With artificial intelligence improving at a quick pace, it is becoming a more and more reliable assistant to doctors. Researchers at the Eye Clinic of the University Hospital Bonn, Stanford University and University of Utah, have developed a software which can precisely assess the progression of geographic atrophy (GA), which is an eye disease caused by age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

This innovative approach permits the fully automated measurement of the main atrophic lesions using data from optical coherence tomography, which provides three-dimensional visualization of the structure of the retina. In addition, the research team can precisely determine the integrity of light sensitive cells of the entire central retina and also detect progressive degenerative changes of the so-called photoreceptors beyond the main lesions. The findings will be used to assess the effectiveness of new innovative therapeutic approaches. The study has now been published in the journal "JAMA Ophthalmology".

While there is no effective treatment for geographic atrophy as of the moment, having this software at hand could be a key to predicting the progression of the disease, which may make slowing down of the disease possible.

More details about this over at EurekAlert.

(Image Credit: Universitäts-Augenklinik Bonn/ EurekAlert)

With the permafrost across the cold regions of our planet such as in Russia, Canada, and Alaska, slowly melting, the resurgence of viruses thought to have been long gone, such as smallpox, as well as viruses we have never seen before, could soon be wreaking havoc in our planet.

These could be disaster movie storylines, but they are also serious and increasingly plausible scenarios of epidemics unleashed by global warming, scientists say.

Climate change—already wreaking havoc with one degree Celsius of warming—is also emerging as a driver of infectious disease, whether by expanding the footprint of malaria- and dengue-carrying mosquitos, or defrosting prehistoric pathogens from the Siberian permafrost.

"In my darkest moments, I see a really horrible future for Homo sapiens because we are an animal, and when we extend our borders things will happen to us," said Birgitta Evengard, a researcher in clinical microbiology at Umea University in Sweden.

"Our biggest enemy is our own ignorance," she added. "Nature is full of microorganisms."

And perhaps the sad thing about this is that this awakening is inevitable.

Even if humanity manages to cap global warming at under two degrees Celsius, the cornerstone goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement, the permafrost area will decrease by a quarter by 2100, according to the UN's climate science panel, the IPCC.

In other words, we will have to deal with this sooner or later.

More details about this over at PHYS.org.

(Image Credit: FlorenceD-pix/ Pixabay)

On August 12, 2005, NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) was launched into space. Ever since that time, the orbiter has been providing us with amazing images of the Red Planet, and it continues to do so. In fact, NASA has released a new batch of images from the MRO in celebration of its 15th anniversary, and they are downloadable for free!

The new batch of images can be found by clicking on this page of NASA’s website. That’ll bring up what looks like a blog post with images and then descriptions of them. To see any of the images up-close, or to download them, click on the image itself. You’ll then have the option of downloading it as a JPG or TIF, or as wallpaper.

But as you view or download some of the photos, you might notice that some of them are predominantly blue in color, instead of red.

In these images, “false color” was added to highlight features like the tops of dunes and ripples to show how different aspects of the Mars landscape change over time (similar to what happens on Earth, but without the impact of human residents).

Learn more details about the MRO as well as how it takes these photos over at LifeHacker.

(Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona)

Russia is indeed a strange country. There are many weird things there like their creepy playgrounds, and peculiar weddings. But of all these things that seem weird for us, cars that are made to look like tanks just might be the least weird of them all.

Check out the pictures over at EatLiver.com.

(Image Credit: EatLiver.com)

Rhinoviruses, influenza viruses, adenoviruses. These are just some of the well-known viruses in the world, and if there’s one thing that’s common between these viruses, it would be causing the common cold. In fact, the common cold is caused by hundreds of different viruses. But the most infectious of these viruses that cause the common cold is the human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). It is a pathogen “so infectious it infects practically everyone by the time they're 3 years old.”

While most people experience a mild cold-like illness for a week or so and then recover, RSV kills tens of thousands of infants and older adults globally each year. In infants, it’s also the main cause of bronchiolitis, a condition responsible for around 1 in 6 UK hospital admissions for kids, and the main cause of pneumonia in children under 1 in the US. So, for many people, an RSV infection is much more than a mildly annoying case of the sniffles; a vaccine for the disease could prevent thousands of deaths and unnecessary hospitalizations.

And, thankfully, a vaccine is under the works now, and it seems to be doing good in clinical trials.

Reporting in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, researchers from Danish pharmaceutical company Bavarian Nordic showed their vaccine is safe and effective at protecting against RSV.

Details over at IFL Science.

(Image Credit: Pixabay)

Musicians take care of their instruments, so if you want to traumatize a musician, have them watch videos of people destroying their instruments.

Just look at the horrified reactions of these violinists as they witness instrument violence.

(Video Credit: TwoSetViolin/ YouTube)

Robberies work because of excellent planning. So when you plan a robbery (which I hope you don’t), make sure you have plans as well as backup plans, so that you won’t end up like these guys who just went head first and decided to conduct robberies that, well, ended in failure.

Ozzy Man compiles yet another set of robbery fails, from a man who attempted to steal a laptop attached to a rather strong power cable, to a man who tried to steal a necklace and ends up trapped inside the store, and many more.

