Institute of Anatomical Sciences Supplement of World News. No 54.

Autumn Scientific Meeting

The autumn scientific meeting of the IAS will this year be held at University College Cork, in Ireland on

August 31st and September 1st.

Booking is available through the IAS Website so book NOW!!

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Institute of Anatomical Sciences Supplement of World News. No 54.

News items from around the World July 2017 Issue Contents:

3 MORGUE EMPLOYEE CREMATED BY MISTAKE WHILE TAKING A NAP 4 First Attempts To Bring People ‘Back From Dead’ To Start This Year 5 Huntington's disease trial test is 'major advance' 6 Wollaton Hall museum shuts for dinosaurs' arrival 7 130,000-Year-Old Neanderthal Teeth Reveal Evidence of Prehistoric Dentistry 9 Hedgehog 'blown up like beach ball' has balloon syndrome 10 Balloon syndrome hedgehog is 'popped' 11 New discovery shows T-rex’s bite could make bones ‘explode’ 12 Lions face same threats as extinct Ice Age cats - study 13 Digital Journal 14 Philips new OB/GYN ultrasound innovations with anatomical intelligence provide lifelike 3D images to advance pregnancy care and support maternal-fetal bonding 16 Elba, the 9,300-year old Spanish cowherd who was lactose intolerant 18 Lean-burn physiology gives Sherpas peak-performance 20 Intersex patients 'routinely lied to by doctors' 22 This Dog Sits on Seven Editorial Boards - Meet Dr. Olivia Doll. 23 Breast surgeon Ian Paterson needlessly harmed patients 25 BLOOD SMEAR OF DEAD ELEPHANT PROVES ANTHRAX 26 Faces recreated from monkey brain signals 27 'Faceless' fish discovered in deep sea off Australia 28 Meet the Cambridge scientist on verge of curing Multiple Sclerosis 30 The Mexican doctor rehydrating the dead 32 3D printed bionic hands trial begins in Bristol 33 Mass Grave From Thirty Years' War Reveals Brutal Cavalry Attack 37 Dutch families win right to test DNA of sperm bank doctor 38 Are tales of mythical mermaids inspired by a real-life medical condition? 40 'World's tallest eight-year-old' measures 6ft 6ins - twice the height of classmates but shorter than his basketball player mum' 45 Dog given synthetic bone by 3D printing technology 47 Century-old Parkinson's question answered 48 'I kept my daughter's body at home for three weeks' 51 Adam & Eve Never Even Met. Never Mated! So What’s The Story? 52 Opt-out organ donation system in Scotland planned 53 UK's first heart pump targets 2018 clinical trial 55 White Skin Developed in Europe Only As Recently as 8,000 Years Ago Say Anthropologists 57 Ebola virus burial teams may have 'saved thousands of lives' 59 Painter Salvador Dali's body to be exhumed for paternity suit 61 Sheep Gives Birth To Terrifying 'Half-Human Half-Beast' 63 What the brain's wiring looks like 65 Sharp focus on Alzheimer's may help target drugs 66 DNA Evidence Suggests Captured Russian Ape Woman Might Have been Subspecies of Modern Human 68 Ashutosh Maharaj: Followers win fight to keep guru in freezer 69 THE RECONSTRUCTION OF NEBIRI, AN ANCIENT EGYPTIAN DIGNITARY 71 When your body becomes eligible for an upgrade 73 Australian man's thumb surgically replaced by toe 75 When Your Ancestral Forefather Is a Mummy: 19 Descendants of 5,300-Year-Old Ötzi the Iceman Identified In Austria 76 Ancient Egyptians may have given cats the personality to conquer the world 78 Woolly Mammoth will be Back from Extinction Within Two Years, say Harvard scientists 80 Dinosaur ‘Mummy’ Unveiled With Skin And Guts Intact 81 Most modern horses came from just two ancient lineages 83 We have still not found the missing link between us and apes. 89 The Most Elaborate Visualization Of The Human Brain To Date

93 Sponsors of the IAS

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Institute of Anatomical Sciences Supplement of World News. No 54.

MORGUE EMPLOYEE CREMATED BY MISTAKE WHILE TAKING A NAP June 22, 2017

Beaumont, Texas: An employee of the Jefferson County morgue died this morning, after being accidentally cremated by one of his co-workers. According to the Beaumont Police Department, 48-year old Henri Paul Johnson decided to take a nap on a stretcher after working for sixteen hours straight.

While he was sleeping, another employee mistook him for the corpse of a 52-year old car accident victim and carried him to the crematory. Before anyone could notice the mistake, he had already been exposed to temperatures ranging between 1400 to 1800 degrees Fahrenheit and reduced to ashes.

Jenna Davis, one of Henri Johnson’s co-workers, says she heard him scream for about 15 seconds after the crematory was activated. “At first, we didn’t understand where the sound was coming from. When we realised what was happening, it was too late. We shut down the heating system, but he was already dead.”

Ms. Davis claims that the young co-worker who caused the accident was a new employee, and had forgotten to check for the toe tag to make sure he had the right body.

The police has opened an investigation to determine the exact circumstances surrounding Mr Johnson’s death.

Investigators have not ruled out the possibility of filing criminal charges against the employee who caused his death.

The young man could possibly be accused of criminal negligence causing Jenna Davis says she heard the victim scream in agony as the crematory was reducing him to ashes. death. Credit: worldnewsdailyreport.com

Found and sent in by Lynne Staunton-Jones

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First Attempts To Bring People ‘Back From Dead’ To Start This Year

BY : NEELAM TAILOR

A U.S. firm is planning its first attempt at a Frankenstein-esque reawakening of ‘the dead’. Bioquark, based in Philadelphia, think that brain death is not ‘irreversible’ and plan to test an unparalleled stem cell method on patients in an unidentified country in Latin America. Details of the test will be confirmed in the next few months, but CEO Ira Pastor has established that Bioquark has developed a series of injections that can reboot the brain. The idea is to inject stem cells into the spinal chords of people who have been declared clinically brain dead, in conjunction with an injection of protein blend, electrical nerve stimulation, and laser therapy to the brain. Ultimately, the goal of this treatment is to grow new neurons and spur them to connect to each other, bringing the brain back to life. Pastor said: It’s our contention that there’s no single magic bullet for this, so to start with a single magic bullet makes no sense. Hence why we have to take a different approach. I give us a pretty good chance. I just think it’s a matter of putting it all together and getting the right people and the right minds on it. No brain dead people have ever regained brain function, so it’s a big ask from Bioquark.

Dr. Charles Cox, a pediatric surgeon who has done research with mesenchymal stem cells said: It’s not the absolute craziest thing I’ve ever heard, but I think the probability of that working is next to zero. I think [someone reviving] would technically be a miracle. I think the pope would technically call that a miracle. The trials will begin on humans this year, and they have no plans to test the treatment out on animals first. Scientific experiments like this raise issues of consent, as well as blurring the definition of dead. Bioquark is part of a broader project called ReAnima which is ‘exploring the potential of cutting edge biomedical technology for human neuro-regeneration and neuro-reanimation’. GettySounds pretty creepy!

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Institute of Anatomical Sciences Supplement of World News. No 54.

 Health

Huntington's disease trial test is 'major advance' By Smitha Mundasad Health reporter 8 June 2017

Scientists say they may have found the world's first blood test that predicts when someone at risk is likely to get Huntington's disease and tracks how quickly damage to the brain occurs. Experts describe the early research as a "major advance" in this field. The study, in the Lancet Neurology, suggests the prototype test could help in the hunt for new treatments. Huntington's disease is an inherited and incurable brain disorder that is currently fatal.

'Disease speedometer' Around 10,00 people in the UK have the condition and around 25,000 are at risk. It is passed on through genes, and children who inherit a faulty gene from parents have a 50% chance ofthrough getting genes,the disease and children in later life. People can develop a range of problems including involuntary movements, personality changes and altered behaviour and may be fully dependent on carers towards the end of their lives.

In this study, an international team - including researchers from University College London - looked at 200 people with genes for Huntington's disease - some of whom already had signs of the disease, and others at earlier stages. They compared them to some 100 people who were not at risk of getting the condition. Volunteers had several tests over three years, including brain scans and clinical check-ups to see how Huntington's disease affected people's thinking skills and movement as the condition became more severe.

At the same time scientists looked for clues in blood samples - measuring a substance called neurofilament light chain (NFL) - released from damaged brain cells. They found levels of the brain protein were high in people with Huntington's disease and were even elevated in people who carried the gene for Huntington's disease but were many years away from showing any symptoms. And researchers found NFL levels rose as the condition worsened and as people's brains shrank over time.

Halt progress

Dr Edward Wild, at UCL, said: "Neurofilament light chain has the potential to serve as a speedometer in Huntington's disease, since a single blood test reflects how quickly the brain is changing. "We have been trying to identify blood biomarkers to help track the progression of Huntington's disease for well over a decade and this is the best candidate we have seen so far."

Researchers suggest it could be more rapid and cheaper than current methods of measuring the progress of the disease, such as invasive tests of spinal fluid and brain scans. And they say the blood test could be particularly helpful when checking if new treatments show any signs of being able halt the progress of the condition.

Commenting in the Lancet Neurology, Prof Christopher Ross and Prof Jee Bang of John Hopkins University described the study as "remarkable". They added: "The study represents a major advance in the field of Huntington's disease and neurodegeneration in general…" But they cautioned that it was important to carry out further, larger trials to confirm the results.

Scientists working on the original study agreed that further experiments were needed to fully understand the pros and cons of the test, before it could be of any help to patients. They have launched a larger trial.

Cath Stanley, chief executive of Hungtington's Disease Association, said: "This is a ground breaking piece of research that takes nearer to having a better understanding about Huntington's disease."

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 Nottingham

Wollaton Hall museum shuts for dinosaurs' arrival 10th June 2017

A natural history museum has closed to allow a "massive" exhibit of dinosaurs from China to be erected. The largest dinosaur on show at Wollaton Hall in Nottingham will be the 23m (75ft) Mamenchisaurus, which will be displayed "rearing up on its legs". The massive plant eater would not fit into the hall at full length.

In 2011 the museum closed for several days to allow filming for the Batman movie The Dark The Elizabethan-era Wollaton Hall is home to the city's natural history museum Knight Rises. The museum

will reopen on 30 June for the launch of the exhibition.

Curator Adam Smith said: "The collection will tell the story of how dinosaurs evolved into the birds and will feature some of the biggest dinosaur skeletons in existence."

The fossils, which arrived on Friday after a 50-day journey, will be erected by a team of six specially-trained technicians.

The Mamenchisaurus, a The 25 different species of dinosaur were selected for the exhibit by experts from Nottingham and China planting-eating sauropod similar to a brontosaurus, was The Mamenchisaurus, a planting- found in Sichuan Province in eating sauropod similar to a south west China in the brontosaurus, was found in Sichuan 1970s. Some of the 23 Province in south west China in the exhibits, 1970s. Some of the 23 exhibits, including the Gigantorapror, a birdlike dinosaur with a toothless beak, are considered "national treasures" in China.

The museum and the University of Nottingham have been working with Chinese authorities since 2011 to bring the exhibition to the UK. Once open, the show will run until 29 October.

The fossils were packed in China and sent by ship to the UK

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130,000-Year-Old Neanderthal Teeth Reveal Evidence of Prehistoric Dentistry Neanderthals treating toothaches? A discovery of multiple toothpick grooves on teeth and signs of other manipulations by a Neanderthal of 130,000 years ago are evidence of a kind of prehistoric dentistry, according to a new study led by a University of Kansas researcher. "As a package, this fits together as a dental problem that the Neanderthal was having and was trying to presumably treat itself, with the toothpick grooves, the breaks and also with the scratches on the premolar," said David Frayer, professor emeritus of Anthropology. 2 JULY, 2017 - 02:01 ANCIENT-ORIGINS "It was an interesting connection or collection of

phenomena that fit together in a way that we would phenomena that fit together in a way that we would expect a modern human to do. Everybody has had dental pain, and they expect a modern human to do. Everybody has had know what it's like to have a problem with an impacted tooth." dental pain, and they know what it's like to have a The Bulletin of the International Association for Paleodontology recently published the study. The researchers analyzed four problem with an impacted tooth." isolated but associated mandibular teeth on the left side of the Neanderthal's mouth. Frayer's co-authors are Joseph Gatti, a Lawrence dentist, Janet Monge, of the University of Pennsylvania; and, Davorka Radovčić, curator at the Croatian Natural History Museum. The teeth were found at Krapina site in Croatia, and Frayer and Radovčić have made several discoveries about Neanderthal life there, including a widely recognized 2015 study published in PLOS ONE about a set of eagle talons that included cut marks and were fashioned into a piece of jewelry. The teeth and all the Krapina Neanderthal fossils were discovered more than 100 years ago from the site, which was originally excavated between 1899-1905. However, Frayer and Radovčić in recent years have reexamined many items collected from the site. In this case, they analyzed the teeth with a light microscope to document occlusal wear, toothpick groove formation, dentin scratches, and ante mortem, lingual enamel fractures. Even though the teeth were isolated, previous researchers were able to reconstruct their order and location in the male or female Neanderthal's mouth. Frayer said researchers have not recovered the mandible to look for evidence of periodontal disease, but the scratches and grooves on the teeth indicate they were likely causing irritation and discomfort for some time for this individual. They found the premolar and M3 molar were pushed out of their normal positions. Associated with that, they found six toothpick grooves among those two teeth and the two molars further behind them. "The scratches indicate this individual was pushing something into his or her mouth to get at that twisted premolar," Frayer said. The features of the premolar and third molar are associated with several kinds of dental manipulations, he said. Mostly because the chips of the teeth were on the tongue side of the teeth and at different angles, the researchers ruled out that something happened to the teeth after the Neanderthal died. Past research in the fossil record has identified toothpick grooves going back almost 2 million years, Frayer said. They did not identify what the Neanderthal would have used to produce the toothpick grooves, but it possibly could have been a bone or stem of grass. "It's maybe not surprising that a Neanderthal did this, but as far as I know, there's no specimen that combines all of this together into a pattern that would indicate he or she was trying to presumably self-treat this eruption problem," he said. The evidence from the toothpick marks and dental manipulations is also interesting in light of the discovery of the Krapina Neanderthals' ability to fashion eagle talons fashioned into jewelry because people often think of Neanderthals as having "subhuman" abilities. "It fits into a pattern of a Neanderthal being able to modify its personal environment by using tools," Frayer said, "because the toothpick grooves, whether they are made by bones or grass stems or who knows what, the scratches and chips in the teeth, they show us that Neanderthals were doing something inside their mouths to treat the dental irritation. Or at least this one was."

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Institute of Anatomical Sciences Supplement of World News. No 54.

Three views of the four articulated teeth making up KDP 20. a. occlusal view showing lingually placed mesial interproximal wear facet on P4 (arrow) and buccal wear on M3; b. lingual view showing a mesially placed interproximal wear facet on P4 (arrow), chips from lingual faces of all teeth and rotated, partially impacted M3; c. buccal view showing rotated buccal face of M3 (arrow) and hypercementosis on its root. Credit: David Frayer, University of Kansas

Neanderthal jewelry made from Eagle talons ( CC by SA 3.0 )

Top image: Model of a Neanderthal ( Vincent Lit / flickr )

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 England: Sheffield & South Yorkshire  Hedgehog 'blown up like beach ball' has balloon syndrome  11-6-17 Share A hedgehog "blown up like a beach ball" has been rescued and diagnosed with a severe case of balloon syndrome. The animal, which had inflated to twice its size, was spotted wandering around in circles by a member of the public in Toll Bar, Doncaster.

RSPCA inspector Sandra Dransfield said it was clear the animal was suffering the rare condition, which is caused by gas collecting under the skin. The male hedgehog is being treated at an RSPCA centre in Cheshire.

'Taut skin' Balloon syndrome is caused by gas collecting underneath the skin, often as the result of a traumatic event or infection Ms Dransfield said: "It's the worst case of balloon syndrome I've seen. This poor chap was almost twice its natural size, literally blown up like a beach ball with incredibly taut skin. I took the stricken animal straight to Peak Vets in Sheffield, where he was X- rayed and they released some of the air from under his skin. The vet then started him on a course of antibiotics and pain relief. We found him in the nick of time, and I really do hope he pulls through."

An RSPCA spokesperson said balloon syndrome can be caused by a traumatic event, like an injury, or underlying infection, which releases gas into the cavity under the hedgehog's skin. Treatment requires the skin to be punctured and a course of medication.

The large 1kg (2.2lb) hedgehog has been transferred to the RSPCA's Stapeley Grange Wildlife Centre in Nantwich, Cheshire, where he will be thoroughly examined under general anaesthetic and more air released. He will be cared for at the centre until he is ready to be returned to the wild.

Share this story The hedgehog had inflated to twice its natural size Share this story

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Sheffield & South Yorkshire

Balloon syndrome hedgehog is 'popped' Share

Balloon syndrome is caused by gas collecting underneath the skin, often as the result of a traumatic event or infection

A hedgehog who had "blown up like a beach ball" is said to be doing well after a vet "popped" him with a needle. The male hedgehog, who had inflated to twice its size, was found wandering around in circles by a member of the public in Toll Bar, Doncaster.

The unnamed animal was diagnosed with the rare "balloon syndrome", caused by gas collecting under the skin. He was taken to a RSPCA centre in Cheshire where a needle was inserted to vent the trapped air.

'Mostly air'

Bev Panto, head vet at the RSPCA's Stapeley Grange centre, said it was a very unusual syndrome. "In my career I have seen three or four of these cases and they are very strange every time and quite shocking," she said. "When you first see them they appear to be very big hedgehogs but when you pick them up they feel so light because they are mostly air." She said the condition only occurs in hedgehogs and was due to their ability to curl up, meaning they have a lot of space under the skin.

In some circumstances air can get trapped under the skin due to an injury or trauma. "They literally blow up like a balloon," she said. "The first thing to do is to just pop them. To pop a needle in and drain all that air out."

Ms Panto said the hedgehog was eating well and staff were hopeful of a full recovery. "It is certainly not out of the woods yet so it's fingers crossed," she added.

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New discovery shows T-rex’s bite could make bones ‘explode’

SCIENCE Image Source: Camera Man Everyone knows that the Tyrannosaurus rex — the mighty “king” of the dinosaurs — was a fearsome carnivore. There’s been plenty of debate over how much hunting the species actually did, with some suggesting that the T. rex was more of a scavenger than anything else, but a new discovery shows that, however the towering beast was able to find its food, its bite was truly horrific. In a new study published in Scientific Reports, researchers from Florida State University reveal the true power of a T. rex bite, Mike Wehner including its ability to make bones disintegrate.

Using computer models based on the muscular structure of modern day crocodiles and their kin, the researchers applied virtual muscles to bone. Once the models were complete, they observed how the T. rex would have bitten down on prey, discovering just how insanely powerful the animal’s jaws really were.

According to the data, a living T. rex would have had roughly 8,000 pounds of biting force at its disposal. That’s an impressive figure, but it’s also not the whole story. When taking into account the arrangement and shape of its long, cone- shaped teeth, the scientists were able to calculate how much force would have been applied by each tooth, which measured a ridiculous 431,000 pounds per square inch of pressure. With that kind of force, a T. rex bite wouldn’t just have snapped bones, it could also have created the “catastrophic explosion” of some bone structures.

In short, there was practically nothing a T. rex couldn’t eat, and would likely have consumed not just the flesh of its prey, but also bones and the marrow within them. Yum.

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 Science & Environment

Lions face same threats as extinct Ice Age cats - study By Helen Briggs BBC News Share Two big cats - the African lion and the Sunda clouded leopard - are most at risk from extinction caused by loss of prey, according to a new analysis. Lack of food was a factor in why seven big cats, including sabre- toothed tigers, went extinct at the end of the last Ice Age, say scientists. The trend is continuing, threatening a range of modern big cats, they warn. If the prey of big cats continues to decline it will add to other pressures such as habitat loss, a The African lion formerly ranged throughout Eurasia and Africa, but today is only found in sub-Saharan Africa study found. Dr Chris Sandom from the University of Sussex said: "I think it adds an extra pressure for these animals. They are already suffering quite heavily from other conflicts with humans." He said the lesson from the past was that even if Ice Age big cats had survived conflicts with humans and the changing climate, they would not have had much left to eat. We're in a continued decline of big, exciting animals," he added. "These charismatic predators are facing this consistent threat that started in the Ice Age and continues to this day and we need to turn that trend around."

The research, led by scientists at Sussex and Oxford universities, looked at the causes of extinction in seven big cats - four different types of sabre-toothed cats, the cave and American lions, and the American cheetah.

They found that if the animals had survived until modern times they would have lost the majority of their prey, partly due to human influences. The researchers then turned their attention to modern big cats, and the status of their prey.

If all the prey species currently considered at risk were to go extinct, then the lions of East Africa and the clouded leopards of Indo-Malaya would be in a similar position to their Ice Age relatives, say the scientists.

The same would apply to some populations of tiger, leopard and cheetah. The African lion is under threat from habitat loss and poaching Prof David Macdonald, Director of the University of Oxford's Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, said: "The Churchillian aphorism that those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it was painfully in mind when we saw how many of the prey of lions and East Africa and of clouded leopards in Indo-Malaya look set to go down the same drain down which their counterparts in other regions have already been flushed."

The Sunda clouded leopard is a medium-sized wild cat found in forests of the Indonesian islands of Borneo and Sumatra. The study is published in the journal Ecography. Follow Helen on Twitter.

