Newsworthy but not its own thread worthy

[pelham456]

japan still has very strict laws against marijuana. they might not take kindly to having a large POT LEAF on the back of the jacket.

[alexora]

Originally Posted by pelham456

japan still has very strict laws against marijuana. they might not take kindly to having a large POT LEAF on the back of the jacket.

I think the maple tree, and its leafs, are legal in the land of the rising sun...

[JustKelli]

First-ever human-monkey hybrid created in ‘chimera’ embryo experiment

By Josh K. Elliott Global News

Posted April 15, 2021 2:17 pm

Scientists have successfully combined human and monkey cells into a single living, growing embryo, in a major — and ethically complex — breakthrough for organ transplant research.

But don’t worry: This isn’t the real-world prequel to a planet of the semi-human apes. At least, not yet.

An international team of researchers added human stem cells to macaque monkey embryos and watched as they survived and multiplied as one, according to the findings published Thursday in the journal*Cell. The scientists effectively created genetic chimeras — a term borrowed from the mythical monster to describe one organism with genes from multiple individuals.

Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, a professor at the Salk Institute and co-author on the study, insists that this is not about creating a full-grown chimera with human and animal traits.

“Our goal is not to generate any new organism, any monster,” he told*NPR. “And we are not doing anything like that. We are trying to understand how cells from different organisms communicate with one another.”

He adds that the discovery could lead to better understanding of human biology and diseases, as well as more effective human chimeras involving less similar species. That, perhaps, could lead to animals being used to grow organs for human transplant.

Belmonte and his team injected 25 human stem cells into macaque embryos taken six days after fertilization. Human cells were found growing inside 132 of the embryos after one day, and 103 chimeras were still alive after Day 10. Nearly all had died by Day 19, and the rest were destroyed on Day 20.

“On average we observed around 4 per cent of human cells in the monkey epiblast,” co-author Dr. Jun Wu, at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, told*The Guardian...

[Fallon]

2.5 billion Tyrannosaurus rexes roamed the Earth, a study finds


If one Tyrannosaurus rex - the school bus-sized meat-eating dinosaur that stalked the Cretaceous Period landscape - seems impressive, how about 2.5 billion of them?

Researchers on Thursday unveiled the first calculation of the total T. rex population during the estimated 2.4 million years that this fearsome species inhabited western North America during the twilight of the age of dinosaurs.

They considered factors including the size of its geographic range, its body mass, growth pattern, age at sexual maturity, life expectancy, duration of a single generation and the total time that T. rex existed before extinction 66 million years ago. They also heeded a doctrine called Damuth's law linking population to body mass: the bigger the animal, the fewer the individuals.

Their analysis put the total number of T. rex individuals that ever existed at about 2.5 billion, including approximately 20,000 adults alive at any one time.

Fossils of more than 40 T. rex individuals have been found since it was first described in 1905, providing a wealth of information about a beast that thrives in the popular imagination.

"Why iconic?" asked paleontologist Charles Marshall, who led the study published in the journal Science.

"Heck, a hugely massive killer with super-huge teeth, one that you would never dream up on your own if we didn't have the fossil record. So not only super-cool and beyond the imagination, but real. Like Godzilla, but actually real. And I think we like feeling small, and T. rex sure makes us feel small and vulnerable," Marshall said.

It was among the largest carnivorous dinosaurs, possessing a skull about 5 feet (1.5 meters) long, massive and muscular jaws with a bite force capable of crushing bone, a mouthful of banana-sized serrated teeth, a keen sense of smell, strong legs and puny arms with hands boasting just two fingers.

Perhaps the largest-known T. rex is a specimen named Sue at the Field Museum in Chicago, measuring 40-1/2-foot-long (12.3-meters), weighing an estimated 9 tons and living about 33 years.

The new study put the weight of the average adult T. rex at 5.2 tons, average lifespan at 28 years, generation time at 19 years, total number of generations of the species at about 125,000, and its geographic range at roughly 890,000 square miles (2.3 million square kilometers).

