The “Miraculous Recovery” of the Galapagos Tortoise

The dwindling numbers of the Galapagos tortoises have been something of great concern for conservationists for decades. But now, after 40 years of hard work, the Galapagos Island of Española now has a stable and breeding population of giant tortoises.

In the 1960s, tortoise numbers had fallen so dramatically that there were only 15 left - 12 females and three males. The creatures were so rare that they had trouble finding each other on the island, and the females hadn’t mated in so long that lichen and fungi were growing on their shells.

But a detailed study Española Island’s ecosystem, published in PLOS ONE , has confirmed that the danger of extinction appears to be a thing of the past. This is all thanks to a reintroduction programme started in 1973 by the Galapagos National Park Service.

Galapagos tortoises can weigh up to 250kg (40 stone) and live up to 170 years. And yet, there are only 11 subspecies left. The animals are important to their environment because they are what are called “ecosystem engineers”. This means that their way of life helps to make life possible for other species of animals as well, in the arid landscape of the Galapagos Islands.

For example, cacti provide food for various songbirds and reptiles, as well as the tortoises. The tortoises mainly eat the cacti’s pads and fruit, the seeds of which are then spread around the island through the animals’ droppings, growing into plants to feed the various creatures, and so on.

The 15 tortoises from Española were taken to an enclosure on another island where focus went on breeding the animals. Since then, more than 1,500 offspring have since been released onto Española, and these are breeding well enough for the population to be maintained unaided.

The study’s lead author was Professor James Gibbs, from the State University of New York’s College of Environment Science and Forestry, or SUNY-ESF . He described the programme as “a miraculous conservation success” resulting in around 1,000 tortoises on the island breeding on their own.

“The population is secure,” he said. “It is a rare example of how biologists and managers can collaborate to recover a species from the brink of extinction.”

His team found that more than half of the tortoises that had been released since the programme was started in the 1970s were still alive. He said that he felt honoured to be reporting the obvious success of the programme but that there was still work to be done.

But this work is more to do with the ecosystem of the island itself. Feral goats - introduced in the 1800s and since removed from the island - stripped the land of its undergrowth, resulting in bigger, woodier plants. These prove a hindrance for such creatures as an endangered albatross. The large, ungainly birds breed on the island, but struggle to take flight with the tree-like plants in the way.

“Population restoration is one thing, but ecological restoration is going to take a lot longer,” Professor Gibbs pointed out.

But it looks like the tortoise “ecosystem engineers” will be able to help with that. And when it comes to the no-longer-endangered animal... “It looks like we’re no longer needed,” the professor concluded. “The tortoises can take care of themselves.”

Teens Pull Woman from Path of Oncoming Train

Like something you would see in a television show or movie cliffhanger, a woman feared for her life as she was stuck in the path of an oncoming train. Luckily for her, two teenagers happened to be driving past at just the right time to stop and pull her to safety.

Colton Essary, 16, and Maddie Hand, 17, were driving back to Frankfort Community High School in Illinois after lunch when they noticed a woman had fallen onto the nearby train tracks. She was screaming for help and an oncoming train was quickly approaching.

The unnamed elderly woman had been crossing the tracks when she had tripped on them, breaking her wrist as she landed so she was unable to get back up.

“We just happened to take the back way back to school and happened to be there,” Colton said.

Maddie, the passenger in the car, pointed out the woman's situation to Colton. But Maddie was so scared that the train was going to pass at any moment that all she could do was tightly close her eyes and pray that everything would be alright.

Colton quickly parked in the middle of the road and raced out of the car in the hope of reaching the woman before the train - travelling at 50mph (80.5kph) - did.

And they made it - just in time!

“It wasn’t really something you had time to think about,” Colton said of his actions. “I had an obligation to help." He added that if he hadn't have made it to the woman soon enough, or had just let it happen right in front of him without doing anything to stop it, then he wouldn't have been able to live with himself.

Speaking to the grateful woman later, Colton found out that she had seven grandchildren and was so happy to be returning to them with only a broken arm.

Colton described the whole affair as simply a traumatic event and that he was thankful that it had turned out okay.