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Press Release Physical Therapists Use Neuro-Ultrasound to Identify and Treat Nerve Pathology Advances in Musculoskeletal Ultrasound technology allows Physical Therapists and other healthcare providers to specifically identify nerve pathology and help patients effectively

Astoria, NY - (Newswire.com) Ultrasound technology has been used in the Physical Therapy profession for many years. Its most frequent application has been in the realm of treatment and therapy, as ultrasound of a certain frequency can deliver deep heat into the muscles and have a therapeutic effect. Other applications include delivery of medication to the subcutaneous tissues through the ultrasound waves. Recent advancements in ultrasound technology have allowed health care providers to use high-frequency ultrasound to visualize muscle tissues, tendons, ligaments, nerves, bones and other structures. High-resolution ultrasound has enabled Physical Therapists, and other healthcare providers evaluate the integrity of the neural tissue. The last few years neuro-sonography can be used to identify swellings of the nerve proximal to the sites of compression, as well as changes in echo texture. Normal values have been established to measure the cross-sectional area of nerves as well as other ratios that help to distinguish pathological from normal tissue. Swollen nerves tend to be more hypoechoic in echotexture as they lose the honey-comb appearance which is characteristic of neural tissue in cross section. This honey-comb appearance represents visualization of the fascicular pattern of nerves. Physical Therapists also evaluate neural pathology using electrodiagnostic evaluations. Electroneuromyography helps to identify the location of nerve pathology, but also the type of pathology. Entrapment syndromes may cause displacement of the myelin sheath that surrounds the nerve axons but also damage of the axon itself. Thus, nerve pathology can be classified as demyelinating, axonal or both. A recent study published in the Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine was able to investigate sonographic findings according to the pathophysiologic type in patients with carpal tunnel syndrome. The researchers from Korea University School of Medicine retrospectively reviewed the records of 80 patients ( 148 hands) with carpal tunnel syndrome. They classified patients into three groups according to electrophysiologic findings: ( l) conduction block and conduction delay; ( 2) axonal degeneration; and (3) mixed. The study concluded that the cross-sectional area and wrist-to-forearm ratio were associated with the pathophysiologic type of carpal tunnel syndrome, with larger nerve swellings seen in patients with axonal degeneration compared with those with demyelinating lesions. This is a breakthrough as the results of the study enable Physical Therapists and other healthcare providers who use Neuro-ultrasound, to use sonography not only for localization of the nerve lesion but also for precise classification of the type of nerve lesion. "Once the location and type of lesion are identified, the Physical Therapists may use Neuro-Ultrasound to guide them in the performance of neural mobilization techniques to help restore the normality of the tissue. Diagnostic Ultrasound technology can help the therapist not only identify the nerve problem but also treat it with the highest possible accuracy and effectiveness" said Dr. Dimitrios Kostopoulos who is ABPTS board certified in clinical electrophysiology and the co-founder of Hands-On Diagnostics. Hands-On Diagnostics trains Physical Therapists in a variety of diagnostic tests for the evaluation of the neuromuscular system. Most insurance companies reimburse Physical Therapists for the use of diagnostic musculoskeletal ultrasound which gains ground very fast within the physical therapy profession. Physical Therapists can visualize in both static and dynamic capacity several pathologies, such as rotator cuff tears, ligamentous laxities and tears, myofascial trigger points, nerve pathology and many others. Physical Therapists with the proper education in the area of musculoskeletal ultrasound can obtain RMSK certification and recognition as musculoskeletal sonographers through the Alliance for Physician Certification and Advancement. For more information, please visit www.diagnosticsforpt.com Please visit the IAS website: http://www.anatomical-sciences.org.uk/ 13 Editor: John Ben F.I.A.S. Email [email protected]

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Philips new OB/GYN ultrasound innovations with anatomical intelligence provide lifelike 3D images to advance pregnancy care and support maternal-fetal bonding Philips TrueVue, GlassVue and aReveal(A.I.) improve workflow and diagnostic confidence, enhancing the connection between clinicians and their patients

NEWS PROVIDED BY Royal Philips 08 May, 2017, 10:00 ET

AMSTERDAM, May 8, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG AEX: PHIA) today announced the debut of its TrueVue, GlassVue and aRevealA.I. capabilities on Philips EPIQ 7 and 5 and Affiniti 70 and 50 ultrasound systems. The innovative visualization tools work together to enable photorealistic, transparent and 3D visualization in just one touch, delivering more reproducible and lifelike ultrasound images than traditional technologies.

"Philips' latest technological advancement in OB/GYN ultrasound is a novel tool allowing clinicians to further explore the anatomic evaluation of the fetus," said Dr. Michael Ruma, maternal-fetal medicine specialist at Perinatal Associates of New Mexico. "A clinician's relationship with our patients is at its heart a personal one, especially during pregnancy. The ability to provid e high- quality, lifelike images not only helps clinicians improve diagnostic confidence, but also supports the important connection between mother and fetus."

Philips TrueVue uses a virtual, moveable light source to allow clinicians the flexibility to illuminate the fetal face and deliver lifelike 3D ultrasound images. Please visit the IAS website: http://www.anatomical-sciences.org.uk/ 14 Editor: John Ben F.I.A.S. Email [email protected]

Institute of Anatomical Sciences Supplement of World News. No 54.

The enhanced clinical offerings of Philips TrueVue, GlassVue and aReveal(A.I.) allow clinicians greater confidence when diagnosing complex situations.

With the enhanced clinical and workflow offerings of TrueVue, GlassVue and aReveal A.I., clinicians are able to focus on the patient rather than the ultrasound system and diagnose complex obstetric and gynecological situations earlier and with greater confidence. The new OB/GYN suite of innovations offers greater insight for clinicians so that they may elevate patient care, even for patients that are the most difficult to image technically. The suite of visualization tools includes:

 TrueVue photorealistic 3D visualization, with its virtual light source, is a proprietary advanced 3D ultrasound display method that delivers lifelike 3D ultrasound images and gives the operator the ability to move the light source anywhere in the 3D volume.  GlassVue transparent 3D visualization, with its internal light source, provides an early, more transparent view of the fetal anatomy than traditional ultrasound. It goes beyond the surface to reveal bone, organs and other internal structures.  aReveal Anatomically Intelligent Ultrasound (AIUS) 3D fetal face algorithm automatically removes extraneous information to quickly and easily reveal the 3D fetal face. One touch reveals the fetal face, and one touch reverses the process.

"Philips is focused on ultrasound innovation that matters most to clinicians and their patients," said Vitor Rocha, Ultrasound Business Leader at Philips. "We understand what OB/GYN doctors need and how they work, and we aim to design offerings that deliver clinical value and integrate seamlessly into their practice."

On the EPIQ and Affiniti ultrasound systems, Philips now also offers MaxVue high definition display and enhanced active native data. For the first time ever, MaxVue allows clinicians to experience ultrasound imaging in 16:9 Full High Definition (FHD). Its advanced display capabilities offer clinicians an improved view of ultrasound images during interventional procedures, with over 1 million more pixels than standard format mode. Philips' enhanced active native data allows post processing of many exam parameters, allowing clinicians to finalize images before transfer to PACS.

For more information on Philips' Women's Health Care offerings, including TrueVue, GlassVue and aRevealA.I. visit http://philips.to/2qpPd7F. Philips' will showcase its latest advancements in women's health at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Annual Clinical and Scientific Meeting (ACOG) 2017 annual meeting in San Diego, California, May 6–9. Follow @PhilipsLiveFrom for updates throughout the congress.

For further information, please contact: Alicia Cafardi Philips Group Press Office Mobile: +1 412 523 9616 Email: [email protected] Twitter: @aliciacafardi

Sarah Haeger Philips Ultrasound Please visit the IAS website: http://www.anatomical-sciences.org.uk/ 15 Editor: John Ben F.I.A.S. Email [email protected]

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Mobile: +1 206-920-8726 Email: [email protected] Twitter: @sarahhaeger

About Royal Philips

Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) is a leading health technology company focused on improving people's health and enabling better outcomes across the health continuum from healthy living and prevention, to diagnosis, treatment and home care. Philips leverages advanced technology and deep clinical and consumer insights to deliver integrated solutions. Headquartered in the Netherlands, the company is a leader in diagnostic imaging, image-guided therapy, patient monitoring and health informatics, as well as in consumer health and home care. Philips' health technology portfolio generated 2016 sales of EUR 17.4 billion and employs approximately 70,000 employees with sales and services in more than 100 countries. News about Philips can be found at www.philips.com/newscenter.

EL PAÍS IN ENGLISH EARLY HUMANS Elba, the 9,300-year old Spanish cowherd who was lactose intolerant Experts recreate life of Mesolithic woman who died after falling into a sinkhole with three aurochs

SILVIA R. PONTEVEDRA Santiago de Compostela Death caught up with Elba on a Spanish hillside 9,300 years ago. She is thought to have been following her herd of aurochs, an extinct breed of large cattle, along an ancestral trail that is now a paved road. In fact, it is the same road that Google suggests as the best route between the localities of O Courel and Pedrafita do Cebreiro, in Galicia’s Lugo province, in north- western Spain.

Her herd was made up of three aurochs: an enormous male with massive horns and two younger specimens. It might have been early spring or early winter, and the ground was covered by a blanket of snow thin enough to make for easy walking, yet thick enough to conceal some of the geographical features lying beneath.

As a result, she did not see the hole that had opened up in the earth. All four of them fell into the gap created by the collapse of the roof of a cave known today as Cova do Uro, or Aurochs’ Cave in the regional Galician language. It was a 15-meter fall, but it did not kill them immediately.

“If we saw her today, we wouldn’t look twice at her UAN RAMÓN VIDAL ROMANÍ, GEOLOGY PROFESSOR

Elba, a Celtic name given to her by archeologists that means “she who comes from the mountains,” survived the fall but was badly hurt. She was trapped with her animals, unable to extricate herself from the chalky Recreation of Elba's face by Marga Sanín. sinkhole that would preserve her bones in clay throughout the millennia. Please visit the IAS website: http://www.anatomical -sciences.org.uk/ 16 Editor: John Ben F.I.A.S. Email [email protected]

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“The tragedy was recorded,” explains Juan Ramón Vidal Romaní, Professor of Geology at A Coruña University and member of the Galician Royal Science Academy. Carbon dating shows her age to be around 9,300 years, and a genetic analysis reveals she had dark hair and eyes, that she was lactose-intolerant, and part of the U haplogroup, a group of genes indicating a single line of descent. This group is typical of European hunters-gatherers.

Elba’s incomplete skull was found in 1996, and her other bones recovered by several expeditions that went into the cave from 2010 on. Using the remains and a report drafted by forensic anthropologist Fernando Serrulla, a team at the Isidro Parga Pondal Institute of Geology carried out “nearly detective-like work” in order to recreate the likely scenario of her death. Elba, who was between 20 and 40 years old at the time of her demise, was presumably crossing the area in search of pastures, since there was never any grazing land between the mountain ranges of O Courel and Os Ancares, near the current path that pilgrims take on their way to Santiago de Compostela.

Her bones reveal that she only stood 1.50 meters tall (yet apparently worked with enormous animals) and that she led a very tough life. She had probably suffered a strong blow to the head as a child that left her with a head injury. Her nutrition was poor, suggesting long periods of food scarcity. She had joint disease and had probably endured a bad toothache for months. Most of her diet was made up of vegetables, and her collagen shows that she was not a native of the area, but from nearby territory.

Elba is the first female human fossil from the Mesolithic (the transitional period between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic) to undergo genetic analysis in the Iberian Peninsula. It predates that carried out on the so-called blue- eyed man from La Braña, in León province, by 2,000 years.

Although humans have possibly been present in Galicia for 300,000 years or more, no skeleton had been found dating back so far, because the soil here tends to be acidic and devours bones. Limestone environments such as that at Aurochs’ cave are the exception.

The results of the research, which involved international scientists from various fields, have been published in the Isidro Parga Pondal Institute of Geology’s publication, Cadernos do Laboratorio Xeolóxico de Laxe. The cover drawing was made by Marga Sanín, a forensic artist who specializes in recreating the faces of people long dead. The Galicia Forensic Medicine Institute has also created a 3-D bust of Elba based on the existing evidence.

“If we saw her today, we wouldn’t look twice at her,” says Vidal Romaní. “I know several women from the mountains of Lugo who look a lot like her.”

English version by Susana Urra.

A 3D bust of what Elba might have looked like.

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 Science & Environment

Lean-burn physiology gives Sherpas peak- performance By Roland Pease BBC Radio Science Unit

Image copyright EXTREME EVEREST Image caption Science at the top of the world

Nepalese Sherpas have a physiology that uses oxygen more efficiently than those used to the atmosphere at sea level. This is the finding of a new study that investigated high-altitude adaptation in mountain populations. The research involved taking muscle samples from mountaineers at 5,300m altitude and even putting them on an exercise bike at Mt Everest Base Camp. The Sherpas owe this ability to an advantageous genetic mutation that gives them a unique metabolism.

It has long been a puzzle that Sherpas can cope with the low-oxygen atmosphere present high in the Himalayas far better than those visiting the region. Mountaineers trekking to the area can adapt to the low oxygen by increasing the number of red cells in their blood, increasing its oxygen-carrying capacity. In contrast, Sherpas actually have thinner blood, with less haemoglobin and a reduced capacity for oxygen (although this does have the advantage that the blood flows more easily and puts less strain on the heart). "This shows that it's not how much oxygen you've got, it's what you do with it that counts," concludes Cambridge University’s Sherpas have thinner blood than those who live at low altitudes Prof Andrew Murray, the senior author on the new study. Sherpas are extraordinary performers, especially on the high Himalayanthe new peaks. study.So, there's Sherpassomething really are unusual about their physiology," he told the BBC World Service's Science In Actionextraordinary programme . performers, especially on the high Himalayan peaks. So, Unravelling what is different involved a substantial scientific expedition to there's Everest Base something Camp where really the high unusual-altitude response of 10 mostly European researchers and 15 elite Sherpas could be compared. about their physiology," he told For participants like James Horscroft, whose PhD was based on the data he thegot BBCfrom thisWorld Xtreme Service's Everest Science 2 venture In Action, this meant not just a chance to explore one of the planet’s most remote regions, butprogramme also a lot .of pressure. “It was very stressful, because we only had this one chance to get our data, high in the Himalaya."

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For James, like all the others, those data included samples of muscle punctured from the thigh. While some samples were frozen to be taken back to university labs, others were experimented on in a makeshift lab at the base camp. “We had to start at seven in the morning, because it took four hours to do all the tests on one sample," James said. "At that time, the temperature could be 10 degrees below freezing, so we'd be all wrapped up and wearing gloves. By late morning it would rise to plus-25, and we'd be taking all our kit off!"

What the biochemical tests on the fresh muscle showed was that the Sherpas' tissue was able to make much better use of oxygen by limiting the amount of body fat burned and maximising the glucose consumption. "Fat is a great fuel, but the problem is that it's more oxygen hungry than glucose," Prof Murray explained. In other words, by preferentially burning body sugar rather than body fat, the Sherpas can get more calories per unit of oxygen breathed.

The result impresses Federico Formenti of King’s College, Taking muscle samples from mountaineers at 5,300m altitude London, whose own trekking study a decade ago, monitoring London, whose own trekking study a decade ago, monitoring oxygen consumption through breath sensors, suggested oxygen consumption through Sherpas can produce 30% more power than lowlanders. "This paper provides a cellular mechanism for what we found at the breath sensors, suggested Sherpas whole body level; that Sherpas use less oxygen to do the same job," he says. can produce 30% more power than James Horscroft agrees the difference in performance is impressive. "It was pretty clearlowlanders. straight away that our tissue experiments were showing different metabolisms for the two groups. In fact, the difference was so astounding we were worried if the tests were working."

But back in Cambridge the results were borne out. And a genetic variation altering the way fats are burned was established, too. While all of the Sherpas carried the glucose-favouring variant of the metabolic gene, almost none of the lowland volunteers did.

Sherpas are a specific population amongst the Nepalese ("the Ferraris of the Himalayans", Formenti calls them) who migrated to the country 500 years ago from Tibet, which has been occupied by humans for at least 6,000 years. That is plenty of time for a beneficial gene to become embedded, Prof Murray argues. "It's not down to one gene, of course. We see better blood flow through the capillaries; and they appear to have a richer capillary network as well so that the oxygen can be delivered better to the tissues. But this gene would also have given them some advantage."

Other recent studies have shown that some genes that help Tibetans survive at high altitude come from the recently discovered extinct human species known as the Denisovans, although there is no evidence yet that the metabolic gene is among them.

The Sherpa study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. .

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 Health

Intersex patients 'routinely lied to by doctors' By Dr Faye Kirkland BBC Radio 4

Doctors in the UK routinely lied to patients with disorders of sex development known as intersex conditions, the BBC has found. A leading paediatric consultant told BBC Radio 4 that withholding the truth of patients' diagnoses had been "widespread".

Jeanette, now 71, was operated on at the age of 16 to remove her hidden testes. She discovered the truth only when she was 50. Jeanette was born with complete androgen insensitivity (CAIS), a genetic disorder occurring in between one in 20,000 and one in 60,000 births.

Jeanette was 50 when she discovered the truth about her own body A child born with CAIS is genetically male but their body does not respond to the hormone testosterone properly, so the external appearance of their genitalsnot will respond look entirely to thefemale. hormone testosterone properly, so the external Jeanette was 12 when doctors told her mother that Jeanette would not develop like other appearancegirls or be able of to their have genitalsa baby. will look entirely female. Jeanette says: "I couldn't understand at that point why she [my mum] was crying and what was wrong with me. Then, at 14, I started realising that things were not right with me, as I never had periods or anything."

Two years later, aged 16, Jeanette was taken to hospital and operated on, still unaware of her diagnosis. At that time, she was told nothing - just that she needed major surgery.

"I've got an 8in [20cm] scar right across my stomach. I was feeling perfectly healthy and I can remember sitting up in up in bed, thinking, 'What the hell am I doing here?'" Surgeons had removed internal testes from Jeanette's body, but Jeanette didn't even know she had them and doctors didn't tell her why they had operated.

Life became very difficult for Jeanette. At 28, she got married but found sex with her husband too painful. "I was in so much pain afterwards I couldn't walk. So my mother came with me to hospital and they told me, 'Go home, things will get better.'" She left her partner two years later, saying she was too "frightened" to have another physical relationship.

She did not find out the truth about her medical history until she was 50, when saw the words "testicular feminisation", another term for CAIS, on the front her medical file by chance at an outpatient appointment.

She talked with her GP, who then gave her her medical records to read. "I read my notes and that's when it said I had the womb the size of a matchstick and two fully grown testes, and I cried my eyes out."

Intersex

. There are more than 40 congenital variations of disorders of sex development

. Intersex is an umbrella term used to describe people born with sex characteristics (including genitals, gonads and chromosome patterns) that do not fit into the typical notions of female or male bodies

. Some traits are visible at birth, others not until puberty and some variations in chromosomes may not be physically apparent at all

. Worldwide, up to 1.7% of people have intersex traits, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner of Human rights

Ieuan Hughes, emeritus professor of paediatrics at the University of Cambridge and an expert in hormone disorders, says cover-ups used to be routine in cases such as this. "In those days the consensus in the medical profession was that the truth

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would not be disclosed to the patient… and the general advice was for parents not to disclose the true diagnoses to the children. The explanation for why the person could not have periods, could not have children - a story was spun that the ovaries had not developed properly and were at risk of developing cancer, therefore they needed to be removed."

He says a number of women who had been told "a pack of lies" by the medical profession have since contacted the Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome Support Group (AISSG), with which he works. "Apparently there had been a couple of examples where patients had been so upset they had taken their own lives - sadly."

A AISSG representative told the BBC the practice of routinely withholding the truth from patients didn't stop until 2012.

British Association of Paediatric Urologists president Stuart O'Toole said most patients were now managed within a team, with input from specialist surgeons and medics and psychologists. "The parents of the child are involved at every stage. Irreversible surgery is rarely performed in infancy, and a gonad would be removed only if there was a credible risk of cancer."

The British Medical Association, the doctors union, declined to comment, but General Medical Council chief executive Charlie Massey said: "Medical practice has evolved dramatically over the last 50 years, with more and more emphasis on working in partnership with patients, openly and honestly. Our guidance makes it clear doctors should involve children and young people as much as possible in discussions about their care, even if they are not able to make decisions on their own. We are clear that doctors should not withhold information from patients, unless they believe that giving it would cause the patient serious harm."

Holly Greenbury, who co-founded Intersex UK, a campaign group founded to end stigma around intersex variations and to fight for equality and protection of intersex people, told BBC Radio 4 that some families were still feeling forced to make decisions over surgery in the UK, before children were of an age at which they could make an informed decision and consent themselves. "What this highlights is that there is a break down of communication, a lack of education and, currently, the UK is not following internal human rights law and ensuring that our legislation protects the future wellbeing and the bodily autonomy of infants and young children."

Malta became the first country to outlaw non-consensual medical interventions on intersex, in 2015.

Intersex UK is one of several British organisations now lobbying for corrective surgery to be outlawed in the UK.

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This Dog Sits on Seven Editorial Boards

Meet Dr. Olivia Doll. BY KELSEY KENNEDY MAY 25, 2017

AN ASSOCIATE EDITOR FOR THE Global Journal of Addiction & Rehabilitation Medicine, Olivia Doll, lists some very unusual research interests, such as “avian propinquity to canines in metropolitan suburbs” and “the benefits of abdominal massage for medium-sized canines.” That’s probably because Olivia Doll is a Staffordshire terrier named Ollie who enjoys chasing birds and getting belly rubs. In all her spare time, Ollie also has sat on the editorial boards of not one, but seven, medical journals.

Ollie’s owner, Mike Daube, is a professor of health policy at Australia’s Curtin University. He initially signed his dog up for the positions as a joke, with credentials such as an affiliation at the Subiaco College of Veterinary Science. But soon, he told Perth Now in a video, he realized it was a chance to show just how predatory some journals can be.

