On October 19, 2017, astronomers at the University of Hawaii spotted a strange object travelling through our solar system, which they later described as “a red and extremely elongated asteroid.” It was the first interstellar object to be detected within our solar system; the scientists named it ‘Oumuamua, the Hawaiian word for a scout or messenger. The following October, Avi Loeb, the chair of Harvard’s astronomy department, co-wrote a paper (with a Harvard postdoctoral fellow, Shmuel Bialy) that examined ‘Oumuamua’s “peculiar acceleration” and suggested that the object “may be a fully operational probe sent intentionally to Earth’s vicinity by an alien civilization.” Loeb has long been interested in the search for extraterrestrial life, and he recently made further headlines by suggesting that we might communicate with the civilization that sent the probe. “If these beings are peaceful, we could learn a lot from them,” he told Der Spiegel.
I recently spoke by phone with Loeb, who was frustrated that scientists saw ‘Oumuamua too late in its journey to photograph the object. “My motivation for writing the paper is to alert the community to pay a lot more attention to the next visitor,” he told me. During our conversation, which has been edited and condensed for clarity, we discussed why Loeb thinks we need to consider the possibility that ‘Oumuamua was sent by aliens, the dangers of unscientific speculation, and what belief in an advanced extraterrestrial civilization has in common with faith in God.
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Avi Loeb, the chair of Harvard’s astronomy department, believes that the peculiar nature of the interstellar object called ‘Oumuamua raises questions about its possible origins.
Courtesy ESA/Hubble, NASA, ESO, M. Kornmesser
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According to the Mayo Clinic, Alzheimer’s is a degenerative disease that destroys brain cells, called neurons. It was first described in 1906 by a German doctor named Alois Alzheimer.
Alzheimer’s, an illness that mostly affects older people, continues to gain ground. The Alzheimer Society of Canada reports that over 700,000 Canadians are afflicted with the disease. This number is expected to double to 1.4 million by 2031.
While a cure for this form of dementia has not yet been found, being aware of certain early signs is important. Several treatments, developed to mitigate these symptoms, are more likely to work if the disease is diagnosed early.
If you are worried about your health, don’t wait to make an appointment with your doctor.
As she headed to her lab one sunny Texan morning, molecular biologist Meng Wang couldn’t yet guess what would be waiting for her when she arrived: tens of thousands of worms, wriggling around in different boxes. As she peered into each box, slowly it dawned on her. What she saw could cure the most debilitating condition known to humanity: ageing.
Diseases related to ageing – like cancer, rheumatism and Alzheimer’s – kill 100,000 people every day around the world. But a growing number of scientists say it doesn’t have to be this way.
BBC World Service podcast The Inquiry quizzed some of the world’s leading researchers about the nature of ageing – and about the cutting-edge science that could ‘cure’ it, from the role of microbiomes to 3D-printed organs.
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A new organ can be a new lease on life
More and more scientists are saying that we can beat ageing-related diseases (Credit: Getty)
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The best salespeople know they’re the best. They take pride in their art form. They separate themselves from the rest of the pack regardless of circumstance. So how do they do it? What’s their secret? Are you one of them?
I’ve spent 16 years in technology sales, with most of that spent in sales leadership at Salesforce and other technology companies. I’ve had the luxury of observing great sales professionals in tech and beyond and have observed that the top performers share some of the same patterns, habits, and characteristics. I’ve distilled them down into five major categories and have begun integrating them into my work life — practicing them, honing them, teaching them. As a result, my teams have finished consistently at or near the top of the leaderboard year in and year out.
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For those of us who spent most of our lives painstakingly separating plastic, glass, paper and metal, single-stream recycling is easy to love. No longer must we labor. Gone is the struggle to store two, three, four or even five different bags under the kitchen sink. Just throw everything into one dumpster, season liberally with hopes and dreams, and serve it up to your local trash collector. What better way to save the planet?
But you can see where this is headed.
Americans love convenient recycling, but convenient recycling increasingly does not love us. Waste experts call the system of dumping all the recyclables into one bin “single-stream recycling.” It’s popular. But the cost-benefit math of it has changed. The benefit — more participation and thus more material put forward for recycling — may have been overtaken by the cost — unrecyclable recyclables. On average, about 25 percent of the stuff we try to recycle is too contaminated to go anywhere but the landfill, according to the National Waste and Recycling Association, a trade group. Just a decade ago, the contamination rate was closer to 7 percent, according to the association. And that problem has only compounded in the last year, as China stopped importing “dirty” recyclable material that, in many cases, has found no other buyer.
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Derek Davis / Portland Press Herald via Getty Images
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They work in hotel rooms, Airbnbs and secondhand RVs just over the state line, so that women can give birth on their own terms.
All the lights were off in the used RV that night, and the blinds were closed to prevent anyone from seeing inside. Five people huddled in the small main room. Kate Petty, 34, lay on a bed that had been converted from a fold-down dinette table, underneath a large painting of a leopard. Her husband, Caleb, whose beard and long hair is the same auburn color as Kate’s, sat by her head and clutched her sweaty hand. She had been in labor for more than 24 hours and she was breathless, exhausted. The only light in the RV came from a flashlight held by a woman standing on Kate’s left. Another woman crouched between her splayed legs, hands outstretched.
“Keep going, honey. You got it,” said the woman with the flashlight.
Kate groaned. Her baby’s head emerged into the quivering circle of light.
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Baby catcher
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The act of learning is every bit as important as what you learn. Believing that you can improve yourself and do things in the future that are beyond your current possibilities is exciting and fulfilling.
Still, your time is finite, and you should dedicate yourself to learning skills that will yield the greatest benefit. There are seven skills that I believe fit the bill because they never stop paying dividends. These are the skills that deliver the biggest payoff, both in terms of what they teach you and their tendency to keep the learning alive.
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Film and Writing Festival for Comedy. Showcasing best of comedy short films at the FEEDBACK Film Festival. Plus, showcasing best of comedy novels, short stories, poems, screenplays (TV, short, feature) at the festival performed by professional actors.
![Deskundigen beweren dat de ziekte van Alzheimer binnen enkele decennia epidemische vormen zal aannemen. Volgens de Wereldgezondheidsorganisatie (WHO) hebben wereldwijd 46 miljoen mensen dementie en naar verwachting zullen dat er in 2050 130 miljoen zijn.]({"default":{"load":"default","w":"80","h":"52","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BBMIjb8.img?h=516&w=799&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=818&y=409"},"size3column":{"load":"default","w":"62","h":"40","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BBMIjb8.img?h=403&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=818&y=409"},"size2column":{"load":"default","w":"62","h":"40","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BBMIjb8.img?h=403&w=624&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=818&y=409"}})
A new organ can be a new lease on life
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Baby catcher
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Trump won’t shut up
James' World 2 