The dog who killed 8 coyotes to protect a flock of sheep and made headlines late last year is nominated for the Farm Dog Of The Year Award this year.

Canada Looking to Replace Medicine With DEI Education for Docs

Scientists have unveiled the new must-have accessory for the discerning lab mouse: virtual reality goggles. Virtual reality (VR) has actually been a mainstay of neurobiological research for over a decade‚ but since they don’t make an Oculus Rift small enough for your average rodent‚ some compromise has been required. The current state-of-the-art systems use computer or projection screens to surround the mice with the researchers’ desired virtual environment‚ but there are a few problems with this approach. Now‚ a team at Northwestern University has solved all of these by developing a mouse-sized VR headset.A 3D representation of the VR setup‚ with an airborne predatory bird projected into the top of the mouse's visual field.Image credit: Dom PinkeThe miniature goggles allow the mice to become fully immersed in a 3D VR scene‚ rather than the two dimensions offered by the computer screen approach. With the goggles‚ the scene fills the mouse’s entire field of vision‚ following them wherever they turn their heads.This last aspect was tested out to its fullest extent by the team from Northwestern‚ as they used the goggles to simulate an attack from the skies.“The top of a mouse’s field of view is very sensitive to detect predators from above‚ like a bird‚” said co-first author Dom Pinke in a statement. “It’s not a learned behavior; it’s an imprinted behavior. It’s wired inside the mouse’s brain.”To imitate this kind of threat‚ the researchers projected a dark disk at the top of the mice’s field of view in the goggles. The disk gradually expanded‚ and as the mice noticed it they responded in one of two ways: fleeing or freezing. These are both common reactions to predation events‚ but the setup allows the team to study this in great detail.The mice are kept in place on a treadmill‚ so even while they are “running” through the virtual environment‚ the researchers can use brain mapping tools to look at the types of neural circuits that are being activated.A mouse's-eye view from inside the goggles.Image credit: Dom PinkeThe custom VR system has been named Miniature Rodent Stereo Illumination VR (iMRSIV). Unlike human VR headsets‚ the goggles don’t actually wrap around the mouse’s head. Two sets of lenses and screens‚ one for each eye‚ are placed close to the animal’s face where it is located on the treadmill‚ providing a 180-degree visual field for each eye.Although some fascinating insights have been obtained using more traditional VR systems‚ the mice can see around the screens‚ and this distraction makes training them more difficult. iMRSIV is a big step up.“So far‚ labs have been using big computer or projection screens to surround an animal. For humans‚ this is like watching a TV in your living room. You still see your couch and your walls. There are cues around you‚ telling you that you aren’t inside the scene‚” explained senior author Daniel Dombeck. “We’ve had a lot of success with [the older] VR system‚ but it’s possible the animals aren’t as immersed as they would be in a real environment. It takes a lot of training just to get the mice to pay attention to the screens and ignore the lab around them.”Now that iMRSIV is available‚ the team has high hopes that their innovation could help make VR research more accessible.“We’re still working on improvements‚ but our goggles are small‚ relatively cheap and pretty user friendly as well. This could make VR technology more available to other labs‚” said Dombeck.As for where they envisage their own work going next‚ the experiment simulating a bird attack sparked some ideas.“In the future‚ we’d like to look at situations where the mouse isn’t prey but is the predator‚” said co-first author John Issa. “We could watch brain activity while it chases a fly‚ for example. That activity involves a lot of depth perception and estimating distances. Those are things that we can start to capture.”The study is published in the journal Neuron.

