More than four million tons of seafood are fished from the tropical waters between the Philippines archipelago and delegated to global markets, making the country the 11th largest producer of seafood in the world.

However, scientists have recently discovered two species of microscopic marine algae that produce toxins within shellfish farmed in the region.

The finding has raised concerns for the coastal communities who depend on the industry to make a living.

“It is important to be aware of the toxic potential of these diatoms and to monitor them accordingly, but such efforts must begin by establishing their presence in our waters,” wrote the study authors.

Diatoms are single-celled algae that generate crystalline glass “shells” from hydrated silicon dioxide. These tiny living jewels are part of phytoplankton, which produces up to half of the Earth’s oxygen.

There are millions of diatom species in existence, but only 28 in the genus Pseudo-nitzschia are known to emit a harmful neurotoxin called domoic acid.

Shellfish, sardines, and anchovies can contain domoic acid because their diets are largely made up of marine algae like diatoms.

It is very rare for seafood affected by this toxin to reach our dinner tables. But since human activity has been causing marine algal blooms to become more frequent, the risk of seafood accumulating concerning levels of domoic acid has increased.

If seafood contaminated with too much domoic acid is eaten, it can lead to some serious side effects, from vomiting and diarrhea to amnesia and death.

freshidea – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only

Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.

On Canada’s Prince Edward Island, three people died, and at least 100 people were hospitalized in 1987 after an outbreak of amnesic shellfish poisoning.

The shellfish was laced with domoic acid, which caused the permanent loss of short-term memory. The catastrophe was traced back to blue mussels.

Ever since then, many seafood industries have been closely monitoring Pseudo-nitzschia blooms, so cases of contamination are uncommon in many countries.

But recent research has shown that more focus needs to be put toward the Philippines after finding the amnesia-causing diatoms in shellfish from marine farms off the island of Luzon.

More than half of the Philippines’ population resides in Luzon, and shellfish is a major part of many residents’ diets.

Before the new study, there were only two published surveys of the Pseudo-nitzschia genus in the Philippines.

The first recorded local Pseudo-nitzschia bloom was likely from the island of Cebu. In May 2023, another bloom was detected near Pangasinan, Luzon Island.

The research team collected samples of seawater from Sotto’s Tahong Farm in Bacoor Bay and Pagbilao Bay.

They isolated 15 strains of Pseudo-nitzschia from the seawater and analyzed them in the lab. They found two species in the samples that both produced domoic acid.

Hopefully, the discovery will help seafood producers look out for future harmful algal blooms so they can reduce outbreaks of shellfish amnesic poisoning.

The study was published in Diatom Research.

Of all the ancient cultures and civilizations that scholars know most about, ancient Greece takes the cake. However, there are no surviving historical records between 1200 and 760 B.C.

This period has been referred to as a “dark age” due to the lack of written records following the societal and political collapse of much of the Mediterranean.

The Greek iron ages took place within this period. But since no documents are available, historians have only been able to work with a timeline that uses pottery styles from Athens as its basis.

It is believed that the iron ages started in 1025 and ended in 700 B.C. The Greek Renaissance occurred from 760 B.C. to 700 B.C., emerging in the last period of the iron ages.

During this era, the civilization experienced rapid economic and population growth. It saw the establishment of alphabetic writing, Greek city-states, and Greek colonies abroad. These major developments happened in just 60 years, making the period a rather extraordinary one.

But new research from Assiros and Sindos in northern Greece and Zagora on the island of Andros suggests that this timeline of the Greek iron age is wrong.

After studying pottery, researchers determined that the Greek dark ages were much shorter and the Greek Renaissance lasted much longer than previously thought.

The findings show that Greek society was quicker to recover from the societal collapse than what was assumed in the past.

In 2013, a team of archaeologists exploring the ancient town of Eleon, discovered a vessel in a shrine dating to the last half of the 12th century B.C.

tilialucida – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only

Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.

The vessel was crushed into pieces on the floor of the shrine. It featured concentric circles around a central axis on its surface.

The concentric circles are a hallmark of the protogeometric pottery style, which the researchers believe emerged in Athens during the latter half of the 11th century B.C.

After carefully analyzing these pottery pieces, along with other Greek pottery fragments found at sites that were destroyed during wars, they established dates for the Greek iron ages.

