Ilmuwan baru-baru ini mengungkap temuan kehidupan mikroorganisme di dasar laut terdalam di dunia. Tepat 11 kilometer di bawah permukaan laut, ilmuwan asal Denmark menemukan kehidupan mikroorganisme tersebut.

Bakteri ini lebih tepatnya ditemukan di Palung Mariana. Palung Mariana merupakan jurang raksasa di dasar laut yang cukup besar untuk 'menelan' seluruh Gunung Everest.

Ilmuwan telah menemukan komunitas mikroba yang berkembang dari mikroba yang hidup pada titik terdalam di permukaan Bumi. Penelitian ini dilakukan di area lembah dasar laut Samudera Pasifik.

Bakteri ini pulih dari sedimen lumpur pada titik di bawah pusat barat Samudera Pasifik yang dinamakan Challenger Deep di Mariana Trench. Ahli biologi kelautan mengatakan, mereka terkejut menemukan bentuk kehidupan mikroba dari benda mati dan membusuk yang tenggelam ke bagian terdalam di dasar laut.

Diketahui bahwa dasar laut memiliki tekanan seribu kali lipat lebih besar ketimbang tekanan di permukaan laut. "Mikroba ini mungkin sebenarnya makhluk hidup yang paling dekat dengan inti Bumi, " ujar Profesor Ronnie Glud dari University of Southern Denmark.

Ia mengatakan bahwa ilmuwan berharap untuk dapat mengetahui lebih detail mengenai mikroba unik tersebut. "Apa yang benar-benar mengejutkan kami ialah bahwa kami telah melihat bakteri yang mampu beroperasi secara efisien di kedalaman (dasar laut) tersebut," tuturnya.

Ilmuwan menjelaskan bahwa mikroba ini memakan aliran konstan dari bahan organik yang tenggelam ke dasar laut di Samudera Pasifik. Dengan demikian, mikroba ini memainkan peran penting dalam siklus karbon global terkait jumlah karbon dioksida yang beredar di atmosfer Bumi.

 Kelelawar merupakan binatang mamalia yang di dalam tubuhnya terdapat berbagai virus mematikan, seperti Ebola, SARS dan Nipah. Tapi anehnya, hewan ini kebal terhadap virus-virus tersebut.

Selama beberapa dekade terakhir beberapa ilmuwan dibuat bingung bagaimana kelelawar dapat kebal terhadap virus-virus mematikan di dalam tubuhnya. Namun, sebuah penelitian baru tentang gen telah menemukan titik terang menyangkut masalah tersebut.

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Para ilmuwan mempelajari DNA dari dua spesies kelelawar dan menemukan bagaimana gen yang berhubungan dengan sistem kekebalan tubuhnya telah mengalami perkembangan yang cepat.

Profesor Lin Fa Wang, ahli penyakit menular dari Duke NUS Graduate Medical School di Singapura, yang memimpin penelitian ini, mengatakan bahwa hasil penelitian menjelaskan bagaimana hewan mamalia itu bisa bebas dari penyakit dan dapat hidup lebih lama dari pada hewan mamalia lain yang seukuran, seperti tikus.

"Kami tidak mengatakan kelelawar tidak pernah sakit atau pernah terinfeksi. Yang kami katakan adalah kelelawar dapat mengatasi infeksi jauh lebih baik daripada binatang lain," kata Lin Fa Wang, seperti dilansir Reuters.



Inilah Gen Pembuat Kebal

a menambahkan, yang terjadi pada kedua kelelawar itu adalah munculnya gen yang dikenal dengan nama cytokine storm, gen ini dapat memicu reaksi terhadap kekebalan ekstrem pada infeksi yang berpotensi fatal bagi kelelawar.

"Gen cytokine storm ini yang pada akhirnya membunuh virus-virus yang berada di dalam tubuhnya. Kita pun dapat belajar merancang obat untuk manusia dari gen tersebut untuk meminimalkan kerusakan akibat dari infeksi virus," ujarnya.

Penelitian yang melibatkan peneliti-peneliti dari China, Denmark, Australia dan Amerika Serikat, ini juga menemukan bahwa gen yang memberikan sistem kekebalan tubuh pada kelelawar adalah gen yang sama yang membuat kelelawar memiliki kemampuan untuk terbang.




