livescience--2020-08-09--Oil spill off Mauritius is visible from space

The Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius is on the brink of an environmental catastrophe after a bulk carrier struck a off its coast in late July , an accident that has led to a large oil spill visible from space .
The accident could lead to an even greater environmental disaster if the ship — whose cargo includes fuel oil , diesel and lubricant oil — breaks apart further , according to news sources .
The ship , the Japanese-owned MV Wakashio , hit a coral reef off Mauritius ' southeast coast , near Pointe d'Esny , on July @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a crack has appeared on its hull , meaning that the ship 's cargo is in jeopardy , a shipment that includes 4,290 tons ( 3,894 metric tons ) of low- fuel oil , 228 tons ( 207 metric tons ) of diesel and 99 tons ( 90 metric tons ) of lubricant oil , which the ship was carrying from China to Brazil , according to The Swaddle , an Indian news site .
`` This is the first time that we are faced with a catastrophe of this kind , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ problem , '' Sudheer Maudhoo , the fishing minister of Mauritius .
The spill did n't happen immediately .
The MV Wakashio became stuck when it collided with the coral reef about 2 miles ( 3.2 kilometers ) off the Mauritius coast .
After the ship ran aground , its crew was safely evacuated .
Since then , efforts to stabilize the ship and pump out the oil have failed , all while the Indian Ocean 's rough waves have battered the vessel , Maudhoo and environment minister Kavy Ramano .
It was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ — spilling from a new crack in the ship 's hull — began gushing into Mauritius ' blue lagoons — waters that attract international tourists and support the nation 's fishing industry , according to The New York Times .
Images of the oil spill were captured by satellites operated by Maxar Technologies .
These images , taken the morning of Aug. 7 , show plumes of black oil saturating the lagoon and drifting northwest toward the shore .
Nagashiki Shipping , the company that owns the MV Wakashio , said that salvage @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sea conditions , but that it was monitoring the situation , The Guardian reported .
`` Nagashiki Shipping takes its environmental responsibilities extremely seriously and with partner agencies and contractors will make every effort to protect the marine environment and prevent further pollution , '' the company said in a statement , as reported by The Guardian .
Even though the ship is owned by Nagashiki Shipping , the 984-foot-long ( 300 meters ) vessel , built in 2007 , flies the Panama flag .
The location of the spill , Pointe d'Esny @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is protected under an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands , known as the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance .
The area is also close to the Blue Bay Marine Park , a tourist destination , according to The Swaddle .
Several groups are trying to stop the flow of the liquid cargo from the sinking ship .
These include the Mauritius National Coast Guard , the environment services company Polyeco and the French island of Reunion .
This oil spill `` is likely one of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the small island country , '' Greenpeace Africa said in a statement Friday ( Aug. 7 ) , .
This is not the only oil spill to happen in 2020 .
At least eight other big spills have happened so far this year , according to a catalogue on Wikipedia .
This list includes the May 29 disaster , when after 22,000 tons ( 20,000 metric tons ) of oil spilled into the , making it one of the largest oil spills in modern Russia .

A bulk carrier ship, MV Wakashio, that recently ran aground off the southeast coast of Mauritius has been spilling oil into the sea, as seen in satellite images captured by Maxar Technologies on Aug. 7, 2020.
The Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius is on the brink of an environmental catastrophe after a bulk carrier struck a coral reef off its coast in late July, an accident that has led to a large oil spill visible from space. The accident could lead to an even greater environmental disaster if the ship — whose cargo includes fuel oil, diesel and lubricant oil — breaks apart further, according to news sources.
The ship, the Japanese-owned MV Wakashio, hit a coral reef off Mauritius' southeast coast, near Pointe d'Esny, on July 25. In the weeks since, a crack has appeared on its hull, meaning that the ship's cargo is in jeopardy, a shipment that includes 4,290 tons (3,894 metric tons) of low- sulfur fuel oil, 228 tons (207 metric tons) of diesel and 99 tons (90 metric tons) of lubricant oil, which the ship was carrying from China to Brazil, according to The Swaddle , an Indian news site.
"This is the first time that we are faced with a catastrophe of this kind, and we are insufficiently equipped to handle this problem," Sudheer Maudhoo, the fishing minister of Mauritius told The New York Times .
Related: In photos: Exxon Valdez oil spill
Image 1 of 4 A bulk carrier ship, MV Wakashio, that recently ran aground off the southeast coast of Mauritius has been spilling oil into the sea, as seen in satellite images captured by Maxar Technologies on Aug. 7, 2020. (Image credit: Satellite image ©2020 Maxar Technologies) The ship was sailing from China to Brazil when it hit coral reefs near Pointe d'Esny on July 25. (Image credit: Satellite image ©2020 Maxar Technologies) In this satellite image captured on Aug. 7, the ship can be seen sinking into the ocean and oozing gobs of oil. (Image credit: Satellite image ©2020 Maxar Technologies) Maxar Technologies captured this image of MV Wakashio on Aug. 1, after the ship ran aground but before it started to leak oil. (Image credit: Satellite image ©2020 Maxar Technologies)
The spill didn't happen immediately. The MV Wakashio became stuck when it collided with the coral reef about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) off the Mauritius coast. After the ship ran aground, its crew was safely evacuated. Since then, efforts to stabilize the ship and pump out the oil have failed, all while the Indian Ocean's rough waves have battered the vessel, Maudhoo and environment minister Kavy Ramano told The Guardian .
It wasn't until this past week that oil — spilling from a new crack in the ship's hull — began gushing into Mauritius' blue lagoons — waters that attract international tourists and support the nation's fishing industry, according to The New York Times.
Images of the oil spill were captured by satellites operated by Maxar Technologies. These images, taken the morning of Aug. 7, show plumes of black oil saturating the lagoon and drifting northwest toward the shore.
Nagashiki Shipping, the company that owns the MV Wakashio, said that salvage efforts were on hold due to poor sea conditions, but that it was monitoring the situation, The Guardian reported. "Nagashiki Shipping takes its environmental responsibilities extremely seriously and with partner agencies and contractors will make every effort to protect the marine environment and prevent further pollution," the company said in a statement, as reported by The Guardian. Even though the ship is owned by Nagashiki Shipping, the 984-foot-long (300 meters) vessel, built in 2007, flies the Panama flag.
The location of the spill, Pointe d'Esny, is an environmentally sensitive area that is protected under an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands, known as the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance. The area is also close to the Blue Bay Marine Park, a tourist destination, according to The Swaddle.
Several groups are trying to stop the flow of the liquid cargo from the sinking ship. These include the Mauritius National Coast Guard, the environment services company Polyeco and the French island of Reunion.
This oil spill "is likely one of the most terrible ecological crises ever seen on the small island country," Greenpeace Africa said in a statement Friday (Aug. 7), according to Bloomberg Green .
This is not the only oil spill to happen in 2020. At least eight other big spills have happened so far this year, according to a catalogue on Wikipedia . This list includes the May 29 disaster, when Russia declared an emergency after 22,000 tons (20,000 metric tons) of oil spilled into the Arctic Circle , making it one of the largest oil spills in modern Russia.
Originally published on Live Science.


