EXCLUSIVE Scientists probing 'alien' mummies make shocking discovery inside womb of corpse
Dozens of mummified bodies were found in the Nazca desert in 2017 by journalist and ufologist Jaime Maussan, sparking years of investigation into their origins.
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Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Study: Avoiding ultra-processed foods while dieting can double weight loss
By Consuming a diet low in ultra-processed foods could help supercharge weight loss , promising research suggested today. Additive-laden foods such as crisps and sweets have been vilified for decades over their supposed risks, with dozens of studies linking them to type 2 diabetes , heart disease and cancer . Experts have even called for UPFs—typically anything edible that has more artificial ingredients than natural ones—to be slashed from diets. Now, British scientists who tracked dozens of adults have discovered those who ate a diet rich in minimally processed foods and avoided UPFs, lost twice as much weight as those who often consumed UPFs. Sticking to meals cooked from scratch could also help curb food cravings, they also found. However, diets high in UPFs had little impact on blood pressure, heart rate, liver function and cholesterol. 'But not all ultra-processed foods are inherently unhealthy based on their nutritional profile.' In the study, the researchers tracked 50 people who were already consuming diets packed with UPFs and split them into two groups. Half were given an eight-week diet plan comprising minimally processed foods, such as overnight oats and spaghetti bolognese, while the other half were given foods like breakfast oat bars or lasagne ready meals. After completing one diet, the groups then switched. Researchers matched the two diets nutritionally on levels of fat, saturated fat, protein, carbohydrates, salt and fibre using the Eatwell Guide, which outlines recommendations on how to eat a healthy, balanced diet. They found those on the minimally processed diet lost more weight (2.06 per cent) compared to the UPF diet (1.05 per cent loss). The UPF diet also did not result in significant fat loss, the researchers said. Dr Dicken added: 'Though a 2 per cent reduction may not seem very big, that is only over eight weeks and without people trying to actively reduce their intake. 'If we scaled these results up over the course of a year, we'd expect to see a 13 per cent weight reduction in men and a 9 per cent reduction in women on the minimally processed diet, but only a 4 per cent weight reduction in men and 5 per cent in women after the ultra-processed diet. 'Over time this would start to become a big difference.' Those on the trial were also asked to complete questionnaires on food cravings before and after starting the diets. Those eating minimally processed foods had less cravings and were able to resist them better, the study suggests. However, researchers also measured others markers like blood pressure, heart rate, liver function, glucose levels and cholesterol and found no significant negative impacts of the UPF diet. The Eatwell Guide recommends the average woman should consume around 2,000 calories a day, while an average man should consume 2,500. Both diet groups had a calorie deficit, meaning people were eating fewer calories than what they were burning, which helps with weight loss. However, the deficit was higher from minimally processed foods at around 230 calories a day, compared with 120 calories per day from UPFs. Professor Rachel Batterham, senior author of the study from the UCL centre for obesity research, said: 'Despite being widely promoted, less than 1 per cent of the UK population follows all of the recommendations in the Eatwell Guide, and most people stick to fewer than half. 'The best advice to people would be to stick as closely to nutritional guidelines as they can by moderating overall energy intake, limiting intake of salt, sugar and saturated fat, and prioritizing high-fibre foods such as fruits, vegetables, pulses and nuts. Tracy Parker, nutrition lead at the British Heart Foundation, also said: 'The way this study was designed means it is more reflective of real-world conditions than previous research on UPFs. 'The small size of the study is a limitation, and the fact that most participants were women limits how much we can generalize the findings to the general population. 'We also can't be certain how closely the diets were followed, as participants self-reported what they ate during the study. 'Larger, longer-term studies will be needed to see if the greater weight loss on the minimally processed diets seen here translates into bigger improvements in risk factors, including blood pressure and cholesterol and blood sugar levels, and a reduced risk of developing heart and circulatory diseases.
