Monthly Archives: February 2018

Baryon acoustic oscillations, an artifact remaining from the Big Bang, can be used by scientists to measure cosmological distances regardless of how the distances are changing. Soon after the Big Bang, the beginning of our universe, all of the matter of the universe was packed densely into a much smaller space. The result was a plasma of electrons, protons, and other particles so dense that light could hardly escape it. The dense plasma is called the primordial plasma. The density of the primordial plasma combined with the forces of gravity around the concentrated mass in the plasma caused waves. These waves of gravity and pressure in the plasma are referred to as cosmic sound. Cosmic sound rumbled through the early universe primordial plasma with surprising speed, often close to half the speed of light. As the universe expanded, the different constituents of the primordial plasma were affected differently by the…

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Many people believe that farmed fish wouldn’t do very well in the wild, but do direct experiments comparing farm-raised to wild fish support this belief? In a collaborative study, researchers from the Southwest Fisheries Science Center and the Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute pitted wild and captive reared fish against each other to determine which group could swim the fastest for the longest time. The competitors were California yellowtail (Seriola dorsalis), which is a type of amberjack and an increasingly popular fish to farm due to its high growth rate and high demand from the sushi industry. The scientists fished 7 wild yellowtail between 12 and 15 centimeters long from local waters. The 10 selected farmed fish were offspring of wild yellowtail and raised according to standard protocols. The fish were placed one at a time in a tunnel of water, whose speed was increased every half an hour until the fish could…

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We’re all familiar with “heat signatures” and “infrared images” thanks to the numerous cop shows on television. You’d be surprised to know, though, that in the real (not reel) world, images from a thermal camera are not accepted as evidence in a court of law, because they simply aren’t considered scientifically sound evidence. Scientists from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology have sought to address this issue by developing a scrutiny-proof method to verify a suspect’s alibi by simply checking the suspect’s shoes. Yes, shoes. All objects emit infrared radiation, the intensity of which depends on the temperature of the object. Thermal imaging technology can detect this radiation and create an electronic image, based on the fact that it is possible to differentiate between people and objects in a room. But there’s a catch. Humans cannot see infrared radiation, so it would be rather difficult to convince a room full…

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Aging is a  natural and inevitable biological process – one that happens to all living organisms on our planet. While most scientists would agree that aging is indeed natural, does it really have to be inevitable? After all, even within the animal kingdom, scientists already know of an exception to this rule: Turritopsis dohrnii, a biologically immortal jellyfish that is capable of reverting back to an immature polyp (pictured below) stage when it becomes sick or old.  Even among humans, life expectancy has increased dramatically within the last century. While most babies born in 1900 did not live past the age of 50, life expectancy is now decidedly higher – reaching 78.8 years in the United States (Source: Center for Disease Control and Prevention), due to the implementation of scientific discoveries in the realms of education, health, and hygiene. If this trend continues, improvements in science and medicine may further…

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Once someone is diagnosed with HIV, it is important for them to get on HIV treatment as soon as possible. One especially important group is pregnant women. Preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV is an imperative step to halting the HIV epidemic, so the World Health Organization in 2013 put forth the recommendation that all HIV-infected pregnant women begin antiretroviral treatment immediately, and continue for their entire life. Due to different circumstances, pregnant women living with HIV might not stay in their HIV care programs and might stop their treatment. This would be a problem, because that could allow her to transmit HIV to her baby during the pregnancy. However, the data on the amount of HIV-positive pregnant women who have dropped out of their HIV treatment programs is relatively unknown. To attempt to look at the differences in drop-out rates from treatment between men, pregnant women, and non-pregnant women, researchers…

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