livescience--2020-08-08--Amazing images: The best science photos of the week

Each week at Live Science we find the most interesting and informative articles we can .
Along the way , we uncover some amazing and cool images .
Here you 'll discover the most incredible photos we found this week , and the remarkable stories behind them .
A 55 million-year-old owl fossil with `` murder feet '' has recently been described .
Based on its preserved foot bones , this ancient avian predator likely hunted like a hawk — killing its prey with piercing talons — unlike its modern-day relatives that use their beaks to kill .
The newfound @ @ @ @ @ @ @ owl genus and species , is the oldest near-complete owl fossil ( dating to approximately 55 million years ago ) , according to a new study .
Though the fossil is missing its skull , nearly all the bones in its body are intact and preserved in three dimensions .
And this owl was a big one ; at nearly 2 feet ( 60 centimeters ) long , it would have been about the size of a modern snowy owl ( Nyctea scandiaca ) .
Hoo could withstand such a predator ?
Good @ @ @ @ @ @ @ best place on for romantic stargazing !
Bad news : It 's literally next-door to the South Pole .
The hotspot ( or cold spot , in this case ) is called Dome A , and is located on a plateau near central , roughly 2.5 miles , ( 4 kilometers ) above sea-level .
In a new study published July 29 in the journal , researchers found that the conditions at Dome A are positively perfect for staring at the cosmos with minimal interference from .
In particular , the stars above @ @ @ @ @ @ @ do elsewhere around the world , the researchers found .
That 's because of a phenomenon called atmospheric turbulence .
Basically , as wind blows across uneven terrain , like mountains or valleys , it creates turbulent eddies in the atmosphere that can warp the appearance of light reaching Earth from distant stars .
But the dead-flat terrain around Dome A mean that 's not a problem .
Read more : Here is the best place on Earth to see stars , according to science New images of green , pulsing ultraviolet flashes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ circulation patterns in the Martian atmosphere .
NASA 's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission ( for short ) , has been studying since it launched to orbit and study the Red Planet in 2013 .
Now , new images from MAVEN have revealed the weird and unexpected inner workings of the planet 's atmosphere .
`` MAVEN 's images offer our first global insights into atmospheric motions in Mars ' middle atmosphere , a critical region where air currents carry gases between the lowest and highest layers , '' Nick Schneider , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at the University of Colorado 's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics ( LASP ) in Boulder , Colorado , .
These images revealed that Mars ' atmosphere pulses exactly three times every night during spring and fall on the planet .
The new observations also showed waves and spirals over the planet 's winter polar regions .
Read more : The eerie green 'nightglow ' of Mars pulses in ultraviolet light in new NASA views The remains of `` monumental temples '' dating to the Iron Age and medieval buildings may be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ archaeological site in Northern Ireland , a new study finds .
Exactly what 's left of these ruins , however , remains to be seen .
Archaeologists discovered the buried structures by using remote-sensing techniques that allowed them to map the hidden landscape and detect anomalies , such as architectural features made by humans .
These Iron Age and medieval buildings suggest that Navan Fort was `` an incredibly important religious center and a place of paramount sacral and cultural authority in later prehistory , '' study co-researcher Patrick Gleeson , a senior @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Belfast in Northern Ireland , told Live Science .
These huge temples are among the largest and most complex ritual structures dating to later prehistory and pre-Roman times in Northern Europe , Gleeson said .
Around 99 million years ago , a juvenile cockroach met a hellish fate .
It was snapped up by the jaws of a Cretaceous hell , a fierce predator with long , curving mandibles that swept up toward the top of the ant 's head .
Just moments later , the ant and roach were trapped in sticky @ @ @ @ @ @ @ providing scientists with a first glimpse of how the weird-faced ants trapped prey .
The profile of a hell ant , with exaggerated upward-facing jaws that arc like the Grim Reaper 's scythe , is unlike that of any ant alive today .
Researchers had long suspected that hell ants swung their prominent mandibles upward to catch their prey , unlike modern ants that snap their jaws together horizontally .
In the piece of amber from Myanmar , scientists found the first confirmation of this hunting technique .
In the amber , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hug the roach nymph , Caputoraptor elegans , from below , pinning it against the horn on the ant 's head .
The amber-trapped hell ant never got to eat the roach — and that 's all the better for the roach .
According to the study authors , the process involves a paralyzing poison and a blood-sucking finale .
Read more : Scythelike jaws of Cretaceous 'hell ant ' clutch a baby cockroach in an amber tomb Thirty thousand years ago , a dead star on the other side of the Milky @ @ @ @ @ @ @ radio and X-ray energy .
On April 28 , 2020 , that belch swept over Earth , triggering alarms at observatories around the world.The signal was there and gone in half a second , but that 's all scientists needed to confirm they had detected something remarkable : the first ever `` `` ( FRB ) to emanate from a known star within the Milky Way , according to a study published July 27 in .
Since their discovery in 2007 , FRBs have puzzled scientists .
The bursts of powerful last only @ @ @ @ @ @ @ generate more energy in that time than Earth 's sun does in a century .
Scientists have yet to pin down what causes these blasts , but they 've proposed everything from colliding black holes to the pulse of as possible explanations .
So far , every known FRB has originated from another galaxy , hundreds of millions of light-years away .
This FRB is different .
Telescope observations suggest that the burst came from a known — the fast-spinning , compact core of a dead star , which packs a sun's-worth of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 30,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Vulpecula .
The stellar remnant fits into an even stranger class of star called a magnetar , named for its incredibly powerful , which is capable of spitting out intense amounts of energy long after the star itself has died .
It now seems that magnetars are almost certainly the source of at least some of the universe 's many mysterious FRBs , the study authors wrote .
Read more : Mysterious 'fast radio burst ' detected closer to Earth than ever before For the first @ @ @ @ @ @ @ underwater offering made by the people , deposited into Lake Titicaca in the about 500 years ago .
The discovery hints that evidence of other important Incan rituals , such as human sacrifices , may also lurk underwater .
The Spanish recorded the Incan practice of placing offerings in water in the 16th century , and this offering — a stone box — is the first such object to be discovered in one piece .
It holds a small gold bracelet and a shell carved to resemble an alpaca or llama .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , according to a new study .
These types of offerings have also been associated with to appease or glorify the gods , according to the study .
Read more : 1st intact evidence of Incas ' underwater ritual offerings found in a lake in the Andes A Triassic-aged sea monster with `` a very long broomstick for a neck , '' sharp curved teeth and a crocodile-like snout was n't a prima donna ; rather , this reptile shared coastal waters with another long- and stiff-necked beast — one that was so @ @ @ @ @ @ @ two predators were the same species .
Now that it 's clear that these giraffe-like reptiles are two distinct species , scientists chose to name the larger of the two Tanystropheus hydroides , a nod to the hydra , the long-necked mythical sea monster of Greek antiquity .
The smaller one kept the preexisting name , Tanystropheus longobardicus .
It 's rare for two animals with such peculiar necks — which were not just long but also fairly inflexible — to live in the same place simultaneously , the researchers said .
But @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a way to coexist when they were alive about 242 million years ago , mainly by hunting different animals so they did n't have to compete for food , according to an analysis of their teeth and earlier analyses of T. hydroides ' stomach contents .
Thunderstorms on are so strong that they create ammonia-rich hail known as `` mushballs '' that may fall from the sky .
New observations of Jupiter from could not only drastically change our understanding of the gas giant , but also of giant planet atmospheres in general @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and are subject to much higher pressures than what we are familiar with on Earth .
Thunderstorms on Jupiter and Earth do have one thing in common : these natural phenomena move water about in the atmospheres of both planets .
On Jupiter , the thunderstorms are thought to form about 31 miles ( 50 km ) below the visible bands and storms on the planet , where temperatures are close to the freezing point of water .
Some of these storms are so powerful that they whisk crystal water-ice into the planet @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Violent thunderstorms on Jupiter may form 'mushballs ' that fall from the sky Being swallowed alive by a is a death sentence for most insects , but one beetle species shrugs off being digested and instead finds freedom by sneaking out through its captor 's anus .
When the pond frog Pelophylax nigromaculatus was presented with the aquatic beetle Regimbartia attenuata , it quickly snapped up the beetle , swallowing it whole and alive .
But the meals ended with a strange twist , researchers recently discovered .
In most of the experiments @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , slipping out of a frog 's anus , or vent .
Though muscles typically hold the vent tightly shut , those muscles loosen up when the frog poops ; the beetles could be stimulating the frogs ' defecation reflex in order to temporarily open this unusual emergency exit , according to the new study .
Read more : After being swallowed alive , water beetle stages 'backdoor ' escape from frog 's gut • Earth from Above : 101 Stunning Images from Orbit • From Big Bang to Present : Snapshots of @ @ @ @

