Although the one and only Chicxulub Impactor (11-81 kilometres in diameter) that wiped out the dinosaurs some 66 million years ago, hold the record for the biggest ever meteorite to ever hit the earth, it is neither the first nor the last of such visits.

Some were lucky enough to survive the journey into our atmosphere and made the earth their home while some just evaporated creating spectacular shooting stars, and of course, there were others who narrowly missed the earth! Among these alien rocks, there are pretty big ones weighing as much as dozens of grownup elephants! 

And these are the 5 largest, burnished and strangest looking meteorites that were lucky enough to enter the earth, obviously since the Chicxulub impactor. Enjoy!

1. The Willamette Meteorite

The 6th largest meteorite found on earth. Currently, on display at the American Museum of Natural History, this massive rock weighs 15.5 tonnes (15500 Kg) and about 7.8 square metres in size. Made from metallic iron, Willamette is one of the 600 iron-based meteorites ever to be found on earth from a total of 25,000 others. its interaction with rainwater is thought to be the reason behind its big cavities. This is believed to hit the earth a few thousand years ago and was initially found in Oregon, USA. The Clackamas Indians who lived in the area calls the meteorite “Tomanowos” and believes it holds great spiritual value.

2. Mbozi Meteorite

This was discovered in the 1930s in Tanzania and is one of the largest meteorites found on earth. Mbozi weighs an impressive 16 tonnes (16,000 Kg) with a 3-metre length and a 1-metre height. The locals had called it the “kimondo”. Mbozi is categorised as an ungrouped iron meteorite and it did not have a crater where it was situated. A man-made plinth supports the rock after it had been partially excavated in the 1930s. Currently, it is being protected by the Department of Antiquities since 1967.

3. The Bacubirito Meteorite

This is the longest meteorite found on earth which is 4.25 metres long. It was found in 1863 in Sinaloa, Mexico and holds the record for the biggest meteorite in Mexico and the 6th largest in the world. This iron meteorite weighs between 20-22 tonnes.

4. El Chaco Meteorite and the Gancedo Meteorite

They both come from a single meteor shower that fell in the Chaco province in Argentina about 4200 – 4700 years ago. El Chaco (29 tonnes) was discovered in 1969. The other larger piece of meteorite, the Gancedo (31 tonnes/ 30800Kg) was discovered very recently in 2016. Gancedo meteorite is now the third-largest in the world.

This meteor shower left 26 craters in the area and across 1350 square kilometres. This group of iron meteorites found in this area is called, “Campo del Cielo”. Its largest rock is 119 x 91 metres in size! The rocks are estimated to be 4.5 billion years old.

5. The Cape York Meteorite

It is believed that this monster rock landed on earth about 10,000 years ago and is about 4.5 billion years old. As nearly as old as our sun! This massive iron meteorite was discovered from Greenland in 1894. The Inuit that lived in the area had been using this as a source of metal to forge their tools.

“Cape York” is the name given to the original meteorite where this piece of iron (called “Ahnighito”) was broken. Ahnighito and two other smaller parts of the Cape York Meteorite can be seen in display at the American Museum of Natural History. At nearly 31 tonnes (30875Kg), Ahnighito is the heaviest meteorite on display in any museum around the world. Because of its weight, the supports Ahnighito weighs on run deep down to the bedrock under the museum. It is the second-largest meteorite in the world.

6. Hoba Meteorite

This is the monster rock of them all! Weighs a massive 60 tonnes and almost twice as the second-largest space rock Ahnighito. Hoba is the largest intact single-piece meteorite in the world. Even today, it stays where it was landed in Namibia 80,000 years ago. With a flat surface on both sides, Hoba is 2.7×2.7×0.9 metres in size. It has a composition of iron, nickel and cobalt. It was found in 1920 by accident while Jacobus Hermanus Brits was ploughing the field above it. Hoba does not have any crater where it landed.

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The sunshine vitamin, the only vitamin human body can produce itself, has long been known for its unrivalled qualities of making us better. But its exact connection with cancer had been a mystery for many years.

“Vitamin D is a supplement that’s readily available, cheap and has been used and studied for decades. Our findings, especially the strong risk reduction seen in individuals with normal weight, provide new information about the relationship between vitamin D and advanced cancer.” Dr Paulette Chandler

There had been reports suggesting the death rate of certain cancer types in people who live near the equator is far less than others. This was a major hint suggesting it may be the Vitamin D, they get abundantly from sunshine preventing them from developing those cancers into advanced stages. And another previous study also reported that about 72% of its participant cancer patients were deficient in vitamin D.

