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Category Archives: Mind Building
Cosmic Ring of Fire’ 11 Billion Years Ago: How did structures in early universe form?
Astronomers have captured an image of a super-rare type of galaxy — described as a “cosmic ring of fire” — as it existed 11 billion years ago.
The galaxy, which has roughly the mass of the Milky Way, is circular with a hole in the middle, rather like a titanic doughnut. Its discovery, announced in the journal Nature Astronomy, is set to shake up theories about the earliest formation of galactic structures and how they evolve.
“It is a very curious object that we’ve never seen before,” said lead researcher Dr Tiantian Yuan, from Australia’s ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D). “It looks strange and familiar at the same time.”
The galaxy, named R5519, is 11 billion light-years from the Solar System. The hole at its centre is truly massive, with a diameter two billion times longer than the distance between the Earth and the Sun. To put it another way, it is three million times bigger than the diameter of the supermassive black hole in the galaxy Messier 87, which in 2019 became the first ever to be directly imaged.
“It is making stars at a rate 50 times greater than the Milky Way,” said Dr Yuan, who is an ASTRO 3D Fellow based at the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing at Swinburne University of Technology, in the state of Victoria.
“Most of that activity is taking place on its ring — so it truly is a ring of fire.”
Working with colleagues from around Australia, US, Canada, Belgium and Denmark, Dr Yuan used spectroscopic data gathered by the WM Keck Observatory in Hawaii and images recorded by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to identify the unusual structure.
The evidence suggests it is a type known as a “collisional ring galaxy,” making it the first one ever located in the early Universe.
There are two kinds of ring galaxies. The more common type forms because of internal processes. Collisional ones form — as the name suggests — as a result of immense and violent encounters with other galaxies.
In the nearby “local” Universe they are 1000 times rarer than the internally created type. Images of the much more distant R5519 stem from about 10.8 billion years ago, just three billion years after the Big Bang. They indicate that collisional ring galaxies have always been extremely uncommon.
ASTRO 3D co-author, Dr Ahmed Elagali, based at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research in Western Australia, said studying R5519 would help determine when spiral galaxies began to develop.
“Further, constraining the number density of ring galaxies through cosmic time can also be used to put constraints on the assembly and evolution of local-like galaxy groups,” he added.
Another co-author, Professor Kenneth Freeman from the Australian National University, said the discovery had implications for understanding how galaxies like the Milky Way formed.
“The collisional formation of ring galaxies requires a thin disk to be present in the ‘victim’ galaxy before the collision occurs,” he explained.
“The thin disk is the defining component of spiral galaxies: before it assembled, the galaxies were in a disorderly state, not yet recognisable as spiral galaxies.”
“In the case of this ring galaxy, we are looking back into the early universe by 11 billion years, into a time when thin disks were only just assembling. For comparison, the thin disk of our Milky Way began to come together only about nine billion years ago. This discovery is an indication that disk assembly in spiral galaxies occurred over a more extended period than previously thought.”
Drs Yuan and Elagali, and Professor Freeman, worked with colleagues from the University of New South Wales, Macquarie University, and University of Queensland, all in Australia, together with others at the Cosmic Dawn Centre (DAWN) in Denmark, Texas A&M University in the US, York University in Canada, and Ghent University in Belgium.
Problems with alcohol? 29 gene variants may explain why
A genome-wide analysis of more than 435,000 people has identified 29 genetic variants linked to problematic drinking, researchers at Yale University School of Medicine and colleagues report May 25 in the journal Nature Neuroscience.
“The new data triple the number of known genetic risk loci associated with problematic alcohol use,” said Yale’s Joel Gelernter, the Foundations Fund Professor of Psychiatry and professor of genetics and of neuroscience, who is the senior author of the multi-institutional study.
The study includes genome-wide analysis of people of European ancestry contained in four separate biobanks or datasets. The researchers looked for shared genetic variants among those who met criteria for problematic alcohol use, including alcohol use disorder and alcohol use with medical consequences. These disorders are major contributors to a wide variety of medical problems worldwide.
