Bird study sheds light on human speech-language development

Washington: A new study has shown for the first time how two tiny molecules regulate a gene implicated in speech and language impairments as well as autism disorders, and that social context of vocal behaviour governs their function.

Because the vocal learning process in birds has many similarities with speech and language development in humans, the zebra finch provides a useful model to study the neural mechanisms underlying speech and language in humans.

Mutations in the FOXP2 gene have been linked to speech and language deficits and in autism disorders.

A current theory is that a precise amount of FOXP2 is required for the proper development of the neural circuits processing speech and language, so it is important to understand how the FOXP2 gene is regulated.

The research led by Xiaoching Li, PhD, at the LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans Neuroscience Center of Excellence, identified two microRNAs, or miRNAs, - miR-9 and miR-140-5p - that regulate the levels of FOXP2.

The researchers showed that in the zebra finch brain, these miRNAs are expressed in a basal ganglia nucleus that is required for vocal learning, and their function is regulated during vocal learning. More intriguingly, the expression of these two miRNAs is also regulated by the social context of song behavior - in males singing undirected songs.

"Because the FOXP2 gene and these two miRNAs are evolutionarily conserved, the insights we obtained from studying birds are highly relevant to speech and language in humans and related neural developmental disorders such as autism," Xiaoching Li said.

The study is published in The Journal of Neuroscience.
Source: Internate

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New ideas

Experiments on samples of iron and rock held at immense pressures have led to new ideas of how Earth's core formed.

Scientists from Stanford University have shown that iron metal will flow through rocks 1,000km beneath our feet.
Using sophisticated X-ray imaging, they watched molten metal moving through rocks, squeezed to huge pressures between the tips of pairs of diamonds.
Their results suggest that Earth's core did not form in a single step, but grew in a complicated sequence over time.
The depths of Earth are complex and multi-layered.
At the surface, the rocks forming the foundations of our cities, the stones that we build our lives upon, also provide the raw materials for society - metals, fuel, water and nutrients.
These are no more than a thin geological veneer on the planet. In many respects, the deep Earth remains as much of a mystery as Jupiter or Mars.
But new research in the journal Nature Geosciences gives new clues about how Earth may have taken shape and built its core.
A group of scientists, led by Stanford's Prof Wendy Mao, have shown how metallic iron may be squeezed out of rocky silicates more than 1,000km beneath the surface to form a metallic core.
Ceramic mantle If you were to follow Jules Verne on a journey to the centre of the Earth, you would find a chemistry dominated by just three elements, until you got almost half the way to the centre - that's the first 3,000km of your journey.
Oxygen, silicon and magnesium (plus a little bit of iron) make up more than 90% of Earth's blanketing "ceramic" mantle.
Electrically and thermally insulating, the mantle is like a rock-wool blanket around the core. The minerals of the mantle are the stony part of the planet. But as you delve deeper on this "thought field trip", things suddenly and drastically change.
With more than half your journey ahead of you, you cross a boundary from the stony mantle into the metallic core. It is initially liquid in its upper stretches, and then solid right the way to the centre of the Earth.
The chemistry changes too, with iron forming almost all of the core, segregated into Earth's dense inner sphere.
The boundary between the metallic core and rocky mantle is a place of extremes. Physically, Earth's metallic liquid outer core is as different to the rocky mantle that overlies it as the seas are from the ocean floor here near Earth's surface.

Liquid iron can percolate through rocks deep beneath our feet.

One might (just about) imagine an inverted world of storms and currents of flowing red-hot metal in the molten outer core, pulsing through channels and inverted "ocean" floors at the base of the mantle.
The flowing of metal in the outer part of the core gives Earth its magnetic field, protects us from bombarding solar storms, and allows life to thrive.
How Earth's core came about has puzzled Earth Scientists for many years. Experiments on mixtures of silicate minerals and iron, cooked up in the laboratory, show that iron sits in tiny isolated lumps within the rock, remaining trapped and pinned at the junctions between the mineral grains.
Droplets of iron This observation has led to the view that iron only segregates very early in the life of the planet, when the upper part of the rocky mantle was in fact super-hot and molten.
It is thought that droplets of iron rained down through the red-hot magma ocean to settle at its base, resting on the solid deeper mantle, then sinking as large "diapirs" driven by gravity through the solid mantle to eventually form a core.
The paper by Crystal Shi and Wendy Mao begins to paint a different picture.
"We know that Earth today has a core and a mantle that are differentiated. With improving technology, we can look at different mechanisms of how this came to be in a new light," said Prof Mao.
Using intense X-rays to probe samples held at extreme pressure and temperature squeezed between the tips of diamond crystals, the researchers find that when pressure increases deep into the mantle, iron liquid begins to wet the surfaces of the silicate mineral grains.
This means that threads of iron can join up and begin to flow in rivulets through the solid mantle - a process called percolation.
It also means that iron can begin to segregate if the rocks are deep enough, even when the mantle is not a molten magma ocean.

