Artist's impression of how Mars colonists might look after thousands of years of life on the red planet. Joseph Ventura

In other words, becoming a multiplanet species might lead us to become multiple species.

"This

New species or not?

Six thousand years isn't long in evolutionary terms. After all, Homo sapiens has existed as

"Evolution to a new species by the classic definition of not being able to breed with humans would take a long time, probably thousands of generations and a hundred thousand years," University of Arizona astronomer Dr. Chris Impey told NBC News MACH in an email. On the other hand, he added, "changing enough to look physically distinct would be much quicker, tens or perhaps a hundred generations."

Dr. Philipp Mittercker, a theoretical biologist at the University of Vienna in Austria, said in an email to MACH that he, too, is dubious of rapid speciation.

"Speciation is a long-term process that usually requires reproductive isolation over millions of years," Mittercker said. "Some human populations had been isolated for thousands of years and are still far away from being a separate species. It is thus unlikely that humans who had colonized Mars [would] become a separate species."

Solomon acknowledged that the path of human evolution on Mars is speculative. But he told MACH in an email that "it follows from what we know about evolutionary biology" that Mars colonists might evolve faster than some think.

And the apparent absence of microbial life on Mars might play a key role.

Evidence suggests that Mars may be devoid of life, and that goes for pathogenic bacteria as well as other life forms. If humans were to establish and live within a germ-free Mars colony, Solomon said, the colonists' immune systems could eventually lose the ability to fight off infections that might be introduced to the colony by germ-carrying humans or animals visiting from Earth. That risk presumably would encourage the colonists to minimize contact including sexual contact with potentially infectious earthlings. That, in turn, could accelerate the pace at which the colonists' bodies would begin to adapt to their new world.

Surprising differences

How might these Martian people differ from their distant ancestors in other words, from us? Whether or not they evolved into a new species, they might have anatomical as well as immunological and other physiological differences. Solomon said they might have notably thicker bones (including the skull bones), which might give them a more robust appearance perhaps a bit like members of the extinct proto-human Paranthropus genus, including

Why would that be? Bones need to work against the force of gravity to stay strong.

Evolutionary pressure for beefier skeletons might be especially strong for female Mars colonists, Solomon said, given the risk of pelvic fractures during childbirth. Beefier skeletons or not, Solomon said, female colonists might come to opt for cesarean section over natural childbirth. And since the size of the human head is constrained in part by the dimensions of the birth canal, the heads of Mars colonists might become larger than what is seen in humans on Earth.

If that sounds far-fetched, consider this: recent research by Mittercker and others suggests that the rising popularity of C-sections may be allowing an

So Mars colonists might have beefy bones and big heads. Then there's the question of their eyes.

Related:

Mars is much farther from the sun than is the Earth, and the extra distance and the lower levels of sunlight on the Martian surface could cause changes in the colonists' eyes.

"During a good day, Mars looks like an overcast day on Earth," Dr. Nathalie Cabrol, a planetary scientist at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif., told NBC News MACH in an email. "Our eyes are accustomed to a certain amount of light on Earth. If there has to be some adaptation to these new ambient conditions, then either our optical system and brain will have to develop new ways of collecting more light on the retina, or we will develop new retinas or bigger eyes."

The need to protect those bigger eyes might be another reason the colonists' skulls might become more robust, Cabrol said, adding that it wasn't clear whether the changes she envisions would be evidence of a new species or simply a version of Homo sapiens adapted for life in a different environment.

Of course, evolutionary changes in humans on Mars would occur only if humans were able to reproduce and successfully raise their children in the low-gravity Martian environment. Cabrol said the colonists might need some sort of "gravity chamber" in which to reproduce and in which their offspring could spend their early developmental years in conditions closer to those on Earth.

Peculiar pigmentation

Another potential change for the Mars colonists would be their skin pigmentation.

"Because of less light," Cabrol said, "I would say that it is possible that the skin of these humans will become ... pale over time, and their hair light-toned."

Solomon sees things differently.

The Martian atmosphere is thinner than Earth's, and the red planet has essentially no protective magnetic field. Thus people living on Mars would be exposed to high levels of cancer-causing radiation even if they spent most of their lives indoors. Pigmentation helps block the effects of radiation. The deeper the color, the better the protection. Thus Solomon figures Mars people might evolve to have darker skin than anyone on Earth.

On the other hand, Solomon said, life on Mars might yield people whose skin is pigmented by carotenoids rather than our usual pigment, melanin. (Something similar has been

Cultural and technological changes

Is Solomon right, generally speaking, about the changing appearance of Mars colonists? That's impossible to say. But no matter what, experts agree that Mars colonists would likely drift away culturally and technologically from their terrestrial ancestors.

As Impey told MACH, "They will probably be aggressive in genetic engineering and self-modification (body part and organ enhancement and replacement), to the extent of embedding various monitoring and repair devices, and taking a cyborg path. This will be a very technology-forward cohort, advancing far beyond the average terrestrial society."

Video:

Impey said it was hard to predict the psychological effects of living on Mars. But as the colonists "are removed from human affairs," he continued, "they will probably develop their own cultural norms and dialects, and start to feel very distinct or post-human."

If the colonists do change dramatically from their ancestors back on Earth, how would we view them? Would we consider them alien beings or just subtly different humans?

Solomon thinks the latter possibility is more likely.

"In the past, when there were multiple species of human around (i.e. Neanderthals, Denisovans, and Homo sapiens), we know they had sex with one another and had babies that survived," he said in an email. "That suggests to me that we view other humanlike species as being more human than animal."

Here's to good neighbors.

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Will Mars Colonists Evolve Into This New Kind of Human? - NBCNews.com

Though the work hasnt gone through the peer-review process yet, which makes it difficult for other experts to weigh in on the findings,Brent Christner, a microbiologist at the University of Florida in Gainesville, saysthatreviving microbes from samples of 10,000 to 50,000 years is not that outlandish based on previous reports of microbial resuscitations in geological materials hundreds of thousands to millions of years old.

Other scientists have reported on ancient microbial life discovered in glacial ice, encased in amber, and trapped in salt crystals, but Christner notes that the amount of skepticism associated with these studies usually correlates directly with the age of the claim.

One of the biggest setbacks is that no one knows just how long life of any kind can survive dormant. As for the organisms from Naica, Christner says that, Perhaps they are surviving by eating dead microbes that werent so lucky.

I think that the presence of microbes trapped within fluid inclusions in Naica crystals is in principle possible. However, that they are viable after 10,000 to 50,000 years is more questionable, explainsmicrobiologist and study co-authorPurificacin Lpez-Garca of the French National Center for Scientific Research.

Contamination during drilling with microorganisms attached to the surface of these crystals or living in tiny fractures constitutes a very serious risk, continues Lpez-Garca. I am very skeptical about the veracity of this finding until I see the evidence.

However, Boston urges that her team was diligent in avoiding contamination. We have also done genetic work and cultured the cave organisms that are alive now and exposed, and we see that some of those microbes are similar but not identical to those in the fluid inclusions, shesays, and refers to the microbes her team collected asa precious resource, and we want to make it available to other folks. Theres still a lot of work to do to infer anything about their history and movement and genetic relations.

The rest is here:

Weird Life Form Found Trapped Inside Giant Underground Crystals - Collective Evolution

Autism genes may have been conserved during human evolution because they make us smarter, say scientists.

More inherited genetic variants linked to autism have been naturally selected than would be expected by chance, a study has shown.

The same variants were associated with traits linked to brain performance, such as molecular functions involved in the creation of new neurons.

Lead researcher Dr Renato Polimanti, from Yale School of Medicine in the US, said: We found a strong positive signal that, along with autism spectrum disorder, these variants are also associated with intellectual achievement.

Under the laws of natural selection outlined by Charles Darwin, evolutionary variants that have a negative impact on reproductive success are quickly eliminated from a population.

