The northernmost island on the planet has just been discovered by chance

On the site of the University of Copenhagen, a research team announced at the end of August 2021 the discovery of a new island. But the latter is not classic: at present, it is the most northerly island on the planet.

The discovery was made by chance. It is the result of an expedition carried out in July 2021 by a team of scientists affiliated with this university. Originally, their objective was to collect samples from the farthest point – the most northerly precisely – from Greenland. It’s successful, but not quite as expected.

Scientists headed for Oodaaq, the most distant territory recorded so far in the North. Except that it was not Oodaaq, but an island located 780 meters even further north. The identification could have taken place in part thanks to participatory science. Expedition leader Morten Rasch posted pictures of the place on his social media, until island hunters noticed that it seemed highly unlikely that it was Oodaaq.The northernmost island ever discovered is 30 meters by 60 meters. // Source: Morten Rasch

Morten Rasch and his team then decided to contact an expert in the matter. They were able to see, thanks to the latter, that the field GPS was wrong in reporting this location as Oodaaq. They then checked with the helicopter’s GPS. This is how they were finally able to identify the territory they were standing on as a new island to add to the repertoire, and the most northerly ever discovered.null

For how long ?

This island, which does not yet have a name, is very small: it stretches 30 by 60 meters, with a thickness of 3 to 4 meters compared to the level of the pack ice. It has just extended Greenland and Danish territory by one iota.

The island was formed by the aggregation of mounds of gravel and silt (a rocky material forming certain soils, consisting of grains intermediate between sand and clay and sometimes mixed with these two other materials).  »  It may be the result of a great storm which, with the help of the sea, gradually gathered material from the seabed,   » suggest its discoverers.

It remains to be seen whether scientists will have the time to name this remote island. What a mighty storm has done, it can undo just as quickly before long.

United States: Igor Vovkovinskiy, tallest man in the country, died at 38

Igor Vovkovinskiy was 2 meters 35 because a tumor triggered in him an excessive secretion of growth hormones

His height of 2.35 meters was actually the visible part of his poor health. The tallest man in the United States died of heart disease at the age of 38 in Minnesota on Friday, his mother announced on Facebook.

American of Ukrainian origin, Igor Vovkovinskiy lived a life marked by illness, a tumor triggering in him an excessive secretion of growth hormones. It is for this reason that his family had settled, in his childhood, in Rochester, a northern city of the United States known for its pole of health.

A record at 2.72 m

According to the Guinness Book, the tallest man in the world is currently the Turkish Sultan Kösen (2.51 meters). But the tallest man in modern history is an American, Robert Wadlow, who reached the height of 2.72 m. Also suffering from an abnormally high production of growth hormones, he died in 1940, aged only 22.WORLD

How do mosquitoes choose the skin they bite?

As soon as a mosquito roams the room, you already know that the bite will be for you. Even if you are surrounded by the whole family. But then, is it true that there are « mosquito skins »? Let’s disentangle the true from the false.

At night you hear the incessant buzz of a mosquito and when you wake up, a beautiful bite adorns your cheek. Your partner slept very well. While out for a walk with friends you spend your time feeling small attacks on your legs, your arms, your back. Like vampires thirsty for fresh blood, mosquitoes would therefore have a particular attraction for certain skin types … including yours! In fact, you will see that the reality is a little more complex than that.

Mosquitoes do not smell sugar in the blood, but are sensitive to odors

We often hear that mosquitoes are particularly attracted to sweet blood. An assertion that has absolutely no scientific basis, insects do not have the ability to hate high blood sugar levels. On the other hand, they are sensitive to odors. And we’re not talking about perfume or vanilla shampoo here, but body odors.

So perspiration is particularly attractive to mosquitoes and on this point, we are not all equal. Some will have a very smelly sweat, others not at all.

In 2017, neuroscientist Helen Shen explained in the journal PNAS that « humans send hundreds of scent molecules into the air ». Molecules to which insects are sensitive and which are therefore useful for them to target us.  » These are the smells that attract the mosquito, its sense of smell being very powerful. Indeed, it can detect nearly 150 different issues from the human body », explained Gregory L’Ambert, head of the Methods and Research unit at the Entente. interdepartmental for mosquito control of the Mediterranean coast, in Sciences et Avenir in 2014.