 

Lying 5,000km beneath our feet, the core is beyond the reach of direct investigation

"In order for percolation to be efficient, the molten iron needs to be able to form continuous channels through the solid," Prof Mao explained.
"Scientists had said this theory wasn't possible, but now we're saying - under certain conditions that we know exist in the planet - it could happen. So, this brings back another possibility for how the core might have formed."
Commenting on the results, Geoffrey Bromiley, of the University of Edinburgh, UK, who was not involved in the study, told the BBC: "This new data suggests that we cannot assume that core formation is a simple, single-stage event. Core formation was a complex, multi-stage process that must have had an equally complex influence on the subsequent chemistry of the Earth.
"Their deep percolation model implies that early core formation can only be initiated in large planets. As a result, the chemistry of the Earth may have been 'reset' by core formation in a markedly different way from smaller planets and asteroids.
"As such, we might not be able to use geochemical data from meteorites to constrain the bulk composition of the Earth. This is currently an important assumption pervading Earth Science."
The results were reliant on recent advances in 3D imaging of minuscule samples using powerful synchrotron electron accelerators that generate intense beams of X-rays.
Similar to medical imaging, these sorts of experiments are revealing the nanoscale properties of minerals and melts. But they are also leading to new understanding of how huge objects like planets form and evolve.
Dr Bromiley and his colleagues are now investigating the influence of other factors, like the deformation that asteroids and other bodies might have experienced on their chaotic pathways through the early Solar System, on their formation.
He added: "The challenge now lies in finding a way to model the numerous processes of core formation to understand their timing and subsequent influence on the chemistry of not just the Earth, but also the other rocky bodies of the inner Solar System.
"We are increasingly observing metallic cores in bodies much smaller than the Earth. What process might have aided core formation in bodies that were never large enough to permit percolation of core forming melts at great depths?"

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Killer Sarin Gas

(Taken from Wekipedia)

Sarin
Preferred IUPAC name[hide] (RS)-Propan-2-yl methylphosphonofluoridate
Other names[hide] (RS)-O-Isopropyl methylphosphonofluoridate; IMPF; GB;[2] 2-(Fluoro-methylphosphoryl)oxypropane; Phosphonofluoridic acid, P-methyl-, 1-methylethyl ester
Identifiers
CAS number	107-44-8
PubChem	7871
ChemSpider	7583
UNII	B4XG72QGFM
ChEMBL	CHEMBL509554
Jmol-3D images	Image 1
SMILES [show]
InChI [show]
Properties
Molecular formula	C4H10FO2P
Molar mass	140.09 g mol−1
Appearance	Clear colorless liquid
Odor	Odorless in pure form
Density	1.0887 g/cm³ (25 °C) 1.102 g/cm³ (20 °C)
Melting point	-56 °C, 217 K, -69 °F
Boiling point	158 °C, 431 K, 316 °F
Solubility in water	Miscible
Hazards
MSDS	Lethal Nerve Agent Sarin (GB)
EU classification	Extremely Toxic (T+)[3]
Main hazards	It is a lethal cholinergic agent.
NFPA 704	1 4 0
LD50	70 mg-min/m3
(verify) (what is: /?) Except where noted otherwise, data are given for materials in their standard state (at 25 °C, 100 kPa)
Infobox references

Sarin, or GB, is an organophosphorus compound with the formula [(CH₃)₂CHO]CH₃P(O)F. It is a colorless, odorless liquid,^[4] used as a chemical weapon owing to its extreme potency as a nerve agent. It has been classified as a weapon of mass destruction^[5] in UN Resolution 687. Production and stockpiling of sarin was outlawed by the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993, and it is classified as a Schedule 1 substance.
Sarin can be lethal even at very low concentrations, with death following within one minute after direct ingestion due to suffocation from lung muscle paralysis, unless some antidotes, typically atropine or Biperiden and pralidoxime, are quickly administered to a person.^[4] People who absorb a non-lethal dose, but do not receive immediate medical treatment, may suffer permanent neurological damage.

Contents

• 1 Production and structure
• 2 Biological effects
• 3 Degradation and shelf life
• 4 Effects and treatment
  • 4.1 Diagnostic tests
• 5 History
  • 5.1 Use as a weapon
• 6 References
• 7 External links

Production and structure

Sarin is a chiral molecule because it has four chemically different substituents attached to the tetrahedral phosphorus center.^[6] The S_P form (the (–) optical isomer) is the more active enantiomer due to its greater binding affinity to acetylcholinesterase.^[7][8] The P-F bond is easily broken by nucleophilic agents, such as water and hydroxide. At high pH, sarin decomposes rapidly to nontoxic phosphonic acid derivatives. It is usually manufactured and weaponized as a racemic mixture—an equal mixture of both enantiomeric forms—by the alcoholysis reaction of methylphosphonyl difluoride with isopropyl alcohol:
  
Isopropylamine is also included in the reaction to neutralize the hydrogen fluoride byproduct. As a binary chemical weapon, it can be generated in situ by this same reaction.
A by-product of sarin production is diisopropyl methylphosphonate (DIMP), which degrades into isopropyl methylphosphonic acid (IMPA).^[9]

