We'll give you a hint: It was taken by John W. Draper in 1839.
If you guessed that it's the first photograph ever taken of the Moon, you are absolutely correct.
Originally from England, Draper was a chemistry professor at New York University during the 1800s. This silver platinum plate of the moon was the first of a series that he shot with the assistance of a telescope. He later presented these photos to the Science Academy.
Let me know which ones I missed!
We've said it before, but it bears repeating: Nature can be pretty damn scary. And at times, utterly merciless. Here are nine of the most unfortunate ways to die at the hands — or teeth — of a predator.
Before we proceed, it’s worth mentioning that some of these are quite disturbing, so proceed with caution.
Strike one up for the little guy — in this case the worm-like larvae of the predatory Epomis ground beetles. These larvae entice amphibians, like frogs and toads, and then latch onto parts of their bodies. The larvae refuse to let go, feeding off the animal until it dies.
Image: G. Wizen et al./PLoS ONE.
Dave Mosher from Wired explains:
The closer an amphibian moved toward a beetle larva, the more wildly the larva moved its antennae up and down or from side to side. Some larvae opened and closed their thorny mandibles while waving their antennae.
The dance of mouth parts seemed to lure amphibians into attacking.
“Amphibians hunt by movement,” Wizen said. “They’ll generally go after anything that’s small, moving, and within their reach.”
When an amphibian shot out its lightning-fast tongue to eat a larva, the larva quickly bobbed its head to dodge the attack. Moments later, the larva latched onto its prey’s skin and began to suck it dry.
Watch the larvae in action:
Interestingly, only 10% of predator-prey relationships result in a smaller animal eating a bigger one, but they are all active attacks — not a small creature luring its prey.
Watch as this eagle drags a mountain goat off the side of a cliff.
Simple, effective — and awful.
Orca whales prey on many different types of animals, including fish, seals, penguins, squid, sea turtles — and even sharks. But they also like to feast on their fellow cetaceans.
Normally, orca whales hunt in packs and ambush a pod of whales, including gray and sperm whales. In order to incapacitate their prey, orcas will ram their massive bodies at high speeds into the whales, causing significant injury. They’ve also been known to chase a mother and calf for hours until the mother is exhausted and the calf can no longer be protected. Orcas like to feast on the calves’ nutritious tongues and soft flesh.
Image: Rob Hunt.
Orcas can also be brutal when hunting dolphins. Swimming at 30 knots, they ram into dolphins, throwing their bodies out of the water, breaking their spines.
The way chimpanzees hunt monkeys is particularly stomach-turning. Once caught, the poor things are literally ripped apart and eaten.
This video is disturbing, so be warned.
Chimps have also been observed to attack each other in this way.
The humble shrew, a mouse-like animal with a long snout, doesn’t look like much of a threat, but it’s a total bastard.
The North American short-tailed shrew, Blarina brevicauda, secretes venom from salivary glands in its lower jaw to paralyze prey. But the point of the paralysis is not to kill the prey, but to keep it alive for an extended period of time to allow for prolonged feeding. A tiny shrew can infect a mouse, for example, and then graze on it for days and days until it eventually succumbs to its physical injuries. They’ve also been observed to munch on immobilized mealworms for up to 15 days. Shrews can eat their own body weight in earthworms, insects, nuts, and mice on a daily basis.
The shrew venom, which has been synthesized into a compound called soricidin, is harmless to humans — but its paralytic properties could be used to treat migraines, myofacial pain, neuromuscular diseases, and even wrinkles.
The saltwater croc is the largest of all living reptiles and is the largest terrestrial apex predator in the world. It also has the strongest bite of any living species — about 3,700 psi! Once caught, an animal is hopelessly locked in and killed by virtue of an underwater death roll.
The croc’s teeth are not designed to rip flesh, but to hold onto prey and prevent its escape. It has to be among the most brutal ways to go — like getting caught in an undertow, but by waves adorned with teeth.
Bears are notorious, not just for their tremendous strength and predatory versatility, but for their dispassionate approach to killing. They often begin to feed immediately, without waiting for the prey to die — an event that’s merely incidental.
Some grizzlies have been known to grow as large as 1,500 lbs (680 kg), and exhibit strength equal to five humans. There’s very little an animal can do to shake that thing off — particularly if the bear is determined.