“Every academic gets several of these emails a day, from sham journals,” he said. “They’re trying to take advantage of gullible younger academics, gullible researchers” who want more publications to add to their CVs. These journals may look prestigious, but they charge researchers to publish and don’t check credentials or peer review articles. And this is precisely how a dog could make it onto their editorial boards.

“What makes it even more bizarre is that one of these journals has actually asked Ollie to review an article,” Daube told the Medical Journal of Australia’s InSight Magazine. The article was about nerve sheath tumors

and how to treat them. “Some poor

soul has actually written an article on soul has actually written an article on this theme in good faith, and the journal has sent it to a dog to review.” this theme in good faith, and the

journal has sent it to a dog to review.” At the time of this writing, the Global Journal of Addiction & Rehabilitation Medicine still lists Ollie as an associate editor, At the time of this writing, the Global and a journal called Psychiatry and Mental Disorders lists her as a member of its editorial board (complete with a photo of Journal of Addiction & Rehabilitation Australian pop singer Kylie Minogue wearing glasses, for some reason). Ollie’s career sniffing out fraud is looking Medicine still lists Ollie as an promising. associate editor, Thanks to Kirsty Leśniak who found this story.

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Birmingham & Black Country

 Breast surgeon Ian Paterson needlessly harmed patients

A breast surgeon who "played God" and carried out "completely unnecessary" operations has been convicted of intentionally wounding patients.

Ian Paterson, 59, carried out "extensive, life-changing operations for no medically-justifiable reason". His motives were "obscure" but may have included a desire to "earn extra money", Nottingham Crown Court heard.

Paterson was found guilty of 17 counts of wounding with intent, relating to nine women and one man. Jurors also convicted him of three further wounding charges. Paterson,

One patient said Paterson 'ruined their life' of Altrincham, Greater Manchester, was granted bail and is due to be sentenced in May.

The trial heard Paterson, who treated thousands of patients during his career, exaggerated or invented cancer risks and claimed payments for more expensive procedures in some cases.

The seven-week trial heard the accounts from 10 victims - representing a sample of those Paterson treated - operated on between 1997 and 2011 at the privately-run Little Aston and Parkway hospitals in the West Midlands.

Jurors were not told Paterson carried out hundreds of unnecessary operations on NHS patients, with a hospital trust paying out £17.8m in damages and legal costs.

During proceedings, former patients gave moving testimony about their treatment at Paterson's hands. One told the jury: "That person has ruined my life." Others told how Paterson misled them into thinking they were seriously ill, leading them to agree to surgery.

One said she was called a "ticking time bomb" by the surgeon and he convinced another she had cancer when she was only at risk of developing it.

Debbie Douglas, a former patient who attended court, but did not give evidence, said after Paterson was convicted: "I thought I had the best of consultants. All A woman operated on four times by Ian Paterson said it left her feeling "violated". these years down the line, I feel I've been betrayed. I feel like I've been mutilated. I thought my scars were a badge of honour. Now I find he has mutilated me and I have been through all of this for nothing. Thank God those brave people who spoke up in court have got the right verdict."

Carole Johnson, who went under Paterson's knife six times in seven years, said: "Paterson tried every tactic in the book to avoid accountability for his disgusting crimes. Mr Paterson charmed and manipulated his patients into trusting him. I for one trusted him with my life. To realise that I was betrayed makes me question my own judgment and I feel like I cannot trust any doctor." Debbie Douglas: "He has mutilated me"

Analysis by health correspondent Dominic Hughes

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It wasn't just Ian Paterson's private work that was a cause for concern. He was also employed by the NHS at the Heart of England Trust, based in and around Birmingham.

His job here did not form part of the criminal case but there are serious questions about his work. In 2011 it emerged he had been performing an unorthodox and unregulated procedure known as a cleavage-sparing mastectomy. By definition, a mastectomy removes the whole breast, but this procedure left some tissue behind, putting women at risk of the cancer returning.

Despite repeatedly being asked to stop by managers, Ian Paterson performed "unorthodox and unregulated" procedures Ian Paterson continued to use the technique for several years. The Heart of England Trust has now paid out years. The Heart of England Trust has now paid out nearly £18 million in damages and legal costs to hundreds of his former nearly £18 million in damages and legal costs to patients. hundreds of his former patients.

'Extravagant lifestyle'

Health worker John Ingram, who was wounded with intent, earlier told the trial how he underwent a double mastectomy at Paterson's hands despite his "phobia" of surgery and he still lived with near-constant pain 10 years on.

Jurors also earlier heard how victim Rosemary Platt, herself a GP, had an "unnecessary" operation to remove a breast after being told she had cancer that could turn aggressive at any time. Dr Platt, now retired, said Paterson told her he would recommend the same procedure to his wife if in the same position.

Det Insp Caroline Marsh of West Midlands Police said: "There is lots of speculation as to why he has done what he has done. Some of his victims said he wanted to play God with their lives or he got some perverse satisfaction from these procedures. We will probably never know."

Police said it is believed Paterson may also have been driven by financial gain, so he could claim payment for carrying out each procedure to fund his extravagant lifestyle. As a result of his work, he owned a luxury home in Birmingham's Edgbaston area, numerous properties in Cardiff and Manchester and What is cleavage-sparing surgery? a holiday home in the U.S.

'Secrecy and containment'

The jury of six men and five women were warned against researching the case, and were not told hundreds of Paterson's patients were recalled in 2012 over concerns about his work.

He performed what he called "cleavage-sparing" mastectomies on many of his patients, leaving breast tissue behind to achieve a better cosmetic effect. By doing so, he left them in great danger of developing secondary cancer, jurors heard.

The Scottish-born surgeon, of Castle Mill Lane, Ashley, was suspended by the General Medical Council (GMC) after his arrest.

'Truly sorry'

An independent report in 2013, by lawyer Sir Ian Kennedy, found concerns about Paterson dated back to 2003 but were not dealt with for four years. He said bosses at the Heart of England NHS Trust were told of concerns but "brushed them under the carpet. It is a story of clinicians going along with what they knew to be poor performance," Sir Ian said. "It is a story of Paterson was found guilty of wounding patients at Spire private hospitals weak and indecisive leadership from senior managers. It Please visit the IAS website: http://www.anatomicalis a story of-sciences.org.uk/ secrecy and containment." 24 Editor: John Ben F.I.A.S. Email [email protected]

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weak and indecisive leadership from senior managers. It is a story of secrecy and containment."

In total, Paterson operated on 4,424 people, although he treated thousands more privately. The Royal College of Surgeons said he was "often working in isolation", instead of within a team, and used "techniques that would be unrecognised to surgeons. This was an individual who abused the trust put in him by patients and played God with their lives. In modern practice, patients are fully informed of the care options open to them, so they can decide what form of care is best for them. In circumstances such as these, decisions should not be decided by the single personal opinion of a doctor."

Spire Healthcare, which runs the hospitals at Little Aston and Parkway, said: "What Mr Paterson did in our hospitals, in other private hospitals and in the NHS, absolutely should not have happened and today justice has been done. We would like to reiterate how truly sorry we are for the distress experienced by any patients affected by this case."

Heart of England NHS Trust said: "We welcome the verdict and appreciate the distress caused to Ian Paterson's patients and families."

In October, 350 private patients who had unnecessary operations will seek compensation at the High Court, Linda Millband from Thompsons Solicitors said.

Pamela Jain, from the Crown Prosecution Service said: "Paterson breached the trust of his victims and we pay tribute to them for coming forward to give their evidence."

Are you affected by the issues raised in this story? Please email [email protected] with your experiences.

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RANCHI. INDIA

BLOOD SMEAR OF DEAD ELEPHANT PROVES ANTHRAX Friday, 02 June 2017 | PNS | DALTONGANJ | in Ranchi 1 Department of veterinary pathology in Ranchi veterinary college Ranchi has reached its impression that the less than 30 years robust male elephant died of bacillus anthracis. Bacillus anthracis is known as Anthrax in common parlance. The Pioneer had done this story first in this regard. Blood smear of the ear vein of the deceased elephant was submitted to the Ranchi veterinary college’s veterinary pathology. Blood smear was collected by Dr Ajay Kumar. Kumar is a vet officer in BB Biological park Ormanjhi.

The examination of blood smear found bacillus of bamboo stick appearance. Bamboo stick appearance is a chief characteristic of bacillus anthracis. Pathologically and morphologically it is now proven anthrax killed this young elephant of PTR. The elephant was found dead on May 26. Blood smear was oozing from its orifices.

Field director PTR M P Singh has confirmed this examination report of blood smear by the vet pathology of Ranchi vet college Ormanjhi.

Singh referred to the report of K K Singh who is the chairman of the vet pathology. It is K K Singh’s signature on the report which reads bacillus anthracis.

PTR officials are cross fingered. Cattle grazing is just non stoppable as farmers and cattle owners are too apathetic towards the welfare of the wild life here.

M P Singh said as this elephant is still buried and not burnt there would be suggestion for its DNA test too to trace the strain of anthrax.

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 Science & Environment

Faces recreated from monkey brain signals By Paul Rincon Science editor, BBC News website Share Scientists in the US have accurately reconstructed images of human faces by monitoring the responses of monkey brain cells. The brains of primates can resolve different faces with remarkable speed and reliability, but the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood.

The researchers showed pictures of human faces to macaques and then recorded patterns of brain activity. The work could inspire new facial recognition algorithms, they report.

In earlier investigations, Prof Doris Tsao from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and colleagues had used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in humans The researchers analysed brain activity in rhesus macaque monkeys and other primates to work out which areas of the brain were

responsible for identifying faces. Six areas were found to be involved, all of which are located in part of the brain known as the inferior temporal (IT) cortex. The researchers described these six areas as "face patches". Further research showed that face patches were jammed with particular nerve cells (neurons) that emit signals more strongly when they're presented with faces, rather than when they "see" other objects. The team members called these neurons "face cells".

Prof Tsao's team came up with 50 different dimensions that could describe a face, such as the distance between the eyes, or the width of the hairline, as well as non-shape-related features such as skin tone.

Then they inserted electrodes into the brains of macaque monkeys so that they could record individual signals from single face cells within the face patches.

The results, published in the journal Cell, suggest that around 200 neurons each encode different characteristics of a face. But when all are combined, the information contributed by each nerve cell allows the macaque brain to build a clear image of someone's face. "We've discovered that this code is extremely simple," said Prof Tsao, who is based at Caltech's campus in Pasadena. A practical consequence of our findings is that we can now reconstruct a face that a monkey is seeing by monitoring the electrical activity of only 205 neurons in the monkey's brain."

When placed side by side, photos that the monkeys were shown and faces recreated from their brain activity (using an algorithm) were nearly identical. Face cells from just two of the face patches - 106 cells in one patch and 99 cells in another - were enough to reconstruct the faces.

"People always say a picture is worth a thousand words," said Prof Tsao. "But I like to say that a picture of a face is worth about 200 neurons."

Although the work is based on macaques, the close relationships between primates suggest that a comparable mechanism may operate in the human brain. The findings challenge the idea, held by other scientists in the field, that each face cell in the brain recognises a particular type of face.

Further evidence against this idea came from the observation that when a large set of faces are engineered to look extremely different, they all cause a given face cell to fire in exactly the same way. "This was completely shocking to us - we had always thought face cells were more complex. But it turns out each face cell is just measuring distance along a single axis of face space, and is blind to other features," said Prof Tsao.

The Cell paper's first author, Steve Le Chang, said the work Faces shown to monkeys were almost identical to reconstructions from suggested that "other objects could be encoded with similarly monitoring brain activity simple coordinate systems".

One obvious potential application for the work is in the design of new machine learning algorithms for recognising faces. But there are others. "One can imagine applications in forensics where one could reconstruct the face of a criminal by analysing a witness's brain activity," said Prof Chao.

Please visit the IAS website: http://www.anatomical-sciences.org.uk/ 26 Editor: John Ben F.I.A.S. Email [email protected]

Institute of Anatomical Sciences Supplement of World News. No 54.

'Faceless' fish discovered in deep sea off Australia 'It hasn't got any eyes or a visible nose and its mouth is underneath'

 Ian Johnston @montaukian 1 June 2017

A ‘faceless’ fish has been dredged up from a seabed 4km deep by a team of researchers investigating “the most unexplored environment on Earth”. The fish, which is just under half a metre long, has no discernible eyes or other facial features at the front of its body. It has a mouth, but this is on the underside of the fish.

It was discovered by the crew of The Investigator, a ship which is surveying life in the deep waters between Tasmania and the Coral Sea.

The fish with 'no face' ABC News screengrab Ti Tim O'Hara, of Museums Tim O'Hara, of Museums Victoria, who is the vessel’s chief scientist, told the AFP news agency: “It hasn't got any eyes or a visible nose and Victoria, who is the vessel’s chief its mouth is underneath.” scientist, told the AFP news

agency: m O'Hara, of Museums His colleague, Di Bray, also of Museums Victoria, said the find was the “highlight” of the trip so far. “Apparently, it’s got eyes way under Victoria, who is the vessel’s chief the surface but really you can't see any eyes,” she told Australia’s ABC News. “We've seen some awesome stuff. On the video camera we scientist, told the AFP news saw a kind of chimaera that whizzed by – that’s very, very rare in Australian waters. We’ve seen a fish with photosensitive plates that sit on agency: “It hasn't got any eyes or the top of its head, tripod fish that sit up on their fins and face into the current.” a visible nose and its mouth is It is thought to be the first time such a fish has been caught since 1873 when one was recorded by the crew of HMS Challenger off the coast underneath.” of Papua New Guinea.

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Meet the Cambridge scientist on verge of curing Multiple Sclerosis

This amazing work could literally change the world

BY MATT GOODING , 4 JUN 2017 Dr Su Metcalfe is sitting quietly reading through some documents in the lobby of the Judge Business School when I arrive for our interview. It would be easy to walk right past her and not know you were in the presence of a woman who could be on the verge of curing multiple sclerosis.

MS, an auto-immune condition which affects 2.3 million people around the world, attacks cells in the brain and the spinal cord, causing an array of physical and mental side effects including blindness and muscle weakness. At the moment there’s no cure, but Su and her company, LIFNano, hope to change that. Su Metcalfe, right, is developing a treatment for Multiple Sclerosis

“Some people get progressive MS, so go straight to the severe form of the disease, but the majority have a relapsing or remitting version,” she says.

“It can start from the age of 30, and there’s no cure, so all you can do is suppress the immune response, but the drugs that do that have side effects, and you can’t repair the brain. The cost of those drugs is very high, and in the UK there are a lot of people who don’t get treated at all.”

But now a solution could be in sight thanks to Su, who has married one of the body’s cleverest functions with some cutting-edge technology. The natural side of the equation is provided by a stem cell particle called a LIF.

Su was working at the university’s department of surgery when she made her big breakthrough: “I was looking to see what controls the immune response and stops it auto-attacking us,” she explains.

“I discovered a small binary switch, controlled by a LIF, which regulates inside the immune cell itself. LIF is able to control the cell to ensure it doesn’t attack your own body but then releases the attack when needed.

“That LIF, in addition to regulating and protecting us against attack, also plays a major role in keeping the brain and spinal cord healthy. In fact it plays a major role in tissue repair generally, turning on stem cells that are naturally occurring in the body, making it a natural regenerative medicine, but also plays a big part in repairing the brain when it’s been damaged.

“So I thought, this is fantastic. We can treat auto-immune disease, and we’ve got something to treat MS, which attacks both the brain and the spinal cord. So you have a double whammy that can stop and reverse the auto-immunity, and also repair the damage caused in the brain.”

Presumably Su, who has been in Cambridge since she was an undergraduate but retains a soft accent from her native Yorkshire, was dancing a jig of delight around her lab at this point, but she soon hit a snag; the LIF could only survive outside the cell for 20 minutes before being broken down by the body, meaning there was not enough time to deploy it in a therapy. And this is where the technology, in the form of nano-particles, comes in.

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“They are made from the same material as soluble stitches, so they’re compatible with the body and they slowly dissolve,” says Su.

“We load the cargo of the LIF into those particles, which become the delivery device that slowly dissolve and deliver the LIF over five days. The nano-particle itself is a protective environment, and the enzymes that break it down can’t access it. You can also decorate the surface of the particles with antibodies, so it becomes a homing device that can target specific parts of the brain, for example. So you get the right dose, in the right place, and at the right time.”

The particles themselves were developed at Yale University, which is listed as co-inventor with Su on the IP. But LIFNano has the worldwide licence to deploy them, and Su believes we are on the verge of a step- change in medicine.

She says: “Nano-medicine is a new era, and big pharma has already entered this space to deliver drugs while trying to avoid the side effects. The quantum leap is to actually go into biologics and tap into the natural pathways of the body.

“We’re not using any drugs, we’re simply switching on the body’s own systems of self-tolerance and repair. There aren’t any side effects because all we’re doing is tipping the balance. Auto-immunity happens when that balance

Dr Su Metcalfe of LIFNano (Photo: David Johnson) has gone awry slightly, and we simply reset that. Once you’ve done that, it becomes self-sustaining and you don’t have to keep giving therapy, because the body has its balance back.”

LIFNano has already attracted two major funding awards, from drug firm Merck and the Government’s Innovate UK agency. Su herself is something of a novice when it comes to business, but has recruited cannily in the form of chairman Florian Kemmerich and ceo Oliver Jarry, both experienced operators in the pharma sector. With the support of the Judge, the company hopes to attract more investment, with the aim of starting clinical trials in 2020.

“The 2020 date is ambitious, but with the funding we’ve got and the funding we’re hoping to raise, it should be possible,” says Su.

“We’ve got everything we need in place to make the nano-particles in a clinically compliant manner, it’s just a case of flicking the switch when we have the money. We’re looking at VCs and big pharma, because they have a strong interest in this area. We’re doing all our pre- clinical work concurrently while bringing in the major funds the company needs to go forward in its own right.”

Immune cells have been a big part of Su’s career, and as we talk, her passion for her subject is obvious. “I wanted to understand something that was so simple on one level Could LIFNano solve the puzzle of multiple sclerosis? but also so complex,” she says.

“The immune cell is the only single cell in the body that is its own unity, so it functions alone. It’s probably one of the most powerful cells in the body because it can kill you, and if you haven’t got it you die because you haven’t got it.”

And MS may just be the start for LIFNano. “MS is our key driver at the moment, but it’s going to be leading through to other major auto-immune disease areas,” Su adds. “Psoriasis is high up on our list, and diabetes is another. Downstream there are all the dementias, because a LIF is a major health factor for the brain. So if we can get it into the brain we can start protecting against dementia.”

Now that would be something.

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 Latin America & Caribbean

 The Mexican doctor rehydrating the dead By Irene Caselli Ciudad Juárez 12-6-17 Share Warning: This article contains images that readers might find disturbing.

Rosa María Apodaca has spent the past six years looking for her eldest daughter. Patricia Jazmín Ibarra was 18 when she left on the morning of 7 June 2011 to go to work at a mobile phone shop in the centre of Ciudad Juárez. "They stole her," says her mother, who has given up her job to look for In the 1990s, Ciudad Juarez became infamous for the number of women killed there Patricia Jazmín. Ms Apodaca knows that many of the young girls who disappeared from Ciudad Juárez were eventually found dead. The city on the Mexican-US border is located on a key route for drug smuggling and human trafficking.

In the 1990s, Ciudad Juárez became infamous for the staggering numbers of young women who disappeared from it, and between 2008 and 2011 the city held the dubious title of murder capital of the world..

"They never find them alive. They find only bones, this is how they give them back to their families," Ms Apodaca says of the many women who have gone missing. You never have the certainty that it is your own daughter."

Identifying the dead

It is people like Ms Apodaca that Dr Alejandro Hernández Cárdenas is trying to help. He works as a forensic doctor at the prosecutor's office and has developed a special technique to rehydrate corpses in order to help identify them. Dr Alejandro Hernández Cárdenas has invented a formula for the rehydration of bodies The technique is so innovative that last year the Mexican Institute for Industrial Property gave him a patent for his secret formula.

Forensic experts have used glycerine injections to reconstitute fingers to get prints for over a century. But that technique does not work for entire bodies.

DNA testing can help, but in order to identify bodies, samples from two direct family members are needed for comparison.

With the rehydration process, the body can regain most of its original condition so families can identify it. "I think I am doing this work because I was affected by the idea of these bodies going to mass graves or their families not being able to mourn properly," If the bodies can be rehydrated enough to allow for fingerprinting, identification Dr Hernández says. becomes easier

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New leads

The rehydration technique has also helped provide key leads in criminal investigations.

When Dr Hernández rehydrated a corpse in the state of Queretaro, in central Mexico, he discovered unusual lesions on its skin, which later led to an arrest being made. The doctor was told that his help was key in bringing the murderer to justice.

Dr Hernández, 59, says that he first thought of becoming a forensic expert when he was 18 and studying to be a dentist while also driving an ambulance to help provide for his young family.

One night in 1977, he was called out to a train accident that had killed 35 people and had left most of the victims unrecognisable. "When the forensic doctor arrived, he told us to check their teeth," Dr Hernández recalls. He helped out at the morgue for four or five days, while the victims' families were waiting for news outside.

While the task may seem gruesome to Rehydration sometimes reveals tattoos or other unique characteristics some, it inspired in Dr Hernández a

desire to help identify victims of crime.

Pig skin and human fingers

After becoming a dentist and eventually joining the forensic lab, he started experimenting with his rehydration technique. He used pig skin and human fingers he kept in glass jars and checked on them daily.

One day in 2004 he was inspecting seven jars. When he took out the finger from the fourth jar, it looked perfect. "It was like a new finger. I couldn't believe it," he says.

At first he thought it was too good to be true and suspected his colleagues of

Dr Hernández has made it his mission to try and identify bodies which otherwise may playing a trick on him. But when he end up in mass graves without a name confronted them, one told him: "We don't mess with them, they smell too bad."

