Halloween Delight: Fright Night Lights

Every year, about this time, Brandon Bullis and his family from Virginia in the US create a spook-tacular Halloween light show on their house. The Edwards Landing Lights, as they have nicknamed the show, is synced up to a combination of popular songs and some Halloween classics, such as Ghostbusters, Thriller, and Monster Mash. As the music plays, the light flicker and some spooky faces on the front of the house "sing" or "rap" along perfectly in time. The full show lasts for about half an hour and replays for a couple of hours after 7pm every night of the Halloween season - except for the big night itself so as to not distract trick-or-treaters or drivers. But before you go feeling sorry for the Bullis' neighbours, none of the music is broadcast outside: you can only hear the music that accompanies the light show if you tune in your radio to 98.1FM. And what do the neighbours think of all this? According to Brandon, it's a chance for them all to get together. "They say it's so great for the community," he said. Some of the songs featured in the show can be watched on YouTube, and it's not surprising that there are more than 35,000 subscribing fans. One of this year's songs, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis' Downtown, has had almost 500,000 views already - and you can watch it for yourself under this article. Macklemore has had the pleasure of seeing the show for himself and happily tweeted his seal of approval:  

This is amazing.... Definitely the kind of house that gives out full sized candy bars. http://bit.ly/1Mx8qKe

— Macklemore (@macklemore) October 16, 2015

  Now, with over 8,500 lights and 2,500 computer animation channels, you would expect their electricity bill to be through the roof. But the family has conscientiously used energy efficient LEDs for most of the lights and estimate that it only costs them between $25 and $35 for the whole Halloween season. What's more, the Bullis family places a donation box outside the display every year to raise money for the John Hopkins Children's Center and have managed to accumulate a whopping $10,000 (£6,500) for the charity over the past couple of years. And to paraphrase a popular expression, lights are not just for Halloween - the family also has a display every Christmas, which is pretty much how all this started. You can watch the Edwards Landing Lights Downtown video below, and if you want to check out more of their light shows, you can take a look at their YouTube channel here. [video width="600" height="300" id="ZddXbKpXKLs" type="youtube"] Happy Halloween!

Adorable Panda Kindergarten Opening Ceremony

Is there anything cuter than a panda? A baby panda! And what's even cuter than a baby panda? FIFTEEN baby pandas! Last weekend, fifteen pandas cubs were inducted into the Chengdu Research Base for Giant Panda Breeding panda kindergarten, class of 2016. Okay, so while you might be imagining an adorable preschool where panda cubs learn how to become panda adults, it's actually only a kindergarten in the loosest of senses. It's more of a place where the cubs can be cared for and play with each other after "graduating" from the breeding centre, and the ceremony is a way of officially introducing the baby pandas to the public for the very first time. As we all know, with less than 2,000 left in the wild, giant pandas are an endangered species. But despite appearances, this number is actually quite a good one that has almost doubled since the 1970s. In the last 10 years or so alone, the population has increased by 17%. The animals are notoriously slow breeders because of the females' very short ovulation time just once a year, and as a result, combined with illegal poaching, giant pandas face the very serious risk of extinction. They just don't see to be able to recover their population quickly enough. You might wonder why it is so important to stop a slow-breeding species like the giant panda from dying out, and it's not just because they are so cuddly and cute! According to the WWF, pandas play a vital role in keeping bamboo forests thriving, and in turn helping the other species that live there, including the snow leopard, gazelle, and ibex. The Chengdu Research Base breeds and rears pandas with the aim of increasing and improving the population. The research base alone is responsible for breeding more than 170 giant pandas over the last 20 years. This year's 15 cubs were all bred using artificial insemination and included six sets of twins - a 100% success rate in breeding twins this year. This also helped them break their record for the highest number of pandas born in a single year! But these adorable fluffballs weren't the only pandas to make their first public appearance recently. The China Conservation & Research Centre for the Giant Panda (CCRCGP) announced that 26 giant panda cubs, including nine sets of twins, were born at different bases. This year, the CCRCGP had a record of 218 pandas across all of its locations, and it's all down to the resounding success of its new breeding programme. Thanks to the continued hard work of various conservation projects in China and around the world, there are more panda reserves than ever before, and giant panda populations in the wild are slowly but surely increasing. Take a look at Getty Images to see the panda kindergarten opening ceremony in all of its adorable glory!

