Protostar L1527 has been observed by the JWST in near-infrared, revealing in fiery colors how this fledgling star is literally carving a space for itself in the nebula from which it formed. However, those wavelengths were not enough to penetrate the thick dust that surrounded the protostar – to finally see the protostar, the telescope used its mid-infrared instrument, revealing much more than just the source of this spectacle.Protostars are not full stars yet. They are continuing to accrete mass, and this process creates dramatic outflows. L1527 is 100,000 years old and it is taking material from a protoplanetary disk, the thin dark line seen in the new image. Some of the material escapes the star along its axis of rotation, forming the outflows.The outflows have energy, and as they rush away from the protostar, they slam into the surrounding medium of the nebula. The interaction creates bow shocks, the filaments seen throughout the image. The outflow also carves the hourglass shape and excites the molecules in the interstellar space, making it glow in infrared.From the mid-infrared observations, astronomers spot three interesting regions. In red at the center, the protostar and the dense blanket of dust and gas that surrounds it (the red extensions are an artifact of the telescope optics). Next to the red region, in white, there is more dust, as well as hydrocarbons and ionized neon. This did not appear in the near-infrared, but it is evidence of the messy nature of the accretion process. The matter that makes up the disk is propelled far away.Finally, in blue, we can see the spread of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons stretching far from the protostar and into interstellar space. As the star ages and continues to accrete, it will push a lot of this material away. This interaction with the wider nebula can affect the formation of other stars, in some cases hindering it while in others possibly helping them form. There is much more to learn about the star formation process, but these observations provide incredible clues to how it unfolds.

Animals mimicking different sounds is nothing new in the natural world: some birds can mimic the sounds of car alarms and camera shutters with surprising accuracy, while some predator species may have learned the calls of their prey to lure them to an untimely end. However, some species have gone a step further and learned to mimic human speech. We’re not talking about the standard parrots (although we do love Alex) – we're talking about those animals you wouldn't normally expect. Chatty cetaceans Killer whales have been up to all sorts of hijinks this year sinking boats across the Med, but they're also our first mimicking animal on the list. An orca named Wikie was taught to mimic human speech, eventually being able to speak out words and phrasing including, “hello”, “bye-bye" and “Amy” the name of her trainer. While we’re not saying Wikie’s speech was by any means perfect, it does throw up interesting questions about these intelligent marine mammals and their acquisition of vocal noises. Although Wilkie didn’t understand the meaning behind the words, her mimicry was pretty accurate when you look at the waveform of the sounds produced compared to the soundwaves of a human.                  Sticking to the marine mammal theme, meet NOC the beluga whale. Part of the US Marine Mammal Navy program, NOC was procured in the 1970s for an Arctic initiative known as “Cold Ops", according to Smithsonian. NOC’s voice sounds like burbling, a sort of underwater long-distance mimic of human speech – was he attempting to breach the language divide? Or had being surrounded by US Navy trainers since he was two years old rubbed off on him? A paper published on NOC’s noises found that the amplitude rhythm was similar to human speech.             IFLScience · NOC the talking beluga whaleThe world's first talking duckOur next animal on the list is an IFLScience team favorite, a pet duck named Ripper who learned to mimic his owner's voice. Not only could he also mimic the sound of his cage door closing, his party piece was saying “You bloody fool”, a phrase that perhaps his owner had said so often that it started to sink in.              IFLScience · Duck Saying "You Bloody Fool"A seal with a Maine accentNext up we have Hoover the talking seal. Hoover was rescued as a pup and lived inside a house before moving to the New England Aquarium in the 1970s. In a similar way to Ripper, Hoover picked up some words from his owner, even managing to convey the same Maine accent. The video does not have brilliant sound quality, but if you skip to 3:25, you can hear Hoover say "Hey hey, get out!". More recordings of Hoover's voice can also be found in this paper from 2023.             An elephant that speaks KoreanFar from just mimicking the English language, Koshik, a male Asian elephant, learned to mimic the voice of his trainer in Korea by putting his trunk inside his mouth. "Koshik is capable of matching both pitch and timbre patterns. He accurately imitates human formants as well as the voice pitch of his trainers. This is remarkable considering the huge size, the long vocal tract, and other anatomical differences between an elephant and a human," explained zoologist Angela Stoeger in the Guardian.             The mimicry is so accurate that "Korean native speakers can readily understand and transcribe the imitations," write Stoeger and colleagues in a 2012 study that looked at Koshik's vocalizations in more detail. The study team believes Koshik's imitations came from a need to socialize both with other elephants and across species. 