"Apa yang kami temukan adalah salah satu gen yang berkembang sangat cepat dalam memperbaiki kerusakan DNA. Ini masuk akal, karena ketika terbang metabolisme akan naik dan menghasilkan radikal bebas untuk menghadang virus-virus," tambah Lin Fa Wang.

Lin Fa Wang menegaskan bahwa manusia bisa belajar dari kelelawar yang telah berevolusi untuk menghindari penyakit dan dapat hidup sangat panjang.

"Dengan menggunakan teknik modern, kami dapat merancang obat baru untuk memperlambat proses penuaan, mengobati kanker dan melawan infeksi," kata Lin Fa Wang.

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CALIFORNIA - Seorang ayah yang berduka karena sepeninggal anaknya, meluncurkan kampanye tentang bahaya bermain game komputer yang berlebihan. Dalam kampanyenya ia meminta para gamer untuk memberikan jeda waktu istirahat ketika bermain game komputer.

Dilansir Itv (16/5/2012), Chris kehilangan putranya, David Staniforth yang meninggal setahun akibat Trombosis Deep Vein (DVT). Chris mengungkapkan, anaknya dalam sehari menghabiskan dua belas jam untuk bermain game komputer. Sampai saat ini Chris percaya, kebiasaan bermain game dalam waktu lama menjadi faktor berpulangnya David.

Saat ini, Chris memiliki website mengkampanyekan untuk mengambil istirahat secara teratur ketika bermain game. Bukan hanya itu saja, ia juga berharap para produsen game menyoroti bahaya aktivitas bermain game yang terlalu lama dari produk merekan.

Profesor Beverley mengatakan DVT dapat menyerang siapa saja dan tanpa bisa diduga. Bukan hanya itu DVT memukul siapa saja pada usia berapa pun. Jadi masuk akal, bangun dan mengambil istirahat setelah beberapa jam bermain game.


Apa Itu Trombosis vena Deep?

Trombosis vena Deep-(DVT) merupakan suatu kondisi medis umum, tetapi di bawah didiagnosis yang terjadi ketika (bekuan darah) trombus terbentuk di salah satu pembuluh darah besar, biasanya di tungkai bawah, mengarah ke sirkulasi baik sebagian atau seluruhnya diblokir.

Sebuah trombus vena dalam-(bekuan darah) ialah setoran intravaskular yang terdiri dari fibrin dan sel darah merah dengan trombosit variabel dan komponen leukosit.

Deep-vein thrombosis terjadi ketika sebuah bentuk trombus (biasanya di daerah aliran darah lambat atau terganggu) di salah satu pembuluh darah besar, biasanya di tungkai bawah, mengarah ke baik sebagian atau seluruhnya diblokir sirkulasi.

Orang dengan DVT mungkin melihat rasa sakit dan bengkak di kaki di mana bekuan telah terbentuk, meskipun gumpalan yang lebih kecil mungkin tidak menimbulkan gejala apapun.
Masalah utama terjadi ketika bagian dari bekuan darah terlepas dan mengalir ke paru-paru. Kondisi ini, disebut embolus paru Pulmonary embolism (PE), dapat menyebabkan cedera parah atau kematian.

Pulmonary embolism dapat terjadi ketika sebuah fragmen dari bekuan darah istirahat lepas dari dinding pembuluh darah dan bermigrasi ke paru-paru, di mana blok arteri paru atau salah satu cabangnya.

Ketika bekuan yang cukup besar untuk benar-benar memblokir satu atau lebih pembuluh darah yang mensuplai paru-paru dengan darah, dapat mengakibatkan kematian mendadak.
Saat ini diperkirakan 600 ribu orang Amerika akan menderita deep-vena trombosis (DVT) dan embolisme paru (PE).
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A 14-year old German boy was hit in the hand by a pea-sized meteorite that scared the bejeezus out of him and left a scar.

"When it hit me it knocked me flying and then was still going fast enough to bury itself into the road," Gerrit Blank said in a newspaper account. Astronomers have analyzed the object and conclude it was indeed a natural object from space, The Telegraph reports.

