For those who've been busy and missed them, here are most important scientific discoveries and announcements of the week

Oct 12, 2014 20:57 GMT  ·  By
This week, scientists announced the recovery of several artifacts from a 2,000-year-old shipwreck
   This week, scientists announced the recovery of several artifacts from a 2,000-year-old shipwreck

It's been another week and we are once again a wee wiser than we were just a few days ago. As per usual, it's scientists who we should be thanking for the fact that we now know more about the world we live in.

For those who've had a rather hectic schedule and haven't had the chance to stay tuned, but also for those who feel like a recap, here are the 10 most important scientific discoveries and announcements of the week.

10. Texas Ebola patient passed away in isolation

Not to ruin your day, but it need be said that, this week, the deadly Ebola virus claimed its first victim in the US. Thus, it was this past October 8 that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced the death of 42-year-old Thomas Eric Duncan.

The man was admitted to the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas in late September and almost immediately put in isolation. Despite doctors' best efforts to treat him, he eventually succumbed to the horrific disease that got to him while he was in Liberia.

Following the death of Thomas Eric Duncan, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that it would implement enhanced Ebola screening at five airports in the country. These airports receive 94% of the people who travel to the US from West Africa.

9. Venezuela got its first predatory dinosaur

This week, paleontologists announced the discovery of the fossilized remains of a predatory dinosaur in present-day Venezuela. The beast is believed to have roamed the Earth about 200 million years ago, and researchers say that it was no bigger than a puma.

As detailed in a paper in the journal Royal Society Open Science, these dinosaur remains unearthed in Venezuela belong to a previously undocumented species that paleontologists saw fit to name Tachiraptor admirabilis.

Interestingly enough, this dinosaur species is only the second to have until now been discovered in this country. What's more, scientists say that Tachiraptor admirabilis is Venezuela's first predatory dinosaur.

8. Beer found to owe its aroma to fruit flies

If you love beer but hate fruit flies, chances are you are not going to like this piece of news. Not if you are anything but ready and willing to change your opinion of the pesky insects and start showing them some much deserved respect.

Not to beat about the bush, it appears that fruit flies are to thank for beer's distinctive scent and aroma. More precisely, it's fruit flies that like to feast on yeast and that help spread its cells that indirectly influence the smell of beer.

As explained by scientists, beer owes its smell to a special gene found in the common brewer's yeast. The thing is that the yeast did not develop this gene looking to please us humans, but to attract fruit flies. Hence, without these insects, yeast would have a totally different odor and so would our beer.

7. Beardless Jesus found on 4th-century glass plate

While exploring an archaeological site in Spain, researchers came across a 4th-century glass plate said to depict Jesus and two of his apostles, most likely Peter and Paul. The glass plate was discovered in the town of Linares.

What's really wacky about this glass plate is the fact that, contrary to expectations, it shows a beardless Jesus. That's right, the Jesus pictured on this artifact unearthed in Spain looks nothing like the one depicted in modern religious iconography.

Besides, the Jesus engraved on this 4th-century glass plate has fairly short and surprisingly curly hair. How and why this biblical figure ended up being depicted as having long hair and an impressive beard in later imagery remains a mystery.

6. NASA announced to have invested in therapeutic hypothermia

Not that this was a fiercely guarded secret, but one piece of news that made headlines this week was about NASA's investments in a science-fiction sort of technology known as therapeutic hypothermia.

For those unaware, therapeutic hypothermia boils down to cooling the human body up to the point where an individual enters a deep sleep state known to the scientific community as torpor. While in this state, a person’s energy requirements drop by a considerable extent.

Apparently, NASA agreed to invest in developing this technology in the hope that it might be possible to use therapeutic hypothermia to make future astronauts' trip to Mars a wee more pleasant. Thus, the idea is to put the astronauts to sleep and only wake them up when they reach the Red Planet.

5. Men argued to be weaker than women because of their bones

This week, the International Osteoporosis Foundation released a report saying that, as weird as this might sound, their bones make men way weaker than women. The report was released in anticipation of the World Osteoporosis Day on October 20.

What specialists with the Foundation mean when they say that their bones make men weaker than women is that, too often, osteoporosis remains undiagnosed and therefore untreated in male adults. The result is that many of them are highly vulnerable to potentially life-threatening fractures.

What's really worrying is that, according to the Foundation's report, osteoporosis is not properly diagnosed in men not because doctors are clueless about the symptoms of this disease, but because many work on the assumption that this condition affects women and women alone.

4. WWII soldiers found to have engraved ancient cistern

While exploring a 1,700-year-old water cistern in Israel and an adjacent 1,900-year-old ritual bath, archaeologists came across some peculiar engravings. The graffiti, visible on the water cistern's ceiling, was created by WWII soldiers who underwent combat training in Israel back in 1940.

Researchers with the Israel Antiquities Authority detail that the WWII graffiti found on the ceiling of the 1,700-year-old water cistern comprised two names, the initials RAE, argued to stand for the Royal Australian Engineers, two serial numbers, and the date 30/05/1940.

Based on this information, historians established that the people who created the engravings were Corporals Philip William Scarlett and Patrick Raphael Walsh. These soldiers both survived the war, and passed away in 1970 and 2005, respectively.

3. Black hole found to have a freakishly big appetite

A black hole located at a distance of about 12 million light-years from our planet was found to have a positively frightening appetite. In a nutshell, this black hole, dubbed P13, is said to eat the weight equivalent of 100 billion billion hot dogs every minute.

As detailed by astronomers, the black hole is located on the outskirts of a galaxy known to the scientific community as NGC7793. It gets the gas that it is so fond of eating from a nearby star that specialists refer to as a donor.

What's interesting is that, despite its huge appetite, P13 is actually quite small. Thus, scientists say that this black hole is consuming gas at a rate 10 times greater than believed possible given its size. Because of all the gas it has until now consumed, the black hole appears 1 million times brighter than our Sun.

2. Untested stimulant drug found in diet supplements

This past Wednesday, scientists published a report announcing the discovery of an untested stimulant drug in as many as 12 sports and weight loss supplements marketed across the world. The drug in question is dubbed 1,3-dimethylbutylamine (DMBA).

Specialists warn that the chemical makeup of this drug strongly resembles that of a compound that the US Food and Drug Administration outlawed back in 2012 after studies found it to be a threat to public health and likely to cause people to develop heart and neuronal conditions.

Mind you, nobody is saying that the DMBA found in the sports and weight loss supplements analyzed by scientists is without a doubt harmful. Still, people need be made aware of the fact that, since it hasn't until now been tested on humans and its side effects are unknown, the compound might be dangerous.

1. Artifacts recovered from so-called Titanic of the ancient world

Earlier this week, on Thursday, underwater archaeologists and divers announced that they had managed to recover several artifacts from a vessel resting on the seafloor in the waters off the coast of the island of Antikythera in Greece.

The ship was carrying an impressive treasure comprising jewelry, bronze and marble statues, glassware, and even furniture at the time when it sank over 2,000 years ago. Hence, researchers like to refer to it as the Titanic of the ancient world.

The shipwreck was first discovered by a group of sponge divers back in 1900. This year, underwater archaeologists and divers set out to explore it in detail, and pulled tableware, anchors, and even a bronze spear from the seafloor.

The bronze spear found among the remains of this ancient ship measures about 2 meters (6.5 feet) in length and is fairly heavy. Hence, specialists believe that it was never used in combat, and that it instead used to be part and parcel of a statue.

Well, these are the 10 most important scientific announcements and discoveries of the week. Here's hoping you've found this round-up to your liking, and be sure to check out this page again next Sunday to keep tabs on what researchers are up to these days.