Each week at Live Science we find the most interesting and informative articles we can. Along the way, we uncover some amazing and cool images. Here you'll discover the most incredible photos we found this week, and the remarkable stories behind them.
Gargantuan "growlers"
(Image credit: RAF)
In July 2017, a gargantuan iceberg spanning five times the area of New York's five boroughs snapped off the coast of Antarctica and began to drift northward.
Though its edges have crumbled considerably since then, the iceberg — named A-68a — is still the largest on Earth , and it's currently barreling toward an island wildlife refuge in the South Atlantic Ocean. New aerial footage taken by the United Kingdom's Royal Air Force (RAF) reveals just what that island might be up against.
For starters, the RAF footage really drives home how massive this ice giant is. (As of early April, A-68a measured about 2,000 square miles, or 5,100 square kilometers, in area, Live Science previously reported ). The berg's steep walls tower 100 feet (30 meters) above the sea, according to RAF News , and are gouged with tunnels, fissures and caves. Huge chunks of ice, or "growlers," are rapidly cracking off on all sides, leaving behind a trail of debris that could impede boat traffic in the future.
[Read more: World's largest iceberg still barreling toward penguin habitat, new footage confirms ]
Clear head, nine arms, can't lose
(Image credit: Kyodo News via Getty Images)
A nine-armed octopus caught off Japan's coast nearly ended up being dinner, until the family preparing it noticed its extra limb and sent it to a museum instead, according to news sources. While unusual, this extra appendage — which wasn't fully formed, but a small offshoot on a regular arm — isn't unheard of in octopuses, said Michael Vecchione, an invertebrate zoologist at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., who was not involved with this octopus's discovery.
Octopuses are capable of regenerating their arms, but "sometimes regeneration doesn't work quite right," Vecchione told Live Science. "If an arm gets damaged, it might regenerate wrong; it could wind up with extra tissue growing out, and that extra tissue could turn into an arm."
The nine-armed oddity was caught in a trap with three other octopuses on Nov. 13 in Shizugawa Bay, in the northeastern town of Minamisanriku, Japan, according to The Mainichi , a Japanese newspaper.
[Read more: Rare 9-armed octopus found off Japan coast ]
The sound of a supernova
(Image credit: NASA)
In space, nobody can hear you scream — or explode, or collapse, or slowly collide with a neighboring galaxy. But now, thanks to a new " data sonification " program at NASA, you can at least get a sense of what some of the most extreme phenomena in the universe might sound like when converted to sound played by Earthly instruments.
To hear what that sounds like, we turn to NASA's Chandra X-ray center — which has been imaging distant galaxies with its Chandra X-ray observatory for 20 years now. In their new initiative, Chandra researchers have taken three iconic images from their archives and translated different frequencies of light into different pitches of sound.
The first video shows the crab nebula (a supernova remnant powered by a windy neutron star , shown above). In NASA's data sonification of the nebula, X-ray light (blue and white) is represented by brass instruments; optical light (purple) is played by string instruments; and infrared light (pink) is represented by woodwinds. The sounds converge near the center of the nebula, where a rapidly swirling pulsar is blasting gas and radiation in all directions. Listen to this cosmic symphony (and two others) at the link below.
[Read more: This is what a supernova sounds like, according to NASA ]
Pterosaur's missing cousin
(Image credit: Rodolfo Nogueira)
Nearly nothing is known about the family tree of pterosaurs — iconic reptiles that flew alongside the dinosaurs . These now-extinct beasts appear in the fossil record with already developed wings and senses adapted for flying, with researchers having nary a clue about their immediate evolutionary history.
But now, the pterosaur's family tree has a new branch; an enigmatic group of small reptiles, known as lagerpetids, might be the closest-known pterosaur relatives on record, the researchers of a new study say.
Unlike pterosaurs, however, lagerpetids did not fly. "Now, we have an idea of what a flightless pterosaur relative would look like," study co-researcher Sterling Nesbitt, an associate professor of geosciences at Virginia Tech, told Live Science.
[Read more: Missing link in pterosaur origins discovered ]
The changing face of ice
(Image credit: NOAA/Photo courtesy of Caitlin Bailey, GFOE, The Hidden Ocean 2016: Chukchi Borderlands)
From vanishing sea ice to blistering air temperatures to zombie fires , climate change is reshaping the Arctic. And that transformation may be permanent, researchers said on Tuesday (Dec. 8) at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU).
The Arctic has warmed and melted at an alarmingly accelerating pace over the last 15 years, and the impacts are accumulating so rapidly that "there's no reason to think that in 30 years anything will be as it is today," Rick Thoman, an Alaska climate specialist with the International Arctic Research Center (IARC) at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), said at the conference, held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic, on Tuesday.
This year's news was not good: June snow cover across the Eurasian Arctic was at its lowest in 54 years; coastal permafrost erosion is increasing; and glaciers and ice sheets in Greenland continued a trend "of significant ice loss," according to the report.
[Read more: Dramatic transformation of the Arctic landscape may be permanent ]
Starship down
(Image credit: SpaceX)
SpaceX's Starship spaceflight system just took a big step on its path to Mars. The latest Starship prototype, a shiny silver vehicle known as SN8, launched on an epic high-altitude test flight on Dec. 9, taking off at 5:45 p.m. EST from SpaceX's facility near the South Texas village of Boca Chica.
The goal was to soar about 7.8 miles (12.5 kilometers) into the sky, perform some complex aerial maneuvers — including a "belly flop" like the one the final Starship will perform when coming back to Earth on operational flights — and then land safely near the launch stand. The 165-foot-tall (50 meters) SN8 appeared to notch all of these big milestones, except for the final one: The vehicle hit its landing mark but came in too fast, exploding in a dramatic fireball 6 minutes and 42 seconds after liftoff.
SN8's rapid unplanned disassembly did nothing to dampen the spirits of SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk, who was thrilled by the results of today's flight.
[Read more: SpaceX's Starship SN8 prototype soars on epic test launch, with explosive landing ]
Amazonian universe
Billions of lasers shot from a helicopter flying over the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest have detected a vast network of long-abandoned circular and rectangular-shaped villages dating from 1300 to 1700, a new study finds.
The round villages all had remarkably similar layouts, with elongated mounds circling a central plaza, like marks on a clock. "These latter elongated mounds, when seen from above, look like the rays of the sun, which gives them the common name of 'Sóis,'" the Portuguese word for "suns," the researchers wrote in the study.
The discovery is part of a new archaeological focus on the pre-Columbian Amazon. Within the past 20 years, researchers have learned that the rainforest's southern rim was home to a great diversity of soil-sculpting cultures that engineered the landscape before the Europeans arrived. Within the past decade, scientists have uncovered the remnants of so-called "mound villages," which are shaped as circles or rectangles, and connected by road networks.
[Read more: Archaeologists find vast network of Amazon villages laid out like the cosmos ]
The sky is falling
(Image credit: ESA)
Have you ever seen 40,000 shooting stars blaze across the sky at the same time?
If you'd like to, the European Space Agency (ESA) is offering you two options: Either stare at the night sky for about half a million years as our solar system drifts steadily through the Milky Way (some patience required) — or, watch a new 60-second time-lapse simulation of the same thing, courtesy of the ESA's Gaia space observatory.
In the new simulation, 40,000 stars — all located within 325 light-years of Earth's sun — whiz through space, leaving long trails of light behind them. Each point of light represents one real object in the Milky Way, and each shining trail shows that object's projected movement through the galaxy over the next 400,000 years. Brighter, faster streaks are located closer to our solar system, while dimmer, slower ones live much farther away.
[Read more: Epic time-lapse shows what the Milky Way will look like 400,000 years from now ]
Gold in the garden
(Image credit: © The Trustees of the British Museum)
A family in England was weeding their garden when they unearthed a valuable treasure — a buried hoard of gold coins dating back to the 1400s, depicting English monarchs from Edward IV to Henry VIII.
The hoard — a stash of 63 gold coins and one silver coin — contains money minted over a period of nearly 100 years, from the late 15th to the 16th centuries. Four of the coins feature Henry VIII and, curiously, one of the initials of three of his wives: Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour.
Upon finding the cache, the family, in the New Forest district of Hampshire, a county in southeastern England, notified the British Museum, which runs the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS). This program partners with local people who find historical artifacts in the United Kingdom, so the findings can be documented and studied, the British Museum said in a statement Thursday (Dec. 10).
[Read more: Gold coin stash from time of Henry VIII found in English garden ]
Enigma of the deep
(Image credit: Florian Huber/WWF)
Divers trying to remove old fishing nets from the Baltic sea have accidentally stumbled on a Nazi code-making machine. The Enigma machine, as it's called, looks a bit like a typewriter. In fact, the diver who found the device on the ocean floor initially thought that's what the artifact was, according to AFP . But the diving team, on assignment for the conservation group World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), quickly realized that they had something much stranger.
During World War II, Enigma machines were used to encode German military messages, in hopes of preventing Allied powers from learning about troop movements and other plans. The devices consisted of a keyboard and a series of rotors that did the encoding. The rotors substituted different letters for the ones typed in; different Enigma machines used between three and eight rotors, which moved independently after each keystroke so that the same initial letter typed into the machine would appear as multiple different letters in the final code.
The Enigma machine found by the WWF diving crew was at the bottom of the Bay of Gelting in northeast Germany. It had three rotors, making it the type used on warships, not U-boats. That suggests that the machine may have been tossed overboard in the final days of World War II, in an attempt to keep the technology out of enemy hands, historian Jann Witt of the German Naval Association told the DPA news agency.
[Read more: Nazi 'Enigma' machine found at the bottom of the Baltic Sea ]
Originally published on Live Science.


livescience--2020-08-08--When did humans discover how to use fire?

Fires blazed the way for humans to evolve into the species we are today .
Scientists suspect that without a control over fire , humans probably would never have developed large brains and the benefits that come along with it .
But when did humans first discover how to use fire ?
`` That 's a tricky question , '' said Ian Tattersall , a paleoanthropologist and curator emeritus of human origins at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City .
`` Maybe the evidence for fire does n't preserve very well , and what we 're @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was previously a much more rich record .
But again , that 's guesswork .
We do n't know . ''
What experts do know is that around 400,000 years ago , fire started popping up much more frequently in the archaeological record across Europe , the Middle East , Africa and Asia , according to a 2016 review article in the journal .
Experts consider these fires to be widespread , though sites with evidence are still relatively scarce .
Related : How smart were the Neanderthals ?
At least two isolated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 400,000 years ago , Tattersall said .
For instance , at a site in Israel , dating back about 800,000 years , archaeologists have found hearths , flint and burned wood fragments , according to a 2012 study in the journal .
At another site , this one called Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa , scientists found evidence that humans used fire about 1 million years ago , according to a 2012 study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences .
In that cave , they found remnants of burned @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be hearths .
`` Where the evidence is coming from in the site is really far back into the cave , '' said Sarah Hlubik , a paleoanthropologist and postdoctoral researcher at George Washington University in Washington , D.C. `` Even a landscape fire that 's sweeping around is n't going to reach that far back . ''
In other words , there 's little chance that the data 's a fluke , even though it is isolated in space and time .
Though Wonderwerk is the earliest site where most experts agree @ @ @ @ @ @ @ should have been using it much earlier .
Around 2 million years ago , the gut of the human ancestor began shrinking , suggesting that something such as cooking was making digestion a lot easier .
Meanwhile , its brain was growing , which requires a lot of energy .
`` Where else would you get the energy from without using fire to cook food ? ''
Tattersall told Live Science , referring to cooking meat and vegetables .
To back up that argument , Hlubik is looking for signs of ancient controlled @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a region in northern Kenya that 's rich in paleoanthropological remains dating back about 1.6 million years .
So far , she has found burned bones clustered with other artifacts there .
Burned sediment was clustered separately , suggesting that there was one area for maintaining fire and another area where ancient humans spent most of their time .
`` At this point , I 'm confident to say , 'Yes , there was fire that was being used by people on this particular site , ' '' Hlubik said .
`` The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ then say , 'How many other sites in the region also have fire evidence ? '
'' But not all experts agree with Hlubik .
The fires at the site she excavated may not have been started by humans .
It 's possible the evidence could stem from bushes that were .
Whenever fire use did arise , humans ' ability to capture and control wildfires — or create fires of their own — had massive impacts on the species ' evolution .
It probably lengthened life spans , made humans more social @ @ @ @ @ @ @ around and , along with the invention of clothing , helped them move into colder climates , Tattersall said .
Using fires also likely increased human cognition , Hlubik added .
`` The benefits from using it reinforce the cognitive gains that you 've already gotten and then create more .
Because fire is a complex thing , '' she said .
`` You can get very hurt if you 're using it incorrectly . ''

