For the first time in centuries, compasses in Greenwich are about to point directly at true north:

an epic coincidence of time and magnetism that hasn't taken place for some 360 years.

This serendipitous occurrence – which is set to occur within the next fortnight – serves as a
startling reminder of how Earth's magnetic north pole is constantly wandering, unlike the fixed
'true north' of Earth's geographic north pole.

The angular difference between those two different points is called magnetic declination, and
while the gap might not be something ordinary people spend a great deal of time thinking about,
it's a disparity that can last for centuries at a time.

For hundreds of years now in the UK, due to Earth's shifting magnetic north pole, declination has
been negative, meaning compass needles have been pointing west of true north.

But nothing lasts forever. The agonic – an invisible line that connects Earth's north and south
magnetic poles (and which represents zero declination wherever it passes through) – has been
moving westward at approximately 20 kilometres (about 12 miles) per year.

At that rate, it's set to pass through Greenwich this month – the historic site of the Greenwich
Royal Observatory – making history in the process.

"At some point in September, the agonic will meet zero longitude at Greenwich," says
geomagnetism researcher Ciaran Beggan from the British Geological Survey (BGS).

"This marks the first time since the Observatory's creation that the geographic and geomagnetic
coordinate systems have coincided at this location."

As fate would have it, it was a coincidence that when the Royal Observatory was founded in the
late 17th century – at the decree of King Charles II – compasses in Greenwich also pointed directly
at true north, due to zero declination.

Ever since then, constant variations in the position of Earth's magnetic north pole due to changes
in the composition of Earth's molten outer core have seen the agonic keep shifting.

It's a phenomenon that's expected to endure well past this September's circumstantial
synchronicity (from the perspective of compass users in Greenwich, at least).

"The agonic will continue to pass across the UK over the next 15 to 20 years," Beggan says.

"By 2040, all compasses will probably point eastwards of true north."

As for the more distant future beyond that, scientists' ability to foresee the magnetic movements
are limited.

"It is, at present, impossible to predict how the magnetic field will change over decades to
centuries," Beggan says, "so the compass may well point east of true north for another 360 years
in the UK."

https://www.sciencealert.com/compasses-are-about-to-do-something-that-hasn-t-happened-in-
over-300-years
US public health officials warned Americans who aren't already smokers to avoid e-cigarettes and
other vaping devices after a mysterious outbreak of a severe lung disease emerged in recent
weeks, which has sickened at least 215 people across 25 states and been linked to at least one
death.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) are working with state health departments to try to figure out what is causing the damage,
which they say has been tied to vaping.

In many cases, patients reported using products that included cannabis or THC, the active
ingredient in marijuana, before falling ill. The agencies also cautioned against altering commercial
devices or consuming home-brew substances.

"Anyone who uses e-cigarette products should not buy these products off the street and should
not modify e-cigarette products or add any substances to these products that are not intended by
the manufacturer," CDC Director Robert Redfield and acting FDA Commissioner Ned Sharpless said
in the statement.

"Regardless of the ongoing investigation, e-cigarette products should not be used by youth, young
adults, pregnant women, as well as adults who do not currently use tobacco products."

The recommendation echoes that of Kevin Burns, the chief executive officer of Juul Labs Inc., who
was blunt in his advice to current non-smokers in an interview with CBS This Morning.

"Don't vape," he said earlier this week, addressing people who don't currently use tobacco. "Don't
use Juul. Don't start using nicotine if you don't have a pre-existing relationship with nicotine. Don't
use the product. You are not our target consumer."

Many people believe vaping is safer than traditional cigarettes and tobacco, which kill 8 million
people each year due to cancer, health disease and other conditions, according to the World
Health Organization.

E-cigarettes are seen as an alternative that could help smokers quit and save lives, though health
officials are still working to understand their side effects and risks as they become more and more
popular.

Altria Group Inc., the tobacco company that sells Marlboro cigarettes, is a major investor in closely
held Juul. Shares of Altria were down 1.5 percent at 1:46 pm in New York.

Lung Symptoms

The emergence of symptoms in patients with severe lung damage hasn't always followed a
consistent pattern. Many reported a slow buildup before they were hospitalized, including
difficulty breathing, shortness of breath and chest pain.

Others appeared to have a virus, including fevers and fatigue, or gastrointestinal issues like
vomiting and diarrhea.