Most meteors vaporize in the atmosphere, creating "shooting stars," and never reach the ground. The few that do are typically made mostly of metals. Stony space rocks, even if they are big as a car, will usually break apart or explode as they crash through the atmosphere.

There are a handful of reports of homes and cars being struck by meteorites, and many cases of space rocks streaking to the surface and being found later. But human strikes are rare. There are no known instances of humans being killed by space rocks.

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The crew of seven astronauts that will make the trip to the International Space Station in two weeks' time went aboard the US space shuttle Endeavour two days ago, on October 29th, for their first practice run. The series of training sessions they have started is aimed at preparing them for the flight and for the 15 days they will spend in space. The goal of the mission is to adapt the ISS for a larger crew, upgrading the number of its beds from three to five and adding another toilet.

For now, the launch date is set for November 14, but whether this is accurate or not remains to be seen on Thursday, when NASA officials announce the date the space shuttle takes off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, based on their reviews on the preparation progress. The crew will spend 11 of the 15 days docked by the ISS. For three of its members, Robert S. (Shane) Kimbrough, Endeavour's pilot Eric A. Boe and flight engineer Stephen G. Bowen, it will be the first time ever to enter the spacecraft with the occasion of the dressing rehearsal.

Other members of the mission are astronauts Sandra H. Magnus (who will replace Station Flight Engineer and Science Officer Gregory E. Chamitoff, who has been aboard the ISS since this May), Christopher J. Ferguson, Donald R. Pettit, and lead spacewalker Heidemarie M. Stefanyshyn-Piper. Besides providing more beds, a toilet and a wastewater recycling system for the ISS, the mission also attempts to service solar arrays that provide solar energy for the station.


In their statement on Wednesday, NASA officials also announced that, despite the opinion of its engineers, the new Ares I spacecraft that would replace the shuttle by 2015 registers a satisfactory progress, and that the reports of faults and errors in its design, while somewhat expected, were highly exaggerated. “We haven't done something of this magnitude in over three decades,” shared the deputy associate administrator for NASA's exploration program, Doug Cooke.

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Informasi dari internet yang beredar di kalangan masyarakat akhir-akhir ini mengenai matahari akan terlihat atau menyinari selama 36 jam pada 17 Oktober 2008 di wilayah Indonesia merupakan kabar bohong. Matahari akan tetap bersinar selama rata-rata 12 jam di Indonesia.

Demikian dikemukakan peneliti utama bidang astronomi astrofisika Lembaga Penerbangan dan Antariksa Nasional (Lapan), Thomas Djamaludin, serta Kepala Pusat Penelitian dan Pengembangan Badan Meteorologi, Klimatologi, dan Geofisika Mezak Arnold Ratag secara terpisah, Rabu (15/10) di Jakarta.

”Sistem rotasi Bumi sering disebut memiliki gerak gasing dengan kemiringan sumbu sebesar 23,5 derajat, tetapi tetap tidak memungkinkan wilayah ekuator mendapatkan sinar matahari sampai 36 jam dalam 2.400 tahun sekali seperti dinyatakan dalam kabar bohong itu,” kata Thomas Djamaludin.

Mezak menuturkan, penyinaran matahari di wilayah ekuator, termasuk Indonesia, yang memiliki batas koordinat 11 derajat Lintang Selatan (LS) sampai 6 derajat Lintang Utara (LU) rata- rata melihat sinar matahari hanya selama 12 jam plus atau minus 45 menit. Kemungkinan matahari dapat terlihat selama 36 jam sangat tidak mungkin.

Thomas menjelaskan, kabar bohong mengenai astronomi tidak hanya terjadi sekali ini. Ia mencontohkan, pada 27 Agustus 2004 juga pernah beredar informasi berupa purnama ganda. ”Ketika itu yang dimaksudkan purnama pada Bulan dan planet Mars secara bersamaan. Namun, tetap saja tidak dapat dikatakan purnama ganda karena keduanya terlihat dari Bumi tampak sama sekali berbeda ukurannya,” kata Thomas.