When amateur aurora photographers noticed a type of light in the sky no one had reported before most people assumed they had found a new sort of aurora. However‚ an alternative explanation attributes it to such different causes the scientists responsible see it as something separate‚ not a subtype of what we already know. Some have proposed an experiment that could prove they’re right.Upon discovery‚ the phenomenon was named Steve (now STEVE) to avoid the risk of giving it a name that would turn out to misdescribe it‚ as had occurred previously with the so-called Stable Auroral Arcs‚ which are not auroras at all.STEVEs look different from auroras‚ with a characteristic mauve arc rather than a range of flickering colors. Both follow solar storms‚ however‚ leading physicists to assume they had common origins in charged particles from the Sun slamming into the upper atmosphere.However‚ Claire Gasque‚ a graduate student at the University of California‚ Berkeley‚ didn’t come to studying STEVEs from a background in aurora research. Instead‚ she was doing her PhD on how volcanoes affect the ionosphere when she heard about STEVEs at a conference. Gasque learned of a hypothesis proposing STEVEs are caused by electric fields running parallel to the Earth’s magnetic field. This would explain why STEVEs‚ and the apparently related “green picket fence”‚ occur further from the poles than true auroras. However‚ Gasque said in a statement‚ “This would upend our modeling of what creates light and the energy in the aurora in some cases.”“Collectively‚ this suggests that the picket fence might represent one example of a class of aurora-like emissions generated locally by parallel electric fields‚ not magnetospheric particle precipitation‚ although the sources of these fields may differ‚” Gasque and co-authors write.Electric and magnetic fields usually run at right angles to each other‚ so the idea of them running parallel sounds like a non-starter. However‚ Gasque has shown theoretically that moderate electric fields parallel to the Earth’s magnetic field should be able to exist at altitudes of around 110 kilometers (70 miles) when neutral atoms act as an insulator. If so‚ these would excite the sparse oxygen and nitrogen molecules present at that height‚ and produce a light spectrum similar to what has been observed for green picket fences.“If you look at the spectrum of the picket fence‚ it’s much more green than you would expect. And there’s none of the blue that’s coming from the ionization of nitrogen‚” Gasque said. “What that’s telling us is that there’s only a specific energy range of electrons that can create those colors‚ and they can’t be coming from way out in space down into the atmosphere‚ because those particles have too much energy.”Therefore‚ Gasque reasoned‚ the light must come from local particles energized by something‚ which she thinks is a parallel electric field. If such fields can create the picket fence‚ then it seems likely they are also responsible for STEVEs‚ which are usually seen with them. Gasque and colleagues have predicted STEVEs should be accompanied by ultraviolet emissions at specific frequencies.Although picket fences and STEVEs have been seen at lower latitudes than auroras‚ both occur during geomagnetic storms after outbursts on the Sun‚ suggesting a connection. However‚ Gasque proposes these storms create the conditions in which electric fields can accelerate particles to produce other sorts of lights.STEVEs are frequently seen with the green picket fence phenomenon‚ suggesting a common cause. This image shows a particularly close alignment.Image credit: Libor Fousek/Shutterstock.comIt’s all very well to come up with an alternative explanation‚ but the essence of science is to test things. Gasque and colleagues propose that by firing rockets at true auroras and suspected aurora-like phenomena‚ it should be possible to test their similarities and differences.Launching rockets into the ionosphere is a bit beyond the average graduate student’s budget‚ so Gasque has teamed up with researchers at the Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory to try to persuade NASA this is a project worth exploring.“It’s really cool‚” Gasque said. “It’s one of the biggest mysteries in space physics right now.”Even at times when the Sun is active‚ like at the moment‚ auroras are hard to predict‚ and if STEVEs were common we’d have discovered them long ago. The team propose launching a rocket from Alaska to pass through an enhanced aurora – a normal aurora with features that resemble the picket fence occurring within it. The rocket would test if the parallel electric fields are real‚ and if so‚ how strong they are. Additional rockets would fly even higher to observe the true auroras for comparative purposes. Observing STEVEs directly would require keeping a rocket on stand-by for a very long time‚ waiting for the right moment to launch‚ but the authors hope for this eventually as well.The study is published in Geophysical Research Letters.