Biological effects

Sarin (red), acetylcholinesterase (yellow), acetylcholine (blue)

Like other nerve agents, sarin attacks the nervous system by stopping nerve endings in muscles from switching off. Death will usually occur as a result of asphyxia due to the inability to control the muscles involved in breathing function.
Specifically, sarin is a potent inhibitor of acetylcholinesterase,^[10] an enzyme that degrades the neurotransmitter acetylcholine after it is released into the synaptic cleft. In vertebrates, acetylcholine is the neurotransmitter used at the neuromuscular junction, where signals are transmitted between neurons from the central nervous systems to muscle fibres. Normally, acetylcholine is released from the neuron to stimulate the muscle, after which it is degraded by acetylcholinesterase, allowing the muscle to relax. A build-up of acetylcholine in the synaptic cleft, due to the inhibition of cholinesterase, means the neurotransmitter continues to act on the muscle fibre, so that any nerve impulses are effectively continually transmitted.
Sarin acts on cholinesterase by forming a covalent bond with the particular serine residue at the active site. Fluoride is the leaving group, and the resulting phosphoester is robust and biologically inactive.^[11][12]
Its mechanism of action resembles that of some commonly used insecticides, such as malathion. In terms of biological activity, it resembles carbamate insecticides, such as Sevin, and the medicines pyridostigmine, neostigmine, and physostigmine.

Degradation and shelf life

Rabbit used to check for leaks at sarin production plant, Rocky Mountain Arsenal (1970)

The most important chemical reactions of phosphoryl halides is the hydrolysis of the bond between phosphorus and the fluoride. This P-F bond is easily broken by nucleophilic agents, such as water and hydroxide. At high pH, sarin decomposes rapidly to nontoxic phosphonic acid derivatives.^[13][14] The initial breakdown of sarin is into isopropyl methylphosphonic acid (IMPA), a chemical that is not commonly found in nature except as a breakdown product of sarin. IMPA then degrades into methylphosphonic acid (MPA), which can also be produced by other organophosphates.^[15]
Sarin degrades after a period of several weeks to several months. The shelf life can be shortened by impurities in precursor materials. According to the CIA, some Iraqi sarin had a shelf life of only a few weeks, owing mostly to impure precursors.^[16]
Its otherwise-short shelf life can be extended by increasing the purity of the precursor and intermediates and incorporating stabilizers such as tributylamine. In some formulations, tributylamine is replaced by diisopropylcarbodiimide (DIC), allowing sarin to be stored in aluminium casings. In binary chemical weapons, the two precursors are stored separately in the same shell and mixed to form the agent immediately before or when the shell is in flight. This approach has the dual benefit of solving the stability issue and increasing the safety of sarin munitions.

Effects and treatment

Sarin has a high volatility (ease with which a liquid can turn into a gas) relative to similar nerve agents, therefore inhalation can be very dangerous and even vapor concentrations may immediately penetrate the skin. A person’s clothing can release sarin for about 30 minutes after it has come in contact with sarin gas, which can lead to exposure of other people.^[17] People who absorb a non-lethal dose but do not receive immediate appropriate medical treatment may suffer permanent neurological damage.
Even at very low concentrations, sarin can be fatal. Death may follow in one minute after direct ingestion of a lethal dose unless antidotes, typically atropine and pralidoxime, are quickly administered.^[4] Atropine, an antagonist to muscarinic acetylcholine receptors, is given to treat the physiological symptoms of poisoning. Since muscular response to acetylcholine is mediated through nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, atropine does not counteract the muscular symptoms. Pralidoxime can regenerate cholinesterases if administered within approximately five hours. Biperiden, a synthetic acetylcholine antagonist, has been suggested as an alternative to atropine due to its better blood–brain barrier penetration and higher efficacy.^[18]
Sarin is 26 times more deadly than cyanide.^[19] The LD₅₀ of subcutaneously injected sarin in mice is 172 μg/kg.^[20] Treatment measures have been described.^[21]
Initial symptoms following exposure to sarin are a runny nose, tightness in the chest and constriction of the pupils. Soon after, the victim has difficulty breathing and experiences nausea and drooling. As the victim continues to lose control of bodily functions, the victim vomits, defecates and urinates. This phase is followed by twitching and jerking. Ultimately, the victim becomes comatose and suffocates in a series of convulsive spasms. Moreover, common mnemonics for the symptomatology of organophosphate poisoning, including sarin gas, are the "killer B's" of bronchorrhea and bronchospasm because they are the leading cause of death,^[22] and SLUDGE - Salivation, Lacrimation, Urination, Defecation, Gastrointestinal distress, and Emesis.