(Video Credit: Ozzy Man Reviews/ YouTube)

Pummeling a guy on a railroad track is never a good idea, unless you really want to kill the guy. Upon doing so, however, you also risk killing yourself in the process, so it would be good if you have a friend who would lasso you out of danger when the train comes. This just happened on this clip taken from an online game.

The clip was shared on the Red Dead Online subreddit… by user SomeRandomChillGuy and quickly became popular...

Unfortunately for the man who was being tackled, the lasso can only grab one person at a time and so the man did find out the hard way what happens when you get hit by a train. (It’s not great!)

That guy is a hero.

Watch the clip over at Kotaku.

(Image Credit: u/SomeRandomChillGuy/ Reddit)

Everything in this world changes. Products are no exception to theis fact, and you might be surprised at how entirely different the original purposes of these products were compared to how they are used in the present day. For example, corkscrews were meant to help a person safely dislodge a stuck bullet in a gun. Now, it’s used to remove corks from wine bottles.

Cracked.com lists 20 products that had a different purpose before.

Check out their interesting list over at the site.

(Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

It’s official. Cats are really extraordinary creatures. Not only do they have very flexible bodies which enable them to fit in tight spaces; they also have the ability to defy gravity, which enable them to move like spiders, and levitate at will.

Sad and Useless compiles pictures of cats caught using this strange ability on camera. Check them out over at the site.

(Image Credit: Sad and Useless)

Seeing faces on everyday objects, which is a phenomenon called “pareidolia”, is a pretty normal experience for a human being. But why does this occur? This paper published in the journal Psychological Science explains the reason.

Dr. Palmer [the lead researcher] says to answer this question we need to look at what face perception involves. While human faces all look a bit different, they share common features, like the spatial arrangement of the eyes and the mouth.

"This basic pattern of features that defines the human face is something that our brain is particularly attuned to, and is likely to be what draws our attention to pareidolia objects. But face perception isn't just about noticing the presence of a face. We also need to recognize who that person is, and read information from their face, like whether they are paying attention to us, and whether they are happy or upset."

Put it simply, the same mechanisms that help us identify faces also process the “faces” that we see on objects. 

Know more about pareidolia, and where this phenomenon may have come from, over at Medical Xpress.

(Image Credit: Ronnie MacDonald/ Wikimedia Commons)

Meet this two-year old cat named Manchester, who is a mixture of two breeds, namely the Scottish straight and the Munchkin. While he may have gotten the face of Scottish straight, he has the body of a Munchkin, which caused him to have extremely short legs. Manchester, nicknamed Manchy, currently lives with his owner in Moscow, Russia.

I wonder how he jumps.

Check out his wonderful pictures over at 9GAG, and check out his Instagram account.

(Image Credit: cat_manchester/ Instagram/ 9GAG)

Bob Mettauer took up cycling when he retired in the 1990s. Ever since then, he has been logging his miles, and he has committed to ride nine miles with his bike every day, no matter the weather. Now, almost 30 years since that fateful day, the 95-year old man from California, known to neighbors as “Bicycle Bob”, logged his 100,000th mile of cycling.

Mettauer logged his 100,000th mile Tuesday and was treated to a celebration by friends and neighbors at Casa Grande Senior Mobile Estates in Santa Maria.

[...]

The cycling enthusiast said he plans to take a few days to rest after reaching the 100,000 mile mark, but he has no plans to quit his hobby.

"On Sept. 18 I'll be 96 years old, and I'm going to keep on going," he told KEYT-TV.

Now that’s dedication right there.

(Image Credit: KEYT - KCOY - KKFX News/ YouTube)

One of the best things that we can teach our children is to do household chores. Not only do we teach them a part of family life necessary for the upkeep of the home, but we also teach them responsibility as well as other important life lessons as they learn to do these things. Cheryl Butler from Quick and Dirty Tips has this to say:

Today's kids are so involved with academic pressures, music and art clubs, AAU teams, competing to place on a school sports team, never mind figuring out how to juggle a part-time job, friends, and land in a decent college. Whew! It's more than a full plate.

Though we may want to coddle our overscheduled kids, we aren't doing them any favors by giving them a free pass when it comes to helping out with standard family chores.

If you're on the fence about enlisting your children's help with chores around the house, take comfort in knowing that duties are not only necessary, but they will have a positive impact throughout their life.

Consider this info from an article called The Benefits of Chores from the Center for Parenting Education.

Research indicates that those children who do have a set of chores have higher self-esteem, are more responsible, and are better able to deal with frustration and delay gratification, all of which contribute to greater success in school.

With these things in mind, how, then, would you lead your child to help out with the chores at home? Butler has tips over at the site.

(Image Credit: smtwastebrokers/ Pixabay)

Hong Kong-based video production company VisualSuspect has got their hands on a 360° camera lens and took advantage of the warped footage that they had using it. After adding some distortion effects, the result is this surreal, dizzying, and hypnotic, video.

Well, what do you think?

(Image Credit: VisualSuspect/ The Awesomer)