World’s Largest Trial: Aspirin vs Recurring Cancer

Aspirin has seen documented used since way back in the times of ancient Greece. Alright, so it wasn’t just a pill you could pop back then, but certain plant extracts were found to alleviate headaches, pains and fevers. And what these plant extracts have in common with the aspirin we deal with today is their active ingredient: salicylic acid. Hippocrates, considered the “father of modern medicine” from his work around 400 BC, documented using a powder he made from these plant extracts, such as willow bark, and it helping to alleviate aches and pains. Flash forwards a couple of thousand years and the powder’s makeup has been tweaked and perfected and pressed into tablet form. It’s now used to treat all of those symptoms but also swelling and inflammation, joint pain, and even heart attacks and strokes. It’s also thought that aspirin reduces the overall risk of getting and dying from cancer, as well as preventing some cancers from returning - something that is widely and fiercely debated. Now the world’s largest clinical trial has begun in the UK to put an end to that debate once and for all. And if it’s proven to work, it could provide a cheap but effective way to help more cancer patients survive. The study, funded by the NIHR (the research arm of the NHS) and Cancer Research UK, will involve more than 10,000 people from 100 centres across the UK, and last up to 12 years. Each of the study participants either still needs to be receiving or have previously had treatment for early cancer. The patients in the trial will be split into three groups and take a tablet every day for five years. This tablet could either contain 100mg of aspirin, 300mg, or it could just be a sugar pill placebo (for the control group). The researchers will then check periodically for any recurrences of the patients’ cancer. Professor Ruth Langley, from University College London, is the lead researcher in the trial and explained that so far there hasn’t been a randomised trial to give clear proof as to the cancer benefits aspirin may hold. “If we find that aspirin does stop these cancers from returning, it could change future treatment, providing a cheap and simple way to help stop cancer coming back and helping more people survive,” she said. However, Professor Langley warns that taking aspirin every day is not something that people should try at home without medical advice, as the medication is not suitable for everyone. Doing so comes with a serious health warning about possible side effects, such as ulcers, or even bleeding from the stomach or brain. Cancer Research UK’s Dr Fiona Reddington described aspirin’s possible effects on cancer as fascinating and is hoping the trial will provide the clear answers we’re all looking for. “The trial is especially exciting as cancers that recur are often harder to treat,” she said, “so finding a cheap and effective way to prevent this is potentially game-changing for patients.”

Twitter Chief to Share Shares with Employees

Back last July, Twitter chief Dick Costolo resigned and in stepped co-founder Jack Dorsey to temporarily take his place. Earlier this month, that temporary position became permanent and Dorsey now has a big job on his hands. Over the last couple of the months, several senior managers have left the company and because Twitter hasn't been fairing as well as it could have been of late, Dorsey was stuck with the uncomfortable task of letting more staff go. This led to his recent announcement that he would have to cut 8% of Twitter's workforce, which is about 300 people. Now, of course, Dorsey has to work on boosting his team's morale and transforming the company, and he might have come up with just the way to do that. And so he will be giving away a third of his shares in the company to the employees that work for him. This amounts to around $197 million (£128 million), which is exactly 1% of Twitter, coming directly from his own holdings. His plan is to invest directly in the staff, and as he explained in a tweet last week, "I'd rather have a smaller part in something big, than a bigger part in something small."

As for me: I'd rather have a smaller part of something big than a bigger part of something small. I'm confident we can make Twitter big! ✌️

— Jack (@jack) October 23, 2015

If the shares were to be divided evenly between the 3,700 employees, every person would have about $53,000 worth of Twitter each. However, Dorsey's approach isn't going to be as straightforward as that and the shares instead will be going into a stock pool from which the staff are rewarded based on their performance. This makes more shares available to the employees, yes, but also means there are more shares in the company for incoming and promoted staff members. They can be used to entice a prospective employee to join the team or give someone more reason to stick around. When he made the announcement, Dorsey explained that somewhere along the line, Twitter's relationship with outside app developers become complicated, confusing, and unpredictable. This is obviously not something you want in a company like Twitter, and he felt that this was something that had to be addressed. "We want to come to you today and apologise for that confusion," he said. As if to back up his words, Twitter will be improving the ways developers and publishers alike can manage their Twitter content around the internet, in the hope of further broadening its user base. This includes a new tool called Publish which will help news outlets, for example, to tailor the way embedded tweets look and feel on their websites, as well as releasing a new embed format for their posts where video and photo content is given more prominence. All in all, as with any change in power, Dorsey is going to be making some changes, some good and some bad. But right now, the scales seem to be tipping in the favour of the former, so let's hope that he will be able to restore Twitter to its former glory.    

