Back in the day, it’s said that people looked a lot older earlier in life than they do now. As it turns out, there’s a few reasons why. A video essay exploring the phenomenon from Vsauce posits a few explanations why we notice people looking older at a younger age in old footage and photographs. For one, the improvements in standards of living and advancements in healthcare over the years offer an obvious factor. There’s also subconscious bias surrounding fashions from years gone by and their connection with older generations. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter However, a study from 2018 also explored how biological ageing has changed in a short space of time. Did People Used To Look Older? www.youtube.com It found that human beings are actually biologically “younger” now than ever when it comes to changes in things like blood pressure – so there’s an actual physical difference between the generations that explains why people looked older sooner back in the day. The study explained that this is down to factors such as a fall in smoking, reading: "Over the past 20 years, the biological age of the U.S. population seems to have decreased for males and females across the age range. "However, the degree of change has not been the same for men and women or by age. Our results showed that young males experienced greater improvements than young females. This finding may explain why early adult mortality has decreased more for males than females, contributing to a narrowing of the gender mortality gap. Additionally, improvements were also larger for older adults than they were for younger adults." Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 24, 2023--

CITY OF INDUSTRY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 1, 2023--

Nasa has released the most colourful picture of the universe ever made. The space agency created the image by combining data from the James Webb and Hubble space telescopes to capture light that has never been seen before in one image. The picture shows the galaxy cluster known as MACS0416, which is about 4.3 billion light years from Earth. The reds, blues and bright yellows of the picture represent one of the most comprehensive views of the universe ever taken, Nasa said. The colours represent the wavelengths of light captured, going from the shortest in blue to the longest in red. Those colours also help show the distances of those galaxies. Those galaxies that are closer and more active tend to be blue, while the red ones are further away – though some are also red because the vast amount of cosmic dust in the galaxy absorbs the blue of the light from stars. It was created by gathering both visible and infrared light captured by both telescopes. The original imagery was taken by Hubble in 2014, which captured some of the faintest and youngest galaxies ever detected, and it was then combined with Webb’s infrared data to look even further into the early universe. As well as making for a stunning image, researchers are already studying the data used to create it to examine the galaxy cluster and what it might mean for the universe as a whole. The Webb observations can be used to find “transients”, which are objects that change brightness over time. In the image there are some 14 transients – most of which are likely to be individual stars that are becoming brighter, with a minority that are thought to be supernovae. “We’re calling MACS0416 the Christmas Tree Galaxy Cluster, both because it’s so colorful and because of these flickering lights we find within it. We can see transients everywhere,” said Haojing Yan of the University of Missouri in Columbia, lead author of one paper describing the scientific results. One of them in particular is notable, and has been named Mothra. The object is being magnified by up to 4,000 by a process called gravitational lensing – and is notable because it was in both the new Webb images and the original Hubble ones. Scientists still don’t know how that could happen, since the alignment of galaxy clusters and stars needed to magnify something that much is delicate and would be expected to change. Scientists believe that the likely explanation is another unseen object that could be up to a million times bigger than our Sun and is unidentified. “The most likely explanation is a globular star cluster that’s too faint for Webb to see directly,” stated Jose Diego of the Instituto de Física de Cantabria in Spain, lead author of the paper detailing the finding. “But we don’t know the true nature of this additional lens yet.” The findings are detailed in two new papers, one to be published in The Astrophysical Journal and another that already appears in Astronomy & Astrophysics. Read More Nasa gets ‘puzzling’ data back from spacecraft exploring distant object Nasa sending VR headset up to ISS to treat astronaut’s mental health All-UK space mission will ‘push boundaries of human knowledge’ All-female Nasa astronaut team departs International Space Station on spacewalk Watch: Nasa astronauts step out of ISS for spacewalk Jupiter has a creepy ‘face’ in haunting Halloween photo by NASA

