New review highlights the numerous health benefits of staying well-hydrated

Posted on November 29, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Drinking enough water can help with weight loss and prevent kidney stones as well as migraines, urinary tract infections, and low blood pressure, according to a new systematic review of 18 randomized clinical trials.

A systematic review of 18 randomized clinical trials found that interventions that increased water intake (or decreased intake in some studies) were associated with statistically significant increases in weight loss and reductions in kidney stone events. A single study suggested benefits related to migraine prevention, urinary tract infections, diabetes management, and lower blood pressure, but did not reach statistical significance. Image credit: Günther.

Water is a major component of the human body and is considered an essential nutrient that cannot be produced in sufficient quantities through metabolism.

The National Academy of Medicine recommends a daily fluid intake of approximately 13 8-ounce cups for men and 9 cups for women.

A common public health recommendation is to drink 8 cups of water per day, but the evidence supporting this is not clear.

Determining a single optimal daily water intake is a difficult concept, given the wide variation in body weight, activity levels, and health status at the population level, and the numerous mechanisms that regulate water balance.

Because of the known negative effects of dehydration, behavioral factors and hydration status have been widely studied in relation to health conditions.

Professor Benjamin Breyer of the University of California, San Francisco, and colleagues aimed to summarize the evidence from randomized clinical trials on the effects of increasing daily water intake on health-related outcomes.

“We wanted to take a closer look at such a ubiquitous and simple intervention, as the evidence is not clear and the benefits are not well established,” Professor Breyer said.

“Although the amount of rigorous research turned out to be limited, there were statistically significant benefits in some specific areas.”

“To our knowledge, this is the first study to broadly evaluate the benefits of water intake on clinical outcomes.”

Researchers have found the most evidence supporting drinking water to prevent kidney stones and lose weight.

Drinking 8 cups of water a day significantly reduced the chance of kidney stones recurring.

Some studies have found that drinking about 6 glasses of water a day can help adults lose weight.

However, a study of adolescents found that drinking just over 8 cups of water a day had no effect.

Still, encouraging people to drink water before meals is a simple and inexpensive intervention that could have significant benefits, given the rise in obesity.

Other studies have shown that water can help prevent migraines, manage diabetes and low blood pressure, and prevent urinary tract infections.

Adults with recurring headaches felt better after drinking more water for three months.

Drinking about 4 more cups of water a day helped diabetics with elevated blood sugar levels.

Drinking an additional 6 cups of water per day also helped women with recurrent urinary tract infections. The number of infected people has decreased and the time between infections has increased.

And drinking more water helped young people with low blood pressure.

“Dehydration has been shown to be particularly harmful for people with a history of kidney stones or urinary tract infections,” says Professor Breyer.

“On the other hand, people who sometimes suffer from frequent urination may benefit from drinking less alcohol. There is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to water consumption.”

of the team paper Published in a magazine JAMA network open.

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Nizar Hakam others. 2024. Results of randomized clinical trials testing changes in daily fluid intake: a systematic review. JAMA Net Open 7 (11): e2447621;doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.47621

Source: www.sci.news

Astronomers find scorching-hot Neptune close to TOI-3261

Posted on November 29, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Orbit of newly discovered exoplanet TOI-3261 (also known as TIC 358070912) is an inactive main sequence star located 300 parsecs (978.5 light years) away in the constellation Hydra.

Artist's concept of the super-hot Neptunian exoplanet TOI-3261b. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/K. Miller, Caltech & IPAC.

The radius of this newly discovered exoplanet, named TOI-3261b (TIC 358070912b), is 3.82 Earth's radius.

Its mass is 30.3 times that of Earth, more than twice the median mass of Neptune-sized planets in longer orbits.

To determine these properties, astronomer Emma Nabby from the University of Southern Queensland and her colleagues used data from NASA's Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), the Las Cumbres Observatory's Global Telescope, and the ESPRESSO and HARPS instruments. I used

“In our measurements, TOI-3261b is exactly hot neptune desert “The planets are so rare that their rarity evokes images of desolate landscapes,” the astronomers said in a statement.

