Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday said the world needs right policies and institutions to help young women choose a career in science and technology. “We need more women and girls in science for a just, inclusive, and sustainable future. We must have the right policies and institutions for young women to choose a career in science and technology,” she said. The prime minister said this in a video statement that was played in the 9th International Day of Women and Girls in Science Assembly at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. She mentioned that it is important that women in science are promoted to leadership positions. PM Hasina hails January-7  election as the freest since 1975  “In Bangladesh, I personally commit to advancing the work of our women scientists through recognition and incentives,” she said. The prime minister mentioned that the government is digitally empowering thousands of women and girls across the country. “I feel delighted to see their vibrant presence in the digital marketplace. We offer dedicated training for young women to help them grow as IT freelancers. I wish to see our young people with disabilities transform their lives through digital inclusion,” she said. Hasina said that the government is expanding technical and vocational education for women to help them prepare for the future of work. ISRO Chandrayaan-3: 9 Women Scientists Who Led India’s Moon Landing “We have made it mandatory for all high school graduates to get an education in science and ICT,” she said. The premier said that in the past the number of female students in higher education, especially in science and technology, was not satisfactory. However, she said, the participation of women in science education has improved significantly in recent years due to our concerted efforts. She mentioned that in public universities of Bangladesh, about 40 percent of total students are female, while in private universities, their percentage is 30. Women should be proud of PM Hasina for her capability, leadership: India's President “We make sure that women get preference in the research and innovation grants we offer. Our young girls need to be prepared to realise our vision of a ‘Smart Bangladesh’,” she added, PM Hasina vowed to always remain devoted to women's and girls’ education in science and technology. According to the United Nations a significant gender gap has persisted throughout the years at all levels of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines all over the world. Dr Gawsia and Dr Senjuti from Bangladesh among top 100 Asian scientists Even though women have made tremendous progress towards increasing their participation in higher education, they are still under-represented in these fields. It said that gender equality has always been a core issue for the United Nations. Gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls will make a crucial contribution not only to economic development of the world, but to progress across all the goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, as well. On 14 March 2011, the Commission on the Status of Women adopted a report at its fifty-fifth session, with agreed conclusions on access and participation of women and girls in education, training and science and technology, and for the promotion of women’s equal access to full employment and decent work. On 20 December 2013, the General Assembly adopted a resolution on science, technology and innovation for development, in which it recognised that full and equal access to and participation in science, technology and innovation for women and girls of all ages is imperative for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. Read more: Bangladeshi imaging scientist Nayma shines on global stage

Since it became publicly accessible in November last year, ChatGPT – an AI chatbot created by OpenAI Company – has dominated the discourse on the internet and social media. Based on the Generative Pre-Trained Transformer 3 or GPT-3 language paradigm, ChatGPT is capable of carrying on a conversation, responding to inquiries, producing stories, poems, and comics, as well as resolving challenging programming issues. ChatGPT has also participated in and even passed numerous challenging examinations across the globe including the Wharton MBA Exam, the American Medical Licensing Exam, and the Law School Exam, as part of esperiment. Although the chatbot recently failed the Indian UPSC (Union Public Service Commission) exam, which is the benchmark test for recruitment to higher civil services of the Government of India, Bangladeshi netizens wondered whether ChatGPT would be able to pass the BCS (Bangladesh Civil Service) exam or not. Science Bee, one of the largest science-based education platforms for youths in the country, has recently revealed on its social media platforms that ChatGPT has “successfully passed” the BCS preliminary exam, scoring 130 out of 200 marks in total. Read More: Top 5 AI Chatbot Platforms and Trends in 2023 Talking about the experiment with UNB, Science Bee Founder Mobin Sikder and Executive Member Metheela Farzana Melody shared how the team tested the chatbot for BCS exam, following a month of planning and preparation and seven days of frequent testing. “First of all, we researched how to take the test to get the most realistic results,” Mobin told UNB. “Since ChatGPT is trained on a dataset available till September 2021, we decided to conduct the test on the questions of the latest BCS exam – 44th BCS, held in May 2022.” “After selecting the exam, we collected the question papers and answers. Since the question paper is allowed to be taken away after the exam, securing it did not require much time. The answer sheet is, however, not published directly. So, we prepared the final answer sheet on our own, after multiple testing from various third-party sources,” team Science Bee explained. Language barrier emerged as a headache during the experiment as BCS exam is conducted in Bangla language and the chatbot is trained in English. It had to be translated into English in order to keep the exam fair. Read More: Google's AI Chatbot Bard: All You Need to Know In the 44th BCS, 1 mark was allotted for each question where the candidate got 1 mark for the correct answer, and 0.5 mark was deducted for each wrong answer. However, candidates had the option to skip or not answer any question; in that case, no marks were added or subtracted. The same mark distribution was provided to ChatGPT and at the beginning, it was informed about the MCQ exam and command through text prompt – and it became ready to take the exam. However, there were some picture-based questions, according to team Science Bee. Since ChatGPT-3 is not multimodal, it cannot read or understand images; hence it was not possible to input those questions, so those were rejected. Besides, it was not possible to translate some questions related to Bangla language and literature into English as it would change the thematic description. “The total number of such rejected questions was 22. As these are weaknesses of ChatGPT, invalid questions were treated as unanswered and no negative marking was done,” according to team Science Bee. The remaining 178 questions were asked to ChatGPT with options, and it answered 142 questions correctly. 