When Can We Say That A Person Is Actually Dead?

For much of his life, Blair Bigham saw the line between life and death as something irrefutable.

As he worked as a paramedic in the Toronto area for a decade, Bigham saw life as something simple: oxygen flown into the lungs, where it would be absorbed by blood, and then pumped around to cells that it would break it down, along with the glucose taken in from the gut, and finally, down to create microscopic bits of energy needed to power life.

Likewise, Bigham also saw death as something simple: it happens when energy is no longer generated, the batteries are drained, and the lights finally go out.

"I had pronounced dozens of people dead. In particularly horrific cases, when someone had, for example, been the victim of a house fire or blunt-force head trauma, I didn’t even need to check a pulse. The pallid colour of the skin, the emptiness of the eyes, and the body’s acquiescence to gravity said it all."

But his way of thinking was challenged when he started medical school in 2012.

"In the hospital, people seemed to die, well, slower than they did in the field. There were often no car accidents or bullets or torn aortas that I could point to as the cause of their demise. Death was no longer sudden. Instead, I tended to people who were dying—a process that could take days, weeks, months, or even years. The line between life and death started to feel blurry. When I started working in the intensive-care unit (ICU) as a senior medical student, that line became even harder to bring into focus."

On his journey as a medical student, Bigham would come across a case that he would never forget, and he would never see death as something simple again.

Find out more of this story over at The Walrus.

(Image Credit: Pixabay)

By Franzified

How Former U-2 Pilot Ross Franquemont Captured a Time Lapse Composite of an Eclipse

Image credit: Ross Franquemont

We seldom get to see a total solar eclipse as it happens and it's even harder to take a photo of one because you would need special equipment and the right timing just to capture that perfect moment when the Sun, Moon, and Earth align. Not to mention, you have to be careful not to expose yourself directly to the sun for too long or risk getting "eclipse blindness" or retinal burns.

But there are ways in which one can get a picture perfect shot of a total solar eclipse. However, you would need to go way up in the sky just to be at the right position. Luckily for Lieutenant Colonel Ross Franquemont, a former U-2 pilot, that chance came during the Great American Eclipse in 2017.

 In 2015, I saw a video of a total solar eclipse taken from an Alaskan Air flight over the Pacific. 

I learned that an astronomer had written to Alaskan Air convincing them to slightly alter the aircraft’s course and departure time so it would fly through the eclipse. 

I thought, Wouldn’t it be cool if I could fly through an eclipse? Then I remembered that I do fly airplanes and could probably make that happen.

By Jeremiah

Turning Algae into Biofuel in a Quicker and More Efficient Way

Image credit: lasaa/Pixabay

With increasingly warmer oceans, we should expect to have more algal blooms and see more algae floating on the ocean's surface which would make it somewhat risky to get in the water. However, algae also have benefits to us humans in the form of biofuel.

Despite this though, it takes more time and energy to turn them into fuel so there's no point. Until a group of researchers found a quicker and more efficient way of converting algae into a more eco-friendly source of fuel.

This year, the University of Utah scientists discovered a faster way to turn algae into fuel. Algae is filled with lipids that we can feed our energy-hungry diesel engines. The problem is extracting the lipids, which usually requires more energy to transform than the actual energy we’d get – not achieving what scientists call “energy parity.”

But now, the University of Utah team has discovered a new mix that is more efficient and much faster. We can now extract more power from algae with less waste materials after the fact. 

Paper co-author Dr. Leonard Pease says, “We have removed a significant development barrier to make algal biofuel production more efficient and smarter. Our method puts us much closer to creating biofuels energy parity than we were before.”

By Jeremiah 

The Most Powerful Laptop In The World

Three weeks ago, at the IFA 2019, ASUS unveiled the ProArt Studio Book One, a laptop which boasts a ridiculous 24 GB graphics processing unit, making it the most graphically-powerful laptop ever.

That power come[s] from a mobile version of Nvidia’s Quadro RTX 6000, the desktop versions of which were unveiled at SIGGRAPH last year. Built on the Turing architecture, the main gimmick of this GPU is real-time ray tracing, which is claimed to trace the path of light through virtual scenes and produce realistic reflection, refraction and scattering.  

With 24 GB of this graphical grunt, that makes the ProArt StudioBook One the most powerful laptop around by quite a wide margin. The runner-up title also belongs to Nvidia, with laptops packing the 16 GB Quadro RTX 5000 which came out earlier this year.

A 24 GB GPU might look like overkill even for gamers, but this laptop is not for them — this laptop is for professional animators, engineers, and data scientists as they crunch massive datasets, edit 8k video, and produce detailed 3D animations.

The ProArt Studio Book One does more than boast for its monster of a GPU; it also has other high-end specs worth boasting about. 

It’s powered by an Intel Core i9 2.4 GHz octacore processor and 32 GB of RAM, contains 1 TB of SSD storage, and is topped off with a 15.6-inch 4K screen. 

[...]  

There’s no word on availability or pricing for the ProArt StudioBook One just yet, but considering the Quadro RTX 6000 itself carries a price tag of over US$3,500, it’s a fair bet that it won’t come cheap.