Ending this confusion, researchers at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in the USA has cleared the connection between vitamin D and advanced cancer.

What did they find?

The team primarily observed a clear reduction in cancer-related death rate with the intake of vitamin D. They discovered that Vitamin D is connected with an impressive 17% lowered risk of advanced cancer. 

And what is more interesting is that this value was even higher (38%) for participants who were within the normal body mass index (BMI). According to the researchers, this means that having a healthy weight can definitely benefit vitamin Ds ability to lower advance cancer risk!

Proudly presenting their results, the first author of the study, Dr Paulette Chandler said, “These findings suggest that vitamin D may reduce the risk of developing advanced cancers.”

Interesting facts about the study

The study tested both Vitamin D and omega-3 effect on both major cardiovascular diseases and cancer.

It was an intensive and thorough study which spanned over a period of five years. None of the > 25,000 participants (males >age 50 & females >age 55) had cancer when the study began. And they were of different ethnicities. Out of them all, only about 13,000 were given vitamin D and others were given placebos.

• There were a total of 1617, who developed invasive cancer within the 5yr period.
• 226 were diagnosed with cancer (out of the 13,000 who received Vitamin D)
• Out of them, there were only 56 cancer cases from people who had a healthy body weight (BMI less than 25).
• 274 were diagnosed with cancer (out of the participants who did not receive vitamin D /placebo test)
• Out of this placebo test, there were 96 cancer cases from people who had a healthy body weight (BMI less than 25).

What an outcome!

Vitamin D is ‘known to’,

• Boost the immune system
• Elevate mood which helps with depression
• Promotes calcium absorption in the body.
• Helps in bone growth and bone remodelling
• Reduce inflammation
• Helps in glucose metabolism
• Helps in cell growth

How Can We Get Vitamin D?

• By food (e.g. fatty fish like salmon, mackerel, trout, etc, fish liver oil, beef liver, cheese, egg yolk, mushroom, etc.)
• By sunshine
• By dietary supplements

The research study has been published in the journal, JAMA Network Open.

The post Vitamin D & Cancer – The Latest Research first appeared on New Technology News.

There is a robotic revolution underway and unfortunately, we are somewhat distracted to witness it. From microbot swarms that could shapeshift, walk, fly, swim, climb, crawl and organise themselves to do various tasks, deliver drugs in our bodies, identify cancers, destroy tumours, these are the kind of stuff that dreams are made of. And all these have been a possibility thanks to the latest advances in nanotechnology, computing, electronics and mechanics.

Here are those most advanced, creative and enigmatic microbots that you never knew existed and would make life so much easier for us. Enjoy!

1. Lego-Like Magnetic Microbots That Make Neural Networks Work (2020)

Scientists from South Korea developed this state of the art microbots, which can fuse (just like lego pieces) individual neurons together making neural networks that work. Paving the way to reverse neural diseases like Alzheimer’s, this microbot is only 300 micrometres long and 95 micrometres wide. This is definitely something to look forward to!

2. Microscopic Robot With Limbs That Move (2020)

You may have seen it. This minuscular bot made such a buzz in the scientific world when it first came out. So tiny, even a microscopic single-cell paramecium looks gigantic that swims around it! Standard electronic signals control their semiconductor components allowing them to ‘walk’. And what’s more, these fascinating creatures could be easily mass-produced, have the potential to be built with AI and one day could definitely be crawling in our veins and tissue, finding, fixing or delivering things!

3. Shapeshifting Swarm Of Microbots (2019)

These mass-produced, single ‘species’ microbots can carry out various tasks by shapeshifting collectively into different forms (chains, ribbons, vortexes, etc.). They can tumble, roll, spin and oscillate in movements. Their multitasking ability has given the researchers hope to one day effectively utilise them in biomedical treatments and various in vivo diagnostic procedures.

Although ‘Microbot’ (micro + robot) means a robot about a millimetre or less in size, these amazing inventions could also be called “microbots” because they are tiny and just as awesome!

