Tag Archives: Oddities

World

Australia mining company sorry for losing radioactive device

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PERTH, Australia (AP) — A mining corporation apologized for losing a highly radioactive capsule over a 1,400-kilometer (870-mile) stretch of Western Australia, as authorities combed parts of the road looking for the tiny but dangerous substance.

The capsule was part of a device believed to have fallen off a truck while being transported between a desert mine site and the city of Perth on Jan. 10.

The truck transporting the capsule arrived at a Perth depot on Jan. 16. Emergency services were notified of the missing capsule on Jan. 25.

Western Australia emergency services have called on other Australian states and the federal government for support finding the capsule as they lack equipment. The capsule measures 8 millimeters by 6 millimeters (0.31 inches by 0.24 inches), and people have been warned it could have unknowingly become lodged in their car’s tires.

The caesium 137 ceramic source, commonly used in radiation gauges, emits dangerous amounts of radiation, equivalent of receiving 10 X-rays in an hour. It could cause skin burns and prolonged exposure could cause cancer.

The chief executive of the mining giant Rio Tinto Iron Ore, Simon Trott, on Sunday said the company was taking the incident very seriously and apologized for causing public concern.

“We recognize this is clearly very concerning and are sorry for the alarm it has caused in the Western Australian community,” Trott said. “As well as fully supporting the relevant authorities, we have launched our own investigation to understand how the capsule was lost in transit.”

The search has involved people scanning for radiation levels from the device along roads used by the trucks, with authorities indicating the entire 1,400-kilometer (870-mile) route might have to be searched.

Western Australia’s Department of Fire and Emergency Services publicly announced the capsule had gone missing on Friday, two days after they were notified by Rio Tinto.

Trott said the contractor was qualified to transport the device and it had been confirmed being on board the truck by a Geiger counter prior to leaving the mine.

Police determined the incident to be an accident and no criminal charges are likely.

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Science

Oddities in nuclear reactor measurements not due to a new particle

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Enlarge / A diagram of the array of detectors in STEREO (left) and its location near a nuclear reactor (right).

Loris Scola – CEA

Neutrinos are probably the strangest particles we know about. They’re far, far lighter than any other particle with mass and only interact with other matter via the weak force—which means they barely ever interact with anything. Three types (or flavors) of neutrinos have been identified, and any individual particle doesn’t have a fixed identity. Instead, it can be viewed as a quantum superposition of all three flavors and will oscillate among these identities.

As if all that weren’t enough, a set of strange measurements has suggested that there could be a fourth type of neutrino that doesn’t even interact via the weak force, making it impossible to detect. These “sterile neutrinos” could potentially explain the tiny masses of the other neutrinos, as well as the existence of dark matter, but the whole “impossible to detect” thing makes it difficult to address their existence directly.

The strongest hints of their presence come from odd measurement results in experiments with other flavors of neutrinos. But a new study today rules out sterile neutrinos as an explanation for one of these oddities—even while confirming that the anomalous results are real.

Spotting the undetectable

We can detect the existence of particles in two ways: They either interact with other matter directly, or they decay into one or more particles that do. That’s what makes sterile neutrinos undetectable. They’re fundamental particles and shouldn’t decay into anything. They also only interact with other matter via gravity, and their low masses make detection via this route an impossibility.

Instead, we can potentially detect them via the oscillations of neutrinos. You can set up an experiment that produces a specific type of neutrinos at a known rate and then try to detect those neutrinos. If there are sterile neutrinos, some of the neutrinos you produced will oscillate into that identity and, thus, go undetected. So you end up measuring fewer neutrinos than you’d expect.

That’s exactly what has been happening at nuclear reactors. One of the products of a radioactive decay (which is driven by the weak force) is a neutrino, so nuclear reactors produce copious amounts of these particles. Measurements with detectors placed nearby, however, picked up about 6 percent fewer neutrinos than expected. A rapid oscillation into sterile neutrinos could explain that discrepancy.

But these experiments are really difficult. Neutrinos interact with detectors so rarely that only a tiny fraction of those produced get registered. And nuclear reactors are incredibly complex environments. Even if you start with a pure sample of a single radioactive isotope, decays quickly turn things into a complicated mix of new elements, some radioactive, some not. The neutrons released can also convert the reactor equipment into new isotopes that may be radioactive. So, it’s tough to know exactly how many neutrinos you’re producing to start with and the exact fraction of the ones you produce that will get registered by your detector.

