FAA approves return to flight for SpaceX's Starship rocket

WASHINGTON, May 22 (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration approved on Thursday SpaceX's Starship return to flight after the rocket's explosive testing mishap in March, allowing Elon Musk's space company to resume flight testing.

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The Independent

an hour ago

• The Independent

Orcas observed making seaweed tools ‘to massage each other'

Orcas, also known as killer whales, have been documented using lengths of seaweed to scratch each other's backs, a new study suggests. Researchers observed the marine mammals detaching sections of kelp and then using them to massage their companions. The process involves an orca biting off the end of a kelp stalk, positioning it between themselves and a partner, and then rolling the seaweed between their bodies for extended periods. This intriguing behaviour was detailed in a study led by the Centre for Whale Research (CWR), in collaboration with the University of Exeter. The paper, published in the journal Current Biology, is entitled: 'Wild killer whales manufacture and use allogrooming tools.' Scientists spotted the behaviour in drone footage of southern resident orcas in the Salish Sea, in the inland waters of the US state of Washington. Whales of all ages were seen partaking in the tool-making, possibly to strengthen social bonds and promote skin health, researchers suggested. CWR research director Dr Michael Weiss said researchers were 'amazed' when they first noticed the behaviour. Several whale species are known to engage in 'kelping' – moving kelp with their heads, fins and bodies – likely for play, or possibly to remove parasites and maintain healthy skin. The new discovery, dubbed 'allokelping', is different because the kelp is selected, trimmed and manipulated by two whales working together. Dr Weiss added: 'Bull kelp stalk is firm but flexible, like a filled garden hose, with a slippery outer surface. I suspect these features make it an ideal grooming tool. 'What I find remarkable about this behaviour is just how widespread it is in the population. 'Males and females of all life stages and from all three southern resident pods were seen using kelp in this way. All evidence points to it being an important part of their social lives.' The team observed allokelping on eight out of 12 days included in the study and based on their observations, suspect that this behaviour may be universal in this population. Whales were most likely to pair up to allokelp with close maternal relatives, and those of similar age. Rachel John, a masters student studying animal behaviour at the University of Exeter, said: 'This population of whales has been formally studied for 50 years – the best-studied orcas on the planet – and yet major new discoveries can still be made. 'We hadn't noticed 'allokelping' before because the videos being collected from our previous aircraft weren't of high enough quality, but the footage we're getting now shows this behaviour in great detail.' Commenting on the possible reasons for allokelping, Professor Darren Croft, of the University of Exeter and CWR's executive director, said: 'We know touch is really important. 'In primates – including humans – touch moderates stress and helps to build relationships. 'We know killer whales often make contact with other members of their group – touching with their bodies and fins – but using kelp like this might enhance this experience. 'It might also be important for skin health. Whales and dolphins have a variety of strategies to help them slough dead skin, and this may be yet another adaptation for this purpose. 'Brown algaes like bull kelp also have antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties that may provide further benefits to the whales.' Professor Croft said researchers were working to confirm the initial findings and 'investigate the social and skin health benefits of this behaviour'. Other orcas are known to rub their bodies on smooth stone beaches, possibly to remove dead skin and parasites, but the southern resident whales have not been seen doing this. Funders of the study included the UK Natural Environment Research Council and the Orca Fund, a grant making fund created by Wild Fish Conservancy and administered by the Rose Foundation for Communities and the Environment.