But those providing a better chance of survival tend to remain for generation after generation, if their advantages outweigh their adverse effects.

Meet the Labrador changing the life of a little boy with autism

Study co-author Professor Joel Gelernter, from Yale University, said: It might be difficult to imagine why the large number of gene variants that together give rise to traits like ASD (autism spectrum disorder) are retained in human populations.

Why aren't they just eliminated by evolution?.

The idea is that during evolution these variants that have positive effects on cognitive function were selected, but at a cost - in this case an increased risk of autism spectrum disorders."

The scientists, whose findings are published in the journal Public Library of Science Genetics, studied more than 5,000 cases of ASD and conducted an analysis of evolutionary gene selection.

PA

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Autism genes conserved during human evolution to make us ... - The Independent

For those in Pokemon GO about to evolve their Eevee into the first Espeon or Umbreon theyve ever had, pay attention. The most recent chart of Eevolutions, methods, and best potential outcomes has arrived. Barring all Pokemon GO hacks and whatnot, were having a look at the insides of the software to show you exactly whats possible for Eevee in the wild.

The first thing were going to do is list the most updated chart on whats possible with wild Eevee captures. This list includes the minimum CP and the max CP available for Eevee given power level. The minimum CP of any given Eevee is 10, while the max CP is 969. A max CP Eevee is extremely rare.

Eevee Wild Capture Stats: Max Wild Capture: 830 CP Global Spawn Rate: 2.75% Capture Rate: 30%+ Flee Rate: 10% Max Egg Hatch: 615 CP Egg Hatch Rate: 18%

As such, theres just under 3 Eevee hiding in every 100 Pokemon that pop up around the world at any given moment. The rarity of Eevee in general is dictated by the region in which the user is standing. Eevee is not a region-specific Pokemon, so theres nowhere where Eevee CANT pop up, but itll be more common in places like Residential Neighborhoods and University Campuses.

For those that wish to power up an Eevee before evolving dont even. Using Stardust to power up an Eevee costs the same as an Eevee as it does in any evolved form. It does not matter what evolution the Eevee is at any given time.

Pokemon have a hidden Level which dictates their minimum and maximum CP. Every Pokemon is always a Level between 1 and 40, and each time Stardust is given to a Pokemon, it grows 0.5 level. To raise the level of an Eevee from level 21 to level 21.5, itll cost a trainer 3000 Stardust. To raise the level of any evolved form of Eevee from level 21 to level 21.5, itll cost a trainer 3000 Stardust.

When evolving a Pokemon any Pokemon trainers should ALWAYS wait until the full evolution is complete before deciding to add Stardust. The final evolution will show what moves the Pokemon can do and theyre not always great. For Eevee, the final evolution can be one of five entirely different Pokemon that each have their own unique set of possible moves. Leveling up an Eevee before evolution is not a great idea.

In general its best to wait until finding an Eevee thats as close to maximum level as possible before evolving. Maximum level for Eevee in the wild is 30 thats the same for every Pokemon in the Pokemon GO universe. As such, the max WILD CAPTURE for Eevee is 830 CP.

SEE TOO: How to get Espeon or Umbreon in Pokemon GO

The best Eevee available in the wild will be between 642 CP and 830 CP. Once that Eevee is captured, it can be leveled up with Stardust up to level 40, where its max CP will be between 749 and 969. Again, dont DO that see Section 2. But thats the range youre dealing with.

Eevee Worth Evolving Minimum: 200+ CP* Maximum: 830 CP

*This is our opinion anything less than this and the Eevelution isnt going to be a worthy Gym attacker or defender. This is really up to you, when it comes down to it especially if youre targeting Pokemon types with types that are strong against certain types. If youre battling another Vaporeon, for example, you could potentially beat a level 2,000 with a Jolteon of level 1,000 since water is weak against lightning.

In the end it all comes down to what you want and what youre willing to wait for. For more information on HOW to get the Eevee evolution types youre wishing to get, including Jolteon, Vaporeon, Flareon, Espeon, or Umbreon, have a peek at the timeline below. Weve got more guides than youll know what to do with.

See more here:

Pokemon GO update: Eevee evolution charts tweaked - SlashGear

BOSTON In humans mysterious journey to become intelligent, socializing creatures like no other in the animal world, one innovation played an essential role: religion.

Thats the theory that a preeminent evolutionary scientist is setting out to prove.

You need something quite literally to stop everybody from killing everybody else out of just crossness, said Robin Dunbar. Somehow its clear that religions, all these doctrinal religions, create the sense that were all one family.

[Fear of a vengeful God may explain humanitys global expansion]

Dunbar, an evolutionary psychology professor at Oxford University, gained some measure of fame more than 20 years ago for his research on the size of animals social networks. Each species of primate, he found, can manage to keep up a social bond with a certain number of other members of its own species. That number goes up as primates brain size increases, from monkeys to apes.

Humans, Dunbar found, are capable of maintaining significantly more social ties than the size of our brains alone could explain. He proved that each human is surprisingly consistent in the number of social ties we can maintain: About five with intimate friends, 50 with good friends, 150 with friends and 1,500 with people we could recognize by name. That discovery came to be known as Dunbars number.

And then Dunbar turned to figuring out why Dunbars number is so high. Did humor help us manage it? Exercise? Storytelling? That riddle has been Dunbars quest for years and religion is the latest hypothesis hes testing in his ongoing attempt to find the answer.

Most of these things were looking at, you get in religion in one form or another, he said.

[Harvard Medical School professor says faith-based miracle cures could be real]

Dunbar is just one of a recent wave of scientists who are interested in how religion came to be and how people have benefited from it. For most of Western intellectual history since the Enlightenment, religion has been thought of as ignorant and strange and an aberration and something that gets in the way of reason, said Christian Smith, a sociologist at the University of Notre Dame who studies religion. In the last 10 or 20 years on many fronts, theres been a change in thinking about religion, where a lot of neuroscientists have been saying religion is totally natural. It totally makes sense that were religious. Religion has served a lot of important functions in developing societies.

In the case of Dunbar and his colleagues, they already published research demonstrating that two other particularly human behaviors increased peoples capacity for social bonding. In the lab, they showed that first, laughter, and second, singing, left research subjects more capable of forming connections with other people than they were before.

Religion is the remaining key to explaining humans remarkable social networks, Dunbar thinks. These three things are very good at triggering endorphins, making us feel bonded, he said last week at the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences annual meeting, where he presented his teams research on laughter and singing and introduced the forthcoming research on religion.

[Religion doesnt necessarily influence Americans views on science, with two big exceptions]

Religion includes numerous elements of Dunbars earlier studies on endorphin-producing activities. Lots of singing, to start. Repetitive motion triggers endorphins, he said, noting that traditions from Catholicism to Islam to Buddhism to Hinduism make use of prayer beads.

Plus, researchers have shown that doing these activities in synchronized fashion with other people drastically magnifies the endorphin-producing effect: Picture the coordinated bowing that is central to Muslim, Jewish and Catholic worship.

And Dunbars most recent published research demonstrated the effectiveness of emotional storytelling in bonding groups of strangers who hear the story together again, a fixture of religious worship.

What you get from dance and singing on its own is a sense of belonging. It happens very quickly. What happens, I suspect, is that it can trigger very easily trance states, Dunbar said. He theorizes that these spiritual experiences matter much more than dance and song alone. Once youve triggered that, youre in, I think, a different ballgame. It ramps up massively. Thats whats triggered. Theres something there.

Dunbars team will start research on religion in April, and he expects it will take three years. To begin, he wants to map a sort of evolutionary tree of religion, using statistical modeling to try to show when religious traditions evolved and how they morphed into each other.

Of course, religious people themselves might find Dunbars theory odd most dont think of religion existing to serve an evolutionary purpose, but of their faiths simply being true.

