Omega-3 supplements seem to slow down biological ageing

 

Joel Kontinen

Taking a daily omega-3 supplement appears to slow down the rate of biological ageing by three months – and even more so if you also take vitamin D and exercise.

How can Omega-3 capsules slow down ageing in older people?

Here is what New Scientist says of the formula:

“Daily Omega-3 supplement seems to slow biological ageing in older people, particularly if combined with vitamin D and exercise.

We already knew that Omega-3’s – “good” fats found in seeds, nuts and some fish – can boost our immunity, heart health and brain function.

They have also been linked to changes in “epigenetic” markers, chemical tags on DNA that alter the activity of genes and, in turn, how cells behave. This suggests that omega-3s reduce the pace of biological ageing, often defined as a measure of how quickly someone’s body is deteriorating compared with the general population’s.

To explore this further, Heike Bischoff-Ferrari at the University of Zurich and her colleagues split 777 people in Switzerland, aged 70 to 91, into eight groups. They also wanted to find out how Omega-3 may work alongside vitamin D supplements and exercise.

“Omega-3 plays on multiple pathways of ageing, such as being anti-inflammatory. Similarly, vitamin D and exercise have multiple benefits,” says Bischoff-Ferrari. “We thought, if you play on each of these differential pathways, do you get an additive benefit?”

Some of the participants were already taking these supplements or doing strength training at the supplements, says Bischoff-Ferrari, so they were allowed to continue.

Yes, we know that exercise, the sun (the source of vitamin D) and Omega-3 will slow down our ageing.

Source:

Carissa Wong 2025 Omega-3 supplements seem to slow down biological ageing | New Scientist 3 February

 

 

'Gossiping neighbors': Plants didn't evolve to be kind to each other, study finds

Image courtesy of Loreto Oyarte Galvez

Joel Kontinen

Plants are not friendly to each other, a new study claims.

“Rather than helping each other out when they're attacked, plants may have to eavesdrop on each other to know when to launch their own defences.”

A new study says that” rather than warning each other of impending doom, plants may be better off hiding signs of distress from each other, or even lying about danger that isn't there.”

This might have to do with evolution, in which the species or individuals who has the best genes always wins. It may relate to the plants defence mechanism so that it will not say which is the greatest danger, so that herbivores or insects will find the plant unpalatable.

Source:

Jess Thomson 2025 'Gossiping neighbors': Plants didn't evolve to be kind to each other, study finds | Live Science 31 January

How polar bears stop ice from freezing on their fur

 

Image courtesy of Asifphotographer1/Shutte​rstock

Joel Kontinen

Why do the polar bears keep their fur from freezing? This isn’t brought about by evolution but by intelligent design.

”Polar bears have a hidden-in-a-plain-sight superpower that anyone who has watched a wildlife documentary could have spotted: ice doesn’t stick to their fur.

This has long been known to Indigenous peoples of the Arctic, who have utilised this property of the fur, but only now has it been noticed and studied by scientists. Bodil Holst at the University of Bergen in Norway and her colleagues have shown that the ice resistance of polar bear fur is due to natural oils secreted onto the hairs, rather than a property of the fur itself.”

Michael Le Page 2025 How polar bears stop ice from freezing on their fur | New Scientist 29 January 2

Hamas Staged a Sickening Hostage Parade – and the Media Played Along

 

Image courtesy of YouTube

Joel Kontinen   

Hamas shows that it is good at pretending. But its shows the audience is wanting to hear the rest of the story,

”This wasn’t just a release of hostages; it was a grotesque theater performance — Hamas’ carefully crafted attempt to project an image of power while simultaneously masquerading as benevolent.

The four young Israeli women — Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy, and Liri Albag — soldiers kidnapped from the Nahal Oz army base in southern Israel on October 7, 2023 — were the reluctant stars of this PR charade.

