The greatest fear that we have is that of the unknown and the greatest threat that we could possibly face may very well be the unknown. In the case of rare diseases, that might just be the harsh reality.
There many diseases that still puzzle us - we can't figure out their cause and thus, we won't know how to address such illnesses. But fear not, for specialized teams of doctors are looking for ways to deal with those rare diseases.
The medical sleuths, scattered across 12 clinics nationwide, form the Undiagnosed Disease Network. Since the program began in 2014, they've identified 31 previously unknown syndromes and they've cracked more than a third of their cases, according to a recent paper in the New England Journal of Medicine.
How far can we see into space and what will we see in its vast reaches? Well, a team of astronomers has been able to observe a solar system object, which is 120 astronomical units from the Earth, the farthest one so far.
The second-most-distant observed Solar System object is Eris, at about 96 AU. Pluto is currently at about 34 AU, making 2018 VG18 more than three-and-a-half times more distant than the Solar System’s most-famous dwarf planet.
The discovery images of 2018 VG18 were taken at the Japanese Subaru 8-meter telescope located atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii on November 10, 2018.
Once 2018 VG18 was found, it needed to be re-observed to confirm its very distant nature. 2018 VG18 was seen for the second time in early December at the Magellan telescope at Carnegie’s Las Campanas Observatory in Chile.
When you tour around Asia, some of the most remarkable feats of architecture you will find are temples. All around Asia, you would find them from the Borobudur in Indonesia to the Angkor Wat in Cambodia. These intricately designed, towering structures would leave you amazed at what ancient humans were able to do.
And recently, another temple has been discovered with a pyramid-like structure which has been hidden underground for thousands of years.
Located atop Mount Padang in West Java, the structure is topped by an archaeological site that was discovered in the early 19th century and holds rows of ancient stone pillars. But the sloping "hill" underneath isn't part of the natural, rocky landscape; it was crafted by human hands, scientists discovered.
Mythical creatures have always been a part of the legends and stories shrouded in mystery and intrigue, tales of unbelievable feats, and fantasies which were a means to connect us with the supernatural and to explain things that could not be readily understood.
These beasts were attributed with power such as healing properties or incredible strength and speed, and so being able to encounter one is a feat in itself. Many have tried to capture them but to no avail.
In the Middle Ages, they were all the rage:
Over time, the unicorn accrued various associations. Its horns were said to have magical powers: they could bring water to the boil, or, if dipped into a drink or added to food, detoxify poison. Unicorn horns were also said to purify water.
This association with purity extended to female sexuality, too. Supposedly, only a virgin maiden could tempt a unicorn into captivity. Consequently, the unicorn – despite the potentially phallic nature of its defining characteristic – became a symbol of chastity and feminine purity.
Nowadays, there has been a resurgence of unicorns in pop culture:
Sparkly unicorns, decorating everything from toys to T-shirts, are wildly popular among pre-teen girls in Europe and the United States. Like the rainbow flag, the unicorn is an important symbol internationally for the LGBT community.
But amidst all the fascination we have for unicorns, there is one thing we know for sure:
As a tongue-in-cheek wall text puts it towards the end of the Cluny Museum’s exhibition, “While the existence of the animal has been debated by scientists since the 16th Century, the risk of extinction is not an immediate concern.”
We have dug up quite a lot of artifacts dating from the Stone Age but this might be the first time that we have seen a chewed up tar that could very well be from that era containing human DNA.
Ancient DNA from human bones and teeth have recently revolutionized the study of the past, but many cultures over time did not bury their dead and left no remains to analyze.
Chewing gum could fill in some of the gaps. It could also reveal a wealth of additional information, such as who helped make the Stone Age tools, what they ate, and what bacteria lived in their teeth.
It has almost been 50 years since man touched the surface of the moon and many other interstellar missions have been conducted since then. We have reached Mars, the Sun, and even Jupiter.
Going to the outskirts of space seems like a very exciting adventure, but it also has risks involved. Let us look at the stories of every Apollo mission in history and what happened during each of them.
With a volume of 13 million cubic meters, Boeing's Everett Factory is by far the biggest building in the world. That would be enough to fit 13 Wembley Stadiums.
The Everett Factory is where Boeing produces its jumbo jet 747s as well as some of their smaller models, the 767, 777, and 787. But what is it like to work in this massive factory day in, day out? Stephen Dowling writes about it on the BBC:
Each shift has as many as 10,000 workers, and there are three shifts each day. Over the course of 24 hours, the factory has a population only a little less than the Australian city of Alice Springs.
The factory boasts some surprising features. While there is ventilation, there is no air conditioning. In summer, if it gets too hot, David Reese, who helps run the factory tours, says, they just open the massive doors to let in the breeze.
In winter, the effect of the more than one million lights, the huge amount of electric equipment and some 10,000 human bodies also helps moderate the temperatures.