Fires blazed the way for humans to evolve into the species we are today. Scientists suspect that without a control over fire, humans probably would never have developed large brains and the benefits that come along with it. But when did humans first discover how to use fire?
"That's a tricky question," said Ian Tattersall, a paleoanthropologist and curator emeritus of human origins at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. "Maybe the evidence for fire doesn't preserve very well, and what we're seeing is just the remnants of what was previously a much more rich record. But again, that's guesswork. We don't know."
What experts do know is that around 400,000 years ago, fire started popping up much more frequently in the archaeological record across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia, according to a 2016 review article in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B . Experts consider these fires to be widespread, though sites with evidence are still relatively scarce.
Related: How smart were the Neanderthals?
At least two isolated sites show earlier humans using fire before 400,000 years ago, Tattersall said. For instance, at a site in Israel, dating back about 800,000 years, archaeologists have found hearths, flint and burned wood fragments, according to a 2012 study in the journal Science . At another site, this one called Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa, scientists found evidence that humans used fire about 1 million years ago, according to a 2012 study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . In that cave, they found remnants of burned bone and plants and what appear to be hearths.
"Where the evidence is coming from in the site is really far back into the cave," said Sarah Hlubik, a paleoanthropologist and postdoctoral researcher at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. "Even a landscape fire that's sweeping around isn't going to reach that far back." In other words, there's little chance that the data's a fluke, even though it is isolated in space and time.
Though Wonderwerk is the earliest site where most experts agree humans used fire, in theory they should have been using it much earlier. Around 2 million years ago, the gut of the human ancestor Homo erectus began shrinking, suggesting that something such as cooking was making digestion a lot easier. Meanwhile, its brain was growing, which requires a lot of energy. "Where else would you get the energy from without using fire to cook food?" Tattersall told Live Science, referring to cooking meat and vegetables.
To back up that argument, Hlubik is looking for signs of ancient controlled fires at sites in Koobi Fora, a region in northern Kenya that's rich in paleoanthropological remains dating back about 1.6 million years. So far, she has found burned bones clustered with other artifacts there. Burned sediment was clustered separately, suggesting that there was one area for maintaining fire and another area where ancient humans spent most of their time.
"At this point, I'm confident to say, 'Yes, there was fire that was being used by people on this particular site,'" Hlubik said. "The next phase of the research is to then say, 'How many other sites in the region also have fire evidence?'"
But not all experts agree with Hlubik. The fires at the site she excavated may not have been started by humans. It's possible the evidence could stem from bushes that were torched by natural wildfire .
Whenever fire use did arise, humans' ability to capture and control wildfires — or create fires of their own — had massive impacts on the species' evolution. It probably lengthened life spans, made humans more social by giving them a place to gather around and, along with the invention of clothing, helped them move into colder climates, Tattersall said. Using fires also likely increased human cognition, Hlubik added. "The benefits from using it reinforce the cognitive gains that you've already gotten and then create more. Because fire is a complex thing," she said. "You can get very hurt if you're using it incorrectly."
Originally published on Live Science.


livescience--2020-08-08--Moon may outshine Perseid meteor shower this month

Skywatchers beware : the moon will hinder attempts to observe the , typically one of the best meteor displays of the year .
For Northern Hemisphere observers , August is usually regarded as `` meteor month , '' with one of the best displays of the year reaching its peak mid-month .
Unrolling a sleeping bag in the open air is a fine way to enjoy summer meteor showers , particularly the annual by everyone from veteran meteor enthusiasts to summertime campers .
Unfortunately , 2020 will see a last quarter moon on the night of Aug. 11 , coinciding @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which is predicted to occur during the overnight hours of Aug. 11-12 .
From mid-northern latitudes , moonrise comes at around 12:15 local daylight time on Wednesday ( Aug. 12 ) .
The moon will be hovering about 8 degrees below the and not all that far from the constellation Perseus , from where the meteors will appear to emanate ( hence the name `` Perseid '' ) .
Most of these `` shooting stars '' would be identifiable as Perseids because their paths , extended backward along the line of flight , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Perseid-Cassiopeia border .
Perseus itself does not begin to climb high up into the northeast sky until after 11 p.m. local time ; by dawn it 's nearly overhead .
If you plan to make a night out of it , your best observing platform would be a reclining lawn chair allowing you to concentrate overhead and toward the northeast part of the sky .
Skywatchers may have already caught a Perseid or two , since the meteor shower started around July 17 .
But a noticeable upswing in Perseid activity traditionally begins @ @ @ @ @ @ @ leading up to their peak .
Perseid meteors are typically fast and bright and occasionally leave persistent trains .
Every once in a while , an outstandingly brilliant will blaze forth , bright enough to be quite spectacular , even perhaps appearing to end in a strobe-like flash .
Such an outlier would be more than capable enough to attract attention even in bright moonlight .
Unfortunately , the moon will always be above the horizon during the predawn morning hours , when Perseid viewing is always at its best .
That timing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ troublesome during the second week of August ; the moon will be at a rather bright waning gibbous phase and seriously hamper observation of the buildup of the Perseids .
So even the gradual increase in the shower will be spoiled by moonlight .
Under normal conditions , a single observer might see anywhere from 45 to 90 meteors per hour on the night of maximum Perseid activity .
This year , the display wo n't come close to that number , but the Perseids might still put on an entertaining show despite @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dross of the , which was discovered in 1862 and takes approximately 135 years to circle the sun .
In much the same way that the Tempel-Tuttle comet leaves a trail of debris along its orbit that produces the spectacular , the Swift-Tuttle comet produces a similar debris trail , causing the Perseids .
Every year during mid-August , when the Earth passes close to the orbit of Swift-Tuttle , the material left behind by the comet from its previous visits rams into our atmosphere at a speed of about 37 miles ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fast-moving bright streaks of light in our midsummer night skies .
The Perseids were especially prolific , producing meteors in the hundreds per hour , the last time Swift-Tuttle passed through the inner part of our solar system in 1992 .
Interestingly , the next two times that the comet will sweep around the sun , in 2126 and 2261 , it will pass within about 14 million miles ( 22.5 million km ) of Earth , likely appearing very large and bright in our sky and also producing spectacular Perseid outbursts , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ In his book , `` Impact !
The threat of comets and asteroids '' ( Oxford University Press , 1997 ) , astronomer Gerrit L. Verschuur described the Swift-Tuttle comet as `` the single most dangerous object known to humanity . ''
That point will especially be driven home in the year 3044 , when the comet is expected to pass only 1 million miles ( 1.6 million km ) from Earth !
But despite the comet 's superlative , the Perseid `` shooting stars '' themselves are harmless , no bigger than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ consistency of cigar ash , the comet 's debris is consumed scores of miles above our heads .
As August progresses , with both the moon and the Perseids on the wane , a will take to the skies , the Kappa Cygnid shower .
According to predictions from the International Meteor Organization ( IMO ) , these meteors will peak on Aug. 17 , although they began on Aug. 3 and will continue through Aug. 25 .
The Kappa Cygnids were juiced up in 2007 and 2014 .
However , for 2020 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ peculiarities may occur .
Although this shower produces only a small handful of meteors ( two to four ) each hour , some of them are flaring fireballs .
Best viewing is in the early evening , when the radiant in northwestern Cygnus is nearly overhead .
Unlike many other showers , the Kappa Cygnids are associated with no known comet .
Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York 's Hayden Planetarium .
He writes about astronomy for Natural History magazine , the Farmers ' Almanac and other @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Spacedotcom and on Facebook .