It's not yet clear if there is a common cause or if patients are suffering from different conditions
with similar symptoms, the officials said.
Public health authorities are investigating the brands and types of e-cigarette products used by the
patients, where they were obtained, and whether any of them would fall under the FDA's
regulatory authority. They asked health-care providers to report any cases of severe pulmonary
disease in patients who had used e-cigarettes within the past three months to state or local health
departments.

"More information is needed to better understand whether there's a relationship between any
specific products or substances and the reported illnesses," the officials said.

"At this time, there does not appear to be one product involved in all of the cases, although THC
and cannabinoids use has been reported in many cases."

The lung illnesses aren't the only health concerns being investigated that are linked to e-cigarettes.

The FDA is probing 127 reports it's received of vaping associated with seizures, an inquiry the
agency started after receiving reports from a young adult and the parents of two teens who used
devices they said were sold by Juul Labs Inc.

https://www.sciencealert.com/health-officials-warn-non-smokers-to-avoid-e-cigarettes-amid-
outbreak-of-lung-disease

The inhabitants of the Movile Cave are like no others. The “otherworldly” conditions of this
Romanian cave, just a few miles west from the Black Sea, have been sealed up for around 5.5
million years. Although the air is poisonous and unbearably humid, this cocktail of factors has
created a goldmine for biologists.

Fewer than 100 people have ever delved into the cave, according to BBC Earth. It was only
discovered by humans in 1986, when workers of the Socialist Republic of Romania were looking
for new ground to build a nuclear power plant. Nowadays, it is blocked off by the authorities and
only accessible with special permission, although the central caverns are naturally “guarded” by a
series of vertical shafts and narrow limestone tunnels.

Once in the depths of the cave, the air contains half of the amount of oxygen than usual and is
high in carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide. It is also pitch black and hasn’t seen sunlight for at
least 5.5 million years.

The location of the cave. Google Maps

But within this harsh environment, scientists have so far identified 48 species. Among the
creatures are an array of spiders, water scorpions, pseudoscorpions, centipedes, leeches, and
isopods – 33 of which are totally unique to this one cave.

Most of the creatures in the cave have no vision and lack pigment. After all, who needs sight or to
be pretty in the pitch darkness? They’re also, on the whole, a spindly bunch, with extra-long limbs
and antennae that help them navigate in the darkness.

https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/prehistoric-cave-still-holds-some-worlds-
weirdest-creatures/
It was found along the side of a road in a remote Australian gold rush town. In the old days,
Wedderburn was a hotspot for prospectors – it occasionally still is – but nobody there had ever
seen a nugget quite like this one.

The Wedderburn meteorite, found just north-east of the town in 1951, was a small 210-gram
chunk of strange-looking space rock that fell out of the sky. For decades, scientists have been
trying to decipher its secrets, and researchers just decoded another.

In a new study led by Caltech mineralogist Chi Ma, scientists analysed the Wedderburn meteorite
and verified the first natural occurrence of what they call 'edscottite': a rare form of iron-carbide
mineral that's never been found in nature.

Since the Wedderburn meteorite's spacey origins were first identified, the distinctive black-and-
red rock has been examined by numerous research teams – to the extent that only about one-
third of the original specimen still remains intact, held within the geological collection at Museums
Victoria in Australia.

The rest has been taken away in a series of slices, extracted to analyse what the meteorite is made
from. Those analyses have revealed traces of gold and iron, along with rarer minerals such as
kamacite, schreibersite, taenite, and troilite. Now we can add edscottite to that list.

The edscottite discovery – named in honour of meteorite expert and cosmochemist Edward Scott
from the University of Hawaii – is significant because never before have we confirmed that this
distinct atomic formulation of iron carbide mineral occurs naturally.

Such a confirmation is important, because it's a pre-requisite for minerals to be officially

recognised as such by the International Mineralogical Association (IMA).

A synthetic version of the iron carbide mineral has been known about for decades – a phase
produced during iron smelting.

But thanks to the new analysis by Chi Ma and UCLA geophysicist Alan Rubin, edscottite is now an
official member of the IMA's mineral club, which is more exclusive than you might think.

"We have discovered 500,000 to 600,000 minerals in the lab, but fewer than 6,000 that nature's
done itself," Museums Victoria senior curator of geosciences Stuart Mills, who wasn't involved
with the new study, told The Age.

As for how this sliver of natural edscottite ended up just outside of rural Wedderburn can't be
known for sure, but according to planetary scientist Geoffrey Bonning from Australian National
University, who wasn't involved with the study, the mineral could have formed in the heated,
pressurised core of an ancient planet.