The BBC, for example, falsely claimed during a live report showing Hamas’ sickening PR stunt that the Israeli hostages were wearing the same IDF uniforms they had been kidnapped in. This, of course, was a blatant misrepresentation.  As even Hamas’ own wealth of body camera footage from October 7 makes chillingly clear, the four were abducted from their beds and paraded through Gaza’s streets in bloodied pajamas and underwear — not military fatigues.”

The Hamas stunt is a Pallywood number making the Israeli girls the victims.

Source:

Rachel O’Donoghue, 2025 Hamas Staged a Sickening Hostage Parade – and the Media Played Along | United with Israel  27 January

 

Giant sloths lived alongside humans in South America for millennia

 

Image courtesy if Mauricio Anton/Science Photo Library.

Joel Kontinen

When did giant slots live? New research shows that they lived with humans for thousands of years.  It seems that humans might have led to their extinction.

“Molecular dating methods has shown that several extinct creatures, such as giant sloths and mammoths, survived in South America much later than previously thought, raising questions about the root causes behind some of Earth’s most recent large animal extinctions.

“There is no consensus in the scientific community about the cause or causes that led to the extinction of megafauna in South America,” says Fábio Henrique Cortes Faria ”.

Source:

Taylor Mitchell Brown, 2025 Giant sloths lived alongside humans in South America for millennia | New Scientist  25 January

Turkey vulture: The bird that vomits acid up to 10 feet and poops antiseptic onto its legs

 

Image courtesy of  Charles J. Sharp,  CC BY-NC-SA

Joel Kontinen

What would you say about a vulture that vomits antiseptic into its legs?

It is a Turkey vulture (Cathartes aura) and it lives in Canada and South America. The vulture eats carcases of dead animals.

They are large birds; they give off a nifty escape mechanism. When they're threatened or scared, turkey vultures regurgitate a foul, acidic substance around them.

But the most interesting thing is that it vomits gastric juices that can burn their attackers’ skin and eyes. This is a trait that the animal can thank intelligent design for it.

Source: 

Lydia Smith 2025 Turkey vulture: The bird that vomits acid up to 10 feet and poops antiseptic onto its legs | Live Science 11 January

Fossil claimed to be new species of mosasaur is suspected forgery

 

Image courtesy of Henry Sharpe.

Joel Kontinen

Why is a never-before-seen fossil of a marine reptile a forgery? Most of the scientist say so. It is not the first fake in science.

”Remnants of a bizarre “shark-toothed” aquatic predator that lived alongside dinosaurs were probably forged, according to new research.

 the contentious fossil of a jaw fragment was apparently collected by miners working at the Sidi Chennane phosphate mines in Morocco, in rock that is 66 to 72 million years old. Nick Longrich at the University of Bath, UK, and his colleagues analysed the find and classified it as a new species of mosasaur named Xenodens calminechari in 2021.

The fossil possesses highly unusual blade-like teeth similar to those of sharks, which Longrich and his colleagues suggested would help carve up large prey.

Morocco is uniquely rich in mosasaur fossils, says Henry Sharpe at the University of Alberta in Canada. “Miners working in the phosphate mines come across mosasaurs all the time.”

The problem is many people in Morocco make a living selling fossils, says Sharpe. “So many of the mosasaur fossils being sold from Morocco are modified [there] – teeth are added, bones are sculpted, all to make the fossil worth more to sell.”

Source:

 Taylor Mitchell Brown 2025 Fossil claimed to be new species of mosasaur is suspected forgery | New Scientist 16 January 

Astronomers baffled by bizarre 'zombie star' that shouldn't exist

Image courtesy of  James Josephides

Joel Kontinen

A newly discovered neutron star is behaving so strangely that it may alter our understanding of the dense remains left behind when stellar objects die

Some astronomers are  worried because they see a neutron star that should not be living.  It is a mystery that is brought about the Big Bang story . But who do they support a theory that is one the way out?

”A collapsed star around 13,000 light years away is so unusual that the researchers who have discovered it say it shouldn’t exist.

It was first detected in January 2024 by the ASKAP radio telescope in Western Australia and is likely to be a kind of pulsar that has never been seen before.