4. Robeetle (2020)

Weighed less than 1/100th of a gram, this tiny robotic beetle has artificial ‘muscles’. It does not use any batteries and powered only by methanol. Made to look like the Tiger beetle (Cicindela eburneola), Robeetle can crawl, climb up on ramps and could carry things weighing 2.6 times more than its body weight. It is one of the lightest and smallest autonomous robots ever to be built. Robeetle’s journey would cover environments that are inaccessible for humans. What a pretty little thing!

5. Self-organising Kilobots (2014)

Harvard scientists created these Kilobots that can assemble into large or complex shapes autonomously. This is a form of collective artificial intelligence that mimics biological collectiveness of beings such as a colony of army ants forming into structures which can be used as bridges or rafts to move them to safety. Imagine what could these Kilobots achieve in the future! Swarms of these tiny robots could work as one unit in rapid disaster responding, environmental cleanups or simply built into self-driving vehicles.

6. Jellyfish-Inspired Tiny Soft Robot (2019)

This cool gadget mimics the exact motion and the body of the Ephyra jellyfish. It can swim faster in different ways and can pulsate which allows them to carry ‘food’ just like the jellyfish.

7. The RoboBee (2019)

This latest version of the centimetre sized RoboBee is a stepping stone for a miniature robotic drone. Weighing just half of a paperclip this robotic bee design has an untethered flying mechanism. Powered by inbuilt solar panels, RoboBee can flap its wings 120 times per second. And for sure these types of robots are going places!

Some lesser-known cool tiny bots in the last decade.

• The Micro doctors
• Flying Fish Robot
• Microbots that can swim with their elastic tail
• Self-propelling DEAnsect

A Final Thought

For all those who became a tad worried about this tiny robotic invasion into our bodies, our lives, let me share with you a very interesting futuristic view that was written by Bruce Sterling in his 1998 futuristic science fiction, ‘Distraction’. In his book, people from the future wield a fancy handheld device that can do ‘wonders’ like giving superfast accurate directions, storing phone numbers and giving fast access to them and many more, all with our voice command. Sounds a lot like a smartphone, doesn’t it? Something that sounds too fantastic or too futuristic to be true might firmly be in our reality soon. Well, I am hopeful!

Have a good day!

The post The 7 Most Badass Microbots Evermade first appeared on New Technology News.

Scientists from Japan have found a novel and an effective way to kill cancer cells using Gold. The team from Japan’s RIKEN institute tells us that, when gold is used in a catalytic reaction inside the body, it could effectively activate drugs that kill cancer cells.

Explaining where the idea came from, “Research groups worldwide have done a lot of beautiful work showing that transition metals like ruthenium and palladium can be used in biological settings to catalyze the unmasking of drugs. We identified a lack of studies focusing on gold, and so we set out to tackle this unique challenge,” says, Dr Katsunori Tanaka, at RIKEN.

The Process Of Activating Drugs Inside The Body

There is a new way of making prodrugs become active drugs with the use of metals inside our bodies. It is believed that the efficacy of a drug and their usual side effects due to systemic toxicity can be noticeably reduced by this. Here, metals that are foreign to our body is responsible for the conversion of a prodrug into an active drug in vivo.

So, What Happens In This Golden Scenario?

In simpler terms, the research team masked the drug with something called AYBA (2-alkynylbenzamide). And when this masked drug is inside the body, it would be unmasked and made “active” in the presence of Gold.

And if you are interested in what really happens here, AYBA has a triple bonded carbon structure that is broken down by a cyclization reaction by Gold, exposing the active drug to do its job. 

The team had created two commonly used anticancer drugs with AYBA masks for their study. And no other usual metals could unmask their AYBA structures, but Gold.

Hope!

The team believes their potent AYBA-Gold dissociative bioorthogonal reaction could be used in tandem with other types of prodrug metal combinations allowing more ways for metals to be used in biological applications especially in drug therapy.

The research has been published in the journal Chemical Sciences.

The post Gold Used For Effectively Treating Cancer first appeared on New Technology News.

Researchers from the University of Washington and Microsoft have come up with a genius alternative to conventional tagging systems with the use of DNA. The new molecular tagging method “Porcupine” is said to be lighter and smaller than the methods in use.

“We designed the first portable, end-to-end molecular tagging system that enables rapid, on-demand encoding and decoding at scale, and which is more accessible than existing molecular tagging methods,” says Kathryn Doroschak, first author and a UW doctoral student in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering.

How Does It Work?

