If you eat processed foods — which most of us do — there's a good chance you've tasted something that was designed by a flavor chemist. But getting pre-packaged foods to taste exactly the way they do is no easy task. It's a process that requires everything from supertasting chemists to the sourcing of hundreds of complex ingredients. Here's how these flavor engineers make you keep coming back for more.

The flavor industry

Flavor engineering is a surprisingly secretive multi-billion dollar industry, whose in-house chemists work to create both natural and artificial flavorings that consumers find delicious and appealing. These chemists design various taste experiences by blending aromatic chemicals, essential oils, botanical extracts, essences, and whatever else it takes to create a specific kind of taste.

Companies like Givaudan and Cargill create and manufacturer flavors for a wide variety of foods, beverages, confections, pharmaceuticals (including chewable medications and liquid prescriptions), oral care products (like toothpaste and mouthwash), cosmetics (including lip balm), nutrition products (vitamins and sports gels), and even pet food. And in fact, the general principles they follow are very similar to what's done in the perfume industry.

In addition to creating flavors, they also have to ensure that their products are safe for human consumption (which includes preventing allergic reactions or avoiding toxicity), and that the foods can withstand various compositional changes brought about by cooking, freezing, and other forms of preparation.

Moreover, they have to create flavors that don't just make the end consumers happy — but their clients as well (they are typically outsourced by food manufacturers). Most of all, they also have to help the food companies make huge profits.

Flavor profiling

Flavor chemists do more than just mix compounds — they have to be supertasters as well. Many of them attend cooking clinics and follow the work of famous chefs. Moreover, they also have to know the in's and out's of taste — and that's a very complex set of sensory experiences.

Indeed, the sense of taste is a multifaceted physiological process. Working in conjunction with our sense of smell, our 100,000 taste buds elicit sensations of sweet, bitter, sour, salty, and umami (a Japanese word for a pleasant savory taste, but distinct from pure saltiness). The challenge for flavor chemists is to create the perfect mixture of compounds that hit all the right marks.

A company like Givaudan, a Swiss firm that employs nearly 9,000 people in 45 countries, has created thousands of flavors that are used in a variety of products. In order to come up with all these tastes, whether it be the mimicry of an existing flavor or something completely new, flavor chemists often work to modify existing aromas and tastes as opposed to creating abstract smells from scratch; they're basically trying to ‘improve' upon the original (what is often a requirement in processed or pre-packaged foods). Interestingly, the two most commonly simulated flavors are chicken and strawberry.

After finding something they like — say a delicious, ripe orange — flavorists extract the fruit's flavor molecules for further analysis (either by sourcing the vast scientific literature on the subject, or through lab techniques like gas chromatography and and mass spectrometry). They then go about the process of finding a way to simulate or improve upon the original taste.

For example, when designing fruit flavors, they try to create a bursting flavor sensation at the beginning, followed by a finish that doesn't linger. And fascinatingly, flavorists can create an incredibly diverse array of experiences from a single source; Givaudan has developed 750 flavors of orange, tangerine, and mandarins. Subtle variations include jammy, sweet, floral, seedy, and so on.

A little too tasty?

Flavorists also try to create foods that consumers crave. And in fact, in a recent interview with CBS, Givaudan employees did not deny that this is what they're trying to do — create food addictions. It's "a good word," they admitted, and that they're trying to develop "something that [consumers] want to go back for again and again."

And their work is serious business. Companies consider their formulas to be valuable intellectual property, hence their secretive nature — not to mention the fact that most food manufacturers would rather not have it known that most of their processed foods are flavored with a cornucopia of chemicals.

Mmmmm, isoamylacetate

And indeed, flavor chemists use a variety of compounds to create their formulas. A typical lab uses of 2,000 chemicals and 500 natural flavors — and it can take anywhere from 70 to 80 tries to get the flavor just right. Some formulas require upwards of hundreds of different notes.

When trying to simulate the taste of chocolate, for example, flavorists will use substances that individually taste and smell like potato chips, cooked meat, peaches, raw beef fat, cooked cabbage, human sweat, dirt and other distinctly un-chocolate-like aromas. And in fact, in some cases it can get quite weird; some strawberry and vanilla flavors are derived from the gland found in a beaver's backside.

Once the compounds have been selected, the chemists use a "flavor profile" to help them architect the taste they're trying to simulate. This profile is typically constructed with mathematical assistance, allowing the chemists to make the most minutest of adjustments — what's typically measured in parts per million (ppm). They also need to be sensitive to how all the various chemicals might react to one another, and whether the mixtures will lend themselves to cooking.

And in terms of the chemicals themselves, it's a veritable rainbow of possibilities.

The various compounds used include metabolites like acids, aldehydes, ketones, alcohols, esters, sulfur compounds, furans, phenols, terpenes, epoxides, and lactones — many of which are derived from various biosynthetic pathways.

Another common chemical that's used is ethyl butyrate. It's one of 30 compounds that are typically found in orange juice. This chemical, along with acetaldehyde, is what gives OJ its succulent quality. Other chemicals include butyric acid artificial and butyric acid natural. Isoamylacetate is typically used to mimic the taste of a banana, while methoxyfuraneol is used to simulate strawberries.

The list of chemicals that are used to flavor a single food can get quite extensive. It can take upwards of 300 individual compounds to endow a food with the flavor associated with a ripe strawberry and 400 volatiles to give a food the aroma of tomatoes. The concentration of these compounds will vary from food to food and can be measured between 10 to 100 ppm — and even as sparse as one part per billion.

Mmmm, food never tasted so complicated.

Other sources: CBS, bls.gov, Scienceagogo, Discovery.

Top image: brickrena/shutterstock. Inset images: Givaudan, Nata-Lia/shutterstock.

In an effort to boost its tourism industry, South Korea is considering a project that would see the construction of a $275 billion mega-city built on the islands of Yongyu-Muui in the port city of Incheon, next to Incheon International Airport. Called 8City, the attraction is expected to create 930,000 new jobs and attract 134 million tourists (mostly from China). But given the cost, it's an open question as to whether it will ever get built.

Plans for the 'tourist city' include luxury hotels, condominiums, casinos, shopping malls, a theme park and water park, a Formula One racing track, a 50,000-seat concert hall, a medical tourism-based "healing town" and a "hallyu town" showcasing Korean entertainment.

8City will also feature a series of landmarks, including the Inner Circle — a "smart" tubular 14 km (8.6 mile) building along the coast — and the Megastrip, a 200 meter (656 feet) high, 880 meters (2,887 feet) wide, and 3.3 kilometer (2 mile) long structure that would make it the world's largest architectural object.

