbacks were relaxed and trying to be playful, leading them to feel comfortable communicating with the humans near them. They typically let out bubble rings from their blowholes that were six to 10 feet in diameter, which floated straight up and look like a smoke ring when they reached the ocean surface. The rings were often aimed right at humans and were paired with other playful behaviors like circling the boats or peeking at swimmers. The humpbacks didn't show anger or fear and lingered after sending out the bubble ring, almost as if waiting for the people to 'answer' their greeting. Scientists concluded that these rings might be a whale's way of saying, 'Hey, let's chat!' or play a game to see how we react, much like a child blowing bubbles to get our attention. The team from SETI said this never-before-seen behavior among humpback whales further supports the assumption that intelligent extraterrestrial life might also seek contact with humans. SETI Institute scientist and study co-author Dr Laurance Doyle said: 'This important assumption is certainly supported by the independent evolution of curious behavior in humpback whales.' Humpback whales have been a constant resource in SETI's search for alien life, with researchers using them as a model of intelligent, non-human creatures which may be living on distant ocean worlds By studying these whales and their new interactions with people as an example of non-human intelligence, WhaleSETI researchers are creating ways of finding and translating potential signals found in space. The institute suggested that bubble rings could be a deliberate attempt by whales to talk with humans they considered peaceful, not just aimless play. According to SETI, this would mimic how extraterrestrials might target satellite receivers on Earth if they wanted to contact humanity. This isn't the first time the WhaleSETI team has connected the behavior of humpbacks to aliens. In 2023, scientists engaged in a 20-minute 'conversation' with a humpback whale named Twain in Alaska. They played whale calls for her and Twain responded with similar calls, matching the timing like a back-and-forth chat. That study showed whales can intentionally interact with humans, helping SETI scientists understand the non-human intelligences they may find in space. 'By integrating our findings into the broader context of Drake's Equation, we aspire to advance our understanding of the factors influencing the emergence of communicative intelligence in extraterrestrial civilizations,' the WhaleSETI team explained in a statement. Drake's Equation is a mathematical formula created in 1961 to estimate the number of extraterrestrial civilizations in our galaxy that can communicate with humans and might be detectable through their signals, like radio waves. If whales show that curiosity and friendly interactions are key to communication, it suggests alien civilizations might also need these traits to develop detectable signals, influencing the numbers in Drake's Equation and guiding SETI's search for life beyond Earth.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Cancer breakthrough as doctors unveil way to zap tumors into oblivion without chemo
A new cancer treatment that uses light could remove the need for harsh chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Texas researchers have devised a way to use infrared light as a jackhammer that can tear cancer cells apart from the inside, showing in trials to have eliminated melanomas, the deadliest form of skin cancer. A synthetic blue dye often used in hospital imaging naturally binds to cancer cells. Researchers found that when the cancer cells were zapped with infrared light, it triggered violent shaking that tore through the cancer cell's membrane, causing it to die without any heat or harsh drugs. The latest breakthrough method – known as vibronic-driven action – had a 99 percent efficiency against lab cultures of human skin cancer cells, and half of the mice with melanoma tumors became cancer-free after just one treatment. 'It is a whole new generation of molecular machines that we call molecular jackhammers,' said Rice University nanotechnologist Dr James Tour. Near- infrared light can penetrate up to 10 cm into the body, reaching organs and bones without surgery. Light particles can also be functionalized to only bind to cancer cells, mitigating damage done to healthy cells. The treatment itself is highly targeted because the atoms of dye bind to the receptors on cancer cells while leaving healthy cells largely untouched. It has already shown in followup trials to kill colorectal cancer, prostate cancer, and breast cancer cells. The next step will be determining whether this same molecular jackhammer will destroy cancer cells in humans. 