But Smith thinks one can easily have faith in both Gods truth and religions role in human development. From the religious point of view, you can say this . God created humans as a very particular type of creature, with very particular brains and biology, just so that they would develop into the type of humans who would know God and believe in God, Smith said. Theyre not in conflict at all.

He added: A lot of people assume, falsely, that science and religion are zero-sum games: that if science explains something, then religion must not be true. If you were God and wanted to set up the world in a certain way, wouldnt you create humans with bigger brains and the ability to imagine?

One more research finding onthe place of God in our brains remember Dunbars number, the five intimate friends and 50 good friends and 150 friends each person can hold onto? Dunbar says that if a person feels he or she has a close relationship with a spiritual figure, like God or the Virgin Mary, then that spiritual personage actually fills up one of those numbered spots, just like a human relationship would. One of your closest friends, scientifically speaking, might be God.

Want more stories about faith? Follow Acts of Faithon Twitteror sign up for our newsletter.

Jesus had a body. Heres why that matters for Lent.

How do you prick the conscience of an NFL fan? The problem with uncritical football fandom.

Engineering an advanced human? The more religious you are, the less likely youll want to.

Read the original:

A scientist's new theory: Religion was key to humans' social evolution - Washington Post

February 27, 2017 Credit: NASA, ESA and R. Kirshner (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation) and P. Challis (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)

Thirty years ago, on 23 February 1987, the light from a stellar explosion marking the death of a massive star arrived at Earth to shine in Southern Hemisphere skies.

Located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, SN 1987A was the closest observed supernova to Earth since the invention of the telescope. Studying it for the last 30 years has revolutionised our understanding of the explosive death of massive stars.

In operation since 1990, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has observed the supernova remnant many times, as highlighted in this montage. The images show its evolution between 1994 and 2016, and highlight the main ring that blazes around the exploded star.

A new wide-field image was also taken by Hubble in January 2017 to mark the 30 year anniversary.

By observing the expanding remnant material over the years, Hubble has helped to show that the material within the ring was likely ejected 20 000 years before the actual explosion took place.

The initial burst of light from the supernova initially illuminated the rings. They slowly faded over the first decade after the explosion, until a fast-moving shell of gas ejected during the supernova slammed into the central ring, sending a powerful shockwave through the gas, heating it to searing temperatures and generating strong X-ray emission.

This caused clumps of denser gas within the ring to light up like a string of pearls, seen as the increasing number of bright spots, which are now fading again.

As the shock wave continues to move through the shells ejected by the dying star in its final throes of life, who knows what new details will be revealed?

Explore further: The dawn of a new era for Supernova 1987a (Update)

Three decades ago, astronomers spotted one of the brightest exploding stars in more than 400 years. The titanic supernova, called Supernova 1987A (SN 1987A), blazed with the power of 100 million suns for several months following ...

(PhysOrg.com) -- Using the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers are witnessing the unprecedented transition of a supernova to a supernova remnant, where light from an exploding star in a neighboring galaxy, the Large Magellanic ...

(PhysOrg.com) -- In 1987, light from an exploding star in a neighboring galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud, reached Earth. Named Supernova 1987A, it was the closest supernova explosion witnessed in almost 400 years, allowing ...

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image captures the remnants of a long-dead star. These rippling wisps of ionized gas, named DEM L316A, are located some 160,000 light-years away within one of the Milky Way's closest galactic ...

(PhysOrg.com) -- The delicate shell, photographed by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, appears to float serenely in the depths of space, but this apparent calm hides an inner turmoil. The gaseous envelope formed as the ...

Twenty years ago, astronomers witnessed one of the brightest stellar explosions in more than 400 years. The titanic supernova, called SN 1987A, blazed with the power of 100 million suns for several months following its discovery ...

On Mars, wind rules. Wind has been shaping the Red Planet's landscapes for billions of years and continues to do so today. Studies using both a NASA orbiter and a rover reveal its effects on scales grand to tiny on the strangely ...

Planets are thought to form in the disks of dust and gas found around young stars. But astronomers have struggled to assemble a complete theory of their origin that explains how the initial dust develops into planetary systems. ...

Evidence of planetary debris surrounding a double sun, 'Tatooine-like' system has been found for the first time by a UCL-led team of researchers.

When the universe was young, a supermassive black holebloated to the bursting point with stupendous powerheaved out a jet of particle-infused energy that raced through the vastness of space at nearly the speed of light.

(Phys.org)A team of astronomers led by Favio Faifer of the National University of La Plata, Argentina, has discovered the first ultra-compact dwarf (UCD) galaxy in an X-ray bright galaxy group designated NGC 5044. The ...

Hunting for habitable exoplanets now may be easier: Cornell University astronomers report that hydrogen pouring from volcanic sources on planets throughout the universe could improve the chances of locating life in the cosmos.

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Dont worry these guys are sticking around. Photo: Stephen Brashear/Getty Images

Starbucks is finally pulling the plug on its attempt to clone Liquiteria. The ill-fated Evolution Fresh stores were part of the coffee chains plot to dominate the juicing craze; it bought that brand in 2011 from the Naked Juice creator, and by 2012 was building cafs where juice partners served cold-pressed, organic ginger and kale elixirs, plus a selection of healthy fare like wraps, grain bowls, and customizable salads. But they never caught on; the number of stores stalled before it even reached a half-dozen, all of them in the Seattle area or San Francisco. The remaining two are near downtown Seattle, and Seattle Met notes theyll both be closed by June.

Most Starbucks-goers are familiar with the Evolution Fresh bottles the chain stocks in cafs cold cases, though. Those debuted nationwide around the same time as the hapless juice-store concept, and their run was much more successful. The company not only plans to keep on selling them at supermarkets and cafs but its also about to expand the line to include four new superfoods flavors with ber-trendy ingredients like coconut milk and turmeric.

Peter Pan, Old Traditional Polish Cuisine, and more.

The chains future with cold-pressed sweet greens will live on in the supermarket bottles.

One reviewer called it horrifying and said his toothbrush even turned bright pink.

It technically owns the brand.

La Buvette, a beloved Parisian wine bar, is popping up in New York for one night only.

Totenko Co.s stocks jumped following a major mating announcement.

He slathered a $54 New York strip in ketchup.

Add to the already lengthy rsum.

He dined at the too cool Italian restaurant with Malia.

The problem starts way before food hits grocery stores or your plate.

So-called alcosynth would solve a lot of other problems associated with traditional booze, too.

A five-course dinner at the James Beard House.

Its like the Frappuccino version of Nutella.

The whole car now smells like freshly baked bread, and I reach inside and tear off the heel.

Although theres at least one other way to free birds from pain, injury, and disease.

Two former friends say the brothers stole ideas, threatened physical violence, and hoarded profits.

Find out where to eat in our weekly ranking of the citys most important restaurants.

A third of Americans are dining out less often than they were three months ago.

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Starbucks Is Closing Its Evolution Fresh Juice Chain - Grub Street - Grub Street

February 27, 2017

Alzheimer's disease, and other neurodegenerative conditions involving abnormal folding of proteins, may help explain the emergence of lifeand how to create it.

Researchers at Emory University and Georgia Tech demonstrated this connection in two new papers published by Nature Chemistry: "Design of multi-phase dynamic chemical networks" and "Catalytic diversity in self-propagating peptide assemblies."

"In the first paper we showed that you can create tension between a chemical and physical system to give rise to more complex systems. And in the second paper, we showed that these complex systems can have remarkable and unexpected functions," says David Lynn, a systems chemist in Emory's Department of Chemistry who led the research. "The work was inspired by our current understanding of Darwinian selection of protein misfolding in neurodegenerative diseases."

The Lynn lab is exploring ways to potentially control and direct the processes of these proteinsknown as prionsadding to knowledge that might one day help to prevent disease, as well as open new realms of synthetic biology. For the current papers, Emory collaborated with the research group of Martha Grover, a professor in the Georgia Tech School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, to develop molecular models for the processes.