The analysis found 19 previously unknown independent genetic risk factors for problematic alcohol use, and confirmed 10 previously identified risk factors.
The meta-analysis of biobank data also included information on genetic risk factors for several psychiatric disorders. This information allowed researchers to study shared genetic associations between problematic drinking and disorders such as depression and anxiety.
They also found genetic heritability of these variants was enriched in the brain and in evolutionarily conserved regulatory regions of the genome, attesting to their importance in biological function. Using a technique called Mendelian randomization, they were able to investigate how one genetically influenced trait affects another genetically linked trait.
“This gives us ways to understand causal relations between problematic alcohol use traits such as psychiatric states, risk-taking behavior, and cognitive performance,” said Yale’s Hang Zhou, associate research scientist in psychiatry and lead author of the study.
“With these results, we are also in a better position to evaluate individual-level risk for problematic alcohol use,” Gelernter said.
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Materials provided by Yale University. Original written by Bill Hathaway. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
How drones can monitor explosive volcanoes
Due to the difficult accessibility and the high risk of collapse or explosion, the imaging of active volcanoes has so far been a great challenge in volcanology. Researchers around Edgar Zorn from the German Research Centre for Geosciences GFZ in Potsdam are now presenting the results of a series of repeated survey flights with optical and thermal imaging cameras at the Santa Maria volcano in Guatemala. Drones were used to observe the lava dome, a viscous plug of lava. The researchers were able to show that the lava dome shows movements on two different time scales: slow expansion and growth of the dome and fast extrusion of viscous lava. The study was published in the journal “Scientific Reports.”
“We have equipped a drone with different cameras,” says Edgar Zorn from GFZ, the first author of the study. “We then flew the drone over the crater at various intervals, measuring the movements of lava flow and a lava dome using a specific type of stereo photography with a precision never seen before.” By comparing the data from the drone, we were able to determine the flow velocity, movement patterns and surface temperature of the volcano. These parameters are important for predicting the danger of explosive volcanoes. The researchers also succeeded in deriving the flow properties of the lava from these data.
“We have shown that the use of drones can help to completely re-measure even the most dangerous and active volcanoes on Earth from a safe distance,” continues Edgar Zorn. “A regular and systematic survey of dangerous volcanoes with drones seems to be almost within one’s grasp,” says Thomas Walter, volcanologist at GFZ, who was also involved in the study.
The two cameras of the drone used on the Caliente volcanic cone of the Santa Maria volcano were able to take high-resolution photos on the one hand and thermal imaging on the other. Using a special computer algorithm, the researchers were able to create complete and detailed 3D models from these images. They obtained a 3D topography and temperature model of the volcano with a resolution of only a few centimetres.
Drone missions considerably reduce the risk for volcanologists, as the cameras can be flown directly to the dangerous spots without the scientists having to go near them themselves. Instead, the greatest challenge lies in the post-processing and calculation of the models. “The 3D models of the various flights must be positioned exactly so that they can be compared. This requires painstaking detail work, but the effort is worth it because even minimal movements become immediately visible,” says Edgar Zorn. “In the study, we presented some new possibilities for the representation and measurement of certain ground movements, which could be very useful in future projects.”
Story Source:
Materials provided by GFZ GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam, Helmholtz Centre. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
What Are My Strengths?
During some recent morning runs, I’ve been listening to a series of Michael Michalowicz books: The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, Profit First, Clockwork, and Fix This Next. He also wrote The Pumpkin Plan – one of my all-time favorite business books.
In the Toilet Paper Entrepreneur book, there are some questions about identifying your strengths and leveraging them in business. I think I know mine pretty well by now, but this stirred up my curiosity about how my blog readers and customers see my strengths and which particular strengths are most relevant for them. I also got to wondering how I could better use my strengths to make a difference for people.
So I thought I’d use today’s blog post to ask a few simple questions directly and invite you to reply via my contact form.