For all those reasons, it’s tough to be certain that any anomalies in neutrino measurements are real. Physicists tend to take a wait-and-see attitude toward indications that something strange is going on.

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Science

Old NASA satellite falling from sky this weekend, low threat

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A 38-year-old retired NASA satellite is about to fall from the sky.

NASA said Friday the chance of wreckage falling on anybody is “very low.” Most of the 5,400-pound (2,450-kilogram) satellite will burn up upon reentry, according to NASA. But some pieces are expected to survive.

The space agency put the odds of injury from falling debris at about 1-in-9,400.

The science satellite is expected to come down Sunday night, give or take 17 hours, according to the Defense Department.

The California-based Aerospace Corp., however is targeting Monday morning, give or take 13 hours, along a track passing over Africa, Asia the Middle East and the westernmost areas of North and South America.

.The Earth Radiation Budget Satellite, known as ERBS, was launched in 1984 aboard space shuttle Challenger. Although its expected working lifetime was two years, the satellite kept making ozone and other atmospheric measurements until its retirement in 2005. The satellite studied how Earth absorbed and radiated energy from the sun.

The satellite got a special sendoff from Challenger. America’s first woman in space, Sally Ride, released the satellite into orbit using the shuttle’s robot arm. That same mission also featured the first spacewalk by a U.S. woman: Kathryn Sullivan. It was the first time two female astronauts flew in space together.

It was the second and final spaceflight for Ride, who died in 2012.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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Science

Giant sharks once roamed the seas, feasting on huge meals

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NEW YORK (AP) — Today’s sharks have nothing on their ancient cousins. A giant shark that roamed the oceans millions of years ago could have devoured a creature the size of a killer whale in just five bites, new research suggests.

For their study published Wednesday, researchers used fossil evidence to create a 3D model of the megalodon — one of the biggest predatory fish of all time — and find clues about its life.

At around 50 feet (16 meters) from nose to tail, the megalodon was bigger than a school bus, according to the study in the journal Science Advances. That’s about two to three times the size of today’s great white shark. The megalodon’s gaping jaw allowed it to feed on other big creatures. Once it filled its massive stomach, it could roam the oceans for months at a time, the researchers suggest.

The megalodon was a strong swimmer, too: Its average cruising speed was faster than sharks today and it could have migrated across multiple oceans with ease, they calculated.

“It would be a superpredator just dominating its ecosystem,” said co-author John Hutchinson, who studies the evolution of animal movement at England’s Royal Veterinary College. “There is nothing really matching it.”

It’s been tough for scientists to get a clear picture of the megalodon, said study author Catalina Pimiento, a paleobiologist with the University of Zurich and Swansea University in Wales.

The skeleton is made of soft cartilage that doesn’t fossilize well, Pimiento said. So the scientists used what few fossils are available, including a rare collection of vertebrae that’s been at a Belgium museum since the 1860s.

Researchers also brought in a jaw’s worth of megalodon teeth, each as big as a human fist, Hutchinson said. Scans of modern great white sharks helped flesh out the rest.

Based on their digital creation, researchers calculated that the megalodon would have weighed around 70 tons, or as much as 10 elephants.

Even other high-level predators may have been lunch meat for the megalodon, which could open its jaw to almost 6 feet (2 meters) wide, Pimiento said.

Megalodons lived an estimated 23 million to 2.6 million years ago.

Since megalodon fossils are rare, these kinds of models require a “leap of imagination,” said Michael Gottfried, a paleontologist at Michigan State University who was not involved in the study. But he said the study’s findings are reasonable based on what is known about the giant shark.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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Technology

“Stray” cat video game brings some benefits to real cats

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NEW YORK (AP) — The virtual cat hero from the new video game sensation “Stray” doesn’t just wind along rusted pipes, leap over unidentified sludge and decode clues in a seemingly abandoned city. The daring orange tabby is helping real world cats as well.

Thanks to online fundraising platforms, gamers are playing “Stray” while streaming live for audiences to raise money for animal shelters and other cat-related charities. Annapurna Interactive, the game’s publisher, also promoted “Stray” by offering two cat rescue and adoption agencies copies of the game to raffle off and renting out a New York cat cafe.

