10 OF THE WORST SPACE DISASTERS IN HISTORY

10 of the Worst Space Disasters in History
By Dustin Koski, Toptenz, 22 January 2019.

Chris Hadfield said that on launch day, no astronaut takes to the skies with their fingers crossed. The way they’ve dealt with the stress induced by the risk is to picture the launch failing a thousand times before the moment of truth arrives. If the imagined failure comes true, the result can reverberate in the public consciousness around the world, and the effects could be felt for decades. It can also attract little attention even the government is unsuccessful in hushing it up. The entries on this list have been arranged based on both how many lives were lost, and how preventable the disaster was later judged to be. Before anyone takes to the comments, please note the momentous Challenger Disaster has been excluded from this list due to the fact that we’ve talked about it previously.

Our first entry has been included in the hope of beginning this list on a lighter note, to ease our way into more extreme cases…

10. Vanguard TV3

Victims: None

By the time the Vanguard TV3 launched, the United States of America had spent two months being deeply embarrassed that the Soviet Union’s Sputnik had been the first satellite to orbit the Earth. So the launch of America’s answer was moved up from the spring of 1958 to December 6, 1957.  It was not only viewed by expectant throngs of onlookers at Cape Canaveral, Florida, but broadcast on live television. Thus millions were able to see the shuttle fly roughly one meter into the air, explode, and fall over.

It was perhaps the most embarrassing event in the history of the space race, with the Soviet Union making a point of offering the United States aid through the United Nations. Still, it said something about the can-do American spirit that Explorer 1 was successfully put into orbit by January 31, 1958, less than two months later.

Preventability: The leading theory is that the explosion was caused by a fuel leak or insufficient fuel pump pressure. However true that is, it seems quite likely that moving the launch of a pioneering space craft up by months was bound to increase the chance of insufficient safety checks.

9. Soyuz-1

Victims: Col. Vladimir Komarov

While Yuri Gagarin is celebrated for being the first man into space, his friend is remembered for being the first person to die returning from space. On April 23, 1967, Komarov’s Soyuz-1 (“Union-1”) entered orbit and then began to experience communications and power failures. These culminated in the parachutes needed for his descent failing to deploy, ensuring that Komarov would die in a small inferno. American espionage listening in would claim that Komarov received messages from the Soviet Premier along with his wife and children, yet transcripts would describe him as very humanly “crying with rage” as he fell. The corpse left behind would be grotesquely charred, and yet he received an open casket state funeral, as if to illustrate just what the cost of failure could be for the Soviet Union’s cosmonauts.

Preventability: There’s some level of debate over this. In the biography of Yuri Gagarin Starman by Jamie Doran and Piers Bronzy, it was asserted Gagarin and a team of engineers inspected Soyuz-1 and found 203 structural flaws, recommending in an ignored memo that the launch be delayed. NPR would later report that there were a number of critics that attempted to debunk the existence of the memo. If the memo was real, this seems like an extremely avoidable tragedy.

8. Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo

Victims: Michael Alsbury. (Peter Siebold injured.)

There are a significant number of people that want to privatize space exploration, and they may feel the entries on this list validate that opinion. To them we offer this sobering story.

On October 31, 2014, the fourth test flight of SpaceShipTwo was conducted by Michael Alsbury, who’d flown it for previous tests, and his co-pilot Peter Siebold. Alsbury deployed the innovative tail system for the suborbital vehicle when it was at flying at Mach .8 (Mach 1 being the speed of sound) instead of the necessary speed of Mach 1.4. As a result, the tail was bent, and the pilots lost control of the vehicle. Siebold survived only because he was able to deploy his parachute as his seat ejected. The wreck was so violent that debris from SpaceShipTwo was spread over five miles of the Mojave Desert.

Preventability: The National Transportation Safety Board investigated the accident and nine months later attributed it to a combination of co-pilot error and a failure to fully disclose risks on the part of Scaled Composites, who’d built SpaceShipTwo for Virgin Galactic. Scaled Composites knew of the danger of initiating the tail system too early but aside from a mention in an email and a powerpoint presentation hadn’t done anything to impart it to Alsbury.

And yet, as we’ll see later, it was neither the largest disaster in the development of Virgin Galactic’s space program nor the first.

7. NASA 901

Victims: Elliot See, Charlie Bassett. (Roughly a dozen others were injured.)

Most disasters related to space exploration occur during a launch or while reentering Earth’s atmosphere. This one was much more mundane, while not being any less tragic. Astronauts Elliot See and Charlie Bassett were flying to Lambert Field in St. Louis, Missouri on February 28, 1966 for the launch of Gemini IX. The mission was to fly to an unmanned Agena vehicle in Earth’s orbit and dock with it, meaning the mission would provide America’s third spacewalker. See and Bassett, like their backup astronauts Gene Cernan and Tom Stafford, were flying in T-38 Talon jets.

During the flight to the airbase, See performed an unusual flight maneuver during his descent which cut off the backup pilots from descending and caused him to fly past his target. While attempting to correct, See crashed his jet into the roof of McDonnell Building 101. Both astronauts were killed, with debris from the roof hitting about a dozen of the workers inside. Such was the violence of the accident that Bassett’s head was discovered in the rafters of the building later that day. Nevertheless, the launch of Gemini IX went on as scheduled.