Diagnostic tests

Controlled studies in healthy men have shown that a nontoxic 0.43 mg oral dose administered in several portions over a 3 day interval caused average maximum depressions of 22 and 30%, respectively, in plasma and erythrocyte cholinesterase levels. A single acute 0.5 mg dose caused mild symptoms of intoxication and an average reduction of 38% in both measures of cholinesterase activity. Sarin in blood is rapidly degraded either in vivo or in vitro. Its primary inactive metabolites have in vivo serum half-lives of approximately 24 hours. The serum level of unbound isopropylmethylphosphonic acid (IMPA), a sarin hydrolysis product, ranged from 2-135 µg/L in survivors of a terrorist attack during the first 4 hours post-exposure. Sarin or its metabolites may be determined in blood or urine by gas or liquid chromatography, while cholinesterase activity is usually measured by enzymatic methods.^[23]

History

Sarin was discovered in 1938 in Wuppertal-Elberfeld in Germany by scientists at IG Farben attempting to create stronger pesticides; it is the most toxic of the four G-Series nerve agents made by Germany. The compound, which followed the discovery of the nerve agent tabun, was named in honor of its discoverers: Schrader, Ambros, Gerhard Ritter and Van der Linde.^[24]

Use as a weapon

In mid-1939, the formula for the agent was passed to the chemical warfare section of the German Army Weapons Office, which ordered that it be brought into mass production for wartime use. A number of pilot plants were built, and a high-production facility was under construction (but was not finished) by the end of World War II. Estimates for total sarin production by Nazi Germany range from 500 kg to 10 tons.^[25] Though sarin, tabun and soman were incorporated into artillery shells, Germany did not use nerve agents against Allied targets.

U.S. Honest John missile warhead cutaway, showing M134 Sarin bomblets (c. 1960)

• 1950s (early): NATO adopted sarin as a standard chemical weapon, and both the USSR and the United States produced sarin for military purposes.
• 1953: 20-year-old Ronald Maddison, a Royal Air Force engineer from Consett, County Durham, died in human testing of sarin at the Porton Down chemical warfare testing facility in Wiltshire, England. Ten days after his death an inquest was held in secret which returned a verdict of "misadventure". In 2004, the inquest was reopened and, after a 64-day inquest hearing, the jury ruled that Maddison had been unlawfully killed by the "application of a nerve agent in a non-therapeutic experiment."^[26]
• 1956: Regular production of sarin ceased in the United States, though existing stocks of bulk sarin were re-distilled until 1970.
• March 1988: Over the span of two days in March, the ethnic Kurd city of Halabja in northern Iraq (population 70,000) was bombarded with chemical and cluster bombs, which included sarin, in the Halabja poison gas attack. An estimated 5,000 people died.^[27]
• April 1988: Sarin was used four times against Iranian soldiers in April 1988 at the end of the Iran–Iraq War, helping Iraqi forces to retake control of the al-Faw Peninsula during the Second Battle of al-Faw. Using satellite imagery, the United States assisted Iraqi forces in locating the position of the Iranian troops during those attacks.^[28]
• 1993: The United Nations Chemical Weapons Convention was signed by 162 member countries, banning the production and stockpiling of many chemical weapons, including sarin. It went into effect on 29 April 1997, and called for the complete destruction of all specified stockpiles of chemical weapons by April 2007.^[29]
• 1994: The Japanese religious sect Aum Shinrikyo released an impure form of sarin in Matsumoto, Nagano, killing eight people and harming over 200. (see Matsumoto incident)
• 1995: Aum Shinrikyo sect released an impure form of sarin in the Tokyo Metro. Thirteen people died. (see Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway)
• 1998: In the US, Time Magazine and CNN ran false news stories alleging that in 1970 U.S. Air Force A-1E Skyraiders engaged in a covert operation called Operation Tailwind, in which they deliberately dropped sarin-containing weapons on U.S. troops who had defected in Laos. CNN and Time Magazine later retracted the stories and fired the producers responsible.^[30]
• 2004: Iraqi insurgents detonated a 155 mm shell containing binary precursors for sarin near a U.S. convoy in Iraq. The shell was designed to mix the chemicals as it spins during flight. The detonated shell released only a small amount of sarin gas, either because the explosion failed to mix the binary agents properly or because the chemicals inside the shell had degraded with age. Two United States soldiers were treated after displaying the early symptoms of exposure to sarin.^[31]
• 21 August 2013: Sarin was used in an attack in the Ghouta region of the Rif Dimashq Governorate of Syria during the Syrian civil war.^[32] Varying^[33] sources gave a death toll of 322^[34] to 1,729.^[35]

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Could life on Earth end on March 16, 2880? Scientists predict giant asteroid will collide with our planet at 38,000 miles per hour

 

 

• Asteroid 1950 DA has a 0.3 per cent chance of hitting Earth in 867 years
• This represents a risk 50% greater than an impact from all other asteroids
• If it were to hit, it would do so with an force of 44,800 megatonnes of TNT

Doomsday, it seems, has come and gone countless times. 
But one particular prediction for the end of the world has been weighing on the mind of astronomers for more than half a century.
Scientists at Nasa have been watching an asteroid, named 1950 DA, which is currently on a path to collide with Earth on March 16, 2880.

Asteroid (29075) 1950 DA was discovered on 23 February 1950. It was observed for 17 days and then faded from view for half a century. Scientists estimate there is a 0.3 per cent chance it will hit Earth on March 16 2880

The asteroid is a rock two-thirds of a mile in diameter, travelling at about 15km (nine miles) a second relative to the Earth.
It is due to swing so close to Earth it could slam into the Atlantic Ocean at 38,000 miles per hour.