They calculated an average population density of about one T. rex for every roughly 40 square miles (100 square kilometers).

T. rex fossils have been found in Canada's Alberta and Saskatchewan provinces and the U.S. states of Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas. T. rex apparently met a fiery end when an asteroid slammed into Mexico, exterminating three quarters of Earth's species.

While the uncertainties in the estimates were large and some of the assumptions may be challenged by other paleontologists, the study was a worthwhile effort to expand the understanding of this famous dinosaur, said Marshall, director of the University of California Museum of Paleontology and a University of California, Berkeley professor of integrative biology.

The formula could be applied to other extinct animals, Marshall added.

Paleontologist and study co-author Ashley Poust of the San Diego Natural History Museum said while 2.5 billion is a lot, it represents only about a third of Earth's current human population - and 20,000 is merely the size of a small town.

“They’d have to meet up over possibly long distances to mate, or maybe even care for their young,” Poust said of Tyrannosaurus. “The numbers can seem big and cold, but I guess I see them as a pretty intimate window into their lives.”


Source:

http://reuters.com/lifestyle/science/like-godzilla-actually-real-study-shows-t-rex-numbered-25-billion-2021-04-15/

[JustKelli]

^^^^^ Too funny, I was going to post that article but got busy yesterday. Thanks for posting it.

Amazon unveils plan for major solar power project in southern Alberta

Project to produce more than 195,000 megawatt-hours of renewable energy

CBC News Posted: Apr 19, 2021 11:25 AM MT | Last Updated: 8 hours ago

Online retail giant Amazon announced Monday its first renewable energy investment in Canada will be built in Newell County east of Calgary.

The 80 MW solar project will produce over 195,000 megawatt-hours (MWh) of renewable energy to the grid "or enough energy to power more than 18,000 Canadian homes for a year," the company said in a release.

"Amazon's announcement … is the largest known solar virtual power purchase agreement in Canada. This transaction expands Amazon's leadership as a corporate buyer of renewable energy into Canada and is further evidence of the growth and viability of the Canadian renewables market," said Rebecca Nadel, director of Amazon's business renewables centre in Canada.

This announcement is part of a global rollout of new projects including others in the United States, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Amazon says the projects will make it the largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy in Europe, with more than 2.5 GW of renewable energy capacity — enough to power more than two million European homes a year.

"All of these projects put Amazon on a path to power 100 per cent of its activities with renewable energy by 2025 — five years ahead of the original target of 2030," the release said.

According to a map of its new projects released by Amazon, the Alberta solar project will be built near Lathom, about 10 kilometres southeast of Bassano and just south of the Trans-Canada Highway.

[alexora]

Meanwhile, here in London people staying put due to the pandemic has resulted in wild animals venturing into parts of the city they previously would not have entered:

Deer graze on east London housing estate

Residents were stunned to see a herd of deer grazing outside their front doors on an estate in east London.

The animals had walked across the busy A12 in Harold Hill, Romford, from their home in Dagnam Park.

They are thought to be one of five herds in the area that have been breeding there for hundreds of years.

A local conservation group has requested that people give the animals space and warned against taking selfies with them.

Alex Sarzi-Sartori, who saw the animals relaxing outside his house, said: "We were gobsmacked. I grabbed my camera gear and started approaching them.

"Then I noticed other people were out too and the deer were completely comfortable.

"It was lovely to see the entire community come out. I met more of my neighbours in one morning than in the five years that I've lived here."

Mick Hockley, from Harold Hill Deer Aid, has warned against getting too close to the animals, though.

"Respect the deer. If they walk away, don't follow them, don't feed them."

He added: "We are called upon up to 40 times a day to deal with issues surrounding them.

"We've seen people take their dog off the lead and say, 'go on' and get them to chase the deer. It's becoming a living nightmare."

Mr Sarzi-Sartori said: "I feel that we need to learn to live with animals and try not to disturb them, and let them be.

"As humans we are invasive. Thanks to lockdown this is nature trying to reclaim the space back and we should respect that."