Preventability: An investigation by NASA hypothesized that the accident was essentially the result of pilot error brought on by bad weather. See had flown in too low because he wanted to maintain visibility of the airfield on a foggy day. There was no coming to an absolute conclusion because See had died before he could answer any inquiries.

6. The 2007 Scaled Composites Disaster

Victims: Todd Ivens, Eric Blackwell, Charles May. (Three more injured.)

Most victims of space disasters that the layperson can name are astronauts. However, the engineers and maintenance personnel are at high risk as well. So it was that on July 26, 2007 engineers for Scaled Composites were testing the propellent flow system for SpaceShipTwo at Kern County Mojave Airport, 95 miles outside Los Angeles, California. A tank of nitrous oxide exploded with a force likened to a “five hundred pound bomb,” striking six workers with debris. Three were killed, two on the spot 

Preventability: Investigators certainly rated it very high, considering that they found Scaled Composites guilty of five safety violations. For example, the engineers were performing the test with no more shielding from a potential explosion than a chain link fence. However, the relatively light fine was only about $25,000. When the second SpaceShipTwo disaster occurred seven years later, Todd Ivens’s sister Tara Ford said of Virgin Galactic’s space program, “don’t let any more die!”

5. The Apollo 1 Fire

Victims: Gus Grissom, Ed White, Roger B. Chaffee

It was supposed to be a routine preflight test. The fuel tanks for Apollo 1 as it was placed on the Saturn 1B pad were left empty on January 27, 1967. Then, at 11:31 a.m., a fire broke out in the command module. It would later be determined that what doomed the three astronauts aboard as much as anything was that the hatch on the command module they were trapped inside only opened inward. The air pressure inside from the sudden rise in temperature and release of gases was so high (more than seventeen pounds per square inch) that it could not be opened at all until five minutes after the fire broke out, and reports would state that the crew of the shuttle had likely died from heat and smoke inhalation within the first minute. So terrible was the conflagration that it was only after seven and a half hours that the bodies were removed.

Preventability: The verdict of the 18-month investigation into the accident was that there had been a short circuit from in front of Gus Grissom’s seat. NASA undertook extensive measures to ensure there would be no repeats of this accident. Naturally, the hatches were redesigned to open outwards, along with replacing any flammable components with fire-suppressants.

4. Soyuz 11

Victims: Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov, Viktor Patsayev

Soyuz-11’s mission was poised to be one of the great feats in astronomical history. Having docked with Salyut 1, the world’s first space station, on June 7, 1971, their return on June 30 promised to set a new record for the longest time humans had endured staying in orbit. When their capsule landed in almost precisely the intended location - seemingly perfectly intact - it seemed a hero’s welcome was surely coming. The Soyuz crew had become media darlings, live footage of them on the space station having become a TV show. When the capsule was opened, the recovery team found the three men seemed to be unconscious. Their bodies were still warm so CPR was attempted, but it was quickly revealed that they had been dead for several minutes. For a time speculation swirled that perhaps their deaths proved there were hard limits to how long humans could survive in zero gravity. To this day, the poor men are the only three that have died in space.

Preventability: In the subsequent analysis, Vasili Mishin, the chief designer of the Soyuz 11, was the one who found that the capsule had been decompressed by the valve loosening during the detachment from Salyut 1. The crew had died of suffocation with less than a minute to scramble for valves. It was pointed out that if the crew had been provided space suits they almost certainly would have survived.

3. Columbia STS-107

Victims: Rick Husband, Michael Anderson, David Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, William McCool, Ilan Ramon

One of the most recent disasters on our list is that of the Columbia STS-107, and it was the result of something that sounds trivial. During the launch from the Kennedy Space Center on January 16, 2003, a piece of foam weighing 1.67 pounds broke off one of the fuel tanks and fell on the left wing. This caused a leak of extremely hot gases that further cut through the wing. The extent of the damage was unsuspected until after the mission’s various scientific experiments were completed and reentry was attempted on February 1, 2003. There was only the paltry relief of knowing that the crew was reported to have lost consciousness after only a few seconds.

Preventability: NASA was unusually explicit in its 400 page report that was released in December 2008 after more than five years of investigation: Nothing could be done by the crew to save themselves as soon as the damage was inflicted on the wing. “The breakup of the crew module and the crew’s subsequent exposure to hypersonic entry conditions was not survivable by any currently existing capability” was the way it was put. Despite NASA’s attempts to fix the process, on July 15, 2009, the launch of the shuttle Endeavor was jeopardized by nearly a dozen pieces of foam striking the underbelly of the shuttle, meaning the crew came perilously close to a repeat of the Columbia’s fate. The evidence points to this being a very difficult to avoid threat.

2. Plesetsk Cosmodrome

Victims: 45 killed instantly, five more died during rescue attempts

Plesetsk Cosmodrome is located roughly 500 miles north of Moscow, and in addition to still being Russia’s largest spaceport today, in 1957 it became the first place that the Soviet Union placed Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. On March 19, 1980, the Vostok rocket was supposed to be launched with the intention of putting a spy satellite named Ikar into orbit. Instead, both the rocket and the entire launch pad were destroyed in a massive explosion that the Soviet newspaper Pravda attempted to cover by claiming the launch had been a success, and didn’t admit the truth until 1989.

