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Antarctica might be the only continent on Earth with no natural human habitation, but it’s emerged that an “Antarctica accent” is very much a thing. Despite having no locals, thousands of scientists have made up an ever-changing population in research stations over the years. The continent is so isolated and the level of interaction between researchers is so intense, that a common accent is beginning to emerge there despite people coming from different parts of the world. At its busiest points in the year during the summer, Antarctica is home to around 5,000 people. Only around 1,000 people live there during the winter months. The idea of accents changing due to human interaction on Antarctica is no different to the phenomenon seen throughout history at a glacial pace. However, given the very specific sample size, it’s an opportunity for scientists to study it at a much quicker rate and on a much smaller scale. Experts at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich published a study in 2019 which focused on the change in accents observed in 11 people who took part in the British Antarctic Survey. @human.1011 There’s an Antarctic Accent! #language #linguistics #english #antarctica Of the 11 who were studied, eight came from England, one from the US, one from Germany and one from Iceland. Their voices were recorded every six weeks, and the team found that over time they developed longer vowel sounds. There was a physical change too, with participants pronouncing the “ou” sound in the front of their mouths rather than the back of their throats. Speaking to IFL Science, Jonathan Harrington, study author and Professor of Phonetics and Speech Processing at the Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich said: "The Antarctic accent is not really perceptible as such – it would take much longer for it to become so – but it is acoustically measurable. "It's mostly an amalgamation of some aspects of the spoken accents of the winterers before they went to Antarctica, together with an innovation. It's far more embryonic [than conventional English accents] given that it had only a short time to develop and also, of course, because it's only distributed across a small group of speakers.” Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Alcohol addiction ruins millions of lives every year, but scientists may have found a cure for this terrible affliction. A new treatment for alcohol use disorder (AUD) has been trialled in monkeys with impressive results and, if these translate to human trials, the impact could be monumental. A team of neuroscientists and physiologists from across the US tested a new type of gene therapy to see if they could directly target the underlying brain circuitry associated with sustained heavy drinking. As they noted, in the journal Nature Medicine, people suffering from AUD commonly return to alcohol use even if they attempt to quit. This is largely to do with what’s known as mesolimbic dopamine (DA) signalling – meaning how the central nervous system circuit communicates the feelgood neurotransmitter dopamine. A protein called glial-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) is key to keeping these neurons in this reward circuitry functioning. However, experts have found that levels of GDNF are reduced in people with AUD during periods of alcohol abstinence, most notably in a region of the brain called the ventral tegmental area (VTA), as IFLScience notes. Therefore, the researchers decided to test whether using gene therapy to deliver more GDNF to the VTA could help reinforce this crucial dopaminergic signalling and prevent patients from suffering an alcoholic relapse. The team of scientists explained how alcohol consumption in non-addicts prompts the release of dopamine, creating a pleasurable buzz feeling, but chronic alcohol use causes the brain to adapt and stop releasing so much dopamine. “So when people are addicted to alcohol, they don’t really feel more pleasure in drinking,” Dr Kathleen Grant, a senior co-author of the study, said in a statement. “It seems that they’re drinking more because they feel a need to maintain an intoxicated state.” For their research, Dr Grant and her colleagues used eight rhesus macaque monkeys, who were exposed to increasing concentrations of alcohol over four 30-day “induction” periods. The monkeys then had free access to alcohol and water for 21 hours a day for six months, during which they developed heavy drinking behaviours. This was then followed by a 12-week abstinence phase, with the GDNF treatment performed four weeks in for half of the subjects. The gene therapy was delivered using a a viral vector containing a copy of the human GDNF gene injected directly into the primate’s VTA, according to IFLScience. And the results were truly jaw-dropping. “Drinking went down to almost zero,” Dr Grant said. “For months on end, these animals would choose to drink water and just avoid drinking alcohol altogether. They decreased their drinking to the point that it was so low we didn’t record a blood-alcohol level.” The most exciting aspect of their findings is the suggestion that gene therapy could offer a permanent solution for people with the most severe cases of AUD. This will be a welcome glimmer of hope to many, given that some 29.5 million people were diagnosed with AUD in the US alone in 2021, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Of these 29.5 million sufferers, almost a million (894,000) were aged between 12 and 17. It’ll likely be some time before we know for sure whether the gene therapy can be rolled out in humans, but it’s an important first step in tackling this devastating disorder. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Nowadays, the internet has developed to play a key part in modern-day life but many will remember the early days when the unforgettable dial-up tone sound rang each time you logged on. With apps such as MSN and MySpace being the popular social media apps at the time. Looking back at this era, it also caused the earliest existence of memes - talk about historic. And in case you didn’t already feel old today, infamous video meme Badger Badger Badger will be celebrating its 20th birthday on September 1st this year. If you look back on these frolicking mammals with fondness, domain and hosting provider, Fasthosts, takes a trip down memory lane at the era of long-lost memes. Badger Badger Badger Age: 20 years old On its 20th birthday, Badger Badger Badger is an internet video meme that consists of badgers dancing to an electronic dance song. After three loops of multiple badgers and mushrooms, a snake slithers through a desert and the animation starts again. A ridiculous notion perhaps, but it captured the attention of kids and tweens in the early internet days. The original cartoon continues indefinitely, whereas the YouTube iterations sometimes only last a few minutes. Over the years, Badger Badger Badger has spawned numerous remixes and parodies and remains a fond favourite of early 90s kids. Badgers : animated music video : MrWeebl www.youtube.com Surprised owl Age: 20 years old If you enjoyed calling someone “Captain Obvious”, or have ever used the phrase “No s**t, Sherlock” – and you’re in your 30th decade – then chances are you’ve sent this meme over MSN. The greatness of this meme comes from its simplicity, its ease of use, and its ability to be used in a multitude of circumstances, the O RLY owl was the sickest burn of its time. SpongeGar Age: 19 years old There have been many Spongebob memes over the years, including his many beloved iterations. In episode SB-129, Squidward heads back in time to the prehistoric era and discovers that his annoying neighbour is exactly the same, just a little more caveman. SpongeGar – with his long canines, square loincloth and surprised expression – there was no more fitting response to the strange situations you can find online. Rickroll Age: 16 years old A meme familiar with millennials and one that has stood the test of time, so much so that Gen Z may even recognise what it means to be "Rickrolled." For the uninitiated, Rickroll is a good old bait-and-switch meme where an unsuspecting URL instead takes you to the music video for Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up”. After more than 15 years of tricking people around the world, the official YouTube video has garnered before than 1.5 billion views. In 2008, the meme reached its peak, by being tweeted by the White House’s official account, and when YouTube turned every link on their homepage into a Rickroll in honour of April Fools Day. RickRoll'D youtu.be Trollface Age: 15 years old Drawn on Microsoft Paint back in 2008, if you can believe it, to mock trolls. Unfortunately, the image itself was hijacked by trolls and became very widely used, often alongside the phrase “U mad, bro?”. Originating on 4chan, Trollface quickly jumped to Reddit and Urban Dictionary, before making its way to Imgur and Facebook. Doge Age: 13 years old Many people have pondered what man’s best friend might be thinking, and this unassuming Shiba Inu dog allowed our imagination to come to life. The Doge meme was overlaid with Comic Sans to relay the dog’s inner thoughts, often utilising poor grammar and spelling. Whether you Photoshopped Kabosu – the pooch’s name – used as a response or a standalone meme, Doge certainly made his mark on the world. After all, what other meme do you know that inspired its own cryptocurrency? Nyan Cat Age: 12 years old The internet is a wonderful place. And it’s the only place an 8-bit rainbow cat travelling through space would be watched by more than 150 million people. Not only was Nyan Cat a YouTube sensation, but it crossed mediums easily with live recreations, video games, classical music covers, and fan art. Certainly one of the most popular of early MySpace and Bebo days. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Broadcom shares fell 4.2% in premarket trading on Friday as the semiconductor maker's quarterly revenue forecast fell short