An alarming suspected new syndrome has been described for the first time in newborn babies whose mothers used non-prescription opioids‚ "particularly fentanyl"‚ while pregnant. Displaying a range of facial‚ musculoskeletal‚ and genital abnormalities‚ the infants are now being monitored to determine how their condition influences their cognitive development and overall well-being.The pattern of birth defects was first noticed by doctors at Nemours Children’s Hospital in Delaware‚ where six neonates with similar abnormalities were brought for treatment in the summer of 2022. A further four babies with matching features were later identified at other facilities‚ bringing the total number of patients to ten.All of the infants displayed microcephaly (small heads) as well as short stature and “distinctive facial features”. Among the congenital malformations were cleft palates‚ rocker bottom feet (where the soles of the feet curl upwards)‚ short‚ broad thumbs‚ a single palm crease‚ and fused toes.Some of the babies also had genital anomalies‚ while 60 percent of infants that had an MRI had an unusually thin corpus callosum‚ which is the part of the brain that links the left and right hemispheres.Initially‚ doctors suspected that the ten newborns may have had a rare genetic condition called Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome (SLOS)‚ which is caused by deficient cholesterol metabolism in the womb and results in a range of physical differences. However‚ genetic tests revealed that none of the infants carried this disorder.Further investigation revealed that the mothers of all ten babies had used the opioid drug fentanyl while pregnant. This led researchers to suspect that the infants may have a previously unknown disorder caused by prenatal exposure to the drug.Examinations on aborted fetuses that had been exposed to fentanyl in the womb have confirmed that the opioid does cross the placenta‚ while other studies have detected the drug in the fetal brain. Together‚ these findings suggest that fentanyl is rapidly transferred to a fetus early in pregnancy and remains in the fetal tissue for some time.Exactly how this triggers birth defects is unclear – although given the similarities with SLOS‚ the authors of a new study suggest that fentanyl may disrupt cholesterol metabolism in fetuses. Other psychotropic drugs have been shown to interfere with cholesterol synthesis in the developing fetus by inhibiting a key enzyme called DHCR7‚ and the researchers therefore suspect that fentanyl may do the same.“Although fentanyl’s effect on cholesterol metabolism has not been directly tested‚ based on indirect evidence it is biologically plausible that it affects cholesterol metabolism in the developing fetus‚” write the study authors. However‚ due to a lack of information about exactly when in pregnancy fentanyl exposure occurred and in what amounts‚ it’s currently impossible to confirm whether this new syndrome is caused by the drug.According to the researchers‚ the birth defects could potentially have been caused by exposure to a different substance or by contaminants or impurities in the fentanyl that the mothers used while pregnant. Nonetheless‚ study author Karen Gripp insisted in a statement that  “given the fentanyl use epidemic‚ it is important to recognize this condition.” “Analogous to prenatal alcohol exposure causing fetal alcohol syndrome with long-term physical and developmental consequences‚ this novel condition may impact many infants in life-changing ways‚” she said.The study is published in the journal Genetics in Medicine Open.

The secretive X-37B space plane is set to blast off today onboard a SpaceX rocket. Its mission? As ever‚ it’s not quite clear. For its seventh mission‚ the robotic plane will be launched on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket for the first time‚ according to the US Space Force. The launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida was initially set for December 7‚ but it was postponed until December 11 during a 10-minute launch window that opens at 8:14 pm ET.The lift-off will be live-streamed‚ so keep your eyes out for a video on SpaceX’s account on X (previously Twitter).SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy is one of the world's most powerful rockets in operation and is essentially three Falcon 9 rockets strapped together. It’s not certain why this launch needs the extra oomph of the Falcon Heavy‚ but it might indicate the X-37B is loaded with a heavier payload than previous missions.The US Space Force was typically vague about the nature of its mission‚ noting only that it would be “experimenting with future space domain awareness technologies‚ and investigating the radiation effects on materials provided by NASA.” The X-37B looks a bit like the iconic Space Shuttle‚ albeit a little more beaten up. It’s also much smaller‚ measuring 8.9 meters (29 feet) in length with a wingspan of just under 4.5 meters (15 feet). It’s capable of cruising in low-earth orbit‚ between 240 to 800 kilometers (150 to 500 miles) above the Earth‚ at speeds of up to 28‚200 kilometers (17‚522 miles) per hour.Developed by Boeing‚ the autonomous craft has been the subject of six previous missions since 2010. The last of these concluded in November 2022 and involved its longest stint in orbit yet: a record 908 days.The official line from the US military is that the X-37B performs “risk reduction‚ experimentation‚ and concept of operations development for reusable space vehicle technologies.” However‚ the precise details of its job are not certain. One of the leading theories is that it plays a role in spy craft and reconnaissance. Heather Wilson‚ former US Secretary of the Air Force‚ has previously said that the X-37B spacecraft can also turn and change its course when it’s at a lower altitude‚ suggesting it could be used to meddle with foreign adversaries. "[This] means our adversaries don't know – and that happens on the far side of the Earth from our adversaries – where it's going to come up next. We know that that drives them nuts. And I'm really glad about that‚" Wilson told a panel at the Aspen Security Forum in July 2019.According to a BBC report on an article published in Spaceflight magazine in 2012‚ X-37B's orbit closely followed that of China's former space lab‚ Tiangong-1‚ leading to suggestions that it could have been used for space-to-space surveillance. Other experts have since denied these claims‚ however.A slightly more sober suggestion came in October 2014 when security experts told the Guardian that the X-37B was being used "to test reconnaissance and spy sensors‚ particularly how they hold up against radiation and other hazards of orbit."Well‚ I guess that settles it then...