It's kind of like the Star Wars Sarlacc pit come to life.
The pitcher plant a carnivorous plant that uses a deep cavity filled with liquid. It lures its prey —typically foraging, crawling, or flying insects like flies — into the cupped leaf with visual and nectar lures. When an insect gets too close, it slips on the smooth surface and falls to the bottom of the trap. Escape is virtually impossible; the pitcher plant has several means of preventing the prey from escaping, including waxy scales and downward facing hairs. Eventually the prey drowns, and the plant extracts nutrients by various means, including bacteria, enzymes — and mutualistic insect larvae that helps itself to the pickings, but nourishes the plant with its excreta.
This one’s more psychologically brutal than anything else.
Imagine being a pied tamarin monkey living in the Brazilian rainforest and suddenly a baby’s voice cries out in distress; the urge to go out and help would be overwhelming. But in reality it’s a lure set by a margay, a jungle-dwelling wild cat with remarkable mimicry skills.
The Wildlife Conservation Society reports:
Researchers from WCS and Federal University of Amazonas first saw this amazing case of vocal mimicry in 2005. Eight pied tamarins, which are about the size of squirrels, were feeding in a ficus tree. Suddenly, the sounds of tamarin babies rang out from a group of tangled vines, or lianas. The researchers pinpointed the cries to a margay, trying to lure in lunch. First, the group's “sentinel” dropped down from the tree to investigate. Then four more of the curious monkeys followed.
The spotted cat sprang to action.
Kudos to the sentinel that realized the mistake in the nick of time. Quickly sounding the predator alarm call, the tamarin thwarted the margay’s attack, saving its troop-mates.
Though the cunning cat missed out on its monkey meal on this particular occasion, the researchers watching nearby were heartily impressed with its hunting strategy. The sightings, which took place in the Reserva Florestal Adolpho Ducke, confirmed anecdotal reports from people living within the Amazon of wild cat species—including jaguars and pumas—mimicking primates, agoutis (a type of rodent), and other animals to draw them into striking range.
Top image: Larry Lynch via Natural History Museum of London.
I love the top image. Makes me want to label a vial in the exact same way and toss some some cigarette ashes into it.
Right?
This new image from Hubble shows what happens when a spiral galaxy (like the Milky Way) collides into a lenticular galaxy (an intermediate between an elliptical and a spiral galaxy).
The Hubble website explains more:
The image also reveals further evidence of the collision. There is a bright stream of stars coming out from the merging galaxies, extending out towards the right of the image. The bright spot in the middle of the plume, known as ESO 576-69, is what makes this image unique. This spot is believed to be the nucleus of the former spiral galaxy, which was ejected from the system during the collision and is now being shredded by tidal forces to produce the visible stellar stream.
It's worth noting that the Milky Way Galaxy is scheduled to collide with the Andromeda Galaxy in about 4 billion years (both are spirals). The whole thing will go down like this:
Image: ESA/Hubble & NASA; Acknowledgement: Luca Limatola.
More than 40 years after it was brought back to Earth and accidentally put into storage, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory says it has re-discovered Moon dust samples collected by the Apollo 11 crew. But now NASA wants the samples returned, thank you very much.
When the Apollo 11 crew returned from its historic flight in 1969, the Moon rocks and soil collected made their way to no less than 150 labs worldwide. One of these was the Space Sciences Laboratory in Latimer Hall on the UC Berkeley campus. But after tests on the dust were completed, the samples were supposed to have been sent back to NASA.
Instead, they were put in storage where they collected Earth dust for the past 40 years. But last month, Berkeley Lab archivist Karen Nelson found the Moon dust — about 20 vials with handwritten labels and dated “24 July 1970”— while working in the lab's warehouse. “They were vacuum sealed in a glass jar,” said Nelson, “We don’t know how or when they ended up in storage.”
NASA has since requested that the moon dust samples be returned to the space agency. In the meantime, however, Nelson was told that she could take the vials out of the vacuumed sealed jar for a closer look at the Moon dust.
[Source: Berkeley Lab, Fox]
Images: Roy Kaltschmidt.
Scientists at Argonne National Laboratory have concocted a formula that turns cement into a semi-conductor — a breakthrough that will allow it to be used for thin films, protective coatings, and computer chips.