Mosquitoes, sensitive to carbon dioxide

But smells aren’t the only things that attract mosquitoes to one skin more than another. Insects are indeed very sensitive to the level of CO2 that we breathe out. They would even be able to detect these CO2 emissions up to 30 meters away. And several elements influence the quantity of carbon dioxide present in the exhaled air: alcohol consumption, overweight, body temperature.

One category of the population is even particularly targeted by mosquitoes for this reason: pregnant women. According to a study published in the British Medical Journal in 2000, pregnant women emit 21% more CO2 than an average person.

The group O blood-hungry tiger mosquito

The tiger mosquito , Aedes Albopictus, which can transmit dengue or chikungunya in particular, would be sensitive to the blood group. A Japanese study carried out in 2004 showed that the tiger mosquito was more attracted to individuals of blood group O. People of this blood group have an 85% increased risk of attracting mosquitoes, compared to only 45% of risk for others. blood groups.

# GEO

Afghanistan: the story behind the photo of the American plane and its 640 passengers

The image of the interior of the American C-17 filled with passengers sitting on the ground has traveled the world. The snapshot was taken Sunday, August 15 in Kabul, which had just fallen into the hands of the Taliban.

Some 640 people boarded an American C-17. US AIR FORCE / REUTERS

If there was just one picture to be taken of the chaotic evacuation of Kabul, it would be this. In the metal carcass of an American plane, a compact crowd crowds to escape the Taliban entering the city. Shoulder to shoulder, we can make out men, women and children, sitting on the floor. The snapshot was taken on Sunday evening, August 15, as the Afghan capital fell into the hands of the Taliban.

According to the specialized site Defense One , this C-17 Globemaster III of the US Air Force embarked some 640 Afghans in the direction of Qatar. According to this specialized site; “ This is one of the largest numbers of people ever on board the C-17 ”. The C-17 is a military transport aircraft developed by the manufacturer Boeing and operated by the United States and its allies.

« The crew made the decision to leave »

A US defense official at Defense One

Designed to carry up to 134 soldiers, the plane – whose call sign was Reach 871 – was not supposed to carry so many people, but when boarding, hundreds of Afghans cleared to evacuate gathered in precipitated in the apparatus. Rather than releasing some of the passengers,  » the crew made the decision to leave,  » a US defense official told Defense One.  » About 640 Afghan civilians disembarked from the plane when it arrived at its destination,  » he added, and not 800, as the first estimates of the pilots indicated on Sunday evening, which can be heard in this audio .

« The unusually high number of passengers on board this aircraft […] was the result of a dynamic security environment that required swift decisions from the crew, » said Karen Roxberry, spokesperson for US Central , in a statement. Command, the US command center managing operations in the region. « Ultimately, this allowed these passengers to be safely evacuated from the country. »

A precedent in 2013 in the Philippines

This procedure is however provided and known under the name of “ Floor loading ”, or “ loading on the ground ”, according to the user manual of the device. It consists of removing the seats to seat the passengers on the ground, which are held in place by means of loading straps which run from one wall of the aircraft to the other. According to the official quoted by Defense One, this operation was already carried out in 2013, in the Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan . A C-17 then carried 670 passengers.

To date, the US military has evacuated more than 3,200 people from Afghanistan, including US personnel, according to a White House official. In addition to these 3,200 people, nearly 2,000 Afghan refugees were evacuated to the United States. The United States plans to evacuate more than 30,000 people via an airlift between Kabul and its bases in Kuwait and Qatar.

Why NASA is looking for candidates to simulate life on Mars

Do you dream of living on Mars? Then this mission is for you. NASA is looking for volunteers to simulate life on the Red Planet. The US Space Agency is already planning for a possible manned flight to Mars in a few decades. 

NASA has just launched a somewhat special call for applications: it is recruiting volunteers to simulate life on Mars. They will live for a year in a 150-square-meter prefab, housed in the US Space Agency’s center in Texas. The objective: to test the physical and psychological challenges that would be faced by astronauts on a mission on the Red Planet.