The whole system relies on a DNA-based tagging system. More precisely, on specific synthetic DNA strands called, “Molbits or Molecular Bits”. They are combined with “highly separable” nanopore signals. As an example, in their study, any 1 of these molbits is incorporated with a unique bar code sequence. And they created a set of 96 such barcode sequences.

These molbit strands are combined with a longer DNA strand which has a known sequence length. In the porcupine system, the ones and zeros in a conventional digital barcode system are represented by the presence and absence of these molbit strands.

Explaining further, “We wanted to prove the concept while achieving a high rate of accuracy, hence the initial 96 barcodes, but we intentionally designed our system to be modular and extensible. With these initial barcodes, Porcupine can produce roughly 4.2 billion unique tags using basic laboratory equipment without compromising reliability upon readout.” says co-author Karin Strauss, at Microsoft Research and affiliate professor in the Allen School.

Tag Reading

The tag goes through a ‘nanopore device’ after being rehydrated where the portable device then ‘reads’ it in seconds. In their study, the researchers were able to embed the code “M-I-S-L” and read it back through the nanopore device successfully in a few seconds.

Is It New?

“Molecular tagging is not a new idea, but existing methods are still complicated and require access to a lab, which rules out many real-world scenarios,” says Doroschak.

DNA Tagging Pro’s

Adding to its long list of advantages over the conventional methods, “Unlike existing inventory control methods, DNA tags can’t be detected by sight or touch. Practically speaking, this means they are difficult to tamper with. This makes them ideal for tracking high-value items and separating legitimate goods from forgeries. A system like Porcupine could also be used to track important documents. For example, you could envision molecular tagging being used to track voters’ ballots and prevent tampering in future elections,” says, Jeff Nivala, senior author of the study.

The Future

According to Luis Ceze, co-author of the study, “Porcupine is one more exciting example of a hybrid molecular-electronic system, combining molecular engineering, new sensing technology and machine learning to enable new applications.” The team firmly believes their novel discovery is going places in the real world! 

DNA based technologies such as cloning, DNA fingerprinting, gene therapy, DNA storage systems and the DNA tagging have come a long way since it was first discovered decades ago. And with the rate these advancements are emerging, well who knows, as humans, we might also be in a molecular tagging system where everything about us, physically mentally externally or internally could be read in a jiffy! Only time will tell!

The research has been published in the journal, Nature Communications.

The post DNA Tagging Is To Replace Barcodes first appeared on New Technology News.

Scientists from the University of Pennsylvania may have finally found an answer from nature against antibiotic-resistant bacteria. They have been able to successfully turn highly toxic Wasp venom into powerful antimicrobial molecules. A major breakthrough, which would hopefully develop into highly efficient medicines that are lethal to strong antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Antibiotic Resistance

It is a seriously escalating threat the world faces today. Antibiotic Resistance is the inability of the antibiotics to kill certain pathogenic bacteria because the bacteria has built up a resistance against it. Although this could occur naturally, the misuse of antibiotics has been a major contributor to the issue recently. Ignoring its severity without a quick solution could result in an era where common infections could once again kill people! 

According to Prof César de la Fuente, a senior author of the study, “New antibiotics are urgently needed to treat the ever-increasing number of drug-resistant infections, and venoms are an untapped source of novel potential drugs.”

The Venom

Although being very toxic, Korean yellow-jacket wasp’s (Vespula lewisii) venom does not pose a serious threat to us in small doses. Its toxicity can destroy red blood cells and could trigger an anaphylaxis shock in a susceptible individual. “Anaphylaxis shock is a potentially life-threatening reaction to a trigger such as an allergen where the blood pressure drops suddenly and makes breathing difficult”.

The Experiment

Researchers were able to extract highly toxic venom from the Korean yellow-jacket wasp. Then they altered its chemistry within and tested the new molecule against pathogenic bacteria.

This Is How It Was Done!

The team first extracted a peptide called, “mastoparan-L” from the Korean yellow-jacket wasp’s venom. It was common knowledge that this peptide could potentially kill bacteria. With this in mind, the researchers took another well-known strong antimicrobial peptide (pentapeptide motif) and attached it to one end of the mast-L peptide, the end where it is said to be highly toxic for humans. A very neat two birds with one stone attempt!

The researchers treated the mice with the altered venom (mast-MO) few hours before they were injected with sepsis-inducing strains of pathogenic bacteria (strains of E. coli or Staphylococcus aureus), that should normally be lethal to them. 

So, What Happened?