From your perspective…
- What are my strengths?
- Which strengths of mine are most important to you (in terms of serving you well)?
- How do you feel I could (or wish I would) use my strengths to serve you better?
These questions are intended for people who’ve been engaging with my work long enough to form opinions about this.
That’s it! I’ll personally read every response and reflect on what I learn from this. It would be great if I this spawns some actionable ideas too.
Health24.com | Concerns mount over Covid-19 stigma in KZN
Some community healthcare workers (CHWs) working in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), screening for Covid-19 and tracing contacts of persons with the disease, are concerned about rising levels of stigma.
In April the situation escalated when angry residents burnt tyres outside Untunjambili Hospital, near KwaDukuza in KwaZulu-Natal over the admission of ten people with Covid-19 at the hospital. The hospital is used as in isolation facility for people who test positive for SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes Covid-19).
The incident prompted KZN Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu to call for “the eradication of stigma against people who have been diagnosed with Covid–19”. Simelane-Zulu said in a statement at the time, the unrest “is uncalled-for, and may be a symptom of a lack of understanding of Covid–19, which needs to change”. Similar flare-ups were also recorded in Pinetown and Chatsworth.
By 20 May KZN had recorded 1 815 Covid-19 cases, 49 deaths and 1 111 recoveries.
From the frontlines
CHW Bandile Mbengani agrees that misconceptions about the disease are a big problem. Mbengani has been a CHW for 17 years and much of her work until now was around HIV and TB awareness, treatment and empowerment in Tongaat, north of Durban. Mbengani says misconceptions about Covid-19 must be addressed during the screening and testing campaigns. She says awareness around Covid-19 also needs to be extended post screening and testing.
“At this stage, most citizens are aware of Covid-19 as a virus with the threat of death. They also know the precautions and some ways to protect themselves with help from the media and the Department of Health. While the screening and testing of citizens to help track Covid-19 is underway, a lot more should be done to educate people on what happens after testing,” she says.
Mbengani is not doing house calls at present. She, along with other CHWs are stationed at mobile testing stations in communities. She told Spotlight her duties at the moment is focused on screening and teaching people how to keep themselves safe. “But people are frightened during, and even after they test and screen because we don’t have enough information to help demystify stigma related to the virus, mostly because it’s new to scientists, health practitioners and community health workers. We need to highlight that diagnosing Covid-19 is only done through testing.”
Echoes of HIV and TB stigma
Another CHW, Nontobeko Mhlongo, who works in Phoenix and Inanda, says this stigma echoes the impact of the stigma that has always been associated with TB and HIV in many communities. “The inevitable socio-outcomes caused by a global pandemic include fear and panic. We are once again witnessing a re-run – the spread of false information on people infected by the coronavirus.
Misinformation manifests itself into stigma – negatively labelling and stamping those affected,” says Mhlongo. Alison Best of TB/HIV Care (an NGO) makes a similar point. “One of the biggest lessons learnt about stigma from the HIV and the TB response is how destructive stigma is. We have a cure for TB and a treatment for HIV, but TB is still South Africa’s leading cause of death and there are many people living with HIV who are not on treatment. One of the major reasons for this is stigma.
The perceived consequences of being known to have one of these diseases are so severe that people stay in denial, avoid care, and become sick,” says Best. This, she says, may hamper response efforts in the Covid-19 pandemic.
Convoy of police vehicles and an ambulance
Mhlongo has been a community health care worker (CHW) for seven years. She tells Spotlight these days after her daily exercise routine she starts her day by dressing in her protective gear. She then packs a large plastic bag with medical supplies, medical refuse bags and gloves that she will carry with her and use throughout the day. Returning home after work every day, she takes extra caution by removing all clothing before entering her home.
Mhlongo says that the fight to curb the spread of stigma attached to Covid-19 requires vigilant awareness campaigns advocating for tolerance and acceptance. “A convoy of police vehicles and an ambulance rushing to a household is immediately associated with Covid-19. This triggers fear in community members,” says Mhlongo. “We’ve slowly been hearing concerning reports where foreign nationals and certain groups have been blamed for the spread of the coronavirus.