The gross surface area of the Megastrip will be 4.85 square kilometers (1.9 mi²) and will feature hotels, offices, shopping and other tourist attractions. The entire city itself will occupy 80 square kilometers (30 mi²)

Well, that's assuming the mega-city will ever get built. The developers hope to get funding from the city in conjunction with foreign and domestic investors. If all goes as planned, the first stage of development will be completed in 2020, with a projected end date of 2030.

[Source and images]

Its bones have sat on a shelf in a Canadian museum since 1958, but paleontologists have finally taken it upon themselves to reconstruct this long-lost cousin of the triceratops. Named Xenoceratops foremostensis, meaning "alien-horned" face," the massive herbivore is Canada's oldest horned and large-bodied dinosaur, one that roamed Alberta over 80-million years ago.

The work of paleontologists Michael Ryan and David Evans reveals a dinosaur with an impressive array of features. Based on the fossilized remains of three adult individuals, they estimate that the typical Xenoceratops weighed an astonishing 4,400 pounds (2 tons or 2,000 kg) and measured 20 feet (6 meters) in length.

It also featured a beak-like mouth and a massive neck shield topped by two large spikes. The outer edges of its frill were embedded with another dozen smaller spikes, while four longer spikes protruded from its head and checkbones.

Ryan and Evans were particularly excited about the discovery in that it showed just how long ago these big-horned dinosaurs, called ceratopsids, existed in Canada — what later resulted in dinosaurs with different horned orientations. The paelontologists speculate that the horns were used by the males to attract female counterparts.

Details of their work can be found in Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences.

The good news about the photo above, if anything good can be said about it, is that the Gentoo penguin is already dead. The leopard seal, which had drowned it earlier, had been playing with the corpse in celebration of its victory — catching and releasing the penguin again and again before finally chomping down on the ill-fated bird. This image taken by Amos Nachoum is just one of many spectacular and jaw-dropping photos recently awarded by the National Wildlife Federation in its annual contest.

This year's winning crop, which was selected from over 28,000 entries, show the extremes that are a daily part of the animal kingdom — from a swarm of salmon encircling a grizzly bear, to the bewildered look of a four-eyed jumping spider. Here's a sampling of our favorites.

All text and images below via National Wildlife Federation.

David Cardinal

(Grand prize)

When Cardinal spotted a female Harris's hawk guarding road kill in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, he expected action. These raptors form hunting groups to protect food from other predators, including nongroup members of their own kind. Cardinal prefocused on a branch "where an interloper was likely to land." Soon another female Harris's hawk showed up, and the first bird attacked. He says his winning image "captures the moment when the newly arrived hawk turns to meet the defending female's fully deployed talons."

Lisa Hoffner

(Baby animals category)

While on safari in Kenya's Masai Mara National Reserve, Hoffner's vehicle hit a large rock and got stuck. Lucky for her, four cheetah cubs happened to be playing on a log nearby. After three grew tired and lay down to rest, this cub "climbed to the top to get to eye level with its mom," she says. "They proceeded to gently groom one another before retiring to sleep in the shade."

Colin Hutton

(Other wildlife category)

After searching for this jumping spider, Phidippus mystaceus, for two months, Hutton located some juveniles on pine saplings in North Carolina's Duke Forest at Duke University. A few weeks later, he took several thousand photos of the newly mature adults. This image-a combination of six photos shot rapidly (each at a slightly different focus) and merged using computer software-is his favorite. "I think the animal looks dignified and a bit comical at the same time," Hutton says.

Jamie Scarrow

(Mammals category)

Surrounded by salmon, this young grizzly still was having trouble getting enough to eat. The bear sat down in a pool in British Columbia's Knight Inlet, where "the water was just too deep and the fish too aware of its presence," says Scarrow, who captured the scene from a viewing platform directly above. "It's rare to have nature arrange itself in such an organized manner," he says, adding that the bear later moved to shallow water where it had better luck.

Alandra Palisser

Concealed inside her house behind a hanging basket in the window, Palisser photographed a rufous hummingbird "fascinated by its own reflection in a mirror ball, which it thought was an intruder in its territory." Palisser's yard is a haven for hummingbirds and other wildlife, filled with native plants such as bee balm, multiple nectar feeders and several water features, including a small lily pond containing a fountain. "Watching the birds gives us much pleasure," she says.

Bill Lamp'l

(Connecting people and nature category)

Long isolated from other jellyfish species in a remote marine lake in the Republic of Palau, these golden jellyfish do not sting strongly enough to harm humans, making close encounters possible. When a fellow snorkeler came face-to-face with one of the animals, Lamp'l "tried to capture the moment of wonder and excitement" that she was experiencing.

David Hall

(Other wildlife category)

Hall waded into British Columbia's Adams River to photograph migrating sockeye salmon during October 2010, the largest run of these fish in a century. Battling a swift current that was wreaking havoc with his equipment, he sought refuge beside a large tree trunk. "I pointed my camera downstream," Hall says, "and on the back of the camera [its LCD screen] saw a virtual wall of sockeye facing me just inches away." Meanwhile, the setting sun turned the sky purple and pink, while his flash lit the water beneath the surface. "I began to photograph and did not stop until the light had all but disappeared," Hall says.

Hal and Kirsten Snyder

(Bird category)

Visiting Taipei, Hal and Kirsten Snyder spent several hours observing this endemic Taiwan barbet dig out its nest hole in a tree. "Fascinated, we watched as the colorful bird removed large mouthfuls of woodchips and scattered the rubbish in the wind," recalls Kirsten. Based in China for a few years, the Snyders travel frequently to take photos of wildlife. The barbet, which locals call "the five-colored bird," "is one of the most beautiful birds we've seen in Asia," Kirsten says.

Francisco Mingorance

(Landscapes and plants category)

Located near the village of Castañeras, the Beach of Silence is "probably the most beautiful beach in western Asturias, Spain," says Mingorance. To capture this "star" of sea foam on the shore, he photographed the scene during low tide at night using a long exposure. Lights from the village and a lighthouse shine in the background. "After getting this image, I have visited the beach many times," says Mingorance, "but I've never seen this star with the same perfection."

Ajay Parmar

(People's choice)

Congratulations to our 2012 People's Choice Award winner: Ajay Parmar, whose image of a striped hyena received more public votes than any other photo in an annual competition in which anyone who visits the contest website can vote. In his effort to photograph hyenas, Parmar spent three consecutive Sundays waking at 3:30 a.m. and driving three and a half hours to Velavadar National Park in Gujarat, India-without even spotting one of the animals. On the fourth Sunday, he was in luck when a hyena emerged from the grass and came strolling straight toward him. Because hyenas are nocturnal, getting an image of one in broad daylight is unusual. "This was one of my best days in wildlife photography," Parmar says.

Check out more contest winners here.

