Scientists have found a star even more terrifying than Star Wars' "Death Star". Photo / File
Scientists have found a star even more terrifying than Star Wars' "Death Star". Photo / File
The Star Wars series featured a man-made planet called the Death Star which destroys other worlds with a giant laser.
But scientists have just discovered something more terrifying: a planetary system with a host star similar to our sun that has eaten some of its planets.
"It doesn't mean that the sun will eat the Earth any time soon," said study co-author Assistant Professor Jacob Bean, of the University of Chicago.
"But our discovery provides an indication that violent histories may be common for planetary systems, including our own."
Unlike the Death Star, this natural version could provide clues about how planetary systems evolve over time.
Due to their extreme similarity to the sun, these so-called solar twins are ideal targets for investigating the connections between stars and their planets.
Male bumblebees don't look back
Male bumblebees leave home and never look back. Photo / File
Many mums and dads whose adult children still haven't left the nest might wish their kids were like male bumblebees.
UK scientists have just shown how they leave home and fly away without looking back - making no effort to remember the location of the nest.
When leaving a newly discovered flower, male bumblebees perform a characteristic "learning" flight during which they turn back and look at the flower so they can find it again.
But they make no such effort when leaving home to begin their bachelor life as solitary adults.
In contrast, female worker bumblebees, which sustain a growing colony, return to the nest with nectar and pollen and are well known to perform learning flights and memorise the locations of both their nest and the flowers at which they forage.
"Out of curiosity I placed a male on a feeder and found that its departure flight looked surprisingly similar to that of bumblebee workers," said the study's author, University of Exeter PhD researcher Theo Robert.
"I was intrigued by this observation, and so we recorded more flights of male bees to understand whether they are capable of performing learning flights, but decide to do it only at locations that are important to them."
The study's senior author, Dr Natalie Hempel de Ibarra, said it would be interesting to understand what neural differences may underlie the sex-specific behaviour of males and females.
Does addiction linger after death?
Scientists have shown how some effects of heroin addiction linger after death. Photo / 123RF
Scientists have found evidence to suggest that indicators of addiction can stay with us - even after we die.
A protein known as FosB in the reward centre of the brain alters in chronically ill people suffering from an addictive disorder - such as an addiction to heroin - and is genetically modified, split off and shortened.
This modification under the stimulus of the drug results in the protein being more stable and therefore remaining longer in this part of the brain than in its original form - even as much as several weeks after withdrawal of the drug.
This means that a craving for this stimulus persists.
This addictive craving is stored in a sort of "memory" function and, surprisingly, can still be detected after death.
The Austrian researchers behind the new study, which analysed the brains of 15 deceased heroin addicts, suspect the effect would persist much longer in live subjects - possibly even months.
Want to reduce your risk of dementia? Head for the sauna
Researchers in Finland say regularly using saunas can lower the risk of dementia. Photo / 123RF
Trust the Finns to come up with this intriguing new finding: frequent sauna bathing can reduce the risk of dementia.
A 20-year study by scientists from the University of Eastern Finland found that men taking a sauna four to seven times a week were 66 per cent less likely to be diagnosed with dementia than those taking a sauna once a week.
The association between sauna bathing and dementia risk has not been previously investigated.
The effects of sauna bathing on the risk of Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia were studied in a major study, involving more than 2000 middle-aged men living in the eastern part of Finland.
Based on their sauna-bathing habits, the study participants were divided into three groups: those taking a sauna once a week, those taking a sauna two to three times a week, and those taking a sauna four to seven times a week.
The more frequently saunas were taken, the lower was the risk of dementia, while the risk of Alzheimer's disease was also 65 per cent lower.
Previous results had shown frequent sauna bathing also significantly reduced the risk of sudden cardiac death, the risk of death due to coronary artery disease and other cardiac events, as well as overall mortality.
The study's leader, Professor Jari Laukkanen, said sauna bathing may protect both the heart and memory to some extent through similar, still poorly known mechanisms.
'Godzilla' El Nino fuelled Zika outbreak
Scientists have linked the 2015 Zika outbreak to a strong El Nino system. Photo / 123RF
UK scientists say a change in weather patterns brought on by the "Godzilla" El Nino of 2015 fuelled the Zika outbreak in South America.
University of Liverpool researchers revealed the finding using a new epidemiological model that looked at how climate affects the spread of Zika virus by both of its major vectors, the yellow fever mosquito and the Asian tiger mosquito.
The model can also be used to predict the risk of future outbreaks, and help public health officials tailor mosquito control measures and travel advice.
It drew on the worldwide distribution of both vectors as well as temperature-dependent factors, such as mosquito biting rates, mortality rates and viral development rates within mosquitoes, to predict the effect of climate on virus transmission.
It found that in 2015, when the Zika outbreak occurred, the risk of transmission was greatest in South America.
The researchers believe that this was likely due to a combination of El Nino - a naturally occurring phenomenon that sees above-normal temperatures in the Pacific Ocean and causes extreme weather around the world - and climate change, creating conducive conditions for the mosquito vectors.
El Ninos occur every three to seven years in varying intensity, with the 2015 El Nino, nicknamed the "Godzilla", one of the strongest on record.
Effects can include severe drought, heavy rains and temperature rises at global scale.
