Director Refutes His Jewishness While Accepting an Oscar

Meet the Brazilian wandering spiders in the genus Phoneutria‚ also referred to as the armed spiders or the banana spiders. The members of this group have one of the most dangerous bites of any spider species on Earth and they have been classified as the world’s most venomous spider many times.Where Do Brazilian Wandering Spiders Live?Though currently the Guinness World Record is shared with another species – the Sydney funnel-web‚ (Atrax robustus) – the Brazilian wandering spiders are a force to be reckoned with. As the name suggests all the Brazilian wandering spiders can be found in northern South America‚ with at least one species having distributions across more than just Brazil‚ writes the University of Florida. However‚ Phoneutria fera and Phoneutria nigriventer are the main species that feature in news articles as they often travel overseas in shipments of bananas‚ causing panic and confusion – and even the closure of supermarkets. What Is The Size Of A Brazilian Wandering Spider?The size of the Brazilian wandering spiders varies between species. Some can be very large with a leg span of 18 centimeters (7.1 inches). The spiders are famously quite aggressive‚ and instead of running from threats will rear up onto their back legs and stand their ground. While the bite is extremely toxic‚ medical professionals are looking at uses for the venom to treat a range of conditions.Image Credit: Tobias Hauke/ShutterstockWhat Are The Effects Of A Brazilian Wandering Spider Bite?Brazilian wandering spiders often make the news because of the unusual symptoms caused to humans after being bitten by one. A 2023 study in Frontiers In Molecular Biosciences suggested there were around 4‚000 cases of people being bitten by Phoneutria nigriventer in Brazil each year. Their venom affects the nervous system‚ causing double vision‚ salvation‚ irregular heartbeat – and even prolonged painful erections‚ known as priapism. In fact‚ because of this‚ their venom is being explored as a possible treatment for erectile dysfunction conditions.Can A Brazilian Wandering Spider Bite Kill You?The neurotoxin PhTx3 is to blame for these symptoms‚ and according to the Independent‚ a wandering spider bite can reportedly be fatal in as little as 60 minutes. However‚ an effective anti-venom is usually enough to save those affected. A study into Phoneutria boliviensis in 2019 suggested that the species had adapted its venom to catch vertebrates as opposed to lizards and amphibians‚ which might explain why the venom is so toxic to humans. It comes as no surprise then that their scientific name Phoneutria means “murderess” in Greek. 

The edge of the solar system is different and the rules that govern the formation and interaction of bodies there are likely to be different too. This region is known as the Kuiper Belt‚ stretching from the orbit of Neptune outward. For the first time‚ the surface composition of two small trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) has been studied from Earth‚ revealing new insights into the formation and evolution of the worlds far away from the Sun.The target of this investigation was a binary pair of icy asteroids – one is called Mors and the other Somnus. The observations revealed organic molecules‚ carbon dioxide and monoxide‚ as well as hydroxyl compounds. They even have some tentative evidence of nitrogen-rich material.“We are studying how the actual chemistry and physics of the TNOs reflect the distribution of molecules based on carbon‚ oxygen‚ nitrogen and hydrogen in the cloud that gave birth to the planets‚ their moons‚ and the small bodies‚” lead author Dr Ana Carolina de Souza Feliciano from the University of Central Florida‚ said in a statement.  “These molecules were also the origin of life and water on Earth.”The composition opens another window into the past. Such a binary system had to survive for a long time in a region where the influence of Neptune is enormous and where collisions are far from rare. Plus‚ the Kuiper Belt might be even bigger than previously thought. So the fact that these two bodies still orbit each other and they are remarkably similar‚ indicates that they are truly primitive – survivors of an original population of TNOs.The objects formed well beyond 4.5 billion kilometers (2.7 billion miles) from the Sun. This provides insights into how Neptune migrated during the early solar system and how that affected the different populations of objects that make up the TNOs. They don’t appear to be similar to the plutinos – a TNO class that includes Pluto and shares a 2:3 orbital resonance with Neptune.These observations are just two of the nearly 60 observations of the Discovering the Surface Compositions of Trans-Neptunian Objects program. This program is part of the scientific observations being undertaken by JWST.“Before JWST‚ there was no instrument able to obtain information from these objects in that wavelength range‚” de Souza Feliciano continued. “I feel happy to be able to participate in the era inaugurated by the JWST.”The study is published in the journal Astronomy &; Astrophysics.