Image Credit: ASUS

By Franzified

Technostress: The Type Of Stress That May Plague Social Media Users

Looking forward to the weekend so that you can turn your smartphone off? If you answered “yes” to this question, then you might be suffering from social media “technostress”.

Technostress is defined as a type of stress that we experience through our use of information systems. This type of stress is really dangerous, as it can suck you into a never ending loop.

You’d think an obvious response to this problem would be to stop using our devices or deleting the apps. But we have recently published research showing that, when faced with this pressure, many of us end up digging deeper and using our phones more frequently, often compulsively or even addictively.

When we are faced with a stressful social situation, such as an argument with a person — we cope by distancing ourselves from that situation. However, when these situations come up from our use of social media, it seems that people adapt one from two very different coping strategies.

We surveyed 444 Facebook users from Germany three times over a year to find out how they responded to social media technostress. Sometimes, as we might have expected, they diverted or distracted themselves with unrelated activities such as hobbies. But counter-intuitively, we found it was more common for people to distract themselves by using social media even more.

Find out more about the study over at The Conversation.


Image Credit: mohamed_hassan/ Pixabay

By Franzified

When Extreme Picky Eating Leads To Undesirable Consequences

Eating potato chips and other junk foods may be okay if eaten in moderation. It is entirely a different story, however, if your diet only consisted of those foods. It would lead to undesirable consequences. Such is the case of this UK teenager. His unusual diet has led to chronic nutritional deficiencies, which left him blind and deaf. It is believed that this is the first case in the UK of a person going blind and deaf due to junk food diet.

Published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the case report says that the boy visited his family doctor when he was 14 years old, complaining that he was experiencing fatigue. The boy back then was not taking medications, and he seemed healthy. He described himself as a “fussy eater”, however, and “tests showed that he was low in vitamin B12 and had anemia.” He was prescribed with injections of the vitamin and was advised how to eat a proper diet.

His condition worsened a year later, as he developed hearing loss and was sent to another doctor, and he would soon after start having vision problems.

But tests at the time, including brain scans and standard eye exams, didn’t reveal any underlying physical causes. Over the next two years, his vision continued to worsen, and by the time he saw an eye specialist, he was diagnosed with damage to his optic nerves.

Again, tests looking for a possible explanation like a hereditary disease came up short—but a more sensitive test found that he was still low in vitamin B12. And when they asked about his diet, he revealed that since he was a kid in grade school, he had flat out avoided foods with “certain textures” and almost exclusively ate chips, white bread, processed ham and sausage; he had also stopped taking vitamin B12 shots. Further tests showed that he was deficient in copper, selenium, and vitamin D too, and his bones were unusually weak with low mineral density.

The low vitamin D likely caused the weak bones, but the other deficiencies, the authors wrote, “likely contributed to the patient’s vision and hearing loss.”

Find out what happened to him next over at Gizmodo.


Image Credit: Didgeman/ Pixabay

By Franzified

Police Fulfills Dying Wish of 93-Year-Old Woman to Get Arrested

Photo courtesy: Pam Smith

There are probably many things we wish to do before we kick the bucket but one lady had such a strange request that it was so difficult to turn her down.

Josie Birds is 93 years old and her health has been failing as of late, but before she goes from this world, there was one thing she wanted to cross off her bucket list: to get arrested just once. For all her life, she hasn't committed any crime worthy to be incarcerated and the sweet grandmother must have wanted to feel what it was like to be arrested and stay in prison.

Her granddaughter, Pam Smith, saw how her grandmother really longed to have that kind of experience and she wrote to the Greater Manchester police and requested them to arrest and detain her grandmother. And in response to this letter, the police granted Gran Josie's request. Smith thanked the police for helping her fulfill her grandmother's dying wish.

Smith said that Greater Manchester police had “made an old lady very happy” by arresting her grandmother, adding: “She is quite poorly and wanted to do something like this while she still has the strength to enjoy it. She’s been good all her life (she says....) and wanted to have an experience to remember! She’s a star.”

Rest assured, while the fulfillment of the request was taking place, the GM Police didn't neglect any of their duties and continued to do their job in protecting the community. In a statement, Chief Inspector Denise Pye said that officers were still making sure that the community was safe.

On the other hand, apparently, this was not the first time that such an odd request had been given and occurred. There was another centenarian, Anne Brokenbrow, 104, who wanted to be arrested which was also obliged.

-via Twisted Sifter

By Jeremiah

What It's Like to Work as the Queen of England

Image credit: Raph_PH/Flickr

Queen Elizabeth II works very hard at her job. In fact, she only takes two days off throughout the year on Good Friday and Christmas Day. That means she has been on the job for 363 days out of 365, since the day she ascended to the throne. And consider the fact that she's already 93 years old, which means she has been working for nearly 70 years and shows no signs of stopping any time soon, that is truly an amazing feat of tenacity and dedication. But then again, that's the job of a royal.

This week Her Majesty presided over the Order of the Garter service. It is a deeply ceremonial occasion that sees senior members of the royal family including Princes Charles and William, along with 24 personally chosen knights don blue velvet capes, blingy gold chains and feathered caps for a sort of noble dress-up day at St George’s Chapel in Windsor.

