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Longevity is having a moment.
From tech billionaires testing stem cell transfusions from their teenage sons to hyperbaric oxygen chambers and infrared saunas, it seems 'reverse ageing' is the latest obsession of the super-rich.

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Crushing it. What do you do with 4,000 hailstones that you collect while chasing storms

The Independent

2 hours ago

The Independent

Crushing it. What do you do with 4,000 hailstones that you collect while chasing storms

Dozens of researchers are chasing, driving and running into storms to collect fresh hail, getting their car bodies and their own bodies dented in the name of science. They hope these hailstones will reveal secrets about storms, damage and maybe the air itself. But what do you do with nearly 4,000 melting iceballs? A lot. Researchers in the first-of-its-kind Project ICECHIP to study hail are measuring the hailstones, weighing them, slicing them, crushing them, chilling them, driving them across several states, seeing what's inside of them and in some cases — which frankly is more about fun and curiosity — eating them. The whole idea is to be "learning information about what the hailstone was doing when it was in the storm,' said Northern Illinois University meteorology professor Victor Gensini, one of the team's lead scientists. Calipers and crushers It's pushing midnight on a Friday in a Texas Walmart parking lot, and at least 10 vans full of students and full-time scientists are gathering after several hours of rigorous storm chasing. Hailstones are in coolers in most of these vehicles, and now it's time to put them to the test. Researchers use calipers to measure the width, in millimeters, of the hailstones, which are then weighed. So far after more than 13 storms, the biggest they found is 139 millimeters (5.5 inches), the size of a DVD. But on this night they are smaller than golf balls. Once the measurements are recorded in a laptop, the fun starts in the back of a van with a shark-festooned beach blanket protecting the floor. The hail is put on a vertical device's white holder. Jake Sorber, a meteorologist at the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety, squeezes a hand grip about a foot above it and another white block comes crashing down, crushing the ice to smithereens. In the front of the van, Ian Giammanco, another IBHS meteorologist, records how much force it took to cause the destruction. 'That tells us about its strength,' Giammanco said. Different teams do this over and over, with the debris littering vans. It's all about trying to get good statistics on how strong the typical hailstone is. On this night, Gaimmanco and colleagues are finding the day's hail is unusually soft. It's surprising, but there's a good theory on what's happening. 'In hailstones we have layers. So we start off with an embryo, and then you've got different growth layers,' said Central Michigan University scientist John Allen. 'That white growth is what's called dry growth. So basically it's so cold that it's like super cold liquid water freezing on surface. ... All the gas gets trapped inside. So there's lots of air bubbles. They tend to make a weak stone.' But don't get used to it. Less cold air from climate change could conceivably mean harder hail in the future, but more research is needed to see if that's the case, Giammanco said. 'Damage from a hailstone is not just dependent on how fast and the exact amount of energy it has. It's how strong are these hailstones,″ Giammanco said. 'So a really soft one is not actually going to damage your roof very much, especially an asphalt shingle roof. But a really strong one may crack and tear that asphalt shingle pretty easily.' How to collect a pristine hailstone Mostly researchers grab hail to test after it falls, wearing gloves so as not to warm or taint the ice balls too much. But to collect pristine hail and get it cold as soon as possible, there's SUMHO, a Super Mobile Hail Observatory. It's a chest-high metal funnel that catches hail and slides it directly down into a cooler. No contamination, no warming. Most of these pristine hailstones go directly to a cold lab in Colorado, where they are sliced with a hot wire band saw. The different layers — like a tree's rings — will help scientists learn about the short but rapid growth of the ice in the storm, Gensini said. Scientists will also figure out what's in the hail besides water. Past research has found fungi, bacteria, peat moss and microplastics, all of which helps researchers know a bit more about what's in the air that we don't see. After weeks of collecting these ice balls, Central Michigan student Sam Baron sampled the fruit of his labors. 'It tastes like an ice cube,' Baron said. 'It's like the good ice that they serve at restaurants.' ___ The Associated Press' climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at

Chimps share with children sense of curiosity for social interactions

The Independent

2 hours ago

The Independent

Chimps share with children sense of curiosity for social interactions

Chimpanzees share a sense of curiosity with children and enjoy watching social interactions in a similar way, according to a study. An international team of researchers found that chimpanzees and young children prefer to watch videos of social interactions compared to videos of a single individual. They also found that young children and male chimpanzees were even willing to give up a treat to watch the videos. The study involved three experiments carried out at the Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Uganda and at Oakland Zoo and the Lawrence Hall of Science in California. The researchers built two 'curiosity boxes' which held tablets playing different videos with one showing social interaction such as grooming, playing or arguing with the other showing just an individual acting alone. In the first experiment involving chimpanzees and children aged between four and six, they found that both species spent more time watching the social scenes. In the second, the participants had to choose between a reward – jackfruit seeds for chimps and marbles for children – for the chance to watch a social video. They found that some younger children and male chimpanzees would choose the video over the treat. For the third experiment, they tested whether the participants preferred watching positive interactions such as grooming or play or negative ones such as conflict. They found the chimpanzees did not appear to show a strong preference, while the humans did. The researcher said boys as they got older preferred negative scenes while the girls were more interested in positive ones. Dr Esther Herrman, of the University of Portsmouth's Centre for Comparative and Evolutionary Psychology, who co-authored the research, said: 'This study tells us that curiosity about what others are doing – what you might call being a bit nosy – starts young and runs deep. 'It's probably something that helps not only us but also our closest living relatives to survive and thrive in complex social groups.' She added: 'This kind of social curiosity is actually really important for learning about our environment, making decisions and building relationships.' The researchers say the study results, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, indicate that human curiosity could be a trait inherited millions of years ago from a common ancestor we had with chimpanzees. Lead author, Dr Laura Simone Lewis at the University of California in Santa Barbara, said: 'Our strong interest in the lives of others – think gossip magazines and celebrity shows – seems to have deep evolutionary roots in our great ape lineage.'

Daily Mail

4 hours ago

Daily Mail