Not Just Birds, Fish Sing Dawn & Dusk Choruses Too

Fish sing dawn choruses in the ocean just as birds do on land. Seven fish choruses have been identified by researchers which varied from “foghorn” cries to “grunting” noises. Using a pair of sea-noise loggers positioned at different points in the coastal waters of port Headland in Western Australia, scientists monitored the ocean continually for 18 months and recoded distinct choruses occurring at different times of the day, particularly at dawn and at dusk, with songs predominantly heard between early spring and late summer. The study found the majority of this submarine soundscape was emitted through repetitive solo calls from fish; however these sounds also overlapped creating the choruses. You get the dusk and dawn choruses like you would with the bird in the forest. Sound provides information about the behavioral functions of fish, such as spawning, feeding, territorial disputed or distress and studying fish noises may help provide valuable ecological knowledge.

How Tech Unlocked Secrets of Ancient Biblical Scroll

Nearly half a century ago, archaeologists found a charred ancient scroll in the ark of a synagogue on the western shore of the Dead Sea. The lump of carbonized parchment could not be opened or read. Its curators did nothing but conserve it, hoping that new technology might one day emerge to make the scroll legible. Just such a technology has bow been perfected by computer scientists with biblical scholars in Jerusalem, they have used a computer to unfurl a digital image of the scroll. It turns out to hold a fragment identical to the Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible and at nearly 2,000 years old, is the earliest instance of the text.

The writing retrieved by the computer from the digital image of the unopened scroll is amazingly clear and legible, in contrast to the scroll’s blackened and beaten up exterior. The scroll’s content, the first two chapters of the Book of Leviticus, has consonants – early Hebrew texts didn’t specify vowels – that are identical to those of the Masoretic text, the authoritative version of the Hebrew Bible and the one often used as the bases for translations of the Old Testament in Protestant Bibles. The Dead Sea scroll contain versions quite similar to the Masoretic text but with many small differences. The text in the scroll found that the En-Gedi excavation site in Israel decades ago has none. This is the earliest evidence of the exact form of the medieval text.

Secret To Long Life In Tibet: Low Oxygen

Low-oxygen environment in Tibet may be promoting longevity among the local people, according to a study. The research shows elderly people from the Tibetan Plateau have a longer lifespan than their counterparts in China. By examining 2010 census data, researchers found that the proportion of the Tibetan population over 60 years of age was significantly lower than that of the Han population. However, among Tibetans there was dramatic rise in ration of proportion of people aged 90 and above. The proportion of individuals older than 100 years of age was also higher for male (but not female) Tibetans than for Han Chinese. According to findings, published in Cell Research on September 9, elderly Tibetans tend to have a longer lifespan than those living at lower altitudes, suggesting an association between hypoxia and longevity. Low-oxygen environments can accelerate evolution of aging associated genes, which might offset the effect of aging.

Microsoft Claims That Its Biological Computation Unit Can Reprogram Diseased Cells

Microsoft says it is going to “solve” cancer in the next 10 years. The company is working at treating the disease like a computer virus that invades and corrupts the body’s cells. Once it is able to do so, it will be able to monitor for them and even potentially reprogram them to be healthy again. The company has built a “biological computation” unit whose ultimate aim is to make cells living computers. As such, they could be programmed to treat any disease, such as cancer. In the short term, the unit is using advanced research to try and set computers to work learning about drugs and diseases and suggesting new treatments to help cancer patients.

The team hopes to be able to use machine learning technologies – computers that can think and learn like humans – to read through the huge amounts of cancer research and come to understand the disease and the drugs that treat it. At the moment, so much cancer research is published that it is impossible for any doctor to read it all. But since computers can read and understand so much more quickly, the systems will be able to read through all of the research and then put that to work on specific situations. It does that by bringing together biology, maths and computing. Those have long been treated as relatively distinct but are coming closer in recent years, and have been spurred on by Microsoft’s investment.

The field of biology and the field of computation might seem like chalk and cheese but the complex processes that happen in cells have some similarity to those that happens in a standard desktop computer. As such, those complex processes can potentially be understood by a desktop computer, too. And those same computers could be used to understand how cells behave and to treat them. If that were possible, then those computers won’t only be able to understand why cells behave as they do and when they might be about to become cancerous, but also trigger a response within a cell, reversing its decision and reprogramming it so that it is healthy again. Microsoft says that solution could be with us within the next five to ten years.

Mobile App, Device Can Prevent Stroke

Scientists have developed a new smartphone app and a thumb size device which can detect irregular heartbeat and may help to prevent strokes at an early stage. The mobile device, developed at VTT technical Research Centre of Finland, has been tested with excellent results for around two years in real life conditions in cooperation with Turku University Central Hospital. An irregular heartbeat or arrhythmia tends to remain undiagnosed, if no symptoms are detected during monitoring of heart activity. With the mobile device, users can register their ECG signal whenever arrhythmia or other heart symptoms occur. The device is also suitable for pre and post surgery monitoring of heart patients at home there is no need for patients to visit a hospital, because the data is sent automatically from a mobile phone to medical staff via a cloud service. It accurately measures user’s heart rate to detect irregular heartbeat and overburdening and prolonged stress.

New Gene Therapy to Check Breast Cancer

MIT scientists have developed a new gene therapy technique that can stop the spread of malignant cells around the body – the leading cause of mortality in women with breast cancer. The treatment uses microRNAs – small non-coding RNA molecules that around the body, known as metastasis. The therapy could be used alongside chemotherapy to treat early-stage breast cancer tumours before they spread. The idea is that if the cancer is diagnosed early enough, then in addition to treating the primary tumour (with chemotherapy), one could also treat with specific microRNAs, in order to prevent the spread of cancer cells that cause metastasis. The regulation of gene expression by microRNAs is known to be important in preventing the spread of cancer cells.

Turning Mill Waste Into Aviation Oil

A company partnered with Virgin Atlantic Ltd has created a green jet fuel made from waste industrial gases released by steel mills. US-based Lanza Tech Inc produced 1,500 gallons of the fuel known as Lanzanol. It’s made from the ethanol created through a fermentation process. It’s estimated to be 65% cleaner than conventional jet fuel. This is a real game changer for aviation and could significantly reduce the industry’s reliance on oil within our lifetime. Aviation is one of the most polluting industries in the world. Low oil prices have largely deterred the development of alternative fuels.