Preventability: There was some debate over what specifically caused 300 tons of fuel to explode. The state report was that it had been caused by human error, with fuel being allowed to leak, but the Russian TV show Independent Investigation insisted during a broadcast in 2000 that it was a problem with the fuel filters. Whatever the truth, Independent Investigation was adamant that “the safety of personnel was the least of (Plestek Cosmodrome’s) worries,” and the fact there was no attempt to modernize the facility in the subsequent 20 years seems to bear that out. Under such circumstances, preventing tragedies like this becomes very difficult indeed.

1. Intelsat-708

Victims: Officially, six dead and 57 personnel injured. Potentially hundreds of anonymous civilians.

The role China has played in the space race remains relatively low profile in the West. The destruction of this Long March 3B rocket near the town of Xichang and the border with Vietnam on February 14, 1996 is one of the more prominent events, especially since there were such American witnesses as safety specialist Bruce Campbell (no, not that one), who was interviewed by Smithsonian.

The launch to deliver the commercial satellite took place at three in the morning, and the shuttle was in the air for about 20 seconds as it arched towards the housing facilities for the launch personnel. Those buildings were empty because everyone was out watching the launch, but the explosion of the 426-ton rocket leveled numerous surrounding buildings as well. A local monument to ancient Chinese rocketry history was destroyed.

Preventability: The cause of the disaster was determined to be a problem with the welding and flight control system (there was an early official report that said it was the result of severe winds). The American contractors claimed that safety at the launch facility was lax. Yet the only known entity to receive official punishment was the US satellite company Loral Space and Communications, which was fined $14 million by the US government in 2002 for sharing confidential information with the Chinese government that allowed the government to determine the nature of the problem.

The position of the Chinese government seemed to be to downplay the tragedy as much as possible. Campbell claimed that he visited the site of the village later and found it had been cleared not only of any sign there had been a crash, but any village at all. In official statements the government claimed that the village had been evacuated before the launch, but that was directly contradicted by Campbell’s recollection of seeing many villagers leaving the crash site in the aftermath, and others who claimed to see pickup truck beds filled with corpses. Actively trying to forget the past is a good way to avoid learning from it.

Top image: China's Intelsat-708 disaster in 1996. Credit: CGTN/YouTube.

[Source: Toptenz. Top image added.]

10 THINGS BELIEVED TO EXIST (THAT REALLY DON’T)

10 Things Believed To Exist (That Really Don’t)
By Mike Lawrence, Listverse, 19 January 2019.

We all know the old phrase, “You can’t always believe what you see,” but sometimes, even what we think are facts can’t stand up to scrutiny. And even when a notion is proven wrong, it can continue to be accepted as true for some time.

There are things that we believe are self-evident, even scientifically proven, which are nothing but figments of popular culture’s imagination. Sometimes, even the “authorities” get it wrong. And sometimes, they do it on purpose.

10. Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity

Gluten sensitivity is a condition suffered by those with celiac disease, which causes gastrointestinal distress. In 2011, a study by Peter Gibson found that even some people without celiac disease can suffer similar symptoms upon ingesting gluten. This triggered the gluten-free craze that spawned a multibillion-dollar market. The problem was that Gibson wasn’t convinced it was as prevalent as advertisers would have us believe, so he tested it again.

He tested 37 people who self-identified as gluten-sensitive, none of whom had celiac disease. Each subject went through a period of high-gluten, low-gluten, and no-gluten diets without being aware of which they were on at any time. The results were that every patient reported symptoms associated with gluten sensitivity throughout the entire trial.

Gibson took into account that the subjects were paying more attention to their condition during the trials. He also considered that the presence of gluten in foods is usually accompanied by other potential symptom triggers, yet that still would not account for the reports of symptoms found during the gluten-free period of the trials. In other words, the man who created the concept of non-celiac gluten sensitivity no longer believes it exists.

9. Pterodactyls Only Existed for About 30 Years

Photo credit: Matthew P. Martyniuk

“Pterodactyl” is the name we ascribe to the well-known flying dinosaur from popular imagination. The problem is that a dinosaur named “pterodactyl” only existed for about 30 years. The “father of paleontology,” Georges Cuvier, named the winged reptile “pterodactyl” after its long finger that stretched into a wing. After his find, however, paleontologists started discovering many more “pterodactyls” that varied more and more widely in their features - too widely for a single species to account for such diversity.

The classification “dactyl” was meant to describe these dinosaurs, but it couldn’t hold the abundance of new finds. A new, more general classification of “pterosaur” was created that better described them. Further research found something even more interesting about pterosaurs - that they were not dinosaurs at all but a type of flying reptile that existed alongside them.

This was due mostly to when paleontologists took a closer look at the term “dinosaur” and defined what it really meant. Pterosaurs were reclassified into a group on the dinosaurs’ family tree, but not quite close enough to be considered dinosaurs themselves. Pterodactylus antiquus, the flying reptile that could be pinned down as what the term “pterodactyl” is meant to represent, is, in fact, now the only species of its genus.