Generally, the protogeometric pottery period was believed to be from 1025 to 900 B.C., the early geometric was from 900 to 850 B.C., the middle geometric was 850 to 750 B.C., and the late geometric, which is equivalent to the Greek Renaissance, was 760 to 700 B.C.

But the team challenged this timeline and argued that the protogeometric style originated during the 12th century B.C. in northern Greece instead.

They examined thin sections of the pottery pieces under a microscope and conducted chemical analyses on the vase to show that it was imported from the lower Axios Valley. The Eleon vessel was also found among Mycenaean pottery dating to the 12th century B.C.

Traditionally, Mycenaean pottery was believed to be produced from the 16th to 11th century B.C. and was followed by the protogeometric style. However, the discovery at Eleon suggested that the two styles actually co-existed for 100 years.

So, the dark ages of Greece would be much shorter and the new start to the iron ages and the Greek Renaissance would be placed 100 years earlier than previously thought.

For instance, the protogeometric period would begin around 1,150 B.C. and end around 1,105 B.C. instead. The Greek Renaissance would’ve started in 870 B.C. and ended in 700 B.C., spanning almost 200 years and becoming much longer.

Imagine faking an illness so well that even doctors are convinced. That is the essence of factitious disorder, which is also known as Munchausen syndrome. It’s all about fabricating symptoms or even tampering with medical tests to appear ill, injured, or impaired.

People with factitious disorder are not trying to invent medical problems for money or other perks, like getting out of work or winning a lawsuit. The gain is believed to be for primarily psychological reasons.

It is classified as a mental illness. People with this puzzling and complex condition are aware that they are causing their own symptoms or sicknesses, but they may not understand why they are behaving in this way or recognize that they have a problem.

Factitious disorder is hard to identify and difficult to treat. People with the disorder will go to great lengths to hide their deception and to receive care and attention.

Symptoms

The signs and symptoms of factitious disorder may include vague/inconsistent symptoms, conditions that worsen for no apparent reason, conditions that don’t respond to standard treatments, seeking treatments from several doctors or hospitals, and an eagerness to undergo testing and surgical operations.

In addition, they may argue with medical staff, be reluctant to let doctors talk to family/friends and have evidence of surgical scars on their bodies.

Types of Factitious Disorder 

There are two types of factitious disorder. One of them is factitious disorder imposed on the self. It involves making up medical histories, exaggerating existing symptoms, faking symptoms altogether, tampering with medical tests, and inflicting self-harm.

brizmaker – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual person

Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.

They might inject themselves with bacteria, feces, gasoline, or milk to make themselves sick. They could injure, cut, or burn themselves. Or they may even take certain medications to imitate diseases.

The second type of factitious disorder is when the illness is imposed on others. People with this kind of factitious disorder will invent symptoms of sickness in others under their care, whether it’s children, older adults, disabled people, or pets.

They will harm their dependents on purpose in order to receive attention. It occurs most often in mothers. The diagnosis is not given to the victim but to the perpetrator.

Risk Factors

The exact cause of factitious disorder is unknown, but several risk factors can contribute to its development. Some theories suggest that a history of childhood trauma, such as neglect and emotional/physical abuse, can lead to factitious disorder.

Other factors include having a serious illness as a child, a poor sense of identity, low self-esteem, depression, personality disorders, receiving attention during past times of sickness, and experiencing the loss of a loved one due to death, illness, or abandonment.

Many patients who have been diagnosed with this condition have also had professional experience in the field of healthcare. The disorder is considered to be rare, but it is unclear how many people suffer from it in the United States.

Some use fake names to avoid detection, some visit multiple doctors/hospitals, and others are never identified. It is estimated that about one percent of those admitted to hospitals have factitious disorder, but the statistic is probably lower than what’s been reported.

Dropping diamond dust from an airplane and letting it scatter throughout the atmosphere could help cool the planet, according to newfound evidence.

A team of researchers from several institutions calculated which materials would be the most effective at cooling the planet via a stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) method.

They used three-dimensional climate models to compare materials and found that a few hundred trillion dollars worth of diamond dust could work well.

Previously, research has shown that the warming of the Earth will worsen global weather patterns if temperatures continue on their current upward trend.

