Moment SpaceX crew launches to ISS as space station celebrates historic milestone
Three astronauts and one cosmonaut in the US-Japanese-Russian crew rocketed from NASA 's Kennedy Space Center.
Nasa hailed the milestone as a "truly global endeavour," adding that the ISS has been visited by more than 280 people from 23 countries and a variety of international and commercial spacecraft.
More than 4,000 experiments from more than 5,000 researchers in more than 110 countries have been hosted on board, the agency added.
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The Independent
8 minutes ago
- The Independent
What the heck is ‘scrumping'? Why humans are so good at digesting alcohol
Craving a glass of wine with your dinner? The dietary habits of our ape ancestors may be to blame. To better understand the relationship between humans and alcohol, researchers are studying the animals' fondness for fermented and fallen fruit, newly referred to as 'scrumping.' "Scrumping by the last common ancestor of gorillas, chimpanzees, and humans about 10 million years ago could explain why humans are so astoundingly good at digesting alcohol," Nathaniel Dominy, the Charles Hansen Professor of Anthropology at Dartmouth College, said in a statement. "We evolved to metabolize alcohol long before we ever figured out how to make it, and making it was one of the major drivers of the Neolithic Revolution that turned us from hunter-gatherers into farmers and changed the world,' he added. Fermentation is the process by which bacteria and other microorganisms break down sugars into substances such as alcohols or acids. All of the alcohol we drink is made this way. When you drink alcohol, you get drunk because you're consuming faster than your metabolism can handle. In apes, researchers said this doesn't seem to be the case. Geneticists previously reported that eating fermented fruit may have led to a biological change in the last common ancestor of humans and African apes that boosted their ability to metabolize alcohol by 40 times. However, no one had the data to test it, and scientists had not differentiated fruit in the trees from that on the ground when studying the primates since then. "It just wasn't on our radar," Dominy explained. "It's not that primatologists have never seen scrumping — they observe it pretty regularly. But the absence of a word for it has disguised its importance.' The team wanted to know what significance scrumping had for human evolution so analyzed previous research on dietary habits of orangutans, chimpanzees, and mountain and western gorillas in the wild. The studies included thousands of scans of the primates eating fruit. If an ape at ground level was recorded eating fruit known to grow in the middle or upper levels of the forest canopy, it was counted as scrumping. Of the three species, African apes were found to 'scrump' regularly, while orangutans did not. To better understand chimpanzees' alcohol consumption, the researchers will next measure the levels of fermentation in fruits in trees, versus that on the ground. The researchers said their findings confirm results of past research which had also found that the primary enzyme for metabolizing ethanol — found in alcoholic beverages — is relatively inefficient in orangutans and other non-human primates. The researchers believe that the African apes' ability to metabolize ethanol may let them safely consume a whopping 10 pounds of fruit each day. That level of intake suggests exposure to ethanol could be a significant component of chimpanzee life, and a major force of human evolution. Humans may have retained the social aspects that apes bring to scrumping, Catherine Hobaiter, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at St Andrews, said. "A fundamental feature of our relationship with alcohol is our tendency to drink together, whether a pint with friends or a large social feast," she added. "The next step is to investigate how shared feeding on fermented fruits might also influence social relationships in other apes."
Daily Mail
39 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
More radioactive wasp nests found at former US nuclear bomb site
The discovery of additional radioactive wasp nests at a former US nuclear bomb plant has raised concerns that the facility may be leaking hazardous material. Workers at the Savannah River Site (SRS) near Aiken, South Carolina, uncovered three more contaminated nests following the initial find on July 3, which was emitting radiation levels 10 times higher than federal safety limits. The Department of Energy (DOE) confirmed it is aware of the situation and stated that the nests have been sprayed, sealed in bags as radiological waste and properly disposed of. The SRS, which was established in the early 1950s, played a key role in producing plutonium and tritium for America's nuclear weapons program throughout the Cold War . A spokesperson for Savannah River Mission Completion (SRMC), the contractor responsible for site cleanup, told the Daily Mail that teams recovered dead wasps after exterminating the nests. The insects, according to the spokesperson, showed lower levels of contamination than the nests themselves. While the DOE insists there has been no leakage from nearby nuclear waste tanks, some scientists are urging caution. Dr Timothy Mousseau, a biologist at the University of South Carolina, told The New York Times that the contaminated nests suggest radioactive materials may be more widely dispersed across the area than previously believed. 