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PHOENIX — Terdapat tempat baru di mana Anda bisa mendapatkan kisah dan berita tentang UFO. Sebuah organisasi di Phoenix, MUFON, telah membangun sebuah situs untuk peliput UFO. Kelompok itu melacak dan menginvestigasi penampakan UFO.

Dia mengatakan bahwa situs tersebut telah mendulang banyak laporan baru yang lebih banyak dari laporan MUFON karena Anda juga bisa melaporkannya tanpa mencantumkan nama.

Sementara orang menertawakan laporan tentang UFO, seorang staf MUFON, Stacey Wright, mengatakan bahwa itu sudah tidak menjadi masalah.

Namun, mencari pengakuan atas klaim UFO bukanlah hal yang mereka perjuangkan. Para pelacak UFO itu berkata, bisnis ini sedang booming, terutama di Arizona. Wright mengatakan, setahun yang lalu hanya ada dua pelacak MUFON di Arizona, saat ini sudah ada 20 orang.

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Scientists have hailed a successful switch-on for an enormous experiment which will recreate the conditions a few moments after the Big Bang.

They have now fired two beams of particles called protons around the 27km-long tunnel which houses the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

The £5bn machine on the Swiss-French border is designed to smash protons together with cataclysmic force.

Scientists hope it will shed light on fundamental questions in physics.

The first - clockwise - beam completed its first circuit of the underground tunnel at just before 0930 BST. The second - anti-clockwise - beam successfully circled the ring after 1400 BST.

The beams have not yet been run continuously. So far, they have been stopped, or "dumped", after just a few circuits.

By Wednesday evening, engineers hope to inject clockwise and anti-clockwise protons again, but this time they will "close the orbit", letting the beams run continuously for a few seconds each.

Cern has not yet announced when it plans to carry out the first collisions, but the BBC understands that low-energy collisions could happen in the next few days. This will allow engineers to calibrate instruments, but will not produce data of scientific interest.

"There it is," project leader Lyn Evans said when the beam completed its lap. There were cheers in the control room when engineers heard of the successful test.

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Hamburg (ANTARA News/dpa) - Birds recognise their own reflection in the mirror as being themselves and not that of another bird, according to German researchers. The recognition of "self" has been known to exist among primates such as chimpanzees and orang-utans.

There have also been reports that dolphins and elephants share the same ability. All these animals live in a complex social world, as do humans, which experts believe may be linked to self-recognition. But the German studies mark the first time that non-mammals have demonstrated this key trait of higher intelligence.

Some birds, especially members of the crow family, are also highly social. Scientists have now shown that magpies, which are related to crows, pass the mirror recognition test.

Budgerigars and parrots are well known to react to mirrors. But their behaviour suggests they do not understand it is their own reflection in the glass. In contrast, magpies really do know they are looking at themselves, according to the study led by German psychologist Dr Helmut Prior, from the Goethe University in Frankfurt.

Tests were conducted on five hand-reared birds called Gerti, Goldie, Harvey, Lilly and Schatzi. The most telling involved placing yellow and red stickers on the birds in positions where they could only be seen in a mirror. Faced with their reflection, the magpies became focused on the marks as they tried to reach the stickers with their beaks and claws.

On a number of occasions, they succeeded in scratching the stickers off, and only then did the mark-orientated behaviour stop. Black marks that did not show up against the birds' dark feathers did not elicit the same response. When no mirror was present, the birds took no notice of the coloured marks.

The magpies appeared to be more concerned than chimpanzees about coloured stickers being placed on their bodies.

"We do not claim that the findings demonstrate a level of self-consciousness or self-reflection typical of humans. The findings do, however, show that magpies respond to the mirror and mark test in a manner so far only clearly found in apes, and, at least suggestively, in dolphins and elephants.

The findings showed that self-recognition may have evolved separately in animals with vastly different brain structures, they added.

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Scientists have created a robot controlled by a biological brain made of rat neurons. The robot, named Gordon, is not exactly an Einstein but represents a remarkable bridging of the gap between biology and technology. Gordon relies a dish with about 60 electrodes to pick up electrical signals generated by the brain cells.

The brain drives the robot's movements.