Brain fog, trouble concentrating, and memory loss have become common complaints for many people who have contracted COVID-19. In fact, between 10 and 30 percent of the general population has experienced at least one of these post-infection conditions. Now researchers have not only pinpointed a specific protein that may drive it, but have also shown that vaccination may reduce its impacts, especially for memory loss.The researchers used a rodent model to better understand how COVID-19 impacts cognitive impairment.“We looked carefully at their brains during acute infection and then later after recovery to discover what was abnormal in terms of the different immune cells trafficking into the brain and their effects on neural cells,” study author and Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry professor Dr Robyn Klein said in a statement.Quite early into the COVID-19 pandemic, it became clear from reports that some people who caught COVID-19 experienced some sort of cognitive impairment. This was a concern for many researchers, who wondered whether the virus invaded the central nervous system.However, Klein’s previous work had shown that the virus could not be detected in human or rodent brains, which was also confirmed in this latest study. Essentially, something else is going on that does not involve the central nervous system.What they did find, however, is that COVID-19 infection increased levels of brain Interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β). This is a form of cytokine protein, which are crucial for controlling the growth and function of other immune system cells and blood cells.Klein and colleagues noticed that the rodent models with increased levels of IL-1β experienced a loss of neurogenesis – the process that creates new neurons in the brain – and showed signs of memory loss.According to this research, IL-1β may be a potential mechanism that drives COVID-induced cognitive impairment, but could its impact be limited or even prevented by vaccination?Further rodent models that used vaccinations showed promising results. They found that those that had been vaccinated before contracting COVID-19 had less brain inflammation and lower levels of IL-1β. This meant the vaccinated models had less memory loss and overall cognitive impairment.Although this is a promising result, there are still limitations to be worked through. For one thing, it is unclear how vaccinations achieve this apparent defense against cognitive impairment. Secondly, the results also need to be translated into human models.“We know there’s anecdotal evidence that humans who’ve been vaccinated have a much lower risk of developing this long COVID brain fog,” Klein added.The vaccine used in the study is not one that is available for humans, so future work needs to investigate the connections between vaccination and reduced COVID-19 impacts.“What we do know is that if you’re vaccinated you have much less inflammation,” said Klein. Vaccinations are not able to fully prevent an infection from occurring – this is a common misconception that is harmful to wider trust in their efficacy. Vaccines lower the risks of the impacts from a given infection. So, a vaccine developed to protect from severe pneumonia will not completely prevent you from getting pneumonia, it just helps your body deal with it better. The same is likely true in the context of COVID-19 and cognitive impairment. “People need to understand that about vaccines,” Klein said. “They need to know what vaccines can do and what they can’t do.” The study is published in Nature Immunology. 

