A group of Canadian scientists from different fields have conducted a pilot study aiming to find correlations between the gut microbiota and cognitive ability. The hypothesis is that bacteria present in our digestive system have a certain connection as to how our brain develops, how we think or feel, and even how neurological diseases come about. Some go so far as to say that even consciousness itself may find its link in the gut microbiota.

What they did was they collected samples from dozens of babies' poo and looked into their cognitive development. Brett Finlay, the microbiologist in the team, had shared concerns that if they were to find a strong positive correlation between a particular bacteria or group of bacteria that directly affects babies' cognitive ability, coined "IQ bugs", then it might cause too much of a stir, with parents hankering to give their children these IQ bugs.

Thankfully, the study found nothing of the sort. However, their paper did suggest that the early microbiome has an impact on a baby's brain and behavior development. This opens the way for further research as the area of study associated with the gut-brain axis is quite new in the field, and leaves much to be explored. Who knows? Maybe they might find a correlation between depression and a baby's gut bacteria. If so, it would allow us to target those bacteria such that we can guide a child's development to steer away from going down that path.

In any case, it's a very young field, and it's showing enough promise that a lot of microbiologists are flocking to it. For more details on their research, check it out at National Post.

(Image credit: CDC/Unsplash)

I had a friend whose hobby was making personalized clothes, mostly for herself, but she dreams of being able to design clothes professionally as well, and selling her designs to the market. While I was observing her cutting fabrics based on a pattern, I was amazed at how several seemingly disjointed pieces later coalesced to form a nice summer dress. However, I was also a bit annoyed when she asked me to help her clean all the scraps strewn all over the floor.

If the manufacturing process for large-scale clothing brands is the same way, then imagine how many leftovers there are. Jessica Schreiber, founder and CEO of Fabscrap, was similarly concerned about the issue of textile wastes as residue from the manufacturing of clothes, and she decided to develop a model that would make use of these discarded fabric wastes and turn them into fresh, new garments. So, inspired by the concept, Marie Claire Magazine had challenged five designers to turn 10 pounds of assorted scraps into something fashionable. Here's what they came up with.

(Image credit: Divazus Fabric Store/Unsplash)

Lenin's Mausoleum is a wooden tomb built on Red Square in Moscow, the place where the actual body of Vladimir Lenin is interred. For almost 100 years, the Russian government has yet to make a decision about what to do with the body of Lenin.

Originally, the wake was only scheduled to be for a week after Lenin's death, however, since people continued pouring in to visit, the government decided to postpone the funeral. Then, officials thought that it would be a good reminder for future generations about Russia's history, so instead of burying the body, they preserved it through an experimental long-term type of embalming at the time, and here we are a century later.

For many tourists who come to Russia, that's one of the things that they cannot leave Russia without. They had to see Lenin's body, but for what reason? Sofia Polyakova of Russia Beyond asked tourists their reasons for wanting to visit Lenin's Mausoleum, and the reasons were pretty much the same throughout. Read more about it on RBTH.

(Image credit: Hennie Stander/Unsplash)

We learned about the talented musician and songwriter behind ABC's hit 70's children's educational program Schoolhouse Rock!, Bob Dorough, a few years ago here on Neatorama. Not only were the songs educational and factually correct, but they were also very catchy, adding to the memory recall for children even after decades. However, did you know the story behind the concept of Schoolhouse Rock!? It was a very cool concept indeed, but the reason why the show decided to turn concepts from mathematics, science, grammar, etc. into rock and pop songs was because David McCall, one of the creators, wanted his son to learn his multiplication tables.

McCall was concerned that his son still hadn't memorized his multiplication tables at school but equally surprised that his son had excellent recall of songs by the Rolling Stones and other major rock bands at the time. So, an idea popped up in his head to make songs that would help his son learn. Being an advertising agency president, he commissioned the help of their jingle writer who churned out a generic-sounding jingle that didn't suit his taste. So he enlisted the aid of a colleague George Newall who was a musician, who in turn sought jazz bassist Ben Tucker, who knew Bob Dorough, and said that he (Bob) could put music to anything. And that gave birth to the very first song of Schoolhouse Rock!, "Three is a Magic Number".

However, they didn't initially plan on creating a TV series out of the project. It was supposed to be an album and a book. But no publishers were biting, so the ad agency shifted directions. They noticed ABC was one of their clients, so they drew up storyboards and presented it to Michael Eisner, then VP for Children's Programming at ABC. And the rest was history.

(Video credit: Our Nostalgic Memories/Youtube)

A hundred years ago, steamships employed coal stokers to shovel coal into the boilers that kept the vessel going. It was hard, dirty, and dangerous work, but someone had do it. Arthur John Priest became possibly the most famous coal stoker on any steamship for his eventful career. He survived two ship collisions and four sinkings, including that of the Titanic! Of course, he was very lucky to have survived all that, but there comes a point when steamship crews start to look at such a person as a bad omen. But perhaps Priest was more like Adrian Carton de Wiart, and refused to give up his profession even as fate kept telling him to retire.

