Science & Technology news & discussion

Vegetarian and vegan diets and risks of total and site-specific bone fractures: EPIC-Oxford study

Results
Compared with meat eaters and after adjustment for socio-economic factors, lifestyle confounders, and body mass index (BMI), the risks of hip fracture were higher in fish eaters (hazard ratio 1.26; 95% CI 1.02–1.54), vegetarians (1.25; 1.04–1.50), and vegans (2.31; 1.66–3.22), equivalent to rate differences of 2.9 (0.6–5.7), 2.9 (0.9–5.2), and 14.9 (7.9–24.5) more cases for every 1000 people over 10 years, respectively. The vegans also had higher risks of total (1.43; 1.20–1.70), leg (2.05; 1.23–3.41), and other main site fractures (1.59; 1.02–2.50) than meat eaters. Overall, the significant associations appeared to be stronger without adjustment for BMI and were slightly attenuated but remained significant with additional adjustment for dietary calcium and/or total protein. No significant differences were observed in risks of wrist or ankle fractures by diet group with or without BMI adjustment, nor for arm fractures after BMI adjustment.

Conclusions
Non-meat eaters, especially vegans, had higher risks of either total or some site-specific fractures, particularly hip fractures. This is the first prospective study of diet group with both total and multiple specific fracture sites in vegetarians and vegans, and the findings suggest that bone health in vegans requires further research.


Going to be quite controversial, I can see.

 

Scientists kill cancer cells in mice in ‘world first’ development

Scientists claim the technology can be developed for humans within the next two years

A group of scientists have discovered a “more elegant chemotherapy” that can accurately target cancerous cells in a first in the battle against the disease. The research successfully killed cancerous cells while leaving healthy ones around it using a technique which relies on DNA editing tools.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...e-kills-gene-editing-scientists-b1760367.html

 

Not at all. It is well known that it was a crucial point of evolution the moment when first Hominids started eating meat. Thanks to the high calories of meat, they had enough energy do develop and increase the brain capacity, and reduce the intestine volume.

How Human Brains Evolved with Meat

https://paleoleap.com/human-brains-evolved-meat/

"If you poke around raw vegan corners of the internet for long enough, you’ll almost certainly come across the idea that humans aren’t evolutionarily designed to eat meat.

... there’s an overwhelming amount of evidence that humans evolved as omnivores, animals that eat both meat and plants.

And meat was important for making us human in the first place, especially for our huge, calorie-sucking brains.

The brain of a modern human needs about 20% of that person’s calorie intake, and also demands all kinds of nutrients, from Omega-3 fats to B vitamins. We simply couldn’t have evolved such a demanding organ without meat to provide calories and important nutrients."

Meat and Human Evolution

"From around 6 million years ago to 2 million years ago, the ancestors of modern humans had pretty small brains. For about 4 million years, our brains were basically the same, and pretty unimpressive by modern standards.

But then we started eating meat. The ancestors of modern humans started eating meat around 2.5 million (2,500,000,000) years ago (for reference, the Agricultural Revolution, when we started eating grains as our staple food, was only around 10,000 years ago). With the introduction of meat into our diets, our ancestors’ brains started rapidly increasing in size and complexity. This allowed early hominids to develop into modern humans, with the brainpower to do things like create computers and fly to the moon.

This dramatic effect of meat on brain evolution is sometimes explained just in terms of calorie density, but it’s actually more complicated than that."

 

I think it's obvious to most that we evolved to be hunters, and require meat protein to remain healthy.

Interesting study into this:

Meat and Nicotinamide: A Causal Role in Human Evolution, History, and Demographics
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5417583/

 

There's nothing more satisfying than a thick rare steak

 

Agree.

away from the fiery eyes of a vegan.

 

New FAA documents reveal SpaceX's latest plans for launching Starship prototypes on suborbital flights from South Texas — and potential hurdles to orbit

The FAA on Monday quietly posted three new written reevaluation documents that spell out SpaceX's latest plans - one of which also documents concerns flagged by state and federal agencies.

https://www.businessinsider.com.au/...impact-statement-written-reevaluation-2020-10

 

Before primates, is there any indication that our distant ancestors were carnivores?

And what if we go back even further before mammals, or even synapsids?