« Testing interactions between people left to their own devices »

How much water, carbon dioxide or food is needed for a trip to Mars? How much waste is produced? These are the main questions for NASA. For Michel Viso, specialist in astrobiology, joined by Europe 1, the American Space Agency needs « to test the interactions between people left on their own ».

To apply, there are still some conditions. You must be between 30 and 55 years old, American nationality and a degree in mathematics, physics or engineering. The four successful candidates will live independently for one year. They will only communicate with each other or with robots.

Measure needs to the nearest gram

Even if a real expedition to the red planet is not on the agenda for the moment, this simulation remains an important step. « It is necessary to start now to calculate a certain number of things under real operational conditions », assures Michel Viso. Before specifying: « if we are short of oxygen or short of water on Mars, there will be a real problem! »

Measuring requirements to the nearest gram also serves to minimize the cost of future missions. They require large financial investments. And especially time: space agencies do not plan human space flights to Mars before 2040.

Source : Europe 1

July 2021 IS the hottest Month on Earth record

According to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA), the month of July 2021 was the best month hot ever recorded on Earth.

July 2021 was the hottest month on record on the planet, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency announced on Friday. A record that risks being quickly broken.

According to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA), the month of July 2021 was the best month hot ever recorded on Earth. The body which has been carrying out these temperature readings for 142 years indicated that  » July is generally the hottest month of the year, but July 2021 has surpassed itself, becoming the month of July and the month itself. hottest ever « .

The month of July 2021 saw numerous fires ravaging land in several regions of the world, from the United States to the Mediterranean basin , with temperature records in these areas. After the latest IPCC report which indicates that the situation on the planet is critical , this record temperature stands out as a further demonstration of the acceleration of climate change .

Indeed, these are not records  that we want to see broken. The global temperature on the planet’s surface was 0.93 ° C above average. The Asia has meanwhile  » had its July the warmest on record, beating the previous record set in 2010  » while the Europe had  » its second month of July the warmest on record, tied with July 2010 and behind July 2018 « . 

The global warming could reach 1.5 ° C around 2030 , ten years earlier than estimated. 

In the US, Biden promises to destroy « highways of racism »

Across the United States, the highway system dating from the 1960s was built without thinking about the social consequences. In many states, highways that cut through cities cut society in two.

The US Senate on Tuesday passed the historic $ 1 trillion infrastructure plan promised by President Biden. The « historic project » must now be voted on in the House of Representatives. He promises to renovate roads, bridges, electricity networks, expand internet access, all while respecting the environment and taking into account the fight against global warming. Nestled in this law, the destruction of « roads of racism ».

These  » roads of racism  » cut cities in two and draw a red line which delimits a kind of segregation. On the one hand, the « frequentable » suburbsmiddle classes, even upscale. On the other, minority communities, often poor and often black populations. These highways are part of the historic highway system of the United States. They were built between the 1950s and the 1970s. Town planners of the time sought to build where property values ​​were lowest, and therefore cheapest to buy. Thousands of traders, businesses and residents left these areas and never returned. At the same time, it has allowed the middle class to settle in suburban areas and to make daily trips to the city center.

Degraded living conditions

These urban highways have dramatic consequences for the populations who live nearby, especially pollution. In the Bronx, a former resident of the Cross Bronx Expressway recounts: « As a son of the Bronx, I grew up in three places at the same time – home, school and hospital, because I had seizures. recurrent asthma «  . According to US Congressman Richie Torres, originally from that New York City neighborhood, the asthma hospitalization rate in the South Bronx is two to three times higher than in the rest of the city. 

In New Orleans, near the Claiborne Expressway , built in 1968, residents hear the sound of cars night and day, passers-by are suffocated by exhaust fumes. Around this urban highway, nearly 40% of the inhabitants live below the poverty line, against 25% for the rest of the city.

For the White House, which cited the example of New Orleans , these highways have caused the ruin and grief of underprivileged communities, destroyed businesses, polluted the air, « racism is physically embedded in some highways », Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg said.

Remove all highways?

The solution proposed by the president is rather radical and the idea is not to destroy all the urban highways. What is likely to happen is that every state and every city will rethink space. In environmental terms, in terms of transport and in social terms, and this is all new. In Syracuse, New York, for example, part of the highway will be destroyed and a boulevard built instead. Traffic would be diverted elsewhere. This project alone is two billion dollars, supported by the State of New York and helped with federal funds. On the other hand, in New Orleans, officials have already announced that destroying Claiborne Expressway was not a priority, because it was too expensive . 

