‘Treasure map’ predicts where 300,000 meteorites are hiding in Antarctica

Meteorites are known to fall everywhere, but Antarctica’s unique environment makes them easier to spot in the snow. Still, going to Antarctica to collect meteorites is exhausting and dangerous work.

Researchers at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands have used artificial intelligence to create a treasure map that shows where in Antarctica is most likely to find meteorites and guides researchers where to look.

“After analysis, it is understood that the observations of temperature, glacier speed, surface coverage and geometric shape by artificial satellites can play a role in predicting the location of meteorites, and it is hoped that the accuracy of the “treasure map” can reach 80%. said Veronica Tollenaar, who led the study. Scientists have calculated that more than 300,000 meteorites are waiting to be discovered in the Antarctic region. The research was published in the journal Science Advances.

For thousands of years, space meteorites fell and embedded themselves in the Antarctic continental ice sheet, flowing slowly with the glacier. If the glacier encounters a huge obstacle, such as the Transantarctic Mountains, the ice rises and meteorites are brought to the surface. In addition, dry Antarctic winds gradually eroded the ice and exposed meteorites. The process repeats itself as more ice rises to the surface, and given enough time, a large amount of meteorites will be pushed up.

Meteorites are too small to be detected from space, but using satellites to indirectly measure temperature, glacier velocity, surface slope and ice-reflected radar signals, combining all the data and using artificial intelligence to learn, researchers can predict where the meteorites are concentrated on the surface. Interested readers can go to the interactive treasure map treasure hunt to explore the Antarctic continent and the locations where meteorites are likely to be found at home.

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Obesity is really contagious! Want to lose weight or have to make friends with fitness people

The Chinese New Year is coming, and it’s a good time to gather with family members to eat a big meal. The rumor on the Internet that “every festive season puts on three pounds” is not unreasonable. In addition to eating and drinking, do you know that gaining weight is also “contagious”?

According to HealthDay News, living in a community with a high rate of obesity may increase the chances that you and your children will become fat. Researchers explain that living in a community with a lot of fat people affects the social acceptance of diet and exercise behaviors and body size. This may be a phenomenon called “social transmission” at work, although the study did not prove a direct cause-and-effect relationship.

Researchers surveyed more than 1,500 U.S. Army families. Army families were selected for the study because they typically move based on military requirements rather than personal preferences. This dispels a theory about regional obesity from the start – that obese people like to associate with people who are as fat as they are.

The researchers looked at data on about 1,300 parents and 1,100 children from 2013 to 2014. The families were stationed at or near 38 military installations across the United States. Researchers first examined family members’ body mass index (BMI), a measure of body fat based on height and weight. They then assessed the “shared environment” in which the service families lived, counting the number of grocery stores, sports and recreational facilities, and so on.

In addition, the researchers weighed the overall obesity rates in each community. These ranged from 21% (El Paso County, Colorado) to 38% (Vernon County, Louisiana).

The study found that military families assigned to counties with higher obesity rates were more likely to be overweight or obese than military families assigned to counties with lower obesity rates. The opposite was also true: moving to a county with a lower obesity rate reduced a family’s chances of becoming obese.

The researchers said that most people think they can control their behavior. But when asked about specific situations – such as going out to eat with friends and whether what their friends ordered influenced their meal choices – respondents’ responses changed. They would realize that other people around them do influence their meal choices.

Researchers suggest that if you want to change your weight, diet and exercise habits, then make friends who eat more healthily and exercise more often.

Related research was published in the “Journal of the American Medical Association”.

Hindustan Times: Men who live alone and have multiple breakups have higher risk of inflammation

[Hindustan Times article, January 2022] Title: Men who live alone and have multiple breakups have a higher risk of developing inflammation, study shows.

A recent study published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health found that living alone for several years and multiple breakups were strongly associated with elevated blood levels of inflammatory markers, but only in men.

The researchers suggest that although inflammation is classified as low-grade, it persists and is likely to indicate an increased risk of age-related health and death. Divorce and committed relationship breakdown, which can often accompany prolonged solitary living, are associated with poor physical and mental health, weakened immunity and an increased risk of death.

The researchers wanted to understand the effect that cumulative partnership breakdown or years living alone might have had on immune system responses in midlife, and whether gender and educational attainment might have an effect.

About half of the 4,835 participants experienced a relationship breakup, with 54% of women and 49% of men living alone for more than a year. About 1 in 5 people have 10 years of education or less, and about 6 in 10 have one or more long-term medical conditions. About 50 percent experienced an early major life event, and 50 percent of women and nearly two-thirds of men were overweight or obese.

In the study, the researchers measured the inflammatory markers interleukin-6 (IL-6) and C-reactive protein (CRP) in blood samples. Among men, those with the highest levels of inflammatory markers were those with the most breakups, with inflammatory marker levels 17 percent higher than in the reference group. Levels of inflammatory markers were as high as 12 percent in those who lived alone the longest (7+ years).

C-reactive protein levels were highest in men with high education who had lived alone for 2 to 6 years, and interleukin-6 levels were highest in men who had lived alone for more than 7 years, but this association was not found in women.

The researchers noted that after a relationship breakdown, men tend to externalize their behaviors, such as drinking alcohol, while women tend to internalize, exhibiting depressive symptoms, which may affect inflammation levels in different ways.

This is an observational study, so no cause can be established. Because the average age of the participants was 54, the full consequences of exposure to inflammatory chemicals may not have peaked at that time, and men also had a stronger inflammatory response than women of the same age.

The immune system tends to weaken with age, often resulting in low-grade inflammation throughout the body, which is thought to play a key role in several age-related diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.

The combination of living alone for many years and breaking up multiple times significantly affected C-reactive protein and interleukin-6 levels in the study. Inflammation levels in the study were low but clinically relevant and likely a risk factor for increased mortality, and many people had low levels of inflammation. The number of single-person households has been increasing in most high-income countries over the past 50-60 years, so this group of people who are experiencing relationship breakdown, or living alone for different reasons, are part of the high-risk group.

Good news for arthritis sufferers: Electric knee implants stimulate cartilage regeneration

Joints are the connection points between bones and play a very important role. The activities of the human body are inseparable from joints. The incidence of arthritis is relatively high, and there is a growing trend, and many people suffer from arthritis every year. With arthritis, the joints will appear red, swollen and painful, and there will be dysfunction and even joint deformities.

A new arthritis treatment has now been developed that generates a weak electrical current in a knee implant that stimulates cartilage regeneration.

The researchers developed a tiny mesh implant, about half a millimeter thick, that generates tiny electrical currents when it senses pressure — a property known as piezoelectricity. In post-implant arthritis patients, regular joint movement causes the implant to generate an electric field, which encourages cells to settle on it and grow into new cartilage.

Osteoarthritis, a common cause of knee pain, involves wear and tear of cartilage, the rubbery layer that coats the ends of bones and prevents them from rubbing together.

After testing on rabbits, the researchers found that the rabbits implanted with the device could generate electrical energy through mechanical force while exercising, and then regrow cartilage.

If used in clinical trials, the material used to make the implant would degrade after about two months, though it could be tweaked to last longer, the researchers said.