It is estimated that if 1950 DA were to collide with the planet, it would do so with an force of around 44,800 megatonnes of TNT.
Although the probability of an impact is only 0.3 per cent, this represents a risk 50 per cent greater than an impact from all other asteroids.
ANIMATION: Asteroid 1950 DA's potential trajectory

 

A simulation of an asteroid impact tsunami developed by scientists at the University of California, Santa Cruz, shows waves as high as 400 feet sweeping onto the Atlantic Coast

ASTEROID 1950 DA

The asteroid, named 1950 DA, is a rock two-thirds of a mile in diameter, travelling at about 15 km (nine miles) per second relative to the Earth.
It is due to swing so close to Earth it could slam into the Atlantic Ocean at 38,000 miles per hour.
It is estimated that if 1950 DA were to collide with the planet, it would do so with an force of around 44,800 megatonnes of TNT.
Although the probability of an impact is only 0.3 per cent, this represents a risk 50 per cent greater than an impact from all other asteroids.

Over the long timescales of Earth's history, asteroids this size and larger have periodically hammered the planet.
The so-called K/T impact, for instance, ended the age of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
Asteroid 1950 DA was discovered on 23 February 1950. It was observed for 17 days and then faded from view for half a century.
Then, an object discovered on 31 December 2000 was recognised as being the long-lost 1950 DA.
The New Year's Eve sighting was exactly 200 years to the night after the discovery of the first asteroid, Ceres.
It was found that the asteroid 1950 DA has a trajectory that for a 20-minute window on March 16, 2880, a collision cannot be entirely ruled out.
Optical observations showed the asteroid rotated once every 2.1 hours, the second fastest spin rate ever observed for an asteroid its size.
But scientists claim there is no cause for concern.
If it is eventually decided 1950 DA needs to be diverted, the hundreds of years of warning could allow a method as simple as dusting the surface of the asteroid with chalk or charcoal, or perhaps white glass beads.
This would change the asteroid's reflectivity and allow sunlight to do the work of pushing the asteroid out of the way.
Planetary scientists, meanwhile, are getting a better handle on the risks of asteroid impacts.

Enlarge  

This graphic shows the orbits of all the known Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs), numbering over 1,400 as of early 2013. These are the asteroids considered hazardous because they are fairly large (at least 460 feet or 140 meters in size), and because they follow orbits that pass close to the Earth's orbit

There are currently 1,400 potentially hazardous asteroids that could pass close to Earth.
These asteroids are considered hazardous because they are fairly large - at least 460 feet or 140 meters in size - and will pass within 7.5million kilometres.
Nasa is currently tracking all 1,400 potentially hazardous asteroids so far identified and predicting their future close approaches and impact probabilities.
As part of this effort it is working on the development of an infrared sensor that could improve its asteroid tracking capabilities, dubbed the Near Earth Object Camera (NEOCam) sensor.
Once launched, the space-based telescope would be positioned at a location about four times the distance between Earth and the moon.
From this lofty perch, NEOCam could observe the comings and goings of near Earth objects, including PHAs, without the impediments such as cloud cover and daylight.

The Near-Earth Object Camera (NEOCam) is a mission proposed to NASA to find potentially hazardous asteroids. The mission will use a new sensor, called the NEOCam chip, that has more pixels and better sensitivity than previous generations of infrared sensors

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Scientists trace 19 living relatives of Ötzi the Iceman whose 5,300-year-old body was found frozen in the Alps

• Austrian scientists tested the DNA of 3,700 male blood donors in Tyrol
• They matched a genetic mutation to the mummy found back in 1991

Scientists in Austria have found 19 living descendants of a prehistoric iceman whose 5,300-year-old body was found frozen in the Alps.
Researchers from the Institute of Legal Medicine at Innsbruck Medical University took DNA samples from blood donors in Tyrol in the west of the country.
They managed to match a particular genetic mutation with that of Ötzi, whose body was discovered back in 1991.

It's all relative: The prehistoric iceman had a genetic mutation which matches those whose DNA was sampled in Austria

Experts now believe that the same mutation might also be found in the nearby rgions of Engadine in Switzerland and the South Tyrol region of Italy.
According to the BBC, Walther Parson from the university, said: 'We have already found Swiss and Italian partners so that we can pursue our research.'

DNA from around 3,700 blood donors were analysed and the men were also asked to provide information on their ancestry.
None of the donors have been informed that they are distantly related to Ötzi.
Since the body was found frozen under the Alps two decades ago, scientists have conducted experiments to learn how he came to be buried between the Austrian and Italian borders more than 5,300 years ago.