The international research team did so by melting mayenite (a rare calcium aluminum oxide mineral) at about 2,000 degrees Celsius using an aerodynamic levitator with laser beam heating. The levitator used nozzles to pump out inert gas that levitated the mayenite.
They then processed the material in various conditions to control the way that oxygen bonds in the resulting glass. The levitator keeps hot liquid from touching any container surface and forming crystals — a method which allowed the liquid to cool into a glassy state, that traps electrons in a way that's conducive for electronic conduction.
In other words, they blasted the shit out of levitated cement with lasers until it melted and turned into liquid metal. Who says the future isn't here yet?
The scientists discovered that the conductivity was created when the free electrons were "trapped" in the cage-like structures that formed in the glass. Interestingly, the trapped electrons provide a mechanisms for conductivity similar to what happens in metal.
The end result was a material that's metallic- and glass-like, but one that exhibits better resistance to corrosion than regular metal — and is less brittle than glass. And of course, it's a semi-conductive material.
The study can be read at PNAS: "Network topology for the formation of solvated electrons in binary CaO–Al2O3 composition glasses."
[Source and images: Argonne National Laboratory]
Top image: Andrii Muzyka/Shutterstock.
After a 17-year dormancy period, the U.S. East Coast is about to be overrun by over 30 billion cicadas
It's called Return of the Cicadas, a film that's being put together by filmmaker Samuel Orr. He's been working on it since 2007, chronicling every aspect of the insect's unique 17-year lifecycle. Quite obviously, this year is a big year for Orr, as the cicadas are set to emerge from the ground en masse.
To help him finish the documentary, Orr has launched a Kickstarter campaign. He's hoping to raise $20,000, which will enable him to produce more time-lapse footage.
As for the preview trailer, I encourage you to watch the whole thing. But at the very least, do yourself a favor and jump to the 2:20 mark and watch as the cicadas transform themselves from terrestrial crawlers into winged insects.
About 15,000 years ago, an old female wooly mammoth plunged through the ice as she was being chased by predators. Her remains have now been uncovered by scientists working in Siberia. And remarkably, as they were digging it out, blood began to stream out. Which is weird given that it was 10° below freezing.
It's not known if the blood or tissue samples contain living cells required for cloning. And even if such cells are recovered, the DNA repair would require a very complex process that could take years. A report is expected later this July.
The beautifully preserved specimen was discovered partially embedded in a chunk of ice at an excavation on the Lyakhovsky Island, the southernmost group of the New Siberian Islands in the Arctic seas of northeastern Russia.
The mammoth's lower portions, including the stomach, were locked in the ice for the past 10,000 to 15,000 years. Its lower jaw and tongue were also recovered; the trunk was found separately from the carcass. The upper torso and two legs were preserved in soil and show signs of being gnawed upon by both prehistoric and modern predators.
Semyon Grigoriev, head of the Museum of Mammoths of the Institute of Applied Ecology of the North at the North Eastern Federal University, is calling it "the best preserved mammoth in the history of paleontology."
During the excavation, and and as the researchers were chipping away at the ice, they noticed splotches of dark blood in the ice cavities below the mammoth’s belly. When they broke through with a poll pick, blood started to flow out.
"It can be assumed that the blood of mammoths had some cryo-protective properties,” noted Grigoriev. Mammoth blood, it would appear, contains a kind of anti-freeze. This is consistent with work done by Canadian geneticists who in 2010 showed that mammoth hemoglobin releases its oxygen much more readily at cold temperatures than that of modern elephants.
In addition to the blood, the paleontologists also recovered well-preserved muscle tissue. The scientists say it has a natural red color of fresh meat. The blood is currently undergoing a bacteriological analysis, and the results are expected soon.
Based on the preliminary evidence, the scientists say the female wooly mammoth was anywhere from 50 to 60 years old and weighed about three tons. They theorize that she was trying to escape from predators when she fell through the ice, or that she got bogged down in a swamp.
[Sources: RT and Siberian Times; images: Siberian Times.]
In 2019, NASA will send out a robotic probe to retrieve an asteroid. And it’ll be this little piece of futuristic engineering that helps it get the job done. Later, we go to Mars.