“This type of exoplanet is similar in size and composition to our own Neptune, but it orbits very close to its star.”

The planet orbits its parent star, TOI-3261, every 21 hours.

Such a narrow orbit has so far allowed the planet to belong to the same group as only three other ultrashort-period, high-temperature Neptunes: LTT-9779b, TOI-849b, and TOI-332b.

“TOI-3261b has proven to be an ideal candidate for testing new computer models of planet formation,” the researchers said.

“One reason hot Neptunes are so rare is that it's difficult to maintain a thick gaseous atmosphere in the immediate vicinity of the star.”

“Because stars are massive, they exert a large gravitational force on surrounding objects and can strip away layers of gas surrounding nearby planets.”

“It also releases a lot of energy and blows away the gas layer.”

“Both of these factors mean that a hot Neptune like TOI-3261b may have started out as a much larger Jupiter-sized planet and then lost most of its mass.”

The TOI-3261 system is about 6.5 billion years old, and the planet began as a much larger gas giant, the researchers said.

“But it likely lost mass in two ways: by photoevaporation, where energy from the star causes gas particles to dissipate, and by gravity from the star, which strips layers of gas from the planet. tidal separation,” the scientists said.

“It's also possible that the planet formed further away from the star, where both of these effects would be less strong and it would be able to maintain an atmosphere.”

“The planet's remaining atmosphere is one of its most interesting features and will likely invite further atmospheric analysis, perhaps helping to elucidate the formation history of this hot Neptunian desert dweller.”

“TOI-3261b's density is about twice that of Neptune, indicating that the lighter parts of the atmosphere have been removed over time, leaving only the heavier components,” the researchers added.

“This suggests that the planet must have started out with a variety of elements in its atmosphere, but at this stage it's difficult to know exactly what they are.”

This finding is reported in the following article: paper Published in astronomy magazine.

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Emma Naby others. 2024. Survival in the Hot Neptunian Desert: Discovery of the ultrahot Neptune TOI-3261b. A.J. 168, 132; doi: 10.3847/1538-3881/ad60be

Source: www.sci.news

Ancient Footprints Reveal Two Human Relative Species Coexisted Together

Posted on November 29, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

overview

Ancient footprints discovered in Kenya belong to two different species of human relatives who walked on the same ground at the same time, a study has found.
This coat of arms is thought to belong to the species Homo erectus and Paranthropus boisei.
This discovery raised questions about what kind of relationship and interaction the two species had.

A newly discovered set of footprints in Kenya provides the first evidence that two different species of ancient human relatives walked on the same ground at the same time 1.5 million years ago.

Researchers involved in the discovery say the footprints belong to the species Homo erectus and Paranthropus boisei, and were left within hours to days of each other, meaning that when the two crossed paths, reveals new mysteries about what happened.

According to research on this discovery, Published in Science on Thursdaythe footprints were buried in dry mud near a lake in northern Kenya, and were buried in deposits of prominent fossil sites. By analyzing the print shapes and strike patterns, the researchers found that the two sets were different. They concluded that the best explanation was that two different species left the footprints.

This research advances anthropologists and paleontologists’ understanding that ancient human relatives likely interacted and coexisted. This also raises the question of what kind of relationship these species had.

“We think these individuals, the two species that were there, were probably aware that there were members of another species nearby. They saw each other and thought each other was a member of another species. “This raises the question of what that interaction was,” said Kevin Hatala, an associate professor of biology at Chatham University and lead author of the study. “Were they competitors? Were they totally okay with each other there?”

Previously discovered fossil skeletons of Homo erectus and Paranthropus boisei indicated that both species lived in the area at some point, but the new discovery provides evidence of a direct duplication.

Research team members excavate to reveal footprints.
Neil T. Roach / Harvard University

It also shows that the two species walked on two legs in very different ways.

Although both Homo erectus and Paranthropus boisei are related to humans, they have very different characteristics and their fates in the human evolutionary tree took very different paths.

