Blue light emitted from the screens of phones, tablets and televisions could induce puberty early, a study has found. In the modern day, children are raised with devices all around them, with many having a phone or tablet to keep them entertained from a young age. But, researchers in Turkey have discovered that it exposure to the blue light such devices give off could speed up the onset of puberty. Teams from the Gazi University and Bilkent City Hospital in Ankara revealed how they saw the effect in male rats, which could suggest a link between device screens and early childhood development. Their findings were presented at the 61st Annual European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology Meeting in The Hague and published in the Frontiers in Endocrinology journal. The study emulates the same findings that were observed in female rats, where early puberty was seen. Lead researcher Dr. Aylin Kılınç Uğurlu, of Bikent City Hospital, said: “For the first time, we found a direct relationship between blue light exposure and early puberty in male rats.” They continued: “Our findings align with our previous work on female rats, which also showed similar effects, thereby providing a more comprehensive view of how blue light may influence puberty in both male and female rats.” As part of the study, 18 male rats, all 21 days old, were split into three groups. Two of the groups were assigned either six or 12 hours of blue light exposure per day. The last group was a control and was not exposed to any blue light from screens. Results showed that the rats with exposure to blue light experienced signs of puberty “significantly earlier” compared with the control group. Uğurlu noted in a news report: “I want to emphasise that this is a rat study and direct results cannot be interpreted for humans. “However, we provide an experimental foundation to further investigate the health consequences of ever-increasing screen time in modern society.” Researchers hope to continue their study on the effects of blue light on rats to “understand its long-term effects on reproductive organ damage and fertility”. Uğurlu continued: “Ultimately, this research could lead to preventative measures and contribute to the ongoing discourse on how modern lifestyles affect physiological development and long-term health.” Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter 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.

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A white dwarf star is undergoing the process of turning into a “cosmic diamond” as it begins to crystalise. The lullaby “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” talks about stars in the sky looking like diamonds, but for one specific type of star, that observation is truer than for others. Astronomers have observed that when a specific type of dead star starts to cool, it begins to crystalise and harden. An international team of astronomers, led by Alexander Venner of the University of Southern Queensland in Australia, have explained in a new paper Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society how a white dwarf star around 104 light-years away is doing just that. They noticed that the star, composed primarily of carbon and metallic oxygen, has a temperature-mass profile that suggests its centre is hardening into a dense “cosmic diamond” made of crystallised carbon and oxygen. The study explained: "In this work we present the discovery of a new Sirius-like quadruple system at 32 parsecs distance, composed of a crystallizing white dwarf companion to the previously known triple HD 190412.” Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter It continued: “By virtue of its association with these main sequence companions, this is the first crystallizing white dwarf whose total age can be externally constrained, a fact that we make use of by attempting to empirically measure a cooling delay caused by core crystallization in the white dwarf.” All stars eventually die out when they run out of energy. Of those that have a mass of less than around eight times that of the Sun, the vast majority will form a white dwarf star. The matter of a white dwarf star is highly compressed and as they gradually cool, they evolve into a black dwarf star when they lose heat and crystalise. Scientists’ calculations estimate the process takes around a quadrillion years (one million billion years) to complete, though the signs that the process is occurring can be identified by experts. 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.

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Elon Musk says he will drive a Tesla to Mark Zuckerberg’s home in the hope that their on-again-off-again mixed martial arts fight will break out. Mr Musk took to X, the site formerly known as Twitter, to detail his latest plans to try and fight with the Facebook founder after Mr Zuckerberg cancelled it saying that his rival was not serious about the bout. “Knock, knock … challenge accepted … open the door @finkd,” tweeted Mr Musk on Monday. And he added: “For the Tesla FSD test drive in Palo Alto tonight, I will ask the car to drive to @finkd’s house. “Will also test latest X livestream video, so you can monitor our adventure in real-time! If we get lucky and Zuck...actually answers the door, the fight is on!” And in a follow-up post, he took more shots at his tech rival for ditching the contest. “(Zuck thread coming soon about how he would of course love to fight anytime, but blah blah UFC something something)” he wrote. Mr Zuckerberg announced that he was backing out of the fight on Sunday night because Mr Musk would not agree to a format and kept changing details for the bout. “I think we can all agree Elon isn’t serious and it’s time to move on,” Mr Zuckerberg wrote. “I offered a real date. Dana White offered to make this a legit competition for charity. Elon won’t confirm a date, then says he needs surgery, and now asks to do a practice round in my backyard instead. “If Elon ever gets serious about a real date and official event, he knows how to reach me. Otherwise, time to move on. I’m going to focus on competing with people who take the sport seriously.” Read More X: Elon Musk removes last parts of Twitter branding from website Mark Zuckerberg hits out at Elon Musk for wasting time over cage fight: ‘It’s time to move on’ Mark Zuckerberg plays down Elon Musk’s cage fight details ‘Gladiator’: Elon Musk reveals more details of fight with Mark Zuckerberg Musk vs Zuckerberg: UFC president meets Italy’s culture minister to discuss fight at Colosseum The last parts of Twitter are being removed Mark Zuckerberg hits out at Elon Musk for wasting time over cage fight Elon Musk reveals more dramatic details of fight against Mark Zuckerberg

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