This destruction is not necessarily well received by the inhabitants of the areas concerned. « It’s a virtuous signal, » a Syracuse resident told the BBC ,  » but it won’t help matters. » In the meantime, her 61-year-old neighbor washes her furniture as she does every day, covered by the dust from the highway.

Elon Musk is the richest man in the world again

Musk has a fortune of $ 194 billion

The big boss of Tesla and SpaceX has overtaken his rival Jeff Bezos because his stocks have appreciated in value.

Elon Musk is once again the richest person on the planet. The big boss of Tesla and SpaceX has overtaken his rival Jeff Bezos because his stocks have appreciated in value. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Musk has a fortune of $ 194 billion. That’s $ 100 million more than Bezos, the founder of Amazon whose wealth mainly consists of his stakes in the e-commerce giant. 

But the value of the shares fell at the end of last month because the quarterly report of the online trading group was disappointing … especially since the company was fined in Luxembourg.

Source:Bloomberg

Olympic Games: Why do athletes run counterclockwise?

Running counterclockwisewas not always the case

The Tokyo Olympics are over. But do you know why in a stadium, athletes run counterclockwise? Solenne Le Hen explains to us that this is not due to chance.

Running counterclockwise, we also say running «  counterclockwise «  , this was not always the case. In the very first Olympics, from 1896 to 1912,  athletes just ran the other way, clockwise. And they complained because in the corners they felt bad sensations. As a result, the organizers have changed and since then this sense of racing has even been included in the regulations of the International Athletics Federation.

In fact, for everyone, including professional athletes, if we have to do a loop, we will naturally run counterclockwise. Moreover, the newspaper Le Progrès noted it in Lyon. At the Parc de la Tête d’Or, says the daily, « on this running highway of nearly 4 km, the pack turns like in a roundabout in the direction of the needles of a clock.  » A matter of instinct. therefore and the journalists even counted the runners. Only one in 30 runs the other way. 

The brain at the origin of this displacement by turning naturally to the left

A Japanese scientist, Hideaki Fukami , understood that athletes feel more comfortable with the rope on their left for neurological reasons, because of the right hemisphere of the brain, the one that controls the perception of space and at the same time that controls the opposite part, the left half of our body. Thus the perception of our body would be better by turning to the left.

Moreover, explains this researcher, 80% of the criminals of the prefecture of Hyogo, in Japan, when they flee, flee towards the left. This is justified on a sporting level. Experiments were carried out with top athletes, asking them to run 400 meters turning to the left, and 400 meters turning to the right. Counterclockwise, they run faster: two seconds less on average. 

Source : Franceinfo

HOW MUCH IS AN OLYMPIC MEDAL REALLY WORTH AT THE CURRENT METAL PRICE?

Small disappointment for the big winners of the events in Tokyo: their gold medal has very little of the yellow metal. But the current prices of gold and silver still give it a nice value.Publicity

So inevitably, they don’t train for years for that. But the Olympic medalists also leave with a beautiful object around their neck, made with noble materials.

With 339 finals in Tokyo this year, it is impossible to distribute medals worthy of their denomination: disappointment, the gold medals are therefore not gold.

However, we do find a little of the yellow metal: 6 grams to be precise, as provided for in the Olympic regulations, out of the 556 grams in total for the most beautiful of the medals, or 1.2% of the total mass. The rest is money. 6 grams of gold is not much, but at the current price of gold, it still represents around 300 euros.

The bronze? Rather copper

A safe haven par excellence, gold has seen its price increase for several years, with a strong acceleration during the onset of the financial crisis. The one kilogram ingot flirts today with 50,000 euros against less than 35,000 euros at the last Olympic Games in Rio in 2016.

Less impressive, the price of silver also climbed in favor of the crisis to reach 665 euros per kilogram. A gold medal « is therefore » worth approximately 660 euros (gold plus silver) against 360 euros for a silver medal (only in silver) and… 3.5 euros for a bronze medal, composed mainly of copper.

Source BFMTV