The truth is out there – and‚ for many‚ it is going to be disappointing and mundane. After much speculation and anticipation‚ the US Defence Department has released its report exploring whether the government has been covering up alien encounters‚ and whether they have access to extra-terrestrial technology that they are reverse engineering. And the findings can be summed up pretty succinctly: no.The Pentagon report‚ which exceeds 60 pages‚ was released on Friday‚ March 8‚ and significantly wounds‚ if not kills‚ many claims that the US government have been involved in decades old cover-up efforts.The report was originally mandated by Congress and investigation was carried out by the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO)‚ an office that was set up in 2022 to address “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) using a rigorous scientific framework and a data-driven approach”‚ so their website states."AARO assesses that alleged‚ hidden UAP programs either do not exist or were misidentified‚ authentic national security programs unrelated to extraterrestrial technology exploitation‚" AARO acting Director Tim Phillips said during a briefing at the Pentagon.It is easy to understand why this investigation was put together‚ given the sheer number of claims and conspiracies circulating about alien encounters. As the report states‚ a “consistent theme in popular culture involves a particularly persistent narrative that the [US Government]—or a secretive organization within it—recovered several off-world spacecraft and extraterrestrial biological remains‚ that it operates a program or programs to reverse engineer the recovered technology‚ and that it has conspired since the 1940s to keep this effort hidden from the United States Congress and the American public.”In essence‚ the investigation hit at the heart of the alien belief framework held by many believers across the world‚ something that‚ the report added‚ has been bolstered by the “proliferation of television programs‚ books‚ movies‚ and the vast amount of internet and social media content [that has] most likely […] influenced the public conversation on this topic‚ and reinforced these beliefs within some sections of the population.”During their investigation‚ the AARO found “no evidence” that any government investigation‚ academic research or official review has ever “confirmed that any sighting of a UAP represented extraterrestrial technology."Instead‚ they conclude that “at all levels of classification […] most sightings were ordinary objects and phenomena and the result of misidentification.”"I wish to emphasize that we believe most of the individuals repeating these claims did so without malice or any effort to mislead the public‚" Phillips said. "Many have sincerely misinterpreted real events or mistaken sensitive U.S. programs‚ for which they were not cleared‚ as having been related to UAP or extraterrestrial exploitation." They also found no “empirical evidence for claims that the [US government] and private companies have been reverse-engineering extraterrestrial technology.”So where have these ideas come from? According to the AARO‚ the claims around reverse-engineering alien tech are largely the products of “circular reporting” carried out by “a group of individuals who believe this to be the case‚ despite the lack of any evidence.”The results come from careful examination of reports and US investigations carried out since the mid-1940s. The team examined classified and unclassified archive evidence‚ carried out around 30 interviews and “partnered with Intelligence Community (IC) and Department of Defense (DoD) officials responsible for controlled and special access program oversight‚ respectively.”These results are bound to be met with disappointment and rejection by some believers‚ especially after last year’s apparent revelation from a former US intelligence official caused excitement. The “whistleblower”‚ David Grusch‚ claimed that the US government had been involved in a “multidecade” secret program to reverse-engineer alien technology.Despite these claims‚ the AARO report found no evidence that the US government or other US companies “ever possessed off-world technology.”Although it will have its critics‚ the AARO states that “The goal of this report is not to prove or disprove any particular belief set‚ but rather to use a rigorous analytic and scientific approach to investigate past [US government] -sponsored UAP investigation efforts and the claims made by interviewees that the [US government]  and various contractors have recovered and are hiding off-world technology and biological material.”“AARO has approached this project with the widest possible aperture‚ thoroughly investigating these assertions and claims without any particular pre-conceived conclusion or hypothesis. AARO is committed to reaching conclusions based on empirical evidence.”"AARO‚ as designed by Congress‚ had unprecedented access to classified programs‚" Phillips said. "Nobody blocked where we could go or the questions we asked. Nobody in the government influenced the findings in the report.""As a career intelligence officer‚ I am just amazed at the access we had to some of our nation's most sensitive programs. Nobody said‚ 'No.'" 