It’s called a xenon-ion propulsion engine, and instead of using rocket fuel, it harnesses magnetic fields to create thrust. If you take a look at the image above, you can see a tiny blue jet of the thruster. The stunning blue glow comes from photons released by the ions as they lose energy upon leaving the engine.
The prototype, which was recently inspected by NASA chief Charles Bolden, sits in a vacuum chamber where it’s being tested at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
Also called a solar-electric ion propulsion engine or Hall effect thruster, it’s powered by an inert and odorless xenon gas. The engine works by combining high energy, negatively charged electrons together with neutral propellant atoms (the xenon gas) in a contained environment. Within all this excitement, mini-collisions produce a second electron — which creates the thrust.
Image: propogation.gatech.edu.
NASA explains:
Since the ions are generated in a region of high positive and the accelerator grid's potential is negative, the ions are attracted toward the accelerator grid and are focused out of the discharge chamber through the apertures, creating thousands of ion jets. The stream of all the ion jets together is called the ion beam. The thrust force is the force that exists between the upstream ions and the accelerator grid. The exhaust velocity of the ions in the beam is based on the voltage applied to the optics.
Ion engines will be fuel-efficient and more suited for space travel. And indeed, NASA plans to launch an ion-powered unmanned spacecraft to capture a small asteroid and re-locate it in the moon’s neighborhood. Afterwards, a spacewalking team will get to it via the Orion space capsule currently under development. NASA hopes to retrieve the asteroid in 2019 and explore it in 2021.
This is all in preparation of larger, more important missions, including a trip to Mars. In addition, ion engines could be used to power spacecraft capable of redirecting incoming asteroids.
[Image: JPL-Caltech/NASA]
Sadly, what this video about music could really use IS SOME MUSIC!
A penis-shaped gold pendant from ancient Rome has become so popular at Norfolk's Lynn Museum that visitors will soon be able to purchase replicas of it at the gift shop.
The tiny 2-inch gold Hillington Phallus was discovered in 2011 by Kevin Hillier on a farmer’s field with his metal detector. After experts at the British Museum valued it at £800 ($1,200), it was sold to the Lynn Museum (with the proceeds being split between Hillier and the landowner). The golden pendant went on display in January, 2012 — and it quickly became a big hit.
The History Blog explains its significance:
The figure is formed out of a sheet of gold soldered together along the length with an aperture at the ends and two globes of gold soldered to each side of the base. Between the testicular globes is a transverse loop that was soldered separately. The loop suggests the phallus was worn as a pendant, possibly by a Roman soldier since the use of phalluses as amulets to ward off evil spells was not a local religious practice. It’s a rare object as most of the other ancient phalluses discovered in Britain are made out of base metals. The gold is bright and the piece is in excellent condition.
According to Tim Thorpe of the Lynn Museum, "Phallic amulets were commonly worn in Roman times both as a symbol of sexuality, and to promote fertility. Ancient Romans believed that sexual symbols like this gold phallus would shield them from harm and protect them from evil curses."
Last year, when the museum decided to create souvenirs inspired by local objects, the gold phallus was included. Artist Sue Heaser was commissioned to create the replica pendants. It was too tiny and delicate to be used to make a mould, so Heaser had to painstakingly measure, draw and photograph the piece.
The replicas will be solid, unlike the original, and (obviously) not made from real gold. Silver and bronze souvenirs will be available in the gift shop within the next several months.
[Source: History Blog]
To date, over 110 million songs have been played some 40 billion times through Facebook apps integrated with Open Graph. This 3D visualization shows how three of these tracks propagated throughout the United States during a 90-day span.
This video is called a Beatquake, and it's the result of a collaboration between Facebook and Stamen Design.
The 3D visualization charts the progress of three popular tracks across a three-month timespan: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis's "Thrift Shop," will.i.am's "Scream and Shout," and Swedish House Mafia's "Don't You Worry Child." Each layer of the graphic represents how many times each song was played at a specific geographic location in the U.S. during the test period.
Not surprisingly, propagation patterns can be seen. In one instance, a new track emerged in New York, followed by a ripple effect that sent it down to Miami.
As an aside, the graphic was meant to mimic an old-school equalizer, and the 'pulse' for the animation was built using the beats per minute from each track.