24 questions were answered incorrectly and while answering the remaining 12, the chatbot stated that the correct answer option was not found. That means the chatbot got 142 marks for as many correct answers, 12 marks were deducted for providing 24 wrong answers, and no marks were deducted or added for no answer. So, as per the 44th BCS exam questions, ChatGPT passed with a total of 130 marks. Read More: ChatGPT by Open AI: All you need to know In the 44th BCS exam, a total of 3,50,716 candidates applied and of them, 2,76,760 candidates participated in the preliminary exam. Only 15,708 candidates passed the preliminary exam, according to reports. “As there is no specific pass mark for BCS and the cut-off mark is not officially released, we were in touch with several candidates who appeared for the 44th BCS exam. According to the information given by them, the cut-off mark in general cadre was 125±. Since ChatGPT secured 130 marks in our test, it can be said that ChatGPT has successfully passed BCS preliminary exam,” team Science Bee told UNB. Further explaining the performance of the chatbot, Science Bee said that according to the test, ChatGPT was able to answer the questions quite well. However, it was pretty weak in Bangla language and literature category where it answered only 5 out of 35 questions. On the other hand, it performed well in the categories of science, computer or English language and literature. It took a considerable amount of time to answer most of the questions in the mental skills or math categories correctly. “Besides, many times there have been incidents like getting stuck in the middle of answering. In that case, we had to take the help of ‘Regenerate Response’ to proceed and move forward,” team Science Bee said. Read More: AI & Future of Jobs: Will Artificial Intelligence or Robots Take Your Job? The questions for the exam were collected and translated by Metheela. Overall management of the test was conducted by Science Bee’s Content Production Head Annoy Debnath, and the final report was edited by Mobin and Sadia Binte Chowdhury. “We did this test as part of an interesting experiment and will conduct further tests with other examinations when ChatGPT-4 will be available. The chatbot is learning consistently and becoming powerful every single day, and through this type of test, we want to convey a message to aspiring learners and students that we need to move one step ahead of ChatGPT with our learnings.” “That means, we need to stop relying on memorising and copy-paste practices because ChatGPT can do it and will be doing it even better with future versions, and also there are other AI projects in the pipeline such as Google’s Bard. It can be a great assistant and companion to humankind, and it will not replace anyone if we can continue to improve our learning. That is the motto of our research, aligned with our motto and tagline ‘learn like never before’. We want people to understand the importance of learning and be skilled in order to make AI useful,” Mobin and team Science Bee told UNB. (Details of the test can be found on Science Bee's Facebook page and website.) Read More: How Can Artificial Intelligence Improve Healthcare?

When Rylae-Ann Poulin was a year old, she didn’t crawl or babble like other kids her age. A rare genetic disorder kept her from even lifting her head. Her parents took turns holding her upright at night just so she could breathe comfortably and sleep. Then, months later. doctors delivered gene therapy directly to her brain. Now the 4-year-old is walking, running, swimming, reading and riding horses — “just doing so many amazing things that doctors once said were impossible,” said her mother, Judy Wei. Rylae-Ann, who lives with her family in Bangkok, was among the first to benefit from a new way of delivering gene therapy — attacking diseases inside the brain — that experts believe holds great promise for treating a host of brain disorders. Her treatment recently became the first brain-delivered gene therapy after its approval in Europe and the United Kingdom for AADC deficiency, a disorder that interferes with the way cells in the nervous system communicate. New Jersey drugmaker PTC Therapeutics plans to seek U.S. approval this year. Meanwhile, about 30 U.S. studies testing gene therapy to the brain for various disorders are ongoing, according to the National Institutes of Health. One, led by Dr. Krystof Bankiewicz at Ohio State University, also targets AADC deficiency. Others test treatments for disorders such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s. Challenges remain, especially with diseases caused by more than a single gene. But scientists say the evidence supporting this approach is mounting — opening a new frontier in the fight against disorders afflicting our most complex and mysterious organ. “There’s a lot of exciting times ahead of us,” said Bankiewicz, a neurosurgeon. “We’re seeing some breakthroughs.” ___ The most dramatic of those breakthroughs involve Rylae-Ann’s disease, which is caused by mutations in a gene needed for an enzyme that helps make neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin, the body’s chemical messengers. The one-time treatment delivers a working version of the gene. At around 3 months old, Rylae-Ann began having spells her parents thought were seizures — her eyes would roll back and her muscles would tense. Fluid sometimes got into her lungs after feedings, sending her to the emergency room. Doctors thought she might have epilepsy or cerebral palsy. Around that time, Wei's brother sent her a Facebook post about a child in Taiwan with AADC deficiency. The extremely rare disorder afflicts about 135 children worldwide, many in that country. Wei, who was born in Taiwan, and her husband, Richard Poulin III, sought out a doctor there who correctly diagnosed Rylae-Ann. They learned she could qualify for a gene therapy clinical