Changing History: Cleo Snake Death Debunked?

Most of us learned about the fascinating history of the Egyptians when we were at school. Obviously we don't know everything there is to know about the Pharaohs and pyramids, but it seems that there is still so much more to learn about them. Some of the facts we have believed for millennia are even being debunked as you read this. For example, there is still an air of mystery surrounding the death of the Pharaoh Cleopatra. The most widely believed story is that Cleo and two of her handmaidens were killed by a snake - an asp, as the tale goes. Cleopatra died at the age of 39 after a 21-year-long reign of Egypt, after becoming deeply involved with the power struggles going on in the Roman Empire. She bore children from both the Roman Emperor Julius Caesar, and, perhaps more famously, his general, Mark Antony. The story is well known and documented, but there has always been some speculation as to whether the story of Cleopatra's death is genuine, or that she died at someone's hand by being poisoned. As the story is told, a basket of figs was brought to Cleopatra, not only bearing the fruit but also one or more snakes that the Pharaoh could use to kill herself. This was perhaps done by holding her arm out for the creature to bite, or holding the snake to her chest - the handmaidens following suit. But now, some 2000-odd years after their deaths, historians from Manchester in England have declared that it would have been impossible for Cleopatra and her two maids to have been killed by the hypothetical asp. After examining the plausibility of the myth, the team believes that a snake big enough to kill all three people could not have been small enough to be concealed in the basket of fruit. Just to give you an idea of what we're talking about, the Egyptian cobra can grow up to 8 feet long (2.4 metres)! But even if that was managed, it's also unlikely that three consecutive bites from the snake would all have been fatal. Andrew Gray, one of the people responsible for this enlightening news, is Manchester Museum's Curator of Herpetology. He explained that most snake bites don't inject venom, and as a result, there is only a 10% chance that a person would die from one. "That's not to say they aren't dangerous," he added. "The venom causes necrosis and will certainly kill you, but quite slowly." He said that because of this and snakes conserving their venom to only use it in times of need, it would be impossible to use a snake to kill two or more people one after another. Mr Gray and Dr Joyce Tyldesley have introduced these ideas in a video that is part of a new online course about ancient Egyptian history, using items from Manchester Museum's collection. Dr Tyldesley has her own theories, believing that the Pharaoh did indeed commit suicide, just not in the manner suggested. She explained that while suicide in ancient Egypt is practically unheard of, in the Roman world it was seen as an acceptable way of dealing with an otherwise irresolvable problem. As we know, Mark Antony stabbed himself, and Cleopatra was reported as attempting to do the same to herself several times previously. But then, wouldn't using a knife or dagger be an easier solution than enlisting the help of snakes that may or may not fulfil their duty? "Alternatively, maybe she used snake venom that she had already prepared for the occasion," Dr Tyldesley suggested. "But not a live snake - that would be very difficult." Criminal profiler Pat Brown, on the other hand, doesn't believe that Cleopatra killed herself at all and has written extensively about her theory in The Murder of Cleopatra: History's Greatest Cold Case. Brown believes that the Cleo was killed by Roman Emperor Octavian - perhaps better known as Emperor Augustus - who is thought to have trapped Cleopatra and her handmaidens in her mausoleum after the death of Mark Antony. Brown's point is that if Octavian had wanted to keep Cleopatra alive then she wouldn't have been so heavily monitored, which presents the argument that it's more plausible for Octavian to have killed the Pharaoh. We'll never know for sure what happened that day; we can only speculate and base our theories on the facts presented to us. In this case, everything seems to be pointing away from a snake causing the death of Cleopatra.