Livestreaming game play for charity isn’t new, but the resonance “Stray” quickly found from cat lovers is unusual. It was the fourth most watched and broadcast game on the day it launched on Twitch, the streaming platform said.

Viewers watch as players navigate the adventurous feline through an aging industrial landscape doing normal cat stuff — balancing on railings, walking on keyboards and knocking things off shelves — to solve puzzles and evade enemies.

About 80% of the game’s development team are “cat owners and cat lovers” and a real-life orange stray as well as their own cats helped inspire the game, one creator said.

“I certainly hope that maybe some people will be inspired to help actual strays in real life — knowing that having an animal and a companion is a responsibility,” said producer Swann Martin-Raget, of the BlueTwelve gaming studio in Montpellier, in southern France.

When Annapurna Interactive reached out to the Nebraska Humane Society to partner before the game’s launch on July 19, they jumped at the chance, marketing specialist Brendan Gepson said.

“The whole game and the whole culture around the game, it’s all about a love of cats,” Gepson said. “It meshed really well with the shelter and our mission.”

The shelter got four copies of the game to give away and solicited donations for $5 to be entered into a raffle to win one. In a week, they raised $7,000, Gepson said, with the vast majority of the 550 donors being new to them, including people donating from Germany and Malta. The company also donated $1,035 to the shelter.

“It was really mutually beneficial,” Gepson said. ”They got some really good PR out of it and we got a whole new donor base out of it.”

Annapurna also bought out Meow Parlour, the New York cat cafe and adoption agency, for a weekend, as well as donating $1,000. Visitors who made reservations could buy “Stray” themed merchandise and play the game for 20 minutes while surrounded by cats. (The game also captivates cats, videos on social media show.)

Jeff Legaspi, Annapurna Interactive’s marketing director, said it made sense for the game’s launch to do something “positively impactful and hopefully bring more awareness to adopting and not shopping for a new pet.”

Annapurna declined to disclose sales or download figures for the game, which is available on PlayStation and the Steam platform. However, according to Steam monitor SteamDB, “Stray” has been the No. 1 purchased game for the past two weeks.

North Shore Animal League America, which rescues tens of thousands of animals each year, said it hadn’t seen any increase in traffic from the game but they did receive more than $800 thanks to a gamer.

In a happy coincidence, the shelter had just set up a profile on the platform Tiltify, which allows nonprofits to receive donations from video streams, the week the game launched. The player channeled donations to the shelter, smashing her initial goal of $200.

“We are seeing Tiltify and livestreaming as this whole new way for us to engage a whole different audience,” said Carol Marchesano, the rescue’s senior digital marketing director. Usually, though, organizations need to reach out to online personalities to coordinate livestreams, which can take a lot of work, she said.

About nine campaigns on Tiltify mention the game “Stray,” the company’s CEO Michael Wasserman said. JustGiving, which also facilitates charity livestreams, said it identified two campaigns with the game.

For his part, Gepson from Nebraska reached out to an Omaha resident who goes by the name TreyDay1014 online to run a charity livestream. Trey, who asked that his last name not be used, has two cats, one of which he adopted from the shelter.

Last week, he narrated to viewers watching live on the platform Twitch as his cat character batted another cat’s tail and danced along railings.

“If I found out my cat was outside doing this, I’d be upset,” Trey said, as his character jumped across a perilous distance. Moments later, a rusty pipe broke, sending the tabby down a gut-wrenching plunge into the darkness.

“That is a poor baby,” Trey said somberly, “but we are okay.”

A $25 donation followed the fall, pushing the amount raised by Trey for the Nebraska shelter to over $100 in about 30 minutes. By the end of four and a half hours of play, donations totaled $1,500. His goal had been to raise $200.

“This has opened my eyes to being able to use this platform for a lot more good than just playing video games,” Trey said.

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AP business writer Matt O’Brien contributed to this report.

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Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and non-profits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.



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World

Japanese city alarmed by biting, clawing, attacking monkeys

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TOKYO (AP) — People in a southwestern Japanese city have come under attack from monkeys that are trying to snatch babies, biting and clawing at flesh, and sneaking into nursery schools.