Homo erectus had an anatomy similar to humans from the neck down. This species may have used stone tools and cooked over fire. Its members probably had a varied diet that included meat.
The species eventually spread to Asia, Indonesia, and other regions, and survived for more than a million years after the newly discovered footprints were made.It last appeared in the fossil record just over 100,000 years ago..

“Many have considered themselves to be as good candidates as our direct ancestors,” Hatala said. “They seem to be a very successful species.”

Paranthropus boisei, on the other hand, featured a smaller brain, huge masticatory muscles, and large molar teeth. William Harcourt Smith, an associate professor of anthropology at Lehman College who was not involved in the study, said the species eats difficult-to-eat foods like hard nuts or grinds hard, poor-quality foods like shrubs. It is highly likely that they evolved in this way.

This species did not persist on Earth as long as Homo erectus.

“They probably went extinct not very long after that, within the next few hundred thousand years,” Hatala said, referring to the time of the footprints. He added that no one knows exactly what happened, but it’s possible that environmental changes may have restricted the animal’s specialized diet.

The footprints were first discovered in 2021 at a site called Koobi Fora while researchers were excavating other fossils. This location has become a fossil hotspot. The uplifted rocks expose older sedimentary layers on the surface, giving researchers access to the bones of ancient humans and other animals.

The following year, researchers unearthed about a dozen footprints that appeared to be walking in a line, and later discovered other footprints running at right angles.

“We think these footprints were created in the mud of this lakeshore environment. Something happened that brought sediment on top of it. It could have been deposited by a small flood or by rising water levels. “It’s possible that something was brought in and the footprints were formed and quickly buried,” Hatala said.

The muddy footprints were not trampled by other animals and showed no signs of cracking before being buried in the sand. Researchers said that means they were separated from each other within hours or days.

“The sediment protected them, prevented them from cracking, and allowed them to remain in the geological record,” Hatala said.

He and his co-authors believe that the two species may have been able to coexist in this region because their diets were very different. It is possible that they competed for resources and were in a hostile relationship. This species appears to have lived in the same area for hundreds of thousands of years.

Harcourt Smith, a research paleontologist at the American Museum of Natural History, said the researchers’ analysis was sound and the site was unique.

“I want to emphasize how unusual it is that a site like this exists, how special it is, and the great opportunity we have to find out more,” he said.

Broadly speaking, over the past seven million years of evolution, it has become increasingly clear that different ancient human species interacted in different habitats, Harcourt-Smith added. The evolutionary path to modern humans is full of side branches and species, such as Paranthropus boisei, which represent evolutionary dead ends.

“Human evolution is complex and messy, and there are many experiments being done. It’s not a straight line,” he said.

Over the past few decades, scientists have developed genetic and archaeological evidence showing that: Humans, Denisovans, and Neanderthals overlapped and sometimes interbred. Although the new study does not mention interbreeding, it does provide a clearer picture that even older species overlapped and had more interactions than previously understood.

The researchers completed their work at the Koobi Fora site, photographing and recording the footprints in a variety of ways before concealing them for future generations, said Craig, another author of the research paper.・Mr. Feibel said.

“The footprints need to be carefully refilled with non-damaging sediment to prevent erosion,” he says.

Source: www.nbcnews.com

Ancient footprints reveal how early human species lived together

Posted on November 28, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Footprints thought to have been left by an individual of Paranthropus boisei

Neil T. Roach

Preserved footprints in Kenya appear to record two different species of ancient humans walking along the same muddy lake shore, perhaps within days of each other. This is one of the most dramatic pieces of evidence ever discovered that multiple human species once coexisted in the world.

“It's really unusual to find evidence of two different species walking on that surface,” he says. Kevin Hatala at Chatham University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

footprints Discovered in 2021 Kobi Fora, Kenya, near the eastern shore of Lake Turkana. They were first discovered by team member Richard Loki. Turkana Basin Research Institute“Originally, there was a team of Kenyans working there,” Hatala says.