Magic formula

He had found the magic formula and four years later managed to rehydrated a full corpse.

In recent years, Dr Hernández has been applying his technique more and more to migrants found dead in the border area.

Ciudad Juárez is one of the main crossing points to the US and more than 6,000 bodies have been recovered from He often has little to go on, such as a piece of desiccated skin along the border since the 1990s.

The bodies are often found in mass graves and are often hard to identify because theyThe have bodies been mutilated are often or foundare mummified in mass because of the harsh weather conditions. graves and are often hard to identify because they have been mutilated or are Because there is no investigation unit at the forensic lab where he works, Dr Hernándezmummified has been because financing of his the research harsh himself, paying for the chemicals and working on it in his spare time. weather conditions.

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He hopes that someone will take an interest in his research but ultimately wishes for less rather than more work. "It's not that I am lazy, it's just that when I have a lot of work it means that a lot of people have died," he explains.

"I would prefer not to have found this formula - if it meant that those people had never died." Irene Caselli was in Ciudad Juárez as an Adelante Latin America Reporting Fellow with the International Women's Media Foundation.

Share this story Posters of missing people are a common sight in Ciudad Juárez

 England: Bristol

 12th June 2017

3D printed bionic hands trial begins in Bristol

The world's first clinical trial of 3D printed bionic hands for child amputees starts this week in Bristol.

They are made by a South Gloucestershire company which only launched four years ago.

If the trial is successful the hands will become available on the NHS, bringing life-changing improvements for patients.

Boy's hand printed in football colours

Please visit the IAS website: http://www.anatomical-sciences.org.uk/ 32 Editor: John Ben F.I.A.S. Email [email protected]

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Science #WhoaScience Mass Grave From Thirty Years' War Reveals Brutal Cavalry Attack

On November 16, 1632, two armies faced off at the site of Lützen, Germany. On one side was Gustavus Adolphus II, King of Sweden, and on the other was General Albrecht von Wallenstein, the leader of a regiment of Holy Roman Imperial forces. The Thirty Years' War was Europe's deadliest religious conflict ever, ultimately claiming an estimated eight million lives -- including the Kin g of Sweden, who led the cavalry at Lützen but was killed in the brutal attack. This week in the journal PLoS ONE, a group of archaeologists led by Nicole Nicklisch reveal their analysis of 47 soldiers who died in

Kristina Killgrove , the Battle of Lützen and who were buried in a mass grave. They found CONTRIBUTOR I write about archaeology, anthropology, and the classical world. that these men ranged in age from 15 to 50, and that many of them had suffered previous traumatic injuries in their lives. While the researchers suffered previous traumatic injuries in their were interested in the general state of the soldiers' lives leading up to lives. While the researchers were interested their deaths, their main aim "was to analyze the fatal injuries the men in the general state of the soldiers' lives sustained during the battle," in order to learn about "the fighting and leading up to their deaths, their main aim the military and strategic operations on the battlefield." "was to analyze the fatal injuries the men sustained during the battle," in order to learn about "the fighting and the military and strategic operations on the battlefield." The battle injuries that the researchers found run the gamut from blunt force to sharp force to projectile trauma. Twelve of

the men had had evidence of blunt force J. Lipták, O. Schröder / PLoS ONE Overall view of the mass grave at Lützen. trauma directed at their heads, with the

blows falling mostly on their jaws and faces. At least half a dozen more men suffered blows to their limbs or ribs,

causing fractures.

N. Nicklisch, J. Lipták / PLoS One

(A) The oldest individual among the dead has

fractures to the right zygomatic bone and the

jawbone (indiv. 18). (B) The fracture to the

right femur of individual 16 can be associated

with a fall, whilst the comminuted fracture of

the tibia was caused by a gunshot. It is possible

that the shot to the tibia provoked the fall and the tibia was caused by a gunshot. It is possible that the shot to the tibia provoked the fall and subsequent femur subsequent femur fracture. fracture. Please visit the IAS website: http://www.anatomical -sciences.org.uk/ 33 Editor: John Ben F.I.A.S. Email [email protected]

Institute of Anatomical Sciences Supplement of World News. No 54.

The battle injuries that the researchers found run the gamut from blunt force to sharp force to projectile trauma. Twelve of the men had had evidence of blunt force trauma directed at their heads, with the blows falling mostly on their jaws and faces. At least half a dozen more men suffered blows to their limbs or ribs, causing fractures.

Attacks with bladed weapons were also found among the skeletons in the mass grave. One late-teenage male suffered a sabre wound to the back of his head, and another appears to have been slashed in the face prior to being shot. The archaeologists also found some stabbing injuries to the back and pelvis of seven men.

K. Bentele, N. Nicklisch, S. Brandt / PLoS ONE

(A, B) Individual 5 was struck in the left parietal/temporal bone by a lead bullet, which (E) lodged in the right occipital bone. (D) The projectile is a musket ball. Its severe deformation suggests that it ricocheted.

(C) The position of the lead bullet could be documented by CT. (F) The density and scattered radiation of the lead made it possible to distinguish clearly between the bullet and the surrounding sediment.

Gunshot wounds were by far the most common perimortem trauma found, marking the cause of death of at least 21 men. In about half of these cases, the bullet remained lodged in the skull. A deformed lead musket ball discovered in one of the skulls suggests the bullet ricocheted, entering the left side of the soldier's head and lodging in the back of his skull.

The archaeologists also found gunshots to the torso and limbs of eight individuals, including the hips, abdominal area, and lower legs. Carbine bullets from a short rifle or musket were found lodged in the back of the pelvis of two soldiers.

In assessing the trauma these soldiers suffered, Nicklisch and colleagues found that the blunt-force injuries were likely caused by being hit with rifle butts or hilts, or by falls from or kicks by horses. The sharp trauma may have been caused by sabres, rapiers, knives, daggers, or halberds. Interestingly, the Lützen skeletons have surprisingly few sharp-force injuries, especially when compared to other mass graves from the Thirty Years' War.

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A. Hörentrup / PLoS ONE Two soldiers were struck in the hip area by carbine bullets. The projectiles remained (A) in the left ilium (indiv. 2) and (B) in the right acetabulum (indiv. 46).

What distinguishes the Lützen battle is its reliance on guns, specifically pistols, muskets, and carbines. Firearms were becoming more readily available during this part of the 17th century, but it appears that this battle was ahead of its time. The researchers looked at the distribution of projectile wounds to the skull and suggested that the battle was "a perhaps surprising and quick fronto-lateral attack, which probably left the soldiers little room for evasive action. Moreover, the soldiers concerned do not appear to have had sufficient head protection." This lack of protection was obviously deadly, especially since historical records suggest a recommendation that "cavalrymen

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should aim for the enemy's head and left side of the chest. This instruction seems to have been put into practice with frightening success," Nicklisch and colleagues say.

J. Lipták, O. Schröder / PLoS ONE

The Lützen mass grave. (B) graphic illustration of the skeletal remains. The skeletons have been marked in individual colours.

The Lützen mass grave itself is also somewhat different from other burials found from this time period. "The dead were not placed in the pit in a systematic way," Nicklisch and colleagues note. Since other battlefield graves were made in a more orderly fashion under the watch of military leaders, they conclude that "the local population helped with removing the dead bodies after the armies had moved on." This hypothesis is bolstered by the fact that there were almost no artifacts remaining with the bodies -- "the dead were intensely plundered," the researchers say. The local Lützen people likely had negative feelings about the battle in their backyard and worked in haste to remove signs of it.

Additional analysis of the skeletons is ongoing, but the researchers write that preliminary results suggest the soldiers buried in the Lützen mass grave were actually from both sides of the battle: the Swedish Protestant soldiers and the

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Imperial Catholic ones. They conclude, however, that "the majority of casualties were infantrymen of the Blue Brigade and thus soldiers serving with the Swedish army."

Although the Battle of Lützen was won by the Swedish forces, it claimed the life of Gustavus II Adolphus, the King of

Sweden. He was shot multiple times, and his body - largely stripped of clothing and jewelry - was found a couple hours later and secretly evacuated. After embalming, the body began its long trip back to Stockholm for a funeral held in June of 1634. The Thirty Years' War raged until 1648, when it was finally concluded by a series of treaties in what is historically known as the Peace of Westphalia.

Kristina Killgrove is a bioarchaeologist at the University of West Florida. For more osteology news, follow her on Twitter

(@DrKillgrove) or like her Facebook page Powered by Osteons.

 Europe

Dutch families win right to test DNA of sperm bank doctor 2 June 2017

Share A Dutch court has approved a request by families seeking DNA tests on the belongings of a late fertility clinic doctor accused of using his own sperm in dozens of cases.

Jan Karbaat is suspected of fathering about 60 children at the centre he ran in Bijdorp, near Rotterdam. Tests will now be conducted on items seized from his home after his death in April, at the age of 89. A lawyer for his family said there was no evidence to support the claims.

Physical resemblance Some of the donor children implicated in the case speak to the media Jan Karbaat called himself "a pioneer in the field of fertilisation". His clinic was closed in 2009 amid reports that he had allegedly falsified data, analyses and donor descriptions and exceeded the permitted number of six children per donor.

At a court hearing last month, a lawyer for the 22 parents and children said that the suspected cases included a client's child who had brown eyes when the sperm donor was supposedly blue-eyed and a client's son who physically resembled the doctor.

'This is a huge step' - lawyer representing donor children

The DNA profile will remain sealed until the children can show there is cause to believe he is their father, the BBC's Anna Holligan, who was at the district court in Rotterdam, reports. Eventually, if the DNA profile matches, the children, most of them born in the 1980s, hope to sue the doctor, possibly on the grounds that they should not exist, our correspondent adds.

Joey, who believes Jan Karbaat may be his father, told the BBC: "It means everything to me... We hope to get the answers."

The Karbaat family's lawyer argued against any DNA tests taking place. While alive, the doctor himself refused such tests. However, last month, Jan Karbaat's son donated his DNA for tests, which showed that the doctor could be the father of 19 children, born though IVF, AFP news agency reports.

It is not clear whether the 19 are among those involved in the court case.

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Are tales of mythical mermaids inspired by a real-life medical condition? Mermaids have occupied our imagination for thousands of years, originating in ancient Assyria with the legend of goddess Atargatis, whose worship spread to Greece and Rome. In one account, Atargatis transforms herself into half-human, half-fish being out of shame for accidentally killing her human lover. However, in other accounts, Atargatis is a goddess of fertility who is associated with a fish-bodied goddess at Ascalon. It is thought that worship of Atargatis and Ascalon eventually merged into one, leading to the description of one ‘mermaid-goddess’.

In history, mermaids have been connected with hazardous events in European, African and Asian culture, including floods, storms, shipwrecks and drownings. Homer called them sirens in the Odyssey, who lured sailors to their deaths. They have been depicted in Etrurian sculptures, in Greek epics, and in bas-reliefs in Roman tombs. In 1493, Christopher Columbus even reported seeing mermaids on his voyage to the Caribbean.

But could our concept of a mermaid actually have originated from a real medical disorder?

Sirenomelia, named after the mythical Greek sirens, and also known as ‘mermaid syndrome’, is a rare and fatal congenital malformation characterized by fusion of the lower limbs. The condition results in what looks like a single limb, resembling a fish tail, leading some to questioned whether ancient cases of the condition may have influenced legends of the past. It is known, for example, that ancient descriptions of sea monsters derived from sightings of real-life species such as whales, giant squid, and walruses, which were rarely seen and little understood at the time.

The reverse of a coin of Demetrius III depicts fish-bodied Atargatis, veiled, According to the MailOnline, medical historian Lindsey holding the egg, flanked by barley stalks. Image source: Wikipedia Fitzharris from Oxford University, and author of the blog The Chirurgeon's Apprentice, has been tracing back references of the condition in historical texts, however, the earliest known mention he could find was in a four-volume atlas published in 1891. There is nothing that hints at how medical practitioners understood sirenomelia in earlier periods.

Sirenomelia occurs when the umbilical cord fails to form two arteries, leaving only enough blood supply for one limb. Sadly, due to severe urogenital and gastrointestinal malformations, babies born with the disorder rarely survive longer than a few days. However, with advanced in surgical techniques, there have now been a few cases of sufferers living into their teenage years.

Ulysses and the Sirens by H.J. Draper. Image source: Wikipedia

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Among the survivors of the rare condition is a Peruvian girl named Milagros Cerron, whose first name means ‘miracles’, but friends and family affectionately refer to her as ‘the Little Mermaid’. In 2006, a team of specialists successfully separated the legs of the then two-year-old. While Milagros is living a full and active life, she will need ongoing surgery to correct complications associated with her kidneys, digestive and urogenital systems.

Whether or not the congenital condition may have influenced stories of women with fish-like tails will never really be known. Nevertheless, the likeness between the two has had one positive effect – it has helped children suffering from Sirenomelia to feel proud of their resemblance to the beautiful and mythical beings described in our ancient past and which has persisted through popular media to the modern-day.

Featured image: Atargatis by Annie Stegg. Image source: deviantart

By April Holloway o

Some scholars have questioned whether ancient cases of Sirenomelia may have influenced legends of the past. ‘A Mermaid’ by John William Waterhouse. Image source: Wikipedia

A diagram showing a child with Sirenomelia on the left, and the process to separate the legs in the centre and right position. Image source: pickled politics

The ‘Little Mermaid’ - Milagros Cerron – before and after surgery to correct the condition of Sirenomelia. Please visit the IAS website: http://www.anatomical-sciences.org.uk/ 39 Editor: John Ben F.I.A.S. Email [email protected]

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'World's tallest eight-year-old' measures 6ft 6ins - twice the height of classmates but shorter than his basketball player mum

At 6ft 6ins, Karan Singh is just an inch shorter than beanpole footballer Peter Crouch, but he still has some growing to do to reach his mum's height - she's 7ft 2ins

BY NICOLA BARTLETT 13 JUN 2017

A schoolboy who measures a whopping 6ft 6in is believed to be the world’s tallest eight-year-old at - twice the size of many of his classmates.

Karan Singh, from Meerut in India, has been a record breaker all his life, entering the Guinness Book of Records as both the heaviest and tallest baby at birth.

Now his Dad Sanjay, 41, hopes his son’s amazing height will be recognised again. “When Karan was born, he weighed 7.8 kg and was over 63 cm in length. So that got him into the record books instantly. Then, when he was five-years-old, he got the record for being the tallest toddler. He is eight now and I want to get him into the Guinness Records again,” said Sanjay whose son is already his height.

Karan Singh, eight, towers above his classmates (Photo: Barcroft)

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Karan is not the tallest in his family and seems to owe his extraordinary height to mum Shweatlana, 33, who was named India’s tallest woman with a towering height of 7ft 2in. Shweatlana, 33, is a basketball player and has represented India in numerous national and international sports events.

Karan entered the Guinness Book of Records as both the heaviest and tallest baby at birth

Although it’s not clear what has caused their lofty height, there is the possibility that both mum and son have an excess of the growth hormone.

Sanjay said: “We take Karan to an endocrinologist regularly. Until now, the tests have not shown any problems and everything is normal. Karan has a good stamina and has no internal problems.

“I am a naturopath by profession and I make sure that we follow a special diet and supplements along with a healthy day to day lifestyle.”

Karan is almost as tall as his dad, but is still some way off his mum's height (Photo: Barcroft) .

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Karan manages to do everything his smaller friends do (Photo: Barcroft Media)

Karan's main problem is getting clothes and shoes in his enormous size (Photo: Barcroft Media)

Despite towering above his classmates, Karan manages to do everything his smaller friends do. He said: “After finishing my homework, I play with my friends and then I go play basketball with my mother. She started teaching me since I was five years old and I want to play basketball like my mother. But I also like science a lot.”

The family attracts a lot of attention when they step out together, but say their main problem is getting clothes and shoes in their enormous sizes.

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Karan says he wants to keep on growing until he's taller than his mum (Photo: Barcroft)

Shweatlana said: “When Karan was born, he didn’t fit into regular baby clothes. We had to get clothes for a six month old baby for him. At the age of three, clothes for a 10-year- old would fit him. Now, his shoe size is already 12 and sometimes we don’t get that in the markets and have to get them made.”

Mum and son have the same shoe size and often wear each other’s, and Karan’s clothes are often especially made for him.

Shweatlana said. “My clothes have to be stitched specially. I don’t even find bangles or sandals in my size. Now we get Karan’s clothes tailor made as well.”

Far from being embarrassed by his height Karan has said he would like to keep growing.

He said: “I like that I am tall and that my mom is tall. I want to be taller than my mom and make my parents proud.

“But if I have to choose between becoming a doctor and a basketball player, I will choose basketball for sure.”

And proud mum Sweatlana insists that her and her son’s stature is nature’s gift.

She said: “As they say, a tiger’s son grows up to become a tiger. Karan is also the son of a tigress. He will grow up to be a tiger.”

Karan towers above fully grown men (Photo: Barcroft Media)

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When playing certain sports and games, Karan has a clear advantage

Karan is proud to be tall (Photo: Barcroft Media)

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Dog given synthetic bone by 3D printing technology

Corey has a keen interest in 3D printing and all tech-related news, as well as the wider impact of additive manufacturing.

Scientists at the University of Glasgow have successfully implemented an innovative new treatment for creating synthetic bones into a dog. The process is hoped to lead to human bone implants from a 3D printer.

The implantation was used to save the two-years old Munsterlander named Eva and the technology was funded by the Find a Better Way charity. Founded by Sir Bobby Charlton, Find a Better Way announced a £2.8m financial agreement with the University of Glasgow last year. The partnership was made with the aim of developing 3D printed limbs.

Sir Bobby Charlton signing the funding agreement. Photo via Find a Better Way.

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Giving the dog a bone

Eva’s front leg was broken during a car accident and since hasn’t been able to heal due to persistent infections requiring bone tissue to be removed. As a result, Eva was left with a 2 cm gap in her foreleg bone and was close to amputation. However, vet William Marshall discovered a possible treatment in the form of an untested technique developed at the University of Glasgow.

Using a protein known as BMP-2, the scientists were able to encourage bone growth but were not yet due to trial the method on humans for another few years.

William Marshall took the gamble and implanted a combination of BMP-2, a binding agent known as poly(ethyl acrylate) or PEA and bone chips and Eva’s bone marrow. As it was the first use of the technique, the results were unprecedented and seven weeks later Eva has made a full recovery.

Paving the way for synthetic 3D printed bones

Having demonstrated the potential with Eva’s implantation, the team at the University of Glasgow will use the procedure as a learning exercise for future 3D printed implantations.

The same BMP-2 process will be used in the future with 3D printed scaffolds and stem cells to treat landmine survivors in Cambodia. The technique works by using biomedical grade plastic which eventually dissolves to leave a newly-grown bone in its place. The 3D printing technology has potential not just for land mine victims but for promoting bone growth across the body. Sir Graphic shows Eva’s treatment process. Image via University of Glasgow. Bobby Charlton describes the significance of the

surprising development,

When I signed the funding agreement for this project just six months ago I was not expecting there to be any results from this technology for years. Eva is a beautiful dog and I’m delighted she will now have a normal life thanks to the work Find A Better Way has funded at the University of Glasgow. I’m even more thrilled to think about what promise this technique holds for landmine blast survivors, and the rest of humanity, in the future. Californian company SI-BONE is similarly using 3D printing to promote bone growth with titanium implants. The company has just been granted FDA clearance.

For all the latest medical 3D printing news, subscribe to the most widely read newsletter in the 3D printing industry, follow us on twitter and like us on Facebook.

Featured image shows owner Fiona Kirkland with dog, Eva and surgeon William Marshall. Photo via University of Glasgow.

Story found and pasted on the IAS Facebook page by Wendy Birch

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 Health

Century-old Parkinson's question answered By James Gallagher Health and science reporter, BBC News website 21 June 2017

Share Scientists say they have found the first direct evidence that the immune system does attack the brain in Parkinson's disease. The role of "autoimmunity" was first suggested nearly a century ago, but had not been confirmed. The discovery, in the journal Nature, suggests that drugs to calm the immune system could help manage the disease.

In Parkinson's the brain is progressively damaged leading to a tremor and difficulty moving. And at the same time very high levels of the protein alpha- synuclein accumulate in the brain.

Scientists - at Columbia University Medical Center and the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology - analysed the blood of 67 patients with the disease to see if they could find evidence of autoimmunity.

The team discovered that T-cells, a part of your immune system, were launching an assault on the alpha-synuclein. It means the immune system is recognising alpha-synuclein as a foreign invader such as a bacterium or virus.

It is likely the immune system tries to purge the body of alpha-synuclein and kills brain cells where the alpha-synuclein accumulates.

Prof David Sulzer, one of the researchers from Columbia University, said: "The idea that a malfunctioning immune system contributes to Parkinson's dates back almost 100 years But until now, no one has been able to connect the dots."

Radical

He believes that the study ties in with another emerging theme in Parkinson's - that the disease may start in the gut. Prof Sulzer told the BBC News website: "We imagine that T-cells may first identify alpha-synuclein out in periphery, particularly in the nervous system of gut which is not a problem until the T-cells enter the brain."

Dr Alessandro Sette, from La Jolla, said: "Our findings raise the possibility that an immunotherapy approach could be used to increase the immune system's tolerance for alpha-synuclein, which could help to ameliorate or prevent worsening symptoms in Parkinson's disease patients."

David Dexter, from the charity Parkinson's UK, said: "This research lends weight to the radical idea that the condition may involve the immune system becoming confused and damaging our own cells.

"We still need to understand more about how the immune system may be involved in the complex chain of events that contribute to Parkinson's.

"Ultimately this presents an exciting new avenue to explore to help develop new treatments that may be able to slow or stop the condition in its tracks."