Although these reported cases may be currently isolated, we need to constantly debunk false information during awareness campaigns and door-to-door coronavirus testing and screenings.
Nipping it in the bud
Dr Mvuyisi Mzukwa, chairperson of the South African Medical Association in KZN, says campaigns on Covid-19 need to change. “People get information on the coronavirus through media. This has always been a powerful tool, but it needs to be adjusted and balanced in order to correctly create awareness while minimising the risks of creating more unrest,” says Mzukwa. “People relate better to what and who they know. For now, it’s a matter of nipping the stigma in the bud before more cases arise.
The government, together with other health organisations leading the fight against Covid-19 must work closely with community leaders and influencers. These are the people who can help emphasise the importance of tolerance and empathy when dealing with this health crisis.”
Role of traditional healers
Sazi Mhlongo, leader of the KZN Traditional Healers Association, says government denies the role of traditional healers in the community. “Traditional healers are the first and primary option for millions of South Africans when they need health attention. The government should not discard this factor,” says Mhlongo. “We play a critical role in curbing the spread and emphasising awareness. We want to work hand-in-hand with the Department of Health, but we are not being heard or seen.
Traditional healers and their workers need to be properly equipped with protective equipment and information relevant to help address the coronavirus along with its myths and misconceptions that often lead to discrimination – a deadly effect. ”But some CHWs are sceptical of the role of traditional healers. In a public meeting on Covid-19 hosted by the People’s Health Movement (PHM) in Cape Town earlier this year, some CHWs expressed concern that people will opt for traditional medicine and methods rather than accessing healthcare and testing as provided by health workers and in health facilities.
Tinashe Njanji, coordinator at PHM SA, says support and solidarity towards poor communities in South Africa need to be amplified. “At the primary level, the government needs to work closely with CHWs and community structures,” says Njanji. “The social determinants of health also needs to be addressed. This includes (providing) water and sanitation while ensuring that the disadvantaged communities have adequate food and social support.
Why do we see these issues with stigma in the poorer areas in the townships and not places like Camps Bay?” Njanji asks. “Poverty, lack of adequate shelter, food and services drive desperation and frustration and for that people will use Covid-cases as scapegoats.”
Suffering alone and in silence
KZN Government respondsSpokesperson for the KZN Department of Health Ntokozo Maphisa said stigmatising people with certain diseases is a global phenomenon that is usually based on lack of understanding, misinformation, and misplaced fear.
The Premier of KZN, Sihle Zikalala and the MEC for Health, Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu, have sought to utilise every available media platform to educate the public about Covid-19, and to strongly discourage discrimination of those affected by the virus. The department recognises the seriousness of stigma and always ensures that its public information, education and communication activities are packaged in such a way as to discourage stigma, Maphisa says. “When people know and understand an ailment, they become less likely to discriminate against those who are suffering from it.”
Zikalala has publicly spoken out against the growing stigma in KZN. “We know from the history of diseases such as TB and HIV that stigma undermines efforts to prevent the spread of the illness and does more harm to sick people and society. When people fear prejudice and potential discrimination because of their illness, they are likely to resist screening and testing efforts and might be forced to suffer alone and in silence,” Zikalala said in a recent speech.
He condemned the spread of fake news and myths on Covid-19. “South Africa has no reason to doubt information presented by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Presidency, the Department of Health, and our scientists. This is not a time for conspiracy theories and the spread of unscientifically proven ideas…”
This article was produced by SPOTLIGHT – health journalism in the public interest. SIGN UP for our newsletter.
Image credit: Getty Images
Health24.com | WATCH | Could researchers have found a potential cure for OCD?
The information on Health24 is for educational purposes only, and is not intended as medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. If you are experiencing symptoms or need health advice, please consult a healthcare professional. See additional information.