Skywatchers beware: the moon will hinder attempts to observe the Perseids , typically one of the best meteor displays of the year.
For Northern Hemisphere observers, August is usually regarded as "meteor month," with one of the best displays of the year reaching its peak mid-month. Unrolling a sleeping bag in the open air is a fine way to enjoy summer meteor showers, particularly the annual Perseid meteor shower, which is beloved by everyone from veteran meteor enthusiasts to summertime campers.
Unfortunately, 2020 will see a last quarter moon on the night of Aug. 11, coinciding with the peak of the Perseids, which is predicted to occur during the overnight hours of Aug. 11-12. From mid-northern latitudes, moonrise comes at around 12:15 local daylight time on Wednesday (Aug. 12). The moon will be hovering about 8 degrees below the Pleiades star cluster and not all that far from the constellation Perseus, from where the meteors will appear to emanate (hence the name "Perseid").
Related: Best night sky events of August 2020 (stargazing maps)
Most of these "shooting stars" would be identifiable as Perseids because their paths, extended backward along the line of flight, would intersect near a point on the Perseid-Cassiopeia border.
Perseus itself does not begin to climb high up into the northeast sky until after 11 p.m. local time; by dawn it's nearly overhead. If you plan to make a night out of it, your best observing platform would be a reclining lawn chair allowing you to concentrate overhead and toward the northeast part of the sky.
The moon muscles in
Skywatchers may have already caught a Perseid or two, since the meteor shower started around July 17. But a noticeable upswing in Perseid activity traditionally begins during the second week of August, leading up to their peak.
Perseid meteors are typically fast and bright and occasionally leave persistent trains. Every once in a while, an outstandingly brilliant Perseid fireball will blaze forth, bright enough to be quite spectacular, even perhaps appearing to end in a strobe-like flash. Such an outlier would be more than capable enough to attract attention even in bright moonlight.
Unfortunately, the moon will always be above the horizon during the predawn morning hours, when Perseid viewing is always at its best. That timing means the lunar glare will be very troublesome during the second week of August; the moon will be at a rather bright waning gibbous phase and seriously hamper observation of the buildup of the Perseids. So even the gradual increase in the shower will be spoiled by moonlight.
Under normal conditions, a single observer might see anywhere from 45 to 90 meteors per hour on the night of maximum Perseid activity. This year, the display won't come close to that number, but the Perseids might still put on an entertaining show despite the interfering moonlight .
Comet crumbs
These meteors are the dross of the Swift-Tuttle comet , which was discovered in 1862 and takes approximately 135 years to circle the sun. In much the same way that the Tempel-Tuttle comet leaves a trail of debris along its orbit that produces the spectacular Leonid meteors of November , the Swift-Tuttle comet produces a similar debris trail, causing the Perseids. Every year during mid-August, when the Earth passes close to the orbit of Swift-Tuttle, the material left behind by the comet from its previous visits rams into our atmosphere at a speed of about 37 miles (60 kilometers) per second, creating fast-moving bright streaks of light in our midsummer night skies.
The Perseids were especially prolific, producing meteors in the hundreds per hour, the last time Swift-Tuttle passed through the inner part of our solar system in 1992. Interestingly, the next two times that the comet will sweep around the sun, in 2126 and 2261, it will pass within about 14 million miles (22.5 million km) of Earth, likely appearing very large and bright in our sky and also producing spectacular Perseid outbursts, again in the hundreds per hour.
In his book, "Impact! The threat of comets and asteroids" (Oxford University Press, 1997), astronomer Gerrit L. Verschuur described the Swift-Tuttle comet as "the single most dangerous object known to humanity." That point will especially be driven home in the year 3044, when the comet is expected to pass only 1 million miles (1.6 million km) from Earth!
But despite the comet's superlative, the Perseid "shooting stars" themselves are harmless, no bigger than sand grains or pebbles. With the consistency of cigar ash, the comet's debris is consumed scores of miles above our heads.
Another August shower to watch
As August progresses, with both the moon and the Perseids on the wane, a different meteor shower will take to the skies, the Kappa Cygnid shower. According to predictions from the International Meteor Organization (IMO), these meteors will peak on Aug. 17, although they began on Aug. 3 and will continue through Aug. 25.
The Kappa Cygnids were juiced up in 2007 and 2014. However, for 2020 there are no available predictions suggesting further peculiarities may occur.
Although this shower produces only a small handful of meteors (two to four) each hour, some of them are flaring fireballs. Best viewing is in the early evening, when the radiant in northwestern Cygnus is nearly overhead. Unlike many other showers, the Kappa Cygnids are associated with no known comet.
Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for Natural History magazine, the Farmers' Almanac and other publications. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.


livescience--2020-08-08--Could COVID-19 increase the risk of memory loss?

Of all frightening ways that the SARS-COV-2 virus affects the body , one of the more insidious is the effect of COVID-19 on the brain .
It is now clear that many patients suffering from COVID-19 exhibit neurological symptoms , from loss of smell , to delirium , to an increased risk of stroke .
There are also longer-lasting consequences for the brain , including and .
These effects may be caused by direct viral infection of .
But growing evidence suggests triggered via the virus 's infection of epithelial cells and the cardiovascular system , or through the immune @ @ @ @ @ @ @ neurological changes after COVID-19 .
specializing in how memories are formed , the role of immune cells in the brain and .
As I survey the emerging scientific literature , my question is : Will there be a COVID-19-related wave of memory deficits , cognitive decline and dementia cases in the future ?
The immune system and the brain Many of the symptoms we attribute to an infection are really due to the protective responses of the immune system .
A runny nose during a cold is not a direct effect of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ immune system 's response to the cold virus .
This is also true when it comes to feeling sick .
are caused by activation of specialized immune cells in the brain , called neuroimmune cells , and signals in the brain .
These changes in brain and behavior , although annoying for our everyday lives , are highly adaptive and immensely beneficial .
By resting , you allow the energy-demanding immune response to do its thing .
A fever makes the body less hospitable to viruses and increases the efficiency of the immune @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spread of the virus .
In addition to changing behavior and regulating physiological responses during illness , the specialized immune system in the brain also plays a number of other roles .
It has recently become clear that the neuroimmune cells that sit at the connections , which and , are essential for normal memory formation .
Unfortunately , this also provides a way in which illnesses like COVID-19 can cause both acute neurological symptoms and .
During illness and inflammation , the specialized immune cells in the brain become activated , spewing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ modifying how they communicate with neurons .
For one type of cell , microglia , this means changing shape , withdrawing the spindly arms and becoming blobby , mobile cells that envelop potential pathogens or cell debris in their path .
But , in doing so , they also destroy and eat the neuronal connections that are so important for memory storage .
Another type of neuroimmune cell called an astrocyte , typically wraps around the connection between neurons during illness-evoked activation and dumps inflammatory signals on these junctions , effectively preventing the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ memories .
Because COVID-19 involves a , the impact of this disease on memory is particularly interesting to me .
That is because there are both short-term effects on cognition ( delirium ) , and the potential for long-lasting changes in memory , attention and cognition .
There is also an including Alzheimer 's disease , during aging .
How does inflammation exert long-lasting effects on memory ?
If activation of neuroimmune cells is limited to the duration of the illness , then how can inflammation cause long-lasting memory deficits or increase the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ brain and the immune system have specifically evolved to change as a consequence of experience , in order to neutralize danger and maximize survival .
In the brain , changes in connections between neurons allows us to store memories and rapidly change behavior to escape threat , or seek food or social opportunities .
The immune system has evolved to fine-tune the inflammatory response and antibody production against previously encountered pathogens .
Yet long-lasting changes in the brain after illness are also closely linked to increased risk for age-related cognitive decline and Alzheimer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ actions of neuroimmune cells and inflammatory signaling can permanently impair memory .
This can occur through permanent damage to the neuronal connections or neurons themselves and also via more subtle changes in how neurons function .
The potential connection between COVID-19 and persistent effects on memory are based on observations of other illnesses .
For example , many patients who recover from report lasting cognitive deficits that become exaggerated during aging .
Another major illness with similar cognitive complications is — multi-organ dysfunction triggered by inflammation .
In animal models of these diseases @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and changes in neuroimmune and neuronal function that persist weeks and months after illness .
[ You 're too busy to read everything .
We get it .
That 's why we 've got a weekly newsletter . ]
Even , , are now recognized as risk factors for dementias and cognitive decline during aging .
In my own laboratory , I and my colleagues have also observed that even without bacterial or viral infection , triggering inflammatory signaling over a short-term period results in long-lasting changes in neuronal function in memory-related @ @ @ @ @ @ @ many years before we know whether the COVID-19 infection causes an increased risk for cognitive decline or Alzheimer 's disease .
But this risk may be decreased or mitigated through prevention and treatment of COVID-19 .
Prevention and treatment both rely on the ability to decrease the severity and duration of illness and inflammation .
Intriguingly , very new research suggests that common vaccines , including the flu shot and pneumonia vaccines , may reduce risk for Alzheimer 's .
Additionally , several emerging treatments for COVID-19 are drugs that .
Potentially , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of inflammation on the brain , and decrease the impact on long-term brain health .
COVID-19 will continue to impact health and well-being long after the pandemic is over .
As such , it will be critical to continue to assess the effects of COVID-19 illness in vulnerability to later cognitive decline and dementias .
In doing so , researchers will likely gain critical new insight into the role of inflammation across the life-span in age-related cognitive decline .
This will aid in the development of more effective strategies for prevention and treatment @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was originally published at The Conversation .
The publication contributed the article to Live Science 's Expert Voices : Op-Ed & Insights .