Cuckoo birds have evolved a nasty habit of laying their eggs in the nests of other bird species, who then unknowingly tend to their young. But as new research published in Current Biology reveals, the fairy-wren has developed a rather ingenious countermeasure: Expectant mothers teach their unhatched offspring a secret password that they'll later need to get fed. The cuckoo chicks, who don't know the password, are out of luck.

There are many aspects about this discovery that are fascinating.

First, it's remarkable that fairy-wrens have evolved a mechanism to thwart Horsfield's bronze-cuckoo parasitism in this fashion. For a trait to evolve like this shows just how versatile and exploratory nature can be when confronted with a problem. But given how detrimental brood parasitism is to the host bird's reproductive fitness, it shouldn't come as a surprise that evolution found a way.

And as the researchers correctly point out, it's a tactic that borrows from meme theory — the notion that ideas, and not just genes, can get passed down from generation to generation and used in an adaptive way. In this case, the meme is a signature element found in a one-note chirp.

Moreover, these memes — what are essentially passwords — are taught to the chicks while they're still in their eggs (what's called prenatal learning) during late incubation. So, by the time they hatch, the fairy-wren chicks already know what to ‘say' in order to prove that they're the real deal (and not a cuckoo chick). If the mother doesn't hear the proper "solicitation song," she will simply refuse to feed the chick.

And fascinatingly, if the entire nest is overrun by cuckoos (or chicks who don't know the proper password), she will abandon the nest and move on to start again. Yikes.

The researchers, a team led by Sonia Kleindorfer of Flinders University in Australia, also noticed that mother fairy-wrens will teach the password to other caregivers of her young, including mates and other helpers. When they do this, however, they're out of earshot of the chicks. Which is smart.

Kleindorfer also noticed that the signature element varies from nest to nest; all passwords are unique and tied to a particular mother. Cross-fostering experiments confirmed that a fairy-wren mother will not feed a genuine fairy-wren chick if it doesn't know the password.

The entire study can be found at Current Biology.

Top image: Shutterstock/Katarina Christenson. Inset image via.

The US Navy has used dolphins to help locate — and in some cases destroy — sea mines for nearly 50 years. But now, due to escalating costs and a viable robotic alternative, the Sea Mammal Program is finally set to be retired.

Back in the 1960s, the Navy learned to exploit dolphins, by tapping into their innate capacity for echolocation — a built-in sonar that dolphins use to track and identify enemy sea mines. But while the dolphins are treated well, they are still thought of as a "system" not unlike any other military technology. Best estimates indicate that the US Navy has trained about 80 dolphins to detect mines, as well as some sea lions.

It's important to note that the dolphins are not used to harm anyone, nor are they used to directly set off the mines (like the way the US military used herds of goats to clear minefields in Italy during World War II). Rather, after locating a sea mine, dolphins typically attach a charge or acoustic transponder and swim away.

However, this shouldn't imply that it's not perilous work. As animal rights advocate Peter Singer pointed out earlier this year, dolphins could still set off the mines and die in the resulting explosion. Moreover, by being used in this way, they immediately become targets for enemy combatants — including any other dolphins in the area.

And indeed, given that tensions are rising in the Middle East, it's suspected that Iran could start littering the Strait of Hormuz with sea mines, what is the only sea route out of the Persian Gulf — and what the US Energy Department calls "the world's most important oil choke." This would prompt the US Navy to deploy their mine sniffing dolphins in response.

But soon enough, the dolphins will be off the hook. The Navy is now set to move past the Sea Mammal Program and use robots in place of dolphins and sea lions. If all goes as planned, the program will start its phase-out process in 2017. And as Sharon Weinberger of BBC Future reports, the Pentagon will soon have the technology to do so:

In April, the Navy unveiled its plans for Knifefish, a torpedo-shaped, underwater robot that would roam the seas for up to 16 hours, looking for mines. The 7m- (20ft-) long unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) is still in development, but should be ready by 2017, and will use sonar to hunt mines. "The Knifefish UUV is ultimately intended to be the replacement for the marine mammals," [Captain Frank] Linkous says.

And interestingly, it's not just dolphins that are being moved out of service by robots:

[T]he Navy is also hoping to at least reduce reliance on humans who perform dangerous bomb disposal missions, known as explosive ordnance disposal (EOD). The Navy has been moving quickly to rush new robotic technologies to the field, including an unmanned underwater vehicle, known as the Kingfish, and four unmanned surface vessels that the Navy originally bought for anti-submarine warfare, but are now being outfitted with sonar to hunt mines.

The Navy is also buying the German-made SeaFox mine hunting system, another robotic underwater vehicle that is guided by a fibre-optic cable and can be used to attach a charge to a mine. Right now, naval divers that are trained as explosive ordnance disposal technicians carry out many critical mine clearing tasks, but technology like the SeaFox will help reduce the number of dives these personnel have to make, according to Linkous.

"This is very much like the concept that EOD technicians have done on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq: greater use of robotic systems to neutralise and destroy IEDs in the field," Linkous says. "It's the same concept."

Of course, lots could happen in the Middle East between now and 2017. So until that time, the dolphins will have to remain on standby.

All images via US Navy.

Just wait until Paralympian Oscar Pistorius gets his hands on this: A team of mechanical engineers has created an prosthetic leg that is powered by a special type of liquid fuel called a monopropellant — the same kind of fuel that gives rockets their thrust. The new device could usher in the next generation of prosthetics — powerful and light-weight artificial limbs that will look and function more like the real thing.

Somewhat surprisingly, the human ankle supplies more energy to the process of walking than both the hip and the knee. Yet most standard below-knee artificial limbs do not produce sufficient power to support an amputee's walk. And indeed, today's devices only dissipate energy, or store and reuse energy in walking. This means that amputees have to put greater stress on their joints and expend more energy when they try to walk or run.

Looking to change this, UoA's Xiangrong Shen, along with researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology, has developed a prosthetic limb that uses monopropellant — an energy-storing medium that decomposes upon contact with certain catalysts (monopropellants don't need to be mixed with other gases to be used as fuel). The resulting energy allows for the powering of a light-weight artificial leg that can be used on a regular basis.

In conjunction with this, Shen has also developed a sleeve muscle actuator, what is an artificial muscle that replaces the motor used in some alternative prostheses. But unlike other prosthetic actuators, Shen's sleeve muscle is more powerful, lighter, more compact — and its elastic properties make it more like a real biological skeletal muscle.

The next step for the researchers will be to ensure safety and reliability of the device, and to explore new ways of dealing with fuel storage, exhaust management (I wonder if it has a muffler), thermal insulation, and heat management. They're also hoping to make the device look and function just like a regular human leg.

But given that they've essentially created a rocket fuel-powered leg, it's not a stretch to suggest that future iterations will be significantly stronger and more robust than the real thing.

H/t MedGadget.

Image: University of Alabama.

