Researchers Find And Film World’s Deepest Fish In The Mariana Trench

By Darcy Rowland

An underwater voyage, into the Mariana Trench, has found an unidentified species of fish more than 5 miles deep, which is a new record for the deepest fish ever discovered and filmed.

The Mariana Trench is the deepest point on Earth, which is located in the Western Pacific near Guam. It is made up of some of the oldest seabed in the world — over 180 million years old. It was formed by lava from underwater volcanic action. As lava cooled, aged and spread it became increasingly dense and settled. Many attempts have been made to reach to its deepest point, the Challenger Deep. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, the water pressure at this deepest part of the trench is equivalent to the collective weight of 50 jumbo jets.

Marine biologists and scientists recently descended towards the Mariana Trench that gave up a creature living in this deepest point on Earth – a snail-fish. The discovery was made during a marine voyage on board the research vessel Falkor of the Schmidt Ocean Institute.

This Hadal Ecosystem Studies (HADES) expedition was led by co-chief scientists Jeff Drazen and Patty Fryer of the University of Hawaii. The researchers sent five deep sea vehicle systems called the Hadal landers for a total of 92 times at specifically targeted depths from 5000 meters to 10,600 meters. The Hadal lander is equipped with a variety of scientific instruments, high resolution cameras and array of small baited funnel traps, which are used to lure and trap small animals.

---

For Christmas, Neil deGrasse Tyson sets Twittersphere in motion

By Emanuella Grinberg

It’s a number that even astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson is having a hard time wrapping his brilliant mind around.

His Christmas Day tweet commemorating the birthday of Isaac Newton was retweeted more than 69,000 times as of this writing, making it the most popular of his Twitter career so far — and, arguably, his most controversial.

“On this day long ago, a child was born who, by age 30, would transform the world. Happy Birthday Isaac Newton b. Dec 25, 1642,” the StarTalk host tweeted.

On this day long ago, a child was born who, by age 30, would transform the world. Happy Birthday Isaac Newton b. Dec 25, 1642

— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) December 25, 2014

He followed it up with a nod to the commercialization of Christmas: “Merry Christmas to all. A Pagan holiday (BC) becomes a Religious holiday (AD). Which then becomes a Shopping holiday (USA).” By then, he was on a roll. Earlier in the day, he tweeted, “QUESTION: This year, what do all the world’s Muslims and Jews call December 25th? ANSWER: Thursday.”

---

Whooping cough proteins evolving ‘unusually’ fast

By Emma Wilkinson

Whooping cough may be evolving to outsmart the currently used vaccine, say researchers.

Analysis of strains from 2012 shows the parts of the pertussis bacterium that the vaccine primes the immune system to recognise are changing.

It may have “serious consequences” in future outbreaks, UK researchers state in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

But experts stressed the vaccine remains highly effective in protecting the most vulnerable young babies.

There has been a global resurgence of whooping cough in recent years.

In 2012, there were almost 10,000 confirmed cases in England and Wales – a dramatic increase from the last “peak” of 900 cases in 2008.

The outbreak led to 14 deaths in babies under three months of age – the group who are most vulnerable to infection.

Rising figures prompted health officials to recommend vaccination of pregnant women so immunity could be passed to their newborns – a strategy that a recent study showed was working well.

---

Wishing my readers and their families a peaceful Holiday Season, and prosperous New Year.

 

Scientists challenge ‘Abominable Snowman DNA’ results

By Steven McKenzie

A theory that the mythical yeti is a rare polar bear-brown bear hybrid animal has been challenged.

Last year, Oxford University genetics professor Bryan Sykes revealed the results of DNA tests on hairs said to be from the Abominable Snowman.

The tests matched the samples with the DNA of an ancient polar bear.

But two other scientists have said re-analysis of the same data shows the hairs belong to the Himalayan bear, a sub-species of the brown bear.

The results of the new research by Ceiridwen Edwards and Ross Barnett have been published in the Royal Society journal, Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Among Dr Edwards’ previous work was an attempt to carry out DNA analysis of a sample taken from bones of a polar bear washed into caves in north west Scotland 18,000 years ago.

According to legend, the yeti is a large and elusive ape-like beast.

For many years experts have been seeking a scientific explanation for the Abominable Snowman.

Prof Sykes, along with other genetics experts, conducted DNA tests on hairs from two unidentified animals, one from Ladakh – in northern India on the west of the Himalayas – and the other from Bhutan, 800 miles (1,285km) further east.