8. Photographic Memory Is Just A Memory

The idea of certain people having a photographic memory, or the ability to perfectly recall a piece of visual information from their memory, has been around for a long time. Whenever it has been put to scientific examination, however, it has either failed miserably or failed to be replicated. One of the most famous photographic memory studies that “proved” its existence was done by a scientist who soon married his subject afterward and never attempted to replicate the test. Other studies of photographic memory have likewise either failed to confirm its existence or failed to replicate their initial results.

The closest thing to photographic memory is called an eidetic memory, but unlike popular culture icons would have us believe, it is not some lesser incarnation of perfect visual memory. An eidetic image is a kind of mental picture that remains in the mind’s eye for a short length of time. Somewhere between two and 15 percent of children actually possess this kind of memory, but its prevalence diminishes with age. Even then, those with eidetic memories do not have anything close to perfect recall. They might believe they do, but it is only their mind filling in the gaps.

The only instances of photographic-like memories were autistic savants, but even while their memories were far beyond most people, they still did not have the absolute perfect recall associated with the condition.

7. 30 Years Of Chemistry Relied On A Nonexistent Particle

The existence of a substance used for decades in chemistry calculations is now being challenged, potentially calling into questions a large swath of research that relied on it. Scientists at the University of Western Australia say that there is no evidence that sulfide ions, as dissolved in a aqueous solution, do, in fact, exist. They discovered (or maybe “undiscovered?”) this while they were doing research on metal sulfides. Sulfide ions drew their attention because they failed to even detect them as expected.

Older spectroscopic equipment was not sensitive enough to pick up the theoretical substance, so older chemistry simply relied on predictions of its presence from calculations. When researchers never detected it, they still assumed it was present, but only in quantities too small to detect.

The UWA researchers call that much assuming from the scientific community “laziness” and “bad practice.” Furthermore, this is not even the first time such an experiment has been performed. Another experiment done in 1983 used the same procedures to reach the same conclusion, but was largely ignored by a presumably “lazy” scientific community.

6. Hunter Island Penguins Never Existed

In 1983, scientists found the bone fragments of a new species of penguin on an island off the coast of Tasmania. They believed the “Hunter Island penguin” was a species of penguin that went extinct about 800 years ago. Nevertheless, the true identity of the penguin and what place it occupied in the fossil record remained somewhat of a controversy until the advent of DNA testing.

Scientists tested the fragments of bones that made up the previously unknown species of penguin. Their findings flipped the cold case upside down. They extracted some DNA from the degraded bones and then compared them to a catalog of known penguin DNA. They had hits from three separate penguin species, all of which are still very much alive.

Modern DNA testing has led to many discoveries and reevaluations of varying species. In this case, it meant that the penguin assumed to be a separate species did not, in fact, exist. It’s not quite as exciting as finding an original species, but it is still shedding light on the past. It proved that the three types of penguins had all lived on the same island at some point and that their remains got mixed together throughout the years. Perhaps they even lived alongside each other.

5. The Supermodel Who Never Was

Photo credit: Cameron-James Wilson

In February 2018, a picture of a beautiful dark-skinned model started garnering attention on Instagram after it was reposted by Fenty Beauty, Rhianna’s makeup brand. The striking photo of “Shudu” made people interested in the presumably African model. But by March, Shudu was getting attention for something other than her looks: It was discovered that she wasn’t human.

She was the product of Cameron-James Wilson, a fashion photographer who created her from a 3-D digital art program. While Shudu was first praised for breaking into the notoriously undiverse modeling industry where black women are underrepresented, when it was discovered that she was only a fictional character created by a British white male, the praise quickly turned into fierce criticism.

Wilson was accused of racism, profiting off a white male fantasy, and denying real black models jobs that might be taken by his digital creation. Although the exposure Wilson has gotten from his creation is undeniable, he has yet to actually receive any direct profit from Shudu. He has so far made no deals involving her representing any brands (though he does intend to in the future). Regarding jobs, he says that 3-D modeling is a minute section of the fashion industry and will not take away jobs. Even if it does grow bigger, jobs will be created to make the digital models, albeit in very different fields than his critics are concerned with. For better or worse, it seems that Shudu and other digital models are here to stay.

4. Multitasking Is A Figment Of Popular Culture

The idea that some people are “multitaskers” and have the ability to do several things at once is actually just a notion that popular culture invented. If someone is writing while engaging in a conversation, for example, they are not really doing both activities at the same time, just rapidly switching between them. To say that multitasking doesn’t exist may just sound like splitting hairs, but research shows that the brain simply cannot do two similar activities at once, which makes multitasking a bad idea if you want to be productive.

Engaging in “multitasking” does not devote enough cognitive resources to either task. This equates to lower productivity, since neither task is receiving adequate attention. One study even found that those who identify as chronic multitaskers have the worst performance of anyone. They make the most mistakes, remember less, and take longer to complete activities.

But while people who consider themselves multitaskers are, in fact, just rapidly switching between two things, that is not to say that true multitasking does not exist. It’s just not what most people think it is. Listening to wordless music and studying, for example, are completely compatible multitasking behaviors because they are processed in different parts of the brain. Add lyrics to the music, however, and suddenly Beyonce is actually interfering with your English homework because your brain is using the same area to process the language of both activities.