Functional "cloaking" devices have been around since 2006, but they're far from perfect. All attempts so far have failed to avoid at least some partial light and reflectivity — what has resulted in an unconvincing effect. Part of the problem is finding a way to hide objects in wavelengths longer than the human eye can see, or by hiding objects so small that they cannot be seen. But a demonstration at Duke University using a new device now shows that it may be possible to get true cloaking. As David Smith recently told the BBC, "This to our knowledge is the first cloak that really addresses getting the transformation exactly right to get you that perfect invisibility."

To get it to work, Smith and Nathan Landy utilized what are called "meta-materials" — completely synthetic objects that have properties not typically found in natural ones. And in accordance with the standard invisibility cloak model, these meta-materials can be designed to guide electromagnetic waves around an object, and then have them appear on the other side — what gives the impression of passing light (hence the invisibility effect). And in fact, this entire notion has given rise to a new branch of scientific inquiry, what is called transformation optics.

But making meta-materials with the exact qualities required for convincing invisibility has proven difficult. One issue is that waves are being lost due to reflections at the boundaries of an object — an effect similar to reflections seen on clear glass. Even though glass is transparent, its reflective nature still makes it visible.

So, to address this issue, Landy redesigned the meta-material. The original design featured parallel and intersecting strips of fiberglass etched with copper. Landy's new cloak, on the other hand, retained the row-by-row design, but was given added copper strips to create a more complicated material. The strips are about two-feet square and form a diamond shape, with the center left empty. And it's this diamondoid configuration that has made the difference.

Landy's new microwave cloak is naturally divided into four quadrants, each of which have voids or blind spots at their intersections and corners with each other. Thus, to avoid the reflectivity problem, Landy was able to correct for it by shifting each strip so that is met its mirror image at each interface.

And when the team conducted their tests, the new design worked — they successfully beamed light around a cylinder 7.5 cm in diameter and 1 cm tall. They essentially rendered the object invisible to microwaves.

"We built the cloak, and it worked," said Landy through a release. "It split light into two waves which traveled around an object in the center and re-emerged as the single wave with minimal loss due to reflections."

Now, it's important to note that Landy's invisibility cloak is unidirectional (the illusion only works when viewed from a specific angle), it would be difficult to achieve with visible light (the design principles that make the cloak work in microwaves would be difficult to implement at optical wavelengths), and it only works in two-dimensions. That said, it was an important proof of concept; the researchers successfully reduced the scattering effect of an object ten wavelengths in size. And at the same time, they were able to validate certain assumptions made by transformation optic theory.

Looking to the future, Landy is hoping to see the same technology used to smooth out twists and turns in fiber optic cables (making them seem straighter). The technology could also be used to improve radar by improving microwave performance.

The study can be found at Nature Materials.

Supplemental source: BBC.

Images via Duke.

The World Future Society's official magazine, The Futurist, has released its annual top 10 list of forecasts for the coming year and beyond (they typically make their prognostications within a ten-year window). This year's crop features a diverse mixture of items related to business, economics, demography, energy, the environment, and health and medicine. And if they're right, get ready for energy-producing cars, an increasingly jobless economy, and a much smarter internet.

Here's the list:

1. Neuroscientists may soon be able to predict what you'll do before you do it.
2. Future cars will become producers of power rather than merely consumers.
3. An aquaponic recycling system in every kitchen?
4. The economy may become increasingly jobless, but there will be plenty of work
5. The next space age will launch after 2020, driven by competition and "adventure capitalists."
6. The "cloud" will become more intelligent, not just a place to store data.
7. Corporate reputations will be even more important to maintain, due to the transparency that will come with augmented reality.
8. Robots will become gentler caregivers in the next 10 years.
9. We'll harness noise vibrations and other "junk" energy from the environment to power our gadgets.
10. A handheld "breathalyzer" will offer early detection of infections microbes and even chemical attacks.

Among their more interesting predictions is the suggestion that the "cloud" is becoming more intelligent. "Cloud intelligence will evolve into becoming an active resource in our daily lives," writes Chris Carbone and Kristin Nauth, what they believe will provide ongoing analysis and contextual advice. They speculate that virtual agents may someday be able to design a family's weekly menu based on everyone's health profiles, fitness goals, and taste preferences.

Indeed, others have predicted that the cloud will increasingly be used as a kind of external brain (not that it isn't already). The Internet, it would seem, will become more ‘intelligent' through its own ongoing evolution and the symbiotic interplay between human agents.

As for their first prediction — neuroscientists will be able to predict what we'll do before we do it — that seems a bit of a stretch. In their description they limit the implications to such things as advanced thought-controlled prosthetic devices, but they may also be suggesting that our intentions will someday be assessed prior to our actions. That kind of capacity is still a far ways off — and may never be possible.

Other predictions that stand out include a renewed space age in the 2020s (it certainly appears that way), and smart devices (like breathalyzers) to detect pathogens in our environment.

Check out the entire article and read their full descriptions.

Top image: nikkytok/shutterstock.com.

Scientists from the University of Washington have successfully removed an extra copy of chromosome 21 in cell cultures belonging to a person with Down's syndrome. While the breakthrough is unlikely to result in an outright treatment for the condition, it could pave the way for gene therapies in which many of the health conditions associated with the chromosomal disorder can be significantly alleviated.

Down's syndrome is the result of having three copies of chromosome 21 instead of the usual pair. This results in what's called a trisomy — a genetic anomaly that can often result in altered cellular phenotypes and cogenital abnormalities. Extra chromosomes account for almost a quarter of all spontaneous miscarriages, along with conditions like Edwards syndrome and Patau syndrome. But of all trisomies, it's Down's syndrome that accounts for the majority of live births.

As a result of the extra copy of chromosome 21, individuals with Down's syndrome feature characteristic eye, facial, and hand features, as well as a number of medical problems like heart defects, impaired intellect, premature aging and dementia, and certain forms of leukemia.

But now, Li B. Li of the UW Department of Medicine, along with David Russell and Thalia Papayannopoulou, have developed a technique in which they were able to correct trisomy 21 in human cell lines grown in the lab. And they were able to accomplish this by using, what else, pluripotent stem cells.

And indeed, the researchers got the idea while working with stem cells to develop regenerative therapies — what often results in trisomies. To overcome the problem, they used a specialized virus to deliver a foreign gene called TKNEO into a particular spot on chromosome 21. This spot is within a gene called APP, which is located on the long arm of the chromosome. They chose this specific gene because of the way it responds to positive and negative selection under specific conditions.

So, when grown in an environment that selected against TNKEO, the only cells that survived were the ones that spontaneously lost the extra chromosome. This obviously created a desirable selection effect. In addition to this technique, the researchers also employed "point mutations" (single, tiny alterations in DNA base pairs) gene silencing (turning off TKNEO), and the outright deletion of TKNEO.