Preserved: Ötzi is kept in a specially built museum in Bolzano, Italy. Visitors view the mummy through portholes into a specially refrigerated room

A hole in his collarbone suggested he was killed by an arrow, then a brain scan concluded he died from a fall.
But research earlier this year, from the European Academy of Bolzano/Bozen (EURAC) in Germany, discovered he suffered brain damage likely caused by a blow to the head.
In 2001, scientists from Austria's Innsbruck University scanned Ötzi using a CAT scan.
They found dark spots at the back of the iceman mummy's cerebrum and concluded he may have died from a head injury.
It was suggested that falling, after being hit by the arrow, or while climbing, may have caused this head injury.

History: The mummy was found in September 1991 in the Ötztal Alps, hence the name Ötzi, near the Similaun mountain and Hauslabjoch on the border between Austria and Italy

The mummy was found in September 1991 in the Ötztal Alps, hence the name Ötzi, near the Similaun mountain and Hauslabjoch on the border between Austria and Italy.
Scientists estimate he was aged around 45, was 5ft 5" tall and weighed about 7.9st when he died.
Ötzi is kept in a specially built museum in Bolzano, Italy. Visitors view the mummy through portholes into a specially refrigerated room.
The hunter was frozen with all his possessions including a bow, a quiver of arrows and a copper axe. He was wearing warm clothing including a cloak made of woven grass, a coat and leggings made from goatskin and a bearskin cap with a leather chin strap.

WHO WAS ÖTZI?

DNA analysis has revealed details of the iceman's life

The 5,300-year-old 'ice mummy' known as Ötzi suffered from the world's first-known case of Lyme disease, a bacterial parasite spread by ticks, according to new DNA analysis.
Ötzi, who was 46 at the time of his death and measured 5ft2, also had brown eyes, had relatives in Sardinia, and was lactose intolerant.
Ötzi was also predisposed to heart disease.
The new research focused on the DNA in the nuclei of Ötzi's cells, and could yield further insights into the famous 'ice mummy's life.
He was unearthed in September 1991 by a couple of German tourists trekking through the Oetz Valley, after which he was named.
He was about 46 years old when he met his death.
The iceman has been crucial to our understanding of how prehistoric people lived, what they wore and even what they ate.
Researchers examining the contents of his stomach worked out that his final meal consisted of venison and ibex meat.
Archaeologists believe Otzi, who was carrying a bow, a quiver of arrows and a copper axe, may have been a hunter or warrior killed in a skirmish with a rival tribe.
Researchers say he was about 159cm tall (5ft 2.5in), 46 years old, arthritic and infested with whipworm, an intestinal parasite.
His perfectly preserved body is stored in his own specially designed cold storage chamber at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Italy at a constant temperature of -6°C. Visitors can view the mummy through a small window.
Alongside his remains is a new Otzi model created using 3D images of the corpse and forensic technology by two Dutch artists – Alfons and Adrie Kennis.

(Copy paste from daily mail)

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Apocalypse Now: Unstoppable man-made climate change will become reality by the end of the decade and could make New York, London and Paris uninhabitable within 45 years

 

(Copy Paste from the daily Mail)

• Research from the University of Hawaii claims that man-made global warming is now inevitable
• The Earth is going to dangerously heat up over the next 50-years
• The tropics will bear the brunt of the disastrous temperature increases of as much as seven-degrees-centigrade
• Millions of people will be displaced, millions of species will be threatened with extinction
• Major cities such as New York and London will fight to survive the rise in temperatures the likes of which humans have never experienced before

By James Nye
PUBLISHED: 02:08 GMT, 10 October 2013 | UPDATED: 08:36 GMT, 10 October 2013

Hot Topic of Research: Camilo Mora and his team predict that in about a decade, Kingston, Jamaica, will probably be off-the-charts hot — permanently, Singapore in 2028. Mexico City in 2031. Cairo in 2036. Phoenix and Honolulu in 2043 as global warming takes hold.

The Earth is racing towards an apocalyptic future in which major cities such as New York and London could become uninhabitable because of irreversible man-made climate change within 45-years according to a sobering new study published this week.
Humanitarian crisis' could unfold, as hundreds of millions of global warming refugees pour illegally across borders fleeing the consequences of the temperature rises which might leave entire regions of the planet extinct of life.
And while the doomsday clock is ticking, with the first signs of change expected at the end of this decade, researchers of the study claim that it is too late to reverse and mankind needs to prepare for a world where the coldest years will be warmer than what we remember as the hottest.
Indeed, the study from the University of Hawaii published online Wednesday in the journal Nature predicts that even if we utilized all resources to stop and halt our current carbon emissions, the changes are irrevocable and can only be postponed.
All things remaining the same, New York City will begin to experience dramatic, life altering temperatures by 2047, Los Angeles by 2048 and London by 2056.
However, if harmful greenhouse emissions are stabilized, New York would be able to stave off the inevitable changes until 2072 and London until 2088.
The first U.S. cities to feel the changes would be Honolulu and Phoenix, followed by San Diego and Orlando, in 2046. New York and Washington will get new climates around 2047, with Los Angeles, Detroit, Houston, Chicago, Seattle, Austin and Dallas a bit later.