At this point, some experts argue that the only solution to this dire issue is to find a way to cool down the planet as quickly as possible. One idea has been to deploy millions of devices that extract carbon from the air.

However, if our planet is now past the point of return, removing carbon won’t help. Instead, it is necessary to inject aerosols into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight and heat back into space in order to cool down the Earth.

At first, sulfur dioxide gas was deemed the best candidate for the job. Since it is naturally spewed into the atmosphere by volcanoes, scientists have had plenty of opportunities to experiment with it.

So, they have a good idea of what would happen if humans started injecting it into the air themselves. Although the gas would likely counter the warming effects of excess greenhouse gases, it could also have undesired side effects.

Some of the consequences include damage to the ozone layer, disruption of weather patterns in the lower atmosphere, and a return of acid rain around the globe.

Glass Hat – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only

Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.

The research team built a three-dimensional climate model to show the impacts of adding seven different aerosols to the atmosphere—two types of titanium dioxide, aluminum, calcite, silicon carbide, diamond, and sulfur dioxide.

They ranked the suitability of each one in terms of heat absorption, reflectivity, and reactivity. The software also predicted how the aerosols would settle to the ground and whether they would clump together in the atmosphere.

It demonstrated that diamond dust was the best option. The diamond particles would stay in the air for a reasonable amount of time, would not be likely to clump together, and reflect the most light and heat.

In addition, the particles are chemically inert, meaning that they probably won’t react to toxic substances and result in acid rain.

The model suggested that injecting five million tons of synthetic diamond dust into the atmosphere per year could cool the Earth by approximately 34.88 degrees Fahrenheit in 45 years.

But of course, it would come at a huge cost of around $200 trillion, which is about $600,000 per megaton of diamond dust.

The study was published in Geophysical Research Letters.

The Black Death, which was caused by the bacterial agent Yersinia pestis, struck Europe in the mid-14th century. Scotland’s final brush with the bubonic plague occurred from 1644 to 1649.

Researchers from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland have confirmed for the first time that the bacteria responsible for the bubonic plague was present as far as north as Aberdeen during the late 1640s. It was a time when the Scottish population was ravaged by both civil war and disease.

They also discovered surprising acts of care for the dead, even in the face of chaos. The team mapped the plague’s spread in Scotland over the six-year-long epidemic and examined remains excavated from a site in 1987 in York Place, Aberdeen.

The site contained a series of plague pits that were created during the 1647 to 1648 outbreak. The team identified ancient DNA of Yersinia pestis in human remains from one of the plague pits.

“This final Scottish outbreak was thought to have started as a result of infected Scottish soldiers returning from the siege of Newcastle in October 1644,” said Marc Oxenham, the lead author of the study and a professor at the university.

“Initially, in the borders, it spread north over the following years through Central Scotland, Perthshire, and Angus.”

According to an entry in the Council Register of the Burgh, Aberdeen was preparing for the plague’s return by April 1647. The last outbreak in the city happened almost 100 years prior, in 1545.

By this time, Scottish cities and towns were highly experienced in combating the plague. Still, the effects were devastating.

In many regions, populations were facing economic hardship and war, along with the complications of a terrible disease.

Nataliya Hora – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only

Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.

For example, in Brechin, about 600 people, which was half the town’s population, died within a few months of 1647.

The researchers wanted to look into how people responded to the plague and whether there was a general fear of victims of the plague during this last epidemic.

They analyzed the bones and teeth of skeletons recovered from plague pits, confirming that the individuals died between 1647 and 1648. The Yersinia pestis organism was present as well.

Then, they investigated the burial practices related to the pits to determine how the plague victims were treated. What they found was surprisingly positive.

“The plague is generally associated with the digging of plague pits to dispose of the dead, but what the team found was numerous instances of normal burial and memorialization of plague victims within church grounds,” said Dr. Rebecca Crozier, the director of the osteoarchaeology program at the university.

“Clearly, some of these individuals must have been known to be victims of the plague by their mourners whom, it would appear, may have been less afraid of contracting the plague from their dead as we might assume.”

The researchers believe that the findings show signs of care and compassion for the dead, even though having humanity put them at great risk of contracting the disease themselves.

The study was published in the journal PLOS One.