Also, is there a family tree that visually shows evolution from the beginning of life on earth through to homo sapiens? If so I'd very much like to see it.

EDITED

 

Evolution of diet across the animal tree of life

Finally, we estimated that the ancestor of all animals was most likely carnivorous, as were many major phyla (e.g., arthropods, molluscs, and chordates). Remarkably, our results suggest that many carnivorous species living today may have maintained this diet through a continuous series of carnivorous ancestors for >800 million years.

 

Chang’e-5 launch
China launches sample return mission to the Moon

 

Chang'e 5: China launches sample return mission to the Moon – is it winning the new space race?

China has been the only country to land on the Moon for over 40 years – since the Soviet Luna programme. Its recent Chang’e missions (1-4) demonstrated that China could not only orbit and land on the Moon, but also successfully operate a rover. On November 24, the Chinese National Space Administration launched Chang’e 5 – the latest in the series.

This mission to collect and return samples is impressive. Recent failed landings on the Moon by an Israeli privately funded mission and the Indian Vikram lander show just how challenging such missions still are.

https://theconversation.com/change-...-moon-is-it-winning-the-new-space-race-150665

 

Winning the space race and all is click-bait headline. U.S is looking beyond moon also, right?

I think real q is " weaponization of space"?

 

Well, those are the headlines that are rarely published.

Yes it's a big concern, and inevitable when the big players have spent so much time and resources putting assets into space.

I was saddened to see that SpaceX is also launching military assets, but once again, inevitable when they are accepting government funding.

The US military and Elon Musk are planning a 7,500-mph rocket that can deliver weapons anywhere in the world in an hour

https://www.businessinsider.com.au/...-deliver-weapons-by-rockets-2020-10?r=US&IR=T

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilium_Jet

 

From the very first origin of complex life in this planet, when a single-celled organism swallowed another one, becoming the first complex life organism on Earth.

Complex Life Could Have Existed on Earth at Least Once Before

https://www.sciencealert.com/complex-life-could-have-existed-on-earth-at-least-once-before

"Earth has been around for an estimated 4.5 billion years. Around 3.7 billion years ago, while the planet was still relatively fresh, two of the three kingdoms of life we see on Earth today - bacteria and archaea - arose.

It's thought that these simple, single-celled organisms survived for billions of years on their own, until around 1.75 billion years ago, when the third kingdom of life, eukaryotes, appeared.

The eukaryote family tree encompasses all complex organisms on the planet, including animals (that's us), plants, fungi, and protists.

It's still debated exactly how eukaryotes arose, but the most accepted hypothesis is that an archea swallowed a bacterial cell, and the two developed a symbiotic relationships that allowed them to work together to become more complex.

Eventually, the bacteria became the mitochondria we see in our cells today."

--------

First complex organisms on Earth were aquatic. The first ones had hard shields to protect them from being eated by others, but then appeared a few of them who didn't have a shield, and these ones needed to develop and increase their intelligence, in order to not be hunted and eated by others.
So, from the very first of the beginning of life in this planet, animals (the first ones, aquatic) have been around hunting and eating others.

 

That one looks like a drone... a big one.

 

The Lilium Jet five seater all-electric air taxi

In 2017 we revealed something the world had never seen before, a two-seater, all-electric, jet-powered vertical take-off and landing air taxi. Now, we're taking it to the next level with the maiden flight of our five-seater prototype. The Lilium Jet takes us another huge step towards making urban air mobility a reality.

www.lilium.com

 

Worm-like, soil-swimming robots to measure crop underworld

...a Cornell project funded by two separate three-year grants will develop worm-like, soil-swimming robots to sense and record soil properties, water, the soil microbiome and how roots grow.

https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2020/11/worm-soil-swimming-robots-measure-crop-underworld

 

SpaceX launches 60 more Starlink satellites on 100th Falcon 9 flight

The 100th flight of a Falcon 9 rocket delivered 60 satellites to orbit for SpaceX’s Starlink network Tuesday night, adding another building block to a planned fleet of thousands of solar-powered space-based relay stations to beam broadband connectivity around the world.

https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/11/...starlink-satellites-on-100th-falcon-9-flight/

 

Agility of bees could inspire drones that squeeze through tight spaces

Over many thousands of years, evolution has bestowed certain animals with some very clever capabilities, and robotics researchers are endlessly turning to these creatures as sources of inspiration. Of particular interest to scientists working on small, next-generation drones are flying insects such as bees, and a new understanding of the way these critters squeeze through tight spaces has one team from Australia's University of New South Wales (UNSW) imagining how flying robots could be made to do the same thing.

https://newatlas.com/drones/agility-bees-inspire-drones-tight-spaces/

 

Artemis-1 assembly begins!