If you haven't seen Dune or Dune II‚ now is a very confusing time to be on social media‚ seeing posts about some guy named "Paul" and naturally assuming they're some sort of accountant‚ before the post pivots hard to talking about space worms. The films‚ like the cult classic 1984 version‚ have grown a pretty dedicated fanbase who enjoy the movies (in part) for their big‚ silly alien worlds‚ including the planet Arrakis‚ a desert planet containing a drug known as "spice" that is guarded by gigantic sand/space worms.While a silly idea‚ it's undeniably fun. But not everybody is on board with suspending their disbelief‚ and one of those people is‚ of course‚ Neil deGrasse Tyson."It's quite the spectacle‚" deGrasse Tyson told The Late Show with Stephen Colbert."This movie takes place in sand dunes. And there's a worm that's very hungry‚ and they just plow through the sand‚ and they'll find you if you make a sound that repeats."In the movie‚ they use a device called a "thumper" to summon the sandworms to the surface‚ where it typically would go on a killing spree."I'm just saying you can't thump sand‚" deGrasse Tyson explained‚ thumping his fist. "If you do this to sand‚ nobody else is going to hear it. Because it's sand.""If you wanted to insulate yourself acoustically from your surroundings‚ fill the volume with sand. No one will hear you."    Neil deGrasse Tyson does have a bit of a reputation for questioning the science behind sci-fi movies‚ up to and including space-wizard movie Star Wars. However‚ he told Colbert that he does let these things go in order to enjoy the movie.Another aspect he found difficult in Dune was the rite of passage the indigenous inhabitants of the desert world go through: riding on the back of the sandworm."They have the worm just going straight. Fast. That's not how physics works. Have you ever had a snake chase you as a straight snake? No. They've got to curl‚ and they push off the curl. That's what the curling is."In a compromise to Colbert‚ or to keep his own suspension of disbelief in tact‚ deGrasse Tyson agreed that perhaps they are moving with some other mechanism‚ though the only idea he could think of on the spot was that the propulsion comes from pooping.