"Modeling requires us to formulate our hypotheses in the language of mathematics, and then we use the models to design further experiments to test the hypotheses," Grover says.

Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection is well-establishedorganisms adapt over time in response to environmental changes. But theories about how life emergesthe movement through a pre-Darwinian world to the Darwinian thresholdremain murkier.

The researchers started with single peptides and engineered in the capacity to spontaneously form small proteins, or short polymers. "These protein polymers can fold into a seemingly endless array of forms, and sometimes behave like origami," Lynn explains. "They can stack into assemblies that carry new functions, like prions that move from cell-to-cell, causing disease."

This protein misfolding provided the model for how physical changes could carry information with function, a critical component for evolution. To try to kickstart that evolution, the researchers engineered a chemical system of peptides and coupled it to the physical system of protein misfolding. The combination results in a system that generates step-by-step, progressive changes, through self-driven environmental changes.

"The folding events, or phase changes, drive the chemistry and the chemistry drives the replication of the protein molecules," Lynn says. "The simple system we designed requires only the initial intervention from us to achieve progressive growth in molecular order. The challenge now becomes the discovery of positive feedback mechanisms that allow the system to continue to grow."

Explore further: Provocative prions may protect yeast cells from stress

More information: Design of multi-phase dynamic chemical networks, Nature Chemistry, nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/nchem.2737

Catalytic diversity in self-propagating peptide assemblies, Nature Chemistry, nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/nchem.2738

Journal reference: Nature Chemistry

Provided by: Emory University

Prions have a notorious reputation. They cause neurodegenerative disease, namely mad cow/Creutzfeld-Jakob disease. And the way these protein particles propagategetting other proteins to join the pilecan seem insidious.

Nerve-damaging protein particles called prions have long been known to exist in mammals.

A team of scientists from the University of Alberta is examining compounds with anti-prion properties, which can alter the misfolding of proteins in rare but universally fatal prion diseases like Mad Cow and Creutzfeld-Jakob. ...

"When they are healthy, they look like tiny spheres; when they are malignant, they appear as cubes" stated Giuseppe Legname, principal investigator of the Prion Biology Laboratory at the Scuola Internazionale Superiore di ...

Emory University scientists have discovered that simple peptides can organize into bi-layer membranes. The finding suggests a "missing link" between the pre-biotic Earth's chemical inventory and the organizational scaffolding ...

It's a chicken and egg question. Where do the infectious protein particles called prions come from? Essentially clumps of misfolded proteins, prions cause neurodegenerative disorders, such as mad cow/Creutzfeld-Jakob disease, ...

The manufacture of cement, bricks, bathroom tiles and porcelain crockery normally requires a great deal of heat: a kiln is used to fire the ceramic materials at temperatures well in excess of 1,000C. Now, material scientists ...

Individual molecules are extremely hard to see through feeble fluorescence. Leiden physicists have managed to use tiny gold nanorods as antennas to intensify their signal 500 times. They have published their results in Angewandte ...

New light on a key factor involved in diseases such as Parkinson's disease, gastric cancer and melanoma has been cast through latest University of Otago, New Zealand, research carried out in collaboration with Australian ...

A Washington State University research team has improved an important catalytic reaction commonly used in the oil and gas industries. The innovation could lead to dramatic energy savings and reduced pollution.

Manufacturing small proteins known as peptides is usually very time-consuming, which has slowed development of new peptide drugs for diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and bacterial infections.

Alzheimer's disease, and other neurodegenerative conditions involving abnormal folding of proteins, may help explain the emergence of lifeand how to create it.

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How protein misfolding may kickstart chemical evolution - Phys.Org

Sinn Fin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald: likely to take over as leader in South with Gerry Adams retaining an influential presidential role linking the operation on both parts of the island. Photograph: Gareth Chaney Collins

Sinn Fin is in transition, one year after an election which saw the party failing to make the gains it privately hoped for.

Although it had a relatively good election last year, increasing its number of TDs from 14 to 23, predictions of a more significant breakthrough did not materialise.

Sinn Fin does not always meet its opinion poll ratings in elections, a fact which has accelerated internal discussion on future strategy.

Sinn Fin is different in that we are going through what we consider a post-revolutionary phase, said a party source.

With the peace process bedded down, securing a strong electoral base on the island is the priority and that means change in the Republic.

There is considerable speculation that party president Gerry Adams will stand down in the coming year, making way for Mary Lou McDonald to take over as leader in the Republic.

This would mean the party being led by Michelle ONeill in the North and McDonald in the Republic, with Adams likely to retain an influential presidential role linking the partys political operation on both parts of the island.

The carefully choreographed photo call on the day ONeill was chosen as Stormont leader, when she walked with McDonald into the press conference, followed by Adams and Martin McGuinness, was seen as a sign of things to come.

Sinn Fin sources privately say McDonald is a certainty to succeed Adams.

She has been his protege, said a source. It is not lost on Adams and the party that a woman from south Dublin, with no paramilitary baggage, is the obvious choice to lead Sinn Fin into the next election.

The party knows it has to break new ground if it is to broaden its electoral base.

This prompted McDonalds announcement, in an Irish Times podcast, that Sinn Fin should consider participating in government as a minority party.

It had previously ruled out going into government unless as the major party.

The challenge for McDonald, when she does take over as leader, will be to capture some of the centre ground vote held by the established parties while retaining core support.

All parties privately recognise that Fianna Fil and Fine Gael ruling out entering coalition with Sinn Fin is part of the Leinster House political game.

They point to Fine Gaels opposition to sharing power in the 1990s with the then Democratic Left, which had evolved from the Workers Party, and then changing its mind.

The new intake of Sinn Fin TDs have blended in well with their long-serving colleagues in the Dil. They are hard-working, focused and relentless in their pursuit of the other parties.

Having never served in government, they can indulge in the populism of opposition, while privately recognising that being in power would be an entirely different matter.

Adams is always well-briefed for Opposition Leaders Questions but carries the baggage of the Troubles which the other parties sometimes throw at him.

McDonald is tenacious and very effective when she stands in for him. Her transition to the leadership will be organised by the partys ardchomhairle.

This is likely to happen sooner rather than later, given a general election could happen at any time.

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Sinn Fin focused on next phase of political evolution - Irish Times

When a scientific field reaches the stage in which constructed explanations are replaced with facts, it is a step forward. Of course, all sciences have their implicit epistemological framework. This is something that should be at least admitted, but there is a pressing specific issue: the projection of values onto evolution in both common understanding and serious discourse. It is important not to retain fiction when facts are available, especially when that fiction is dangerous.

There is no intention to evolutionary process. Nature is not an entity that intends in the way that we intend. Traits do not evolve for purposes, contrary to what we often project onto them. The traits are not means to behavioral ends, especially reproductive ends. By projecting means-to-reproduction narratives onto evolution, we strip away the beauty of life, rendering fascinating existences nothing but a nihilistic game of chemicals and competition. Beyond that, however, it is dangerous. Why? It is dangerous because it enables systemic hatred.

Lets start with the phrase survival of the fittest. What can you do with that phrase? Well, lets break it down. The most fit to survive will survive. It is ambiguous. It could mean that what tends to replicate itself and not get killed will be most abundant. This is fair, and it is no more political than saying radioactive elements will decay until they are stable. It is intuitive if it does not replicate itself, it will not be around long, and if it gets killed, it will not have the opportunity. This is how it should be interpreted, yet it is almost never stated in such a basic way. Even in biology, and especially in psychology and other health sciences, it gets twisted.

Lets go back to the most fit to survive will survive. What if it was just slightly tweaked: the best will survive, or the fittest should survive. Here, a value judgment was added. There is no best, no quality, if it is viewed as a statement of tendency, but there is if survival is seen as good rather than neutral. From here, simultaneously, one can interpret that survival is the end goal, rather than a statement of tendency. Then, retroactively, the constructed end goal of survival makes traits and behaviors a game of competition, in which the best gets to live.