The researchers observed that the altered venom destroyed the bacterial cells and greatly reduced their ability to infect human cells. And furthermore, they were able to prove that these specialised venom molecules protected mice against otherwise deadly bacterial infections.

80% of mice that were treated with the new mast-MO survived and the mice that were treated with just mast-L were not so lucky. Another fascinating observation was that even in higher doses the new mast-MO did not cause any toxicity in mice. But the original mast-L was seemed to be highly toxic and lethal in higher doses!

Next Steps

The potency of the mast-MO they used in the experiment was similar to some of the antibiotics already in use, i.e Gentamicin and imipenem. This gives the much need hope for scientists to use this as a potentially highly effective alternative to antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections.

”We think that venom-derived molecules such as the ones we engineered in this study are going to be a valuable source of new antibiotics,” says Prof De la Fuente.

Explaining the future of their findings, “The principles and approaches we used in this study can be applied more broadly to better understand the antimicrobial and immune-modulating properties of peptide molecules, and to harness that understanding to make valuable new treatments,” says Prof De la Fuente.

And Bravo To Their Efforts!

The study has been published in the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The post Killing Bacteria With Wasp Venom first appeared on New Technology News.

For the first time ever, scientists have established a “Universal Scaling Law for the Sense of Touch” by studying seismic waves that are bound with earthquakes. And the new find is turning pages in virtual reality.

The researchers from the University of Birmingham who were on a mission to discover novel technologies in virtual reality came up with the new finding. The prime aim was to discover ways to combine the sense of touch with virtual reality.

Touch

As a primordial sense that evolved in life, touch is used to express feelings, sense danger, assess things by touching, feel the temperature and many more. Among all these, touch can also sense nanoscale imperfections on surfaces otherwise appearing to be very smooth. And the new study is based on only one of these aspects, i.e. the sense of vibrations.

Explaining the need of such a law, Dr Tom Montenegro-Johnson, first author of the study, “While we have universal laws to explain sight and hearing, for example, this is the first time that we’ve been able to explain touch in this way.”

The Lesson From Earthquakes

According to the researchers, skin can sense vibrations the same way the earth’s crust feel earthquakes. And when they applied relative mathematics to configure how vibrations would travel through the skin, they were amazed to observe that, similar to earthquakes, “the largest signal comes from a rolling type of wave called a Rayleigh wave”.

And their study was based on a hundred-year-old theory by one famous Nobel-prized physicist, Georg von Békésy. According to his theory, the mathematics used to calculate seismic vibrations in earthquakes could also be used to connect Rayleigh waves with the sense of touch.

Rayleigh Waves

A type of surface acoustic wave, that travel along the surfaces. But with its vertical motion, it can also affect bodies as well as their surfaces. And they have both transverse and longitudinal motions.

Furthermore, these waves do not change with skin changes, such as the dehydration, ageing, wrinkles, or gender. They travel with the help of small bundles of nerves called, ‘mechanoreceptors’ that take these vibration massages to the brain. And they are working steadily even in so-called, ‘skin changes’.

The Universal Law Of Touch

Across species, all the animals have one common feature in the sense of touch. “The depth of vibrations that mechanoreceptors are tuned to” stays the same. This is what paved the way for a “Universal scaling Law for Touch”, a shared sensitivity!

Explaining their findings, James Andrews, co-author of the study, “The principles we’ve defined enable us to better understand the different experiences of touch among a wide range of species. For example, if you indent the skin of a rhinoceros by 5mm, they would have the same sensation as a human with a similar indentation—it’s just that the forces required to produce the indentation would be different. This makes a lot of sense in evolutionary terms since it’s connected to relative danger and potential damage.”

Future

According to the researchers, the finding would enable many possibilities in virtual reality in the sense of touch. In other words, we would be able to feel our video games in the near future. And how cool would that be!

The research has been published in the journal Science Advances.

The post The Universal Law Of Touch first appeared on New Technology News.

A team of physicists from Australia and Norway has proved that stars create carbon much faster than previously thought, making it question the very basis of astrophysics. They found out that stars create carbon 34% faster than previously thought, a major change to what was known as common knowledge that did not change for nearly 4 decades!

“It’s a really surprising result, with profound implications across astrophysics.” Associate Professor Tibor Kibédi.

For us here on earth, carbon is the basis of life. The whole planet is built upon the carbon ‘backbone’. Born inside stars, carbon and other elements eventually get released as dust or gas that end up in forming planets.