Every time the robot nears an object, signals are directed to stimulate the brain by means of the electrodes, the researchers explained in a statement released today by the University of Reading in England. In response, the brain's output drives the robot's wheels left and right, so that it moves around in an attempt to avoid hitting objects.

The robot has no additional control from a human or a computer, the scientists state. Its sole means of control is from its own brain.

"This new research is tremendously exciting as firstly the biological brain controls its own moving robot body, and secondly it will enable us to investigate how the brain learns and memorizes its experiences," said the university's Kevin Warwick of the School of Systems Engineering. "This research will move our understanding forward of how brains work, and could have a profound effect on many areas of science and medicine."

The researchers aim to get the robot to learn, by applying different signals as it moves into predefined positions. That might allow them to witness how memories manifest themselves in the brain when the robot revisits familiar territory. They hope the work will eventually lead to a better understanding of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, stroke and brain injuries.

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AMSTERDAM - Scientists have made a colored view of an early rejected painting underneath Vincent van Gogh's 'Patch of Grass' painting, using advanced X-ray techniques, a Dutch university said on Wednesday.

The very detailed image shows the face of a woman and may give art historians a better understanding of the way Van Gogh developed as a painter.

"It is estimated that one third of Vincent van Gogh's early paintings have been painted on top of existing ones. Van Gogh literally recycled his own canvasses," scientist Joris Dik of the Delft University of Technology said.

Conventional X-ray techniques give a colorless, partial view of the hidden painting and only show vague contours of a person behind 'Patch of Grass', the university said.

By recycling his work Van Gogh painted many layers over the original painting but the scientists managed to scan all the different elements in those layers of the relevant area with X-ray fluorescence.

"We can make a virtual 3-dimensional model of the painting and start to peel off all the layers one by one. Then we get a nice detailed view of the hidden face," Dik said.

Van Gogh painted 'Patch of grass' in 1887 in Paris and it hangs in the Kroller-Muller museum in the Dutch eastern city of Otterlo.

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WASHINGTON - Martian dirt is apparently good enough for asparagus to grow in, NASA scientists said Thursday, as they announced the results of a soil analysis collected by the US Phoenix Mars lander.

"There is nothing about the soil that would preclude life. In fact it seems very friendly," said Samuel Kounaves, the project's lead chemist at the University of Arizona in a telephone press conference.

"The soil you have there is the type of soil you have in your backyard," said Kounaves. "You may be able to grow asparagus very well."

The analysis is based on a cubic centimeter of soil scooped up by the lander's robotic arm and introduced into one of its eight ovens, where it was gradually heated up to 1,000 degrees Celsius.

Kounaves said his team was "flabbergasted" at the results that came back.

"We basically have found what appears to be the requirements of the nutrients to support life, past, present or future," said Kounaves.

Scientists found elements in the soil that included magnesium, potassium and sodium. "There are probably other mineral species, we are still working on data," he said.

Kounaves said the analysis results are "one more piece of evidence that there were liquid water action at some point in the history of Mars."

"It's very similar to the soil analysis results we got from some dried places on Earth -- this is the very exciting part," Kounaves said.

The sample is from the surface soil that scientists say covers a layer of ice.

On June 20 NASA scientists announced that the Phoenix Mars lander confirmed a long-held belief that ice is hiding under the surface in the Red Planet's northern region.

The lander's robotic arm started digging trenches into Martian soil after touching down near the planet's north pole on May 25, revealing a white substance that scientists had said was ice.

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New York - A life-jacket from the doomed transatlantic cruise ship "Titanic," which struck an iceberg in 1912 and sank, fetched 68,500 dollars at auction at Christie's in New York late Wednesday.

It is one of only six life-jackets still known to exist from the Titanic and had been kept in a trunk by a Canadian family, AFP reported.

Some 1,500 passengers and crew aboard the Titanic died when the White Star line luxury ship sank in the frigid northern Atlantic ocean on its maiden voyage.

About 700 people are believed to have survived the sinking, one of the worst maritime disasters ever.

Christie's said earlier that a similar life-vest sold in London in 2007 for 119,000 dollars, and put the value of the vest at between 60,000 and 80,000 dollars.