This can adopt any prejudice one wants to incorporate. It can be turned into an argument for eugenics, for sexism or against the disabled. It can enable human-centrism if mental capacity is held as a measure of value. It can be turned into an argument for gender roles and heterosexuality by pitting men and women as inherently different (viewing gender as entirely nature and disregarding nurture), using selective biological facts as evidence and generalizing to such an extent that everything is binary with no middle ground. The middle ground, androgyny, is a deviation in this view. Relationships that do not lead to procreation are a deviation as well. And deviations do not lead to survival, do they?

It also makes the case for capitalism, perhaps explaining why the twisted interpretation of evolution is the prevailing one. By adopting the value-infused interpretation, you can absolve yourself of any guilt you might have about exploiting labor, concentrating power, hoarding wealth while the majority struggles to get by, pitting people against each other or devaluing expression in favor of anything that further increases your wealth and power. You do not have to feel bad about causing deaths, stripping creative joy from peoples lives and inhibiting mutual fostering and collective growth. You fought hard from the bottom and made it to the top. You earned it because you just had the ability. It is just facts; it is just how it is. You cannot be held responsible because it is nature.

This is why it is so important to understand the phrase survival of the fittest, and evolution in general, completely free of value judgments, even one as simple as survival is good, because from there, many flavors of hate and structural oppression can co-opt the concept of evolution to justify themselves. It may seem tedious to make that distinction, but in the grand scheme of things, our lives and livelihoods depend on it.

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We must redefine archaic evolutionary language - Virginia Tech Collegiate Times

By Thomas Saccente, Times Record / tsaccente@swtimes.com

How the bicycle began and evolved through the centuries was the centerpiece of an event at the Clayton House Sunday.

The Clayton House held its first Clayton Conversations program of the year at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, an event titled, "Bicycling Yesterday & Today."

Cris Slaymaker, a representative of the Old State House Museum in Little Rock, discussed how the first confirmed ancestor of the bicycle, the Draisienne, was invented by Baron Karl Von Drais of Germany in 1817. It was made out of wood, had two wheels of equal size and could be steered, but had no pedals. From there, the concept evolved in Europe until 1865, when another form of the bicycle, one with pedals called the velocipede, was brought to America by Pierre Lallement of France.

In addition to further innovations in the bicycle's design, as well as the invention's perception by the public, Slaymaker also discussed the bicycle's impact on women's lives.

"Up until around 1900, even into the 1880s, 1890s and 1900s, we see women's clothing start to get a lot looser, we see skirts getting shorter, you see corsets becoming less confining and part of what's driving that is wanting to ride bicycles because if any of you have ever tried riding a bicycle in a dress, it can be done, (but) it could also be a little bit hazardous," Slaymaker said. "... The bicycle's the first time a woman's like, 'I'm going to go see my friend,' and you don't have to have a male chaperone to go ride your bike, you don't have somebody go saddle your horse. You can just hop on your bicycle and go, so it's a huge thing for freedom."

Josh Carroll, an ambassador for Phat Tire Bike Shop in Fort Smith, discussed modern bicycles and which types of bicycles are available today. Afterward, Drew Linder, the chairman of Fort Smith'sTrails and Greenways committee, talked about existing and proposed trails in Fort Smith, as well as some of the benefits trails can bring to an area.

Prior to the discussion, guests could enjoy a variety of refreshments, as well as a collection of bicycles and unicycles that wereloaned from the Winters family, who owned the Quin Winters Bike Shop that opened in Fort Smith in the 1930s. They also had the opportunity to hear music performed by three students from the Community School of the Arts, with Ashley Gipson and Matthew Nelson playing cellos and Emily Bieker playing the violin.

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Clayton Conversations details evolution of bicycle - Times Record

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We are having a Solar Eclipse in Pisces on February 26th, 2017 at 2:58pm Universal Time. While itwill only be visible in parts ofSouth America and Africa, as withevery eclipse, the astrological significance will still affect the whole planet.

This is an annular eclipse, which is when the Sun is almost completely blocked from the Moon except for the outer edges. This is because the Moon is near its apogee, which is its furthest distance from the Earth. This type of eclipse is also referred to as a ring of fire,thanks to its unique appearance.

We also had a Lunar Eclipse in Leo a few weeks ago. Eclipse season, which occurs every six months, is a significant period of transitions thatcan start up to six weeks before eclipsesbeginand play out over the following months. However, this eclipse window isparticularlytransitional because we are shifting away from two years of Virgo-Pisces eclipses and into Leo-Aquarius ones.

Venus is slowing down to go retrograde on March 4th. Any changes or developments we have had since January 30th regarding love, relationships, pleasure, money, value(s), beauty/aesthetics, or art,will face a reflective and/or a reconsideration/adjusting phase over the next six to eightweeks. (Note: Join my mailing list here to be notified when that article will be published.)

We have had a series of eclipses in Pisces since March 2015, but this will be the final one. These have all been South Node eclipses, which shake up certain negative aspects of ourselves that are no longer serving us, depending on the sign theyre inand where it is in your personal birth chart. The Eclipse is aligned with Neptune, which is a modern ruler (or sub-ruler) of Pisces;therefore it amplifies the Piscean themes mentioned below.

We need to look at the negative traits of Pisces and Neptune energy and identify what areas of our lives they areplaying out in and what needs to change. It could be related to delusional behaviour or outlook, deception, escapism, carelessness, or avoiding our duties or physical health. This could also shake things up if we tend toself-sabotage, self-sacrifice, and/or if we have problems with drugs and alcohol.

For some people, there may be a direct connection between this eclipse and how the upcoming Venus retrograde will make changes in how theyapproach love relationships. For example, Pisces and Neptune expressed negatively can make us delusional about a person or relationship and not see the situation for what it is. Or if you have been treating a relationship as an escape while avoiding important duties/tasks, these upcoming months can shake that up as well.

Collectively, Neptune and Pisces are both associated with oil and the oil industry. It is very likely that during the upcoming six months we will see an escalation in problems and conflicts that arise as a result of the industry. However this plays out, it would clearly illustrate the need for us to abandon oil andmovetoward sustainable and clean energy sources.

Mars is in its own sign of Aries in a tight conjunction with Uranus. This can be an energy of surprising, innovative,or explosive action. It could manifest as breaking free, or even some sort of rebellion, attack, or shakeup. Both planets are in a challenging opposition with Jupiter in Libra, which wants to expand and teach us lessons in relating/diplomacy, relationships/partnerships, balance, justice, beauty, and art.

There is some potential for conflict here between these two sides. However, the initiating and assertive Mars in Aries will be making a harmonious trine to Saturn in Sagittarius that will be strongest from March 4th-6th. This is great for any sort of determined effort, and in some cases it could be connected to Sagittarian themes of travel, exploration, education, marketing, teaching, and publishing.

What negative Piscean-Neptunian traits do you need to let go of? Take a look at what camearound a year ago, and almost two years ago when those eclipses were also in the same sign. There could be a connection between what came upthen and now. If that is the case, these upcoming months are the time to make those changes, as the lunar nodes are in the final stretch the Pisces-Virgo polarity.

Another thing to consider is that we are transitioning to a push toward Leo energy, since the previous lunar eclipse was in that sign. One thing that Pisces and Leo have in common is that both signs can be very creative. Therefore, for those creative types who are being challenged by their own negative Piscean-type traits, this can be a excellent time to find greater fulfillment by shining in ones creative self-expression. If you wish to do any intentions it is best to do them within the first 24 hours following the eclipse.

The exact time and peak of this New Moon Lunar Eclipse is at 2:58pm Universal Time on February 28th. Click hereto find out what that is for your time zone.

What does this Lunar Eclipse mean for you specifically?Get a personalized reading with the author of this article based on your exact birth date, time, and location.Click here for more information.

Your life path number can tell you A LOT about you.