We all have regrets, what ifs, and other things that we wish we could change in the past. If only we could go back and do things differently.
A lot of people have asked the question of whether time travel into the past is even remotely possible, let alone feasible with the technology that we have today. And the answer is: yes, it's possible. But only if you have an object with infinite mass.
Caroline Mallary, a doctoral student at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth has published a new model for a time machine in the journal Classical & Quantum Gravity. This new model does not require any negative mass exotic material and offers a very simple design.
Mallary’s model consists of two super long cars – built of material that is not exotic, and have positive mass – parked in parallel. One car moves forward rapidly, leaving the other parked. Mallary was able to show that in such a setup, a time loop can be found in the space between the cars.
It might sound exciting to put on a completely different face and identity but it takes a whole lot of effort to actually get into character. The business of disguise for spies is actually very dangerous work.
Since the risk of blowing their cover could sometimes to lead to incarceration or even death, they need to make sure that they are able to get under the skin of the characters they try to portray.
In this Wired video, former CIA chief Jonna Mendez tells us how they do it. You may also read more about it on this article on Wired.
Looking at outer space and our universe really feels like a dream. It seems like a distant place, too far from our reach. But with the expeditions being sent out into different parts of space, we are able to see what our solar system and beyond looks like.
Nasa's Juno mission to Jupiter has reached its halfway mark and has revealed new views of cyclones at the gas giant's poles.
As it orbits the planet every 53 days - Juno performs a data-gathering dive, speeding from pole to pole.
Its sensors take measurements of the composition of the planet, in an effort to decipher how the largest world in our Solar System formed.
We have all been stuck in traffic and it is pretty annoying. But there doesn't seem to be a system that could ease our agony and suffering from heavy traffic and traffic jams.
If only we could have flying cars or teleportation, then we could save on a lot of time than spending hours on end stuck in traffic.
But it seems that we might have a stepping stone toward getting our traffic jam problems fixed with the help of artificial intelligence.
In Bengaluru, India, which regularly faces long traffic jams and the average speed on some roads at peak hours is just 4km/h (2.5mph), Siemens Mobility has built a prototype monitoring system that that uses AI through traffic cameras.
Traffic cameras automatically detect vehicles and this information is sent back to a central control centre where algorithms estimate the density of traffic on the road. The system then alters the traffic lights based on real-time road congestions.
Often, we see geniuses and other intellectually gifted people in media portrayed as weirdos, who have certain eccentricities that make them stand out in the minds of other people. They may be awkward but they do what they want without heeding how others may say about them.
In November 1849, eight men set out from their “gold diggings” on the North Fork Trinity River in Northern California into a range of forested mountains that had never been mapped. Their leader was Josiah Gregg, a math whiz, self-taught navigator, medical doctor, and obsessive botanist.
Einstein's name is synonymous to genius. His fame is known the world over for his revolutionary ideas in physics. But nobody told us he had a very interesting backstory.
In 1902, a young, depressed, and solemn 21-year-old Albert Einstein was on the verge of giving up on his dream of becoming a physicist... And after graduating, Einstein couldn’t get a job—in fact, he was passed over for a role as a lab assistant, and even contemplated selling insurance.
After two frustrating years of job hunting, Einstein moved to Bern to work as a clerk in the Swiss patent office. Working six days a week as a patent clerk, Einstein could barely find any time to develop his scientific ideas, and would eventually give up on a career in physics.
Animals can do some pretty amazing things. Given the time and effort, they can be trained to respond to various cues that refer to specific tasks which they would associate with a reward. Some can even be taught how to do math and play musical instruments.
Rocco, an African Grey, requested the items through an Alexa device while his minder was out of the home. Luckily, due to a parental lock, none of his attempted purchases went through.
Rocco, who lives with Marion Wischnewski in Berkshire, U.K., has attempted to order everything from kites and lightbulbs through Alexa since moving to her home. He also gets the device to tell him jokes and play his favorite tunes.
What a smart bird! Read more about Rocco on Newsweek.
Whenever I think about the future or a futuristic society, what always comes to mind are flying cars, sleek architecture, and robots walking alongside humans. Probably this is partly due to the influence of movies and TV shows.
But to me, that's how I envisioned what the future would be headed. And in 1988, experts were also trying to predict what the future might hold and more specifically, what kind of jobs that kind of future would have.
A syndicated article published in the September 5, 1988, edition of the Press and Sun-Bulletin newspaper in New York talked with a number of experts about what the jobs of tomorrow would look like. The article first quotes S. Norman Feingold, a clinical psychologist and career counselor who died in 2005.
From the 1988 article:
Feingold envisions a range of exotic careers: Ocean hotel manager, wellness consultant, sports law specialist, lunar astronomer and even robot trainer.
These job titles may seem odd but when you think about, some of these jobs already exist today. Read more about it on Matt Novak's article at Gizmodo.
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