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 Magazine

'I kept my daughter's body at home for three weeks' By Linda Pressly BBC News 24 June 2017

Share When nine-year-old Niamh died, her mother, Gilli Davidson, knew how she wanted to say goodbye - and her local funeral director made it possible.

Niamh Storey Davidson was diagnosed with a Wilms tumour - a rare kidney cancer affecting children - when she was six. For nearly three years she endured treatment, but kept relapsing. The family were told she was terminally ill.

"The thought that she wouldn't be here was unbearable," remembers Gilli. "She died at home at 1:30 in the afternoon, with me and her dad." Gilli's other children - including Niamh's twin, Zach - were at school or college.

But through the blur of upset and sorrow, Gilli knew

one thing clearly: she wanted to donate Niamh's eyes, the only part of the little girl unaffected by disease. Organ donation isthe very only important part of theto Gilli'slittle girlfamily unaffected - as a baby, by disease. one of Niamh's brothers had a heart transplant after contracting a serious chestOrgan infection. donation is very important to Gilli's family - as

She needed to act fast. By 5pm she was in touch with Arka Original Funerals - a Brighton company that is part of a movement in the UK to re-personalise and de-industrialise death, dying and funerals.

When funeral director Cara Mair arrived with her colleague, Sarah Clarke-Kent, to pick Niamh up, there was no heavy-duty, black plastic body bag to zip her into. She was carried away on a stretcher with a pillow, cotton shroud, and a soft felt covering appliquéd with large leaves.

"Removing someone from their home is such a hard thing for families to witness," says Cara. "It's important to have something of beauty to wrap them in. A person may have died, but it's still their shell, their vessel."

Niamh was taken quickly to Arka's premises, where her eyes were removed by a medical technician that same evening. "Sarah stayed with Niamh while the procedure was done," says Gilli. "That was a real gift, because then I knew it had been done really respectfully. The man operating told Sarah that Niamh's eyes were beautifulrespectfully. and in greatThe condition, man operating so they would told Sarahdefinitely that be given to someone else. I was really pleased to hear that." Niamh's eyes were beautiful and in great condition, so they would The next day, Niamh was taken back home.

Keeping a body at home before a funeral is rare in the UK, but it is not illegal. The most important consideration is temperature. Some funeral companies supply air conditioning units in the summer months to keep a body cool, and electric cold blankets may be used as well.

But in Niamh's case, temperature was not an issue. It was November, so she was placed in a room at home with the windows open. "She stayed there, lying on an armchair with her blankets and her cushions," remembers Gilli. "I couldn't possibly have left her somewhere else. It just didn't feel right. She'd just turned nine years old - it still felt as though she was part of me."

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Niamh would remain at home for nearly three weeks, with her eyes closed. "We try and slow things down for loved ones, to give time to digest the news of a death. We don't have a prescribed way of doing things," says Cara.

In the days Niamh was at home, Gilli spent a lot of time with her. "I was able to wash her. And dress her in her favourite things. The main thing for me was to make her death real. If Niamh had just disappeared out of the house, and then a coffin had arrived and I never saw her again, I'd still be searching..."

Gilli trusted her own instincts on this because - almost unbelievably - she had Niamh and her twin brother Zach aged five - a year before her diagnosis already experienced the loss of two other children. Her first child, Liam, died shortly after he was born in 1990. "I remember asking to see him before the funeral, and the chaplain running the service wouldn't let me. So for years afterwards, I used to think if someone knocked on the door, and said, 'Oh, there's been a terrible mistake - here's your son,' I would've just accepted it. It was as if I didn't really believe he was dead."

It preyed on Gilli's mind that she had not had one last look at her son. "It made me think - why? Are they trying to trick me? You're in such a strange state after the death of a child."

In the UK, it is not common for family and friends to view a body in a casket just before burial or cremation. But Cara Mair says that for some clients this is important.

"When the coffin's closed, they know they've been the last to see that person, so they can rest assured they're undisturbed.

"It's not the same for everyone - this might freak some people out. But the choice to do it needs to be there, and the funeral profession needs to be comfortable with it."

In 1998, Gilli lost a second child, Robbie, who was still-born. She had learned some lessons from her first bereavement but the funeral service still seemed all wrong. "It was too wordy for a tiny baby. And the funeral director had put in a lot of religion, which had nothing to do with me," she says.

Gilli remembered a conversation she had with Niamh before she died. "We were walking to the park with her twin, and she

Cara Mair is trying to make funerals more personal said she wanted to be buried. She didn't like the idea of fire, and was adamant about that." But Gilli hated the idea of a graveyard - dark, and foreboding, and so unlikeabout that."her shy But little Gi girl.lli hated the idea of a graveyard - dark, and foreboding, and so The family settled on a woodland burial. Gilli was not sure she wanted to put herunlike daughter her shyin alittle coffin, girl. so Arka advised her that Niamh could be buried only in a shroud. But at the last minute, her father changed his mind, and Niamh was placed in a Please visit the IAS website: http://www.anatomical-sciences.org.uk/ 49 Editor: John Ben F.I.A.S. Email [email protected]

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wicker coffin. "In the time she'd been at home since she'd died, she hadn't really changed very much," remembers Sarah Clarke-Kent. "She looked very peaceful and small."

Niamh loved dogs. So on the day of the funeral, her street was filled with neighbours, friends, children and their pets. "It was very moving how they stayed involved and in control of Niamh's funeral, and it was a privilege to support them," says Cara Mair.

She drove Niamh's coffin slowly up the street followed by a walking procession of mourners and well-wishers. The balloons were released, and then everyone got into their cars and drove to the woodland burial site.

Image copyright GILLI DAVIDSON The day has stayed with Gilli. "It really did feel right. The funeral's only the start of saying goodbye, but it's such an important start - it's the beginning of moving on to the next chapter of life without that person. And if death isn't dealt with in a good way, the bereavement gets stuck, and that can affect your life and your children's."

Gilli's family had an overwhelming response to their decision to donate Niamh's eyes. "A lot of people got in touch with us," says Gilli. "We have this cultural idea that the eyes are the windows to the soul, so it's common for organ donors to write on their cards that they don't want their eyes to be taken. Many Pets were welcome at Niamh's funeral people wrote to us to say they had changed their minds about that after hearing Niamh's story." And when Gilli heard her daughter's corneas had been transplanted successfully, giving sight to a teenager and a young man, she was delighted. "It means a little bit of Niamh has lived on - that's her legacy."

Find out more

Cara Mair and Sarah Clarke-Kent encourage bereaved families to get involved in every aspect of the funeral process. Their company features in a forthcoming documentary called Dead Good. In this clip, a woman has chosen to help prepare a dear friend for his funeral.

Sarah and Cara help a woman to bathe and dress her friend for burial

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SCIENCE VIBE "SCIENCE IS A WAY OF THINKING." CARL SAGAN

Adam & Eve Never Even Met. Never Mated! So What’s The Story? BY SCIENCEJUNE 23, 2017NEWS

The science version of the Adam and Eve Bible story bases the origins of the first man and woman on the planet on DNA analysi s. The crazy thing is, that based on this DNA evidence, the genetic ancestor of all men living today lived tens of thousands of years apart from the genetic ancestor of all females. If this is true, their coming together would indeed be a miracle! According to Peter Underhill and other researchers at Stanford University in California, the DNA differences occur because “They had different molecular clocks. Fewer men participated in reproduction than women did.” Underhill’s team, in conjunction with geneticists across the United States, Europe, Israel and Africa, found that the most recent male common ancestor lived in Africa around 59,000 years ago. They based this finding on genetic DNA analysis of the Y chromosomes of over 1,000 men in 22 geographic areas. Y chromosomes, which are only present in men, allow scientists to “count” generations by studying gradual genetic mutations. “The history of our species is something on the order of 4,000 or 5,000 generations,” Underhill said.

To trace the history of women, researchers employ mitochondrial DNA, which passes from mother to daughter almost unchanged. This evidence shows that our ancestral “Eve” lived more than 140,000 years ago. That’s a nearly 80,000 year difference.

Does this mean that the first Eve had to wait around 80,000 years before she met her man? Not exactly. Underhill’s team found that the male genetic legacy was less well-recorded than the female one. How does this occur? Underhill has some ideas. “One tribe conquers another tribe. The dominant tribe, the successful tribe, gets to mate with all the women — its own women plus the women they conquered,” Underhill said. This would lead just the dominant males to pass on their genetic traits, leaving the rest to disappear into history. Chance also plays a role.

“I’m a man and if I get married and just by chance, a flip of the coin, I only have daughters, that is a random chance event. It has nothing to do with my being inferior or superior,” Underhill said.

This would case the man’s Y chromosomes to be wiped from history, and therefore not contribute to the genetic path traced by that method.

Though scientists colloquially refer to these first humans as “Adam” and “Eve,” it doesn’t mean that they were the only male and female alive, nor the only ones to reproduce, according to InspiringScience.Net. In the case of Eve, it just means that “there is an unbroken line of ancestry from every human alive today back to her through the [mitochondrial DNA] mtDNA inherited from their mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and so on….While the children are descendants of their grandmothers on both sides, their mtDNA lineage can only be traced through their mother to her mother; if only this small group were considered, the maternal grandmother would be “mitochondrial Eve.”

And, “a similar tale can be told of Y-chromosomal Adam; there may have been nothing exceptional about him during his life and living humans are descended both from him and from his male contemporaries, but only the line of descent from him is uninterrupted by a female.”

Read more about the myth and truth behind Adam and Eve here. Source: CNN, Insiring Science

BOOKMARK THE PERMALINK.

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 Scotland

Opt-out organ donation system in Scotland planned Share

The Scottish government is to bring forward legislation to provide an opt- out system for organ donation. Public Health Minister Aileen Campbell said there would be legislation for a "soft opt- out" system, aimed at increasing donation rates. A government consultation found 82% of respondents in favour of the move.

MSPs considered such a system during the previous parliamentary term, but ultimately rejected it due to concerns over some specific details of the plan. At that point ministers said there were "merits" to an opt-out system, and At present, anyone who wants to donate organs after death must "opt in" to the system launched a consultation with a view to pursuing their own legislation.

More than 800 responses were gathered, including a petition with 18,500 signatures backing the move. The British Medical Association (BMA) has also endorsed a soft opt-out system.

At present, anyone who wants to donate their organs after death currently has to "opt in" to the system through the donor card scheme. Currently, 45% of the Scottish population have joined the register. A soft opt-out system - like that introduced in Wales in 2015 - would allow parts of an adult's body to be used in transplants in the absence of express permission. However the wishes of families and next of kin would continue to be respected, so removal of organs would not go ahead without their support.

Ms Campbell said the move was intended as part of a "long-term culture change in attitudes", with a "package of measures" expected from the government. She said: "I can confirm that we intend to bring forward legislation to introduce a soft opt-out system. This will build on the significant improvements already made as a result of the donation and transplantation plan for Scotland. That progress is testament to the great many people who work tirelessly to facilitate organ and tissue donation and transplantation. We should not forget that organ donation is a gift, which can only occur as a result of tragic circumstances and every donor and their family has made a selfless At present, anyone who wants to donate organs after death must "opt in" to the system decision which has enabled others to live. We need to continue doing what we can in order to help reduce the numbers of peopleto continue in Scotland doing waiting what for we transplants. can in order Moving to help to an opt out system of organ and tissue donation will be part of the long termreduce culture the change numbers in attitudesof people to inencourage Scotland people waiting to support donation." for transplants. Moving to an opt out system of organ and tissue donation will be part of the long 'Important legislation' term culture change in attitudes to encourage people to support donation." BMA Scotland welcomed the move, with chairman Dr Peter Bennie saying the field of organ transplantation had "not yet reached its full life-saving and life-transforming potential". He said: "The whole transplant community has worked tremendously hard to increase donation rates but we believe that more can be done. As doctors it's difficult to see our patients suffering and dying when their lives could be saved or dramatically improved by a transplant. We look forward to contributing to this important legislation."

Former Labour MSP Anne McTaggart, who brought forward the member's bill in the previous parliament, said she was "so pleased" that the government had "finally seen sense". She said: "This legislation could have been passed more than a year ago but sadly petty party politics blocked a change in the law at the time. That failure has cost lives. This turnaround is to be welcomed and I am ecstatic for all those awaiting transplants, organ donation recipients and their families today."

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 Wales

UK's first heart pump targets 2018 clinical trial By David Dulin BBC News 24 June 2017 Share The UK's first artificial heart pump has moved a step closer to being used on patients, scientists have said. It has been developed at Swansea University's Institute of Life Science 2 by Calon Cardio, and clinical trials are due to begin in late 2018 with the aim of a full rollout two years later. The pump is implanted into the failing heart and should last about 10 years.

Stuart McConchie, chief executive of Calon Cardio, said it was the most- advanced pump of its kind.

"This is for a very sick group of people and there are millions of them in the world, and hundreds of thousands in the United Kingdom," he said.

"It is the first British pump to be built for this purpose: to treat blood which is flowing through the pump extremely

Researchers have suggested heart pumps could help solve the shortage of heart donors gently and not to do any damage to the blood. There are other pumps that have been built that do cause some damage to the blood and, as a result, patients have adverse events that diminish the impact of the implantation and the treatment. Reliability of these pumps has been established for several years but blood handling is a problem. If they break up red blood cells or white blood cells or damage proteins then there is a cost of that."

The pump is commonly known as a ventricular assist device (VAD) and the one being developed in Swansea is called a MiniVAD.

After being implanted directly into the heart, it is driven by an embedded electric motor and powered by a battery pack worn by the user. Mr McConchie Calon Cardio boss Stuart McConchie said its was the most advanced pump of its kind said the device was designed to "assist the heart itself and not to replace it".

The last VAD produced was sold to one of the world's major cardiovascular companies for $3.4bn (about £2.6bn), he added.

But while there is a huge monetary value to the product, Mr McConchie said the key aspect is that it will improve a patient's quality of life.

"If we can demonstrate that we have reduced the adverse events, you have something that's much more forgettable that's put inside the body," he added. "Patients don't have to go back into hospital for correction of any adverse events, so the absolute cost benefit becomes substantial. That means the NHS, for example, or a healthcare provider in other countries like the United States, don't have as much cost in treating the patient who has a ventricle assist device and the benefit to society comes with that."

Mr McConchie said the patient experience was "much, much better" if they do not have to visit the hospital frequently.

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Diagram of the MiniVAD system which is attached to a battery pack

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White Skin Developed in Europe Only As Recently as 8,000 Years Ago Say Anthropologists

The myriad of skin tones and eye colors that humans express around the world are interesting and wonderful in their variety. Research continues on how humans acquired the traits they now have and when, in order to complete the puzzle that is our ancient human history. Now, a recent analysis by anthropologists suggests that the light skin color and the tallness associated with European genetics are relatively recent traits to the continent. An international team of researchers as headed by Harvard University’s Dr. Iain Mathieson put forth a study at the 84th annual meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologistsrecently. Based on 83 human samples from Holocene Europe as analyzed under the 1000 Genomes Project, it is now found that for the majority of the time that humans have lived in Europe, the people had dark skin, and the genes signifying light skin only appear within the past 8,000 years. This recent and relatively quick process of natural selection suggests to researchers that the traits which spread rapidly were advantageous within that environment, according to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). This dramatic evidence suggests modern Europeans do not appear as their long ancient ancestors did. MORE o Ancient European hunter-gatherer was dark-skinned and blue-eyed caveman o Did light-skinned, redheaded Neanderthal women hunt with the men? o Europeans share more language and genes with Asia than previously thought o New studies reveal 20 Percent of Neanderthal genome lives on in modern humans Spreading Genetics The samples are derived from a wide range of ancient populations, rather than a few individuals, and they supplied researchers with five specific genes associated with skin color and diet. AAAS reports that the “modern humans who came out of Africa to originally settle Europe about 40,000 years are presumed to have had dark skin, which is advantageous in sunny latitudes. And the new data confirm that about 8500 years ago, early hunter-gatherers in Spain, Luxembourg, and Hungary also had darker skin: They lacked versions of two genes—SLC24A5 and SLC45A2—that lead to depigmentation and, therefore, pale skin in Europeans today. […] Then, the first farmers from the Near East arrived in Europe; they carried both genes for light skin. As they interbred with the indigenous hunter- gatherers, one of their light-skin genes swept through Europe, so that central and southern Europeans also began to have lighter skin. The other gene variant, SLC45A2, was at low levels until about 5800 years ago when it swept up to high frequency.” This differed from the situation farther north. Ancient remains from southern Sweden 7,700 years ago were found to have the gene variants indicating light skin and blonde hair, and another gene, HERC2/OCA2, which causes blue eyes. This indicated to researchers that ancient hunter-gatherers of northern Europe were already pale and blue-eyed. This light skin trait would have been advantageous in the regions of less sunlight. Natural Selection Mathieson and colleagues do not specify in the study why the genes were favored and spread as quickly as they did, but it is suggested that Vitamin D absorption likely played a role. Ancient hunter-gatherers in Europe also could not digest milk 8,000 years ago. The ability to do so only came about 4,300 years ago. Paleoanthropologist Nina Jablonski of Pennsylvania State University notes that people in less sunny climates required different skin pigmentations in order to absorb and synthesize Vitamin D. The pale skin was advantageous in the region, as well was the ability to digest milk. “Natural selection has favored two genetic solutions to that problem—evolving pale skin that absorbs UV more efficiently or favoring lactose tolerance to be able to digest the sugars and vitamin D naturally found in milk,” writes AAAS. This new research follows related studies on pre-agricultural European genomes and modern humans in Europe before the rise of farming. MORE o Researchers claim Neanderthals were NOT a sub-species of modern humans o From farming to sedentary lifestyles - how 6,000 years has transformed the human body o Stone Age Britons traded with European farmers 8,000 years ago DNA taken from the wisdom tooth of a 7,000-year-old human found in Spain in 2006 overturned the popular image of light-skinned European hunter-gatherers. The study revealed that the individual had dark hair and the dark-skinned genes of an African. However, the man had blue eyes, an unexpected find by researchers. The hunter-gatherer is the oldest known individual in Europe found to have blue eyes.

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Artist’s depiction of Stone Age peoples (Wikimedia Commons) Previous research published in 2008 found that the earliest mutations in the eye-color genes that led to the evolution of blue eyes probably occurred about 10,000 years ago in individuals living in around the Black Sea. The surprising aspect of the findings is that while it is fundamental to natural selection that advantageous genetic attributes spread, it is not often a speedy process. The study shows that these genetic pale skin traits swept across Europe speedily, and that phenomenon is of particular interest to researchers. The preprint study “Eight thousand years of natural selection in Europe” by Mathieson and colleagues has been published in the online journal BioRxiv. These new findings shed light on humanity’s genetic past, giving us a clearer vision of our ancient origins. Featured Image: Image of reconstructed faces of three early humans in profile view. Credit: Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. By Liz Leafloor o

Artist’s impression of a blue-eyed hunter gatherer (Credit: PELOPANTON / CSIC)

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 Health

Ebola virus burial teams may have 'saved thousands of lives' By Tulip Mazumdar Global health reporter 22 June 2017

They were ordinary people doing an extraordinary job in extremely dangerous times. Now new research suggests Red Cross volunteers who helped bury most of the bodies of Ebola victims in West Africa could have prevented more than 10,000 cases of the deadly disease.

More than 28,000 people were infected with Ebola in 2014-2015. Of those, 11,310 people died. The worst affected countries were Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

A major part of the response was ensuring the safe burials of people who had died of Ebola. The bodies of victims were particularly toxic. Community funerals, where people helped wash the bodies of their loved ones, contributed to so many people becoming infected in the earlier stages of the outbreak. Within months, the epidemic had become the worst public health emergency of modern times.

The study, published in the PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases journal, used statistical modelling to measure the impact of the Red Cross safe and dignified burial programme.

Researchers focussed on 45 unsafe community burials and the 310 people who were identified as having had contact with the infected bodies. They found, on average, just over two people went on to develop Ebola for every unsafe community burial that took place.

Many Ebola burial workers were ordinary West Africans, such as teachers and college students The bigger risk was to those who cared for a loved one with Ebola before their death. Researchers found many more infections could have been prevented if the sick were treated in hospital rather than by their families and communities.

However, using these estimates, the study suggested safe and dignified burials by Red Cross volunteers prevented between 1,411 and 10,452 cases of Ebola.

The authors said these are conservative estimates.

They highlighted a number of limitations in the study, including the challenges of collecting very personal Some Ebola burial workers were stigmatised in their communities because of their work and sensitive information about

funerals, and the length of time between when some of the burials took between when some of the burials took place and when the data was collected. place and when the data was collected. Ending the war

Hundreds of paid volunteers took on the grim task of collecting bodies from people's homes in full personal protective gear, while also having to manage the grieving families and communities.

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They were ordinary West Africans, such as teachers and college students. Many carried out the relentless and dangerous work for months.

Some were stigmatised in their communities, because people became scared they might bring the virus home with them.

In reality, they were helping to stem world's worst ever Ebola outbreak.

"It was very difficult work," said Red Cross volunteer Mohamed Kamara who I spent a It is estimated that dignified burials prevented between 1,411 and 10,452 cases of Ebola day with as he collected bodies in Sierra Leone in January 2015.

"It's good news that people realise the impact of what we did to help end the transmission of Ebola," he said while reacting to the findings of the study from the capital Freetown.

"Some people didn't even want to come near us at that time.

"But the team we worked with helped give us the courage to do this important work… and we ended this war."

The work of the burial teams is thought to have played a major role in reducing the impact of the Ebola virus

Red Cross safe and dignified burials

. Teams managed over 47,000 burials

. Carried out more than 50% of all burials during the outbreak

. All deaths at home were presumed to be Ebola

. About 1,500 Red Cross volunteers involved in burials

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 Europe

Painter Salvador Dali's body to be exhumed for paternity suit Share A judge in Madrid has ordered the exhumation of the body of Spanish artist Salvador Dalí to get samples for a paternity suit.