3. London’s Best Restaurant

Photo credit: Chris Bethell

Oobah Butler used to write fake reviews for restaurants, and his experiences seeing restaurateurs profit from his deceptive reviews stuck with him even after he moved into professional writing. Eventually, he wanted to see how far he could carry the deception by creating a fake restaurant of his own on TripAdvisor and then seeing how popular it would become.

Butler set up a fake website that had the physical address of his private shed. To accept calls for reservations, he used a disposable phone. A few delicious-looking photos (with ingredients that didn’t include actual food) were posted, and “The Shed at Dulwich” was in business. When it received requests for reservations, the imaginary restaurant was always fully booked, yet the requests kept coming, and the restaurant quickly climbed through TripAdvisor’s ranks.

Eventually, it became the top-rated restaurant in London. By then, Butler was getting calls from companies wanting to work with the Shed. He was ever-ready with an excuse to not actually meet any representatives, but eventually, TripAdvisor itself requested more information about his fictional restaurant. Since the jig was up, he came clean - but not before setting up a dining space in his backyard and actually taking requests for reservations. Guests arrived to microwaved food and lawn chairs but did not actually pay for anything since they were told, somewhat truthfully, that they were participating in a documentary. Butler documented the entire deception from beginning to end.

2. Learning Styles

The idea of learning styles has been ingrained into the education system for years. Recent studies, however, have failed to provide evidence to show that learning styles either actually exist or have any effect on learning. In fact, many have shown the opposite.

One study showed that students who categorized themselves as auditory or visual learners did no better on memorizing words when presented with their preferred style of learning than others. Another failed to show evidence of learners performing better on comprehension tests when material was presented in their preferred learning style.

The idea of learning styles is rooted in the idea that when a student is given material in their brain’s learning style, their performance will be better. While the researchers who found otherwise now refute that assumption, they do not refute that there are indeed learning preferences. So while the method of presenting new material may not have a direct effect on student performance, students still prefer to learn in certain modes. This means that teachers might not want to abandon their visual and kinesthetic lessons in favor of boring lectures just yet. There are still certain ways that students like to learn, even if the method isn’t proven to affect performance.

1. Fictitious Entries

Despite reference material like encyclopedias, dictionaries, and maps being considered authoritative, some are intentionally inaccurate. Fictional entries are imaginary or inaccurate entries that are purposely constructed to alert the publishing company to plagiarism, should they be copied. There have been several high-profile fictional entries throughout the years.

The 1975 edition of the New Columbia Encyclopedia has an entry about Lillian Virginia Mountweazel. Mountweazel was a fountain designer who switched careers to become a mailbox photographer. She died young in a violent explosion while doing work for a magazine called Combustibles. Mountweazel’s explosive demise, however, was fortunately a work of fiction. The encyclopedia’s editor-in-chief said it’s a tradition to insert a false entry so that any reproduction can be traced back to the original.

It later became known that the New Oxford American Dictionary had a fictitious entry somewhere in the “e’s.” Interestingly, an investigation was done in order to ferret out the fake. Lexicographers were sent the suspected words, and the majority decided that “esquivalience” was the fraud. Their theory was soon confirmed by the editor, who said that the word was chosen as an inside joke. The fake would mean the opposite of “working really hard,” which the staff had been doing to compile the dictionary. Plagiarizing the word, after all, would mean that any fraudster would be doing the opposite of hard work by merely copying and pasting.

Top image: Shudu, the supermodel who never was. Credit: WWD/YouTube.

[Source: Listverse. Top image added.]

5 APPS TO HELP YOU BEAT AIRPORT SECURITY CHECK LINES

5 Apps to Help You Beat Airport Security Check Lines
By Emily Petsko, Mental Floss, 16 January 2019.

No one wants to be “that guy,” the one who has to ask everyone at the airport security checkpoint if they can jump the line because they’re running late. However, considering the current government shutdown and talks of a potential TSA worker strike, those long lines might be getting worse. If you’re planning to travel soon, it’s best to be prepared for any scenario. Here are five apps that help you keep tabs on airport security wait times.

1. App in the Air

Credit: Google Play

In addition to helping you keep track of your flight schedule, baggage allowance, and travel expenses, this one-stop travel app will tell you how long a wait you can expect at the check-in, security, and customs lines.

2. MyTSA

Credit: Google Play

The TSA’s own app, MyTSA, provides wait times based on crowdsourced data. Travelers can lend their fellow passengers a hand by reporting their wait time within the app’s Checkpoint Wait Time section. The app will also tell you how busy an airport is likely to be on any given day, based on historical data.

3. MiFlight

Credit: MiFlight

MiFlight uses crowdsourced information to tell you how long the wait is likely to be at security checkpoints in more than 150 airports. It also comes with terminal maps to help you find your way around.

4. KAYAK Flights, Hotels & Cars

Credit: KAYAK

The travel connoisseurs at KAYAK have condensed many of its services into one handy app. Its wait time estimates are based on information from the TSA as well as other passengers.