Source:

http://bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-56819018

[LongTimeLu]

Originally Posted by Fallon

2.5 billion Tyrannosaurus rexes roamed the Earth, a study finds

Talking about T.Rex - a hoard has been studied that may shed light on their behaviour ...

Mass fossil site may prove tyrannosaurs lived and hunted in packs like wolves

Ferocious tyrannosaur dinosaurs may not have been solitary predators as long envisioned, but more like social carnivores such as wolves, new research unveiled Monday found.

Paleontologists developed the theory while studying a mass tyrannosaur death site found seven years ago in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah. In 2014, Bureau of Land Management paleontologist Alan Titus discovered the site, which was later named the Rainbows and Unicorns quarry because of the vast array of fossils contained inside. Excavation has been ongoing since the site's discovery because of the size of the area and volume of bones.

Using geochemical analysis of the bones and rock, a team of researchers with the University of Arkansas determined that the dinosaurs died and were buried in the same place and were not the result of fossils washing in from multiple areas.

The new Utah site is the third mass tyrannosaur grave site that's been discovered in North America - bolstering a theory first developed 20 years ago that they lived in packs.

"It is a little tougher to be so sure that these data mean that these tyrannosaurs lived together in the good times," said Kristi Curry Rogers, a biology professor at Macalester College who wasn't involved in the research but reviewed the finding on Monday. "It's possible that these animals may have lived in the same vicinity as one another without travelling together in a social group, and just came together around dwindling resources as times got tougher."

In addition to the tyrannosaurs, researchers have also found seven species of turtles, multiple fish and ray species, two other kinds of dinosaurs and a nearly complete skeleton of a juvenile Deinosuchus alligator. These other animals do not appear to have all died together.

http://telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/20/mass-fossil-site-may-prove-tyrannosaurs-lived-hunted-packs-like/

[JustKelli]

^^^^^ We still have a pack of T-Rex here in Canada, they are called the Toronto Raptors lol.

They were actually quite majestic creatures back when they roamed the earth. Really bad table manners though.

[pelham456]

man, i need a TV!

[LongTimeLu]

April 26 marks the 35th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. We take a look at why it is important for locals to tell their own story.

The accident happened at around one in the morning. By the time people were waking up in the nearby town of Pripyat, many had already fallen ill with severe headaches and uncontrollable vomiting and coughing. The population had yet to find out what had happened.

By 11am on April 27, some 36 hours after the accident, evacuation efforts were already underway. Residents were told to only take what was absolutely necessary – they were told that they would be able to return to their homes within days.

By three in the afternoon, 53,000 people had been evacuated to various villages around Kyiv, with another several hundred thousand evacuated over the following days and weeks.

Nobody ever returned to Pripyat, which remains a ghost town to this day.

Officially, 31 people died within four months of the incident of causes directly attributable to the accident, including two who died in the initial explosion. Over the next 20 years, another 19 adult and nine child fatalities were recorded, presumably from radiation from Chernobyl.

However, estimates vary: some place the long-term death toll at 16,000 throughout Europe.

The disaster captured – and has kept – the world’s attention unlike any other industrial accident in history. For comparison, less than two years prior to Chernobyl an explosion at a pesticides plant in Bhopal, India, killed 3,787 people – according to official figures. Few remember it.

Perhaps the major reason for Chernobyl retaining its importance (apart from how it affected Europe and not the Indian subcontinent) is that it crystalised the world’s fear of nuclear Armageddon, fueled by an ideological conflict between two nuclear-armed superpowers.

http://emerging-europe.com/after-hours/chernobyl-35-years-on-what-the-media-got-right-and-wrong/

Chernobyl radiation damage 'not passed to children'

There is no "additional DNA damage" in children born to parents who were exposed to radiation from the Chernobyl explosion before they were conceived.

This is according to the first study to screen the genes of children whose parents were enlisted to help in the clean-up after the nuclear accident.

Participants, all conceived after the disaster and born between 1987 and 2002, had their whole genomes screened.

The study found no mutations that were associated with a parent's exposure.

http://bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-56846728