Climate Departure: This map shows the cities irrevocable climate change will hit first and what year it will begin if nothing is done to stabilize carbon dioxide emissions

Apocalyptic Future? By 2046 New York and Washington will get new climates around 2047 - Eventually, the coldest year in a particular city or region will be hotter than the hottest year in its past

Abandoned Trafalgar Square in London: By 2043, 147 cities, more than half of those studied, will have shifted to a hotter temperature regime that is beyond historical records according to the study

Study leader Camilo Mora calculated that the last of the 265 cities to move into their new climate will be Anchorage, Alaska — in 2071. There’s a five-year margin of error on the estimates.

By 2043, 147 cities — more than half of those studied — will have shifted to a hotter temperature regime that is beyond historical records - in what is known as Climate Departure.

The current projections from the team led by biologist Mora predict that the epicenter of global warming will be at the tropics which will bear the brunt of the initial changes, with temperature rises beginning in or around Manokwari, Indonesia by 2020.
However, if the current emissions were stopped today, Manokwari, which is directly on the Equator, would still experience temperature changes in 2025.

Epicenter: Mora forecasts that the unprecedented heat starts in 2020 with Manokwa, Indonesia

'We are used to the climate that we live in. With this climate change, what is going to happen is we're going to be moving outside this comfort zone,' said Camilo Mora, the study's lead author, to
NBC News.
'It is going to be uncomfortable for us as humans and it will be very uncomfortable for species as well.'
The study claims that by 2050 between 1 and 5 billion people will live in areas with an unprecedented climate, said study co-author Ryan Longman, a graduate student at the University of Hawaii.
'Countries first impacted by unprecedented climate change are the ones with the least economic capacity to respond. Ironically, these are the countries that are least responsible for climate change in the first place,' he said.
'By expanding our understanding of climate change, our paper reveals new consequences for biodiversity and highlights the urgency to take action now.'

Frightening Projections: Mora forecasts that the unprecedented heat starts in 2020 with Manokwa, Indonesia. Then Kingston, Jamaica. Within the next two decades, 59 cities will be living in what is essentially a new climate, including Singapore, Havana, Kuala Lumpur and Mexico City.

Future Planet: These projections of global temperature change based on two different climate scenarios show the world from 1986-2005 and what could unfold at the end of this century with a rise in average temp from 32 to 39 degrees centigrade

The study from Mora and the University of Hawaii, Manoa, shifts the way in which climate scientists have been examining the implications of greenhouse emissions.
While most have focused on the rapidly warming climate in the Arctic and the effects on wildlife such as polar bears and also sea levels, Mora's team are concerned with the effects on people - specifically the tropics - where the majority of the world's population lives and whose citizens have contributed the least to global warming.
It is in the already warm tropics that an increase of only a couple of degrees can alter the balance of life, crippling crops, spreading disease and leading to mass migration away to cooler climes.
'The warming in the tropics is not as much but we are rather more quickly going to go outside that recent experience of temperature and that is going to be devastating to species and it is probably going to be devastating to people,' said Stuart Pimm, a conservation biologist at Duke University, to
NBC News.
Mora and his colleagues collated global climate models and built an index of estimates on when a given spot on the globe will change beyond temperatures experienced on Earth over the past 150 years between 1860 and 2005.

Lost Forever: A new study on the timing of climate change calculates the probable dates for when cities and ecosystems across the world would regularly experience never-seen heat environments based on about 150 years of record-keeping

To arrive at their projections, the researchers used weather observations, computer models and other data to calculate the point at which every year from then on will be warmer than the hottest year ever recorded over the last 150 years.

Climate Departure: The Tipping Point for Global Warming

Climate departure is how scientists monitoring global warming measure when the environment has actually changed forver

A city or nation hits climate departure when the average temperature of its coldest year from that point on is predicted to be hotter than the average temperature of its hottest year measured over the past 150 years.

According to the new study for example, New York City's climate departure date is 2047.

That means every year after 2047 will be warmer than New York's hottest date on record from 1860 to 2005.

The University of Hawaii's study predicts that Planet Earth's climate departure date is 2047
This indicates how rapidly the globe and mankind is set to feel the effects of man-made climate change - at least according to the new study

For example, the world as a whole had its hottest year on record in 2005. The new study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, says that by the year 2047, every year that follows will probably be hotter than that record-setting scorcher.

Eventually, the coldest year in a particular city or region will be hotter than the hottest year in its past.

'On average, the tropics will experience unprecedented climate change 16 years earlier than the rest of the world, starting as early as 2020' in Manokwari, Indonesia, Mora said in a briefing with reporters on Tuesday.
He added that if mankind continued to burn fossil fuels, the threshold for the planet as an average globally is 2047 - with temperatures rising by as much as seven degrees centigrade.
If greenhouse gas emissions are stabilized, this date is delayed only by 20 years, as an average.
But, those extra 20 years bought through emissions cuts would could prove crucial for many species’ survival, Mora said.
'Imagine you are on a highway, and you spot an obstacle in the road up ahead,' Mora said.
'Should you step on the gas, or hit the brake?'
'Hitting an obstacle at a slower speed will minimize the damage to the car and its occupants, in much the same way as hitting a climate threshold at a slower speed would reduce the ramifications for biological systems.
'The speed at which you face that obstacle is going to make a huge difference.'