A Spanish woman, born in 1956, said her mother, a maid, had a clandestine affair with the painter in 1955.

In ordering the exhumation, the judge said there were no biological remains or personal objects of the artist to be used in the paternity test.

The surrealist painter died in Spain in 1989, at the age of 85. He was buried in the theatre and museum he Dalí died in Spain in 1989 and had no children with his wife designed himself, in his home town of Figueres in the north-eastern Catalonia region. A judge in Madrid has ordered the exhumation of the body of Spanish artist Salvador Dalí to get samples for a paternity suit. Maria Pilar Abel Martínez, a tarot card reader who was born in Girona, made the claim for the first time in A Spanish woman, born in 1956, said her mother, a maid, had a clandestine2015. affair with the painter in 1955. In ordering the exhumation, the judge said there were no biological remains or personal objects of the artist to be used in the paternity test.

The surrealist painter died in Spain in 1989, at the age of 85. He was buried in the theatre and museum he designed himself, in his home town of Figueres in the north-eastern Catalonia region.

Maria Pilar Abel Martínez, a tarot card reader who was born in Girona, made the claim for the first time in 2015. She said her mother, Antonia, had worked for a family that spent time in Cadaqués, next to where the painter had a home. Antonia left her job in 1955, moved to a different city and married another man.

Ms Martínez claims that her mother had an affair with the world-famous painter

Ms Martínez claimed that her mother told her several times that Dalí was her father, on many occasions in front of others. "The only thing I'm missing is a moustache," she once said, according to newspaper El Mundo (in Spanish). At the time of the alleged affair, Dalí was married to his muse Gala, born Elena Ivanovna Diakonova. The couple had no children.

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Salvador Dalí is best known for his surrealist works

The decision also cites that Ms Martínez underwent two paternity tests, both in 2007, but never received the results.

Her legal action is against the Spanish state, to which Dalí left his estate. The court said the decision could be appealed.

If she is confirmed to be the artist's daughter, she could use his surname and be entitled to part of his estate - but Spanish media say she would have to legally request it.

Ms Martínez's lawyer said there was no date for the exhumation, but that it could happen as soon as July. The Gala Dalí Foundation has not commented.

Other notable exhumations Richard III: When a skeleton was found underneath a Leicester car park in 2012, archaeologists hoped they may have found the last Plantagenet king. The next year, it was confirmed the bones did belong to Richard III, who was killed in battle in 1485. The monarch was interred in a more fitting location - that of Leicester Cathedral - in 2015.

Lech Kaczynski: It did not take long for the rumours to start after the Polish president and a number of other senior figures - including the country's army chief, central bank governor, MPs and leading historians - were killed in a plane crash in 2010. But it took another six years for their bodies to be exhumed. And when they did, what they found was nothing less than baffling. The remains had been mixed up - with Mr Kaczynski's coffin containing the bodies of two other people.

Nelson Mandela's children: As the South African president lay dying in 2013, three of the children who predeceased him were in the process of being exhumed. It was the second time the bodies had been dug up: Mr Mandela's grandson Mandla had first moved them from the family graveyard in 2011, allegedly without the family's consent.

Pablo Neruda: The Nobel prize-winning Chilean poet was exhumed in 2013, 40 years after he died of prostate cancer. It was rumoured Neruda - whose death came days after the military coup which brought General Augusto Pinochet to power - may have been poisoned. The exhumation did not find any poison, but did find an unexplained bacterial infection before he was reburied in 2016.

Lots of people in Madagascar: Some people on the African island exhume their relatives as an act of love and respect.

And finally... a goose: Police in Hertfordshire exhumed the body of a goose, investigating allegations it was shot dead at point-blank range. A post-mortem found he had died of natural causes. . Share this story

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Sheep Gives Birth To Terrifying 'Half-Human Half-Beast'

Henry Smith

When villagers first came across the deformed sheep, which was born dead, some believed it to be the product of bestiality or a sheep being injected with human semen, others believed it to be the product of witchcraft. So frenzied was the reaction around this bizarre sheep that the Eastern Cape Department of Rural Development were inspired to send over a team of experts to understand what exactly had been born that day.

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Dr Lubabalo Mrwebi is the Chief Director of Eastern Cape’s veterinary services, says that although it might look part human, this dead fetus is nothing but a deformed lamb, and speculated it may have been deformed thanks to an infection known as Rift Valley Fever, a disease usually carried by mosquitoes.

“We would like to confirm that the severely deformed lamb that was born to a sheep in Lady Frere this week. While at a glance it resembles a human form, it is not human but a deformed stillbornweek. lamb sired While by at a asheep glance and it subsequently infected by a Rift Valley Fever at an early stage of its pregnancy. resembles a human form, it is not human but a It is not uncommon for pregnant animals to be infected by viruses early in their pregnancy. Virus infections in early deformed stillborn lamb stages of pregnancy may infect the foetus and lead to the development of malformations in the growing foetus. It is likely sired by a sheep and that this is what happened to the Lady Frere sheep. We call on the local community not to panic over this deformed subsequently infected by a lamb. We can confirm that this deformed lamb is not a progeny of sheep ovum and a human sperm.” Rift Valley Fever at an early stage of its pregnancy.

Dr Mrwebi deduced that the ewe that mothered this deformed fetus became pregnant around five months ago, when it would have been extremely rainy. This would have allowed for plenty of moisture for mosquitoes to thrive. He also suspected that the foetus’ swollen head may have been down to an abnormal buildup of fluid in the skull. At the moment, scientists are still carrying out tests on this bizarre dead creature. Please visit the IAS website: http://www.anatomical-sciences.org.uk/ 62 Editor: John Ben F.I.A.S. Email [email protected]

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 Health

What the brain's wiring looks like

Fergus Walsh Medical correspondent 3 July 2017 Share

The world's most detailed scan of the brain's internal wiring has been produced by scientists at Cardiff University. The MRI machine reveals the fibres which carry all the brain's thought processes.

It's been done in Cardiff, Nottingham, Cambridge and Stockport, as well as London England and London Ontario. Doctors hope it will help increase understanding of a range of neurological disorders and could be used instead of invasive biopsies.

I volunteered for the project - not the first time my brain has been scanned.

Computer games

In 2006, it was a particular honour to The wiring of the human brain be scanned by the late Sir Peter Mansfield, who shared a Nobel prize for his work on developing Magnetic Resonance Imaging, one of the most important breakthroughsfor his work onin medicine. developing He Magnetic scanned me using Nottingham University's powerful new 7 Tesla scanner. When we looked atResonance the crisp, Imaging,high resolution one of images, the most he told me: "I'm a physicist, so don't ask me to tell you to whether there's anything important amiss with breakthroughs your brain - you'd in medicine. need a neurologist for that." He scanned me using Nottingham University's powerful new 7 Tesla I was the first UK Biobank volunteer to have their brain and other organs imaged asscanner. part of When the world's we looked biggest at thescanning crisp, project. More recently, I had my brain scanned while playing computer games, as parthigh of resolutionresearch into images, the effects he toldof sleep me: deprivation on cognition. So my visit to the Cardiff University's Brain Research"I'm Imaging a physicist, Centre so (CUBRIC)don't ask me held to tell no particular concerns. you to whether there's anything amiss with your brain - you'd need a The scanneurologist took around for that." 45 minutes and seemed unremarkable. A neurologist was on hand to reassure me my brain looked normal. My family quipped that they were happy that a brain had been found inside my thick skull.

But nothing could have prepared me for the spectacular images produced by the team at Cardiff, along with engineers from Siemens in Germany and the United States. The scan shows fibres in my white matter called axons. These are the brain's wiring, which carry billions of electrical signals.

Axonal density Doctors hope the scans will increase understanding of neurological disorders Not only does the scan show the direction of the Not only does the scan show the direction of the messaging, but also the density of the brain's wiring. messaging, but also the density of the brain's Another volunteer to be scanned was Sian Rowlands who has multiple sclerosis.wiring. Like me, she is used to seeing images of her brain, but found the new scan "amazing".

Conventional scans clearly show lesions - areas of damage - in the brain of MS patients. But this advanced scan, showing axonal density, can help explain how the lesions affect motor and cognitive pathways - which can trigger Sian's movement problems and extreme fatigue.

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The scanner is one of only three in the world

The scan shows fibres in the brain's white matter, called axons

Prof Derek Jones, CUBRIC's director, said it was like getting hold of the Hubble telescope when you've been using binoculars.

"The promise for researchers is that we can start to look at structure and function together for the first time," he said.

The extraordinary images produced in Cardiff are the result of a special MRI scanner - one of only three in the world.

The scanner itself is not especially powerful, but its ability to vary its magnetic field rapidly with position means the scientists can map the wires - the axons - so thinly it would take 50 of them to match the thickness of a human hair.

The scanner is being used for research into many neurological conditions including MS, schizophrenia, dementia and epilepsy.

My thanks to Sian, Derek and all the team at CUBRIC. Follow Fergus on Twitter. Share this story

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 Health

Sharp focus on Alzheimer's may help target drugs By James Gallagher Health and science reporter, BBC News website 5-7-17 These are external links and will ope Share Abnormal deposits that build up in the brain during Alzheimer's have been pictured in unprecedented detail by UK scientists. The team at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology says its findings "open up a whole new era" in neurodegenerative disease. Their work should make it easier to design drugs to stop brain cells dying.

The researchers used brain tissue from a 74-year-old woman who died after having Alzheimer's disease. The form of dementia leads to tangles of a protein called tau spreading throughout the brain. The more tau tangles there are, the worse the symptoms tend to be. Doctors have known this has happened for decades but what has been missing is a detailed Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES understanding of what the tangles look like.

The team took advantage of the "resolution revolution" in microscopy to take thousands of highly detailed images of the tau inside the woman's brain tissues. And using computer software, they figured out the tangles look like this:

It is pretty meaningless to an untrained eye, but to scientists this could be one of the most important recent discoveries in tackling dementia.

Attempts to develop a drug to slow the pace of dementia have been met by repeated failure. But it is hard to come up with a drug when you do not know the precise chemical structure of what you are targeting.

Dr Sjors Scheres, one of the researchers, told the BBC News website: "It's like shooting in the dark - you can still hit something but you are much more likely to hit if you knowshooting what the in structure the dark is. - "Weyou are excited - it opens up a whole new era in this field, it really does." can still hit something but you are much more likely to Similar dysfunctional proteins are found in many brain diseases. Alzheimer's also has beta amyloidhit if while you knowParkinson's what has the alpha synuclein. The structure of tau, published in the journal Nature, is the first to be determinedstructure in such detail. is. "We are excited - it opens up a whole new Fellow researcher Dr Michel Goedert told the BBC: "This is a big step forward as far as tau goesera but in it this is bigger field, than it really that. "This is the first time anybody has determined the high-resolution structure [from human braindoes." samples] for any of these diseases. The next step is to use this information to study the mechanisms of neurodegeneration."

Dr Tara Spires-Jones, from the centre for cognitive and neural systems at the University of Edinburgh, said the findings "substantially advance what we know". She added: "These results will be useful for developing molecules to detect tau tangles in patients and potentially for developing treatments."

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LIZLEAFLOOR DNA Evidence Suggests Captured Russian Ape Woman Might Have been Subspecies of Modern Human The story of Zana, supposed Ape Woman of the Caucasus Mountains is one often revisited and re-examined by historians, explorers, and scientists alike. Now a leading geneticist believes that the wild woman who lived in 19 th century Russia may have belonged to a subspecies of modern humans. Zana was named by Russian researchers after her discovery and capture in the Ochamchir region of Abkhazia, south of Russia in the 1850’s. She was said to have been living in the wilderness, naked, but covered in a thick auburn fur, and appearing to be a cross between a human and primate. According to International Business Times , Bryan Sykes, former Professor of Human Genetics at University of Oxford has analyzed the DNA of Zana’s descendants and has discovered West African genes, but surprisingly, her DNA did not match any known modern African group. Sykes theorizes that her ancestors may have lived in the Caucasus Mountains for generations after leaving Africa over 100,000 years ago. Saliva tests were carried out on Zana’s living relatives, and a tooth was available from the remains of her deceased son Khwit, reports MailOnline. The findings are controversial. Skeptics question the sources of the samples, and Sykes’ methodology. This comes after the geneticist’s involvement in other high- profile cases dealing with Could Zana have been from a surviving species of pre-human hominids, like “Lucy”, disputed DNA samples and Australopithecus Afarensis? Jason Kuffer/ Flickr conclusions. In 2014 Sykes and colleagues published a study on o their findings of mitochondrial Please visit the IAS website: http://www.anatomical-sciences.org.uk/12S RNA sequencing in samples of “anomalous primates”,66 Editor: John Ben F.I.A.S. Email [email protected] called Yetis. The team concluded the samples connected the legend of the Yeti with a Paleolithic polar bear. Institute of Anatomical Sciences Supplement of World News. No 54.

their findings of mitochondrial 12S RNA sequencing in samples of “anomalous primates”, popularly called Yetis. The team concluded the samples connected the legend of the Yeti with a Paleolithic polar bear. Zana’s existence seems to be established historically by witnesses and residents of Abkhazia, yet experts wrestle with her background and biological identity—was she simply a victimized woman suffering from a disability, or a runaway slave, or even a surviving Neanderthal? Said to resemble cryptid legends from around the world, the hairy humanoid reportedly towered over her captors at six feet and six inches tall, and was described as incredibly muscular, powerful and “wild”. Zana was eventually sold to a local nobleman and resided at his estate until her death. She was “tamed” and forced into relationships with local men, and witnesses said she gave birth to several children The beautiful but remote mountainous terrain of Abkhazia where Zana was found. who were “human” in appearance, reports Inquisitr.

It is these descendants whose DNA was involved in the study. Known sons include Dzhanda and Khwit Genaba (born 1878 and 1884), and two daughters, Kodzhanar and Gamasa Genaba (born 1880 and 1882). Khwit’s skull was said to appear atypical, and anthropologist M.A.Kolodieva described it as “closest to the Neolithic Vovnigi II skulls of the fossil series.” Sykes has published a book, The Nature of the Beast, detailing the story of Zana and her descendants. However according to Tech Times , speaking on the genetic analysis results, Sykes says “They will be published in the regular scientific press so I can't be more specific.” Zana reportedly died in 1890, but her anomalous genetic legacy endures as an enigma that has yet to be accounted for and resolved. Featured Image: Artist’s representation of Zana, who lived in 19th Century Russia - and appeared to be 'half human, half ape'. Mail Online By Liz Lea

Skull said to have belonged to Zana’s son Kehwit. ( Source)

Note from the Editor

Although the substance of this story appears to be historically true, the Mail Online (Daily Mail) has chosen to use a highly imaginative picture to illustrate this article.

In fairness to Zana I think it only right that I include the only known photograph of her in which she appears to have a far more normal appearance of possibly African origin..

- John Ben, Editor

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 India

Ashutosh Maharaj: Followers win fight to keep guru in freezer 5 July 2017

An Indian court has granted permission for the followers of a long-dead spiritual guru to preserve his body in a freezer.

Ashutosh Maharaj, founder of the sect Divya Jyoti Jagriti Sansthan (Divine Light Awakening Mission), died of a suspected heart attack in January 2014. But his followers insist he is only meditating deeply, and will one day return to life. They have kept his body in a commercial freezer at his Followers of guru Ashutosh Maharaj insist he has been meditating since his apparent death in 2014 vast ashram in Punjab.

The judgement by Punjab and Haryana High Court ends a three-year-old dispute between the guru's disciples and Dalip Kumar Jha, who claims to be his son. Mr Jha had sought permission to cremate the guru's body, in line with Hindu rituals.

In rejecting his plea, the court set aside a 2014 judgement that had ordered the guru's cremation after doctors confirmed him clinically dead.

Mr Jha's lawyer told AFP it was unclear whether the court had agreed with the sect's argument that its founder was alive.

Mr Maharaj first established his sect in Jalandhar, Punjab, in 1983, to promote "self- awakening and global peace". Over years, it attracted millions of followers across the world and amassed properties worth an estimated $120m (£92m) in India, the US, South America, Australia, the Middle East, and Europe.

The heavily-guarded 100-acre ashram in Punjab where the guru has been kept is just one sign of his vast financial assets. Mr Jha has accused the guru's disciples Police were posted near the guru's ashram after a high court ordered his cremation in 2014 of retaining his body as a ploy to keep control of his wealth.

Shortly after his death in 2014, the guru's spokesman Swami Vishalanand told the BBC: "He is not dead. Medical science does not understand things like yogic science. We will wait and watch. We are confident that he will come back."

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VINTAGE & HISTORICAL ODDITIESWEIRD NEWS THE RECONSTRUCTION OF NEBIRI, AN ANCIENT EGYPTIAN DIGNITARY

YOU WON'T BELIEVE YOUR EYES! LEAH — JULY 12, 2017

NEBIRI

The 3,500-year-old Egyptian noble, Nebiri, has recently been resurrected using modern forensics. The Ancient Egyptian dignitary lived during the 18th Dynasty under the reign of Pharaoh Thutmoses III.

Nebiri Mummy Head CC Francesca Lallo

EMBALMING

Nebiri was uncovered by Italian Egyptologist Ernesto Schiaparelli in the Valley of the Queens in Luxor around 1904, but his looted tomb only contained his mummified head and several jars stuffed with his organs.

As we know, embalming was a common practice for the Egyptians; however, his mummified head came with a little extra packing. From animal fat to coniferous tree resin, it looks like all the natural antibacterials that were found in his skull were imported, as the plants used were not native to the region.

This type of Embalming was found in King Tut’s great-grandparents, Yuya and Thuya. This emphasizes that Nebiri was indeed a high elite.

Nebiri CC J. Fletcher

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3D RECONSTRUCTION

Thanks to anthropological research and computer rendering, scientists have been able to reconstruct the Egyptian’s face. Believe it or not, researchers can tell a person’s age by the thickness of their tissues. It ultimately allowed them to shape the face by precisely knowing the distance between his bones and skin.

Just two years ago, the same team who worked on the reconstruction of Nebiri’s face was able to tell that he suffered from cardiovascular disease. He had atherosclerosis in the right carotid artery and suffered from gum disease. After scanning the lungs that were found in one of the jars, it showed aggregates of cells that are normally seen in patients who suffer from heart failure.

DID YOU KNOW?

 During the US Civil War, embalming became an imperative need for deceased soldiers’ long journeys home.  Underneath a 14th-century French convent are five well-preserved embalmed human hearts.  Embalming took place at the residence of the deceased because it became popular in the Nebiri’s lungs CC J. Fletcher 19th century.  Embalming is different from taxidermy, where you only preserve the skin.  Canopic jars, otherwise known as vessels, carried organs that were washed and wrapped in linen strips.

CC Philippe Froesch

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 Technology

When your body becomes eligible for an upgrade

Dave Lee North America technology reporter We all like to joke about what might happen if robots, powered by artificial intelligence, decide they want to overthrow humans.

That scenario is, at best, decades away. But this week I’ve been pondering something much more immediate, and in my view, more likely. What will happen when humans decide to become robots? "We’re at a key transition in human history,” says Prof Hugh Herr, who heads the Biomechatronics Group at the famed Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

He says the group’s aim is to establish the scientific and technological conditions that will Professor Hugh Herr believes we're entering a new era of human-machine interoperability eventually eliminate disability, whether through paralysis or amputation. But that incredible goal has been achieved, then what?whether through paralysis or amputation. But that incredible "We’re fusing the nervous system with the built world,” he says. "We’re transitioning goal from ahas relationship been achieved, where we then use technology that is separate from our nervous system, to a new epoch of integration, of humanwhat? physiology." Simulating ankles

Prof Herr is a double amputee. In 2012, I saw him move a room in London to tears when he revealed his incredibly sophisticated bionic legs that allowed him to move with natural poise and grace. In 2014, Prof Herr’s technology meant Adrianne Haslet-Davis returned to the dancefloor, less than a year since losing a limb in the Boston marathon bombings. Her first performance after the incident brought a TED talk audience instantly to its feet.

I visited Prof Herr’s lab last week to learn more about the work is team is doing, and where it may lead. Right now, much of the research is focused on doing things the human body can do instinctively, but are extremely complex to engineer.

Roman Stolyarov, a researcher at the lab, demonstrated how they are using sensors similar to those found on self-driving cars to give prosthetic legs an awareness of what is around them. This is important to make the leg behave differently when, for example, walking down stairs. The human brain, whether the person realises it or not, is able to instinctively prepare the leg for to land on a step. Teaching a prosthesis to do the same is the difference between having a bionic leg and, to put it crassly, a peg leg.

“The motor is able to work in such a way

This foot is able to detect when it is in mid-air, and react accordingly that simulates a real biological ankle joint,” Mr Stolyarov told me. “The [leg] uses on-board sensors to infer whether the leg is in the air or on the ground, and performuses on -actionsboard sensors that to theto inferperson whether feel much the more like real walking than they would get from a passive prosthesis.” leg is in the air or on the ground, and perform actions that to the person feel much more like real walking than they would get from a passive prosthesis.”

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The end result is that walking is considerably less tiring for amputees like Ryan Cannon, who lost his leg following complications after he broke it. “I can move in a more rhythmic symmetrical way,” he told me. "Being able to move in that manner allows me to walk at a faster pace for a longer distance and to do more activities during the day.”

Better, faster, stronger

But not all the work carried out here is about replacing limbs. It’s also looking at improving them. One exoskeleton project reduces the physical exertion when walking by 25%, explained researcher Tyler Clites. “What that means is, if you were to walk 100 miles, it would only feel to like you walked 75. We’re able to do that today. Those are devices I would expect to see rolling out commercially in the next several years.”

Beyond MIT, others are working on similar initiatives. US retail chain Lowes is piloting exoskeltons for staff, developed at Virginia Tech, that assist them with lifting at work.