It is the first Titanic life-jacket to go on sale in the United States, and Christie's says the ties have not been cut, meaning it was probably not taken from a body but found on an isolated beach after the disaster.

The Christie's auction, dedicated to the history of transatlantic ocean liners, included 257 lots of items that included dish sets, maps, ship logs and various objects related to navigation.

A 1935 lithograph of the French passenger ship "Normandie" by Adolphe Mouron Cassandre was sold for 22,500 dollars.

A 1935 scale model of the "Normandie" went for 10,625 dollars, while a pair of lamps from the deck of the ocean liner" France" went for 625 dollars.

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London (ANTARA News/afp) - UFO enthusiasts got a boost Friday when Welsh police confirmed that one of their helicopter crews had spotted an "unusual aircraft" flying over Cardiff earlier this month.

An investigation into the sighting had been launched, they said.

The police clarification came after tabloid newspaper The Sun reported a UFO had "attacked" a police helicopter, following it for several miles over the Bristol Channel.

"The pilot banked sharply to avoid being hit, then launched into a high-speed pursuit. But he was forced to give up the chase as the helicopter's fuel ran low -- and the UFO escaped," the tabloid reported.

The helicopter crew had described the object as "flying saucer-shaped and circled by flashing lights," it added.

That description was rather more dramatic than the official police version, which said: "South Wales Police can confirm its air support unit sighted an unusual aircraft.

"This was reported to the relevant authorities for their investigation," they added in a brief statement, avoiding the use of the term "UFO", or Unidentified Flying Object.

At the time of the incident, the helicopter with three men on board was waiting to land at the St Athan RAF base near Cardiff. The sighting reportedly took place at 00:40 am (23:40 GMT) on June 8.

South Wales Police denied there was a pursuit and indicated that the helicopter crew was never in any danger.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said it had heard nothing about the incident.

"But it is certainly not advisable for police helicopters to go chasing what they think are UFOs," he added.

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Cape Canaveral, Fla. (ANTARA News/Reuters) - The U.S. space shuttle Discovery landed at its home port on Saturday, wrapping up a mission that gave Japan a permanent toehold in space and setting NASA up for its next mission -- a high-profile servicing call to the Hubble Space Telescope.

Shuttle commander Mark Kelly steered the spacecraft through pockets of thin clouds as it slowed from a top speed of 17,500 miles per hour (28,000 km per hour) in orbit to under the speed of sound just short of the runway at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Discovery touched down at 11:15 a.m. EDT (1515 GMT) on a canal-lined landing strip to complete NASA`s 123rd shuttle mission. Just 10 flights, including one in October to the Hubble telescope, remain before the shuttle fleet is retired in 2010.

Discovery returns with its cargo hold nearly empty after delivering the main section of Japan`s elaborate Kibo laboratory to the International Space Station.

The 32-ton module was so big, Discovery didn`t have room to carry an inspection boom used to scour the spacecraft`s body for damage caused during launch, and had to borrow one left aboard the station by the previous shuttle crew in March.

Checking shuttles for damage before they return to Earth has become a routine part of missions since NASA lost Columbia in 2003. Seven astronauts died when the ship broke apart as it headed toward landing in Florida.

In addition to installing Kibo, the seven-member Discovery crew delivered a new pump for the station`s broken toilet and prepared the $100 billion orbital outpost for a crew of six, rather than the current three, beginning next year.

The shuttle also ferried a new station crewmember, Greg Chamitoff, to replace Garrett Reisman, who returned aboard Discovery after a three-month mission.
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Amsterdam (ANTARA News/dpa) - On June 12 and 13 scientists plan to gather in the southern Dutch city of Maastricht to discuss the possibility that human beings will increasingly engage in personal and even romantic relationships with robots in the coming decades.

Academics from Austria, Canada, the Netherlands, Ireland, Singapore, the US and Britain are due to deliver some 20 presentations.

The conference, organized by the University of Maastricht, follows the PhD dissertation Intimate Relationships with Artificial Partners by Scottish chess player David Levy, 63, completed at the same university in October 2007.

A commercial edition of the dissertation, entitled Love and Sex with Robots, was published shortly.

In his dissertation, Levy claims human beings will increasingly develop personal relations with robots.

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