Principal Bethany Shaw, of the teens’ school, said that the pair’s lateness after lunch was struck off the record because of their good deed.

“I am glad they were aware of what was going on and able to help her when she needed it,” the principal said. “Maddie and Colton are shining examples to our student body.”

New York Opens 100-Year-Old Time Capsule

On May 23, 1914, the Lower Wall Street Business Men’s Association in New York was commemorating several great events in the country's history, including the “union of the Colonies” - the birth of the USA - exactly 140 years before.

The men decided to fill a great bronze box with various documents pertaining to the history of Wall Street and the interests of the people who ran it. They also included a programme with the current day’s proceedings and a copy of an iconic 1774 letter, from New York to Boston, urging the colonies to unit.

Former mayor and current Chamber of Commerce President Seth Low then handed the box to the New York Historical Society . He explained that the 1774 letter inside was “the first suggestion of a union of the colonies in connection with the then approaching conflict with the mother country”. The historical society was given instructions for the box to remain sealed until the Colony Union’s 200th birthday, in 1974. (You can read the New York Times account of events at the time here .)

But when 1974 rolled around, the box was still gathering dust in the society’s warehouse. It is thought that the city’s fiscal crisis of the time might have something to do with the box being forgotten. On top of this, the people behind the capsule in the first place, the Lower Wall Street’s Business Men’s Association, didn’t actually exist anymore.

Almost 25 years later, in 1998, the New York Historical Society’s Decorative Arts Curator Marji Hofer was cataloguing artefacts in that very same warehouse when she came upon the bronze box.

“On October 11, 1614, the Dutch Republic granted a charter and a three-year fur trading monopoly to the New Netherland Company,” said Professor Nick Yablon, a historian with the society and something of an expert on time capsules. “It was this event that the Wall Street merchants were celebrating in 1914.” He suggested that as the original opening date had passed, the chest should be opened in 2014 to celebrate 400 years since the trade agreement.

So last week, a crowd gathered around the historical society’s CEO Dr Louise Mirrer, with art handlers Daniel Santiago and Richard Miller, waiting for the chest to be unsealed for the first time in a century.

“The very concept of a time capsule - a cache of materials that helps future generations understand the past - goes to the heart of the New York Historical Society’s missions,” stated Dr Mirrer.

Once the box had been opened, Professor Yablon was the one to remove the contents: the documents and news reports from 1914 and the 1774 - and a message from the past.

“There was also a telegram from the governor of New York which is partly addressed to the time capsule organiser,” said the professor, “but also to the future governor of New York in 1974.”

Given that the time capsule was opened forty years later than it was meant to have been, it has become the world’s oldest example of one - created before the phrase “time capsule” had even been put to use.

The bronze box is now going to preserved using modern techniques, resealed and stored for its next scheduled opening in 2074, which it will no doubt create the same sense of wonder - if not more so - as it caused in this day and age.

In celebration of the whole event, high-school students from the historical society’s internship programme have created a time capsule of their own, hoping for it to be opening in a century’s time. Of course, as these are teenagers and not businessmen from Wall Street, the contents of this new time capsule are going to be a little different.

Some of the contributions include - among other things - an iconic New York paper coffee cup, a subway poster, a library card from the New York Public Library, a gay pride Tshirt, a Kindle, and a number of popular websites stored on a flash drive. But just so the business people of the future don’t feel left out, a copy of The Economist was also thrown in for good measure. We can only imagine what future generations will make of all that!

Mental Health Waiting Time Targets Unveiled

For the first time, waiting time targets have been unveiled for people with mental health conditions. These targets are to be introduced from April next year, in a move that has been greatly welcomed by mental health charities.

Every year, mental health issues are thought to be accountable for 70 million lost working days, a total estimated cost to the economy of around £100 billion. According to the NHS , a quarter of all people will suffer with some kind of mental health problem in their lifetime. And yet, mental health is still such a taboo subject to talk about.

The waiting time targets were announced by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who has addressed the House of Commons with his first speech on the topic. The idea is to bring mental health patients up the same level of priority as those with physical health problems.