With the ancient science of Numerology you can find out accurate and revealing information just from your name and birth date.

Get your free numerology reading and learn more about how you can use numerology in your life to find out more about your path and journey. Get Your free reading.

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'Ring of Fire' Solar Eclipse In Pisces: What It Might Mean For You - Collective Evolution

England have taken the novel approach of announcing their matchday squad to face Italy and referring to their replacements bench as the Finishers in the official RFU press release.

Jones has heaped praise on his finishers after late victories over France and Wales in the Six Nations so far that have owed much to the performances of his replacements and Ben Teo, James Haskell and Danny Care have all been rewarded with starts against Italy.

In naming Care ahead of Ben Youngs, Jones pointedly said that Ben will then come on and finish the game while Jamie George, who again settles for a place on the bench on Sunday despite outshining the captain Dylan Hartley in Cardiff, has previously said: We dont ever see ourselves as the bench. Everyone on the bench would love to be starting, but we are all of the mindset that weve got to make sure that we have an impact on the game. Eddie puts a massive amount of importance on us and a lot of pressure and weve got to make sure we react to that.

Such is Joness strength in depth that calling his bench Finishers would appear to be a method of keeping the replacements motivated but it does not seem to have been well received by the Six Nations, who switched Finishers back to Replacements in their official release of the team.

The term was brought into rugby union parlance during the World Cup in 2015 by the Australia coach Michael Cheika and borrows from the phrase Closer, used to describe pitchers in baseball who come on to see the game out.

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England's 'finishers' continue evolution of 23-a-side game against Italy - The Guardian

Science Daily

Study proposes new theory for evolution of infant-directed song Science Daily Music is a tricky topic for evolutionary science: it turns up in many cultures around the world in many different contexts, but no one knows why humans are the only musical species. Noting that it has no known connection to reproductive success ...

Excerpt from:

Study proposes new theory for evolution of infant-directed song - Science Daily

A new GIF, created by the people behind the website aromahq.com, features 20 years of Beyonc looks, one each year from 1997 to 2017. And its pretty remarkable, especially considering Bey has been a staple in pop culture for two full decades now.

Beyonce is 35-years-old and was only 15 when Destinys Child landed a record deal with Columbia Records in 1997.

From a social standpoint, she hasnt missed a step over the years, a rep from aromahq.com told HuffPost. She... continues to just expand her star power consistently by being a great performer and putting out good music.

Plus, its also tons of fun to see all of the phases and styles shes had over the years.We mean, shes gone from this:

Its been a pleasure to see her grow and evolve.Heres to 20 more years, B!

Excerpt from:

Watch Beyonc's Stunning 20-Year Evolution In This 20-Second GIF - Huffington Post

Forbes

Only One In A Thousand PokStop Drops Are Pokmon GO's New Gen 2 Evolution Items Forbes While your local area might be flooded with new Gen 2 Pokmon in the wake of Pokmon GO's latest update, you might be finding that you're missing a few key ingredients in pursuit of some specific evolutions. That would be a set of evolution items ...

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Only One In A Thousand PokStop Drops Are Pokmon GO's New Gen 2 Evolution Items - Forbes

February 24, 2017 Credit: CC0 Public Domain

These days, it's a territory mostly dominated by the likes of Raffi and the Wiggles, but there's new evidence that lullabies, play songs, and other music for babies and toddlers may have some deep evolutionary roots.

A new theory paper, co-authored by Graduate School of Education doctoral student Samuel Mehr and Assistant Professor of Psychology Max Krasnow, proposes that infant-directed song evolved as a way for parents to signal to children that their needs are being met, while still freeing up parents to perform other tasks, like foraging for food, or caring for other offspring. Infant-directed song might later have evolved into the more complex forms of music we hear in our modern world. The theory is described in an open-access paper in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior.

Music is a tricky topic for evolutionary science: it turns up in many cultures around the world in many different contexts, but no one knows why humans are the only musical species. Noting that it has no known connection to reproductive success, Professor of Psychology Steven Pinker, described it as "auditory cheesecake" in his book How the Mind Works.

"There has been a lot of attention paid to the question of where music came from, but none of the theories have been very successful in predicting the features of music or musical behavior," Krasnow said. "What we are trying to do with this paper is develop a theory of music that is grounded in evolutionary biology, human life history and the basic features of mammalian ecology."

At the core of their theory, Krasnow said, is the notion that parents and infants are engaged in an "arms race" over an invaluable resourceattention.

"Particularly in an ancestral world, where there are predators and other people that pose a risk, and infants don't know which foods are poisonous and what activities are hazardous, an infant can be kept safe by an attentive parent," he said. "But attention is a limited resource."

While there is some cooperation in the battle for that resourceparents want to satisfy infants appetite for attention because their cries might attract predators, while children need to ensure parents have time for other activities like foraging for foodthat mutual interest only goes so far.

Attention, however, isn't the only resource to cause such disagreements.

The theory of parent-offspring conflict was first put forth over forty years ago by the evolutionary biologist Robert Trivers, then an Assistant Professor at Harvard. Trivers predicted that infants and parents aren't on the same page when it comes to the distribution of resources.

"His theory covers everything that can be classified as parental investment," Krasnow said. "It's anything that a parent could give to an offspring to help them, or that they may want to hold back for themselves and other offspring."

Sexual reproduction means that every person gets half of their genes from each parent, but which genes in particular can differ even across full siblings.

Krasnow explains, "A gene in baby has only a fifty percent chance of being found in siblings by virtue of sharing two parents. That means that from the baby's genetic perspective, she'll want a more self-favoring division of resources, for example, than her mom or her sister wants, from their genetic perspectives."

Mehr and Krasnow took the idea of parent-offspring conflict and applied it attention. They predict that children should 'want' a greater share of their parents' attention than their parents 'want' to give them. But how does the child know it is has her parent's attention? The solution, Krasnow said, is that parents were forced to develop some method of signaling to their offspring that their desire for attention was being met.

"I could simply look at my children, and they might have some assurance that I'm attending to them," Krasnow said. "But I could be looking at them and thinking of something else, or looking at them and focusing on my cell phone, and not really attending to them at all. They should want a better signal than that."

Why should that signal take the form of a song?

What makes such signals more honest, Mehr and Krasnow think, is the cost associated with them - meaning that by sending a signal to an infant, a parent cannot be sending it to someone else, sending it but lying about it, etc. "Infant directed song has a lot of these costs built in. I can't be singing to you and be talking to someone else," Krasnow said. "It's unlikely I'm running away, because I need to control my voice to sing. You can tell the orientation of my head, even without looking at me, you can tell how far away I am, even without looking."

Mehr notes that infant-directed song provides lots of opportunities for parents to signal their attention to infants: "Parents adjust their singing in real time, by altering the melody, rhythm, tempo, timbre, of their singing, adding hand motions, bouncing, touching, and facial expressions, and so on. All of these features can be finely tuned to the baby's affective stateor not. The match or mismatch between baby behavior and parent singing could be informative for whether or not the parent is paying attention to the infant."

Indeed, it would be pretty odd to sing a happy, bubbly song to a wailing, sleep-deprived infant.

Krasnow agrees. "All these things make something like an infant directed vocalization a good cue of attention," he continued. "And when you put that into this co-evolutionary arms race, you might end up getting something like infant-directed song. It could begin with something like primitive vocalizations, which gradually become more infant directed, and are elaborated into melodies."

"If a mutation develops in parents that allows them to do that quicker and better, then they have more residual budget to spend on something else, and that would spread," he said. "Infants would then be able to get even choosier, forcing parents to get better, and so on. This is the same kind of process that starts with drab birds and results in extravagant peacocks and choosy peahens." And as signals go, Krasnow said, those melodies can prove to be enormously powerful.

"The idea we lay out with this paper is that infant-directed song and things that share its characteristics should be very good at calming a fussy infantand there is some evidence of that," he said. "We're not talking about going from this type of selection to Rock-a-Bye Baby; this theory says nothing about the words to songs or the specific melodies, it's saying that the acoustic properties of infant directed song should make it better at calming an infant than other music."

