Good Morning! 🌞 

It’s been many years since I’ve used a vending machine. I used to love them as a child, they were like magical robots to me.

Apparently people in Japan share this sentiment. Japan is known for its high density of vending machines, with one machine for every 40 people!! These machines sell a variety of items, from beverages to ice cream, full meals, and even disposable cameras! Sounds like a dream for my younger self…

Science

Impossible Discovery

Scientists from the University of Central Lancashire in the UK have reported the discovery of a massive cosmic structure that challenges current understanding of the universe. The Great Ring, as it is called, is a nearly perfect circle of galaxies and galaxy clusters that spans approximately 1.3 billion light-years in diameter, making it larger than any known structure.

The Great Ring covers about 3% of the observable universe and may be part of an even larger structure. When visible to the naked eye, it would appear to be the size of 15 full moons in the night sky.

Traditionally, superclusters of galaxies were believed to be the largest structures in the universe, with sizes exceeding hundreds of millions of light-years. They can form threads that stretch over billions of light-years and contribute to the web-like structure of the universe.

However, the Great Ring is not only larger than these structures, but larger than any other structure discovered to date. This challenges the cosmological principle, which states that the universe should appear uniform in all directions to all observers within it. While there may be random variations in the distribution of stars and galaxies, at the largest scale they should merge into a homogeneous system.

The cosmological principle sets an upper limit on the size of any structure at 1.2 billion light-years, but the Great Ring clearly exceeds this value. If it were an isolated discovery, it might be dismissed as an anomaly or a mistake, but the Great Ring is not the only "impossible" giant structure discovered.

Two years ago, fellow astronomer Alexia Lopez from the University of Central Lancashire discovered a crescent-shaped structure called the Giant Ark, which is 3.3 billion light-years long. In 2015, a gigantic ring of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) with a diameter of 5.6 billion light-years was discovered. And although the status of the Great Wall of Hercules and the Northern Crown, a galactic thread stretching over 10 billion light-years, as a single structure remains debatable, their size is still remarkable.

Even more intriguingly, the Great Ring and the Giant Ark are in the same part of the sky and about the same distance from Earth, 9.2 billion light-years away. They may be part of a single, even larger structure.

The discovery of these giant structures challenges the cosmological principle and may require scientists to consider alternative models, such as the appearance of gigantic structures due to one-dimensional defects in space and time, known as cosmic strings.

Another possibility is the model of conformal periodic cosmology, which suggests that our universe is just one link in an infinite chain of universes, with the collapse of one causing a big bang in another.

The discovery of the Great Ring and other giant cosmic structures has significant implications for our understanding of the universe and its fundamental principles. Fascinating!!

World News

On this Day: The Cloning of Dolly the Sheep

On February 22, 1997, scientists at the Roslin Institute in Scotland announced the successful cloning of an adult sheep.

Dolly, the first cloned adult mammal, was created using somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) from a 6-year-old ewe. The nucleus of an adult cell was inserted into an unfertilized egg cell with its nucleus removed, then stimulated to divide through electric shock and implanted into a surrogate.

Dolly was born on July 5, 1996, with three contributing mothers providing an egg, donated DNA, and carrying the cloned embryo. DNA tests confirmed her identical match to the donor and no relation to the surrogate.

The project team, including Ian Wilmut, Keith Campbell, Roslin Institute colleagues, and biotechnology company PPL Therapeutics, initially named her "6LL3" but later changed it to Dolly, as the donor cell was taken from a mammary gland, in homage to Dolly Parton.

The announcement sparked a debate on scientists interfering with the natural order, intensified when Dolly died prematurely in 2003, possibly due to premature aging. Euthanized on February 14 due to a progressive lung disease and severe arthritis, Dolly was preserved at the National Museum of Scotland.

The success of Dolly's cloning paved the way for replicating other mammals like horses and cattle. Some scientists see potential in using cloning to preserve endangered species and produce lab animals.

In 2009, Spanish scientists cloned a wild mountain goat, declared extinct in 2000, though the clone died shortly after birth. This marked the first cloning attempt of an extinct animal.

Entertainment

National Margarita Day!

Since 2009, February 22nd has been designated as National Margarita Day. The brainchild of Todd McCalla from Ohio, this day offers a winter-friendly excuse for enjoying margaritas with friends, minus the need for a tropical getaway. Todd's initiative ensures that everyone can enjoy margarita without the need for a plane ticket or sandy shoes.

The term "Margarita," translating to "daisy flower" in Spanish, is linked to a tale from the 1930s. Legend has it that a bartender in Tijuana, Mexico, mistakenly swapped tequila for brandy in an American news editor's Brandy Daisy cocktail, giving birth to the margarita.

The cocktail's exact origins remain disputed, with various claims about lime, tequila, and orange liqueur concoctions emerging from different locales like Tijuana, Mexico, or London, England.

Here’s a link to a recipe of the classic drink! 😉 Let us know how it worked out for you!

Sports

Mexico Open at Vidanta 2024

The Mexico Open at Vidanta, a prestigious golf tournament on the PGA TOUR, is currently underway, starting today February 22 ending on February 25.

Recognized for providing PGA TOUR opportunities to Latin American players, the tournament has seen participation from 31 golfers from the region, including six amateurs, in its first two editions.

In its third annual edition in Puerto Vallarta, the tournament boasts a prize purse of $8.1 million USD, with the winner earning 500 FedEx Cup points. The 2024 edition is expected to include up to 144 players. Hosted at the exclusive Vidanta Vallarta location, the event offers a competitive golf experience while allowing participants and spectators to immerse themselves in Mexico's sports, culture, and cuisine.

Mind Stretchers

⁉️ 

Susan and Lisa decided to play tennis against each other. They bet $1 on each game they played. Susan won three bets and Lisa won $5. How many games did they play?

Yesterday’s Answers to the Mind Stretchers:
CABDE. Putting the first three in order, A finished in front of B but behind C, so CAB. Then, we know D finished before B, so CABD. We know E finished after D, so CABDE.

Today’s shout-out goes to Linda Runatz. She was the first to get the correct answer in today!

Be the first to send us the correct answer for today’s mind stretcher for a shout-out with the answer tomorrow. Just send us the answer and your name to [email protected] or reply to email.

If you have any uplifting stories and experience you might want to share, send those over to [email protected] for the chance to be featured.