---

Judge dismisses lawsuit over Kansas science standards

The Associated Press

A federal judge Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit alleging that science standards for Kansas public schools promote atheism and violate the religious freedoms of students and parents.

U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree ruled that a nonprofit group, parents and taxpayers challenging the standards did not claim specific enough injuries from adoption of the guidelines to allow the case to go forward.

The State Board of Education last year adopted standards developed by Kansas, 25 other states and the National Research Council. The guidelines treat both evolution and climate change as key scientific concepts to be taught from kindergarten through 12th grade.

The guidelines replaced evolution-friendly standards that had been in place since 2007, and most board members believed they will improve science education by shifting the emphasis in classes to hands-on projects and experiments. The board sought the lawsuit’s dismissal.

---

Kenya: Al Shabaab Promoting Atheism – Wabukala

By Brian Otieno

The Anglican Church of Kenya yesterday said the terrorist attacks in the country are part of a global war against organised religion.

ACK Archbishop Eliud Wabukala said the attacks are carried out by people who want to promote atheism.

“They want to remove religion from the society,” he said.

Wabukala spoke during the opening of the provincial Kenya Anglican Men’s Association conference at Shanzu Teachers Training College, Mombasa.

He said the first target is Christianity, but it will soon spread to other faiths including Islam.

“Islam will eventually be affected as it would be portrayed as a religion that supports terror,” the archbishop said.

Wabukala said religious leaders from all faiths need to come together and condemn the acts.

---

NASA’s Curiosity Rover Finds Clues to How Water Helped Shape Martian Landscape

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

By NASA

Observations by NASA’s Curiosity Rover indicate Mars’ Mount Sharp was built by sediments deposited in a large lake bed over tens of millions of years.

This interpretation of Curiosity’s finds in Gale Crater suggests ancient Mars maintained a climate that could have produced long-lasting lakes at many locations on the Red Planet.

“If our hypothesis for Mount Sharp holds up, it challenges the notion that warm and wet conditions were transient, local, or only underground on Mars,” said Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity deputy project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. “A more radical explanation is that Mars’ ancient, thicker atmosphere raised temperatures above freezing globally, but so far we don’t know how the atmosphere did that.”

Why this layered mountain sits in a crater has been a challenging question for researchers. Mount Sharp stands about 3 miles (5 kilometers) tall, its lower flanks exposing hundreds of rock layers. The rock layers – alternating between lake, river and wind deposits — bear witness to the repeated filling and evaporation of a Martian lake much larger and longer-lasting than any previously examined close-up.

---

Stephen Hawking warns artificial intelligence could end mankind

By Rory Cellan-Jones

Prof Stephen Hawking, one of Britain’s pre-eminent scientists, has said that efforts to create thinking machines pose a threat to our very existence.

He told the BBC:”The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.”

His warning came in response to a question about a revamp of the technology he uses to communicate, which involves a basic form of AI.

But others are less gloomy about AI’s prospects.

The theoretical physicist, who has the motor neurone disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), is using a new system developed by Intel to speak.

Machine learning experts from the British company Swiftkey were also involved in its creation. Their technology, already employed as a smartphone keyboard app, learns how the professor thinks and suggests the words he might want to use next.

Prof Hawking says the primitive forms of artificial intelligence developed so far have already proved very useful, but he fears the consequences of creating something that can match or surpass humans.

---

Star Trek-like invisible shield found thousands of miles above Earth

Image courtesy Andy Kale, University of Alberta

By Space Daily

A team led by the University of Colorado Boulder has discovered an invisible shield some 7,200 miles above Earth that blocks so-called “killer electrons,” which whip around the planet at near-light speed and have been known to threaten astronauts, fry satellites and degrade space systems during intense solar storms.

The barrier to the particle motion was discovered in the Van Allen radiation belts, two doughnut-shaped rings above Earth that are filled with high-energy electrons and protons, said Distinguished Professor Daniel Baker, director of CU-Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP).

Held in place by Earth’s magnetic field, the Van Allen radiation belts periodically swell and shrink in response to incoming energy disturbances from the sun.

As the first significant discovery of the space age, the Van Allen radiation belts were detected in 1958 by Professor James Van Allen and his team at the University of Iowa and were found to be comprised of an inner and outer belt extending up to 25,000 miles above Earth’s surface.

---