“It is wrong that [someone] needing a hip operation can expect treatment within a clear timeframe,” Mr Clegg explained. “But someone with a debilitating mental health condition has no clarity about when they will get help.”

So, from next April, at least 95% of people diagnosed with depression will have begun talking therapy within 18 weeks of diagnosis.

On top of this, young people suffering through their first case of psychosis will be put on a course of treatment as quickly as within a fortnight of their initial diagnosis, which is the same target length of waiting time as a cancer patient.

And patients who are thought to be suicidal will be treated with the same level of urgency as suspected heart attack sufferers because the cases will be considered the same imminent risk to a person’s life.

Norman Lamb, Liberal Democrat Health Minister, described the set up before - of not treating mental health conditions with the same priority as physical health problems - as discrimination. “If you have cancer, you get access to a specialist within two weeks,” he said, “If you have a first episode of psychosis, it is completely haphazard and that is outrageous.”

“There is a moral and economic case to do this,” he added, explaining that to obtain genuine mental and physical health equality would be a truly pivotal achievement.

In his speech, Mr Clegg said that although progress has been made in fighting the stigma surrounding mental health, more needs to be done to raise awareness. He believes that discussing anxiety or depression should be just as acceptable as talking about a sprained ankle.

“If you are having a breakdown, if you are thinking of harming yourself, for any emergency that takes you to A&E, you will get the help you need, just as if you had gone to hospital with chest pains or following an accident,” he explained. “These are big, big changes.”

RoomAlive: Turning a Whole Room into a Gaming System

You may have heard of the holodeck from Star Trek - an enclosed room in which people and objects are simulated and holographic images are projected. Inside the holodeck, you can be anywhere you want to be and it has been the pipe dream of technology companies for decades to be able to create one.

But it could become a reality! Or, at least, something very similar to a holodeck has finally been created!

Microsoft has created a prototype gaming system that turns a whole room into an interactive, augmented reality display. RoomAlive is able to turn any room into an interactive gaming space, building heavily on another research project called IllumiRoom that Microsoft unveiled last year.

IllumiRoom used a projection system linked to a next-gen Xbox that was about to be unveiled, and showed that gaming could be extended from just being displayed on the television to cover the surrounding walls, as well.

But while IllumiRoom focused mainly on expansive display, RoomAlive is all about user interaction. Just like IllumiRoom, RoomAlive combines Xbox Kinect technology and projectors, but users can actually interact with the projections.

“RoomAlive enables any space to be transformed into an augmented, interactive display,” explained Hrvoje Benko, one of the researchers behind the project. “Users can touch, shoot, stomp, dodge, and steer projected content that seamlessly coexists with their existing physical environment.”

But how is this done? Depth cameras are mounted on the ceiling of the room and are able to work out the dimensions of the room so that any surface inside can be used as a display. Six Kinect sensors keep tabs on gamers in the room, tracking the positions of their heads to make sure that content is rendered appropriately.

The Microsoft research team released video demonstrations of players using RoomAlive, showing virtual critters scurrying over all surfaces, with users shooting and hitting them. One demonstration showed a player controlling a projected robot that could shoot projected "bad guys" that would appear from behind the room’s furniture.

“With enough computing power, depth cameras, and projectors, it is possible to create these immersive environments within an ordinary living space,” Benko said. “Augmented reality fundamentally changes the nature of communication, with rich interactions not just for entertainment, but also for work and collaboration.”

Sadly, RoomAlive is currently just a proof-of-concept gaming system, showing what is possible to be created. The combination of the video projectors and multiple Kinect sensors is considered too expensive to roll out commercially at the moment. However, Microsoft does envision a future where the technology could be produced on a smaller scale and at a cost that would be appealing to customers.

Either way, RoomAlive might not be a holodeck just quite yet, but it is certainly a great big step closer to one, and therefore something to be very excited about.

More Children Passing Y1 Phonics Test

New government figures from the Department for Education (DfE) have shown that more five- and six-year-old children in Year One in England are meeting the expected standard in the phonics test.