On Tuesday, acting Justice Juan Merchan agreed to postpone sentencing in the New York criminal case against former President Donald Trump.Trump's legal team sent a letter to the judge requesting permission to file a motion to overturn the jury's guilty verdict following the Supreme Court's recent ruling regarding Trump's presidential immunity claim, Blaze News previously reported. In late May, a Manhattan jury found the former president guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records.'We do not oppose his request.'On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 vote that Trump has absolute immunity for "actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority," "presumptive immunity" for all official acts, and no immunity for unofficial acts. However, the high court has left it up to lower courts to determine what constitutes an official act.Trump's attorneys argued that, while the New York case concerned acts that occurred before Trump became president, some of the evidence used by the prosecution to secure the guilty verdict constituted official acts during his presidency. Will Scharf, Trump's lawyer, told CNN that the prosecution used a "substantial number of official acts of the presidency" as evidence in its case."The Supreme Court was very clear that for acts that fall within the outer perimeter of the president's official responsibilities, acts that are presumptively immune from prosecution, that evidence of those acts cannot be used to try essentially private acts," Scharf explained."At the very least, we deserve a new trial where those immune acts will not come into evidence, as the Supreme Court dictated today," he added.Merchan had originally scheduled Trump's sentencing for July 11 but agreed to postpone it, stating that he would decide whether the Supreme Court's ruling impacts the case by September 6. "If such is still necessary," Merchan stated, sentencing could be pushed back until September 18.Trump is facing a maximum of four years in prison.Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's prosecution responded to Trump's request, stating that his arguments were "without merit" but that it agreed to delay the sentencing."Although we believe defendant's arguments to be without merit, we do not oppose his request for leave to file and his putative request to adjourn sentencing pending determination of his motion," wrote Joshua Steinglass, an assistant district attorney.George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley said he does not believe Merchan will ultimately dismiss any of the prosecution's evidence.Turley told Fox News, "The expectation is that Judge Merchan is not going to be inclined to order a new trial. The argument here is that you did indeed trip the wire during the trial because they incorporated conversations with people like Hope Hicks who gave her impressions about what the president was like in the Oval Office.""It's not clear how it influenced the jury. The prosecutors are going to argue that this is sort of what is sometimes called a harmless error defense for prosecutors, an argument for prosecutors," Turley explained. "That you can remove that testimony and it wouldn't have made any difference, that the evidence was so strong in the view of the prosecution that it was harmless. So the question is whether Judge Merchan is going to be persuaded. He has historically ruled against the president, the expectation is that he will do so again." Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Actor Kevin Dillon was allegedly the cause of a four-car fender bender at an automatic carwash with a track system in Los Angeles.The beloved "Entourage" actor was reportedly seen at the drive-through car wash in the Los Angeles area, where his electric vehicle automatically braked in the middle of the car wash, causing several cars behind him to collide with each other. Police said that Dillon, who drives a Tesla, caused a ripple effect for other unlucky drivers when he reportedly lifted up from his seat, and his car stopped in place on the car wash track.This could have been caused by any number of features in Tesla programming that automatically apply the brakes as a safety feature. The car engages "stopping mode" if both the accelerator and brake pedals are released at a "very low speed."There are a series of different options for the stopping mode, but the most likely feature that engaged on Dillon, according to the Tesla online owner's manual, is the "hold" feature.The feature "maximizes range and reduces brake wear by continuing to provide regenerative braking at speeds lower than with the Creep and Roll settings," the manual reads. "When Model 3 stops, the brakes are automatically applied without you having to put your foot on the brake pedal. Whether stopped on a flat surface or a hill, Vehicle Hold keeps the brake applied, provided your foot remains off the accelerator and brake pedals."It is likely the latter portion of the hold feature initiated if Dillon took both feet off the brake and accelerator pedals.However, the unexpected stop could have been caused by the "regenerative braking" feature, as well.The manual states that when a driver's foot is off the accelerator, but the Tesla is moving, the system automatically "slows down the vehicle and feeds any surplus power back to the Battery." This is done to increase the driving range of the EV by conserving battery power.TMZ reported that the car wash actually had a sign that advised Tesla owners that any sudden seat movements could shift their car into park and therefore cause potential injury or damage to vehicles.The Tesla manual did not appear to mention a feature about the car automatically stopping if the driver lifted up from their seat.Additionally, one person involved in the slight collision complained about discomfort, and, as such, law enforcement was reportedly called to take an accident report.TMZ did not receive a response from Dillon.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Looks Like James Clyburn Wants Biden Gone, Too: Democrat Kingmaker to 'Tell Him What I Really Feel'

Democrats' cries that the Supreme Court has become a MAGA institution is way off base, according to The Wall Street Journal's editorial board.

Internal polling shows the Biden-Trump race remains tight despite President Joe Biden's debate performance, according to the president's reelection campaign.

Carbonated concrete could help reduce emissions associated with cement production. By using a carbonated — rather than a still — water-based solution during the concrete...

Giant salamander-like predator that lived 40 million years before the first dinosaurs had huge fangs and sucked up prey with its weird head.