trial in Taiwan. Though they were nervous about the prospect of brain surgery, they realized she likely wouldn’t live past 4 years old without it. Rylae-Ann had the treatment at 18 months old on November 13, 2019 — which her parents have dubbed her “reborn day.” Doctors delivered it during minimally invasive surgery, with a thin tube through a hole in the skull. A harmless virus carried in a functioning version of the gene. “It gets put into the brain cells and then the brain cells make the (neurotransmitter) dopamine,” said Stuart Peltz, CEO of PTC Therapeutics. Company officials said all patients in their clinical trials showed motor and cognitive improvements. Some of them, Peltz said, could eventually stand and walk, and continue getting better over time. Bankiewicz said all 40 or so patients in his team’s NIH-funded study also saw significant improvements. His surgical approach is more involved and delivers the treatment to a different part of the brain. It targets relevant circuits in the brain, Bankiewicz said, like planting seeds that cause ivy to sprout and spread. “It’s really amazing work,” said Jill Morris, a program director with the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, which helped pay for the research. “And he has seen a lot of consistency between patients.” One is 8-year-old Rian Rodriguez-Pena, who lives with her family near Toronto. Rian got gene therapy in 2019, shortly before her 5th birthday. Two months later, she held her head up for the first time. She soon started using her hands and reaching for hugs. Seven months after surgery, she sat up on her own. “When the world was crumbling around us with COVID, we were at our house celebrating like it was the biggest party of our lives because Rian was just crushing so many milestones that were impossible for so long,” said her mom, Shillann Rodriguez-Pena. “It’s a completely different life now.” ___ Scientists say there are challenges to overcome before this approach becomes widespread for more common brain diseases. For example, the timing of treatment is an issue. Generally, earlier in life is better because diseases can cause a cascade of problems over the years. Also, disorders with more complex causes — like Alzheimer's — are tougher to treat with gene therapy. “When you’re correcting one gene, you know exactly where the target is,” said Morris. Ryan Gilbert, a biomedical engineer at New York's Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, said there can also be issues with the gene-carrying virus, which can potentially insert genetic information in an indiscriminate way. Gilbert and other researchers are working on other delivery methods, such as messenger RNA – the technology used in many COVID-19 vaccines – to deliver a genetic payload to the nucleus of cells. Scientists are also exploring ways to deliver gene therapy to the brain without the dangers of brain surgery. But that requires getting around the blood-brain barrier, an inherent roadblock designed to keep viruses and other germs that may be circulating in the bloodstream out of the brain. A more practical hurdle is cost. The price of gene therapies, borne mostly by insurers and governments, can run into the millions. The one-time PTC therapy, called Upstaza, costs more than $3 million in Europe, for example. But drugmakers say they are committed to ensuring people get the treatments they need. And researchers are confident they can overcome the remaining scientific obstacles to this approach. “So I would say gene therapy can be leveraged for many sorts of brain diseases and disorders,” Gilbert said. "In the future, you’re going to see more technology doing these kinds of things.” The families of Rylae-Ann and Rian said they hope other families dealing with devastating genetic diseases will someday get to see the transformations they’ve seen. Both girls are continuing to improve. Rian is playing, eating all sorts of foods, learning to walk and working on language. Rylae-Ann is in preschool, has started a ballet class, and is reading at a kindergarten level. When her dad picks her up, “she runs to me ... just gives me a hug and says, ‘I love you, Daddy.’ he said. “It’s like it’s a normal day, and that’s all we ever wanted as parents.” ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Tech companies of all sizes are showing off their latest products at CES, formerly known as the Consumer Electronics show. The show is getting back to normal after going completely virtual in 2021 and seeing a significant drop in 2022 attendance because of the pandemic. Exhibitors range from big names including Sony and LG to tiny startups. You might see the next big thing or something that will never make it past the prototype stage. On Tuesday night, the show kicked off with media previews from just some of the 3,000 companies signed up to attend. CES officially opens Thursday. Read More: CES 2023: Russian exhibitors barred from tech show Best Products of CES 2023 Here are some highlights: POKEMON, BUT MAKE IT BIRDS Bird Buddy showed off a smart bird feeder that takes snapshots of feathered friends as they fly in to eat some treats. The startup says its AI technology can recognize more than 1,000 species of birds, allowing users to share through a mobile app what kind of birds they’re feeding. “We try to kind of gamify the collection so it’s a really fun game that you can play — almost like a real life Pokémon Go with real animals and wildlife in your backyard,” said Kyle Buzzard, the company’s co-founder and chief hardware officer. The product has already sparked some interest from consumers who want to show the world what birds are coming into their backyards. The company, which began as a Kickstarter project in 2020, says it started shipping its bird feeders in September and has already sold all 100,000 in its inventory. The price for the basic feeder is $199. Read more: Top 5 Inventions of Scientist Isaac Newton ELECTRIC SKATES Journalists had fun zipping around the exhibit hall on remote-controlled, electric inline skates from French startup AtmosGear. The battery lasts for 20 miles (32 kilometers), said founder Mohamed Soliman, who hopes people will see them as a viable way to commute, like electric bikes or scooters. “My goal is for everyone to go skating again because it’s so much fun, every time you see people skating you see them with a big smile,” Soliman said. A waist bag holds the battery and cables connected to the skates. They also can be used as regular skates when they need to be charged or skaters simply want to travel under their own power. The $500 skates are available