It is a day steeped in pomp and ritual and which dates back to 1348. The service has been held annually since 1948 which means that the Queen has overseen 67 of these feathered, fancy shindigs in her role as Sovereign of the Garter.

Compared to her contemporaries, the queen is probably the most steadfast and unrelenting head of state we have today. She has seen several wars and various events that shook the world, politically, economically, and even culturally. But she has stayed pretty unfazed through them all.

And though one might think that her job only consists of meeting and having tea with dignitaries, diplomats, and other important people, it's not an easy job for one person. To have to sit through every gala, party, or event and make small talk would be draining for anyone but the Queen's resolve is unwavering which makes her all the more admirable. Perhaps, a trait that's not as common in diplomats, officials, or even in heads of state nowadays.

Not only that but the Queen also has to deal with tons of paperwork and to review foreign policies so as to keep abreast with all the latest developments in the world. Not to mention she has to be up to date with everything that's going on in her own country, what with all the Brexit brouhaha and other domestic matters. All in all, the Queen is a powerhouse, one of the last remaining monarchs of a bygone age, yet still able to adapt and cope with the fast-paced movement of the world.

By Jeremiah

The Dancing Galaxies of Stephan's Quintet

Image credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble; Processing: Daniel Nobre

Out of the numerous galaxies found in space, Stephan's Quintet shown above is the first cluster of galaxies ever to be discovered. First seen by Edouard Stephan in 1877 at the Marseille Observatory, it features four bright yellowish galaxies and one outlying, faintly bluish galaxy with a reddish core.

It's not visibly apparent but only four of these galaxies have constant interaction with one another causing them to be distorted by their gravitational forces.

The odd galaxy out is easy to spot in this recently reprocessed image by the Hubble Space Telescope -- the interacting galaxies, NGC 7319, 7318B, 7318A, and 7317 (left to right), have a more dominant yellowish cast. They also tend to have distorted loops and tails, grown under the influence of disruptive gravitational tides.

NGC 7320, the bluish galaxy, is actually seven times closer to Earth than the others. The other four namely NGC 7317, 7318A, 7318B, and 7319 actively engage in a cosmic tango of sorts.

Upon closer inspection, scientists are saying that some of these galaxies may have started interacting with each other about a billion years ago. At some point, they also say that the cluster of four, collectively known as the Hickson Compact Group 92, would merge with one another.

Data and modeling indicate that NGC 7318B is a relatively new intruder. A recently-discovered halo of old red stars surrounding Stephan's Quintet indicate that at least some of these galaxies started tangling over a billion years. Stephan's Quintet is visible with a moderate sized-telescope toward the constellation of Winged Horse (Pegasus).

By Jeremiah 

Into Our Neighbor Galaxy: The N11 and the NGC 1763

(Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Josh Lake)

Located at some 200,000 light years from Earth is the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), the Milky Way’s satellite galaxy. In here we can find the N11, the brightest emission nebula of the LMC. As we explore the N11, we can find this emission nebula that looks like cotton candy: the NGC 1763, where there are numerous massive stars and mountains of dust. As you can see in this image, compact globules of dark dust house numerous young stars.

The cosmos will always be a magnificent spectacle. Words alone may not be enough to describe its complexity and beauty. It is amazing how much of the universe is still yet to be seen and discovered.

The image above is taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and is reprocessed artistically by Josh Lake, an amateur who won Hubble’s Hidden Treasures competition — a competition where artists reprocess photos that have been taken by the Hubble and have never been seen by the public.

The N11 is only the second largest emission nebula in the LMC, next to the Tarantula Nebula.


Fun Fact:

A new study of variable stars in the LMC with Hubble has helped to recalibrate the distance scale of the observable universe, but resulted in a slightly different scale than found using the pervasive cosmic microwave background.

By Franzified

Titan: One of The Most Intriguing Objects in the Solar System

(Image Credit: NASA, ESA, JPL, SSI, Cassini Imaging Team)

The black circular object that you see in the middle of this picture is Saturn’s largest moon: Titan. This moon is bigger than our Moon here on Earth, and it’s also bigger than the planet Mercury. It is one of the most interesting objects in the entire Solar System. It is the only moon in the entire Solar System with a dense atmosphere, and, like Earth, it has “standing bodies of liquid, including rivers, lakes and seas, on its surface”. Titan’s atmosphere is like Earth as well, which is primarily nitrogen (with a small amount of methane).

It is the sole other place in the solar system known to have an earthlike cycle of liquids raining from clouds, flowing across its surface, filling lakes and seas, and evaporating back into the sky (akin to Earth’s water cycle). Titan is also thought to have a subsurface ocean of water.

At first glance, this looks like a solar eclipse, but this really isn’t. The bright ring that wraps around the dark circular object (which is Titan), is Titan’s own double haze. It is interesting to note that most moons don’t have haze layer, but Titan gets two of those, to add to its own thick atmosphere. This fact makes this moon really intriguing.

The small circular object found near Titan’s haze is Enceladus, another moon of Saturn. Finally, the thick line in front of Titan is the well-known rings of Saturn.

By Franzified