But, could music really be in our genes?

"A good comparison to make is to language," Krasnow said. "We would say there's a strong genetic component to languagewe have a capability for language built into our genesand we think the same thing is going to be true for music."

What about other kinds of music? Mehr is optimistic that this work could be informative for this question down the road.

"Let's assume for a moment that the theory is right. How, then, did we get from lullabies to Duke Ellington?" he asked. "The evolution of music must be a complex, multi-step process, with different features developing for different reasons. Our theory raises the possibility that infant-directed song is the starting point for all that, with other musical behaviors either developing directly via natural selection, as byproducts of infant-directed song, or as byproducts of other adaptations."

For Pinker, the paper differs in one important way from other theories of how music evolves in that it makes evolutionary sense.

"In the past, people have been so eager to come up with an adaptive explanation for music that they have advanced glib and circular theories, such as that music evolved to bond the group," he said. "This is the first explanation that at least makes evolutionary sense - it shows how the features of music could cause an advantage in fitness. That by itself doesn't prove that it's true, but at least it makes sense!"

Explore further: Mothers and infants connect through song

As one of the first records of human music, infant-directed singing permeates cultural boundaries and parenting traditions. Unlike other forms of caregiving, the act of mothers singing to infants is a universal behavior that ...

When it comes to keeping your baby calm, a song does a much better job than speech.

In a new study from the University of Montreal, infants remained calm twice as long when listening to a song, which they didn't even know, as they did when listening to speech. "Many studies have looked at how singing and ...

People often tell new parents to avoid sing-song "baby talk" with their new addition to the family because it will slow the child's language development.

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(HealthDay)The soothing sound of mom singing may help premature newborns breathe easier, a new review finds.

These days, it's a territory mostly dominated by the likes of Raffi and the Wiggles, but there's new evidence that lullabies, play songs, and other music for babies and toddlers may have some deep evolutionary roots.

Flashbacks of scenes from traumatic events often haunt those suffering from psychiatric conditions, such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). "The close relationship between the human imagery system and our emotions ...

Small study in 16 people suggests technique is safe and might help improve mood, anxiety and wellbeing, while increasing weight.

For singers and their audiences, being "in tune" might not be as important as we think. The fact that singers fail to consistently hit the right notes may have implications for the development of musical scales as well.

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Study proposes new theory for evolution of infant-directed song - Medical Xpress

Vin Scully has hung up his microphone after 67 years as the Dodgers play-by-play man nearly half the entire history of Major League Baseball.

Still, there was plenty that came before him in the evolution of fans efforts to follow the action in real time when not sitting in the ballpark.

Here, in recognition of the first Scully-less season since 1949 and the return this weekend of the Yankees and Mets to TV and radio for spring games from Florida is a brief stroll through the timeline that led to live streaming on mobile phones, something that would have seemed like science fiction in 1876 . . . or 1976.

Commercial telegraphy is even older than the National League, and a good thing it was for early fans interested in what was going on in games they did not attend. By the late 1870s, businesses realized customers might enjoy updates on games being played around the country, and contracted with Western Union to obtain results every half inning. One early adopter was Massey's billiard hall in St. Louis, where fans presumably could play pool, drink adult beverages and follow games at the same time. (Shout-out to Peter Morris' 2006 book, "A Game of Inches.") Newspapers, which already were receiving updates via telegraph, caught onto the trend and started posting scores outside their offices.

Raw data was better than nothing, but even better was something with visual aids. Creative minds in places such as Nashville and Atlanta soon were conjuring boards illustrated with baseball diamonds and pegs that moved from base to base to represent players. The gimmick spread to New York in the late 1880s, including outside the offices of Joseph Pulitzer's "The World." In 1886, the opera house in Atlanta tried something wackier: actual, uniformed people moving around a faux diamond on the stage, based on results coming in via telegraph. (Shown: M.D. Compton's Baseball Illustrating Apparatus, U.S. patent 540, 089 issued May 28, 1895.)

By the 1890s, electricity began to add more information - and more pizzazz - to the updates fans had come to rely on, in the form of machines that recounted many aspects of game action, including lights that followed the path of players and/or the ball. Such displays got increasingly elaborate, including mechanized, miniature "players" who mimicked the actions of the actual athletes in the distant stadium. (Shown: Nokes ElectraScore from Popular Electricity Magazine, v.5, October 1912: 584.)

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The electronic bulletin boards outside newspaper offices not only kept fans informed into the early 20th century, but served as a communal experience that replicated the in-stadium vibe. World Series in the early 1910s attracted huge, raucous crowds in Manhattan and other major cities. Before, during and after Game 3 of the 1912 World Series between the Giants and Red Sox - played in Fenway Park - throngs clogged the streets in and around Times Square, often shouting complaints and/or encouragement at players who were more than 200 miles away. "There could have been no more interest shown in the game," The New York Times wrote, "had the scene been the ball grounds at Boston instead of Times Square."

Commercial radio was in its infancy when baseball first came to the new medium, on Aug. 5, 1921, when the Pirates defeated the Phillies, 8-5, in a game played at Forbes Field. Initially some radio announcers merely read scores via telegraph updates from another location, but soon they were sitting in the stadiums themselves and enhancing the drama rather than dryly reciting results. By the 1923 World Series between the Yankees and Giants, radio use was widespread, and Graham McNamee became the first true baseball broadcasting star. Radio has endured as a staple of baseball fandom, sometimes even for those in the ballpark. Dodgers fans used to bring transistor radios to listen to Scully at the massive Coliseum in the Dodgers' early L.A. years. The three New York teams were radio holdouts -- they did not allow games to be broadcast live until 1939.

Commercial TV still was largely experimental on Aug. 26, 1939, when Red Barber called the first televised major league game from Ebbets Field, in which the Reds and Dodgers split a doubleheader on station W2XBS (later WNBC.) There were only two cameras in use and not many people watching, but it marked the first time anyone outside a ballpark had observed major league players in action live. World War II slowed the spread of television drastically, but it grew rapidly in the post-war years, and the first World Series aired in 1947. More and more games began to be televised - locally and nationally - through the 1950s and 1960s, exposing the game at its highest level to a far vaster audience than ever before.

Cable television transformed baseball in the late 1970s and 1980s, starting with superstations that allowed fans all over the country to see teams such as the Braves, Cubs and Mets. ESPN furthered the expansion of nationally televised games, finally rendering the old notion of a national "Game of the Week" on Saturday afternoon as a quaint relic. Soon games on cable outlets far outnumbered those available on local broadcast channels. Later, the rise of regional sports networks - especially team-owned ones such as the Yankees' YES Network, which launched in 2002 - further consolidated the power and profitability of baseball's pay TV model.

The World Wide Web came along in the early 1990s, sparking the most recent evolution/revolution in live major league coverage, one that continues apace in 2017. Initially, the Internet primarily was a way to discuss the game with fellow fans and check up on news and results in real time, something that continues on 21st century social media. Then it became a vehicle, through Major League Baseball Advanced Media, to see video highlights. Now, increasingly, it is a way to watch live games streamed to PCs, laptops, tablets or smartphones. The Yankees were pioneers in the area, first offering live streaming (for a price) in 2010. SNY announced just this winter that it would begin streaming Mets games in 2017.

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Oh, one more thing: Newspapers have covered baseball pretty much from the time the game was invented, well before the major leagues came along, and with more depth than any medium mentioned above. And we still do today. Just sayin'.

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The evolution of how we consume baseball games - Newsday

Edsa will always be best remembered for the historic, peaceful uprising that unseated a dictator.

Along the stretch of Edsa happened the People Power Revolution in 1986, during which Filipinos from all walks of life linked arms to topple the dictator, former President Ferdinand Marcos and to reclaim true democracy.