While the researchers don't see their intervention as a way to treat Down's syndrome outright, they have suggested that resultant gene therapies could treat specific aspects of the condition.

For example, they could create cell therapies for some of the blood-forming disorders associated with the disorder. In addition, Down syndrome patients may eventually be able to have stem cells derived from their own cells, and then have the cells corrected in the lab — after which time they could receive a "stem cell transplant" (minus the extra chromosome), or healthy blood cells derived from their fixed stem cells as a part of their cancer treatments. The team is also hopeful that the discovery could lead to potential cognitive therapies as well.

The study was published in Cell Stem Cell and can be found here.

Top image: Jens Goepfert/Shutterstock.com.

As bizarre as this might sound, a new study published in Nature Geoscience is suggesting that global warming is having an impact on objects orbiting around the Earth. According to environmental physicist Stefan Noël, rising carbon dioxide levels are reducing the pull of the Earth's atmosphere on objects like satellites and space debris. If true, the impacts of climate change are considerably more far reaching than could have ever been expected.

As a greenhouse gas, CO2 is typically thought of as something that contributes to warming trends. At the highest reaches of the atmosphere, however, this gas has a cooling effect. And it's this particular phenomenon that may be responsible for the atmosphere's reduced influence on objects in orbit around the Earth.

Space.com explains:

The main effects of carbon dioxide up there come from its collisions with oxygen atoms. These impacts excite carbon dioxide molecules, making them radiate heat. The density of carbon dioxide is too thin above altitudes of about 30 miles (50 kilometers) for the molecules to recapture this heat, which means it mostly escapes to space, chilling the outermost atmosphere.

Cooling the upper atmosphere causes it to contract, exerting less drag on satellites. Atmospheric drag can have catastrophic effects on items in space — for instance, greater-than-expected solar activity heated the outer atmosphere, increasing drag on Skylab, the first U.S. space station, causing it to crash back to Earth.

Noël and his colleagues were able to measure the surge of CO2 in the upper atmosphere by using the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment Fourier Transform Spectrometer onboard the Canadian SCISAT-1 satellite. By analyzing eight years worth of data, the scientists confirmed that, at an elevation of 60 miles (96 km), the mixture of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide (what is a residual trace of CO2 following exposure to ultraviolet rays) is increasing at a rate of 23.5 parts per million per decade.

What this means is that the upper atmosphere's composition is changing far more rapidly and dramatically than previously assumed. In fact, the CO2 levels are increasing at a rate of 10 ppm per decade faster than the models have indicated. And it's this escalated level of CO2 that the researchers theorize is responsible for the reduction in atmospheric drag experienced by satellites and space debris.

The study can be found at Nature Geoscience.

Source: Space.

Image: Paul Fleet/Shutterstock.com.

Back in 2010, neuroscientists confirmed that it was possible to communicate with some patients locked in a vegetative state by using an fMRI scanner. Though limited, the breakthrough suggested that more meaningful dialogue with patients in a coma could someday be possible. And now, two years later, it has finally happened. A Canadian man in a vegetative state has used his thoughts to tell scientists that he is not in any pain, marking the first time a patient in such a condition has relayed information relevant to their care.

Scott Routley was involved in a car accident 12 years ago and has been in an apparent vegetative state ever since. Previous medical assessments suggested that he was not experiencing any kind of awareness, nor was he capable of spontaneous movements or communication.

But as the fMRI scans now show, doctors should not judge a book by its cover; assessments of what constitutes a "vegetative" state have now been thrown into question. And indeed, efforts are already underway to help neuroscientists measure the level of awareness in comatose patients.

The communication breakthrough was achieved by Adrian Owen and his colleagues from Western University's Brain and Mind Institute. Speaking to the BBC, Owen noted that, "Scott has been able to show he has a conscious, thinking mind. We have scanned him several times and his pattern of brain activity shows he is clearly choosing to answer our questions. We believe he knows who and where he is."

Looking ahead, Owen is hoping to see clinicians use brain scanning techniques in similar cases to garner more meaningful information from patients. "In future we could ask what we could do to improve their quality of life," he said. "It could be simple things like the entertainment we provide or the times of day they are washed and fed."

Source and images: BBC.

London-based photographer Tim Flach just released a new series of photos called "More Than Human," a gallery of animal portraits that are unlike anything we've seen before. Seven years in the making, these remarkably intimate photos capture the gestures and expressions of animals in a way that's eerily human — but at other times completely foreign. The result is a highly engaging gallery that's as poignant as it is beautiful.

Here's a small sampling of some of our favorites:

Flach's book is now available for purchase, and be sure to check out his website.

All images via Tim Flach. H/T MeFi.

The U.K.'s Telegraph has just published a remarkably candid interview with neuroscientist Oliver Sacks. For those unfamiliar, Sacks is the colorful and highly engaging author of such books as Awakenings and The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat. Known for his seemingly endless array of jaw-dropping anecdotes drawn from his work as a clinical neurologist, Sacks, now 80, has released a new book, Hallucinations, in which he reveals some of the more private aspects of his life — the details of which are quite surprising.

Aside from his books, what makes Sacks such a compelling figure and thinker is that he himself suffers from some of the neurological conditions he often talks about. For example, he has prosopagnosia, a condition also known as "face blindness" in which faces are perpetually unrecognizable (including his own). He also suffers from the odd visual hallucination and is blind in one eye.

And as he reveals in the Telegraph interview, it was during his "lost middle years" when he developed a fascination for bizarre neurological conditions — hallucinations in particular. Sacks believes that hallucinations are a grossly misunderstood psychological phenomenon that aren't necessarily indicative of severe mental illness or dementia.

Moreover, it was because of his experience with various hallucinagens during the 1960s, like LSD and amphetamines, that he decided to formally study and write about the subject. From the Telegraph:

When he arrived in the US, Sacks's chosen field of medicine was already undergoing a revolution, as neurologists and psychiatrists began exploring the ways in which neurotransmitting chemicals allowed the different parts of the brain to communicate with one another. The mysteries of how drugs like LSD and cannabis worked on these neurotransmitters were at a new frontier of serious study. "Neurochemistry was plainly in," Sacks writes, "and so – dangerously, seductively, especially in California… were the drugs themselves."

After taking a residency in the neurology department of UCLA medical centre in Los Angeles in 1962, he began smoking cannabis and took more LSD; he shot morphine and gobbled down handfuls of pulverised morning glory seeds, a powerful natural hallucinogen, mixed with vanilla ice cream to make them more palatable. Moving to New York in 1965, he would leave work on Friday evenings to spend the weekend on "drug holidays", gobbling down amphetamine pills, up to 400 in two days. He experienced some truly spectacular hallucinations: on one trip, he heard his parents arriving for a surprise visit, in his Topanga Canyon garden, via chartered helicopter – only to burst into tears when he realised he had imagined it all; on a massive dose of morphine, he lay in bed for 12 hours watching the Battle of Agincourt take place on the sleeve of his dressing gown; using a cocktail of cannabis, amphetamine and LSD, he successfully set out to envision a splash of true indigo, the colour he had been fascinated by since childhood.