Climate Change Refugees: The changing temperatures could render some nations uninhabitable and lead to uncontrollable migration across borders

Mora admits that his study is subject to geographic variables, saying that the changes he is predicting will not occur at the same time across the world.
However, he has narrowed down his projections to a 5-year margin of error either side, which he calls 'remarkable', given that the study used 39 different models from 21 teams in 12 countries.
Skeptics such as Eric Post, a biologist at Penn State University, said that while he disagree with the precision of Mora's study, as with all climate change work, the public and politicians must take note.
'If the assessment by Mora et al. proves accurate, conservation practitioners take heed — the climate change race is not only on, it is fixed, with the extinction finish line looming closest for the tropics,' he wrote in Nature magazine.

Mora's research has led him to the conclusion that all the species in any of the regions affected by adverse temperature rises have three stark choices.
Either they move to a cooler climate, adapt to the warmer climate or become extinct.
However, this is where conflict could arise amongst nations as desperate and starving people try to migrate en-mass north or south to escape the arid land they have come to live in.
'We have these political boundaries that we cannot cross as easily. Like people in Mexico — if the climate was to go crazy there, it is not like they can move to the United States,' said Mora to NBC News.
Too Late To Stop: The 2047 date for the whole world is based on continually increasing emissions of greenhouse gases from the burning of coal, oil and natural gases. If the world manages to reduce its emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases, that would be pushed to as late as 2069, according to Mora.

The Mora team found that by one measurement — ocean acidity — Earth has already crossed the threshold into an entirely new regime. That happened in about 2008, with every year since then more acidic than the old record, according to study co-author Abby Frazier.

Of the species studied, coral reefs will be the first stuck in a new climate — around 2030 — and are most vulnerable to climate change, Mora said.

Judith Curry, a Georgia Institute of Technology climate scientist who often clashes with mainstream scientists, said she found Mora’s approach to make more sense than the massive report that came out of the U.N.-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change last month.

Pennsylvania State University climate scientist Michael Mann said the research 'may actually be presenting an overly rosy scenario when it comes to how close we are to passing the threshold for dangerous climate impacts.'

'By some measures, we are already there,' he said.

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New Research Refutes Claim That Mummified Head Belonged to King Henry IV of France

Oct. 9, 2013 — New research led by KU Leuven professor Jean-Jacques Cassiman exposes erroneous conclusions in forensic studies by Spanish and French researchers. They incorrectly ascribed a mummified head to Henry IV and a bloody handkerchief to Louis XVI, new research suggests.

Two purportedly royal relics recently surfaced on the collectors' market in France: a mummified head and a handkerchief with blood residues. The head was said to be that of French king Henry IV and the blood on the handkerchief that of King Louis XVI. This was confirmed by Spanish and French researchers, who reported positive DNA matches. Several historians voiced doubts about these claims and enrolled the help of forensic identification specialist Professor Jean-Jacques Cassiman and his team to investigate the relics.

Professor Cassiman's team compared the published DNA results from the head and the blood in the handkerchief with DNA samples obtained from three surviving descendants of the house of Bourbon, progeny of Henry IV. The genetic relationship between these three Bourbons, who come from different branches of the family line, is fixed on the basis of research carried out on the Y-chromosome. The DNA comparison found that there was no relationship between the Bourbons and the blood on the handkerchief, nor the mummified head. Two breaks in the biological line on the paternal side would have had to occur in order for the head and the blood to belong to the two French kings.

Likewise, there was no evidence on the maternal side (based on the mitochondrial DNA testing) suggesting a positive identification of the relics. The mother of Henry IV, Jeanne III d'Albret, is related via Anna of Habsburg in an unbroken maternal line to the Habsburgs, including Marie-Antoinette and Louis XVII. Here, once again, there would have to have been at least one break in the maternal line for the head to belong to King Henry IV. The probability that one of the women in King Henry IV lineage was not the real mother of her daughter, or of the king himself, is virtually non-existent.

Furthermore, DNA tests of the blood on the handkerchief show with 84.2% certainty that the blood belonged to a person who did not have blue eyes. It is known that King Louis XVI had blue eyes.

Based on these conclusions, the team of Professor Cassiman is unable to confirm the conclusions of their Spanish and French counterparts, given the available data. The blood on the handkerchief almost certainly does not belong to Louis XVI. Too little DNA remains were found on the mummified head to confirm or deny that it is the head of Henry IV, although historical data makes this identification unlikely.

According to the researchers, the study shows that a reliable genetic identification of historical remains requires a DNA profile of the living paternal and maternal descendants of the 'donor' to which the remains purportedly belong.

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Is there civilisation out trere?

I think if there is realy a civilisation in the outer space, what a wonder it would be! But no-can can ensure the case. Everyone says that there is a parallel universe other than ours. Million and Million dollars are being spent by the westerners. If they use this money to improve the human condition, who are living under sever suffering, it would change the world. there would not so muny face, scratched by pain. We hope the best of the mankind.

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