Priest was only 24 when he survived the sinking of the Titanic. He jumped into the water and was picked up by a lifeboat. Then came World War I, and Priest joined the British military. He was stoking coal on the HMS Alcantara when it was sunk by a German ship disguised as a Norwegian merchant ship. Priest then served on the hospital ship HMS Britannic, sunk by a German mine in the Mediterranean. He survived that sinking alongside two other Titanic survivors. Then in 1917, he was serving as a fireman on the hospital ship SS Donegal, which was attacked and sunk by a German U-boat. Read about the many adventures of the unsinkable Arthur John Priest at Amusing Planet. -via Strange Company  

In the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, we saw Space Station V, a rotating wheel in space that contained a luxury hotel for space travelers. The rotation provided enough force to simulate gravity and allow people to operate almost normally.

Digital artist Erik Wernquist imagined such a structure and designed the SSPO Esperanta, a sort of space cruise ship for interplanetary tourists. It has a radius of 450 meters and spins at one revolution per minute, generating artificial gravity at half that of earth. In the short film ONE REVOLUTION PER MINUTE, he shows us the views from the Esperanta, with available light moving all around every minute. It would be quite disorienting, but still beautiful. He admits that a spacecraft with this many windows is impractical, not to mention far beyond any earth budget, but it's an art film that explores those lights and shadows, so just consider it fictional. -via TYWKIWDBI 

Star Trek has grown into a beloved franchise with millions of fans, but when Gene Roddenberry's original series aired from 1966 to 1969, it had a notoriously small budget. This led to some very creative decisions, like inventing the transporter, because using a shuttle was both expensive and time-consuming. It also led to some really cheap-looking aliens, although with the dearth of science fiction on TV at the time, we didn't mind. This extreme parsimony was evident on the set, too. The futuristic interiors had chairs that were bought off the shelf at furniture stores, sometimes slightly altered, but recognizable. Later Star Trek series and movies with bigger budgets were able to get designer seats, but are often still recognized by trekkies who know furniture.

Four of those fans have built a database of commercially-available Star Trek chairs. Each of the 163 identified chairs are listed by category, with its movie or episode, history, and availability. For example, the chair shown above from "The Trouble with Tribbles" is the Chromcraft Sculpta Unicorn. The same design was later used in Star Trek: Discovery.  

Ex Astris Scientia is also asking for help in identifying more chairs. If you are inclined to buy seating based on the story you can tell about it, you'll want to take a look. Who knows, you might already have one of these designs in your home!  -via Everlasting Blort 

WHAT A MESS! Homes in Montana were buried under tumbleweed as some piles rose so high that they flowed over the roofs of homes. #mtwx pic.twitter.com/VhQ9U1hGOW

— FOX Weather (@foxweather) October 18, 2023

I've never seen one in real life, but I gather that tumbleweeds are predators that swarm their prey, overwhelming larger opponents through sheer numbers. I learned this from the 2008 documentary Killer Tumbleweeds.

This video shows one such swarm of tumbleweeds consuming houses in Great Falls, Montana on Tuesday. Or, to be more precise, attempting to hunt the humans inside those houses. Winds reaching speeds of up to 50 MPH aided the tumbleweeds as on their journey according to KRTV 3 News. Firefighters are looking into response options, but it really sounds like a job for the National Guard.

-via Super Punch

Zoos often purchase or exchange animals with each other in order to keep their populations stable, provide proper space for the creatures, and to promote genetic diversity in their progeny. In this case, the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro had to relocate their flock of 15 Chilean flamingos to make way for a demolition and construction project. They were shipped to the Greenville Zoo in South Carolina. In cardboard boxes. So you can consider the above an "unboxing video."

This is no aberration, but the optimum method for shipping flamingos, or "best practices." They are big birds that only weigh about four pounds each. Cardboard is safer for them and their delicate wings than a crate or a metal cage would be, and they had plenty of airflow. The birds were given a health check as they were unpacked, and appear to be settling in just fine in their new home. -via Fark

The Martin Scorsese film Killers of the Flower Moon opens nationwide today. The film has received glowing reviews and is a shoe-in for Oscar nominations. It's a Scorsese crime movie, but also a love story, based on real events. But it could have been very different.

Native American representation in film has been abysmal since the beginning of film. Knowing that Killers of the Flower Moon would be widely seen, a group of Osage leaders invited Scorsese to meet with them and hear their views on how the movie should address their concerns regarding historical accuracy and perspective. They included James Roan Gray, great-grandson of Henry Roan, a victim of the Osage murders and the ex-husband of main character Mollie Burkhart. After the meeting, Scorsese rewrote the entire script to change the focus of the story. When he returned to Oklahoma after the pandemic lockdown, the Osage were ready to provide actors, language instructors, craftspeople, and consultants for the movie. Jim Gray talked to Smithsonian's Chris Klimek about his family history, the Osage influence on Killers of the Flower Moon, and other topics like the Trail of Tears and the Tulsa Race Massacre. You can read it or listen in podcast form at Smithsonian.  