What Do We Know?

We know that stars form carbon. The speed of this creation is the basis for our understanding of many astrophysical aspects including, how stars evolve, how they form elements and the abundance of these building blocks of life.

The Creation Of Carbon

The stellar carbon production happens when “three alpha particles fuse to form 12C in the excited Hoyle state, followed by electromagnetic decay to the ground state”. This is known as the triple-alpha-process. ‘Hoyle state’ is an excited state of carbon that works as a stepping stone on forming more stable carbon. The name was given in honour of the founding astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle. And it is thought this process is a start for many other fusion reactions within the star, forming many other heavier elements such as iron, oxygen, etc.

The Discovery

The researchers planned on getting answers on this, because, even with the idea of Hoyle state, the creation of stable carbon was still questionable. So they indirectly observed two Hoyle transitions and made calculations from them. The two transitions were observed in two different places. 

The first one was done at, ANU’s Heavy Ion Accelerator Facility (HIAF) where the physicists shot a proton beam towards an ultra-thin sheet of carbon making a fraction of a Hoyle state ‘excited’ nuclei that became stable carbon, emitting an electron-positron pair.

The second observation was done at the University of Oslo’s Cyclotron Laboratory, where the researchers created a second Hoyle state transition that emitted a photon.

When combining the results from the two, the team found out that the actual stellar carbon synthesis rate is a third faster than previously known.

Why Is This finding So Important?

This was the first time anyone has done a major study on the carbon synthesis rate in 4 decades. And their results are also a major drift from what was known before. This finding may change most of the basics we know about astrophysics. And it would rock the very basis of stellar astrophysics.

According to Dr Meridith Joyce at ANU’s Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, “An increase in the carbon production rate like this would have a big impact on a lot of our models. It would affect our understanding of how stars change over time, how they produce elements heavier than carbon, how we measure the age of stars and how long they will last, how often we expect to see supernova explosions, even whether they leave behind neutron stars or black holes.”

What’s Next

The team is expecting higher scrutiny for their finding as this kind of measurement would be based on many countless astronomical variables. And they plan to do more experiments with one of the site’s test is already being repeated. And the world is waiting!

The study has been reported in Physical Review Letters, and in Physical Review C.

The post Groundbreaking Study On Carbon Creation Rewrites Astrophysics first appeared on New Technology News.

A novel technique to manage diabetes non-invasively using static electric and magnetic fields has been developed by a team of scientists at the University of Iowa. Their new discovery has already successfully managed “2 major hallmarks of type-2 diabetes” in mice.

Proudly presenting their findings to the world, Calvin Carter, one of the lead authors of the paper, “Exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMFs) for relatively short periods reduces blood sugar and normalizes the body’s response to insulin. The effects are long-lasting, opening the possibility of an EMF therapy that can be applied during sleep to manage diabetes all day.”

Electromagnetic Field (EMFs)

We are exposed to EMFs abundantly from telecommunications, mobile devices, microwave ovens, navigation systems, medical applications such as MRIs / EEG and so on. But the effect of EMFs on our biology is still to be completely understood.

“Early literature pointed to a quantum biological phenomenon whereby EMFs may interact with specific molecules. There are molecules in our bodies that are thought to act as a tiny magnetic antenna, enabling a biological response to EMFs. Some of these molecules are oxidants, which are studied in redox biology, an area of research that deals with the behaviour of electrons and reactive molecules that govern cellular metabolism,” says Prof. Carter.

EMFs Work On Blood Sugar

The research proved that the effect of EMF changes the levels of oxidants and antioxidants in the liver making the body more sensitive for insulin and prolong activation of antioxidant response. The function is supported by small magnetic antennae in the liver which are actually tiny reactive superoxide molecules.

“When we remove superoxide molecules from the liver, we completely block the effect of the EMFs on blood sugar and on the insulin response. The evidence suggests that superoxide plays an important role in this process,” says Prof. Carter.

The Surprising Study!

The two lead authors of the study were researching on two different studies when they exchanged some of the mice that Prof. Carter was testing for his study on the effects of EMFs on brain and behaviour.

Stating her surprise, Sunny Huang, co-lead author of the study, “It was really odd because normally these animals have high blood sugar and type 2 diabetes, but all of the animals exposed to EMFs showed normal blood sugar levels,”

This simply should not happen as these mice were genetically modified to be diabetic!