Of all frightening ways that the SARS-COV-2 virus affects the body, one of the more insidious is the effect of COVID-19 on the brain.
It is now clear that many patients suffering from COVID-19 exhibit neurological symptoms, from loss of smell, to delirium, to an increased risk of stroke . There are also longer-lasting consequences for the brain, including myalgic encephalomyelitis /chronic fatigue syndrome and Guillain-Barre syndrome .
These effects may be caused by direct viral infection of brain tissue . But growing evidence suggests additional indirect actions triggered via the virus's infection of epithelial cells and the cardiovascular system, or through the immune system and inflammation, contribute to lasting neurological changes after COVID-19.
I am a neuroscientist specializing in how memories are formed, the role of immune cells in the brain and how memory is persistently disrupted after illness and immune activation . As I survey the emerging scientific literature, my question is: Will there be a COVID-19-related wave of memory deficits, cognitive decline and dementia cases in the future?
The immune system and the brain
Many of the symptoms we attribute to an infection are really due to the protective responses of the immune system. A runny nose during a cold is not a direct effect of the virus, but a result of the immune system's response to the cold virus. This is also true when it comes to feeling sick. The general malaise, tiredness, fever and social withdrawal are caused by activation of specialized immune cells in the brain, called neuroimmune cells, and signals in the brain.
These changes in brain and behavior, although annoying for our everyday lives, are highly adaptive and immensely beneficial. By resting, you allow the energy-demanding immune response to do its thing. A fever makes the body less hospitable to viruses and increases the efficiency of the immune system. Social withdrawal may help decrease spread of the virus.
In addition to changing behavior and regulating physiological responses during illness, the specialized immune system in the brain also plays a number of other roles. It has recently become clear that the neuroimmune cells that sit at the connections between brain cells (synapses) , which provide energy and minute quantities of inflammatory signals , are essential for normal memory formation.
Unfortunately, this also provides a way in which illnesses like COVID-19 can cause both acute neurological symptoms and long-lasting issues in the brain .
Microglia are specialized immune cells in the brain. In healthy states, they use their arms to test the environment. During an immune response, microglia change shape to engulf pathogens. But they can also damage neurons and their connections that store memory. (Image credit: Shutterstock)
During illness and inflammation, the specialized immune cells in the brain become activated, spewing vast quantities of inflammatory signals, and modifying how they communicate with neurons. For one type of cell, microglia, this means changing shape, withdrawing the spindly arms and becoming blobby, mobile cells that envelop potential pathogens or cell debris in their path. But, in doing so, they also destroy and eat the neuronal connections that are so important for memory storage .
Another type of neuroimmune cell called an astrocyte, typically wraps around the connection between neurons during illness-evoked activation and dumps inflammatory signals on these junctions, effectively preventing the changes in connections between neurons that store memories.
Because COVID-19 involves a massive release of inflammatory signals , the impact of this disease on memory is particularly interesting to me. That is because there are both short-term effects on cognition (delirium), and the potential for long-lasting changes in memory, attention and cognition. There is also an increased risk for cognitive decline and dementia, including Alzheimer's disease, during aging.
How does inflammation exert long-lasting effects on memory?
If activation of neuroimmune cells is limited to the duration of the illness, then how can inflammation cause long-lasting memory deficits or increase the risk of cognitive decline?
Both the brain and the immune system have specifically evolved to change as a consequence of experience, in order to neutralize danger and maximize survival. In the brain, changes in connections between neurons allows us to store memories and rapidly change behavior to escape threat, or seek food or social opportunities. The immune system has evolved to fine-tune the inflammatory response and antibody production against previously encountered pathogens.
Yet long-lasting changes in the brain after illness are also closely linked to increased risk for age-related cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease. The disruptive and destructive actions of neuroimmune cells and inflammatory signaling can permanently impair memory. This can occur through permanent damage to the neuronal connections or neurons themselves and also via more subtle changes in how neurons function.
The potential connection between COVID-19 and persistent effects on memory are based on observations of other illnesses. For example, many patients who recover from heart attack or bypass surgery report lasting cognitive deficits that become exaggerated during aging .
Another major illness with similar cognitive complications is sepsis — multi-organ dysfunction triggered by inflammation. In animal models of these diseases, we also see impairments of memory, and changes in neuroimmune and neuronal function that persist weeks and months after illness.
[You're too busy to read everything. We get it. That's why we've got a weekly newsletter. Sign up for good Sunday reading. ]
Even mild inflammation , including chronic stress , are now recognized as risk factors for dementias and cognitive decline during aging.
In my own laboratory, I and my colleagues have also observed that even without bacterial or viral infection, triggering inflammatory signaling over a short-term period results in long-lasting changes in neuronal function in memory-related brain regions and memory impairments .
Does COVID-19 increase risk for cognitive decline?
It will be many years before we know whether the COVID-19 infection causes an increased risk for cognitive decline or Alzheimer's disease. But this risk may be decreased or mitigated through prevention and treatment of COVID-19.
Prevention and treatment both rely on the ability to decrease the severity and duration of illness and inflammation. Intriguingly, very new research suggests that common vaccines, including the flu shot and pneumonia vaccines, may reduce risk for Alzheimer's .
Additionally, several emerging treatments for COVID-19 are drugs that suppress excessive immune activation and inflammatory state . Potentially, these treatments will also reduce the impact of inflammation on the brain, and decrease the impact on long-term brain health.
COVID-19 will continue to impact health and well-being long after the pandemic is over. As such, it will be critical to continue to assess the effects of COVID-19 illness in vulnerability to later cognitive decline and dementias.
In doing so, researchers will likely gain critical new insight into the role of inflammation across the life-span in age-related cognitive decline. This will aid in the development of more effective strategies for prevention and treatment of these debilitating illnesses.
This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.


What is taxonomy?

If you saw a feathered , two-footed critter on the lawn , what would you tell people you saw ?
A robin ?
A blackbird ?
How about a dinosaur ?
From a taxonomist 's perspective , you could n't go wrong with dinosaur .
According to taxonomy , the discipline that assigns official scientific names to all known organisms , all birds are dinosaurs .
`` Robin '' and `` blackbird '' are common names that may mean different things in different places , while the clade `` Dinosauria '' is a clear scientific designation — and it includes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ giants .
Fundamentally , taxonomy is the science of naming , defining and classifying `` biologically , evolutionarily distinct groups of organisms , '' said David Baum , a University of Wisconsin-Madison botanist who studies evolution and systematics .
Stanford University biologist Paul Ehrlich puts it more simply in an essay on the Birds of Stanford website : `` Taxonomy … is the science of classifying organisms . ''
The discipline of taxonomy analyzes how creatures should be grouped into different taxa ( e.g.
, these particular birds make up a species distinct @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to call those taxa ( this bird species is Spinus tristis , the American goldfinch , and that one is Eudyptes robustus , a crested penguin ) ; and lays out how smaller groups nest together into larger ones , such as how different species are grouped under one genus .
This nesting goes from species to genus , then on up through family , order , class , phylum , kingdom and domain .
Hence , house cats , the species Felis catus , reside in the genus Felis , nesting within @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cats , such as tigers and bobcats ) , which in turn sits in the order Carnivora ( with other carnivores , such as bears and walruses ) .
This order nests inside the class Mammalia , which also includes zebras , whales and humans .
Mammals are part of the phylum Chordata , which encompasses all vertebrates and more exotic creatures such as the sea squirt .
This phylum lives in the kingdom Animalia , which is part of the domain Eukaryota , which encompasses everything with a nucleus in its cells @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , binomial name of genus-plus-species that scientists use to formally designate a specific organism ( Homo sapiens for us , Clostridium difficile for one of our unwelcome bacterial guests ) .
Those definitive names make taxonomy crucial to scientists , Baum told Live Science .
`` We need to have clear communication .
So if I 'm talking about a particular evolutionary group and someone else is [ too ] , we know we 're talking about the same thing , '' he said .
`` That 's the fundamental reason we absolutely @ @ @ @ @ @ @ usefulness is the way taxonomy groups organisms according to their relationships .
In modern taxonomy , that means describing evolutionary links .
A taxonomic group must always refer to a set of organisms that descended from the same ancestor , at some point in evolutionary history .
Species within the same genus all share a common ancestor .
The same goes for each genus within one family and so on .
Taxonomy is so intertwined with evolutionary theory , in fact , that it can be difficult to delineate when a researcher 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 're `` doing evolutionary biology , '' Baum said .
Classically , a taxonomist engages in taxonomy by examining the various features of an organism or group of organisms , comparing them against known examples , and then , if warranted , reassigning names or assigning new ones .
A taxonomist might take a set of specimens and separate potentially different species , as the UN Environment Programme 's Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity describes .
The investigator would then check whether these groups already had names , sometimes by reading @ @ @ @ @ @ @ samples from museums and herbaria .
They 'd look at external and internal traits and maybe even analyze DNA .
Should those comparisons show no matches , the taxonomist would write up a description and assign a new species name in accordance with the complicated rules of taxonomic nomenclature .
Then , the finding would be published .
That work can involve a bit of evolutionary discovery , beyond just naming .
In practice , taxonomists are doing evolutionary biology , Baum said .
`` They 're reconstructing evolutionary history .
And so @ @ @ @ @ @ @ evolutionary relationships among organisms . ''
The field 's interdependence with evolutionary theory also means that taxonomy in turn must respond to evolutionary discoveries .
So , groupings and names can change , sometimes dramatically .
Reptiles , for example , originally encompassed lizards , snakes , turtles and crocodiles .
Birds were considered distinct .
Over time , however , scientists found that crocodiles were more closely related to birds than either of them were to other reptiles .
( This was found first via morphological studies but later well-confirmed via molecular @ @ @ @ @ @ @ left taxonomists in a quandary about what the grouping `` reptile '' should refer to , as one of its core members was now seen to be more closely related to an outsider , Baum said .
Taxonomists could have reserved the term `` reptile '' for referring to the noncrocodile members ( snakes , lizards and turtles ) , as crocodiles were more closely related to birds .
Instead , scientists expanded reptiles to now include birds .
Expanding even further , scientists eventually accepted that one group of dinosaurs , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ birds than to any other reptiles .
( Evidence for this built over the years , beginning with the bird-like Archaeopteryx in the 1860s and continuing through the discovery of many feathered dinosaurs in the 1990s . )
Again , taxonomists could have restricted the term `` dinosaurs '' to those dinos from which birds did n't descend .
But researchers instead opted to maintain the grouping of all previously recognized dinosaurs , as Dinosauria , while acknowledging birds as the descendants of one dino branch .
Related : What 's the difference @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to evolutionary findings like this , taxonomy does more than change nomenclature : It helps scientists avoid errors , Baum said .
`` If birds had been kept taxonomically separate from crocodiles , biologists would tend to make assumptions that crocodilian anatomy and physiology would resemble that of lizards , instead of looking to the birds , '' he said .
`` If the taxonomy does n't reflect evolutionary history properly , and people assume that it does , then they tend to make mistakes in inference .
They tend to jump to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ always played this role in taxonomy , however .
Today 's hierarchical , ranked system originated with Charles Linnaeus , an 18th-century Swedish botanist .
Linnaeus did n't subscribe to Darwin 's theory — partly for the forgivable reason that it had n't been invented yet .
So the first huge milestone in modern taxonomy 's own evolution , Baum said , came with the incorporation of evolutionary theory .
`` Since Darwin , there was an intention to reflect evolutionary history in the taxonomic system . ''
Exactly how to do that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mid-1900s .
Then , German scientists like Willi Hennig showed that `` if you want to reflect evolutionary history , then you should only give names to … these groups that all come from a common ancestor , '' Baum said .
Today , these `` monophyletic groups , '' or groups that descend from a common ancestor , govern how taxonomists delineate taxa , with groups branching off the tree of life from their common ancestors .
That 's why every genus in a family must share a common ancestor and so @ @ @ @ @ @ @ regular tree , imagine grabbing a branch and saying , 'Well , everything that is down on this branch , we 're going to give it a name , '' Baum said .
That 's a monophyletic group .
Other major events in taxonomy 's own evolution served to reinforce the insights of Darwin and Hennig .
The advent of DNA analysis has helped scientists more accurately measure how related organisms are , and leaps in computational power have since accelerated those genetic discoveries , Baum said .
But in the midst of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ taxonomy retains traces of its centuries-old roots — which some scientists , including Baum , refer to as baggage .
The binomial names , for starters , grew from Linnaeus ' pre-Darwinian mindset .
For Linnaeus , Baum said , `` The genera were what God created , and after the creation , there were some rearrangements that happened to generate different species of the genus .
So genus was the kind — 'genus ' means 'kind ' in Latin — [ and ] species were the variety , the modification of that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ system that gives us Homo sapiens and Tyrannosaurus rex reflects a Creationist view , Baum said .
Related : Why creationists are more likely to buy into conspiracy theories For Baum and others , taxonomy 's `` baggage '' weighs down the whole classification system , particularly because of the ranks .
The important information in taxonomy , these scientists argue , is that delineated groups share a common ancestor , not whether they count as genus , phylum , family or order .
Such rankings suggest an equivalency across taxa that does @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
One phylum , for example , could have a far different range of diversity and timeline of evolutionary divergence than another , despite both being phyla , Christie Wilcox wrote in Quanta .
`` The ranks do n't mean anything specific or uniform across all groups of life , '' she wrote .
`` A class of snails can not be meaningfully compared with a class of fish , '' London Natural History Museum phylogeneticist Ronald Jenner told Quanta .
An alternative system might just classify organisms by their monophyletic groups — @ @ @ @ @ @ @ — without assigning rank names .
`` You would still have the Mammalia .
It just would n't be a question , is the Mammalia an order , is it a phylum , is it something else ? ''
Baum said .
`` You could still teach a student these are the big groups you need to understand without implying that they have some comparability — you know , this family and that family bear something in common as families .
Because they do n't . ''
Related : Astronauts spent 6 nights @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with a brand new species of crustacean One big step toward such taxonomic reform arrived recently , with the latest version of PhyloCode publishing in 2019 .
This project aims to `` redesign the nomenclatural system so that you could decide the correct name of a taxon [ group of related organisms ] independent of rank , '' Baum said .
Under this system , `` Mammalia '' might be defined not as a class , but as all those organisms sharing a most recent common ancestor with humans and platypuses , Baum @ @ @ @ @ @ @ refer to a group with a common ancestor , but there would be no rank like `` class '' incorrectly suggesting that the group was similar in size or diversity to other classes .
Building this alternative system , however , will require an enormous database of phylogenetic definitions — definitions of groups that are closely related .
That 's a massive , ongoing project , Baum said .
PhyloCode remains controversial among biologists and taxonomists , and the effort will continue alongside the traditional classifications , definitions and nomenclatural battles that have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ now at least , scientists still turn to the traditional form of taxonomy to assign newfound species their names and their spots on the tree of life .
• Find taxonomic information about North American organisms from the U.S. government 's Integrated Taxonomic Information System .
• Learn more about the PhyloCode project from the International Society for Phylogenetic Nomenclature .