SLS: Nasa 'megarocket' assembly begins in Florida

Nasa has started assembling the first Space Launch System (SLS) rocket on a launch platform ahead of its maiden flight next year. The SLS consists of a giant, 65m (212ft) - long core stage with four engines that's flanked by the twin solid fuel boosters. Together, these produce a massive 8.8 million pounds (39.1 Meganewtons) of thrust that can loft astronauts into orbit; the rocket subsequently hurls them towards the Moon.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-55070302



https://www.nasa.gov/artemis-1

Artemis 1 - Wikipedia

 

These Ants Suit Up in a Protective 'Biomineral Armor' Never Seen Before in Insects

A team led by researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison analysed this 'whitish granular coating' on A. echinatior [leaf-cutter ants] and came to the conclusion that the coating is a self-made biomineral body armour - the first known example in the insect world.

https://www.sciencealert.com/these-...cts-to-coat-their-bodies-in-biomineral-armour

 

Redesigned Solar Panels Could One Day Charge Your Gadgets From a Lamp

...as researchers sought out new materials to improve the efficiency of solar photovoltaics, they also discovered these materials could finally be used to harvest light from lamps and other indoor light sources to help power the ever-growing variety of smart devices we rely on.

https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2020/11/...ould-one-day-charge-your-gadgets-from-a-lamp/

 

New Magnetic Spray Transforms Objects Into Insect-Scale Robots for Biomedical Applications

An easy way to make millirobots by coating objects with a glue-like magnetic spray was developed in a joint research led by a scientist from City University of Hong Kong (CityU). Driven by the magnetic field, the coated objects can crawl, walk, or roll on different surfaces. As the magnetic coating is biocompatible and can be disintegrated into powders when needed, this technology demonstrates the potential for biomedical applications, including catheter navigation and drug delivery.

Successful drug delivery in rabbit stomach
To further verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the M-spray enabled millirobot for drug delivery, the team conducted in vivo test with rabbits and capsule coated with M-spray. During the delivery process, the rabbits were anesthetized, and the position of the capsule in the stomach was tracked by radiology imaging. When the capsule reached the targeted region, the researchers disintegrated the coating by applying an oscillating magnetic field. “The controllable disintegration property of M-spray enables the drug to be released in a targeted location rather than scattering in the organ,” Dr Shen added.



https://robotics.sciencemag.org/content/5/48/eabc8191

 

SpaceX’s Starlink Could Cause Cascades of Space Junk

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/spacexs-starlink-could-cause-cascades-of-space-junk/

"Plans for thousands of new communications satellites would revolutionize global telecommunications but also raise risks of disaster in Earth orbit"

Will Starlink Satellites Become Space Junk One Day?

https://observer.com/2020/10/spacex-starlink-satellite-collision-risk-space-debris/

"Ultimately, SpaceX wants to send tens of thousands of such satellites into the already crowded low Earth orbit. But without a clear plan to take them down after their lives end, what’s stopping them from crashing into other objects or one another?"

SpaceX’s Starlink satellites are about to ruin stargazing for everyone

https://theconversation.com/spacexs...-about-to-ruin-stargazing-for-everyone-149516

"This is the first place I’ve lived that’s dark enough to easily see the Milky Way, and I’m stunned and awed every time I look up.

This time though, I curse softly. There’s a bright satellite. And another following behind. And another. And another.

SpaceX has already received approval for 12,000 Starlink satellites and is seeking approval for 30,000 more. Other companies are not far behind.

The Starlink mega-constellation itself would increase the number of active satellites more than tenfold: there are around 3,000 active satellites in orbit; current Starlinks are brighter than 99 per cent of them because they are in lower orbits, closer to the surface of Earth, and more reflective than Starlink engineers predicted."