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Thursday, October 22, 2020
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Retiring Later Helps You Live Longer

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"work"

Just started working for a couple of years and already dreaming of retirement

Work, even though it has always been necessary for the continued progression and survival of our species, has become quite a bother. Ever since we’ve stopped working just for survival and started having a monetary system in place, people started getting reasons to hate their jobs.

And of course, why wouldn’t they? If it’s up to someone else to compensate you for the work you do and if you consider you deserve more money, you’ve already got yourself a difference of opinion. Add to that the fact that you are constantly told what to do, and you’ve got yourself a recipe for disaster.

Dreaming of retirement

So it’s no surprise to anybody that people can’t wait to retire. Many times, even young people that have been working their jobs just long enough for them to become tedious happen to dream of retirement, perhaps even just to fantasize about a time when they don’t have to wake up as early as they have to.

But that might not be such a good idea, apparently. According to a very long and complex study, retiring later helps you live longer, although it may not feel like such. The study was performed as part of the very long term Healthy Retirement Study, and it was supported by the National Institute on Aging and the University of Michigan.

Retirement study

For the study, the researchers followed a sample of 2,956 people for eighteen years. So as to look at how exactly early retirement affects longevity, the participants were chosen so as to have been working in the year 1992 but to have fully retired by 2010. They were also divided into two groups.

In order to make sure that the results aren’t affected by any factors, the participants were divided into two groups based on their health state when they retired – the healthy group (contained two thirds of the participants, and they all quit for reasons unrelated to their health status) and the not healthy group (one third of the participants, they quit for health reasons).

Life expectations during retirement

More than half of the subjects chose to retire before the age of 65, a third retired at the age of 66 or older, and exactly twelve percent retired at exactly 65 years old. As it turns out, even a single year spent working extra can lead to an overall lower chance of dying from any causes – what is called an “all-cause mortality risk.”

In fact, for the healthy group, each year spent working after the age of 65 decreased the all-cause mortality risk by 11 percent, while for the participants in the not healthy group that worked until they were 72 lowered their mortality by 48 percent (as compared to 56 percent for the healthy group).

Image source: Flickr

Scientists Finally Understand How Type 1 Diabetes Works

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"diabetes"

Medical researchers have been at war with a number of diseases for decades. As much as they work on them and as many resources as are allocated to the fight against them (not that many, at least in some cases), we don’t seem to be making too much progress in regards to conditions like cancer, heart disease, or diabetes.

And speaking of diabetes, scientists aren’t even sure how the entire affair works in the first place, or at least they weren’t until today. According to a study from the University of Lincoln in the UK, scientists finally understand how type 1 diabetes works. And now that they know that, they’re hoping they can come up with a cure.

Current status of diabetes

While it had been known for some time that type 1 diabetes works by having the immune system attack four molecules in the pancreas, it was suspected that there also was a fifth molecule involved in the whole affair. This is because the four molecules about which the world of medicine knew could explain the effects of the disease on their own.

Four of the autoantigens, as the molecules are called, are primarily used to produce and to regulate insulin levels, while the fifth is insulin itself. Treated with insulin injections, type 1 diabetes prevents the body from generating the substance and stops it from reaching different areas of the body. Not taking the insulin injections can lead to serious, life-long consequences.

Research on the fifth molecule

Finally understanding exactly how the disease works, the team of scientists from the UK and Italy discovered the fifth molecule affected by the condition – tetraspanin-7. Not only will the fact that the scientists know all five molecules affect detection methods for the condition, but it might also help in developing a proper treatment other than constant insulin injections.

Each of the five targeted molecules – insulin, the Glutamate decarboxylase enzyme, the two proteins IA-2 and Zinc transporter-8, and the recently discovered tetraspanin-7 – is targeted by a different antibody. Current diabetes tests are performed by testing for the antibodies that have turned on the body, and a similar procedure was used to identify the tetraspanin-7 in the first place.

The team says that they’ve been at it for quite some time, and that they even gave up at one point. As they were considering failure, because the initial tests came out negative and because so many different groups all over the world had tried the same thing fruitlessly, the team decided to try a new approach. The new approach worked flawlessly, and here they are today, ready to bring forth a new era of diabetes treatments.

Image source: Pixabay

Earth Is Pummeled by Stardust from a Dead Supernova

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"crab nebula"

When people say that we are made of star dust, they are in fact romanticizing. No, all of our composing atoms originated on Earth, even though the Earth is composed of two different planets – the original Earth and Theia. But the remnants of distant stars are far closer than you may even imagine.

While it’s true that any dying star that stops shining right now is too far away for its light to reach us within our lifetimes, that doesn’t mean that the stars we’re still seeing are still in existence. And it certainly doesn’t mean that there is nothing left of them even if they blew up.