Taxonomy is the discipline in which scientists give names to organisms and organize them into groups that make evolutionary sense.
If you saw a feathered, two-footed critter on the lawn, what would you tell people you saw? A robin? A blackbird? How about a dinosaur?
From a taxonomist's perspective, you couldn't go wrong with dinosaur. According to taxonomy, the discipline that assigns official scientific names to all known organisms, all birds are dinosaurs. "Robin" and "blackbird" are common names that may mean different things in different places, while the clade "Dinosauria" is a clear scientific designation — and it includes birds, which descended from the ancient giants.
Fundamentally, taxonomy is the science of naming, defining and classifying "biologically, evolutionarily distinct groups of organisms," said David Baum, a University of Wisconsin-Madison botanist who studies evolution and systematics. Stanford University biologist Paul Ehrlich puts it more simply in an essay on the Birds of Stanford website: "Taxonomy … is the science of classifying organisms."
The discipline of taxonomy analyzes how creatures should be grouped into different taxa (e.g., these particular birds make up a species distinct from that one); determines what to call those taxa (this bird species is Spinus tristis, the American goldfinch, and that one is Eudyptes robustus, a crested penguin); and lays out how smaller groups nest together into larger ones, such as how different species are grouped under one genus.
This nesting goes from species to genus, then on up through family, order, class, phylum, kingdom and domain. Hence, house cats, the species Felis catus, reside in the genus Felis, nesting within the family Felidae (along with other cats, such as tigers and bobcats), which in turn sits in the order Carnivora (with other carnivores, such as bears and walruses). This order nests inside the class Mammalia, which also includes zebras, whales and humans. Mammals are part of the phylum Chordata, which encompasses all vertebrates and more exotic creatures such as the sea squirt. This phylum lives in the kingdom Animalia, which is part of the domain Eukaryota, which encompasses everything with a nucleus in its cells.
Related: Prokaryotic vs. eukaryotic cells: What's the difference?
Taxonomy also decides on that two-part, binomial name of genus-plus-species that scientists use to formally designate a specific organism (Homo sapiens for us, Clostridium difficile for one of our unwelcome bacterial guests).
Those definitive names make taxonomy crucial to scientists, Baum told Live Science. "We need to have clear communication. So if I'm talking about a particular evolutionary group and someone else is [too], we know we're talking about the same thing," he said. "That's the fundamental reason we absolutely need taxonomy."
Taxonomy echoes evolution
Inherent in that usefulness is the way taxonomy groups organisms according to their relationships. In modern taxonomy, that means describing evolutionary links. A taxonomic group must always refer to a set of organisms that descended from the same ancestor, at some point in evolutionary history. Species within the same genus all share a common ancestor. The same goes for each genus within one family and so on.
Taxonomy is so intertwined with evolutionary theory, in fact, that it can be difficult to delineate when a researcher's "doing taxonomy" and when they're "doing evolutionary biology," Baum said.
Related: What is convergent evolution?
Classically, a taxonomist engages in taxonomy by examining the various features of an organism or group of organisms, comparing them against known examples, and then, if warranted, reassigning names or assigning new ones. A taxonomist might take a set of specimens and separate potentially different species, as the UN Environment Programme's Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity describes.
The investigator would then check whether these groups already had names, sometimes by reading centuries-old specimen descriptions, or comparing against samples from museums and herbaria. They'd look at external and internal traits and maybe even analyze DNA. Should those comparisons show no matches, the taxonomist would write up a description and assign a new species name in accordance with the complicated rules of taxonomic nomenclature. Then, the finding would be published.
That work can involve a bit of evolutionary discovery, beyond just naming. In practice, taxonomists are doing evolutionary biology, Baum said. "They're reconstructing evolutionary history. And so all the time they're discovering new evolutionary relationships among organisms."
The field's interdependence with evolutionary theory also means that taxonomy in turn must respond to evolutionary discoveries. So, groupings and names can change, sometimes dramatically.
Reptiles, for example, originally encompassed lizards, snakes, turtles and crocodiles. Birds were considered distinct. Over time, however, scientists found that crocodiles were more closely related to birds than either of them were to other reptiles. (This was found first via morphological studies but later well-confirmed via molecular analysis, Baum said.) This left taxonomists in a quandary about what the grouping "reptile" should refer to, as one of its core members was now seen to be more closely related to an outsider, Baum said.
"If the taxonomy doesn't reflect evolutionary history properly, and people assume that it does, then they tend to make mistakes ..." - botanist David Baum
Related: Are birds dinosaurs?
Taxonomists could have reserved the term "reptile" for referring to the noncrocodile members (snakes, lizards and turtles), as crocodiles were more closely related to birds. Instead, scientists expanded reptiles to now include birds.
Expanding even further, scientists eventually accepted that one group of dinosaurs, the theropods, are more closely related to birds than to any other reptiles. (Evidence for this built over the years, beginning with the bird-like Archaeopteryx in the 1860s and continuing through the discovery of many feathered dinosaurs in the 1990s.)
Again, taxonomists could have restricted the term "dinosaurs" to those dinos from which birds didn't descend. But researchers instead opted to maintain the grouping of all previously recognized dinosaurs, as Dinosauria, while acknowledging birds as the descendants of one dino branch.
Related: What's the difference between alligators and crocodiles?
By responding to evolutionary findings like this, taxonomy does more than change nomenclature: It helps scientists avoid errors, Baum said. "If birds had been kept taxonomically separate from crocodiles, biologists would tend to make assumptions that crocodilian anatomy and physiology would resemble that of lizards, instead of looking to the birds," he said. "If the taxonomy doesn't reflect evolutionary history properly, and people assume that it does, then they tend to make mistakes in inference. They tend to jump to false conclusions."
In some birds, like this cassowary, the resemblance to extinct theropod dinosaurs is easy to see. (Image credit: Shutterstock)
Who invented taxonomy?
Evolution hasn't always played this role in taxonomy, however. Today's hierarchical, ranked system originated with Charles Linnaeus, an 18th-century Swedish botanist. Linnaeus didn't subscribe to Darwin's theory — partly for the forgivable reason that it hadn't been invented yet. So the first huge milestone in modern taxonomy's own evolution, Baum said, came with the incorporation of evolutionary theory. "Since Darwin, there was an intention to reflect evolutionary history in the taxonomic system."
Exactly how to do that, however, remained unclear until the mid-1900s. Then, German scientists like Willi Hennig showed that "if you want to reflect evolutionary history, then you should only give names to … these groups that all come from a common ancestor," Baum said.
Today, these "monophyletic groups," or groups that descend from a common ancestor, govern how taxonomists delineate taxa, with groups branching off the tree of life from their common ancestors. That's why every genus in a family must share a common ancestor and so on. "Just like on a regular tree, imagine grabbing a branch and saying, 'Well, everything that is down on this branch, we're going to give it a name," Baum said. That's a monophyletic group.
Other major events in taxonomy's own evolution served to reinforce the insights of Darwin and Hennig. The advent of DNA analysis has helped scientists more accurately measure how related organisms are, and leaps in computational power have since accelerated those genetic discoveries, Baum said.
The problem with classic taxonomy
But in the midst of this gleaming, modern computational era, taxonomy retains traces of its centuries-old roots — which some scientists, including Baum, refer to as baggage.
The binomial names, for starters, grew from Linnaeus' pre-Darwinian mindset. For Linnaeus, Baum said, "The genera were what God created, and after the creation, there were some rearrangements that happened to generate different species of the genus. So genus was the kind — 'genus' means 'kind' in Latin — [and] species were the variety, the modification of that."
Thus, the very naming system that gives us Homo sapiens and Tyrannosaurus rex reflects a Creationist view, Baum said.
Related: Why creationists are more likely to buy into conspiracy theories
"A class of snails cannot be meaningfully compared with a class of fish." - phylogeneticist Ronald Jenner
For Baum and others, taxonomy's "baggage" weighs down the whole classification system, particularly because of the ranks. The important information in taxonomy, these scientists argue, is that delineated groups share a common ancestor, not whether they count as genus, phylum, family or order. Such rankings suggest an equivalency across taxa that doesn't correspond to reality, Baum said.
One phylum, for example, could have a far different range of diversity and timeline of evolutionary divergence than another, despite both being phyla, Christie Wilcox wrote in Quanta. "The ranks don't mean anything specific or uniform across all groups of life," she wrote.
"A class of snails cannot be meaningfully compared with a class of fish," London Natural History Museum phylogeneticist Ronald Jenner told Quanta.
An alternative system might just classify organisms by their monophyletic groups — the nested taxa that share common ancestors — without assigning rank names. "You would still have the Mammalia. It just wouldn't be a question, is the Mammalia an order, is it a phylum, is it something else?" Baum said. "You could still teach a student these are the big groups you need to understand without implying that they have some comparability — you know, this family and that family bear something in common as families. Because they don't."
Related: Astronauts spent 6 nights in a pitch-black cave, and emerged with a brand new species of crustacean
One big step toward such taxonomic reform arrived recently, with the latest version of PhyloCode publishing in 2019. This project aims to "redesign the nomenclatural system so that you could decide the correct name of a taxon [group of related organisms] independent of rank," Baum said. Under this system, "Mammalia" might be defined not as a class, but as all those organisms sharing a most recent common ancestor with humans and platypuses, Baum said. The name Mammalia would still refer to a group with a common ancestor, but there would be no rank like "class" incorrectly suggesting that the group was similar in size or diversity to other classes.
Building this alternative system, however, will require an enormous database of phylogenetic definitions — definitions of groups that are closely related. That's a massive, ongoing project, Baum said. PhyloCode remains controversial among biologists and taxonomists, and the effort will continue alongside the traditional classifications, definitions and nomenclatural battles that have occupied taxonomists for centuries. So for now at least, scientists still turn to the traditional form of taxonomy to assign newfound species their names and their spots on the tree of life.
Additional resources:


livescience--2020-08-07--Wear a mask: You could help save 66,000 lives in the US

The coronavirus pandemic has now claimed more than 715,800 lives worldwide , including more than 160,000 in the U.S. alone .
Wearing face masks could save another 66,000 Americans from dying of the virus by December , according to a new model .
Wearing a mask is one of the simplest and easiest ways to keep friends , family and strangers safe from the novel coronavirus .
`` It 's rare that you see something so simple , so inexpensive , so easy for everybody to participate in can have such an extraordinary impact in the U.S. and also all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Murray , the director of the University of Washington 's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation ( IHME ) , said during on Aug. 6 .
The , which the White House frequently cited early in the pandemic , now forecasts another 134,854 deaths in the U.S. from the coronavirus by December , which would bring the total to 295,011 .
But if , starting now , 95 % of people in the U.S. wore masks every time they stepped foot out of their homes , the total number of projected deaths would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ scientists found .
That 's more than 66,000 lives saved in the U.S. '' We 're seeing a rollercoaster in the United States , '' Murray .
`` It appears that people are wearing masks and socially distancing more frequently as infections increase , then after a while as infections drop , people let their guard down and stop taking these measures to protect themselves and others — which , of course , leads to more infections . ''
Indeed , states with larger epidemics have seen larger increases in mask-wearing behaviors , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ U.S. continues to battle the first pandemic wave , many stores and even entire states have implemented mask mandates .
Arizona , California , Florida and Texas are now seeing drops in infections , which may be the result of local mandates for masks , bar and restaurant closures and more responsible behavior , Murray said in the statement .
`` The public 's behavior had a direct correlation to the transmission of the virus and , in turn , the numbers of deaths , '' Murray said .
`` Such efforts to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an important aspect of COVID-19 forecasting and the up-and-down patterns in individual states throughout the coming months and into next year . ''
A recent simulation using a mannequin head connected to a fog machine showed just how effective masks can be .
Without a mask , droplets from coughs traveled up to 12 feet ( 3.7 meters ) , but with a mask , droplets traveled just a few inches from the culprit in the best cases , according to a .
Mask mandates , along with public messaging , has led @ @ @ @ @ @ @ among the U.S. public , according to the statement .
( In other words , if for instance 50 % of people initially wore masks , public messaging has led to 55 % wearing masks now . )
The IHME model suggests that mask mandates with no penalty for not wearing one increase mask wearing by 8 percentage points , while mandates with penalties increase mask wearing by 15 percentage points .
Remember : Continue to socially distance from others , as the pandemic is far from over .
Wear you mask over @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it will not work if it covers just your mouth .

The coronavirus pandemic has now claimed more than 715,800 lives worldwide, including more than 160,000 in the U.S. alone. Wearing face masks could save another 66,000 Americans from dying of the virus by December, according to a new model.
Wearing a mask is one of the simplest and easiest ways to keep friends, family and strangers safe from the novel coronavirus. "It's rare that you see something so simple, so inexpensive, so easy for everybody to participate in can have such an extraordinary impact in the U.S. and also all over the world," Dr. Christopher Murray, the director of the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), said during CNN's Global Town Hall on Aug. 6.
The IHME model , which the White House frequently cited early in the pandemic, now forecasts another 134,854 deaths in the U.S. from the coronavirus by December, which would bring the total to 295,011. But if, starting now, 95% of people in the U.S. wore masks every time they stepped foot out of their homes, the total number of projected deaths would drop 49% to 228,271, the scientists found.
That's more than 66,000 lives saved in the U.S.
"We're seeing a rollercoaster in the United States," Murray said in a statement . "It appears that people are wearing masks and socially distancing more frequently as infections increase, then after a while as infections drop, people let their guard down and stop taking these measures to protect themselves and others — which, of course, leads to more infections."
Related: Coronavirus Live Updates
Indeed, states with larger epidemics have seen larger increases in mask-wearing behaviors, according to the statement. As the U.S. continues to battle the first pandemic wave, many stores and even entire states have implemented mask mandates. Arizona, California, Florida and Texas are now seeing drops in infections, which may be the result of local mandates for masks, bar and restaurant closures and more responsible behavior, Murray said in the statement.
"The public's behavior had a direct correlation to the transmission of the virus and, in turn, the numbers of deaths," Murray said. "Such efforts to act more cautiously and responsibly will be an important aspect of COVID-19 forecasting and the up-and-down patterns in individual states throughout the coming months and into next year."
A recent simulation using a mannequin head connected to a fog machine showed just how effective masks can be. Without a mask, droplets from coughs traveled up to 12 feet (3.7 meters), but with a mask, droplets traveled just a few inches from the culprit in the best cases, according to a previous Live Science report .
Mask mandates, along with public messaging, has led a 5 percentage-point increase in mask wearing among the U.S. public, according to the statement. (In other words, if for instance 50% of people initially wore masks, public messaging has led to 55% wearing masks now.) The IHME model suggests that mask mandates with no penalty for not wearing one increase mask wearing by 8 percentage points, while mandates with penalties increase mask wearing by 15 percentage points.
Remember: Continue to socially distance from others, as the pandemic is far from over. Wear you mask over your nose and your mouth, because it will not work if it covers just your mouth.
Originally published on Live Science.