[Via Simply Zesty]
Though it might seem like Americans are as pious as ever, most feel that religion is losing its influence in the U.S. — and a record number are now claiming to have no religion at all.
According to a new Gallup survey, 77% of Americans say religion is losing its influence in the United States. That’s the highest it’s been since the Vietnam War.
Americans over the years have generally been more likely to say religion is losing rather than increasing its influence in American life. In addition to the previous peak in views that religion was losing its influence measured in 1969 and 1970, at least 60% of Americans thought religion was losing its influence in 1991-1994, in 1997 and 1999, in 2003, and from 2007 to the present.
Americans were more likely to say religion was increasing rather than decreasing its influence when the question was first asked in 1957, in 1962, at a few points in the 1980s during the Reagan administration, after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in late 2001 and early 2002, and in 2005. The high point for Americans' belief that religion is increasing its influence, 71%, came in December 2001.
At the same time, however, nearly the same number of people say the United States would be better off if Americans were more religious. So while many believe that religion is on the decline, 75% still feel that religion is a positive thing.
In a separate poll conducted by researchers at Berkeley, it was found that 20% of American adults now have no religious preference. This continues a trend that’s been going on since the 1950s, but one that’s accelerated greatly since the 1990s. The percentage answering “no religion” was 18% two years ago, 14% in 2000, and 8% in 1990.
The Berkeley researchers caution that the absence of a religious preference is not an indication of atheism. Self-proclaimed atheists are still quite rare, representing just 3% of all Americans.
So, 20% of Americans have no religious preference, 25% believe that religion is not a positive thing, and three in four feel it's on the way out — but only 3% admit to being atheist. Hmmm, sounds like a lot of closets
[image]
Remember Archaeopteryx — that bird-like creature many consider to be the earliest ever? Yeah, well, it just got trumped by this guy: Meet Aurornis xui, a newly discovered species of dinosaur that could be the earliest known member of the bird family tree.
Called Aurora for short, it’s name means “daybreak” or “dawn” — and the moniker certainly fits.
The dinosaur lived about 160 million years ago during the Middle Jurassic period. Its beautiful skeleton was found preserved in clay sediment in the Tiaojishan Formation of Liaoning Province in China.
And don’t let the top picture deceive you — this thing was fairly big, measuring nearly a half-meter in height (1.7 feet) and about 20 inches long. Its hands were clawed and it had teeth which it used to feast on insects and other small Jurassic-era critters.
It also had four “wings,” including feathers located at the back of its legs. Aurora could not fly, but it was probably an excellent glider.
Archaeopteryx is now no longer considered to be the world’s oldest bird, a creature that lived about 10 to 15 million years ago. Though there is considerable debate as to whether or not Aurora and Archaeopteryx were more dinosaurs than birds, the researchers say a clear line now exists between non-avian dinos and birds at the mid-to-late Jurassic period — a line that starts with the clade of dinos called Maniraptora.
More analysis from Nature News:
[Pascal] Godefroit and his colleagues contend that Aurornis is the oldest known member of the Avialae, the group that includes every animal that is more closely related to modern birds than to non-avian dinosaurs such as Velociraptor. With Aurornis rooted at the base of the avian tree, the researchers place Archaeopteryx further up the trunk, firmly within the Avialae lineage, and not with the non-avian dinosaurs as other researchers recently suggested.
Godefroit notes that putting Archaeopteryx back within the bird lineage means that powered flight need have evolved only once among birds and dinosaurs. If Archaeopteryx, with its relatively well-developed wings, was more closely related to Velociraptor than to birds, powered flight would have had to evolve twice.
Read the entire study at Nature: “A Jurassic avialan dinosaur from China resolves the early phylogenetic history of birds.”
Top image: Masato Hattori; fossil image: THIERRY HUBIN/IRSNB.
I'm disturbed by the total lack of feathers.
MDMA is a drug that’s typically associated with youth culture and dance parties — but it’s increasingly attracting the attention of psychologists and cognitive therapists. Also known as ecstasy, the drug has shown effectiveness in treating a number of mood disorders. But are the potential health risks worth it?