“I definitely think that we are entering an age in which the line between biological systems and synthetic systems is going to be very much blurred,” Mr Clites said.

Staff at US chain Lowes are trying out new exoskeleton technology

He said this future brings a concern that the rich and fortunate of the world may become physically superior, too. “Then what you do is create a new baseline for physical ability, and perhaps mental ability, that’s only achievable by people who are already in a position of privilege.”

That said, Prof Herr said he is confident that as the cost of prosthetics gets lower, it won’t leave poorer people behind. "The cost of robotics is going to plummet,” he said. "It’s hard to predict whether there’ll be large separations in society."

Amputation reinvention

Before that day, work will be mostly focused on improving the lives of amputees. But in that endeavour, one of the obstacles hindering Prof Herr’s work is one of compatibility. Much like an old computer peripheral that can't plug into a new laptop, nor can most amputees “plug in” to the latest technologies being developed in this lab.

To solve this, the team is urgently trying to change the way limbs are amputated. "The method that is used today to amputate limbs has fundamentally not changed since the US civil war,” Prof Herr said. "So while you’ve seen tremendous progress in mechatronics and robotics, you’ve not seen progress in how surgeries are performed to amputate limbs. That is now changing. We’re redesigning how limbs are amputated to create the right mechanical and electrical interfacing environment.”

He said this interfacing will join the brain directly to the limb, creating a sense among amputees that they are making their bodies whole again. "What we’re experiencing clinically is that when we attach these limbs to people and we listen to their testimonials, they use language such as 'I have my limb back, I’m healed, it’s part of me’.”

Once that breakthrough is fully achieved - and there’s evidence of progress literally walking around Prof Herr’s lab - he said humans will surely begin to consider themselves eligible for an upgrade. "We’ll be more open to using all kinds of materials to make up our bodies,” he said.

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 Australia

Australian man's thumb surgically replaced by toe 13 July 2017

Share An Australian cattle worker whose thumb was severed by a bull has had his toe surgically transplanted in its position.

Zac Mitchell, 20, was injured in April while working on a remote farming property in Western Australia. "A bull kicked my hand into the fence," Mr Mitchell said of the incident.

He underwent two unsuccessful operations to reattach his thumb before doctors opted to relocate his big toe in surgery lasting eight hours.

Mr Mitchell said fellow workers had attempted to preserve his thumb immediately after the accident. "They put it in the esky [cooler] with some ice," he told the BBC. Mr Mitchell was flown to hospital in the state capital of Perth, but efforts to save his thumb ultimately failed.

Difficult choice Surgeons attached Zac Mitchell's big toe to his hand Despite initial reluctance, the cattle worker Despite initial reluctance, the cattle worker agreed to the transplant operation at the agreedSydney toEye the Hospital transplant two weeks operation ago. at the Sydney Eye Hospital two weeks ago. Lead plastic surgeon Dr Sean Nicklin said he was not surprised it took time to accept. "It is a bit of a crazy idea - they [patients] do not want to be injured in another part of their body," he said. "[However] even if you have got four good fingers, if you do not have something to pinch against them, your hand has lost a huge amount of its function."

Mr Mitchell will need more than 12 months of rehabilitation, but he plans to return to farm work.

The Sydney Eye Hospital An X-ray showing Mr Mitchell's thumb injury said it was rare to transplant a complete toe, like in Mr a complete toe, like in Mr Mitchell's case, although partial toe relocations were more common. "A lot of people think their Mitchell's case, although balance and walking is going to be significantly affected which it generally isn't," Dr Nicklin said. partial toe Mr Mitchell's mum, Karen, said he was making a good recovery. "Two weeks since the operation his walking is almost back to normal."

Doctors say Mr Mitchell should eventually be able to return to his hobby of bull riding.

Reporting by the BBC's Greg Dunlop Share this story

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4 JULY, 2017 - 22:56 APRILHOLLOWAY When Your Ancestral Forefather Is a Mummy: 19 Descendants of 5,300-Year-Old Ötzi the Iceman Identified In Austria

Those who are lucky enough to have well-kept family records may be able to trace their history back several generations. Some can even track family connections going back a few centuries. But what if you were told that you are a descendant of a Stone Age man that was brutally murdered around 5,300 years ago? Such is the case for 19 males in Austria , who are known through DNA testing to be descendants of the famous Ötzi the Iceman mummy. The well-preserved remains of Ötzi were found by German tourists in the Ötztal Alps on the border between Austria and Italy in 1991. Scientists thought the body, which showed evidence of head trauma, belonged to a fallen soldier from WWI but they were shocked when tests revealed that the mummy dates back to 3,300 BC. His body is in remarkable condition, considering itsmummy age, and dates still backcontains to 3,300 intact BC. blood cells. Scientists were even able to determine the exact nature of his stomach contents, revealing that his last meal was deer with herb bread, wheat bran, roots and fruit.

A DNA analysis revealed very precise details about Otzi’s health condition at the time of his death. He was at high risk of atherosclerosis, was lactose intolerant and is the earliest known human with Lyme disease. But one of the more surprising findings of the analysis is that Ötzi has 19 known descendants that are still alive today. Scientists could track the descendants based on a specific genetic mutation present in his DNA. "There are parts of the human DNA, which are generally inherited unchanged. In men, this lies on the Y chromosomes and in females on the mitochondria. Eventual changes arise due to mutations, which are then inherited further," said Walther Parson, the forensic scientist who carried out the study. "This is the reason why we can categorize people with the same people The mummy of Otzi, as it was found ( vaxzine / flickr ) into so-called haplogroups."

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Parson explained that Ötzi belonged to the haplogroup G, the sub category G- L9. This suggests that earlier people migrated to the Ötztal valley from Fließm -- a municipality in western Austria founded in the sixth century. It is a remarkable feat of science to be able to identify living relatives of such an ancient man.

Top image: Reconstruction of the face of Ötzi the iceman ( SW Claessen / flickr ) By April Holloway

Naturalistic reconstruction of Ötzi - South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology ( Public Domain )

If you come across an interesting news item please send it or it’s web address to

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AAS

Ancient Egyptians may have given cats the personality to conquer the world By David Grimm Jun. 19, 2017 , 11:00 AM

A cat in a domestic setting—eating under a dining table—sometime after 1500 B.C.E. Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford/Bridgeman Images

Around 1950 B.C.E., someone painted an unusual creature on the back wall of a limestone tomb some 250 kilometers south of Cairo. With its long front legs, upright tail, and triangular head staring down an approaching field rat, it is unmistakably a domestic cat—the first appearance in the art of ancient Egypt. In the centuries that followed, cats became a fixture of Egyptian paintings and sculptures, and were even immortalized as mummies, as they rose in status from rodent killer to pet to god. Historians took all this as evidence that the ancient Egyptians were the first to domesticate the feline. That is, until 2004, when researchers discovered a 9500-year- old cat buried with a human on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, revealing that cats had been living with people thousands of years before Egypt even existed.

A new study could put Egypt back in the limelight. A genetic analysis of more than 200 ancient cats suggests that, even if the animals were domesticated outside Egypt, it was the Egyptians who turned them into the lovable fur balls we know today. It’s even possible they domesticated cats a second time.

“It’s a very nice piece of work,” says Salima Ikram, an expert on ancient Egyptian animals and cat mummies at American University in Cairo. The idea that the Egyptians helped shape the modern cat, she says, “makes perfect sense.”

The study has its roots in an ancient graveyard on the west bank of the Nile River in southern Egypt. In 2008, archaeozoologist Wim Van Neer of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences in Brussels unearthed the remains of six cats—a male, a female, and four kittens—that appear to have been cared for by people nearly 6000 years ago. Although younger than the Cyprus cat, the discovery made Van Neer wonder whether prehistoric Egyptians could have independently domesticated the modern feline. “Scientists more or less forgot about Egypt after the Cyprus find,” he says.

He gathered hundreds of cat specimens—bones, teeth, and mummies from across Africa, Europe, and the Middle East dating from about 7000 B.C.E. to the 19th century C.E. Then, he teamed up with more than two dozen researchers who drilled into the remains for mitochondrial DNA, genetic material inherited solely from the mother and found in the cell’s energy-generating machinery. In 2007, other researchers had analyzed the DNA of modern cats to show that all living domestic cats trace their ancestry to the Near Eastern wildcat(Felis silvestris lybica)—a small, sandy-colored feline that looks like a Mackerel tabby. This subspecies contains felines with five unique genetic signatures in their mitochondrial DNA. “We mapped what we knew about the age and location of our ancient cats onto these signatures to figure out how the earliest cats spread out over time,” says University of Oslo postdoc Claudio Ottoni, who carried out the genetic analysis in the new study. Two waves of cats

An ancient exodus of cats from both Turkey and Egypt may have given us the modern cat.

The world’s first cats all appear to sport the same lybica subtype, mitochondrial type A. This genetic signature pops up at least 9000 years ago in what is now Turkey, the team reports today in Nature Ecology & Evolution. Archaeologists think that, perhaps about 10,000 years ago, wildcats in this region—with a southern coast just a few dozen kilometers from Cyprus—slunk into early farming villages to hunt rodents and eventually self-domesticated into modern cats. By 6500 years ago, these type A cats began appearing in

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southeastern Europe, the team found, possibly following migrating farmers. After that, cats infiltrated the rest of Europe, Africa, and Asia.

But that’s only half the story. Most of the Egyptian cat mummies sport a different lybicasubtype, type C, which first appears in the team’s samples around 800 B.C.E. (It’s possible that the type C cat could have been living in Egypt much earlier— the early graveyard study didn’t yield any usable DNA.) Cats with this genetic signature appear to have been incredibly popular: By the fifth century C.E., they spread through Europe and the Mediterranean. And during the first millennium C.E., they came to outnumber Credits: (Graphic) A. Kitterman/Science; (Data) C. Ottoni et al., Nature Ecology & Evolution (2017) type A cats two to one in places like western Turkey.

The ancient Egyptians may have been responsible for this popularity. “The Egyptians were the first people to have the resources to do everything bigger and better,” says Carlos Driscoll, the World Wildlife Fund chair in conservation genetics at the Wildlife Institute of India in Dehradun, who led the 2007 study. That ability may have extended to breeding cats. As the Egyptians bred more and more felines, Driscoll speculates, they would have selected for the ones that were easiest to have around—more social and less territorial than their predecessors. “They turbocharged the tameness process.”

Egypt’s art reflects this dramatic transformation. The earliest representations of cats depict a working animal, like the rat hunter in the limestone tomb. But over the centuries the felines begin to appear in more domestic contexts, hunting birds with people, wearing collars, and—by 1500 B.C.E.—sitting under chairs at the dinner table. “They go from being a slaughterer of mice to a couch potato,” says Eva Maria-Geigl, an evolutionary geneticist who oversaw the study with molecular biologist Thierry Grange, both at the Jacques Monod Institute in Paris.

Still, it’s unclear where these type C cats came from in the first place. Egyptian wildcats may carry this genetic signature, so type A cats from Turkey may have made their way to Egypt and mated with them. Or the ancient Egyptians may have independently domesticated cats from local type C wildcats.

Ikram says a dual domestication makes sense, as other animals—including dogs and pigs—may also have been domesticated more than once. But Driscoll is skeptical, noting that many plants and animals in Egypt originally came from Turkey and the rest of the Near East. “There’s no reason to believe an independent domestication in Egypt.”

Either way, type A and type C cats eventually intermingled in Europe and beyond. Today’s cats are likely a blend of both Today’s blotched tabbies (left)—like all cats—are descended from the Near Eastern wildcat (right). Turkish and Egyptian cats. (Left to right): © Ardea/Labat, Jean Michel/Animals Animals; © Lacz, Gerard/Animals Animals

And they underwent another dramatic transformation: A separate analysis of the genes for coat color showed that the coat pattern of cats—which had gone unchanged from the striped sandy appearance of its wildcat ancestors for thousands of years—began to vary, with a blotched tabby look appearing around the 14th century C.E. Dogs and horses changed coat patterns much earlier in their domestication, suggesting that when it came to cats, people were more interested in how they acted than in how they looked. “The only thing they had to do was to get better at living with people,” Driscoll says. “And this paper gives clues to how that happened.”

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In the meantime, Van Neer still hopes to find out whether the Egyptians independently domesticated cats. He’s already begun traveling to museums in Vienna, searching their collections for ancient cat mummies and DNA that may fill in the missing history of man’s most mysterious friend.

*Correction, 19 June, 3:50 p.m.: The map has been updated to reflect the fact that type A cats came from Turkey, and type C from Egypt. It has been further updated because the original version mislabeled the Black Sea as the Caspian Sea.

Posted in: Plants & Animals DOI: 10.1126/science.aan6984

Woolly Mammoth will be Back from Extinction Within Two Years, say Harvard scientists

The first picture of mammoth bone marrow from which scientists are seeking to extract DNA. Picture: Semyon Grigoriev

Scientist leading ‘de-extinction’ effort says Harvard team could create hybrid mammoth-elephant embryo in two years. The woolly mammoth vanished from the Earth 4,000 years ago, but now scientists say they are on the brink of resurrecting the ancient beast in a revised form, through an ambitious feat of genetic engineering.

Speaking ahead of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting in Boston this week, the scientist leading the “de-extinction” effort said the Harvard team is just two years away from creating a hybrid embryo, in which mammoth traits would be programmed into an Asian elephant. “Our aim is to produce a hybrid elephant-mammoth embryo,” said Prof George Church. “Actually, it would be more like an elephant with a number of mammoth traits. We’re not there yet, but it could happen in a couple of years.”

The creature, sometimes referred to as a “mammophant”, would be partly elephant, but with features such as small ears,

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subcutaneous fat, long shaggy hair and cold-adapted blood. The mammoth genes for these traits are spliced into the elephant DNA using the powerful gene-editing tool, Crispr.

Until now, the team have stopped at the cell stage, but are now moving towards creating embryos – although, they said that it would be many years before any serious attempt at producing a living creature.“We’re working on ways to evaluate the impact of all these edits and basically trying to establish embryogenesis in the lab,” said Church.

Since starting the project in 2015 the researchers have increased the number of “edits” where mammoth DNA has been spliced into the elephant genome from 15 to 45. “We already know about ones to do with small ears, subcutaneous fat, hair and blood, but there are others that seem to be positively selected,” he said.

Church said that these modifications could help preserve the Asian elephant, which is endangered, in an altered form. However, others have raised ethical concerns about the project.

Matthew Cobb, professor of zoology at the University of Manchester, said: “The proposed ‘de-extinction’ of mammoths raises a massive ethical issue – the mammoth was not simply a set of genes, it was a social animal, as is the modern Asian elephant. What will happen when the elephant-mammoth hybrid is born? How will it be greeted by elephants?”

Church also outlined plans to grow the hybrid animal within an artificial womb rather than recruit a female elephant as a surrogate mother - a plan which some believe will not be achievable within the next decade. “We hope to do the entire procedure ex-vivo (outside a living body),” he said. “It would be unreasonable to put female reproduction at risk in an endangered species.”

He added that his lab is already capable of growing a mouse embryo in an artificial womb for 10 days - halfway through its gestation period. “We’re testing the growth of mice ex-vivo. There are experiments in the literature from the 1980s but there hasn’t been much interest for a while,” he said. “Today we’ve got a whole new set of technology and we’re taking a fresh look at it.”

“Church’s team is proposing to rear the embryo in an ‘artificial womb’ which seems ambitious to say the least – the resultant animal would have been deprived of all the pre-birth interactions with its mother,” said Cobb.

The woolly mammoth roamed across Europe, Asia, Africa and North America during the last Ice Age and vanished about 4,000 years ago, probably due to a combination of climate change and hunting by humans. Their closest living relative is the Asian, not the African, elephant.

“De-extincting” the mammoth has become a realistic prospect because of revolutionary gene editing techniques that allow the precise selection and insertion of DNA from specimens frozen over millennia in Siberian ice.

Church helped develop the most widely used technique, known as Crispr/Cas9, that has transformed genetic engineering since it was first demonstrated in 2012. Derived from a defence system bacteria use to fend off viruses, it allows the “cut and paste” manipulation of strands of DNA with a precision not seen before.

Gene editing and its ethical implications is one of the key topics under discussion at the Boston conference. Church, a guest speaker at the meeting, said the mammoth project had two goals: securing an alternative future for the endangered Asian elephant and helping to combat global warming. Woolly mammoths could help prevent tundra permafrost from melting and releasing huge amounts of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. “They keep the tundra from thawing by punching through snow and allowing cold air to come in,” said Church. “In the summer they knock down trees and help the grass grow.”

The scientists intend to engineer elephant skin cells to produce the embryo, or multiple embryos, using cloning techniques. Nuclei from the reprogrammed cells would be placed into elephant egg cells whose own genetic material has been removed. The eggs would then be artificially stimulated to develop into embryos.

Church predicts that age-reversal will become a reality within 10 years as a result of the new developments in genetic engineering.

Church will be presenting his team's latest research at the AAAS 2017 meeting.

Read more at http://www.geologyin.com/2017/02/woolly-mammoth-will-be-back-from.html#wO9U5WFM2ohUKyIq.99

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Dinosaur ‘Mummy’ Unveiled With Skin And Guts Intact By John Kuroski on May 15, 2017 This isn't merely a fossil, but an actual dinosaur itself, frozen in time.

Robert Clark/National Geographic

You can’t even see its bones, yet scientists are hailing it as perhaps the best-preserved dinosaur specimen ever unearthed. That’s because, 110 million years later, those bones remain covered by the creature’s intact skin and armor. Indeed, the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Alberta, Canada recently unveiled a dinosaur so well-preserved that many have taken to calling it not a fossil, but an honest-to-goodness “dinosaur mummy.”

With the creature’s skin, armor, and even some of its guts intact, researchers are astounded at its nearly unprecedented level of preservation. “We don’t just have a skeleton,” Caleb Brown, a researcher at the Royal Tyrrell Museum, told National Geographic. “We have a dinosaur as it would have been.”

When this dinosaur — a member of a new species named nodosaur — was alive, it was an enormous four-legged herbivore protected by a spiky, plated armor and weighing in at approximately 3,000 pounds. Today, the mummified nodosaur is so intact that it still weighs 2,500 pounds.

How the creature could remain so intact is still something of a mystery, although as CNN writes, researchers suggest that the creature “may have been swept away by a flooded river and carried out to sea, where it eventually sank. Over millions of years on the ocean floor, minerals took the place of the dinosaur’s armor and skin, preserving it in the lifelike form now on display.”

Although the nodosaur was so well-preserved, getting it into its current display form was still an arduous undertaking. The creature was, in fact, first discovered in 2011, when a crude oil mine worker accidentally discovered the specimen while on the job.

Since that lucky moment, it has taken researchers 7,000 hours over the course of the last six years to both test the remains and prepare them for display at the Royal Tyrrell Museum, where visitors now have the chance to see the closest thing to a real-life dinosaur that the world has likely ever seen.

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Robert Clark/National Geographic

AAS Most modern horses came from just two ancient lineages By Michael Price Jun. 29, 2017 , 12:00 PM

Horse breeding records are some of the most impressive efforts to chronicle animal lineages in human history, with some stretching back thousands of years. Yet decoding the genetic origins of today’s horses has proved remarkably difficult. Now, a new study finds that nearly all modern horse breeds can be traced to two distinct, ancient Middle Eastern lines that were brought to Europe about 700 years ago. Understanding how these horses were traded, gifted, or stolen could shed light on human history as Eastern and Western civilization commingled and collided. Nearly all modern horses derive from two ancient lineages brought to Europe about 700 years ago. People first domesticated horses Please visit the IAS website: http://www.anatomical-sciences.org.uk/some 6000 years ago in the Eurasian Steppe 81 Editor: John Ben F.I.A.S. Email [email protected]

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in the Eurasian Steppe, near modern-day Ukraine and western Kazakhstan. As we put these animals to work over the next several thousand years, we selectively bred them to have desirable traits like speed, stamina, strength, intelligence, and trainability. People have tracked horse pedigrees for almost as long as we have kept them, but it wasn’t until the 1700s that detailed “studbooks” emerged in Europe to keep tabs on which horses fathered which foals and what characteristics the foals inherited.

The new study’s lead author, Barbara Wallner, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna, paired these old, yet meticulously kept data with modern DNA sequencing techniques to investigate the origins of today’s horse breeds. Wallner and colleagues first located dozens of variations in a segment of DNA along the Y chromosomes of 52 living male horses representing 21 modern breeds. As tiny mutations pop up in a stallion’s Y chromosome, they are inherited by all of its future male progeny, allowing geneticists to trace which males came from which paternal line.

That may seem simple, says Ernest Bailey, a geneticist at the University of Kentucky’s Gluck Equine Research Center in Lexington, who wasn’t involved with the study, but it’s actually quite a challenge: Locating functional genes within the Y chromosome is notoriously tricky because of its long, repetitive sequences of nonfunctional DNA. Horses in particular have extremely low genetic diversity along the Y chromosome, making it even more difficult to locate meaningful variations between individuals. “[The Y chromosome’s] tangle is a genome sequencer’s worst nightmare,” Bailey says. “They have done an excellent and thoughtful job in marshaling materials and using current genomic technology to address the question.”

Following their horses’ pedigrees back hundreds of years, Wallner and her team identified exactly when those mutations showed up, allowing them to calculate how frequently such mutations occur. “In the years before paternity testing was available, we didn’t expect that the pedigree data would be so accurate, so we were pleasantly surprised,” Wallner says.

Based on the mutation rate and assuming an average of 7 years between each generation, Wallner estimates the most recent common ancestor to 18 of the 21 modern breeds lived about 700 years ago. Three Northern European breeds—the Shetland pony, the Norwegian Fjord horse, and the Icelandic horse—appear more distantly related to the others.