Heart Attack Test Hugely Reduces Hospital Admissions

There are many causes of chest pain: perhaps it's strained muscles or joint inflammation, pneumonia, a panic attack... or even a dreaded heart attack. The prospect of a heart attack is enough to make anyone want to get checked out at A&E if they have any sort of pain in their chest, and quite rightly so. Unfortunately, should you find yourself in this situation in the UK, you could spend almost a whole day at hospital, only to be sent home with a clean bill of health. This is because 80% of those who visit the A&E with a suspected heart attack are often experiencing something else but have to await the results of a blood test. This blood test checks for a chemical called troponin, which is released by damaged heart muscle during a heart attack. The patient is tested for the chemical when they are first admitted and again 12 hours later, which is a long time to find out you've not had a heart attack. But now a study from the University of Edinburgh has found that a new blood test can determine if someone has had a heart attack much quicker than before - and with almost 100% accuracy. The team says the new test also looks for troponin, but can detect much lower levels and only needs to be checked once. This means that those given the "all clear" can go straight home, reducing stress for patients, saving money for the NHS, and easing pressure on hospital wards. The Lancet study, involving more than 6,300 people, suggested that the test was about 99.6% accurate and so more than two-thirds of patients can be discharged much more quickly. Dr Atul Anand, study co-author and a physician at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, described the findings as "really exciting". "It can be a devastating blow to learn you have had a heart attack," Dr Anand said. "We would much rather be able to rule this diagnosis out early and prevent unnecessary stress and an overnight stay in hospital." He added that it's hoped the team will soon have enough evidence to change current clinical guidelines to ensure more accurate diagnoses of heart attacks. At the moment, not all hospitals have the facilities to perform the new test. But for those that do, the test will cost under £10, and Dr Anand said it would be relatively straightforward to introduce the test. Co-author Dr Anoop Shah was also part of the team to develop a more sensitive heart attack test for women. He said this new troponin test is likely to have major benefits for patients and healthcare providers alike. He explained that there wasn't a quick way to rule out a heart attack until now, and the findings "could dramatically reduce unnecessary hospital admissions and provide substantial savings." Professor Jeremy Pearson is the Associate Medical Director for Research at the British Heart Foundation. He explained that while doctors want to ensure a heart diagnosis is never missed, they also don't want people to have to go through unnecessary tests or spend more time in hospital than they have to. "What's important about this study," he said, "is that the evidence shows you can quickly and confidently rule out a heart attack without compromising patient safety." To find out more about heart attacks and what you should do if you think you are having one, check out the NHS Choices website.

Mammals Thrive in Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

The Chernobyl disaster happened almost thirty years ago, a catastrophic event in the Ukraine that would become known as the worst nuclear accident in history. Around the site is an area known as the Exclusion Zone. It was initially set up soon after the accident as the designated distance for the evacuation of the more-than-100,000 people who lived there, but grew to cover 1,000 square miles (2,600km²). The purpose of the Zone, then and now, is to restrict access to contaminated areas, and make sure that contamination doesn't spread outside the Zone. It's still one of the most radioactively contaminated areas in the world, and yet some people still live there - illegally - despite the Ukrainian government trying to move them on. They've now been informally permitted to stay there, but the population has been steadily declining, and it's thought there are less than 200 people living in the area now. Now, it won't come as a surprise to you that in areas where there are fewer people, wildlife tends to thrive. And Professor Jim Smith of the University of Portsmouth has been leading a team who has been carrying out a long-term census of mammals in the area and found that wildlife has been returning. In fact, it's thought that the number of mammals is higher than they were before the disaster, and the team has published its findings in Current Biology. The team, with the help of colleagues from the Polesye State Radioecological Reserve in Belarus, used various means to estimate how many large and medium mammals were living in the area. They examined the data from aerial surveys and used footprints in the snow to calculate the number of different mammal species there were in the winter. These animal tracks were also tested to measure the levels of radioactive contamination. The first key fact the study revealed was that the abundance of animals was not negatively correlated with radioactivity levels, as was originally suspected. The second was that mammal numbers weren't any lower in the Exclusion Zone that at four different uncontaminated nature reserves in Belarus. The final piece of information the study yielded was that within a year of the disaster, animal populations began to stabilise and recover. In fact, wolf populations are seven times higher in the Zone than in the nearby nature reserves, and the numbers of deer, elk, and wild boar were at similar levels.

Professor Smith explained that although the report didn't look at the health effects of radiation on individual animals, it does reveal what happens in terms of wildlife conservation when you take humans out of the equation. He explained that even just innocently getting on with our everyday lives, humans cause more damage to the wildlife than the world's worst nuclear disaster. "Whatever negative effects there are from radiation, they are not as large as the negative effects of having people there," said the professor. Of course, Chernobyl was a disaster of catastrophic proportions and the study isn't trying to suggest otherwise. Professor Smith simply points out that the event provides a good illustration of just how the human population can affect the environment when compared to a nuclear accident. "Chernobyl caused a lot of human damage," he concluded. "If you can set that aside, it's hard to argue that it's really damaged the ecosystem as a whole."