Thursday’s New York Times featured “Gaza War Widens Gap Between Arab Rulers and Citizens” by Vivian Nereim‚ the Gulf bureau chief for the Times‚ based in Saudi Arabia. Nereim offensively portrayed those Arab leaders who dare agree to accept Israel's existence as pampered and privileged‚ in contrast to the poor citizenry marching in the streets of the Middle East country of Bahrain who proudly and openly support the terrorist assaults and even annihilation of Jews. Nereim couldn’t foster a syllable of criticism against the eliminationist rhetoric emanating from protesting Bahrainians. As the afternoon light softened‚ a man holding a megaphone stepped to the front of a crowd of about 200 people in the Bahraini capital‚ Manama‚ and began to shout at the top of his lungs. The demonstrators‚ waving Palestinian flags‚ repeated his words with gusto‚ imploring their American-allied authoritarian government to expel the Israeli ambassador who was appointed two years ago‚ after Bahrain established diplomatic ties with Israel. “No Zionist embassy on Bahraini land!” they chanted. “No American military bases on Bahraini land!” Less than four miles away‚ American and European men in full military regalia gathered for the Manama Dialogue‚ an annual conference that brings together senior officials from Western powers and the Middle East to discuss regional security. They milled about a gilded ballroom in the heavily guarded Ritz-Carlton hotel just hours after the protest -- largely unaware that it had even occurred. When Bahrain’s crown prince‚ Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa‚ took to the stage‚ he pleased much of the audience by condemning Hamas‚ the Palestinian armed group that runs Gaza and which led the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that killed about 1‚200 people‚ according to Israeli authorities. The war in Gaza that followed the attack has not only laid bare a chasm between many Arab leaders and their people; it has widened it. …. And in Bahrain‚ protesters said that in addition to feeling a deep sense of shared Arab and Islamic identity‚ they saw connections between Palestinian liberation and their own liberation from political repression. Not treating Israel like a pariah was treated as a cynical move by “authoritarian leaders” in the region‚ eager for “the concessions they might extract from the United States‚ Israel’s top ally.” Nereim treated the annihilationist rhetoric on the streets in Bahrain with cool neutrality. Bahraini protesters said they view Israel as a colonial-style occupying power and a Western-backed project designed to dominate the region. Some said Israel should not even exist. …. Thousands of marchers shouted in English and Arabic until they grew hoarse. “Down‚ down‚ Israel!” “America is the head of the snake!” Some chanted in support of Hamas‚ urging it to bomb Tel Aviv. The reporter leaned hard into a leftist framing of privileged pro-Israel officials enjoying the finest food on the backs of their persecuted‚ silenced Hamas-supporting subjects. When [Saudi royal Prince Turki] finished‚ his guests dined on saffron-poached peaches and chicken breasts stuffed with ratatouille. Speaking on the sidelines of the conference‚ Bahraini officials told participants they were determined to protect their deal with Israel.