Long ago, this ill-fated, edscottite-producing planet could have suffered some kind of colossal
cosmic collision – involving another planet, or a moon, or an asteroid – and been blasted apart,
with the fragmented chunks of this destroyed world being flung across time and space, Bonning
told The Age.

Millions of years later, the thinking goes, one such fragment landed by chance just outside
Wedderburn – and our understanding of the Universe is the richer for it.
https://www.sciencealert.com/mineral-never-seen-in-nature-found-buried-in-heart-of-
mysterious-meteorite

In 2017, Facebook announced that it was working on a brain-computer interface that designed to
let users type by simply thinking words. And today, the company revealed for the first time how
far it’s come in its quest to make such a device a reality.

“Imagine a world where all the knowledge, fun, and utility of today’s smartphones were instantly
accessible and completely hands-free,” reads a Facebook blog post from today. “Where you could
connect with others in a meaningful way, regardless of external distractions, geographic
constraints, and even physical disabilities and limitations.”

The meat of today’s announcement: Facebook says it’s collaborating with researchers at the
University of California in San Francisco to build a device that could help patients with neurological
damage speak again by analyzing their brain activity in real time.

In an article published in the journal Nature Communications today, the team of researchers
shared their latest progress on such a device.

In the experiments, they asked participants a question and directed them to say the answer out
loud. By examining readings from high-density electrocorticography monitors — electrodes that
are surgically implanted directly on the surface of the brain — they could figure out the answer
with accuracy rates “as high as 61 percent” by looking at brain signals alone.

The researchers claim that their results “demonstrate real-time decoding of speech in an
interactive, conversational setting, which has important implications for patients who are unable
to communicate.”

But there are plenty of areas that still need work — especially considering the researchers’ goal of
“real-time decoding speed of 100 words per minute with a 1,000-word vocabulary and word error
rate of less than 17 percent,” according to Facebook.

During the initial trials, the vocabulary of possible answers was extremely limited and the success
rate leaves plenty of room for improvement.

And then there’s the invasiveness of surgically placing electrodes directly on the surface of the
brain — a very different model than a sleek headset that’s meant for mainstream consumers.

But Facebook’s Research Lab is already exploring a promising alternative: infrared. By measuring
blood oxygenation levels, Facebook believes that it can create a less bulky — and far less invasive
— brain-computer interface.

In other words, Facebook isn’t going to get inside your thoughts any time soon. A device that can
allow us all to move a mouse, type Facebook comments, and play games with our thoughts alone
is still many years, if not decades, out.

And it’s also bound to raise plenty of questions concerning privacy. Our thoughts are one of the
last safe havens that have yet to be exploited by data hoarding big tech companies.
“To me the brain is the one safe place for freedom of thought, of fantasies, and for dissent,” Nita
Farahany, a professor at Duke University who specializes in neuro-ethics, told MIT Technology
Review. “We’re getting close to crossing the final frontier of privacy in the absence of any
protections whatsoever.”

https://futurism.com/facebook-mind-reading-headset

They have a problem with everything from its methodology to its analysis.

On Monday, a team of Canadian scientists published a new study claiming a link between fluoride
and a decrease in childhood IQ — and the science community was quick to stomp all over it.

Some backstory: In 1945, Grand Rapids, Mich., agreed to host a first-of-its-kind experiment in
which it would add fluoride to its public water supply in the hopes that the chemical would
strengthen residents’ teeth.

And that’s exactly what it did — by 1955, the city saw 65 percent reduction in tooth decay.

The practice of fluoridating public water soon spread across the U.S. and beyond, and today, more
than two-thirds of Americans get a boost of fluoride any time they drink water from their taps.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention eventually named water fluoridation one of the 10
great public health achievements of the twentieth century, placing it alongside the likes of
vaccinations and birth control.

Needless to say, the scientific community was bound to look at any research casting doubts on the
benefits of fluoridation with a bit of extra scrutiny — and to many scientists, this new study, which
was published in the peer-reviewed journal JAMA Pediatrics, just doesn’t hold up to it.

For the study, the Canadian researchers recorded the level of fluoride in the urine of 299 pregnant
people three times during the course of their pregnancies. They also had those people record the
amount of tap water they drank daily.

Then, when the children those people gave birth to were between three and four years old, the
researchers tested the kids’ IQs and concluded that “maternal exposure to higher levels of fluoride
during pregnancy was associated with lower IQ scores in children aged 3 to 4 years.”