Since its introduction less than 50 years ago, recreational use of MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxy-N-methylamphetamine, “ecstasy,” “molly”) has skyrocketed. In the U.S. alone there are an estimated 2.6 million users. It’s an amphetamine drug that elevates mood. In its “pure” form, MDMA tends to take on a crystalline or powder state, often with the color and consistency of nutmeg.
3,4-methylenedioxy-N-methylamphetamine.
Over the past several decades, the drug has become a fixture at raves and dance clubs. It’s currently illegal in most countries on account of its empathogenic effects; users experience feelings of reduced anxiety, euphoria, and a heightened sense of interpersonal intimacy.
The drug works by decreasing activity in the amygdala, a part of the brain associated with the fear response. It also increases activity in the prefrontal cortex, the region responsible for higher-level brain processing. And indeed, some users report a heightened sense of awareness and verbal articulateness.
It’s important to note, however, that what’s often touted as ecstasy does not always equate to MDMA. This is why some users have started to use the term “molly” in its place.
Ecstasy is often quite impure — multi-colored tablets that contain chemicals (namely adulterants) other than MDMA. Chemical analyses of “ecstasy” often reveal added compounds like caffeine, ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, salicylates, dextromethorphan (DXM), amphetamine, methamphetamine, paracetamol, and ketamine.
Avoid this shit like the plague. Image: DEA.
And indeed, this is a very serious point that warrants clarification; the consequences of misunderstanding the distinction can be quite severe — if not fatal. Early last year, eight Albertans died after taking what they thought was ecstasy, but were instead given pills laced with high levels of paramethoxymethamphetamine (PMMA), a notoriously toxic amphetamine often called “Dr. Death.”
What’s more, these added adulterants have also posed a problem for scientists and medical practitioners trying to understand this amorphous thing called “ecstasy.” Writing in Popular Science, Shaunacy Ferro explains:
Ecstasy's toxicity is a scientific mystery because it lacks a clear "dose and response effect," according to [Edward] Mills — one person might get sent to the hospital after one pill, while someone else can take 50, no problem. How many people actually die a year from ecstasy-related causes is hard to pin down, but according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, there were 22,816 MDMA-related emergency room visits in 2009.
So, are these emergency room visits the result of MDMA, or laced ecstasy pills?
Aware of this problem, scientists over the last several years have made a concerted effort to use MDMA in its pure form when conducting experiments. Psychiatrist Michael Mithoefer, for example, uses MDMA produced by a university lab, that’s 99% pure. And interestingly, the only side-effects he’s been able to chronicle have been things like dizziness, impaired balance, and some anxiety.
And Canadian Health Officer Perry Kendall recently referred to the perceived risks of MDMA as “overblown,” noting that the the drug has been proven safe in controlled clinical trials by psychiatrists, and that the type of ecstasy sold on the street is laced with potentially dangerous chemicals.
Back in 2009, the UK's Home Office drug advisor David Nutt remarked that ecstasy "is no more dangerous than riding a horse."
Now, all that said, the jury is still out on MDMA's long-term effects. There simply hasn't been enough work done. And troublingly, contradictory evidence does indicate some rather serious health risks. Which we’ll get into in just a bit.
Given this ambiguity, and the fact that MDMA works extraordinarily well as a mood-altering drug, mental health professionals are starting to wonder
Here’s what the early evidence is indicating.
A recent pilot study showed that MDMA, in conjunction with psychotherapy, reduced PTSD symptoms without inducing drug abuse or neurocognitive decline in the long-term (upwards of three years after treatment). The researchers suspect that MDMA increases a person’s likelihood of detecting positive expressions and finding them rewarding, while reducing the chance of the opposite.
“These effects may combine to increase the effectiveness of psychotherapy for PTSD, by increasing self-acceptance, promoting interpersonal trust with therapists and catalyzing the effective processing of emotionally-distressing material," the researchers write.
It’s worth noting that two participants out of the 12 relapsed, and three didn’t answer the questionnaire; so the treatment may not work for everyone.
An independent report from Norwegian researchers made the case that MDMA should be used to treat PTSD, and this is why:
1) MDMA increases oxytocin levels, which may strengthen the therapeutic alliance; 2) MDMA increases ventromedial prefrontal activity and decreases amygdala activity, which may improve emotional regulation and decrease avoidance and 3) MDMA increases norepinephrine release and circulating cortisol levels, which may facilitate emotional engagement and enhance extinction of learned fear associations. Thus, MDMA has a combination of pharmacological effects that, in a therapeutic setting, could provide a balance of activating emotions while feeling safe and in control, as described in case reports of MDMA-augmented psychotherapy.