The test requires pupils to spell out a combination of real words and “non-words” that allow the child to blend common sounds together to form longer words. This method has been shown to help the majority of children learn to read more accurately and fluently.

If the child does not meet the expected standard of phonic-decoding in the Year-One check, they have to take the test again a year later, when they are in Year Two.

In 2012, only 58% of Year-One children passed the check. This figure rose to 69% for 2013, and the statistics for this year have shown that just shy of three-quarters of pupils - 74% - were at the expected level.

According to the DfE, this means that around 100,000 more children have benefited from learning to read and spell through the phonics method than two years ago, helping them to get “on track to become excellent readers”.

Pupils from Year One weren’t the only ones to see an increase of passes though, as the number of Year Twos passing the check also increased.

And although there has always been an attainment gap between children from disadvantaged families and their better-off classmates, this gap closed minutely by 1% between 2013 and 2014.

“For too long, thousands of young people, particularly from disadvantaged backgrounds, were allowed to slip through the net and fall behind on reading,” said Schools Minister Nick Gibb.

Mr Gibb said the statistics were “irrefutable evidence that [the government’s] plan for education is working”. He added that more and more schools are using the phonics method in a way that was helping their pupils to learn to read properly.

It was also found that almost all of the children who passed the phonics test the first time around went on to either meet or exceed reading level benchmarks for Year Two.

Should We Cut Down on TV?

How much television do you watch each day? According to new guidelines from NICE , if you are trying to watch your weight, then it might be too much.

NICE - or the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence - have updated their guidance on tackling obesity for the first time in eight years, with one of the new recommendations being to limit your TV-viewing to only two hours a day. You could even opt for a whole day free of television at least once a week.

Obesity rates have almost doubled in England over the last ten years, with a quarter of adults and 20% of schoolchildren now obese. That's one of the issues that NICE hope to address with their guidance update, helping people lead healthier lives.

“Obesity rates… continue to be a huge concern for local authorities and the health service in England,” said NICE’s Professor Mike Kelly. He added that while there are already guidelines on tackling obesity, the latest update focuses on ways that individuals can help reduce their own risk of becoming overweight or obese.

Professor Kelly explained that maintaining a healthy weight can be done by making sure our energy intake from food and drink (ie: calories) doesn’t exceed the energy we use through daily activities. The guidelines are a way of giving people advice that is “more specific and based on real evidence”, helping them to keep the weight off after losing it in the first place.

“We all know we should probably take the stairs rather than the lift, cut down on TV time, eat more healthily and drink less alcohol,” he said. He acknowledged that it can be difficult for us to know what the most useful changes to our day-to-day lives can be when it comes to our weight and health.

One of the recommendations is to become more active, such as walking or cycling to work or school, or taking up an active hobby, like swimming, dancing or football. Another is limiting the amount of television we watch, as mentioned before, and not eating our meals in front of the TV.

We should also be making sure we get enough sleep at night and having breakfast in the morning. The first meal of the day kick-starts our metabolism and people who eat a healthy breakfast have been shown to fare better at losing weight than those who forgo the “most important meal of the day” entirely.

The guidelines indicate that we should be indulging in fast-food or takeaways are rarely as possible, as well as cutting down on drinks with added sugar in them, including sports drinks. We should also consider adopting a healthy Mediterranean diet, which you can learn more about here . And let's not forget the old classic: cutting down on alcohol and all of its extra “hidden” calories.

While these suggestions may all seem rather obvious (we have definitely heard them before!), we need all the help we can get when it comes to the fight against obesity. And it can't hurt to try. As Professor Kelly points out: “Following a healthy diet and being more physically active is important for everyone, not just if you are already overweight or obese.”

New Molecule Discovery: Milky Way Yields More Secrets

Something wonderful has been discovered 27,000 light-years away in the centre of the Milky Way - iso-propyl cyanide!

Okay, so it doesn’t sound very exciting, but does actually suggest that the life-bearing chemistry and building blocks of life could be widespread throughout our galaxy. This makes it more probable that there is life out there other than us on Earth.

