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In a video posted to twitter, NASA astronaut Drew Feustel showed his attempt to walk heel-to-toe with his eyes closed after over six months in space. Surrounded by a team of researchers, Feustel stumbles forward looking much worse than a drunk person trying to pass a field sobriety test. The best comparison is like a baby giraffe learning to use it’s long legs.

Feustel spent his time on the International Space Station (ISS), floating around with only a weak gravitational pull. To challenge the loss of bone density and muscle mass, astronauts spend two hours a day exercising on modified equipment.If you find this interesting, check out NASA’s twin study with astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly where Scott spent a year in space to determine the long-term effects on the body.

Studies in mice have shown the direct transmission of exercise-induced effects through the father’s sperm. Before you get up in arms, I know humans aren’t mice but the results are promising.

After the mice-dads completed an exercise regiment, different genes were expressed in the hippocampus and improved their performance on memory exams.

Mice born from the athletic mice-dads also showed improved performance on memory tests when compared to siblings born before the father worked out. Additionally, their brains showed similar gene expression found in their father. 

“All this has led to the litters to have inherited the greater capacity of learning and memory of the running parents.”

The author of the paper suggests the father’s sperm carries microRNAs, molecules which regulate gene expression.

From the abstract: These results demonstrate the inheritance of exercise-induced cognition enhancement through the germline, pointing to paternal physical activity as a direct factor driving offspring’s brain physiology and cognitive behavior.

Wildlife researchers near the Farallon Islands, near San Francisco, have found that after sharks encountered Orcas they swam away and didn’t return to the area for an entire year. Normally their migration patterns don’t bring the two species into contact with each other but in the rare instance when they did meet the sharks swam away at top speeds.

Great White’s can grow up to 20 feet long and weigh up to 4,000 pounds. 

Orcas can grow up to 30 feet long and weigh up to 10,000 pounds.

Orcas hunt in packs. Sharks hunt in isolation.

video from 1997 documents a group of Orcas attacking a Great White.

The real winners: seals and sea lions.

There are only 3 known specimens of the Yangtze giant softshell turtle left alive, all male, after the one female specimen died in a Chinese zoo. She had been living with one of the males in the zoo; the other two males live in a lake in Vietnam. 

It is hard to determine an average size due to the limited number of specimens left alive but it seems to grow larger than alligator snapping turtles and other softshells, making it the largest. They can weigh anywhere from 150-220 pounds.

These turtles are called softshell because their shells lack scales and seem leathery and pliable. Their softer shells allows the turtles to move more easily through open water and through the mud on lake bottoms, allowing them to sit and wait for food to come to them.

Specimens are extremely difficult to find and identify because they spend so much time at the bottom of lakes, only coming up to breath. Unless a wild female is found this species will become extinct when the three remaining males die. 

new study out of Tel Aviv suggests that the ancestors of Elephants and the ancestors of humans share characteristics which allowed them to live in Europe during the Ice Age.

Mammoths were a known food source for Neanderthals, the large animals providing the calories necessary for their survival.

The similarities are present in genes which are associated adaptation to cold environments. The three genetic expressions had to do with fat storage, keratin (the protein found in hair, nails, horns, claws, hooves, and skin), and pigmentation.

From the leader of the study: “Are there genetic similarities between evolutionary adaptation paths in Neanderthals and mammoths? The answer seems to be yes.”

In a  report released by the Environment Agency (UK) the impact of different kinds of carrier bags were assessed on their ability to combat global warming. It takes into account the production, use, and disposal of four main type of bags: standard grocery bags, thicker plastic bags, paper bags, and cotton bags. 

The bags were “compared for other impacts: resource depletion, acidification, eutrophication, human toxicity, fresh water aquatic ecotoxicity, marine aquatic ecotoxicity, terrestrial ecotoxicity and photochemical oxidation (smog formation).”

The study found that resource use and production value has the most effect on environmental impact. So it’s no surprise the cotton bags need to be used so many times to make up for the difference!

The paper bags need to be used 3 times, the thicker plastic bags need to be reused 4 times in order to make up for the use of one standard grocery bag which isn’t reused at all.

The study found the best way to fight global warming is to use ANY bag as many times as possible and recommended using the standard grocery bags as trash can liners in order to get have the least envirnmental impact.

The teeth, found in a cave in the Tongzi county of southern China, have been dated to approx. 200,000 years ago.

At first they were thought to belong to Homo Erectus but it turns out they don’t belong to Erectusor the more advanced Neanderthals.

The teeth have both ancient and modern traits. Erectus teeth are distinctive because of a crinkled tissue beneath the enamel, which is missing in the four teeth. This leads to the conclusion that the teeth might be from a later human ancestor but the shapes don’t quite fit. 

There is the possibility the teeth belong to another human ancestor called the Denisovans but there is no way to make a direct comparison.

The most likely scenario is that different species of human ancestors met and reproduced, maybe a Denisovan and an Erectus. This possibility is supported by the recent discovery of a bone from an ancient teenager with a Neanderthal mom and Denisovan dad.

The record of Chinese fossils is expanding as more studies are translated into English so there may be more mysteries in the years to come. 

In the end of March 2019, India became the fourth country to demonstrate the capability to shoot down an orbiting satellite, joining the United States, Russia, and China.

The satellite they shot down was one of their own, roughly 185 miles in space. Simulations suggest over 6,500 pieces of debris larger than a pencil eraser were created.

NASA has the capability to track pieces of debris greater than 10cm. Sixty pieces of the destroyed satellite are large enough to be tracked and of these, 24 were blasted to a distance from Earth greater than the International Space Station (ISS). NASA’s concern is that these pieces might collide with the ISS, putting the astronauts on board at risk. 

"That kind of activity is not compatible with the future of human spaceflight,” says NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine.

The Buddhas of Bamiyan were two massive statues of Guatam Buddha carved into the side of a sandstone cliff in central Afghanistan. They were blown up with dynamite in 2001 when the Taliban deemed them as idols. The statues were 115 and 174 feet tall.

When asked about the ancient statues, the man who ordered their destruction, Taliban supreme leader Mullah Omar, said, “I did not want to destroy the Bamiyan Buddha. In fact, some foreigners came to me and said they would like to conduct the repair work of the Bamiyan Buddha that had been slightly damaged due to rains. This shocked me. I thought, these callous people have no regard for thousands of living human beings - the Afghans who are dying of hunger, but they are so concerned about non-living objects like the Buddha. This was extremely deplorable. That is why I ordered its destruction. Had they come for humanitarian work, I would have never ordered the Buddha's destruction.”

The destroyed statues were the largest to show a standing Buddha in the world. (There is a larger statue of Buddha, the Leshan Giant Buddha, but this one is seated.) A video of the destruction can be seen here

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