The RECC’E - DAY 88 | MAR 29 | BLOBS

Day 88 / 365

48YEARS ago today Chinese farmers discovered the Terracotta Army near Xi'an - 8k clay warrior statues buried to guard the tomb of China's 1st emperor, Qin Shi Huang.

RECC’E OF THE DAY

11TO 13 year old is the age range in which girls tend to experience a negative link between social media and happiness according to a new study, during this period social media use becomes associated with a decrease in life satisfaction in the following year.

14TO 15 years of age for boys is the age range in which the same results tend to occur and researchers suspect difference in sensitivity to social media might be linked to developmental differences such as puberty tending to occur later in boys.

19YEARS of age appears to be a milestone which again associates social media with a decrease in life satisfaction, however at this age its apparent for both boys and girls. 

1YEAR after a decrease in life satisfaction the study also showed this decrease can subsequently drive increased social media use within 1 year; contributing to a vicious circle which does not discriminate across age or differ between the sexes. 

NEED-TO-KNOW

100xMORE processing power than other DNA computers, researchers have developed a computer made from DNA-coated glass micro beads which could be used to detect viruses in saliva. They were able to convert the information from the DNA computational operation to the macroscopic world using a standard smartphone in just 15 minutes.

79YEARS since the birth of chemotherapy as we know it today cancer treatment still has its downsides, primarily the killing of healthy cells alongside unhealthy ones. Now scientists have developed sound controlled bacteria that can seek and destroy cancer cells by arriving at their destination before being triggered to produce anti-cancer drugs with pulses of ultrasound. The current tests on mice show promising signs for targeted treatment in the future without negative side effects.

SHOULD-KNOW

2MASSIVE ‘blobs’ each the size of a continent and 100 times taller than Mt. Everest - one under Africa and the other under the Pacific Ocean - have been discovered by scientists within the Earths mantle. These findings may fundamentally change the way scientists think about the structure of the Earth. Surprisingly they also discovered the two may have different compositions and evolutions.

100YEARS AGO birds laid their eggs, on average, 25 days later than they do now and scientists are confident the change is a result of dramatic climate change, shifting seasons and habitat loss. In 2020, a study revealed that nearly 3 billion birds had disappeared from the US and Canada since 1970, a loss of nearly a third of all bird numbers. 

4DAYS of atmospheric waves which circled the globe 3 times and reached the 3rd layer of Earths atmosphere - the mesosphere 50km to 85km above the planet - are the findings published by scientists analysing the effects of the recent Tongan volcanic eruption. They state the eruption was so large it caused a disturbance in space akin to a ‘severe solar storm’. 

GOOD-TO-KNOW

10TO 20% of people are allergic to cats and/ or dogs and approximately 90% of allergies relating to cats occur because of a single protein. Now a team of researchers say they’ve found an effective way to block this protein using the gene-editing technology CRISPR; a breakthrough that could lead to truly hypoallergenic cats.

25YEARS of solar observations have been analysed by researchers who have found mysterious high-frequency waves on our Sun swirling in the opposite direction to the star at speeds believed to be theoretically impossible. The findings hint at undiscovered solar physics which our Sun, 330k times the mass of our Earth, may be able to help unlock.

58%MORE LIKELY that dogs of first-time owners will exhibit repetitive ‘OCD’ habits such as tail chasing or pacing according to a new study. Dogs living with one person were 33% less likely to engage in repetitive behaviours than those that lived with a family of three or more people while those that did not live with another dog were 64% more likely to engage in repetitive behaviours than those that did.

 

SIGN-OFF STAT

2FEET tall and weighing just 30lbs, the Velociraptor was actually 6 to 7 times smaller than the Hollywood version would have you believe; in fact the Jurassic park version we know is modelled on a Deinonychus, with an actual Velociraptor being the size of a big chicken.

  

   

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