for pre-order. The company has taken orders for 150 pairs so far and is aiming for 200 orders to start production. Read More: Top 10 Most Exciting Innovations of 2022 in Technology DIGITAL TEMPORARY TATTOOS A handheld device displayed by South Korean company Prinker allows you to quickly and easily apply temporary tattoos. The device uses cosmetic-grade ink with a library of thousands of designs or the option to make your own with the company’s app. After picking a tattoo, you just wave the device over wherever you want it applied. The tattoos are waterproof but wash off with soap. The flagship model is $279 and a smaller model is $229. Ink cartridges good for 1,000 tattoos are $119. Read More: Best of CES 2023: Wireless TV, delivery robots and in-car VR HELPING FIND YOUR WAY Japan-based Loovic has created a device designed to solve the challenges of those who have difficulty navigating while they walk. The device worn around the neck employs sounds and vibrations to guide users to destinations, enabling them to look at what’s around rather than focusing on a phone’s map app. Loovic co-founder and CEO Toru Yamanaka said he was inspired to create the device for his son, who has a cognitive impairment making it difficult for him to navigate. The prototype device is not yet available to the public. Read more: Alzheimer’s drug approval ‘rife with irregularities’: Probe A FITNESS TRACKER FOR YOUR DOG If you wonder what your dog is doing while you’re not home, French startup Invoxia has a product for you. The company’s smart dog collar monitors your pet’s activity and sleep, sending the data to your phone. The latest version unveiled at CES, which has a GPS tracker, includes more advanced heart health monitoring. The collar is $149 in the U.S. while a monthly $8.25 subscription to the app monitors the data and shares it with your veterinarian. METAVERSE FOR KIDS The creators of Roybi, an educational AI robot that helps children learn about STEM topics and new languages, are venturing into the metaverse. Read More: Top 11 Major Medical Science Innovations in 2022 The RoybiVerse is expected to offer stations where K-12 and higher education students can learn about a wide range of educational topics. Users walking around the RoybiVerse will be able to visit an area where they’ll learn about dinosaurs or walk over to the virtual library where they can pick a book and read it. The RoybiVerse, which is expected to launch by mid-2023, will be available in virtual reality headsets and on a website. No robot needed.

Every year, tech specialists, engineers and scientists continuously delve into breaking new barriers in innovation and technology. It’s like unsatiated need of humen to surmise the ultimate answer to life and everything. And unlike Doughlas Adam’s conclusion of 42, the grand scheme of understanding the unknown continues. Let's take a look at the 10 most popular technological innovations of 2022.  10 Biggest Innovations of 2022 in Technology The list doesn’t limit itself to any specific stream or industry. Rather we look at innovations that brought a collective impact on humankind and made a long stride in shaping the future.  The James Webb Space Telescope  The James Webb Space Telescope has been a revolutionary invention in the field of astronomy and space exploration. The telescope formally replaced the Hubble telescope, which has been mankind’s primary eye into distant galaxies.  The JWST has a sensor three times larger than the departing Hubble telescope. With a two-decade development and 9.7 billion dollars of investment, we are now seeing the star systems and galaxies as far as 13 billion light-years away in stellar resolution. From Alpha Centauri to the Pillar of Creation, JWST is indeed mankind’s next big leap after Armstrong’s famous footstep on the lunar surface.  Read More: New space telescope shows Jupiter's auroras, tiny moons Parallel Reality by Delta Parallel Reality by Delta aims to bring a personalized experience to every public interaction. Consider going to an airport and squinting at the large panel trying to figure out your flight details. What if we told you that now the large panel will use the entire panel to display your flight information as soon as you scan your ticket? Sounds like a dream, right? Especially with thousands of others wanting the same?  Parallel reality uses a specialized augmented reality that can revert light in 18,000 different directions. Meaning at least 18,000 people can access the panel at the same time and get customized outputs based on their needs. This truly is the future of public tech interaction.  Color Changing Cars  Another fun innovation of 2022 has to be the BMW IX Flow. The car is still in its development phase, but BMW has recently shown off its patented technology of a car that can change colors based on your preference.  The inner ambient lighting has been the main innovation focus for all these years. For the exterior, the shade that you get would typically be the final choice. But with this revolutionary new technology, you can take your car exterior from pitch black to snow white. There really is no limit to the possibilities.  Read More: 10 Greatest Female Scientists of All Time BMW has come up with a hybrid e-ink technology that can mimic colors. This has been done without compromising the outer rigidity of the car shell.  The Luxury Electric Car  Tesla is the pioneer of the electric car revolution that started several decades ago. Back in the day, electric cars weren’t practical even let alone be a comfortable daily driver. With the innovation and logistical support of Tesla, electric cars aren’t just a daily driver anymore, and it has seen some of the highest adoption rates in recent years.  But there is no limit to innovation. Lucid, a company based in the USA, has decided to take things even further. Enter Lucid Air EV, the world’s first proper luxury Sedan powered by a completely electric powertrain. Besides the luxury aspect, the car has a better range, better-charging speed, and better performance compared to a standard Tesla Model S. The reality of an electric future isn’t really a dream anymore.  Read More: Apple Car: The Leaks and Rumors Combatting Deepfakes  The term deepfake has become ever-popular thanks to the revolutionary stride in AI in recent years. Deepfakes or modified visual content are now truer than ever and that poses benefits as well as risks. While it's great for AR and VR, it is also paving the way for personal harassment and insurance fraud.  