When supermassive stars reach the end of their lives and explode in a supernova, the remnants form a super-dense object called a neutron star. Pulsars are neutron stars that spin rapidly, emitting radio waves from their magnetic poles as they rotate. Most pulsars spin at speeds of more than one revolution per second and we receive a pulse at

the same frequency, each time a radio beam points towards us.

But in recent years, astronomers have begun to find compact objects that emit pulses of radio waves at a much slower rate. This has baffled scientists, who had thought that radio wave flashes should cease when the rotation slows to more than a minute for each spin.

These slow-spinning objects are known as long-period radio transients. Last year, a team led by Manisha Caleb at the University of Sydney, Australia, announced the discovery of a transient with a period of 54 minutes.”

God made the universe at the beginning, it is full of wonders that people do not understand.

Source: 

James Woodford 2025 Astronomers baffled by bizarre 'zombie star' that shouldn't exist | New Scientist 15 January 

New supergiant 'Darth Vader' sea bug discovered in South China Sea — and it's absolutely massive

 

Image credit: Peter Ng

A new supergiant isopod was found near the Spratly Islands in South China Sea — and it's absolutely massive

Scientists have discovered a never-before-seen giant sea bug after studying samples purchased from fishers in Vietnam.

“Bathynomus vaderi belongs to the genus Bathynomus — giant isopods that are abundant in cold, deep waters. It is a "supergiant," weighing over 2.2 pounds (1 kilogram) and growing up to 12.8 inches (32.5 centimeters) long, making it one of the largest known isopods.”

The species is named "vaderi" because its head resembles Darth Vader's iconic helmet from "Star Wars."

It seems that God can make animals big or small, and in this instance it is big.

Source:

Jacklin Kwan 2025 New supergiant 'Darth Vader' sea bug discovered in South China Sea — and it's absolutely massive | Live Science 14 January

 

A supermassive black hole is sending out a mysterious pulsing beat

 

Image courtesy of Aurore Simonnet/Sonoma State University

Joel Kontinen

What are black holes? Recently, a black hole appears to send more noise to us.  

“Strange vibrations emanating from a supermassive black hole appear to be growing more frequent and they could be caused by a white dwarf star orbiting perilously close to its event horizon.

In 2018, a supermassive black hole called 1ES 1927+654 took astronomers by surprise by changing from a relatively inactive black hole to an extremely bright one. It was the first time a supermassive black hole had been observed changing in this way.”

Space is unique, as God created it that way,

Source:

Alex Wilkins 2025 A supermassive black hole is sending out a mysterious pulsing beat | New Scientist 13 January 

Why sabre-toothed animals evolved again and again

 

Image courtesy of Steve Morton 

Joel Kontinen

How do sabre-tooted animals evolve again in the cause of life?   Evolution is a thing that is supposed to come one at a time.  Animals are supposed to get an advantage and then die out.   

But according to evolution, “predators have evolved sabre teeth many times during the history of life – and we now have a better idea why these teeth develop as they do.

Sabre teeth have very specific characteristics: they are exceptionally long, sharp canines that tend to be slightly flattened and curved, rather than rounded. Such teeth have independently evolved in different groups of mammals at least five times, and fossils of sabre-tooth predators have been found in North and South America, Europe and Asia.”

Here’s which New Scientist says about the event:

” The teeth are first known to have appeared some 270 million years ago, in mammal-like reptiles called gorgonopsids. Another example is Thylacosmilus, which died out about 2.5 million years ago and was most closely related to marsupials. Sabre teeth were last seen in Smilodon, often called sabre-toothed tigers, which existed until about 10,000 years ago.

To investigate why these teeth kept re-evolving, Tahlia Pollock at the University of Bristol, UK, and her colleagues looked at the canines of 95 carnivorous mammal species, including 25 sabre-toothed ones.

First, the researchers measured the shapes of the teeth to categorise and model them. Then they 3D-printed smaller versions of each tooth in metal and tested their performance in puncture tests, in which the teeth were mechanically pushed into gelatine blocks designed to mimic the density of animal tissue.