5. Airports by flightSpeak

Credit: flightSpeak/Facebook

Much like MiFlight, this app relies on crowdsourced data to create wait time estimates. It also compiles the tweets of over 150 airport accounts, providing an extra source of information regarding delays and other important updates.

Top image: Security checkpoints at the Sea-Tac Airport. Credit: Andrew Pilloud/Flickr.

[Source: Mental Floss. Top image added.]

10 TYPES OF BACTERIA WITH REAL SUPERPOWERS

10 Types Of Bacteria With Real Superpowers
By Brian Molinari , Listverse, 18 January 2019.

With their microscopic size, bacteria are everywhere and can perform feats that are unachievable for beings like us. In recent times, we have shown you some truly extraordinary microorganisms, such as bacteria that eat radioactive waste. However, there are certain species of these little creatures with abilities that we could say are true superpowers.

Now, we will show you ten types of bacteria with powers that you would expect to see in a superhero comic book instead of in real life. If this information inspires any film studio to make a blockbuster movie of superhero bacteria, we strongly recommend that you ask for scientists’ permission first.

10. Caulobacter Crescentus (The Super-Adhesive Bacteria)

Photo credit: Yves Brun, Indiana University

If a gecko attaches to a surface with its legs, it would take hundreds of kilograms of force to just “unstick” it from there. However, even that does not compare to what the bacterium Caulobacter crescentus can do. As if it were a bacterial version of Spider-Man, C. crescentus has an adhesion force seven times stronger than that of geckos and is three to four times more adhesive than commercial superglue.

C. crescentus lives in any wet environment and in any type of water, be it fresh water, salt water, or even tap water. The microbe moves with the help of an appendage called a flagellum until finding a place to live. Then, one end of C. crescentus attaches to the surface in question, after which the bacterium is anchored to it through thin structures called pili. When C. crescentus is finally in position, it secretes a sugary adhesive substance that sticks the creature to the surface immediately.

The results of scientific tests have shown that the “superglue” of C. crescentus has an adhesive force of about five tons per square inch. In other words, a small patch of this substance would be enough to lift an elephant or several cars off the ground. Since C. crescentus move in places where there is not much to eat, it is believed that these bacteria also use their superglue to pick up nutrients. Evidently, scientists see the practical potential of such a sticky substance, whose uses could range from surgical adhesives to durable construction materials.

9. Magnetotactic Bacteria (Living Magnets)

Photo credit: Nature

A truly amazing power would be to control magnetism. Perceiving nearby magnetic fields, manipulating metal objects, and moving just by taking advantage of the Earth’s magnetic field sounds like something great but, unfortunately, far superior to human capabilities. Nevertheless, that does not mean that other living beings cannot do it, and in fact, some bacteria already have these fascinating abilities. Meet magnetotactic bacteria, the living magnets.

Magnetotactic bacteria (MTB) are microorganisms capable of accumulating iron oxide molecules and putting them together to form small “pebbles” called magnetosomes. These magnetic granules are 100,000 times smaller than a grain of rice, and an MTB stores many of them inside. In this way, the little inner magnets allow MTBs to feel the magnetic field of the Earth and thus move toward the South Pole or the North Pole, depending on where there is more food. But that is just the beginning.

As MTBs usually live in swamps and similar environments with little oxygen, the microbes must move using their flagella until finding a suitable place. But sometimes, the sediment is too dense to move through in that way, so the MTB uses its magnetosomes to gain thrust with the Earth’s magnetic field. MTBs could also be true superheroes. To eliminate dangerous bacteria from the human body, scientists have learned to fill these microorganisms with magnetosomes and then kill them using something called “magnetic heat.” MTBs could provide such magnetosomes and thus help eliminate infectious viruses in large quantities.

8. Thiomargarita Namibiensis (The Little Giant)

Photo credit: Sciblogs

Among the superheroes in Marvel comics (and movies), there are some characters that use a certain substance to grow up to the size of a multistory building. While, at the moment, no human is known to have such an ability, some types of bacteria already have the superpower of growing in size at will. And here we will see the largest species of all.

Thiomargarita namibiensis is considered the largest bacterium in the world, three million times larger than average bacteria. Discovered in 1997 on the coasts of Namibia, this microbe is capable of reaching a size of up to 0.75 millimeters, making it visible even to the naked eye. Heide Schulz, the biologist who discovered the bacterium, said in a report: “In terms of size, a T. namibiensis cell is to an Escherichia coli cell what a blue whale is compared to a newly born mouse.”

The extreme size of T. namibiensis is due to its feeding mechanism. The bacterium uses nitrate and sulfide to obtain energy. And since nitrate concentrations are low in the place where it lives, T. namibiensis tries to store as much nitrate as possible inside its own body. That way, 98 percent of its volume is nitrate stored inside an organelle in the center of the bacterium.

In appearance, the T. namibiensis looks white due to the multiple sulfur granules that the creature also stores inside. It is worth noting that since T. namibiensis feeds on sulfur, the populations of these bacteria detoxify seawater, allowing the proliferation of marine life. These microorganisms usually join together by a layer of mucus, forming what looks like a long string of white spheres. This is what gives the bacterium its name, since Thiomargarita namibiensis means “Sulfur Pearl of Namibia.”