But it was also during one weekend speed binge in 1967 – during which he sat down at home and read all 500 pages of a Victorian treatise on migraines in one sitting – that he first realised he might be capable of producing medical writing that combined science and humanism in a way that by then had been unfashionable for a century. It was the last time he ever took speed. Soon afterwards, he began work on the book that launched his career as a writer, Migraine.

He now says that, among other things, his use of LSD may have helped develop in him the empathy that vividly animates his best case histories. But he certainly wouldn't recommend taking it. "Oh, no," he tells me urgently, as if I might have some in my pocket, ready to swallow on his endorsement. "I certainly don't recommend. I did a lot of things very foolishly – I think there was something destructive in me, and I often took high, and risky, doses."

In retrospect, Sacks concedes, he may have become an addict. "I certainly had a compulsion – a dangerous compulsion with amphetamines, and a sort of insatiability," he tells me. "And if that defines an addiction, then I had it."

There's lots more to this interview and I highly encourage you read the entire thing.

Image via Telegraph.

A new study published in Trends in Genetics is suggesting that humans are slowly but surely losing their intellectual and emotional capacities. According to Stanford University's Gerald Crabtree, humanity peaked in intelligence about 2,000 years ago, and we've been heading downhill since then, owing to genetic mutations that aren't being selected against. It's possible that Crabtree is right — but his argument may be a moot point.

Top image from Idiocracy.

First, let's take a closer look at the study.

In the year 5012...

As Crabtree notes, human intelligence is the result of thousands of different genes that arose during the course of our evolution. And indeed, human intelligence — from a genetic perspective — reached its current configuration some time during the Paleolithic era of our ancestry (about 6,000 years ago).

This level of intelligence was very likely a requirement for survival; those who were less intellectually endowed were unlikely to pass on their genes. As Crabtree noted in his paper, "A hunter-gatherer who did not correctly conceive a solution to providing food or shelter probably died, along with his or her progeny."

But now, says Crabtree, life is easy and we no longer have to be smart to survive and produce offspring. As a result, we are no longer reinforcing the genetic integrity of our intelligence through extreme selectional processes. And it's because of this that our brains are withering away like our appendixes. Given enough time, Crabtree suspects that we will become increasingly susceptible to mutations that will lead to intellectual disabilities.

In terms of specifics, Crabtree has calculated that the 2,000 to 5,000 genes that code for human intelligence will start to degrade appreciably in about 3,000 years — about 120 generations from now. At that point, he predicts that we will have sustained at least two or more mutations severe enough to stunt our intellectual or emotional stability.

Selectional pressures still in effect

Now, all this said, a fundamental problem with Crabtree's prognostication is that it is trapped in a normative frame. His analysis makes little to no consideration for current or future trends, whether they be sexual, social, or technological in nature.

For example, he completely understates the importance of sexual selection — an ongoing process that most certainly has an impact on our ongoing genetic constitutions. In his study, Crabtree writes that modern Wall Street executives only have to worry about receiving a substantial bonus in order to attract a mate. "Clearly," writes Crabtree, "extreme selection is a thing of the past."

But what Crabtree is grossly under-appreciating is the degree to which intelligence brings couples together in modern society. His Wall Street executive wouldn't be a Wall Street executive without a requisite level of intelligence. The same goes for anyone else with a complex and modern job. And without the ability to survive and thrive in today's highly competitive environments, it's very unlikely that anyone would be capable of attracting a mate.

Moreover, it's unlikely that men and women would mate with someone who suffers from a severe cognitive deficiency. Sad, but true. Subsequently, a case can be made that there are still selectional pressures that favor for intelligence.

Society and biotech to the rescue

But all of this is moot. There are plenty of external factors to make this a non-issue.

First, there's the issue of socialization and education as it relates to human intelligence. As Crabtree correctly notes, "Remarkably, it seems that although our genomes are fragile, our society is robust almost entirely by virtue of education, which allow strengths to be rapidly distributed to all members." Indeed, as the Flynn Effect has revealed, a solid environment will have a profound impact on intelligence (whether it be through health, socialization, education, intellectual stimulation, or epigenetic factors).

Second, there's the ongoing interplay between our minds and our technologies. The web is already serving as a kind of external brain where we're offloading our capacities. It's becoming increasingly unclear where our minds stop and where our technologies start.

Lastly, there's the potential for technological interventions — and to Crabtree's credit, he also admits that this is a distinct possibility.

Indeed, given that we're already in the era of gene therapies and regenerative medicines, we can only imagine how sophisticated our biotechnologies will be 3,000 years from now. We will most certainly be able to fix (or screen for) any deleterious effects of genetic mutations by this stage.

Thinking more transhumanistically, our brains will unlikely be biological at that point — what will likely be more cybernetic than genetic. Today, there's already talk of synthetic synapses, artificial neural networks, and advanced neural interface devices. And given the potential for cognitive enhancement (whether it be done through advanced nootropics, genetic engineering, or cybernetic implants), we are set to become substantially more intelligent than we are today.

So when it comes to evolutionary biology and the future of our genetic constitutions, all bets are off.

Top image: Film.com. Inset images via here, here, and Shutterstock/Michelangelus.

The International Energy Agency has released a report in which it's predicting that the U.S. will become the world's largest producer of oil by 2020 — surpassing even Saudi Arabia. The IEA report also predicts that the U.S. will be a net exporter of oil by 2030 and nearly self-sufficient in energy by 2035. This dramatic and unexpected change in fortune can be primarily attributed to the relatively new practice of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking — an industrial process that's not without its critics.

According to the report, by 2015, U.S. oil production is expected to rise to 10 million barrels per day and increase to 11.1 million barrels per day by 2020. And as the LA Times notes, this will put the U.S. in some serious company as it overtakes second-place Russia and front-runner Saudi Arabia:

"Just a few years ago, people were still talking about peak oil. Now we're talking about the U.S. becoming the new Saudi Arabia," said Phil Flynn, an analyst with the Price Futures Group. "They said we couldn't drill our way out of this mess, but we are drilling our way out of this mess."

Around 2030, however, Saudi Arabia is expected to be producing some 11.4 million barrels of oil per day, outpacing the 10.2 million from the U.S., the IEA report said. In 2035, U.S. production will slip to 9.2 million barrels per day, far behind the Middle Eastern nation's 12.3 million daily barrels. And by 2035 Iraq will have exceeded Russia to become the world's second-largest oil exporter.

At that point, inflation-adjusted oil prices will reach $125 a barrel. By then, however, the U.S. won't be relying much on foreign energy, according to the IEA report.

