Thursday, October 10th, 2024

Good Morning! 🌞 

This fact will blow your mind: Humans Have More Bacteria Cells Than Human Cells!!

There are approximately 10 times more bacterial cells than human cells in your body. They are mostly concentrated in the gut. These trillions of bacteria play crucial roles in digestion, immunity, and even mood regulation. Despite outnumbering human cells, they’re much smaller, so they make up only about 1-3% of our body weight. This symbiotic relationship between humans and bacteria is essential for maintaining health, and disruptions can lead to various health issues. Essentially, we are more “bacterial” than human on a cellular level!

World News

Million Dollar Doorstop

An elderly woman in Romania unknowingly used one of the world's largest amber nuggets as a doorstop, according to the Spanish newspaper El Pais. Weighing 7.7 pounds, the rare gemstone was only identified after her death and valued at over $1 million. The Romanian government bought the rock and declared it a national treasure, and it is now housed in a museum.

The amber was found in Colti, a village near the River Buzau, where such stones are known to occur. The woman lived in the village for decades, and reports suggest that thieves once targeted her for gemstones, missing what would later be recognized as the world's most valuable doorstop.

After the woman passed away in 1991, a relative inherited her home and discovered the unusual doorstop. Realizing its potential worth, the man sold it to the Romanian government. The gemstone was later appraised at the Museum of History in Krakow, Poland, where it was determined to be between 38 to 70 million years old, possibly the largest intact amber nugget in existence. It has been displayed at the Provincial Museum of Buzau since 2022.

What Makes Amber Valuable?

Amber is an organic gemstone formed from tree resin over millions of years. As the resin fossilizes, it hardens and often encapsulates plant or animal material, such as insects, turning it into a prized "time capsule" for historians and scientists.

A Similar Case: A Meteorite Doorstop

In a similar incident in 2018, a Michigan man discovered that a doorstop he'd used for decades was actually a meteorite worth over $100,000. The man, Edmore, brought the 22-pound rock to Central Michigan University, where geologist Dr. Mona Sirbescu confirmed its rarity. The meteorite, made of 88% iron and 13% nickel, was the largest Dr. Sirbescu had ever examined. It was eventually purchased by Michigan State University's Abrams Planetarium for $75,000, with its owner, David Mazurek, donating 10% of the proceeds to the university's earth and atmospheric sciences department.

Dr. Sirbescu noted that the meteorite, nicknamed the "Edmore doorstop," was an invaluable resource for her students, offering them the chance to study a relic from the early solar system. It has since been put on display for faculty and students to experience.

Earth Sciences

Metal That Creates Water?

Northwestern researchers have made a breakthrough discovery: palladium, a rare metal, can accelerate water production. By studying the reaction at the nanoscale, they found a way to significantly speed up the process. According to Northwestern's McCormick School of Engineering, this innovation could have real-world applications, such as rapid water generation in space.

While it’s long been known that two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom combine to form water, palladium’s role in catalyzing this reaction, first recognized in the early 1900s, was not fully understood until now. Lead researcher Yukun Liu explained that direct visualization at the atomic level was key to optimizing the reaction, a feat made possible only recently. In January 2024, the team published a new technique using an ultra-thin glass membrane and a transmission electron microscope to analyze gas molecules. This setup allowed them to observe the reaction in real-time.

The researchers were able to witness hydrogen atoms entering palladium, causing it to expand and form what are likely the smallest bubbles ever seen. This unexpected result, captured on video, provided definitive proof of the reaction. Given the global water scarcity, this development has the potential to be transformative. By refining their method, the team accelerated the process: hydrogen atoms "squeeze" between palladium atoms, causing the metal to expand. When oxygen is introduced, water forms. Despite palladium’s high cost, its recyclability makes the process sustainable and repeatable.

The researchers compared their method to the water-creation process in the movie The Martian, where hydrogen and oxygen combine—only here, without the need for fire or extreme conditions.

World News

Frozen in Time: 32,000-year-old Woolly Rhino

A juvenile woolly rhino from the Pleistocene era was discovered mummified in Siberian permafrost. The find, reported to authorities, is a 4-year-old woolly rhino (Coelodonta antiquitatis) with preserved fur, skin, and organs, providing valuable insights into this Ice Age species. The specimen was found in August 2020 along the Tirekhtyakh River in Russia’s Sakha Republic, and researchers from Yakutsk and Moscow have published their findings.

Although the researchers did not speak to Western media, scientists familiar with the study noted the significance of the fatty hump around the rhino's shoulders, similar to modern camels. Adrian Lister, a paleobiologist at the Natural History Museum in London, remarked that this could be the first direct evidence of fat in this area, which is important. It is suggested that woolly rhinos may have stored fat in a camel-like hump for harsh winters. While similar traits are seen in other Ice Age mammals, their purpose was previously misunderstood. The authors of the study did not clarify how the rhino was found. The left side of the specimen is badly damaged, suggesting it might have been preyed upon after defrosting from the permafrost.

The rhino had a light brown coat, indicating young rhinos had a blonde coloration that darkened with age. Its fur contained preserved remnants of water fleas—parasites that no longer exist in the region—highlighting significant environmental changes. Future studies of its intact stomach could reveal details about its diet. As the second-largest animal in its ecosystem after the woolly mammoth, woolly rhinos occupied different environments. While mammoths migrated across the Bering Land Bridge, woolly rhinos did not, leaving researchers questioning the reasons for this difference in their habitats.

Support Daily Upsider!

Help our mission to share positive, meaningful news! Your support keeps us going without the need to bombard you with annoying ads!

Mind Stretchers

⁉️

A house full, a hole full, but you can never gather a bowl full.

What is it?

Yesterday’s Answers to the Mind Stretchers:
It is energy and motion, it can fly across the ocean. It can listen and even speak, it can see and even seek. It eats neither fruit nor gruel, it eats energy and fuel. Better say: It doesn't eat; It is transformed into heat.

• Electricity

Be the first to send us the correct answer for today’s mind stretcher for a shout-out with the answer tomorrow. Just send us the answer and your name to[email protected]or reply to email.

If you have any uplifting stories and experience you might want to share, send those over to [email protected] for the chance to be featured.