The attacks — on 58 people since July 8 — are getting so bad Yamaguchi city hall hired a special unit to hunt the animals with tranquilizer guns.

The monkeys aren’t interested in food, so traps haven’t worked. They have targeted mostly children and the elderly.

“They are so smart, and they tend to sneak up and attack from behind, often grabbing at your legs,” city official Masato Saito said Wednesday.

When confronted by a monkey, the instructions are: Do not look them in the eye, make yourself look as big as possible, such as by spreading open your coat, then back away as quietly as possible without making sudden moves, according to Saito.

A woman was assaulted by a monkey while hanging laundry on her veranda. Another victim showed bandaged toes. They were taken aback and frightened by how big and fat the monkeys were.

The monkeys terrorizing the community are Japanese macaque, the kind often pictured peacefully bathing in hot springs.

One male monkey, measuring 49 centimeters (1.6 foot) in height and weighing 7 kilograms (15 pounds), was caught Tuesday by the team with the tranquilizer gun. It was judged by various evidence to be one of the attacking monkeys and put to death.

But more attacks were reported after the capture.

No one has been seriously injured so far. But all have been advised to get hospital treatment. Ambulances were called in some cases.

Although Japan is industrialized and urban, a fair portion of land in the archipelago is mountains and forests. Rare attacks on people by a bear, boars or other wildlife have occurred, but generally not by monkeys.

No one seems to know why the attacks have occurred, and where exactly the troop of monkeys came from remains unclear.

“I have never seen anything like this my entire life,” Saito said.

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Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter https://twitter.com/yurikageyama



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World

Polish institute classifies cats as alien invasive species

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WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A respected Polish scientific institute has classified domestic cats as an “invasive alien species,” citing the damage they cause to birds and other wildlife.

Some cat lovers have reacted emotionally to this month’s decision and put the key scientist behind it on the defensive.

Wojciech Solarz, a biologist at the state-run Polish Academy of Sciences, wasn’t prepared for the disapproving public response when he entered “Felis catus,” the scientific name for the common house cat, into a national database run by the academy’s Institute of Nature Conservation.

The database already had 1,786 other species listed with no objections, Solarz told The Associated Press on Tuesday. The uproar over invasive alien species No. 1,787, he said, may have resulted from some media reports that created the false impression his institute was calling for feral and other cats to be euthanized.

Solarz described the growing scientific consensus that domestic cats have a harmful impact on biodiversity given the number of birds and mammals they hunt and kill.

The criteria for including the cat among alien invasive species, “are 100% met by the cat,” he said.

In a television segment aired by independent broadcaster TVN, the biologist faced off last week against a veterinarian who challenged Solarz’s conclusion on the dangers cats pose to wildlife.

Dorota Suminska, the author of a book titled “The Happy Cat,” pointed to other causes of shrinking biodiversity, including a polluted environment and urban building facades that can kill birds in flight.

“Ask if man is on the list of non-invasive alien species,” Suminska said, arguing that cats were unfairly assigned too much blame.

Solarz pushed back, arguing that cats kill about 140 million birds in Poland each year.

Earlier this month, the Polish Academy institute published a post on its website citing the “controversy” and seeking to clarify its position. The institute stressed that it was “opposed to any cruelty towards animals.” It also argued that its classification was in line with European Union guidelines.

As far as categorizing cats as “alien,” the institute noted that “Felis catus” was domesticated probably around 10,000 years ago in the cradle of the great civilizations of the ancient Middle East, making the species alien to Europe from a strictly scientific point of view.

The institute also stressed that all it was recommending was for cat owners to limit the time their pets spend outdoors during bird breeding season.

“I have a dog, but I don’t have anything against cats,” Solarz said.

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Entertainment

Van Gogh self-portrait found hidden behind another painting

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LONDON (AP) — A previously unknown self-portrait of Vincent Van Gogh has been discovered behind another of the artist’s paintings, the National Galleries of Scotland said Thursday.

The self-portrait was found on the back of Van Gogh’s “Head of a Peasant Woman” when experts at the Edinburgh gallery took an X-ray of the canvas ahead of an upcoming exhibition. The work is believed to have been hidden for over a century, covered by layers of glue and cardboard when it was framed in the early 20th century.