Indeed, if all goes as planned, the U.S. will be completely energy self-sufficient by that point.

As noted, however, the burgeoning oil boom will likely come at a price. It's thought, for example, that the new influx of oil will de-motivate efforts to develop sustainable forms of energy.

There's also the toll on the environment to consider. The report warned that energy-related carbon dioxide emissions will continue to escalate — what could result in a long-term average temperature increase of about 6.5 degrees. At the same time, energy production will continue to drain the world's water — what already accounts for 15% of total water consumption.

And then there's hydraulic fracturing.

Critics warn that the industrial practice — in which long, horizontal channels are drilled deep underground to draw oil trapped in rocks by applying high pressure — could result in contaminated water supplies, risks to air quality, the release of gases and hydraulic fracturing chemicals to the surface, and surface contamination from spills and throwback. There are even concerns that fracking may cause earthquakes.

At any rate, it would appear that the U.S. is set to achieve energy independence in just over two decades — what will certainly alleviate pressure on the country to rely on outside sources (including the Middle East and Canada). As to what impact this will have on the environment and the development of alternative energy sources remains an open question.

Image: CBC. Inset image via.

Often referred to as the "trust hormone," oxytocin is typically associated with helping couples establish a greater sense of intimacy and attachment. Lesser known, however, is its potential role, if any, in preventing couples from cheating. But as a new study from the University of Bonn suggests, it may in fact prevent committed men from getting too close to other women they find attractive — an indication of just how important the hormone is in promoting fidelity within monogamous relationships.

Oxytocin has a number of things going for it. In addition to creating a sense of trust, it can alleviate social fears, facilitate healing, reduce stress and depression, and even increase generosity. What's unclear, however, is whether the hormone can prevent committed people from getting too friendly with strangers.

In an effort to find out, René Hurle­mann and his colleagues conducted an experiment — and what they discovered was that men in monogamous relationships who were given oxytocin kept a greater distance from women they found attractive, and that this effect held true regardless of whether the men were approaching or being approached by the women.

To reach this conclusion, Hurle­mann set up an experiment in which a group of healthy heterosexual males were administered oxytocin or a placebo via a nasal spray. About an hour later they were introduced to an attractive female experimenter. During the course of the experiment, the attractive woman regularly altered her distance from the men, while the men were asked to indicate when the experimenter was either at an "ideal distance" or at a distance that made them feel "slightly uncomfortable."

Interestingly, going into the experiment Hurle­mann's team predicted that the men, because they had just been administered oxytocin, would be more comfortable as the woman came closer; it is the "trust hormone" after all. But surprisingly, the exact opposite happened. The researchers observed that the men in committed relationships (but not those who were single) kept a greater physical distance between themselves and the woman.

This effect held true whether or not the woman maintained eye contact or averted her gaze, or if the men were the ones doing the approaching and withdrawing. The oxytocin did not affect the men's attitude toward the female experimenter, who was rated as attractive in all scenarios (placebo included).

And importantly, committed men who were given the placebo did not insist on the same distance as those administered oxytocin, an indication that the hormone discourages partnered — but not single men — from getting too close to a female stranger.

Reference: Journal of Neuroscience, DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.2755-12.2012 [not online yet].

Image: Shutterstock/Diego Cervo.

This stunning new video for "Mutual Core" makes us wish we had Bjӧrk for a geology teacher. Buried waist-deep in sand and surrounded by dancing rocks, she schools us in the ways of seasonal shifts and the shuffling of tectonic plates. But as the Atlantic ridge drifts to counteract the distance between herself and the object of her desire, the sedimental layers are ruptured by the sexual tension, what results in an explosion of volcanic activity. Science has never been so sexy.

The video was directed by Andrew Thomas-Huang, and the song can be found on Bjӧrk's latest album, Biophilia.

The way we grieve, commemorate, and dispose of our dead varies greatly from culture to culture, but some traditions really take funerals to the next level of macabre. Here are 10 of the most bizarre death rituals the world has ever known.

1. Endocannibalism

For some cultures, the best way to honor the dead is by eating them. Referred to as "endocannibalism" by stuffy anthropologists, these "feasts of the dead" are a way to forge a permanent connection between the living and the recently deceased. It's also a cathartic way to express the loathing and fear associated with death and its tragic aftermath. Some anthropologists have suggested that endocannibalism is something the dead would have expected from the living — a final gesture of goodwill to the tribe and family. Though no longer practiced (at least not that we know of), cultures who engaged in endocannibalism included the Melanesians of Papua New Guinea and the Wari people of Brazil.

2. Tibetan Buddhist Celestial Burials

But why nourish yourself with the flesh of the recently deceased when you can use it to feed wild animals? Such is the thinking of Tibetan Buddhists practice ritual dissection, or "Sky Burials" — the tradition of chopping up the dead into small pieces and giving the remains to animals, particularly birds. Sometimes the body is left intact — which is not a problem for advantageous vultures. While this may seem undignified and even a bit disgusting, the ritual makes complete sense from a Buddhist perspective. Buddhists have no desire to preserve or commemorate a dead body, something that is seen as an empty vessel. Moreover, in tune with their respect for all life, Buddhists see it as only fitting that one's final act (even if committed in proxy) is to have their remains used to sustain the life of another living creature; and in fact, the ritual is seen as a gesture of compassion and charity. Today, over 80% of Tibetan Buddhists choose sky burial, a ritual that has been observed for thousands of years.

3. Suspended Burials

The mysterious Bo people of the Hemp Pond Valley in Southwest China's Gongxian County flourished for millennia before they were massacred by the Ming Dynasty over five centuries ago. Today, the Bo are almost completely forgotten, save for the dramatic hanging coffins they have left behind — a haunting array of wooden caskets that extend from the rock face to a height of almost 300 feet. Located just above the Crab Stream, the 160 coffins were placed along the cliffs and within natural caves, with some resting on wooden posts that extend out from the cliffside. The precipice itself features many murals that are painted with bright cinnabar red colors, many of which depict the lives of the Bo people. Today, the locals refer to the long-lost civilization by such names as "Sons of the Cliffs" and "Subjugators of the Sky." But why they interred their dead in this way remains a complete mystery.

4. Sati

Though now (mercifully) banned in India, Sati was a funerary practice in which recently widowed women immolated themselves on their husband's funeral pyre. The custom was seen as a voluntary act, but there were many instances in which women were forced to commit Sati — sometimes even dragged against their will to the fire. No one is certain how the ritual got started, but one suggestion is that it was introduced to prevent wives from killing their wealthy husbands (typically with poison) and marry their real lovers. Another possibility is that it was seen as a way for a husband and wife to enter into the afterlife together so that they could thwart opportunistic female angels. Interestingly, India was not the first and only culture to adopt the tradition. Other ancient societies that practiced something similar to Sati included the Egyptians, Greeks, Goths, and Scythians.