'This study is about a different way to treat cancer using mechanical forces at the molecular scale,' said Ciceron Ayala-Orozco, a Rice research scientist who is a lead author on the study. If scaled up to human patients, the treatment's impact could be sweeping. An estimated 1.5 million Americans are living with melanoma, 1.4 million have colorectal cancer, and 300,000 men have prostate cancer. In 2025, approximately 316,950 women will be diagnosed with severe, invasive breast cancer. The unassuming dye found in hospitals nationwide is a key feature of vibronic-driven action. After it binds to receptors on melanoma cells, it is assaulted with infrared light, which triggers an earthquake in the cell. The dye atoms begin to vibrate in unison. The dye's electrons sync up into a "plasmon"—a wave of collective motion. This energy couples with the molecule's natural vibrations, making the entire structure shudder at 41 trillion times per second. The violent oscillating energy is transferred directly into the cell's fatty membrane, while nanoscale holes tear open, allowing fluid and foreign molecules to flood in. This fast-moving mechanical force is such that 'anything around it will be disassembled,' Ayala-Orozco said. The cancer cell crumbles as the holes poked in its membrane increase, and dies without further use of any drug or radiation treatment. The Texas team's findings were published in the journal Nature Chemistry. The above graph shows the estimated cancer diagnoses for 2025 by cancer type. Breast, prostate, and lung cancers are expected to be the most common cancers this year Ayala-Orozco said: 'These molecules are simple dyes that people have been using for a long time. They're biocompatible, stable in water and very good at attaching themselves to the fatty outer lining of cells. But even though they were being used for imaging, people did not know how to activate these as plasmons.' After struggling for years to make blue-light-activated motors work against mouse tumors, Ayala-Orozco turned to explore completely different approaches. 'I started to think that maybe what I needed was not necessarily a motor, but a molecule that absorbs near-infrared light, in the hopes that this molecule could be activated and could move in a different way — not necessarily by rotation,' he told Healio. 'That's when I started thinking about some molecules called cyanines and started connecting the dots with a property from photophysics called plasmons, which I studied during my PhD to treat cancer. They are activated by near-infrared light. At some point, I decided I had to try this.' When researchers turned their microscopes on other cancer types, they made an exciting discovery: the molecular jackhammers proved just as devastating against prostate, breast, and colorectal cancer cells in petri dishes. 'No matter which line, we are able to eliminate 100 percent on cell culture,' Ayala-Orozco said. The university will need to partner with a private company to scale up, overcome regulatory hurdles, and enter human trials, 'hopefully, within 5 to 7 years,' Ayala-Orozco said.
Telegraph
2 hours ago
- Telegraph
Cyborg tadpoles ‘hold clues to origin of autism'
Cyborg tadpoles with electrodes grown into their brains have been created by Harvard scientists to help study autism and schizophrenia. Tiny flexible electrodes were implanted into tadpole embryos when they were days old, allowing them to completely embed into the central nervous system as the amphibians grew. It is the first time that researchers have shown it is possible to create a device that integrates seamlessly into the brain while it develops. Usually, scientists implant metal electrodes into mature brains to monitor brain cell activity, but by then, the critical early stages of development are over and the process often causes some neuronal damage. Neurological conditions such as autism, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia are thought to be 'baked in' to the brain early on, so being able to watch the brain developing could offer vital clues into why they develop. 'Autism, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia – these all could happen at early developmental stages,' said Dr Jia Liu, assistant professor of bioengineering at Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. 'There is just no ability currently to measure neural activity during early neural development. Our technology will really enable an uncharted area. 'If we can fully leverage the natural development process, we will have the ability to implant a lot of sensors across the 3D brain non-invasively, and at the same time, monitor how brain activity gradually evolves over time. No one has ever done this before.' To create the cyborg tadpoles, scientists used soft, stretchy implantable ribbons containing dozens of sensors capable of recording the activity of single neurons in the brain. The probes were developed at Harvard and are made from a material known as a 'fluorinated elastomer', similar to Teflon, which can live stably in the brain for several months. It is as soft as biological tissue but can be engineered into highly resilient electronic components that can house multiple sensors for recording brain activity. The ribbons were implanted on an area of the embryo called the 'neural plate', which is the earliest stage of the nervous system. As the embryo develops, the plate bends into a u-shape, taking the ribbon probes inside. By the time the neural plate has grown into the neural tube – the basis of the brain and central nervous system – the electronics are completely embedded inside, where they can give a read-out of how the neurons are firing and communicating with each other. Researchers say the device can record electrical activity from single brain cells with millisecond precision, with no impact on normal tadpole embryo development or behaviour. By integrating their stretchable device into the neural plate, the researchers showed they could continuously monitor brain activity during each embryonic stage. 'These so-called cyborg tadpoles offer a glimpse into a future in which profound mysteries of the brain could be illuminated, and diseases that manifest in early development could be understood, treated or cured,' Harvard said in a press notice about the new technology. The research is published in the journal Nature.