Next, the scientists expanded their analysis to include 363 males representing 57 modern breeds (about one-fifth of all recognized modern breeds), giving them a comprehensive chart of which stallion lines founded these breeds. They found two major lineages responsible for almost all modern horses: Arabian horses from the Arabian Peninsula and the now-extinct Turkoman horses from the Eurasian Steppe, the researchers report today in Current Biology. Most horse researchers have suspected that these two lines played a major role in modern horse genetics, but few would have expected their influence to be this vast, Wallner says.

Some of these horses would have arrived in Europe with merchants, others would have been gifts between rulers, and still others might have been captured during warfare, says Wallner, who has two Icelandic horses at her own home in Vienna. Untangling these waves of imported horses could actually help shine a light on human history over the same time period, she notes.

Over hundreds of years, European horse breeders found that stallions from these Arabian and Turkoman lines produced more desirable offspring, repeatedly reinforcing those two lineages in their breeding programs until they were practically ubiquitous. Today, they form the patrilineal backbone of nearly every modern horse breed, including Thoroughbreds, the American Quarter horse, the South German draught horse, and the Appaloosa.

Whereas the Arabian and Turkoman lines have long been known to have contributed to the iconic English Thoroughbred racehorse, other breeds like the Lipizzan and Franches-Montagnes weren’t known to have these influences, Bailey says. “What they found was remarkable.”

But he cautions that not everybody will be convinced by the team’s calculation. “Frankly, the speculation about mutation rates and generation times is controversial but even so, plus or minus a thousand years, it’s [still] interesting.”

Posted in:

 Evolution Plants & Animals DOI: 10.1126/science.aan7044

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 Earth

We have still not found the missing link between us and apes.

There was once an animal that was an ancestor to both humans and apes. But what was it like? By Colin Barras

The average missing person's inquiry begins with a few vital facts. Investigators often know when and where the missing party was last seen. They might have photographs that tell them what the missing person looks like, and they usually have a name to put to that face. Now imagine beginning a similar sort of inquiry with none of this information. About 150 years ago, when Charles Darwin published his theory of evolution through natural selection, scientists began to accept that humans – for all our sophisticated behaviour – belong to the same family tree as all other animals. The idea led to two inescapable conclusions. First, our species is not an only child. Somewhere out there in the natural world, there is at least one species of animal that is more closely related to humans than any other – what biologists would come to call humanity's "sister species". Secondly, and as importantly, our species has a long-lost parent. It stands to reason that if humanity has one or more sisters, then these siblings must have shared the same parent species at some point in prehistory. Evolutionary biologists call this species the "last common ancestor" (LCA). Most people know it by a non-scientific name: the "missing link". Scientists have been on the trail of the LCA for decades, and they still have not found it. But many are convinced that they have established enough information to make the hunt a lot easier. They think they know roughly when and where the LCA lived. They even have a reasonable idea of what it looked like and how it behaved. Even before Darwin formalised the idea of evolution through natural selection, it was clear that humans were primates – although earlier scientists did not think this categorisation had any evolutionary implications. “Apes in general represented evolutionary staging posts on the road to humanity”

Darwin himself was initially reluctant to directly address human evolution. He barely mentioned the subject in his famous book On the Origin of Species. A chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) (Credit: Anup Shah/naturepl.com) Darwin's colleague, Thomas Henry Huxley, was perhaps the first to try to identify humanity's roots using well-reasoned evolutionary thinking. In his 1863 bookidentify Evidence humanity's as to Man's roots Place using in Nature well,- Huxley said it was "quite certain", anatomically speaking, that humans are most similarreasoned to gorillas evolutionary and chimpanzees. thinking. One In hisof these two must be humanity's sister species, although Huxley was not sure which. 1863 book Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature, Huxley said it was "quite certain", Please visit the IAS website: http://www.anatomical-sciences.org.uk/ 83 Editor: John Ben F.I.A.S. Email [email protected]

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Huxley's ideas had a significant impact on 19th and early 20th Century evolutionary biologists. Many enthusiastically embraced the idea that chimps or gorillas – or even both – were our sister species. But they went further. To these biologists, it seemed that apes in general represented evolutionary staging posts on the road to humanity.

"Lesser" apes like the gibbons offered a window into the anatomy of our earliest ape ancestors. Meanwhile the "great" apes – gorillas, chimpanzees and orangutans – showed the anatomical features our ancestors possessed at the moment they split away from the other apes and began to develop a uniquely human appearance. Gorillas and chimps were not simply our sister species: they were also a lot like the LCA. "The post-Darwinian 'paradigm' adopted living chimpanzees as stand-ins for the LCA," says Tim White, a palaeoanthropologist at the University of California, Berkeley. This led to some very particular ideas about how the LCA looked and behaved. Primates in general (particularly monkeys) are often relatively small-bodied, and they scamper around in forest canopies by running along branches. But apes are unusual primates. Most have big bodies Gibbons are more distantly related to us (Credit: Anna Yu/Alamy) with extraordinarily long arms. They often get around by swinging below branches rather than running along the top of them – a form of locomotion called "brachiation".rather than running along the top of them According to many of these early researchers, the LCA was a large-bodied, long-armed,– a brachiating form of ape. locomotion called "brachiation". By the late 1960s, researchers were fleshing out the LCA even further. An anthropologist called Sherwood Washburn pointed out that chimpanzees, and particularly gorillas, actually spend significant amounts of time moving around on all fours on the forest floor. Humans just are not particularly "evolved"

Both apes use their arms in an idiosyncratic way when they walk: they flex their fingers so that their weight bears down on the knuckles. To Washburn it made sense that the LCA Are chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) our closest relatives? (Credit: Florian Möllers/naturepl.com) "knuckle-walked" too. The behaviour

could even be seen as a stepping-stone could even be seen as a stepping-stone on the way to walking upright on two legs, he wrote. on the way to walking upright on two But it would be wrong to think that everyone was on board with these ideas of a brachiating, knuckle-walking, chimp-like legs, he wrote. LCA. In fact, almost from the moment that Huxley first put pen to paper, a minority of scientists were arguing that the But it would be wrong to think that earliest human ancestors – and the LCA – was decidedly not chimp-like. everyone was on board with these ideas For instance, just a decade after Huxley's book, biologist St George Mivart argued that humans shared many features in of a brachiating, knuckle-walking, common with monkeys or even lemurs. Meanwhile, from 1918 onwards an anatomist called Frederic Wood Jones argued chimp-like LCA. In fact, almost from the that humans had a lot more in common with tarsiersthan with chimpanzees or gorillas. moment that Huxley first put pen to Lemurs, tarsiers and monkeys are primates, but they have been evolving independently of the apes for tens of millions of paper, a minority of scientists were years. How could anyone argue that humans are closely related to these groups? There is a simple and astonishing arguing that the earliest human ancestors explanation, wrote anatomist William Straus in the 1940s. Humans just are not particularly "evolved". – and the LCA – was decidedly not It might seem absurd to argue that our highly developed brain is anything other than an example of primate evolution pushed chimp-like. to the extreme. But human arms, hands, legs and feet are not as highly specialised as we might assume. "In these characters man finds his counterparts not in anthropoid apes [gorillas, chimpanzee s and orangutans] but in animals that are clearly regarded… as more primitive," wrote Straus. “The more ancient the divergence between species, the more time those species have had to accumulate their own molecular differences”

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What Straus and a few others were really getting at is that humans show none of the specialised features that allow other apes to swing through the trees. It made sense to at least consider the possibility that humans split apart from other primates before the apes evolved brachiation, or knuckle- walking for that matter. Straus could not say exactly which species should be recognised as our sister. But the LCA could well have been a relatively small-bodied primate that ran along branches rather than swinging beneath them. This disagreement continued for A mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei) (Credit: Ole Jorgen Liodden/naturepl.com) several more decades, says Nathan Young at the University of California in San Francisco. In fact, even into the in San Francisco. In fact, even into the 1980s it was not clear from anatomical features alone exactly where humans slotted 1980s it was not clear from anatomical into the primate evolutionary tree. features alone exactly where humans Then, just a decade later, this uncertainty vanished. By the late 1990s, almost all evolutionary biologists were willing to slotted into the primate evolutionary accept that chimpanzees, and their close relatives the bonobos, together form humanity's sister species. tree. To understand this turning point in the story, we have to skip back a few decades and look at what was going on in a completely different branch of science.

In 1960, Nobel-Prize-winning chemist Linus Pauling accepted an invitation to write a paper in a special scientific volume dedicated to Albert Szent- Györgyi, the discoverer of vitamin C. Working with his colleague, Emile Zuckerkandl, Pauling developed a truly revolutionary idea: the molecular clock. Ramapithecus was discovered in Pakistan and dated to about 14-16 million years old

"It was a revival of an idea proposed by bacteriologist George Nuttall in 1904, that if you compared blood serum you could get a sense for the evolutionary Australopithecus afarensis lived around 3 million years ago (Credit: Lanmas/Alamy) closeness of species," says Jeffrey Schwartz, a physical anthropologist at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, US. "Their paper articulated the assumptionthe University that molecules of Pittsburgh are constantly in changing, and the more ancient the divergence between species, the more time thosePennsylvania, species have had US. to accumulate "Their papertheir own molecular differences." articulated the assumption that Pauling and Zuckerkandl used this concept – that some molecules accumulate tinymolecules changes atare a constantly steady rate changing, – to analyse and proteins in human and gorilla blood. From the number of differences between the twothe sets more of molecules, ancient and the an estim divergenceate of the rate that those differences accumulate, the researchers calculated that humans andbetween gorillas species, had last the shared more a time common those ancestor roughly 11 million years ago. species have had to accumulate their Anthropologists were unimpressed. Only fossils could tell us when common ancestorsown lived, molecular they argued.differences." Many reportedly described Pauling and Zuckerkandl's concept as crazy. But the molecular scientists stuck at their work and, a few decades later, they won over the sceptics – due in no small part to new fossil finds. All manner of fossil primates, including apes, had come to light by the 1960s. One of them, an ape called Ramapithecus or sometimes Sivapithecus, had begun to look a lot like a direct human ancestor. "Ramapithecus was discovered in Pakistan and dated to about 14-16 million years old," says Schwartz. "It had thick enamel, which is a feature we see in humans and their immediate ancestors." In contrast, chimps and gorillas have a thinner coating of enamel on their teeth. The molecular people said 'See? We were right all along!'

By 1964, palaeoanthropologists were even prepared to speculate that Ramapithecus walked on the ground like a human and used tools to prepare its food. And if the 14-million-year-old Ramapithecus really was a human ancestor, gorillas and humans cannot possibly have shared a common ancestor just 11 million years ago, as Pauling and Zuckerkandl were suggesting.

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But these conclusions about Ramapithecus came almost exclusively from a study of the ape's teeth, which were more or less the only parts of the ancient ape that had been unearthed by the 1960s. In the early 1980s, more Ramapithecus fossils were unearthed, including fragments of the face. They showed that the ape looked like an orangutan, not a human.

Palaeontologists were astonished, but molecular scientists were not. By now they had established that humans, chimps and gorillas were all closely related and shared a common ancestor within the last 11 million years or so, and that orangutans were slightly more distant relatives with a deeper prehistory. According to their thinking, a 14-million-year-old ape would be unlikely to look distinctly human, because it predated the appearance of the human lineage. But it might well look orangutan-like. "The molecular people said 'See? We were right all along!'," says Schwartz. In the 1980s and 90s, the molecular community A jawbone of Ramapithecus (Credit: Granger Historical Picture Archive/Alamy) built on such successes.

More sophisticated molecular techniques became available, allowing the scientists to compare apes in minute detail at the genetic level and work out which were most closely related to humans. "The gorilla held out as a pretty good candidate," says Owen Lovejoy, an anthropologist at Kent State University in Ohio. "But eventually the chimpanzee won out." By seven million years ago the European and Asian apes had vanished Western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) (Credit: Anup Shah/naturepl.com) Fimal confirmation that chimpanzees (and the closely related bonobos) are humanity's sister came in 1997, and it seemedthe to some that the LCA debate was drawing to a close. Huxley's work in the 1860s had encouraged many scientists to see the LCA as chimp-like, and the molecular work of the 1980s and 90s seemed to vindicate the idea. "There began to be a more general acceptance of the implications that the LCA was likely to be more chimp-like," says Young. This was not the only conclusion from the molecular work. The DNA studies also put an approximate date on the human- chimpanzee split: six or seven million years ago. It was a figure that considerably narrowed down the search for the LCA. The fossil record shows that apes were widespread across Africa, Europe and Asia about 20 million years ago – at this time the world really was the Planet of the Apes. But by seven million years ago the European and Asian apes had vanished. If chimpanzees and humans split at this time, the LCA must have lived in Africa – in the same sort of environments occupied by modern chimps. By the early 2000s, some physical anthropologists were even describing African apes like the chimpanzee as time machines into the earliest stages of human evolution. The story should end there, but it does not. Surprisingly, the last 15 years has actually seen popular opinion begin to swing away from the idea of a chimp-like LCA, and towards a model closer to that argued by people like Straus in the 1940s. There are several factors that explain the recent rethink. A more thorough understanding of chimp and gorilla anatomy helped. There had been murmurings for some time that gorillas and chimpanzees (and bonobos) might not knuckle-walk in quite the same way. In 1999, Mike Dainton and Gabriele Macho at the University of Liverpool, UK, looked at the idea more formally. From subtle differences in the way gorilla and chimpanzee wrist bones change as the apes grow from juveniles to adults, Dainton and Macho concluded that the two may have evolved knuckle-walking independently. Over the following decade, other researchers Bornean orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) (Credit: Anup Shah/naturepl.com) reported similar findings. By 2009, Tracy Please visit the IAS website: http://www.anatomicalKivell-sciences.org.uk/ 86 Editor: John Ben F.I.A.S. Email [email protected]

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– now at the University of Kent, UK – and Daniel Schmitt at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, were arguing that humans did not evolve from a knuckle-walking LCA. Kivell says the 2009 paper received quite a lot of attention. She thinks this might be because it was published just a few months before one of the most complete and potentially important fossils for understanding human evolution was officially unveiled – one that some people think blows a huge hole in the idea that the LCA was chimp-like. Late in 2009, a research team including Tim White and Owen Lovejoy published a collection of research papersdescribing the remarkably well-preserved skeleton of "Ardi" – a 4.4-million-year-old fossil of the species Ardipithecus ramidus, which White and his colleagues had discovered in Ethiopia. Put simply, Ardi looked "primitive"

White and Lovejoy's careful analysis strongly suggested that Ardi habitually walked on two legs when she was on the ground. It was one of many features that suggested to them that Ardi should be considered an early human, or hominin – Artist's impression of Ardipithecus ramidus (Credit: National Geographic Creative/Alamy) one that lived just a few million years after the LCA, and so provides us with our best idea yet of exactly how it looked. our best idea yet of exactly how it This conclusion was significant, because in many respects Ardi's anatomy is not at alllooked. chimp -like. It is very unlikely she was either a knuckle-walker or a brachiating ape. Ardi lived in a forest setting and must have spent time in trees as well as on the ground. But her anatomy suggests she was adapted to move around in those trees almost like a large monkey might, moving cautiously on feet that – unlike gorilla and chimp feet – seem to have been unsuitable for wrapping around branches for grip. Put simply, Ardi looked "primitive" – and that suggested that the LCA looked primitive too.

Of course, the Ardi analysis was not uncontroversial. One of the implications of their interpretations was that all sorts of anatomical features shared by gibbons, orangutans, chimps and gorillas must have evolved independently in each of these apes.

People have begun to question what was an emerging consensus

"I think they took it a little too far," says Kivell. "Their model means that there is a lot of parallel evolution across all apes. I still think comparative studies with chimps and other African apes can provide a lot of insight into our own evolution." Sergio Almécija at the George Washington University in Washington DC agrees. "I do believe that chimps could represent good models for the LCA for certain aspects – for instance body size, perhaps cognition," he says. But his own research What Ardi may have looked like (Credit: Ariadne Van Zandbergen/Alamy) has also helped to emphasise that chimps might not simply be living time machines from the time that the LCA was alive.

In 2015, for instance, Almécija and his colleagues published an analysis of ape hands that emphasised just how much the length of digits has evolved in chimpanzees since they split from the LCA. Judging by fossil evidence from earlier apes, human hands are surprisingly primitive in appearance – notwithstanding the fact that we evolved an opposable thumb after the split from the LCA. Even the biologists studying modern primates are finding evidence that the LCA may not have been chimp-like. In one 2013 study, Pavel Duda and Jan Zrzavý at the University of South Bohemia in the Czech Republic used what is known about living ape behaviour – and about the shape of the ape evolutionary tree – to try to estimate when certain traits first evolved. They suggested that sexual intercourse lasted longer in the LCA than in chimpanzees, and that the LCA males devoted more time to looking after offspring than chimp males do.

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Apes were still flourishing in Europe as well as Africa 13 million years ago

Decades after Straus and a few other anatomists had argued that the chimpanzee was a poor model for the LCA, mainstream opinion has moved their way. "There has been a community shift, where people have begun to question what was an emerging consensus for a chimp-like LCA," says Young. But even that is not the end of the story. There are still "chimp-like LCA" Orangutans are our close relatives (Credit: Fiona Rogers/naturepl.com) advocates out there, and they are fighting back. For instance, in 2015 Young and his For instance, in 2015 Young and his colleagues argued from the study of ape shouldercolleagues blades arguedthat the from LCA the might study have of apehad some features in common with chimps and gorillas after all, hinting that it might actuallyshoulder have bladesbeen a brachiating that the LCA ape. Such might a conclusion would not have been controversial if it had been published a decade orhave so ago,had someYoung features says – in but common mainstream with thought has shifted so far from the chimp-like LCA concept that the paper did, in fact,chimps face some and gorillas criticism after. all, hinting that Of course, only if and when fossils of the LCA itself come to light will the debate finallyit might draw actually to a close.have been But thea brachiating search for those crucial fossils is no longer quite as straightforward as it once seemed. In theape. last Such five ayears, conclusion some wouldgeneticists not havehave begun to question whether the molecular clocks they use to estimate when the LCAbeen lived controversial are being read if it correctly. had been It is possible, they say, that the LCA might actually have lived 13 – not seven – million yearspublished ago. a decade or so ago, Young Apes were still flourishing in Europe as well as Africa 13 million years ago, whichsays means – thatbut in mainstream principle the thought LCA might has have lived there. shifted so far from the chimp-like LCA concept that the paper did, in fact, face somePossible criticism support. for that idea comes from a 2015 analysis of an ape called Dryopithecus that lived in both Africa and Europe about 12.5 million years ago. David Begun, an anthropologist at the University of Toronto in Canada, concluded that Dryopithecus might be an early relative of the gorilla, and suggested that the LCA of humans and chimps might consequently have lived about 10 million years ago. "It is not impossible that the LCA was European," says Begun – although there is no direct evidence for that yet, and he still favours the idea it was African. There are also a few researchers who Artist's impression of a Dryopithecus (Credit: Stocktrek Images Inc/Alamy) take a completely different view.

There is not yet universal agreement

For instance, Schwartz is adamant that it is orangutans, not chimpanzees, that are our sister species. It is an idea he first developed in the 1980s – before, he says, anthropologists "caved in" and conceded that molecules and not anatomy were the ultimate arbiters of the shape of the ape family tree. Schwartz thinks DNA is not the infallible witness on evolution many assume it to be, and that there are many anatomical and behavioural similarities between humans and orangutans that should not simply be ignored. For instance, both have thick layers of enamel on their teeth, and female orangutans (like women) do not "advertise" to males when they are most fertile – something biologists call oestrus. "Orangs are the only other mammal I know of that don't have oestrus," says Schwartz. To be clear, few researchers agree with Schwartz. But even putting his ideas to one side, it is clear that there is not yet universal agreement on the LCA. It is true that, today, some researchers have a well-thought-through idea of what the LCA looked like and how it behaved. The trouble is that other researchers have equally well-reasoned models that suggest an LCA that looked and behaved in a completely different way. And that puts the research community in a bit of a quandary. In principle, fossilised remains of the LCA might come to light any time. They might even be discovered this very year. But because there is so little agreement on what the LCA should look like, researchers will interpret the fossils differently. "It's a problem that we might encounter," says Almécija. "Are we going to be able to recognise the LCA when we find it?" Share this article:

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SCIENCE The Most Elaborate Visualization Of The Human Brain To Date These stunning images showcase the incredible complexity of the human brain through an explosive fusion of art and science. The most elaborate artistic visualization of the brain in the world, the work highlights what is happening inside the human brain while an individual is looking at such a masterpiece. Artists Dr. Greg Dunn and Dr. Brian Edwards hope this work – entitled Self Reflected because it is your brain perceiving itself – will increase appreciation for the brain’s complexity through the power of art.

Image: GREG DUNN AND WILL DRINKER / CATERS

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This shimmering work, however, is not a brain scan – it was created using a combination of deep neuroscience research, hand drawing, algorithmic simulations, photolithography and finished in gold leaf.

Image: GREG DUNN AND WILL DRINKER / CATERS Above: close-up view of interconnected neurons.

Image: GREG DUNN AND WILL DRINKER / CATERS Above: Thalamus and Basal Ganglia – the thalamus and basal ganglia, sorting senses, initiating movement and making decisions.

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Image:: GREG DUNN AND WILL DRINKER / CATERS Above: Visual Cortex – the visual cortex, the region located at the back of the brain that processes visual information.

Image:: GREG DUNN AND WILL DRINKER / CATERS. Above: A sulcus of the parietal cortex.

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Self Reflected is on permanent exhibition in the Your Brain exhibit of the Franklin Institute, a world class science museum in Philadelphia, PA. Physically find it at 222 N 20th St., Philadelphia, PA 19103.

More on gregadunn.com/self-reflected.

Found and posted by Debra Patten

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