A Special Place for Blog Lovers with a Touch of Science!

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While accurately predicting earthquakes is in the realm of science fiction, early warning systems are very much a reality. As advances in research and technology make these systems increasingly effective, they're vital to reducing an earthquake's human, social and economic toll.

Damaging earthquakes can strike at any time. While we can't prevent them from occurring, we can make sure casualties, economic loss and disruption of essential services are kept to a minimum.

Building more resilient cities is key to withstanding earthquake disasters. If we had a better idea of when earthquakes would strike, authorities could initiate local emergency, evacuation and shelter plans. But unfortunately, this is not the case.

Credit: Copepods are small crustaceans found in almost every freshwater and marine habitat;  UVM

Suppose scientists could watch 20 generations of whales or sharks adapt to climate change, measure how they evolve and how their biology changes as temperatures and carbon dioxide levels rise. That could tell researchers a lot about how resilient life in the oceans might be to a warmer world. But it would also take hundreds of years -- not very useful to ecologists or policymakers trying to understand our warming world today.

Instead, consider the life of the copepod Acartia tonsa, a tiny and humble sea creature near the bottom of the ocean food web. The copepod reproduces, matures, and creates a new generation in about 20 days. It takes about one year for 20 copepod generations to pass.

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The Earth, Terra, Gaia, and Tellus, there are many names given to our planet. It is the only home we know and the only one we are aware of, which harbors live forms. The unique, almost unbelievable conjunction of circumstances led to conditions sustaining liquid water, mild temperature, and climate, which on their part made life possible. Given the fact how vast, incomprehensible, and severe is the environment in the open cosmos, the existence of such a hospitable ecosystem is like coming out of a science fiction book. However, it is not some illusion or fantasy, it is as real as our lives.

The worm C. elegans has a nervous system remarkably similar to that of humans. Researchers are studying it to better understand the link between autophagy and age-related degeneration of the nervous system. © Nektarios Tavernarakis, 2022

The in-built process of maintaining the health of our cells by recycling dead or toxic material plays a key role in our health overall. Known as autophagy, researchers are now keen to know if boosting the natural process may hold off the debilitating diseases of old age.

By intervening in the processes that make our bodies and brains malfunction as we get older, can we delay the onset of age-related disorders, or even stop them developing entirely?

The mythical fountain of youth has been a popular legend for thousands of years. The question of whether we can drink from its waters has been nagging modern researchers working in the field of biological ageing (known as senescence) since 1889, when French doctor Charles-Édouard Brown-Séquard injected himself with extracts from animal testicles. Following this, he claimed his mental and physical condition improved.

Credit: MIT

Researchers supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation taught a robotic mini-cheetah how to run fast. The robot cheetah, trained to adapt to changes in the terrain by simulated experience, broke the record for the fastest run recorded.