While most scientists are hesitant to use the phrase "Rogue Shark" it does seem rather coincidental that several people have been attacked in the Outer Banks recently within a short time period.



According to Dan Abel, a professor of marine science at Coastal Carolina University, the recent attacks in the Outer Banks are more in line with an attack from a single Bull Shark.

"Many shark biologists distinguish between a bite and an attack based on severity. Bites will usually occur with blacktip sharks in shallow water," Abel said. "The shark thinks it's pursuing a fish, but it bites your foot or your hand, and it immediately releases you."

However, the young people who were attacked weren't just bitten and then released, in fact, each victim lost an arm when they were attacked.

"It's improbable that a low-likelihood event such as a shark attack would occur twice in such a short time frame and involve two different sharks" Abel said.

The idea of a rogue shark terrorizing the beaches of North Carolina seems strange and bizarre. Almost as if strait from a movie. However the likelihood of a Shark attack is still extremely rare. In 2014 there were a total of 72 attacks worldwide that were unprovoked by people. Most people have a higher change of being attacked by a vicious dog each year.1

Source: LiveScience.com

Infographic by LiveScience.com


1 http://www.dogsbite.org/pdf/dog-attack-deaths-maimings-merritt-clifton-2014.pdf
Recently a woman in California died of symptoms that were initially diagnosed as meningitis. The case has been subsequently been confirmed by the CDC to have been caused by Naegleria fowleri, or brain eating amoeba.

The amoeba infects people as they swim in warm, fresh water bodies. Entering through the nostrils, the microorganism travels through the skull before entering the brain. Once there, the microscopic lifeforms start to devour the brain.



Infections of Naegleria fowleri are exceptionally deadly, taking the lives of nearly everyone who becomes infected with the amoeba. However, the disease remains extremely rare, infecting fewer than eight people annually.

Infographic from www.livescienc.com


Aubrey de Grey's "In Pursuit of Longevity"


A study was conducted by UCLA scientists to determine what happens to the human brain when it slips into unconsciousness.

Martin Monti and his colleagues at UCLA used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study how the flow of information in the brains of 12 healthy volunteers changed as they lost consciousness under anesthesia with propofol. The participants ranged in age from 18 to 31 and were evenly divided between men and women.




The psychologists analyzed the "network properties" of the subjects' brains using a branch of mathematics known as graph theory, which is often used to study air-traffic patterns, information on the Internet and social groups, among other topics.

So is it possible to transfer that consciousness to another body or to a neural network? While this may be the subject of sci-fi movies like Avatar or the Matrix series, there are groups actively trying to see if this can be achieved.

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