It's all about the historic Apollo 11 moonwalk this week, marking the 40th anniversary. But while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin deserve their place in space history, they were two among many men (and women) who risked their lives to venture into the uncharted territory of space.
When Hungarian baron Franz Nopcsa claimed that his sister in 1895 found bones belonging to dwarf dinosaurs on his family's Transylvanian estate, many thought his claims were on par with Count Dracula fiction.
A new study not only confirms the existence of dwarf dinosaurs, but also explains how dinosaurs shrank during the Late Cretaceous at a Neverland-like place -- Hateg Island, Romania -- where dinos never really grew up.
According to the study, which has been accepted for publication in the journal Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, the unusual phenomenon appears to have only affected some of the island's dinosaur residents.
"The other animals living with the dinosaurs -- fish, frogs, albanerpetonids (salamander-like amphibians), turtles, crocodilians, pterosaurs, birds, lizards, snakes, and mammals -- were generally much smaller anyway, but so far haven't shown obvious size differences from mainland relatives," lead author Michael J. Benton told Discovery News.
Benton, who directs the Palaeobiology and Biodiversity Research Group at the University of Bristol, and his colleagues conducted one of the most extensive studies yet on the HategIsland dinosaur remains. They analyzed the dinosaurs' limb proportions and bone growth patterns, comparing them with those of mainland dinos.
The analysis determined that at least four of the Hateg dinosaurs were dwarves.
The diminutive dinosaurs included the titanosaurian sauropod Magyarosaurus, which had a body length of about 16 to 19 feet. That's impressive by human standards, but is miniature compared to a sauropod such as Argentinosaurus, which grew to be at least 82 feet long.
Another small dinosaur was the hadrosaurid Telmatosaurus. Its 13-foot-long body contrasted with the average size of other hadrosaurids, which were 23 to 33 feet long, according to Benton.
Two species of Zalmoxes dinosaurs also appear to have been dwarves, with one -- Zalmoxes robustus -- measuring about 10 feet in length.
"So these forms are all typically half the length of their close relatives on larger land masses, and this equates to a body mass of perhaps one-eighth that of the relatives," said Benton. "Body mass is what matters most in biological terms, such as physiology and food intake."
Magnified sections of the dinosaurs' bones revealed that the animals were adults and not juveniles. The scientists believe the dinosaurs likely shrank due to a process called progenesis, which shortens the developmental period. Sexual maturity happened early, and these dinosaurs may have also died two to five years younger than their "normal"-sized counterparts.
"This in-depth study by Benton and colleagues is both fascinating and provocative," paleontologist Scott Sampson, a research curator at the Utah Museum of Natural History, told Discovery News, "demonstrating that the largest group of animals ever to walk the earth included dwarfed varieties."
Sampson added that the study also supports "the more general 'island rule'-- the idea that, when marooned on islands, evolution tends to make large animals smaller, and small animals larger."
Scientists continue to debate why this happens on islands. Reduced supplies of food, smaller ranges, and few larger predators have all been theorized.
"I think most biologists accept that there is something going on, and that the island rule has validity," Benton said.
For the last five years, Oscar the cat has been sniffing out death. Literally.
The cat lives at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation in Providence, Rhode Island, a facility that cares for people with severe dementia.
Back in 2007, geriatrician and Brown University professor David Dosa wrote a perspective inThe New England Journal of Medicineclaiming that Oscar is the cuddlier, feline equivalent of the Grim Reaper. According to Dosa, his mere presence at the bedside of severely ill patients is viewed by doctors and nurses alike as an almost absolute indicator of impending death.
Now Oscar is back in the news, as Dosa has justpublished a bookexpanding on the story.
The Telegraphreports:
The tortoiseshell and white cat spends its days pacing from room to room, rarely spending any time with patients except those with just hours to live.
If kept outside the room of a dying patient, Oscar will scratch on the door trying to get in.
When nurses once placed the cat on the bed of a patient they thought close to death, Oscar “charged out” and went to sit beside someone in another room. The cat’s judgment was better than that of the nurses: the second patient died that evening, while the first lived for two more days.
Over the years, Oscar has racked up an impressive record; Dosa claims the cat has morbidly predicted the deaths of about 50 patients at the nursing home. Dosa suggests Oscar’s unique ability could stem from an ability to detect ketones–distinctly odored biochemicals given off by dying cells. This isn’t as crazy as it sounds; after all, some dogs have been trained tosniff out cancer. However, since Dosa has only speculated on the science that could, maybe, potentially be at work here, we’re not going to consider this anything more than a sweet and odd story for the time being.
Or maybe there’s something more ominous going on. Could Oscar be an “angel of mercy,” taking it upon himself to put patients out of their misery? Judging from Dosa’s article inThe New England Journal of Medicine, he may have half-suspected this himself:
“There will be no more deaths today,not in Room 310 or in any other room for that matter. Afterall, no one dies on the third floor unless Oscar pays a visitand stays awhile.”
Quantum computing—using individual atoms as information carriers—could transform the way we study the world, solving problems that would take many human lifetimes for today’s supercomputers in a matter of days. Unlike conventional computers, which store each piece of data as a single value (either zero or one), quantum processors can take on multiple values simultaneously, which is why they are so efficient. Or rather why they would be, if we could figure out how to build them. So engineers in the field are abuzz about two major advances toward the creation of a practical quantum computer.
The first solid state quantum processor, developed at Yale University, can perform simple algorithms.
Blake Johnson/Yale University
Researchers at theNational Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)in Colorado unveiled a device that meets the basic criteria for a scaled-up quantum computer. It can store and display data, shuttle information around the processor, and perform repeated logic operations with a consistently low error rate. “We’ve pulled all the components together for the first time,” says Jonathan Home, a physicist at NIST who leads the project. His team accomplished the feat by pairing quantum bits—in this case, super-cold beryllium atoms used to store data—with magnesium atoms that act as refrigerants. (Even a little heat makes it difficult to control the atoms.) Lasers allowed the scientists to direct the computations performed by the atoms.
Meanwhile, a separate group headed by physicistRobert Schoelkopfat Yale University has built thefirst solid-state quantum processor. Unlike most quantum computing systems, the structure of this device resembles that of the integrated circuits in current computers, which could help bridge the gap between today’s technology and tomorrow’s.