Ancient star dust

As you might have surmised from the title, a team of researchers from the Washington University in Saint Louis managed to determine that Earth is pummeled by stardust from a dead supernova. This pummeling is done by specks of intergalactic dust propelled from the exploding star with speeds close to that of light.

The finding comes as a result of a team of researchers discovering tiny deposits of iron-60 isotopes in most of the world’s oceans. The specks of radioactive cosmic dust were very difficult to trace, primarily because of the many shifts in trajectory they suffered as they were slingshot by the gravity and magnetic fields of other celestial bodies.

Isotopes and dating

As for the iron-60 isotopes, the researchers realized that they didn’t come from Earth because iron-60 is only produced in dying stars. It is also with the help of isotopes that scientists were able to figure out that Earth as it is today, as well as the moon, resulted from the head-on collision with a forming planet that was part of our solar system.

Still, once they realized that the dust specks weren’t from Earth, as well that they were radioactive, the team used dating procedures to figure out exactly when the supernova that pushed dust with such force that it’s falling on Earth today exploded, as well as how close it was to our own floating space rock.

Seventeen years of data

By looking at seventeen years of cosmic ray data captured by spectrometers, satellites, and other very expensive imagers, the scientists managed to find fifteen atomic nuclei in the iron-60 or 60Fe particles. And it’s with their help that the team managed to pinpoint the time and place of the exploding supernova.

According to the findings, the supernova was actually pretty close to Earth, and it went up just a few million years ago. While it may seem like a lot, if we consider the distances and times in outer space, that’s quite recent. In fact, it is estimated that our Homo erectus ancestors probably witnessed the explosion in the sky, as it would have been close enough to see with the naked eye.

Image source: Wikimedia

Rapetosaurus Left Its Young to Fend for Themselves

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"Rapetosaurus krausei"

Dinosaurs, while they were definitely some of the greatest creatures to ever rule our planet, also happened to live very brutal lives. Their existence was pretty much a mix of roaming and attempting to eat or to not get eaten. Understandably, many of the creatures died very young, soon after birth.

And just like it happens nowadays in nature, there were countless nursing habits between the creatures. While some dinosaurs took care of their young until they were old enough to fend for themselves, others left them to fend for themselves very soon after they hatched from their eggs. But biology generally took care of that.

Rapetosaurus krausei

A sauropod, as well as one of the largest dinosaurs to ever walk the face of the Earth, the Rapetosaurus was a herbivorous animal in the same group as the Apatosaurus – the titanosaurs. While you might know the Apatosaurus by its old name, the Brontosaurus (which never existed, by the way), you most likely never heard about the Rapetosaurus because of its very poorly thought-out name. It doesn’t bode all that well in the media is all I’m saying.

Anyway, researchers found some very interesting fossils belonging to a baby Rapetosaurus, and they uncovered some pretty shocking facts regarding the creatures’ rearing habits. These discoveries came as a result of a team of researchers pinning down the age of the baby titanosaur from an old rock in Madagascar estimated to be around 70 to 66 million years old.

Built like tanks

By analyzing the bone structure of the tiny dinosaur, the team determined that the creature was somewhere around 39 to 77 days old when it died. But that’s not the real shocker. The real shocker is that the analysis suggests that the animal grew from 7.5 pounds at birth (3.4 kg) to 88 pounds (40 kg) only a few weeks later.

Additionally, the bone structure had already starting rearranging itself to more closely resemble that of an adult. This means that the creatures were designed to start changing their bodies to support their adult weight before they even turned a month old. Plus, evidence showed that the baby dinosaur had already roamed for a while quite actively before it died.

Living on their own

Actually, the bones even showed what killed the creature –starvation. That, combined with all the other factors the team of scientists discovered, led them to believe that the Rapetosaurus left its young to fend for themselves pretty much as soon as they were hatched.

While this might have some pretty traumatizing implications in regards to “The Land Before Time”, it also showcases how different the rearing behaviors of dinosaurs actually were. Plus, it also showcases the hugely diverse process of evolution, as we are shown how a baby started changing its bones to supports its soon-to-come immense adult weight.

Image source: Wikimedia

Deodorants and Antiperspirants Affects Underarm Microbiome

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"deodorants"

Deodorant has some undoubtedly positive effects. I’m pretty sure that every person reading this article has wished at least once that someone was wearing deodorant. Antiperspirant is pretty much in the same dog house, providing us with slightly more tolerable public transportation rides. But according to a study from North Carolina, deodorants and antiperspirants mess up our microbiome.

You and your microbiome

For those of you that don’t know what your microbiome is, here is a very succinct biology lesson. The microbiome is the community of microbes living in a certain environment. There is also a pan-microbiome, referring to all the microbes on Earth.