7. Modified Escherichia Coli (The Living Computers)

Photo credit: Seth Shipman

Humans have always tried to find the best way to store information. Many millennia ago, we started sharing our ideas through paintings inside caves. Then came books and computers, and we recently learned that diamonds are great data storage devices. But then bacteria entered the game when scientists managed to insert information into them. That’s right: Some microbes can transport text, videos, and images in their bodies, turning them into living computers.

It happens that when bacteria destroy an enemy virus, they store small parts of the virus’s DNA inside their own bodies. In this way, microbes learn to recognize similar threats in the future. Taking advantage of that mechanism, scientists from Harvard University first cultivated a population of 600,000 Escherichia coli bacteria. Then, they coded an image of a human hand and a short video of a galloping horse into a DNA strand. And finally, the E. coli received electric shocks so that they activated their defense mechanism and thus absorbed the man-made DNA.

To test if the method worked, the scientists sequenced the new genetic code of each bacterium. Then they ran the sequence in a computer program that read it and transformed it into images. Incredibly, the resulting pictures were practically the same as the original files, with just a few pixels of difference. Although this technique sounds difficult, current genetic sequencing technologies make it relatively easy to perform the process.

Anyway, this is not the first time that E. coli microorganisms have carried our information. In 2003, US scientists introduced DNA written with the lyrics of a song inside E. coli bacteria. And in 2011, Canadian writer Christian Bok inserted a poem into the DNA of a single E. coli , which then glowed red and began to “write” its own poem. If you wonder what the potential of this ability is, a gram of DNA can contain 455 exabytes (455 billion gigabytes) of data, about a quarter of all of humankind’s information. So in the not-too-distant future, we could be using modified E. coli populations as our personal microcomputers.

6. Shewanella Oneidensis (Electric Microbes)

Photo credit: NASA

Electrogenic bacteria are microorganisms that can naturally generate electricity through extracellular transference of electrons. To date, hundreds of species of electrogenic bacteria have been found, and they are everywhere, from the bottom of a lake to inside our own bodies. However, a particular bacterium of this type has unique characteristics, which have made it a great object of scientific study.

Shewanella oneidensis is a bacterium discovered in the lakes of New York. While most life-forms (including us) use oxygen to get energy, S. oneidensis “breathes” metal molecules such as manganese, lead, and iron, among others. For this, many of these bacteria join together and attach to the surface of rocks containing metals. Then, they release long filaments called nanowires, which they use to connect directly to the metal. In that way, the microbes transfer electrons from inside their bodies to metal molecules, and this flow of electrical current is what keeps them alive. Sometimes, S. oneidensis bacteria do the opposite and extract electrons from such metals, so they literally live on electricity.

It is presumed that the nanowires of S. oneidensis allow it to conduct electricity over long distances, as well as to supply electrons to other nearby bacteria. The ability of S. oneidensis to generate electricity has aroused the interest of the scientific community. For example, some researchers are studying the potential of the bacterium to treat wastewater. Meanwhile, NASA took samples of these creatures to space to see if they can be used in the construction of future life-support systems.

5. Pseudomonas Syringae (The Ice-Maker)

Just like Marvel’s Iceman, the bacterium Pseudomonas syringae can freeze water by touching it, even at temperatures above the natural freezing point. P. syringae bacteria live mostly in farm crops, as well as in many other types of plants. To feed themselves, these little creatures freeze the tissue of plants in order to easily access their nutrients, which, in turn, can cause great damage to agriculture. In addition, P. syringae have also been found in snowy environments from Europe to Antarctica. But how do these bacteria freeze things?

In 2016, scientists learned that P. syringae uses certain proteins in its outer membrane to make ice. First, these proteins modify the order of water molecules, forcing them to form a more solid structure like that of ice. And to make this process easier, the proteins also extract heat from the water, causing it to freeze regardless of the surrounding temperature.

Pure water does not freeze until it reaches around –40 degrees Celsius (–40 °F). However, a single droplet of P. syringae bacteria can instantly freeze 600 milliliters (20.3 fluid ounces) of such water cooled to only –7 degrees Celsius (19.4 °F). It is also believed that these microbes contribute to the formation of rain and snow when the wind drags them into the atmosphere. So we can say that our good P. syringae is both an ice-maker and a rain-maker. Due to their extraordinary capabilities, P. syringae bacteria are currently used to make snow in ski resorts, although they could even be used in biotechnological processes.

4. Modified Klebsiella Planticola (World Destroyer)

The superpower of this bacterium gives it the ability to potentially erase all plant life on Earth, so Klebsiella planticola earns the prize for the supervillain of this list. Klebsiella bacteria are present in the roots of almost every plant on Earth. These creatures are responsible for decomposing dead plants, thus cleaning the soil of organic waste.

German scientists took a sample of K. planticola bacteria and genetically modified them so that, by decomposing plants, they produced fertilizer and ethanol at the same time. A bacterium of this type would be easy to sell for agricultural and industrial uses, so in the early 1990s, it was planned to test K. planticola in the fields.