The study has millions of years with evolution, as evolution cannot be caused by thousands of years.  

Source:

Chris Simms 2025 Why sabre-toothed animals evolved again and again | New Scientist 9 January

Permafrost thaw beneath Arctic lakes poses surprise pollution threat

  

Image courtesy of (AP/EmrahGurel). 

 Joel Kontinen

Climate change has been in the news recently, in spite of the winter weather in America and England. but is the weather caused by carbon dioxide or is there something that most scientist do not understand.

”As the Arctic gets warmer, large quantities of greenhouse gas could be released from the sediment at the bottom of lakes, a source that has previously been overlooked.

The frozen soil of the Arctic has already started to thaw, triggering the release of more methane and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This climate feedback is well known, but most modelling only accounts for thawing in the top 3 metres of Arctic soil.”

Source:

Madeleine Cuff 2025 Permafrost thaw beneath Arctic lakes poses surprise pollution threat | New Scientist 6 January 

 

What were the Velociraptors?

 

Joel Kontinen

Velociraptors were turkey sized animals. The dino sized things in the film Jurassic Park described what these Cretaceous predators looked like Deinonychus. That was what scientists thought at that time.

”In 2007, researchers confirmed that Velociraptors had feathers. The presence of feathers gave Velociraptors a whole new look that was far more bird-like than how they — or Deinonychus — were previously depicted.”

that is what evolution says. 

Source:

Patrick Pester 2024 A sea monster with it's head on it's butt? 10 times we were completely wrong about dinosaur-age creatures 30.12.

Dinosaurs may have run like emus by keeping one foot on the ground

 

Emus always have one foot on the ground when running at an intermediate pace

Image courstesy of Imagebroker / Alamy Stock Photo

Joel Kontinen

How did dinosaurs run? According a new  study, they run like emus, which is strange.

“If you want to imagine a dinosaur running, then perhaps look at emus. They probably shared a similar posture, which makes it most energy efficient to keep one foot on the ground when running at an intermediate pace.

Pasha van Bijlert at Utrecht University in the Netherlands and his colleagues wanted to understand why birds have a style of running that is so different to humans.

For instance, emus (Dromaius novaehollandiae), which can sprint at up to 50 kilometres per hour, always have one foot on the ground when running at intermediate speeds. This was thought to require much more energy than the “aerial” running style, in which both feet are off the ground at the same time, which is seen in other bipeds, such as people.

To learn more, the scientists built a computer model based on an emu and used physics simulations to measure the energy output of different running styles, while varying the bird’s anatomy.

“These are all changes you can’t really make in a real bird, but they represent differences between different bird species,” says van Bijlert. “For example, quails are very crouched and their tendons probably don’t store a lot of energy. Emus are, comparatively, pretty upright, but their tendons store a lot of energy.”

But dinosaurs and emus have lots of differences, Emus are birds, and dinos are not. God created each species in its own way and dinos can never really run like emus.

Source:

James Woodford 2024  Dinosaurs may have run like emus by keeping one foot on the ground | New Scientist 25 September

Britain’s ‘dinosaur highway’ discovered as hundreds of footprints found in quarry

 

Image courtesy of Friends of Dinosaur Valley State Park via Facebook

 Joel Kontinen

“A newly discovered ‘dinosaur highway’ has been discovered buried under mud in a quarry in England.

Researchers have discovered nearly 200 dinosaur footprints dating back 166 million years, changing what we knew about the creatures.

The dig, carried out at Dewars Farm Quarry in Oxfordshire by teams from the Universities of Oxford and Birmingham, uncovered five extensive trackways, forming part of a ‘dinosaur highway’ – with evidence of more in the surrounding area.”  

In this research, the millions of years have teemed up with evolution,  as if these dinosaurs truly lived at that time, but many things say that they did not live at that time as dinosaur DNA does not last that long. .

Source:

Stephanie Wareham 2025 Britain’s ‘dinosaur highway’ discovered as hundreds of footprints found in quarry 2 January