Science is tiptoeing towards a new procedure that could revolutionize fertility treatment‚ as researchers demonstrate the possibility of transferring DNA from skin cells into a donor egg. While we’re still years away from this being used in the clinic‚ it could mean a future where women without viable eggs and men in same-sex relationships are able to have children who are genetically related to them.Damaged or degraded egg cells resulting from disease‚ medical treatment‚ or aging are a common cause of infertility. This procedure aims to get around this problem by taking a donor egg‚ removing its nucleus (where all the genetic information is stored)‚ and replacing that with the nucleus of a skin cell from the parent. You’re then left with a functional egg‚ containing only genetic material from the parent-to-be and not from the donor.The technique is called somatic cell nuclear transfer‚ and while it might sound simple‚ the reality is far from it.However‚ there is a precedent going back over 20 years‚ with a momentous event that sparked interest in applying this process to humans: the first-ever cloning of a mammal‚ Dolly the Sheep.Dolly was no ordinary sheep.Image credit: Paul Hudson via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)Dolly was created using DNA from a single adult sheep. Where the new process differs‚ according to the team from Oregon Health &; Science University (OHSU) behind the research‚ is that it is possible to create embryos containing DNA from both parents.To be very clear: we are not – repeat‚ not – talking about human cloning.The team first reported that their experimental procedure could work back in January 2022‚ but the new study has taken things a step further‚ demonstrating how it’s possible to achieve the correct number of chromosomes in the egg cell to begin with.Human sex cells‚ or gametes‚ are described as haploid – this means they contain half the number of chromosomes of other cells in the body. When a haploid egg cell is fertilized by an equally haploid sperm cell‚ the resulting embryo is diploid‚ with a full complement of chromosomes.The team at OHSU took egg cells from mice and stripped them of their nuclei‚ replacing them with nuclei from mouse skin cells. "But wait!" you exclaim. "Aren't skin cells diploid?" They are indeed‚ but the team has an ingenious solution. They are able to induce the implanted nucleus to shed half of its chromosomes‚ resulting in a haploid cell that is virtually indistinguishable from a natural egg cell.These eggs can then go through in vitro fertilization (IVF) with sperm‚ a technique that’s used daily in fertility clinics around the world. When successful‚ it results in an embryo containing chromosomes from two parents.One of the advantages of the technique is the speed with which the eggs can be produced. Other similar methods under investigation right now require a long process of first turning the skin cells into induced pluripotent stem cells‚ and then nudging those cells down the path to become eggs or sperm.“We’re skipping that whole step of cell reprogramming‚” explained study author Dr Paula Amato in a statement. “The advantage of our technique is that it avoids the long culture time it takes to reprogram the cell. Over several months‚ a lot of harmful genetic and epigenetic changes can happen.”The eventual vision‚ as laid out by senior author Dr Shoukhrat Mitalipov‚ is “to produce eggs for patients who don’t have their own eggs‚” but this goal is still years away. First author Aleksei Mikhalchenko told the Guardian that “thorough evaluation of safety‚ efficacy and ethical aspects” will be essential before the technique could be considered for clinical use.IVF is back in the media spotlight following the Supreme Court of Alabama’s ruling that embryos should be treated as children‚ with many forecasting this as a key debate in the run-up to the US presidential election. But the ramifications of any advances in assisted reproduction will extend far beyond a single country’s borders; an estimated 1 in 6 adults are affected by infertility worldwide.The ability to use a donor egg without also incorporating DNA from the donor would certainly rank as a radical change in the landscape of fertility treatment. With this study‚ science has taken a step forward in its understanding of how this could one day become a reality.The study is published in Science Advances.