Over the past 31 years, Edsa then bore witness to a series of major transformations, as the rapid urbanization of the metropolis saw massive infrastructure and property development projects rising along this 24-kilometer stretch.

Today, Edsa remains a major thoroughfare in the metro but one that exudes a highly different character and vibe compared to more than three decades ago. Here are some of the property and infrastructure projects that have changed the landscape of this historic avenue.

Edsa Shrine

It was formally known as the Shrine of Mary, Queen of Peace, and sits at the crossroads of Edsa and Ortigas Avenue in Quezon City.

Established in December 1989 with Fr. Socrates Villegas as its first rector, the shrine was a brainchild of the late Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin, who convinced the families of Paquito Ortigas and John Gokongwei to donate the lot.

Arch. Francisco Maosa designed the church with preparatory work from National Artist Leandro Locsin and Architect William Coscolluela.

National Artist Napoleon Abueva meanwhile designed the 14 Stations of the Cross and the main altar table cast in bronze; sculptor Ramon Orlina created the glass and stainless steel sculpture of the Risen Christ and other artworks; and Virginia Ty-Navarro sculpted the bronze statue of the Virgin Mary.

People Power Monument

Located at the corner of White Plains and Esda, the bronze tableau is comprised of 37 figures depicting the various sectors of the Philippine society that joined the People Power Revolution in 1986, surrounding Inang Bayan as the dominant figure.

Created by award-winning sculptor Ed Castrillo, it was installed in 1993 and had cost P100 million. It has since served as among the main venues for the governments commemorative activities.

LRT-1 North Extension

Dubbed the closing the loop project to connect Light Rail Transit 1 (LRT-1) to Metro Rail Transit (MRT-3) system, it involved construction of a 5.4-km elevated line from LRT-1s Monumento Station in Caloocan to MRTs North Avenue Station in Quezon City.

It was completed in 2010 with additional two stations, Balintawak and Roosevelt, both in Quezon City. The LRT-MRT common station has yet to be constructed.

Metro Rail Transit 3 (MRT-3)

Its full operation began in 2000 with a 17-km track comprising of 13 stations starting from North Avenue in Quezon City to Taft Avenue in Pasay. The rail project has a fleet of 73 Czech-made modern and air-conditioned rail cars, of which up to 60, in three-car trains, operate daily.

Manhattan Garden City

It is a residential development project expected to consist of 20 residential towers on a 5.7-hectare property at the Araneta Center in Quezon City.

Gateway Mall

Opened in 2004, the flagship mall of Araneta Center has five levels and directly linked to Araneta Coliseum and LRT-2. It has a total floor area of 100,000 square meters. Lakbay para sa Kapayapaan sa Edsa

The street mural project was launched in 2013, adorning the walls of Camp Aguinaldo, the general headquarters of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, in Quezon City.

It spans about 3.8 km, of which 1.7 km stretches along Boni Serrano Avenue; 1.3 km along Edsa; and 1 km along White Plainsmaking it the worlds largest peace mural.

C-5 Ortigas Avenue extension interchange

More known as Ortigas Flyover, it was completed in 2004 to decongest traffic volume on Edsa. It has two flyovers: a three-level, four-lane flyover along C-5 and two-lane left-turn flyover.

Robinsons Galleria Complex

It is the countrys first mixed-use facility that combined a mall, hotels, offices and condominium residences within one development.

On its site is the Robinsons Galleria Ortigas, the flagship mall of Robinsons Land Corp. established in 1990. The five-level shopping mall houses over 500 highly recognized local and international shops, dining outlets and service centers.

Other establishments in the complex are the two high-rise office towers, Galleria Corporate Center and the Robinsons-Equitable Tower, deluxe hotels Holiday Inn Galleria Manila and Crowne Galleria Manila, and the Galleria Regency.

SM Megamall

Considered one of the countrys biggest malls, the SM Megamall is among the pioneer shopping malls established by Henry Sy Sr. in 1991 when he started the malling phenomenon in the 90s.

From its initial total floor area of 311,898 sqm, SM Megamall has undergone several renovations since then to reach its current floor area of 474,225 sqm when the Mega Fashion Hallwhich houses some flagship international retail brandswas unveiled in 2014.

To celebrate its 25th year, the construction of a 50-story, curvy S-shape office tower has begun last year and is expected to open in 2019.

Edsa Shangri-La

Opened in August 1992 at Ortigas Center in Mandaluyong, it is the first of the five Shangri-La hotels and resorts in the country. It has a total of 632 rooms which consist of 607 guestrooms and 25 suites.

It also has four international restaurants, two lounges, cafe and bakeshop, two ballrooms and 19 meeting rooms, among other amenities and features.

Starmall Edsa-Shaw

Situated at the corner of Metro Manilas busiest avenues, it is directly linked to the MRT Shaw Station and hosts a busy transit terminal, drawing a huge cross-section of daily commuters and shoppers.

SMDC Light Residences

A three-tower project, it is strategically located at Madison Street corner Edsa in Mandaluyong and conveniently linked to MRT Boni Station. It boasts of five-star amenities, its own mall and is deemed perfect for people on the go.

Avida Towers Centera

The four-tower development in Mandaluyong provides a unique in-city living experience divided into five different zones.

(Sources: edsashrine.org, quezoncity.gov.ph, robinsonsproperties.com, robinsonsmalls.com, sminvestments.com, shangri-la.com, dotcmrt3.gov.ph, jica.go.jp, starmalls.com.ph, megaworldcorp.com, gatewaymall.com.ph, avidaland.com, smdc.com and Inquirer Archives)

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The evolution of Edsa - Inquirer.net

News from the University of Zurich is notable both for how underwhelming it is and for a "rare" admission. Researchers documented that as winter came earlier, snow voles got smaller. That seemed counterintuitive since, as the title of the publication in PLOS Biology asks rhetorically, "Bigger Is Fitter?"

Well, isn't it? Not so in this case, apparently. Why?

In principle, larger snow voles are fitter: They have better capabilities to survive and reproduce. Despite this positive correlation at the phenotypic level, however, a converse causal relationship was evident on the genotypic level. "The voles whose genetic make-up led to a lower body weight were the fittest, especially in years when the first winter snow fell earlier than usual," explains the biologist. This may be because lighter young are more likely to reach their final size before the weather deteriorates and winter comes.

Fine. Maybe so. But notice the welcome candor in announcing this result. Observing this cute mouse-like rodent getting a bit smaller seems to be pulled straight from the voluminous files of unimpressive evidence for Darwinian evolution's grand claims. Evolution is supposed to explain how fantastic novelties arise, not merely why a little animal gets a bit smaller (or bigger). Even such an instance, though, they say repeatedly, is "extremely rare."

Researchers from the University of Zurich have succeeded in documenting an extremely rare case of evolutionary adaptation "in action" among wild snow voles near Chur.

...

Although this process is well understood in breeding conditions and in the lab, it is still largely unclear how often and how rapidly it takes place under natural conditions. Examples of contemporary adaptive evolution remain extremely rare.

...

If the scientists had restricted their observations solely to phenotypic traits, such as body size and weight, this rare example of "evolution in action" in the wild would have remained hidden. [Emphasis added.]

And again, from the Abstract:

In natural populations, quantitative trait dynamics often do not appear to follow evolutionary predictions. Despite abundant examples of natural selection acting on heritable traits, conclusive evidence for contemporary adaptive evolution remains rare for wild vertebrate populations, and phenotypic stasis seems to be the norm.

So stasis is the "norm," and seeing "evolution in action" in the wild is "extremely rare." And where found, as it was here, one might add that it is pretty trivial. Perhaps they thought we weren't listening.

Photo: Snow vole, by Timothe Bonnet via University of Zurich.

I'm on Twitter. Follow me @d_klinghoffer.

Read more from the original source:

Smaller Voles: "Evolution in Action" Is Rare, Trivial - Discovery Institute