Medical News Today

an hour ago

• Medical News Today

Rapamycin may extend lifespan as effectively as dietary restrictions

Research is ongoing about potential strategies to prolong life. A meta-analysis found that the drug rapamycin prolongs life in several vertebrate appeared to prolong life at a level similar to dietary restrictions. How to prolong life is a key area of scientific research. Experts are interested in medications that have the potential to boost longevity.A recent meta-analysis published in Aging Cell explored how rapamycin and metformin influenced longevity among several results confirmed that dietary restriction appears to prolong life and that rapamycin offers similar benefits. Researchers also found that metformin did not seem to prolong life. More research is required to see how rapamycin might help boost longevity in people. Rapamycin: Does it increase lifespan?In this paper, researchers note that decreasing food intake without malnourishment appears to prolong life but that this strategy is difficult for people to stick to. Thus, looking into possible medications that produce similar effects is an area of research. The two medications that were the focus of this analysis were rapamycin and metformin. According to the National Cancer Institute, rapamycin has a few functions, such as being an immunosuppressant and antibiotic, and it can help people who get helps with type 2 diabetes management. This analysis involved a systematic literature search to find relevant data. The final analysis included data from 167 papers looking at eight total vertebrate species, seeking to see how both medications affected longevity and how they compared to dietary extracted information on average and median lifespan from the papers. For this analysis, the two types of dietary restriction were caloric reduction and fasting, and researchers also sought to see if the results differed based on the sex of the animals involved. The data came from animals like mice, rats, turquoise killifish, and rhesus macaques. Overall, there were more males studied than females. There was also the most data on dietary restriction, and the most common type of dietary restriction was decreasing the number of calories. Regarding dietary restriction, the findings suggested great variation regarding the effects. Overall, researchers found that dietary restriction and rapamycin had a similar impact and appeared to contribute to prolonged life. Metformin appeared to only have a minimal impact on life from one metformin model, there appeared to be no consistent differences between male and female animals regarding longevity. Study author Zahida Sultanova, PhD, a Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow with the University of East Anglia, in the United Kingdom summarized the key findings of the study to Medical News Today: 'We checked whether the two best-known 'diet-mimic' drugs increase lifespan similar to eating less in animals. By pooling data from 167 studies, we found that rapamycin is almost as reliable as eating less for increasing lifespan, whereas metformin is not. In other words, a compound that was extracted from soil bacteria 50 years ago seems able to copy many of the biological effects of a permanent diet, at least in lab animals.'Do the same benefits apply to people?This research analyzed animal data but did not include data about people. Additionally, most of these studies involved these animals in a laboratory setting and only looked at a small number of meta-analysis was also the work of only three researchers, sometimes with only one researcher doing a component of the work, which could have impacted the had the least amount of data on metformin, so more research about this medication might be helpful. They also operated under the assumption that if a paper did not specify male or female subjects, it was a mixed group, which could have been incorrect. The authors further note that the 'results were sensitive to how lifespan was reported.' Researchers also acknowledge strong publication bias and a lot of heterogeneity. Additionally, the type of measure used in study reporting affected results. In one measurement, the impact on life extension disappeared for the most part, the authors did not find a consistent difference in results based on the sex of the animals. They explain this could be because of 'differences in taxonomic groups studied […] and the calculated effect size.' Sultanova noted the following cautions regarding the findings: 'This study includes a high number of scientific studies conducted on different organisms such as mice, fish and monkeys. However, survival results in humans are not included because these drugs were not tested in humans for lifespan extension. Even if they are, the studies will take a long time considering the length of human lifespan. So, we do not recommend people to take rapamycin before the results of human trials consistently show that there are no side effects.'Why is it hard to study rapamycin in humans?Researchers suggest the need for research involving other species in natural and laboratory settings. They also note the need to understand the difference in impact for 'different strains of the same species exposed to the same treatment.'Future research can further focus on the differences between rapamycin and metformin and why they impact lifespan differently. More research into the differences in rapamycin's results in males and females could be helpful as well. More research can be done to see if rapamycin can promote prolonged life in people, but there may be some challenges in this Ali, MD, a board-certified general surgeon, bariatric surgeon, and medical director of MemorialCare Surgical Weight Loss Center at Orange Coast Medical Center in Fountain Valley, CA, who was not involved in the study, told MNT that it 'shows the contribution of the immune system to lifespan, as rapamycin is an immunosuppressive medication.'According to him: 'The most logical next step is to explore the findings in humans; however, this would be a difficult study to design as rapamycin is a medication used in specific cancers and organ transplant and has significant side effects.'Despite this, the results show a potential benefit of rapamycin that warrants more explained that: 'Clinically, that puts rapamycin (and the mTOR pathway it targets) at the front of the queue for future anti-ageing therapies in humans. The compound had already been used for organ-transplant patients, so medical professionals understand its potential side effects.''The next step is waiting for the results of ongoing human trials that test lower and intermittent doses of rapamycin and refining the compound to 'rapalog' versions that keep the benefits while omitting side-effects such as immune suppression,' she told us.'Another important next step would be developing drugs that are similar in structure and function to rapamycin but without the side-effects. Scientists have already started refining rapamycin and producing the so-called rapalogs,' Sultanova noted.

The Independent

2 hours ago

• The Independent

Watch: Scientists discover Orcas using seaweed for surprising behaviour in drone footage

Orcas, also known as killer whales, have been observed creating seaweed tools in order to massage each other, a study suggests. In a routine researchers are calling allokelping, orcas bite off a length of kelp, then position it between themselves and a partner before rolling the seaweed between their bodies. Scientists suggest this strengthens social bonds and promotes skin health. The strange ritual was documented in drone footage of southern resident orcas from the inland waters of the US state of Washington, for a study led by the Centre for Whale Research (CWR) in collaboration with the University of Exeter.