Wanna play a game? CGP Grey (previously at Neatorama) presents an online version of Rock, Paper, Scissors in which you play against him. The premise is that statistically speaking, if a million people play, then someone somewhere is going to win all the rounds. It will happen, because the video is only a day old and is already three-quarters of the way to a million views. Grey has six million subscribers. Be aware that a draw means you lose. Of course, has has no way to know if you're being honest about your score, but that's honestly beside the point.

When you get into the game and see how it's constructed, you will be more impressed with the work he put into it than with your own success. It's an idea Grey has contemplated for years and just got around to doing. From the comments, a lot of people had fun playing this straight, but once they are eliminated, they go back and cheat just to see where the game goes, and had even more fun doing that. It's a real internet rabbit hole no matter how far you take it. And you'll learn a few things about statistics and probability along the way.

In the 18th century, a criminal could be hanged for any number of crimes, and from that fact sprung a gruesome type of good luck charm- the hand of an executed criminal. It was important that the hand taken was the one that actually committed the crime, and detailed instructions for preparing the hand were published in 1722. The hand had to be carefully dried with salt and nitre, and then exposed to the sun until fully dessicated. The resulting "hand of glory" could be used to cure illness when placed on the affected body part, such as a goiter.

If the hand had previously belonged to a murderer, it had special powers, but only in conjunction with fat taken from the same murderer. Since we can assume that this would be difficult to procure, an authentic hand of glory was a rarity. When a murderer's hand of glory was used as a candleholder, burning a candle made from the human fat, the holder had the power to put people to sleep, making a household burglary or other crime a simple affair.  

Hands used in such a manner have been documented in drawings in historical writing, but only one hand has been found and identified. It has been in the possession of the Whitby Museum since 1935. Read about the hand of glory and see a picture of the only one to still exist at Angel Buckley's blog. -via Strange Company

In the Douglas Adams story The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a supercomputer named Deep Thought is programmed to determine the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything. The computer works on this problem for 7.5 million years and finally spits out the answer: 42. But after all that time, no one could remember the question.

However, in the 45 years since Adams told us about the amazing computer feat, we may have figured out the question. The problem is that there are several, five in fact, fundamental questions about the universe in which the answer is indeed 42. Two are mathematical, two are astronomical, and one has to do with physics. Which one was Deep Thought deep in thought about? We may never know, but we have some good contenders. Each of the five questions are explained in detail at Big Think. -via Real Clear Science

(Image credit: Ben Gibson/Big Think)

It wasn't easy being a beekeeper in the medieval Europe, but the honey that bees produced was exceptionally expensive and worth the effort. Instead of beehives with removable frames, bees were kept in woven baskets called skeps. Harvesting the honey meant scooping everything out of the skep, which destroyed the colony. So skeps were small, which encouraged the bees to swarm, looking for a new home when their numbers outgrew the skep. When that happened, beekeepers had to be ready to gather them up and lodge them in a new skep. That process involved throwing dust on the bees, banging metal objects together (called tanging), and reciting magical incantations. These were called swarm charms.

That's a lot of work to reproduce a hive, but it worked more often than not. Beekeepers were loathe to experiment to determine what part of that process actually did the job, as they didn't want to risk failure. Modern beekeepers say it was probably the dust, although things are much easier now that we've learned to identify and relocate queen bees. Read about swarm charms and the difficult medieval practice of beekeeping at Atlas Obscura.

It's a common home remedy that our mothers would have us eat when we have a cold or the flu: chicken soup. It seems almost every culture in the world has some variation of the chicken soup remedy, but does it really work? Can chicken with some noodles, vegetables, and broth really cure our upper respiratory illnesses and bring down that fever? Or is it just some placebo?

Colby Teeman, an assistant professor of dietetics and nutrition at the University of Dayton, answers that question. And the answer is not as complicated as we might think. Remember that our bodies have a defense mechanism that can stave off and eradicate any kind of infection, the immune system. The only way to help the immune system fight off illnesses is to give it the proper fuel, and we do that by eating food. However, while we're sick, what generally happens is a loss of appetite, and so we're not able to provide ample energy and nutrients for our immune system to kill the pathogens. That's where chicken soup comes in. And not just any old chicken soup. Prof. Teeman suggests homemade chicken soup is the best way to go.

For a more detailed explanation as to how homemade chicken soup helps us feel better when we're sick, check out his article on The Conversation.

(Image credit: Stacey Doyle/Unsplash)