Truepic Lens aims to combat the growing nuisance created by deepfake by analyzing the content. The company calls it “glass to glass” analysis, where they check that the lens glass captures are accurate to the ones you are seeing in your display. They use different AI, layering, and metadata analyses to conclude whether any digital media has been manipulated using deepfake or not.  Robots are More Life-like than Ever  The concept of robots has long evolved from mechanical to actual functional units and more recently, to a humanoid concept. The idea is to replicate robots as close to humans as possible.  The scientists at Engineered Arts have created Ameca, a fusion of AI and human-like motion. The humanoid AI platform Ameca has been created to replicate humans as naturally and fluidly as possible. The robot can express emotions, and facial responses and even move around in the most realistic way to date.  Read More: Ameca: World’s Most Realistic Advanced Humanoid Robot AI Platform Diverting an Asteroid  Do you remember that Bruce Willis film called Armageddon? The plot revolves around a team of astronauts who successfully diverts an asteroid to save humanity. Over two decades on from the fictional world of the movies, NASA has been successful in diverting the course of Dimorphos asteroid with their DART mission.  And you guessed it, NASA force crashed a 1,100-pound spacecraft into the surface of Dimorphos to effectively alter its course. This gave NASA important data to analyze diversions should there be an asteroid crisis in the future. DALL E 2: The Revolutionary Text to Imaging AI  With the hot debate of whether AI art is art or not aside, there has been a considerable stride in using AI to morph images. While previously it required a subject or a reference for the work, the revolutionary breakthrough by Open AI has paved the way for text to the imaging process.  It essentially means that you can feed a prompt to the AI, and based on your details, DALL E 2 will come up with a photorealistic result. The results are almost eerily accurate to what you might be visualizing in your head, and Open AI thinks this could be a breakthrough point in how we interact with AI or use AI per se.  Read More: How Can Artificial Intelligence Improve Healthcare? Chat GPT  If DALL E 2 fascinated you, wait till you hear what else Open AI has developed in 2022. One of their latest beta creations is the Chat GPT. This is essentially like your personalized AI assistant. It can answer any query you throw at it. It can plan a schedule, a marketing timeline, write professional emails, and whatnot. It can even write poems. Sounds unreal? Well, here is the result when I asked Chat GPT to write me a poem on a gloomy day. Have a look.  It's crazy and borderline spooky how good, and accurate Chat GPT gets things done, all the while being in beta testing mode. If the event was a giant leap towards advancement, then AI assistants will certainly give it a full shape.  3D Printed Coral Reefs  We saved the best for the last. With almost 25% of all the aquatic life finding their habitat in coral reefs, they must be preserved. But with global warming and rising sea levels, the growth of new coral reefs is being hindered. The Scientist at Technion Institute of Technology has come up with a solution to 3D print coral reefs using terracotta clay. The modular structure would be made to replicate the natural habitat of the localized aquatic life. The scientists associated with the project hope that this will help to create a more robust aquatic ecosystem and potentially restore endangered species.  Read More: Best Free Data Science, Machine Learning Courses Online Final Words So far, we have discussed 10 most exciting technological innovations of 2022. Not to mention, 2022 has been an amazing year of inventions and innovations. There have been considerable strides in AI, and renewable energy as well as in combating the problems created by global warming. As we move towards 2023, the expectations are very high with what the new year will bring for all of us. 

Now you see them, now you don’t. Some frogs found in South and Central America have the rare ability to turn on and off their nearly transparent appearance, researchers report Thursday in the journal Science. During the day, these nocturnal frogs sleep by hanging underneath tree leaves. Their delicate, greenish transparent forms don’t cast shadows, rendering them almost invisible to birds and other predators passing overhead or underneath. But when northern glass frogs wake up and hop around in search of insects and mates, they take on an opaque reddish-brown color. Read more: Canadian polar bears near 'bear capital' dying at fast rate “When they’re transparent, it’s for their safety,” said Junjie Yao, a Duke University biomedical engineer and study co-author. When they’re awake, they can actively evade predators, but when they’re sleeping and most vulnerable, “they have adapted to remain hidden.” Using light and ultrasound imaging technology, the researchers discovered the secret: While asleep, the frogs concentrate, or “hide,” nearly 90% of their red blood cells in their liver. Because they have transparent skin and other tissues, it’s the blood circulating through their bodies that would otherwise give them away. The frogs also shrink and pack together most of their internal organs, Yao said. The research “beautifully explains” how “glass frogs conceal blood in the liver to maintain transparency,” said Juan Manuel Guayasamin, a frog biologist at University San Francisco of Quito, Ecuador, who was not involved in the study. Exactly how they do this, and why it doesn’t kill them, remains a mystery. For most animals, having very little blood circulating oxygen for several hours would be deadly. And concentrating blood so tightly would result in fatal clotting. But somehow, the frogs survive. Read more: Oldest DNA reveals life in Greenland 2 million years ago Further research on the species could provide useful clues for the development of anti-blood clotting medications, said Carlos Taboada, a Duke University biologist and study co-author. Only a few animals, mostly ocean dwellers, are naturally transparent, said Oxford University biologist Richard White, who was not involved in the study. “Transparency is super rare in nature, and in land animals, it’s essentially unheard of outside of the glass frog,” White said. Those that are transparent include some fish, shrimp, jellyfish, worms and insects — none of which move large quantities of red blood through their bodies. The trick of hiding blood while sleeping appears to be unique to the frogs. “It’s just this really amazing, dynamic form of camouflage,” said White.