BASKING RIDGE, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 21, 2023--

Mark Zuckerberg is being criticised by some for perceived hypocrisy, after the Facebook co-founder posted a 4th of July photo of his family but obscured the faces of his daughters. To celebrate Independence Day, the tech billionaire posted on one of the tech platforms he oversees, Instagram, sharing a photo of himself, his wife Priscilla Chan, and their three daughters, Aurelia, Maxima, and August. “Happy July 4th!” the caption on the post reads. “Lots to be grateful for this year. As the big girls get older, I love talking to them about why America is so great. Looking forward to discussing with little Aurelia soon too.” The post was met with mixed reactions, with some arguing it was hypocritical for Zuckerberg to seek to protect the privacy of his children, when Facebook and Instagram have been accused of violating people’s privacy in the past. One of the top comments on the photo came from an Instagram user who argued, “Even Zuck doesn’t trust his platforms to put his kids faces up.” Many agreed. As Shanon Palus wrote in Slate, “I almost feel some schadenfreude imagining Zuckerberg also agonizing over being public or private on social media. After all, he got us into this mess!” “Fascinated by Zuck’s choice to not have his kids’ faces on his social media platform,” added Bloomberg reporter Reyhan Harmanci in a post on Twitter. Zuckerberg companies have faced multiple high-profile settlements surrounding privacy in recent months. In May, the Federal Trade Commission accused Facebook of violating a 2020 order and misleading parents about their ability to control whom their children communicated with on the Messenger Kids app, as well as misrepresenting what kind of access developers had to private user data. “Facebook has repeatedly violated its privacy promises,” Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, told The Associated Press at the time. “The company’s recklessness has put young users at risk, and Facebook needs to answer for its failures.” Meta has said the FTC is incorrect and it will “vigorously fight” the allegations. That same month, the European Union fined Meta $1.3bn for transferring user data to the US, which the body said didn’t sufficiently protect users from US spy agencies. Meta has said it will appeal the fine. In 2022, the company paid $725m to settle a lawsuit alleging Facebook allowed millions of users’ personal data to be fed without consent to Cambridge Analytica, a firm which supported Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Prior to that, the FTC fined the company $5bn for privacy violations and mishandling user data. The Independent has contacted Meta for comment. Read More Twitter threatens legal action against Meta over new ‘Threads’ app Mark Zuckerberg trolls Elon Musk by posting Spider-Man meme on Twitter after launching rival Threads What is Threads? All your questions about Meta's new Twitter rival, answered. Twitter threatens legal action against Meta over new ‘Threads’ app What is Threads? All your questions about Meta's new Twitter rival, answered. Mark Zuckerberg trolls Elon Musk with Spider-Man meme after launching Twitter rival

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Mysterious blasts coming from deep in space could be the result of “starquakes”, according to a new study. For years, scientists have been observing fast radio bursts, or FRBs, coming from distant parts of space. They are very intense, very short blasts of energy – and despite finding many of them, researchers still do not know where they are coming from or how they might be formed. Now, scientists have spotted that there is appears to be similarities between those FRBs and earthquakes. Researchers behind the new study suggest that the blasts could be the result of similar behaviour on neutron stars, known as starquakes. It is just one possible explanation for the unusual bursts, which have led to suggestions they could be anything from neutron stars colliding with black holes to alien technology. Most have settled on the belief that at least some of those FRBs come from neutron stars, however, which are formed when supergiant stars collapse into an incredibly dense, small object. In the new study, researchers looked at data from nearly 7,000 bursts, taken from three different sources that are sending out repeated FRBs, examining the time and energy that they emerged in. They then also looked at earthquake information taken from Japan, and data on solar flares, and looked to compare the three. There was little connection between FRBs and solar flares, the researchers found. But there was a striking similarity between the blasts and earthquakes. “The results show notable similarities between FRBs and earthquakes in the following ways: First, the probability of an aftershock occurring for a single event is 10-50%; second, the aftershock occurrence rate decreases with time, as a power of time; third, the aftershock rate is always constant even if the FRB-earthquake activity (mean rate) changes significantly; and fourth, there is no correlation between the energies of the main shock and its aftershock,” said Tomonori Totani from the University of Tokyo, one of the leaders of the study. The findings have led scientists to speculate that there is a solid crust on the outer surface of neutron stars. That crust then experiences starquakes in the same way the Earth’s surface does – and those quakes then let out powerful blasts of energy that make their way to us as FRBs. But researchers say they will need to further examine those FRBs to better understand the connection between the two – as well as to help give us information about quakes and other physical phenomena that are closer to home. “By studying starquakes on distant ultradense stars, which are completely different environments from Earth, we may gain new insights into earthquakes,” said Professor Totani. “The interior of a neutron star is the densest place in the universe, comparable to that of the interior of an atomic nucleus. “Starquakes in neutron stars have opened up the possibility of gaining new insights into very high-density matter and the fundamental laws of nuclear physics.” The research is described in a new paper, ‘Fast radio bursts trigger aftershocks resembling earthquakes, but not solar flares’, published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

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