Specifically, the researchers determined that a 1-mg/L increase in urinary fluoride could be
associated with a 4.5 point reduction in a male child’s IQ score — the IQ scores of female children,
however, didn’t show this same association.

When the researchers focused just on the parents’ self-reported fluoride intake, however, they
found an association of a 3.7 point IQ decrease in both boys and girls.

Cue the backlash.

Some scientists tore into the researchers’ decision to separate the male and female findings.

“This is an example of subgroup analysis,” Thom Baguley, an experimental psychology professor at

Nottingham Trent University, said in a statement, “which is frowned upon in these kinds of studies
because it is nearly always possible to identify some subgroup which shows an effect if the data
are noisy.”

Others found fault with their decision to test urine levels, which can change quickly, and not
fluoride intake directly.

“[A]s the authors acknowledge, maternal intake of fluoride has not been validated,” Alastair Hay, a
professor emeritus of environmental toxicology at the University of Leeds, said in another
statement. “I see this as a crucial failure.”

Despite the criticism, however, the researchers are standing by their work.

“We tried to be as cautious and careful as possible,” researcher Rivka Green told Science. “We’re
not coming in saying that fluoride is poison or anything like that. We’re just… letting the data tell
the story.”

That may be the case — but according to Green’s peers, it’s a story with an unacceptable number
of plot holes.

https://futurism.com/neoscope/fluoride-lower-iq-study-backlash

Our ability to live a long life is influenced by a combination of our genes and our environment. In
studies that involve identical twins, scientists have estimated that no more than 30% of this
influence comes from our genes, meaning that the largest group of factors that control how long a
person lives is their environment.

Of the many possible environmental factors, few have been as thoroughly studied or debated as
our diet. Calorie restriction, for example, is one area that is being investigated. So far, studies
seem to show that restricting calories can increase lifespan, at least in small creatures. But what
works for mice doesn’t necessarily work for humans.

What we eat – as opposed to how much we eat – is also a hot topic to study and meat
consumption is often put under the microscope. A study that tracked almost 100,000 Americans
for five years found that non-meat eaters were less likely to die – of any cause – during the study
period than meat eaters. This effect was especially noticeable in males.

Some meta-analyses, which combine and re-analyse data from several studies, have also shown
that a diet low in meat is associated with greater longevity and that the longer a person sticks to a
meat-free diet, the greater the benefit. Not all studies agree, however. Some show very little or
even no difference at all in longevity between meat eaters and non-meat eaters.

What is clear is evidence that meat-free diets can reduce the risk of developing health problems
such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and even cancer. There is some evidence to suggest
that vegan diets possibly offer added protection above a standard vegetarian diet. These findings
are far easier to interpret as they report the actual event of being diagnosed with a health
problem rather than death from any cause.

So can we confidently say that avoiding meat will increase your lifespan? The simple answer is: not
yet.
The problem with longevity

The first thing that is clear is that, compared with most other creatures, humans live for a very
long time. This makes it very difficult to run studies that measure the effect of anything on
longevity (you’d have difficulty finding a scientist willing to wait 90 years for a study to complete).
Instead scientists either look back at existing health records or recruit volunteers for studies that
use shorter time periods, measuring death rates and looking to see which group, on average, was
mostly likely to die first. From this data, claims are made about the effect certain activities have on
longevity, including avoiding meat.

There are problems with this approach. First, finding a link between two things – such as eating
meat and an early death – doesn’t necessarily mean one thing caused the other. In other words:
correlation does not equal causation. It may appear that vegetarianism and longevity are related
but a different variable may explain the link. It could be that vegetarians exercise more, smoke less
and drink less alcohol than their meat eating counterparts, for example.

Nutrition studies also rely on volunteers accurately and truthfully recording their food intake. But
this can’t be taken for granted. Studies have shown that people tend to underreport calorie intake
and overreport healthy food consumption. Without actually controlling the diet of groups of
people and measuring how long they live, it is difficult to have absolute confidence in findings.

So should I avoid meat for a long and healthy life? The key to healthy ageing probably does lie in
controlling our environment, including what we eat. From the available evidence it is possible that
eating a meat-free diet can contribute to this, and that avoiding meat in your diet could certainly
increase your chances of avoiding disease as you age. But there’s certainly also evidence to
suggest that this really might work in tandem with avoiding some clearer risks to longevity
including smoking.

https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/who-lives-longest-meat-eaters-or-vegetarians/