Two NASA spacecraft at Mars — one on the surface and the other in orbit — have recorded the biggest meteor strikes and impact craters yet. The high-speed barrages last year sent seismic waves rippling thousands of miles across Mars, the first ever detected near the surface of another planet, and carved out craters nearly 500 feet (150 meters) across, scientists reported Thursday in the journal Science. The larger of the two strikes churned out boulder-size slabs of ice, which may help researchers look for ways future astronauts can tap into Mars’ natural resources. The Insight lander measured the seismic shocks, while the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter provided stunning pictures of the resulting craters. Imaging the craters “would have been huge already,” but matching it to the seismic ripples was a bonus, said co-author Liliya Posiolova of Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego. “We were so lucky.” Mars’ atmosphere is thin unlike on Earth, where the thick atmosphere prevents most space rocks from reaching the ground, instead breaking and incinerating them. A separate study last month linked a recent series of smaller Martian meteoroid impacts with smaller craters closer to InSight, using data from the same lander and orbiter. Read: NASA says spacecraft succeeded in changing asteroid’s orbit The impact observations come as InSight nears the end of its mission because of dwindling power, its solar panels blanketed by dust storms. InSight landed on the equatorial plains of Mars in 2018 and has since recorded more than 1,300 marsquakes. “It’s going to be heartbreaking when we finally lose communication with InSight,” said Bruce Banerdt of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the lander’s chief scientist who took part in the studies. “But the data it has sent us will certainly keep us busy for years to come.” Banerdt estimated the lander had between four to eight more weeks before power runs out. The incoming space rocks were between 16 feet and 40 feet (5 meters and 12 meters) in diameter, said Posiolova. The impacts registered about magnitude 4. The larger of the two struck last December some 2,200 miles (3,500 kilometers) from InSight, creating a crater roughly 70 feet (21 meters) deep. The orbiter’s cameras showed debris hurled up to 25 miles (40 kilometers) from the impact, as well as white patches of ice around the crater, the most frozen water observed at such low latitudes, Posiolova said. Posiolova spotted the crater earlier this year after taking extra pictures of the region from orbit. The crater was missing from earlier photos, and after poring through the archives, she pinpointed the impact to late December. She remembered a large seismic event recorded by InSight around that time and with help from that team, matched the fresh hole to what was undoubtedly a meteoroid strike. The blast wave was clearly visible. Scientists also learned the lander and orbiter teamed up for an earlier meteoroid strike, more than double the distance of the December one and slightly smaller. “Everybody was just shocked and amazed. Another one? Yep,” she recalled. Read: NASA’s new telescope shows star death, dancing galaxies The seismic readings from the two impacts indicate a denser Martian crust beyond InSight’s location. “We still have a long way to go to understanding the interior structure and dynamics of Mars, which remain largely enigmatic,” said Doyeon Kim of ETH Zurich’s Institute of Geophysics in Switzerland, who was part of the research. Outside scientists said future landers from Europe and China will carry even more advanced seismometers. Future missions will “paint a clearer picture” of how Mars evolved, Yingjie Yang and Xiaofei Chen from China’s Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen wrote in an accompanying editorial.

The monarch butterfly fluttered a step closer to extinction Thursday, as scientists put the iconic orange-and-black insect on the endangered list because of its fast dwindling numbers. “It’s just a devastating decline,” said Stuart Pimm, an ecologist at Duke University who was not involved in the new listing. “This is one of the most recognizable butterflies in the world.” The International Union for the Conservation of Nature added the migrating monarch butterfly for the first time to its “red list” of threatened species and categorized it as "endangered" — two steps from extinct. The group estimates that the population of monarch butterflies in North America has declined between 22% and 72% over 10 years, depending on the measurement method. Also read: South Asia's intense heat wave a 'sign of things to come' “What we’re worried about is the rate of decline,” said Nick Haddad, a conservation biologist at Michigan State University. “It’s very easy to imagine how very quickly this butterfly could become even more imperiled.” Haddad, who was not directly involved in the listing, estimates that the population of monarch butterflies he studies in the eastern United States has declined between 85% and 95% since the 1990s. In North America, millions of monarch butterflies undertake the longest migration of any insect species known to science. After wintering in the mountains of central Mexico, the butterflies migrate to the north, breeding multiple generations along the way for thousands of miles. The offspring that reach southern Canada then begin the trip back to Mexico at the end of summer. Also read: NASA’s new telescope shows star death, dancing galaxies “It’s a true spectacle and incites such awe,” said Anna Walker, a conservation biologist at New Mexico BioPark Society, who was involved in determining the new listing. A smaller group spends winters in coastal California, then disperses in spring and summer across several states west of the Rocky Mountains. This population has seen an even more precipitous decline than the eastern monarchs, although there was a small bounce back last winter. Emma Pelton of the nonprofit Xerces Society, which monitors the western butterflies, said the butterflies are imperiled by loss of habitat and increased use of herbicides and pesticides for agriculture, as well as climate change. “There are things people can do to help,” she said, including planting milkweed, a plant that the caterpillars depend upon. Nonmigratory monarch butterflies in Central and South America were not designated as endangered. The United States has not listed monarch butterflies under the Endangered Species Act, but several environmental groups believe it should be listed. The international union also announced new estimates for the global population of tigers, which are 40% higher than the most recent estimates from 2015. The new figures, of between 3,726 and 5,578 wild tigers worldwide, reflect better methods for counting tigers and, potentially, an increase in their overall numbers, said Dale Miquelle, coordinator for the nonprofit Wildlife Conservation Society’s tiger program. In the past decade, tiger populations have increased in Nepal, northern China and perhaps in India, while tigers have disappeared entirely from Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, said Miquelle. They remain designated as endangered.