What makes this discovery so important is that iso-propyl cyanide is the first of the organic molecules to have been discovered in interstellar space to have a branched carbon structure. This means that the molecule is also closer to the complex molecule of life than any previous finding. The research has been published in Science .

And what does all that mean? Well, some of the more complex branched molecules that are necessary for life on Earth, such as amino acids, could have originated in interstellar space. (That's the physical space in our galaxy not occupied by other planetary systems or stars.)

The molecule was discovered by astronomers in Germany Using the telescopes at the ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter Array) observatory in Chile. The twenty huge telescopes - around 39ft/12m tall - were able to detect the iso-propyl cyanide in a giant gas cloud in our Milky Way called Sagittarius B2.

The region has stars forming in it, and as they are born, surrounding microscopic dust particles are heated up. This in turn initiates a chemical reaction on the surface of the dust that allows for complex molecules like iso-propyl cyanide to form. These molecules emit a radiation signal that was able to be detected as radio waves by the ALMA telescopes.

“Amino acids on Earth are the building blocks of proteins, and proteins are very important for life as we know it,” said study lead Dr Arnaud Belloche from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy . “The question is, is there life somewhere else in the galaxy?”

He explained that each molecule emits a different frequency, and his team needs to work out which frequencies belong to which molecule. And now that they know that molecules like the iso-propyl cyanide can be found in interstellar space, they can keep an eye out for more.

“The detection of a molecule with branched carbon backbone… shoes that interstellar chemistry is indeed capable of producing molecules with such a complex, branched structure,” Dr Belloche concluded. “The idea is to know whether the elements that are necessary for life to occur can be found in other places in the galaxy.”

Who is More Moral: the Religious or Non-Religious?

It really is one of those controversial questions: is a religious person, in fact, more moral than an atheist?

You may very well already have your opinion on that matter, but new research from Germany, the Netherlands and the US might surprise you…

Religious and non-religious people are just as moral - and immoral - as each other.

Previous psychological studies about morality were through laboratory observations, but this latest study aimed at a different approach. Led by Professor Dr Wilhelm Hofmann from Germany's University of Cologne, the team sought to assess just how morality plays out in people’s everyday lives and were able to catch a glimpse into how people really think about it.

The study involved more than 1,250 people between the ages of 18 and 68, and all were from either Canada or the US. To begin with, they were all surveyed to find out how religious they felt they were, ranging from “not at all” to “very much”. They also indicated where they fell on the political spectrum, from “very conservative” to "very liberal".

The next phase of the study saw the participants going about their everyday lives for three days. During that time, they received five texts a day asking them if they had heard of, experienced or committed any moral or immoral acts. If they replied with a “yes”, the team sent back follow-up questions so that the subject could describe their experience and their reaction to it.

In total, the team received more than 13,000 responses from the study participants, nearly 4,000 of which were actual moral or immoral acts. There was also a broad range of acts described, from “I gave a homeless man an extra sandwich I had” to “Hired someone to kill a muskrat that is ultimately not causing any harm”.

Several judges, who didn’t know anything about the study nor the participants involved, independently rated each of the acts that were texted through. On average, the judges only differed in opinion to the participant about the morality of an act less than 1% of the time.

Publishing the results in Science , the team found that subjects were more likely to admit carrying out moral acts than committing immoral ones, but relayed that they heard about immoral acts more frequently.

Overall, the team concluded that the religious members of the study reported experiencing more or less the same number of moral acts as their non-religious counterparts. The only real differences that were found between the two groups were that religious people tended to be more emotional in their reaction to an event, while non-religious people seemed calmer about them.

It was a similar story when comparing liberals and conservatives. “Liberals more often mention moral phenomena related to fairness and honesty,” explained study co-author Professor Daniel Wisneski from New Jersey’s Saint Peter’s University. “Conservatives more often mention moral phenomena related to loyalty and disloyalty, or sanctity and degradation.”

The findings provide us with a small peek into how moral people are, and psychologists are hoping to use more smartphone surveys in the future to further investigate how we interact with each other in the real world, outside of a laboratory environment.

So there you have it. Neither religious nor non-religious people can claim to have the moral high ground because everyone is just as bad (and good) as each other.