The Revelation!

The blood sugar levels were successfully controlled in three different mouse models with type-2 diabetes with a dose of wireless static magnetic and electric fields.

The dose which is about 100 times more than that of the earth, reversed their insulin resistance when applying for three days continuously during sleep! The mice did not display any adverse effects from the EMFs.

What’s Next?

They have already tested the effect on human liver cells and observed positive results on insulin sensitivity. And they hope to get human participants to test their model while remaining within the WHO guidelines on safer EMF levels.

The team is currently studying on larger animal models. The researchers hope their discovery would certainly open doors on new ways to treat and manage diabetes effectively and help especially those who find the current treatments unmanageable.

“Our dream is to create a new class of non-invasive medicines that remotely take control of cells to fight disease.” Prof. Carter.

The research has been published in the journal, Cell Metabolism.

The post Remote Control For Diabetes first appeared on New Technology News.

Changing what was previously thought to be taking of thousands of years, scientists from the Rice University in Texas has proved otherwise saying that formation of fine gems may take only minutes!

A deep study which spanned over 3 years and data that ran for 50 years into the history, this painstaking research allowed the team to develop a mathematical model which can transform “chemical profiles into crystal growth rates.”

According to Patrick Phelps, co-author of the study, “This is one step towards understanding how Earth concentrates lithium in certain places and minerals. If we can understand the basics of pegmatite growth rates, it’s one step in the direction of understanding the whole picture of how and where they form.”

Pegmatites

Pegmatites are formed in volcanic activities usually in the last stages of lava crystallisation. These rocks are formed underground with interlocking crystals embedded that usually has a size of more than 1cm.

Precious stones like emerald, zircon, garnet, topaz and many others form in pegmatites which have a vein-like formation. These pegmatites not only consists of larger crystalline minerals but also rare elements such as niobium, tantalum and the most sought after lithium.

The size formation of the crystals inside pegmatites can vary from few millimetres to even few feet. The 42 feet spodumene crystal which was roughly 37 tons heavy was one of the largest to be mined from the famous Etta mine in South Dakota!

Explaining about how large crystals form, geologists Cin-Ty Lee, “In magmatic minerals, crystal size is traditionally linked to cooling time. The idea is that large crystals take time to grow. Magma that cools rapidly, like rocks in erupted lavas, contains microscopic crystals, for example. But the same magma, if cooled over tens of thousands of years, might feature centimetre-sized crystals.”

The norm is that pegmatites cool very fast. But they also feature some of the largest crystals ever to be found!

And how is that possible?

This is where the new study brings answers. According to the team, these pegmatite is left with higher water content when forming inside the earth. 

“Eventually, you get so much water leftover that it becomes more of a water-dominated fluid than a melt-dominated fluid. The leftover elements in this watery mixture can now move around a lot faster. Chemical diffusion rates are much faster in fluids and the fluids tend to flow more quickly. So when a crystal starts forming, elements can get to it faster, which means it can grow faster,” explains Phelps.

How do crystals form inside pegmatites?

Crystals are specifically arranged atoms. When the energy levels and chemical properties are right, they fall into their ordered pattern naturally. And they tend to seep into cracks in pegmatites happened during their formation inside the earth.

Then the dramatic drop of pressure while the cracks open, helps the fluid to rush into them. To be stabilised in a fluid state, the elements become crystallised.

To precisely know the growth rate of these crystals, the team used two novel methods, i.e. cathodoluminescence microscopy & laser ablation with mass spectrometry.

There were 3 main variables that changed the growth rate. “There’s the likelihood of things getting brought in. That’s the partition coefficient. There’s how fast the crystal is growing, the growth rate. And then there’s the diffusivity, so how quickly elemental nutrients are brought to the crystal,” explains Phelps.

Their mind-blowing observations

One of their main assumptions was that Pegmatites must grow rapidly in order to form larger crystals because their life span is shorter. But once the results came in they could not believe as the growth rate was few folds lower than what they expected!

“We examined crystals that were half an inch wide and over an inch long. We showed those grew in a matter of hours, and there is nothing to suggest the physics would be different in larger crystals that measure a metre or more in length. Based on what we found, larger crystals like that could grow in a matter of days,” says Phelps.

The research has been published in the journal, Nature Communications.

The post Earth Takes Minutes To Form Precious Gems – Latest Study first appeared on New Technology News.