5. The Viking Funeral

Hindi women clearly had it tough — but so did the slave girls of Viking noblemen. According to the historic account of Ahmad ibn Fadlan, a 10th century Arab Muslim writer, the ritual following the death of a chieftain was exceptionally brutal. Once dead, a chieftain's body was put into a temporary grave for ten days while new clothes were being prepared for him. During this time, one of his slave girls would "volunteer" to join him in the afterlife; she was then guarded day and night and given copious amounts of intoxicating drinks. Once the cremation ceremony got started, the girl went from tent to tent to have sex with every man in the village. As the men were having sex with her — or what today we woud call "rape" — they would say, "Tell your master that I did this because of my love for him." Following this, the girl was taken to a tent where she had sex with six Viking men, was strangled to death with rope, and finally stabbed by a village matriarch. And for the coup de grace, the bodies of the chieftain and slave girl were place onboard a wooden ship that was set alight. The Vikings did this to ensure that the slave girl would serve her master in the afterlife, while the sexual rites were a way to transform the chieftain's life force.

6. Ritual Finger Amputation

As if the death of a loved one wasn't traumatic enough, the Dani people of West Papua, New Guinea also had to cut off their own fingers. This seemingly severe and incomprehensible ritual applied to any woman related to the deceased, as well as any children. The practice was done to both gratify and drive away the spirits, while also providing a way to use physical pain as an expression of sorrow and suffering. To perform the amputation, fingers were tied tightly with string and then cut off with an axe. The leftover piece was then dried and burned to ashes or stored in a special place. The ritual is now banned in New Guinea, but (as this image shows) the effects of the practice can still be seen in some of the older members of the community.

7. Famadihana

The Malagasy people of Madagascar have clearly never heard the phrase, "Rest in peace." In an effort to hasten decomposition — what's seen as an crucial step in the ongoing process of getting the spirits of the dead into the afterlife — the Malagasy dig up the remains of their relatives and rewrap them in fresh cloth. Afterward, the Malagasy then dance with the corpses around the tomb to live music. Called Famadihana, or "Turning of the Bones," the ritual has been around for three centuries — one that the local Christian churches are doing their best to stamp out.

8. Mortuary Totem Poles

Totem poles are a fixture of the American Northwest and the Haida people, but there's more to these icons than meets the eye. Normally, the remains of a deceased Haida were thrown into a mass pit where they were scavenged by animals. But the series of events following the death of a chief, shaman, or warrior were considerably more intricate. In those cases, the body would be crushed to a pulp with clubs so that it could fit into a small wooden box the size of a suitcase. Following that, the box would be placed atop a special mortuary totem pole in front of the deceased's longhouse where the icons acted as guardians for the spirits' journey to the afterlife. Visiting missionaries were often taken aback by the practice, mostly on account of the lingering smell.

9. Australian Aboriginal Mortuary Rites

The best part of an Aboriginal death ritual is that family members get to keep a souvenir afterward — namely the bones of the deceased. Following the demise of a family member, the body was placed atop a raised platform and covered with leaves and branches where it was left to decompose — a process that often took months. In some cases, the liquid from the decaying corpse was collected and rubbed over the bodies of young men to pass on the good qualities of the deceased person. After, the bones were retrieved and painted with red ochre. The bones were then either placed in cave or inside a hollowed out log. And in some cases they would be worn by relatives for up to a year. Some tribes also refused to utter the name of the deceased and completely disregarded any property they left behind. The entire ritual was way to ensure that the ego component of the deceased's spirit didn't get too comfortable hanging out with the living.

10. The Zoroastrian Funeral

Zoroastrians have a thing with dead bodies, what they see as something that defiles everything it touches, whether it be the ground, clothes, people — and even fire. The funeral gets off to a rousing start by having the corpse cleansed in unconsecrated bull's urine (which can only be done by a specially trained member of the community). Once "clean," the corpse is laid in linen and visited twice by the "Sagdid" — a dog that can cast away evil spirits. After mourners visit the corpse (touching is strictly forbidden), it is placed on top of the Dhakma, or "Tower of Silence," where the Zoroastrians remove the clothes using tools (the clothes are later disposed of as they've been defiled). Following this, the body is quickly devoured by vultures. The entire ritual is done in this way to ensure the minimal amount of harm and injury to the living.

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If anyone ever doubted that electric cars were the future, those concerns can now officially be laid to rest. Tesla's luxury Sedan, the Model S, has just captured one of the auto industry's most prestigious awards by taking home Motor Trend's Car of the Year honors for 2013. It marks the first time that an electric car has taken the top prize — a vehicle that doesn't run on gas or have an internal combustion engine.

According to Motor Trend, the American-built Model S did not win the prize simply because it's powered by electricity. Rather, the vehicle hit all the relevant criteria required to win the prize, including performance in intended function, engineering excellence, efficiency, safety, value, and advancement in design. They write:

The 2013 Motor Trend Car of the Year is one of the quickest American four-doors ever built. It drives like a sports car, eager and agile and instantly responsive. But it's also as smoothly effortless as a Rolls-Royce, can carry almost as much stuff as a Chevy Equinox, and is more efficient than a Toyota Prius. Oh, and it'll sashay up to the valet at a luxury hotel like a supermodel working a Paris catwalk. By any measure, the Tesla Model S is a truly remarkable automobile, perhaps the most accomplished all-new luxury car since the original Lexus LS 400. That's why it's our 2013 Car of the Year.

Though pricey, the car's advanced electric powertrain means that owners will still be saving at the pump. Motor Trend writes:

The best energy consumption figure we've returned is 118 mpg-e for a 212-mile run from the eastern fringe of the Los Angeles sprawl to Las Vegas, Nevada. For the 313 miles of road loops during the COTY evaluation, where the car was driven at normal speeds by all the judges with the air-conditioning running, it averaged 74.5 mpg-e.

Impressive numbers, especially considering the 4766-pound Tesla Model S Signature Performance version will nail 60 mph in 4.0 seconds and the quarter in 12.4 seconds at 112.5 mph, with a top speed of 133 mph.

But as noted, Tesla's luxury Model S, a car that's covered by over 250 patents, comes at a hefty price: USD $58,570 (base). This puts it up there with the entry-level Mercedes-Benz E-Class, BMW 5 Series, and Audi A6. So, as exciting as it is to see an electric car win this prize, it's still not something most people can afford. Needless to say, the next great milestone for a Car of the Year will be in awarding one that's more reasonably priced.

But for now, the Model S will remain the kind of vehicle that's reserved for those who can afford it — and for those who want to tie performance and good looks with an environmental sensibility.

And yes, the company is named after that Tesla. Which is pretty cool.

Top image: MotorAuthority.