However, in order to test its effectiveness, a team at Oregon State University conducted a laboratory experiment with a sample of fertile, sown soil. One part of the soil was filled with the original K. planticola, while the modified bacteria were placed in the other part. The results showed that although the seeds germinated in both soils, all plants in the section of the modified microbes were dead after a week.

The modified K. planticola produced 17 times more alcohol in the soil than plants could tolerate. In addition, plants use fungi to feed on soil nutrients, but the ethanol-producing bacteria increased the presence of worms that eat those fungi. So the plants not only died of poisoning but also of starvation.

Adding to its evil characteristics, it was confirmed that the modified K. planticola bacterium was able to survive in soil for a long time, unlike other modified bacteria. In the end, the “killer” K. planticola was not commercialized. But it was foreseen that had it been released in the fields, this bacterium would have ended up annihilating all plant life on a continental scale.

3. Aquifex (The Microbe From Hell)

Photo credit: NOAA

In the early 1980s, scientists found the first known hyperthermophilic organisms, microscopic beings capable of living and reproducing at temperatures close to 100 degrees Celsius (212 °F). But it happens that most of these microorganisms belong to the Archaea domain, a group distinct from bacteria and discovered in the late 1970s. However, some hyperthermophilic bacteria have also been discovered, and their abilities make them more durable than most life on Earth.

The genus Aquifex comprises bacteria capable of reproducing in underwater thermal vents and hot springs, at temperatures up to 95 degrees Celsius (203 °F). Just to get an idea, a human body submerged in that water would begin to boil until dissolving in a matter of hours. And even so, Aquifex can live in such an environment without difficulty, even at temperatures above 100 degrees Celsius (212 °F), which makes them the most heat-resistant bacteria of all.

As if that were not enough, Aquifex are also aerobic—that is, they can breathe oxygen. Although these microbes only tolerate low oxygen concentrations, they are among the few known aerobic hyperthermophilic bacteria. If the environment does not have oxygen, Aquifex can also breathe nitrogen. But the most impressive ability of these microorganisms is that they produce water as a byproduct while breathing. For this reason, the bacteria earned the name Aquifex, which means “water-maker.”

2. Ancient Bacteria

If everything goes well, humans can expect to live a little over 70 years on average. Some reptiles can live close to 200 years, while a few trees have lived around 5,000 years. But all that is just a blink (figurative, of course) for the oldest bacteria in the world. Indeed, in 2007, researchers discovered bacteria more than half a million years old, which were still alive.

A team of scientists from the University of Copenhagen (Denmark) obtained samples of these bacteria in layers of ice in Canada, Russia, and Antarctica. It is estimated that the microbes have been alive for about 600,000 years, and when scientists looked at their DNA, they were surprised to see that it was almost intact. This is something extremely unusual for creatures of that age, since DNA starts to break down after some time. To survive for millennia, many microorganisms enter a state of almost total inactivity, but even so, their DNA will continue to suffer great damage.

The key to the long life of these old bacteria lies in their amazing ability to self-repair their DNA. Instead of becoming lethargic and suspending its functions to survive, this particular creature keeps a small part of its metabolism active. In this way, the body of the bacterium will keep constantly repairing its own DNA while waiting for the environment to become more favorable for reproduction.

There have been other reports of even older living bacteria, such as 250-million-year-old bacteria trapped in salt crystals. However, these reports remain unconfirmed, and it is speculated that the samples were contaminated with modern microbes while in the laboratory. By contrast, the 600,000-year-old bacteria are authentic, since the researchers made sure to avoid any form of contamination during the tests.

1. Staphylococcus Epidermidis (The Anti-Cancer Fighter)

Photo credit: UC San Diego Health

Cancer is the second-leading cause of death around the world. In 2018, almost ten million people died due to this type of disease, and the annual number of cancer cases is expected to reach 23.6 million by 2030. Well, that could change, because scientists have discovered a method to radically fight cancer. And you guessed right, the method involves bacteria.

In February 2018, a group of researchers from the University of California discovered that the bacterium Staphylococcus epidermidis has anti-cancer powers. This microbe is commonly found in healthy human skin. Upon careful analysis, scientists noted that S. epidermidis produces a chemical compound similar to a certain DNA component. When the researchers tested the substance (called 6-HAP) in the laboratory, they realized that it stopped DNA production. Specifically, the chemical prevented cancer cells from multiplying further. However, 6-HAP had no effect on normal cells, since certain enzymes within them deactivated the chemical.

The scientists injected 6-HAP into a group of mice, while another group was left unaffected. The animals were then exposed to high doses of UV radiation. The results showed that although all mice developed cancer, the tumors of the mice with 6-HAP were 60 percent smaller than those of the normal mice. The researchers proceeded to repeat the experiment, this time by spreading S. epidermidis bacteria on the backs of mice instead of injecting them. Even in that way, the mice covered with the microbes developed only one tumor after the radiation dose, while the normal mice had up to six of them. Although more research is still needed on these creatures, it is believed that S. epidermidis could be used in the future to prevent multiple cancers - besides skin cancer.

Top image: Staphylococcus epidermidis, the anti-cancer bacterium. Credit: Teruaki Nakatsuji et al./Science Advances February 2018.

[Source: Listverse. Top image added.]