The FBI has used Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to conduct warrantless “backdoor” searches of the private electronic communications of American citizens. It has done so‚ moreover‚ not just sporadically and by accident but quite deliberately and on hundreds of thousands of occasions. While the technology employed in those searches may be new‚ the issues surrounding it are not. In fact‚ they have been hundreds of years in the making. Just as Wilkes’ story ended badly for King George III‚ our story will end badly for Congress if it reauthorizes FISA 702 — even temporarily — without fixing it. In 1763‚ John Wilkes — a member of the British Parliament — was arrested and his home subjected to an aggressive search because he wrote and published No. 45 of a periodical known as the North Briton. North Briton No. 45 had infuriated King George III and his ministers because it called out their widespread and unlawful use of “general warrants” — official documents authorizing searches and seizures that were backed by neither evidence establishing probable cause nor a specific description of the intended target. In essence‚ general warrants purported to tell the king’s officers‚ “Go search for evidence of a crime in any home or other place you might expect to find it‚ and then seize it.” Unwittingly proving Wilkes’ point‚ the king’s men used general warrants to search his home and the homes of others suspected of participating in the publication of North Briton No. 45. After spending several days locked in the Tower of London‚ Wilkes returned to his home to find it in complete disarray‚ with many items severely damaged and others missing altogether. Incensed by the injustice‚ he challenged the validity of the general warrant at issue and sued the officers who had conducted the search. Long story short: Wilkes won and was awarded a large sum of money as part of the victory. As word of his victorious effort spread‚ Wilkes’ story quickly became famous on both sides of the Atlantic‚ leading ultimately to the adoption of the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The number 45 (referring to the publication that had offended the king and sparked the entire episode) became synonymous with both John Wilkes and the cause of liberty in England and the American colonies. Indeed‚ one might say that “45” became the “Roll Tide” of those who wanted to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. As Wilkes became a cult figure in the colonies‚ a motto of sorts based on the Apostles’ Creed was written and published in Boston. It began‚ “I believe in Wilkes‚ the firm patriot‚ maker of number 45‚ who was born for our good‚ suffered under arbitrary power‚ was banished and imprisoned …” Elsewhere in the colonies‚ Wilkes was honored by the naming of Wilkes County‚ Georgia; Wilkesboro‚ North Carolina; and Wilkes-Barre‚ Pennsylvania. Even George III's own young children caught the Wilkes fever. They sometimes opened the door to their father's room and cried‚ “Wilkes and number 45 forever!” just to prank the monarch. A shameful ploy John Wilkes would be shocked by FISA 702‚ which the FBI has used hundreds of thousands of times to spy on Americans without a warrant. There have been essentially no consequences for the agents and agencies who repeatedly violate the Fourth Amendment. As a lawmaker and an advocate of liberty‚ he’d be appalled that the U.S. Congress is preparing to reauthorize FISA 702 — without a single reform. Congress is making this decision not on its own merits but as part of a last-minute addition to the 3‚000-page National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2024. Congress is obscuring its own indefensible actions by hiding this provision in a lengthy “must-pass” bill dealing with other‚ far less controversial matters. Shameful. There are currently two meaningful FISA reform bills before Congress: the bipartisan Government Surveillance Reform Act that I introduced with Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.)‚ and the End Warrantless Surveillance Act by U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.)‚ which has already passed the House Judiciary Committee by a vote of 35-2. I humbly implore my Senate colleagues — and our counterparts in the House of Representatives — to remember the lessons learned from John Wilkes and North Briton No. 45. Do not rubber-stamp this continued FISA abuse as part of the NDAA. Warrantless “backdoor” searches of Americans’ private electronic communications under FISA 702 are simply modern incarnations of the general warrants used by King George III. Like general warrants‚ backdoor searches under FISA 702 are carried out without any of the safeguards created to protect life‚ liberty‚ and property from the kind of harm that an unrestrained government is uniquely capable of inflicting. Just as Wilkes’ story ended badly for King George III‚ our story will end badly for Congress if it reauthorizes FISA 702 — even temporarily — without fixing it.

If you've been looking for an unconventional way to spruce up chocolate chip cookies‚ this suggestion really puts the bulb in "light-bulb moment."