Van Gogh was known for turning canvases around and painting on the other side to save money.

The portrait shows a bearded sitter in a brimmed hat. Experts said the subject was instantly recognizable as the artist himself, and is thought to be from his early work. The left ear is clearly visible and Van Gogh famously cut his off in 1888.

Frances Fowle, a senior curator at the National Galleries of Scotland, said the discovery was “thrilling.”

“Moments like this are incredibly rare,” she said. “We have discovered an unknown work by Vincent Van Gogh, one of the most important and popular artists in the world.”

The gallery said experts are evaluating how to remove the glue and cardboard without harming “Head of a Peasant Woman.”

Visitors to an upcoming Impressionist exhibit at the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh can see an X-ray image of the self-portrait through a lightbox.

“A Taste for Impressionism” runs from Jul. 30 to Nov. 13.

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Health

Scientists figure out how vampire bats got a taste for blood

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Scientists have figured out why vampire bats are the only mammals that can survive on a diet of just blood.

They compared the genome of common vampire bats to 26 other bat species and identified 13 genes that are missing or no longer work in vampire bats. Over the years, those gene tweaks helped them adapt to a blood diet rich in iron and protein but with minimal fats or carbohydrates, the researchers reported Friday in the journal Science Advances.

The bats live in South and Central America and are basically “living Draculas,” said co-author Michael Hiller of Germany’s Max Planck Institute. About 3 inches (8 centimeters) long with a wingspan of 7 inches (18 centimeters), the bats bite and than lap up blood from livestock or other animals at night.

Most mammals couldn’t survive on a low-calorie liquid diet of blood. Only three vampire species of the 1,400 kinds of bats can do that — the others eat mostly insects, fruit, nectar, pollen or meat, such as small frogs and fish.

“Blood is a terrible food source,” said Hannah Kim Frank, a bat researcher at Tulane University, who was not involved in the study. “It’s totally bizarre and amazing that vampire bats can survive on blood — they are really weird, even among bats.”

Some other creatures also have a taste for blood, including mosquitoes, bedbugs, leeches and fleas.

The latest work expands upon research by another team that pinpointed three of the 13 gene losses.

“The new paper shows how different vampire bats are from even other closely related bats, which eat nectar and fruit,” said Kate Langwig, a bat researcher at Virginia Tech, who had no role in the study.

With such a low-calorie diet, vampire bats can’t go long without a meal. In a pinch, well-fed ones will regurgitate their food to share with a starving neighbor. They seem to keep track of who has helped them in the past, said Hiller, noting that vampire bats have complex social relationships.

“It’s not a kin thing,” said Tulane’s Frank. “They just notice and remember: You’re a good sharer, I will reward you.”

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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World

Police answering 4-year-old’s call confirm his toys are cool

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WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — An emergency call made by a 4-year-old New Zealand boy asking for police to come over and check out his toys prompted a real-life callout and confirmation from an officer that the toys were, indeed, pretty cool.

Police shared audio of the call on social media this week along with a photo of the smiling boy sitting on the hood of a patrol cruiser, noting that while they don’t encourage children to call the emergency number, the incident was “too cute not to share.”

The call begins all business: “This is police, where is the emergency?”

There’s a pause as the unidentified boy hesitantly says, “Hi,” and then “Police lady?”

“Yes,” the dispatcher asks, switching to a friendlier, singsong tone. “What’s going on?”

“Um, can I tell you something?” the boy asks, and after being told he can, says “I’ve got some toys for you.”

“You’ve got some toys for me?” says the dispatcher.

“Yep. Come over and see them,” the boy replies.

A man then gets on the phone confirming the call was a mistake, saying the 4-year-old had been helping out while his mother was sick.

A police dispatch call then goes out, giving the address: “There is a 4-year-old there who is wanting to show police his toys, over.”

“Yeah, I’m one-up, I’ll attend to,” responds an officer.

Police said the officer, who they identified only as Constable Kurt, was shown an array of toys at the boy’s house in the South Island city of Invercargill.

They said the officer was also able to have a “good, educational chat” about the proper use of the emergency number, which is 111 in New Zealand.

“He did have cool toys,” Constable Kurt reported back after attending the callout, according to police. They added that: “The lucky kid also got to see the patrol car and the officer put the lights on for him, too.”

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