Research suggests people could start living to 141 years old

Apr 4 2023

There is a likelihood that younger generations of the human population could celebrate their 141st birthday, a new study suggests.

Dr David McCarthy, an assistant professor at the University of Georgia, says that ages could be pushed to as old as 141 for men and 130 for women.

Up until now, scientists thought it possible to live up to just over 120. Life expectancy of course increased as modern healthcare itself improved. By 2010, the average age was 82 for women and 78 for men.

The research, which was published in PLOS One, analysed the mortality of older people in 19 countries and how the increase in mortality rates by age differs by different cohorts born in different years.

It was discovered that people born in the first part of the 1990s, the rate at which mortality increases with age has actually fallen. This indicates the maximum age at death will increase in the coming decades.

The study went on to highlight how mortality postponement appears to be more likely for those born between 1910 and 1950, with oldest members of these cohorts living to 120.

The oldest person to have ever lived was Jeanne Calment, who made it all the way to 122 years. She was born on the 21st of February, 1875 in Aries, France and died in 1997.

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First mobile phone call was made around 50 years ago

Apr 4 2023

The first mobile phone call was made on the 3rd of April 1973 by Marty Cooper, the inventor of the technology we now today consider almost essential to our lives.

Cooper stood on a sidewalk on Sixth Avenue in Manhattan and made the first public call from a cell phone to one of the men he was competing with to develop the device.

Cell phones would not become available to the general public for another decade after that, but that phone call paved the way for all of us using them and, ironically, having most of us preferring to text instead of call.

The first mobile phones were the size of a brick and, suffice to say, they changed quite a bit over the years. The now 94-year-old Cooper told CNN that he was not surprised that everyone owns a cell phone.

Prior to that first phone call, Motorola, for whom Cooper worked as an engineer, had been competing with Bell Labs to produce the technology. The latter, a research arm of AT&T, developed the transistor and various other innovations.

It wasn’t until the 1990s that the modern cell phone really became popular, shrinking in size so that it could be carried easily by 97% of Americans today.

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NASA names first woman, African American & Canadian to fly to the moon

Apr 4 2023

Unveiling the four astronauts who will head out on the first lunar mission in five decades, NASA also introduced the first woman and first African American person to be taking on the journey.

The crew is made up of three Americans and one Canadian astronaut, who were introduced globally during a ceremony on Monday April 3rd in Houston.

Christina Koch and Victor Glover are the astronauts in question, who will be joined by Reid Wiseman and Jeremy Hansen to fly a capsule around the Moon in late 2024 or early 2025.

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Victor Glover is a US Navy test pilot who made his first journey to space in 2020 and was the first African American to stay on the International Space Station.

Christina Koch is a 44-year-old electrical engineer who participated in the first all-female spacewalk in 2019. She holds the record for the woman with the longest continuous time in space for 328 days.

Canadian Jeremy Hansen himself is also a newbie in terms of moon missions as he is yet to fly in space but his fighter pilot experience is set to contribute greatly. As for Wiseman, he has flown on one other space journey in 2015 to the International Space Station.

The astronaut group will spend 10 days in space, climbing into NASA’s Orion space capsule. If this mission works out, NASA will then land two astronauts on the face of the moon by 2025.

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Animal Commissioner opens up about feelings of helplessness

Apr 4 2023

Writing in her annual report, Animal Welfare Commissioner Alison Bezzina opened up about how she often feels helpless in effecting change ‘in a timely fashion or even at all.’

Bezzina touted various reasons and setbacks which keep her from bringing into actuality various reforms which safeguard animals and their rights’ in Malta. These include everything from a lack of resources to lack of enforcement.

She also highlighted how she, along with staff within the Office of the Commissioner for Animal Welfare, have often had to face angry and abusive comments due to misinformation pertaining to their actual role.

‘The legislative framework from which my duties, obligations and powers emit, CAP 439 Article 44, make the role pretty much a consultative one, often completely dependent on other entities to execute and act on my recommendations’ she explained.

‘When it is explained that this is not the case, many feel betrayed, deceived and being taken for a ride.’

However, Bezzina did highlight one aspect of the role for which she is extremely grateful for, which is that it allows for single mindedness. Whereas other roles within the sector sometimes pose conflict of interest, the role of Commissioner for Animal Welfare ‘is only burdened with one single and very clear interest – Animal Welfare.’

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