As strained U.S. hospitals brace for a new surge of COVID-19 cases caused by the fast-spreading omicron variant, doctors are warning of yet another challenge: the two standard drugs they’ve used to fight infections are unlikely to work against the new strain. For more than a year antibody drugs from Regeneron and Eli Lilly have been the go-to treatments for early COVID-19, thanks to their ability to head off severe disease and keep patients out of the hospital. But both drugmakers recently warned that laboratory testing suggests their therapies will be much less potent against omicron, which contains dozens of mutations that make it harder for antibodies to attack the virus. And while the companies say they can quickly develop new omicron-targeting antibodies, those aren’t expected to launch for at least several months. A third antibody from British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline appears to be the best positioned to fight omicron. But Glaxo’s drug is not widely available in the U.S., accounting for a small portion of the millions of doses purchased and distributed by the federal government. U.S. health officials are now rationing scarce drug supplies to states. Read:Fauci says omicron variant is 'just raging around the world' “I think there’s going to be a shortage,” said Dr. Jonathan Li, director of the Harvard/Brigham Virology Specialty Laboratory. “We’re down to one FDA-authorized monoclonal antibody” with omicron because of the reduced effectiveness of Regeneron and Lilly’s drugs. The delta variant still accounts for more than 95% of estimated U.S. cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But agency leaders say omicron is spreading faster than any past variant and will become the dominant strain nationwide within weeks. Delivered by injection or infusion, antibodies are laboratory-made versions of human proteins that help the immune system fight off viruses and other infections. Glaxo’s drug, developed with Vir Biotechnology, was specifically formulated to bind to a part of the virus that is less likely to mutate, according to the companies. Early studies of laboratory-simulated omicron by the drugmakers and outside researchers show promising results. Supply of the drug is “extremely limited, and additional doses of the product will not be available until the week of January 3rd,” the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said in an statement posted online. After pausing distribution last month to conserve supply, HHS is now shipping 55,000 doses of the drug, called sotrovimab, to state health departments, with the doses arriving as early as Tuesday. An additional 300,000 are expected in January. The agency said it is distributing the drug to states based on their levels of infections and hospitalizations. HHS recommends states conserve the drug for the highest risk patients who are most likely to have omicron infections, either based on laboratory testing that can identify the variant or elevated levels of omicron spread in local communities, identified as 20% and higher. High-risk patients include seniors and those with serious health problems, such as obesity, heart disease, diabetes and immune-system disorders. Prior to the pause in shipments, Glaxo’s drug accounted for about 10% of the 1.8 million antibody doses distributed to state health officials between mid-September and late November, according to federal figures. London-based Glaxo says it is on track to produce 2 million doses by May, under contracts with the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Japan and several other countries. The company is working to add more manufacturing capacity next year. The loss of two leading antibody therapies puts even more focus on a pair of highly anticipated antiviral pills that U.S. regulators are expected to soon authorize. The drugs from Pfizer and Merck would be the first treatments Americans can take at home to head off severe disease. Pfizer’s drug in particular has shown a powerful effect, curbing hospitalizations and deaths by nearly 90% in high-risk patients. “If it’s rolled out effectively this has a real big potential,” to make up for antibody treatments, said Andrew Pekosz, a virologist at Johns Hopkins University. “That’s an immediate place where these antivirals could minimize the impact of omicron.” Read: WHO: Omicron detected in 89 countries, cases doubling fast Still, initial supplies of both drugs are expected to be limited. The shrinking toolbox of treatments is a painful reminder that the virus still has the upper hand in the U.S., even with more than 200 million Americans fully vaccinated. Scientists around the world are racing to understand omicron, including whether it causes more or less severe disease and how easily it evades protection from prior infection, vaccination, and antibody drugs. “We’re certainly going to see hospitalizations rise,” said Dr. James Cutrell of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. “If we have a lack of antibodies that’s certainly going to contribute to that many more patients needing to be in the hospital.”