Times
4 hours ago
- Times
Fight to save ‘most beautiful snail' from most voracious predator — us
No one knows why the Polymita snails of Cuba are so beautiful, or why their beauty is so varied. Probably, though, the array of different colours and stripes evolved as a way of avoiding predators. Which is why it is so ironic that those adornments are — today — the reason it is attracting the most voracious predator of all: us. Conservationists have warned the shells of this disappearing species are being sold to collectors, who may not even realise the snails are endangered. Now a global collaboration of scientists is looking to better understand and breed in captivity these magnificent molluscs — with the hope of preserving them. 'They are so beautiful and extraordinarily variable,' said Professor Angus Davison, from the University of Nottingham. This means that as a snail scientist he finds himself in an unusual situation. 'While all snails are interesting and beautiful to me, most snails, by and large, are not outwardly beautiful to other people.' He has been part of a team collecting samples in Cuba, with a view to mapping their DNA. He is interested in how many species there are and how they are related. It is believed that there are six, but traditional methods of counting rely heavily on intricate analysis of their genitals. The hope is that genetic data could both be more definitive, and also provide clues not contained in their penises to explain why they are like this at all. Paradoxically, said Davison, being colourful can be a way of evading predation — and this is his leading hypothesis. 'You might assume they stand out against the background. That's not necessarily true, depending on where they live.' But being very different from each other, in the way they are, could be a positive survival strategy. 'Most likely there's a bird out there that eats the snails. That bird gets a search image in its head for the most common snail — let's say it's a yellow snail. And then you get a gene change that makes a green snail. The green snail will not be eaten because the bird doesn't see them. And so the green snails will become more common. 'And then another mutation arises, which makes an orange snail. And so on.' Until, eventually, there are enough different colours that while they evade birds, they catch the eyes of tourists instead. It is illegal to collect and sell the snails, but it is hard to enforce. 'The problem is, Cuba's undergoing very great financial hardships. So there's a very great incentive for locals to collect the shells and sell them.' Davison's worry is that publicising the beauty of the snails might increase the market. His hope, though, is that educating people about them could decrease it. 'No person in the UK would buy rhino horn if offered it on a holiday. But there are people who will happily buy a shell, not even thinking about the animal or where it came from.'
The Independent
7 hours ago
- The Independent
Scientists recreate universe's first molecule to crack 13-billion-year-old mystery
Scientists have recreated the first molecule ever to form and found that it likely played a much bigger role in the birth of early stars than previously thought. The universe was unimaginably hot and dense immediately after it formed about 13.8 billion years ago, and cooled down seconds later to form the first elements, hydrogen and helium, albeit in a completely ionised form. It then took another 380,000 years for the temperature in the early universe to drop enough for neutral atoms to form by combining with free electrons to pave the way for the first chemical reactions. The first molecule created this way is thought to be helium hydride ion (HeH+), formed from a neutral helium atom and ionised hydrogen. Helium hydride's origin also marked the beginning of a chain reaction that led to the formation of molecular hydrogen (H2), which is by far the most common molecule in the universe, scientists say. Although the infant universe at this point was transparent due to the binding of free electrons, there were still no light-emitting objects, such as stars. Researchers found that this ancient helium hydride molecule helped cool the universe over a process lasting several hundred million years before the first stars ignited. Stars are powered by nuclear fusion in which light atomic nuclei combine to form a heavier nucleus, releasing a tremendous amount of energy. However, for any early contracting gas cloud of a protostar to collapse to the point where nuclear fusion can begin, heat must be dissipated via collisions between atoms and molecules, which then emit this energy in the form of photons. But below 10,000C, this process becomes ineffective for the dominant hydrogen atoms. So researchers have long considered helium hydride ions as a potentially important candidate for cooling in the formation of the first stars. These ancient molecules could facilitate further cooling by emitting additional energy through rotation and vibration, particularly at low temperatures. The concentration of helium hydride ions in the universe was likely key to the effectiveness of early star formation, the study found. New research, published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics, used a special ultra-cold lab setup to mimic conditions from over 13 billion years ago that led to the formation of these molecules. The study recreated conditions similar to those in the early universe for the first time at the Cryogenic Storage Ring (CSR) instrument at the Max-Planck-Institut fur Kernphysik – a globally unique lab set up for investigating molecular and atomic reactions under space-like conditions. In the research, scientists superimposed HeH⁺ ions stored in a 35-metre-diameter storage ring for up to just a minute at a few kelvins (-267C) with a beam of neutral hydrogen atoms. They studied how the collision rate varied with temperature and found that, contrary to earlier predictions, the rate at which this reaction proceeds does not slow down with decreasing temperature. 'Previous theories predicted a significant decrease in the reaction probability at low temperatures, but we were unable to verify this in either the experiment or new theoretical calculations by our colleagues,' said study co-author Holger Kreckel from the MPIK. The findings suggest the reactions of HeH⁺ with hydrogen were far more important for chemistry in the early universe than previously thought.