In this case, the study refers to the microbes living under our arms – on our armpits, to be more exact. Most microbes living on the surface of your skin – and there are a lot of those – are beneficial, or at least harmless.

They tend to feed on what your body excretes – and by that I mean very small stuff, like sweat, dead skin, etc. – and to fend off other microbes that want to make you their home, usually by not letting them feed and having them starve to death.

The largest part of benevolent bacteria living on a human body is Corynebacteria. They are responsible for your body odor, as they feed off the sweat you eliminate from your glands.

In the study, a team of researchers from the North Carolina Central University wanted to find out the effect of antiperspirants and deodorants on the microbiome living under your arms. And this is the beginning of the experiment.

Antiperspirant vs. deodorant vs. nothing

For the study, the team had a sample of 17 men and women, and divided them into three groups. The first group would wear antiperspirant for eight days, while the second would wear deodorant. The third group was the control group, and they would use nothing for the following eight days.

But there is slightly more to the experiment – samples of armpit bacteria were collected both at the beginning of the eight days, and during the final day; additionally, all subjects used antiperspirants after the eighth day sample, and another one was collected afterwards.

The group that didn’t use anything was found to have the highest amount of Corynebacteria, as well as the lowest number of the harmful Staphylococcaceae bacteria.

The antiperspirant group showed pretty much the same number of Staphylococcaceae as the deodorant group, but far fewer Corynebacteria than the other two groups. Meanwhile, unidentifiable bacterium were present as 10% in the control group, as 5% in the deodorant group, and as 20% in the antiperspirant group.

Image source: Wikimedia

Sea level rise more than expected; a threat to coasts

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sea-level-rise

Recent study reveals that rise in sea level in the past two decades has elevated faster than estimated which a sign of threat to coasts from Florida to Bangladesh.

The report reassessed the records from 600 tidal gauges; found that readings from the span of 1901 to 1990 had over-estimated the rise in sea levels. Based on the current readings the acceleration since then was far greater than assumed so far.

According to the report the earlier readings were biased by factors such as subsidence.

The new analysis made by Carling Hay, a Canadian scientist at Harvard University and lead author of the study, “suggests that the acceleration in the past two decades is 25 percent higher than previously thought,”

The study said that rise in sea level  caused by factors including a thaw of glaciers, averaged about 1.2 millimeters (0.05 inch) a year from 1901-90 – less than past estimates – and leapt to 3 mm a year in the past two decades, apparently linked to a quickening thaw of ice.

Previous year, the calculation made by U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) counts 1.5mm rise in the span of 1901-1990,  meaning less of a leap to the recent rate around 3 mm.

The new study might affect the projection of the future pace of sea level rise.

John Church, a top IPCC author at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization in Australia, told Reuters he did not expect any impact on the IPCC’s core sea level projections, which are not based on past trends.

Stefan Rahmstorf, of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and a world expert in past sea levels said that further analysis is required to connect 20th century sea level rise.

The new findings confirm that “sea level is rising and … the rise has accelerated, with the most recent rates being the highest on record,” he told Reuters.

New Species of Frog Discovered That Gives Birth to TadPoles

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new-specie-of-tadpole

A latest research reveals that a new species of frog gives birth to live tadpoles instead of eggs.

Jim McGuire, the lead researcher of the study came across a single female frog on an Indonesian Island.  As soon as he picked up the frog, she squirted tadpoles on his hands. Unfortunately, McGuire was unable to capture the entire scene from a camera.  However, the incident compels McGuire to begin a new research on the entire reproduction process of the new specie.

Later on, the researchers named the new group of frog Limnonectes larvaepartus. These frogs are extremely difficult to find on Earth. They are around 1-1/2 inches long (40 mm) and has a weight about 5 grams.  They are linked with the fanged frogs generally found in the continent of Asia.

There are around 6,455 different kinds of frog species present in the world.  They reproduce in numerous different manners. Generally, some male frog fertilizes inside and some outside of the body of female frog. In comparison, female frogs usually lay eggs. However,  Limnonectes larvaepartus is the only one specie that gives birth to tadpole

McGuire notifies that mostly frogs fertilize internally inside the bodies of females. Nevertheless, the recently recognized frogs put fertilized eggs or give birth to froglets.  The process is common in tiny version of adult that are recently gone through tadpole stage.

The report is explained in detail in 31st December’s edition of Journal PlOS One. Nonetheless, the research is yet to be described in a scientific paper.

Drunken birds slur just like humans: Study says

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drunken-birds-slur-like-humans

Researchers from Oregon Health & Science University have found that birds slur after getting drunk just like human do. Scientists selected Zebra finch, a song bird that learns to sing in the same manner as humans learn speech.