While accusing the giant social network of pursuing profits over safety, a former Facebook data scientist told Congress Tuesday she believes stricter government oversight could alleviate the dangers the company poses, from harming children to inciting political violence to fueling misinformation. Frances Haugen, testifying to the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, presented a wide-ranging condemnation of Facebook. She accused the company of failing to make changes to Instagram after internal research showed apparent harm to some teens and being dishonest in its public fight against hate and misinformation. Haugen’s accusations were buttressed by tens of thousands of pages of internal research documents she secretly copied before leaving her job in the company’s civic integrity unit. But she also offered thoughtful ideas about how Facebook’s social media platforms could be made safer. Haugen laid responsibility for the company’s profits-over-safety strategy right at the top, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg, but she also expressed empathy for Facebook’s dilemma. Haugen, who says she joined the company in 2019 because “Facebook has the potential to bring out the best in us,” said she didn’t leak internal documents to a newspaper and then come before Congress in order to destroy the company or call for its breakup, as many consumer advocates and lawmakers of both parties have called for. Haugen is a 37-year-old data expert from Iowa with a degree in computer engineering and a master’s degree in business from Harvard. Prior to being recruited by Facebook, she worked for 15 years at tech companies including Google, Pinterest and Yelp. Read: Outage highlights how vital Facebook has become worldwide “Facebook’s products harm children, stoke division and weaken our democracy,” Haugen said. “The company’s leadership knows how to make Facebook and Instagram safer but won’t make the necessary changes because they have put their astronomical profits before people.” “Congressional action is needed,” she said. “They won’t solve this crisis without your help.” In a note to Facebook employees Tuesday, Zuckerberg disputed Haugen’s portrayal of the company as one that puts profit over the well-being of its users, or that pushes divisive content. “At the most basic level, I think most of us just don’t recognize the false picture of the company that is being painted,” Zuckerberg wrote. He did, however, appear to agree with Haugen on the need for updated internet regulations, saying that would relieve private companies from having to make decisions on social issues on their own. “We’re committed to doing the best work we can, but at some level the right body to assess tradeoffs between social equities is our democratically elected Congress,” Zuckerberg wrote. Democrats and Republicans have shown a rare unity around the revelations of Facebook’s handling of potential risks to teens from Instagram, and bipartisan bills have proliferated to address social media and data-privacy problems. But getting legislation through Congress is a heavy slog. The Federal Trade Commission has taken a stricter stance toward Facebook and other tech giants in recent years. “Whenever you have Republicans and Democrats on the same page, you’re probably more likely to see something,” said Gautam Hans, a technology law and free speech expert at Vanderbilt University Haugen suggested, for example, that the minimum age for Facebook’s popular Instagram photo-sharing platform could be increased from the current 13 to 16 or 18. She also acknowledged the limitations of possible remedies. Facebook, like other social media companies, uses algorithms to rank and recommend content to users’ news feeds. When the ranking is based on engagement — likes, shares and comments — as it is now with Facebook, users can be vulnerable to manipulation and misinformation. Haugen would prefer the ranking to be chronological. But, she testified, “People will choose the more addictive option even if it is leading their daughters to eating disorders.” Haugen said a 2018 change to the content flow contributed to more divisiveness and ill will in a network ostensibly created to bring people closer together. Read: Whistleblower: Facebook chose profit over public safety Despite the enmity that the new algorithms were feeding, she said Facebook found that they helped keep people coming back — a pattern that helped the social media giant sell more of the digital ads that generate the vast majority of its revenue. Haugen said she believed Facebook didn’t set out to build a destructive platform. “I have a huge amount of empathy for Facebook,” she said. “These are really hard questions, and I think they feel a little trapped and isolated.” But “in the end, the buck stops with Mark,” Haugen said, referring to Zuckerberg, who controls more than 50% of Facebook’s voting shares. “There is no one currently holding Mark accountable but himself.” Haugen said she believed that Zuckerberg was familiar with some of the internal research showing concerns for potential negative impacts of Instagram. The subcommittee is examining Facebook’s use of information its own researchers compiled about Instagram. Those findings could indicate potential harm for some of its young users, especially girls, although Facebook publicly downplayed possible negative impacts. For some of the teens devoted to Facebook’s popular photo-sharing platform, the peer pressure generated by the visually focused Instagram led to mental health and body-image problems, and in some cases, eating disorders and suicidal thoughts, the research leaked by Haugen showed. One internal study cited 13.5% of teen girls saying Instagram makes thoughts of suicide worse and 17% of teen girls saying it makes eating disorders worse. She also has filed complaints with federal authorities alleging that Facebook’s own research shows that it amplifies hate, misinformation and political unrest, but that the company hides what it knows. After recent reports in The Wall Street Journal based on documents she leaked to the newspaper raised a public outcry, Haugen revealed her identity in a CBS “60 Minutes” interview aired Sunday night. As the public relations debacle over the Instagram research grew last week, Facebook put on hold its work on a kids’ version of Instagram, which the company says is meant mainly for tweens aged 10 to 12. Read: Ex-Facebook manager alleges social network fed Capitol riot Haugen said that Facebook prematurely turned off safeguards designed to thwart misinformation and incitement to violence after Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in last year’s presidential election, alleging that doing so contributed to the deadly Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol. After the November election, Facebook dissolved the civic integrity unit where Haugen had been working. That was the moment, she said, when she realized that “I don’t trust that they’re willing to actually invest what needs to be invested to keep Facebook from being dangerous.” Haugen says she told Facebook executives when they recruited her that she wanted to work in an area of the company that fights misinformation, because she had lost a friend to online conspiracy theories. Facebook maintains that Haugen’s allegations are misleading and insists there is no evidence to support the premise that it is the primary cause of social polarization. “Today, a Senate Commerce subcommittee held a hearing with a former product manager at Facebook who worked for the company for less than two years, had no direct reports, never attended a decision-point meeting with (top) executives – and testified more than six times to not working on the subject matter in question. We don’t agree with her characterization of the many issues she testified about,” the company said in a statement.