Health24.com | What the lungs of Covid-19 patients can tell us about the virus
Covid-19, just like influenza, largely infects the respiratory tract. Whether the symptoms of Covid-19 are mild or severe, laboured breathing is a common symptom.
While the lungs are affected similarly by the novel coronavirus and influenza, researchers found some characteristics that are unique to Covid-19, according to a news release.
Severe blood vessel damage
A new study in this regard was published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), led by Dr Steven J Mentzer, a thoracic surgeon at Brigham and Woman’s Hospital.
Dr Mentzer and a team of international researchers examined lung specimens from the autopsy of seven deceased Covid-19 patients and compared them with seven specimens from patients who died from influenza-related pneumonia.
Researchers noticed that the specimen from the Covid-19 patients had damaged endothelial cells (cells in the inner lining of blood vessels) which caused severe damage to blood vessels. This may explain the prevalence of some skin conditions (so-called “Covid toe” and purple rashes) and strokes in Covid-19 patients.
Blood clotting throughout the lungs was also unique to the Covid-19 lung samples. Tissue hypoxia, where the lung tissue is deprived of oxygen, was a factor in both sets of lung tissue, but was much more severe in the Covid-19 set.
Growth and sprouting of new blood vessels were also observed in the lungs. This is a response unique to Covid-19 patients, also known as intussusceptive angiogenesis (IA), where the body basically tries to compensate for the severe blood vessel damage by creating new vessels.
What we can take from this study
Although the authors stated that the study had serious limitations due to the small sample size, these differences in Covid-19 lung samples were significant and could explain the several vascular complications seen in Covid-19 patients.
The study also emphasised the need for more research into the way the body compensates for the blood vessel damage caused by Covid-19.
Image credit: Robina Weermeijer, Unsplash
Coronavirus: What are the rules on caring for children during lockdown?
A look at the guidance as Downing Street backs Dominic Cummings over his 260-mile lockdown trip.
Your Religion Is Not Your Identity
One trap many people fall into is identifying with their beliefs. A belief is a lens, a perspective, a way of viewing reality from a certain angle. A belief is a thought pattern, and thought patterns change.
You are not a Christian or a Buddhist or anything so limited. You are more than that. Don’t stuff your identity into a mindset box someone else taught you to adopt.
You may find a thought pattern empowering or limiting, perhaps experiencing both aspects in different ways. But I wouldn’t recommend identifying with a constructed thought pattern, especially an inconsistent collection of beliefs like a religion, since that will only choke off your experience of the variety and expansiveness of life.
Use beliefs more rationally instead. Use them as tools for exploring and experiencing reality in different ways. Pick them up and put them down. Change them up now and then. Don’t limit yourself to a singular perspective because that will limit the range of problems you can solve and the experiences you can access, which will chain your self-development like a bear caught in a bear trap.
Identifying with a belief grants a false, irrational sense of clarity. I understand that it can be comforting, but fool’s clarity isn’t genuine.
You can interact with reality through the lens of a religion if you’d like, but don’t try to become the lens, especially when others prod you to comply (usually for their personal benefit, not yours). You’ll surely fail in doing so.
Notice instead that while you may appreciate some aspects of the lens, you find better balance by not using it all the time. Sometimes you may even do the opposite of what that lens requires. Enjoy and appreciate that balance because it broadens your perspective. And restore rationality by admitting to yourself that you are not that lens all the time. It’s just one of many ways of viewing reality.
Get curious about the lenses beyond your current favorites. Explore some new lenses deliberately, and you’ll discover that no lens is truth. Lenses can only reveal different aspects of truth. You’ll discover more truth by exploring different lenses than you will by trying to become a one-lens wonder.
You are not your lenses. You’re not your beliefs. You’re not your religion. If you want to wrap yourself in the childish snuggle blanket of religion (or any other belief system) now and then, feel free, but also explore the world beyond. Learn to deftly use a variety of lenses to explore life. It may seem scary at first, but like any maturation process, you’ll find it rewarding once you get used to it.