Consequently, the researchers suggest that MDMA should be considered for any kind of anxiety disorder.
And in fact, MDMA is being seriously considered for treating anxiety in people with advanced stage cancer (two different studies, here and here).
An informal study has also indicated that MDMA could be used to treat depression.
As noted, MDMA increases prosocial feelings, like friendliness, lovingness and playfulness. This has led some mental health practitioners to suggest that the drug could be used to promote intimacy among people who have difficulty feeling close to others. It could be used, for example, to treat social and empathy disorders. Or even as part of relationship counselling
And recently, the U.S. FDA approved the first study of ecstasy-assisted therapy for adult autistic patients. The drug could be used to help autistics overcome their social anxiety — though this has the potential to be very controversial.
Unfortunately, while the scale may be tipping in favor of MDMA’s safety and efficacy, there’s a tremendous amount of evidence indicating the exact opposite. In fact, some studies show that MDMA produces the exact same effects its promoters are trying to counter.
For example, studies have shown that ecstasy users have increased levels of serotonin-2A receptors, and that higher lifetime use of the drug (taken at higher doses) correlate with higher serotonin receptor levels (which can lead to depression).
These findings are consistent with experiments on animals, in which receptor levels have increased to compensate for the loss of serotonin. Researchers have also found that ecstasy increases brain activation in those areas associated with visual processing, suggesting a loss in brain efficiency.
MDMA has also been linked to sleep apnea, acute hyperthermia (the raising of core body temperature), and heart problems like cardiac valvulopathy (more on this here and here).
In terms of neurocognitive deficits and neurotoxicity, the data is conflicting.
One review has shown that MDMA use can cause a number of neurocognitive deficits, including in attention/information processing speed and episodic memory. It’s interesting to note, however, that, "To date, the neurocognitive deficits observed in MDMA users were not linked to functional deficits, such as employment status or treatment outcome."
On the other hand, some studies have shown that no cognitive impairment arises from ecstasy use — at least if there’s minimal exposure to other drugs. This study concluded the same thing. But in response to that last one, Andrew Parrott noted that, “MDMA is clearly damaging to humans, with extensive empirical data for both structural and functional deficits.”
This is clearly an area that needs more work. Because if proven safe and effective, MDMA could become an integral part of many different types of behavioral therapies.
In the meantime, psychiatrists should consider the well-being of their patients. People suffering from debilitating anxiety, whether it be caused by PTSD or the threat of a terminal illness, may benefit greatly from MDMA's effects.
Additional reporting by Joseph Bennington-Castro.
Top image: Ambrophoto/Shutterstock. MDMA animation via Anthonyvidal.
Geneticist Aarathi Prasad recently argued that menopause is on the cusp of extinction — and that women will soon be able to have children at virtually any stage in their lives.
Prasad is the author of the book
Speaking at the Hay Festival in Wales, she argued that menopause is an evolutionary throwback that dates to a time when generations of women were competing over scarce resources — a set of circumstances that made it inopportune for women to have children at the same time.
But now, in the age of plenty, it’s no longer necessary — and it needs to go.
Rosa Silverman from The Telegraph reports:
“'The mood of scientists working on this and looking to the future is we will either technologically or scientifically
evolve out of the menopause." "It is a health risk potentially and it is a real inescapable block on reproduction for one half of us — the women, but not the men. It is something that will probably be overcome.”
Since there were no longer any “benefits” to the menopause, it was now “not normal for nature,” she argued.
“When menopause evolved, women probably died ten years before it happened, it hit in your 50s, on average,” she went on.
“If you're looking at a future where women are going to live to 100, that's half your life when the rest of your body functions perfectly well and your ovaries don't.
Prasad also predicted that gay parents will be able to conceive a child without involving a member of the opposite sex, and that artificial wombs
Image: Twonix Studio/Shutterstock.
Point very well taken — and I didn't mean to imply that psychiatrists should go rogue. I agree — only within controlled trials, which thankfully, is starting to happen.