Runglish is the unlikely hybrid "language" created by fusing elements of English and Russian. While some forms of this Frankenstein parlance have been uttered by immigrant communities for decades‚ perhaps even centuries‚ it’s most prominently associated with day-to-day chattering between English-speaking astronauts and Russian cosmonauts onboard the International Space Station (ISS). The ISS is a joint venture between NASA (the US)‚ Roscosmos (Russia)‚ JAXA (Japan)‚ ESA (Europe)‚ and CSA (Canada)‚ but the US and Russia are considered to be the de facto chiefs – and that’s reflected in the language used here. English serves as the primary language onboard the ISS‚ but all astronauts are expected to have some understanding of the Russian language. This is because Russia's Soyuz spacecraft was the only way to transport astronauts back and forth to the ISS (before SpaceX arrived on the scene). As such‚ all buttons‚ signs‚ and procedures onboard the spacecraft while launching to and returning from the ISS were given in the Russian language.Often‚ ISS crews are not totally proficient in each other’s language‚ forcing them to develop their own patchwork pidgin language that smashes together words‚ sounds‚ phrases‚ and expressions from both Russian and English.“I’ve had different crews and depending on their language capabilities as a crew‚ you come up with a common language‚” Peggy Whitson‚ an American biochemist who became the first woman to command the ISS twice‚ told the Cambridge University Press blog.“For instance‚ in one case I knew one of my Russian crew mates always confused Tuesday and Thursday‚ so I always had to distinguish between the two. So we end up kind of developing a common language that we can understand with each other‚” she added.“It’s very important when we do emergency procedures training‚ that everyone understands what you’re doing. So you have to know your crew well enough to know‚ ok we need to talk about this in Russian‚ or I need to say this in Russian as well as English. You start to understand what vocabulary works that is common for everyone and that’s very beneficial‚” Whitson explained.                     As explained in a 2021 paper on the topic‚ there is no solid on agreement what defines Runglish. For some‚ it’s simply perceived as poorly spoken English‚ while others argue it’s a pidgin language (in other words‚ a grammatically simplified form of a language) or a pseudo-dialect. Conversely‚ some believe it borrows linguistic norms from both English and Russian to create new linguistic forms of its own.Since there's no single version of Runglish‚ nor any strict definition of it‚ it's hard to give you an impression of what it sounds like. However‚ as one definition puts it: "Runglish is a transformation of English words or phrases into Russian style by adding prefixes‚ suffixes‚ and endings in order to adapt English vocabulary for use in everyday speech."In all likelihood‚ Runglish is ever-changing‚ depending on the language skills of whoever speaks it. The "language‚" if we can call it that‚ is not set in stone‚ but constantly reinvented time and time again.Runglish has emerged innumerous times throughout modern history whenever English speakers and Russian speakers have come into contact. One area where the hybrid language is particularly common is Brighton Beach‚ a neighborhood in New York City with a high proportion of Russian-speaking immigrants. Of course‚ Runglish is not the only example of people melding their mother tongue with a second language. One of the most prominent instances can be found among people from Latin America who have immigrated to English-speaking countries and developed new “Spanglish” dialects.These newly formed modes of communication can often attract criticism from native speakers‚ who accuse the emerging dialect of being “sloppy” or “lazy.” However‚ as any linguist can tell you‚ languages are constantly evolving in the face of new social and cultural forces – and their ever-shifting shape is part of what makes them so beautiful to understand. 

The US Government has released a fresh batch of footage taken of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) around the world‚ as well as explanations that turn a few right back into FOs.Releasing the footage‚ the Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) stated that they had found no evidence that any investigation into UFOs – aka unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs) – had "confirmed that any sighting of a UAP represented extraterrestrial technology.""All investigative efforts‚ at all levels of classification‚ concluded that most sightings were ordinary objects and phenomena and the result of misidentification."Amongst the released footage‚ however‚ were videos of phenomena that AARO is unable to fully explain.              One of these instances included footage shot by US Navy crew on board F/A-18 jets. In another incident in the Middle East‚ they were able to rule out that the unknown object was exhibiting "anomalous behavior"‚ but were unable to identify it beyond that. Of course‚ a few turned out to be quite explainable‚ after looking at commercial flight data. "An MQ-9 forward-looking infrared video sensor captured this footage in South Asia as it was recording another MQ-9‚" AARO wrote of one UFOs on their website‚ alongside other cases they were able to explain. "After analysis of the full motion video‚ inclusion of additional footage with a longer focal length‚ and analysis of commercial flight data in the region‚ AARO assesses that the object likely is a commercial aircraft and that the trailing cavitation is a sensor artifact resultant of video compression."

There’s no getting around it – babies are fascinating little creatures that seem to create an aura of gentleness around them. It doesn’t matter if you are the burliest‚ leather and stud-clad‚ biker-gang-riding person in the world‚ you are going to coo and “awwww” as soon as you hold a fresh off-the-line wrinkly human in... The post Dog dashes into room to meet new baby and it turns into heart-melting moment appeared first on Animal Channel.

There’s no getting around it – babies are fascinating little creatures that seem to create an aura of gentleness around them. It doesn’t matter if you are the burliest‚ leather and stud-clad‚ biker-gang-riding person in the world‚ you are going to coo and “awwww” as soon as you hold a fresh off-the-line wrinkly human in... The post Dog runs to meet new baby and what happens next is cuteness overload appeared first on Animal Channel.