In the study made, Researcher described how a group of zebra finches reacted after being given a mixture of grape juice and ethanol. They have recorded how the acoustics of the song altered after having alcohol.

Researchers wrote “The most pronounced effects were decreased amplitude and increased entropy, the latter likely reflecting a disruption in the birds’ ability to maintain the spectral structure of song under alcohol,”

“Furthermore, specific syllables, which have distinct acoustic structures, were differentially influenced by alcohol, likely reflecting a diversity in the neural mechanisms required for their production.” They added.

Zebra finch will prove to be a powerful model in understanding how alcohol affects learned social behaviors in humans, the researchers said.

Long droughts were a reason for Maya Civilization to wipe out: Research findings

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Blue Hole

MAYA, an American Indian Civilization of Yucatan and Belize and Guatemala, had a culture rich in pottery, architecture and astronomy. This civilization lasted from 300 to 900 AD.

The sudden disappearance of this civilization became a major concern for scientists. They were in search for the reason that why this civilization got wiped out from the face of the earth. The only thing that kept them alive up till now is their discrete architecture and pottery.

Sediments from great “Blue hole”, an underwater cave at Belize, have indicated that that century long droughts lead to Mayas destruction. These long droughts were occurred during the same time when the Mayas vanished.

Researcher from Rice University, Andre Droxler, examined the sediments from the “blue hole” in which he analyzed the percentage of aluminum and titanium. Researchers found that considerable amount of titanium that is actually a part of volcanic rocks ran out during the dry period.

Since the lesser amount of titanium proved that droughts must have occurred during the period when Mayas were wiped out, researcher wrote “The team found that during the period between A.D. 800 and A.D. 1000, when the Mayan civilization collapsed, there were just one or two tropical cyclones every two decades, as opposed to the usual five or six.”

Scientists Revealed the Relationship between Quantum Mechanics and String Field Theory

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quantum-physics

Researchers revealed that the String field theory could lay the foundation of quantum mechanics. The connection enhanced the importance of the string theory. The study was funded by the Department of  Energy and has been published online on Oct. 27 in the journal Physics Letters.

Moreover, this discovery also enable us to use M-theory, as the main foundation of all branches of physics. This M theory is a broader version of quantum theory.

Itzhak Bars, a Professor at USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Science is the lead author of the paper. He stated that,“This could solve the mystery of where quantum mechanics comes from”.

Itzhak also collaborated with a PhD student at USC, named Dmitry Rychkov; for the completion of this study. The basic idea is to use string field theory to validate quantum mechanics, rather than quantum mechanics to validate string field theory .

They also repostulated the string field theory in a more clear manner. They presented the commutation rules, which sets the basic fundamental principles for quantum mechanics. Those principles were basically derived from joining and splitting the geometry of strings.

Stating the idea in the paper, Bar said that,“Our argument can be presented in bare bones in a hugely simplified mathematical structure. The essential ingredient is the assumption that all matter is made up of strings and that the only possible interaction is joining/splitting as specified in their version of string field theory.”

If we see the old form of the string theory, we will notice that both the quantum mechanics and general relativity work independently, in their respective domains. This theory was proposed in early 70s and suggested that, “String theory resolved inconsistencies of quantum gravity and suggested that the fundamental unit of matter was a tiny string, not a point, and that the only possible interactions of matter are strings either joining or splitting. USC researchers have proposed a link between string field theory and quantum mechanics that could open the door to using string field theory or a broader version of it, called M-theory, as the basis of all physics”.

After four decades of the first arrival of string theory, scientists are still making efforts to hash out the string theory; which is still demanding some interesting new dimensions to work. For instance the idea why quarks and leptons have electric charge, color and flavort; that distinguish them from one another.

At this point of time, there is no single set of rules, which can be used to explain all the physical interactions that takes place in the universe.

On a massive scale, physicist use classical Newtonian mechanics to explain the various phenomena like how the gravity keeps the moon in its orbit and why the engine force pulls the jet forward etc.

In fact, Newtonian mechanics can be observed easily even with the naked eye. It is justified to sat that the nature of the Newtonian mechanics is intuitive. On the other hand, the Quantum mechanics is counter intuitive; enabling particles to be present at two places at the same time.

As per the statement of Bars,“The commutation rules dont have an explanation from a more fundamental perspective, but have been experimentally verified down to the smallest distances, probed by the most powerful accelerators. Clearly the rules are correct, but they beg for an explanation of their origins in some physical phenomena that are even deeper”.

In other words, the only problem with quantum mechanics, is the lack of experimental evidence and data. Scientists could not discover the ways to experiment on such small things. Lets see when they acheive this goal.

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