'This is an indicator that there are contaminants spread across this area that have not been completely encased and protected,' Mousseau said, adding that the latest discoveries 'indicate that much greater effort must be made to assess the possible risks and hazards of what appears to be a significant source of radioactive pollutants.' SRMC said all four nests were found in F Tank Farm, an area toward the middle of the 310-square mile SRS boundary or more than five miles from the closest site boundary. The F-Area Tank Farm where the nest was found holds 22 massive underground tanks, each up to 100 feet wide and 23 feet deep, packed with between 750,000 and 1.3 million gallons of radioactive waste. Legacy contamination refers to pollution that persists in the environment from past activities, even after the original sources of contamination have ceased. 'The main concern relates to whether or not there are large areas of significant contamination that have escaped surveillance in the past,' Dr Mousseau told the New York Times , adding that the nests are a 'red flag' that should be investigated further. While SRMC said dead wasps were recently recovered, the group admitted that none were recovered after the first nest was found. However, the site's spokesperson stressed that 'nests do not pose a health risk to SRS workers, surrounding communities, or the environment. They added that the average person is exposed to about 620 millirem (mrem) of radiation each year from both natural and man-made sources. 'All of the nests were emitting less than one percent of the natural background radiation rate. Mrem is a unit of measurement for radiation dose equivalent for humans,' the spokesperson continued. However, the watchdog group Savannah River Site Watch slammed the report as 'incomplete,' saying it fails to explain the source of the contamination, how wasps were exposed or if more radioactive nests may be hidden. Tom Clements, executive director of the group, told AP: 'I'm as mad as a hornet that SRS didn't explain where the radioactive waste came from or if there is some kind of leak from the waste tanks that the public should be aware of.'
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Radiation panic at US nuclear bomb plant as more toxic wasp nests discovered
The discovery of additional radioactive wasp nests at a former US nuclear bomb plant has raised concerns that the facility may be leaking hazardous material. Workers at the Savannah River Site (SRS) near Aiken, South Carolina, uncovered three more contaminated nests following the initial find on July 3, which was emitting radiation levels 10 times higher than federal safety limits. The Department of Energy (DOE) confirmed it is aware of the situation and stated that the nests have been sprayed, sealed in bags as radiological waste and properly disposed of. The SRS, which was established in the early 1950s, played a key role in producing plutonium and tritium for America's nuclear weapons program throughout the Cold War. A spokesperson for Savannah River Mission Completion (SRMC), the contractor responsible for site cleanup, told the Daily Mail that teams recovered dead wasps after exterminating the nests. The insects, according to the spokesperson, showed lower levels of contamination than the nests themselves. While the DOE insists there has been no leakage from nearby nuclear waste tanks, some scientists are urging caution. Dr Timothy Mousseau, a biologist at the University of South Carolina, told The New York Times that the contaminated nests suggest radioactive materials may be more widely dispersed across the area than previously believed. 'This is an indicator that there are contaminants spread across this area that have not been completely encased and protected,' Mousseau said, adding that the latest discoveries 'indicate that much greater effort must be made to assess the possible risks and hazards of what appears to be a significant source of radioactive pollutants.' SRMC said all four nests were found in F Tank Farm, an area toward the middle of the 310-square mile SRS boundary or more than five miles from the closest site boundary. The F-Area Tank Farm where the nest was found holds 22 massive underground tanks, each up to 100 feet wide and 23 feet deep, packed with between 750,000 and 1.3 million gallons of radioactive waste. 'Wasp flight patterns keep them within about 200 yards of their nest typically, with a rare exception of a half of a mile from their nests,' the spokesperson explained. 'Also, the typical lifespan of these wasps is less than one month. 'The nests became contaminated by wasps that brought light contamination to the nests because of intrusion into areas with legacy contamination.' Legacy contamination refers to pollution that persists in the environment from past activities, even after the original sources of contamination have ceased. 'The main concern relates to whether or not there are large areas of significant contamination that have escaped surveillance in the past,' Dr Mousseau told the New York Times, adding that the nests are a 'red flag' that should be investigated further. While SRMC said dead wasps were recently recovered, the group admitted that none were recovered after the first nest was found. However, the site's spokesperson stressed that 'nests do not pose a health risk to SRS workers, surrounding communities, or the environment. They added that the average person is exposed to about 620 millirem (mrem) of radiation each year from both natural and man-made sources. 'All of the nests were emitting less than one percent of the natural background radiation rate. Mrem is a unit of measurement for radiation dose equivalent for humans,' the spokesperson continued. However, the watchdog group Savannah River Site Watch slammed the report as 'incomplete,' saying it fails to explain the source of the contamination, how wasps were exposed or if more radioactive nests may be hidden. Tom Clements, executive director of the group, told AP: 'I'm as mad as a hornet that SRS didn't explain where the radioactive waste came from or if there is some kind of leak from the waste tanks that the public should be aware of.'