The researchers discovered a track consisting of 12 footprints preserved in a layer of dry sand and silt (see image above). This was apparently left behind by one person walking in a straight line. Near the main group were also three isolated prints that appeared to have been made by three different individuals. The lack of mud cracks or signs of overprinting with other tracks indicates that these prints were all made at about the same time. “These sites are probably capturing times ranging from minutes to days,” Hatala says.

This deposit was determined to be approximately 1.52 million years old. Isolated footprints are similar to footprints left by modern humans. Your heel touches the ground first, then your foot rolls forward and you push off with the sole of your foot. Hatala and his colleagues suggest that these may have been fabricated. homo erectusis known to have lived in this area.

In contrast, continuous trajectories were created by flatter-footed hominins. Hatala and his colleagues suggest that this could be Paranthropus boiseianother type of hominin that lived in this area.

The footprint fossil on the left, with its deeper heel marks, is thought to have been made by Homo erectus, and the more flat-footed fossil on the right is thought to have been made by Paranthropus boisei.

Kevin Hatala/Chatham

“With footprints, you can never be 100% sure who made them,” he says. Ashley Wiseman from University College London was not involved in the study but, H. erectus and P.Boisei. They are the only humans whose remains have been found preserved in this area, “so we can make an informed guess that it is these two individuals.”

If the track was really made by humans, P.Boisei Wiseman said the specimen appears to have been walking on two legs. The bones of the skull, arms, and legs are paranthropus“We've never found a skull associated with the rest of the skeleton,” she says, meaning little is known about their bodies beyond their heads, and the way they walk remains a mystery. The trajectory will be changed, saying, “This is clear evidence that it was walking on two legs.''

These two species were very different. H. erectus It was one of the earliest members of our genus, homo. They had larger brains than early humans and were the first clade to travel outside of Africa. in contrast, P.Boisey They had large teeth and jaws, small brains, and were apparently adapted to eating chewy foods like grasses and sedges.

Hatala and his team then looked at other known footprints found in the same area and at the same time and found that they appeared to match either species. “Similar patterns have been seen at other sites, which may span more than 100,000 years,” he says. “These two species appear to have coexisted with each other in this same familiar landscape for a very long time.”

“If they were able to coexist for more than 100,000 years, we speculate that there was probably a low to neutral level of competition,” Hatala says. Previous research suggests that the two people were eating different foods. Unlike P.Boisei, H. erectus It is thought that they had a varied diet, including hunting large animals.

“Both could carve out their own existence within this shared landscape,” Hatala says. Subsequent changes in the environment may have had an effect. P.Boisei Potentially extinct, yet more adaptable H. erectus Survived.

topic:

evolution/
evolution of humanity

Source: www.newscientist.com

The bonding power of Cheerios leads to creation of innovative robot

Posted on November 28, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

A Cheerios-inspired robot that emits alcoholic fuel using fluorescent dye.

Jackson K. Wilt et al. 2024

The same phenomenon as beetles floating on a pond and Cheerios growing in clusters. You can combine them inside a cereal bowl to make a small floating robot.

One such effect, the Marangoni effect, occurs when a fluid with a low surface tension spreads rapidly across the surface of a fluid with a high surface tension. To take advantage of this effect, stenus There are beetles that have evolved to fly around ponds by secreting a substance called stenusin, and toy boats that run on soap.

To explore how engineers can use this, jackson wilt Harvard University and his colleagues 3D printed round plastic pucks about 1 centimeter in diameter. Each had an air chamber for buoyancy and a small fuel tank containing 10 to 50 percent alcohol, which has a lower surface tension than water. The alcohol gradually leaks out of the pack and the pack moves across the surface of the water.

The researchers used alcohol, which evaporates, as fuel, unlike soap, which ends up contaminating the water and ruining the Marangoni effect. It turns out that the stronger the alcohol, the better the results. “The beer would be pretty bad,” Wilt says. “Vodka is probably the best thing you can use. Absinthe…that's a lot of propulsion.” At top speed, the robot moves at 6 centimeters per second, and some experiments propelled the puck for as long as 500 seconds. It has been confirmed that

By printing pucks with multiple fuel outlets and gluing them together, researchers can also create larger devices that can make wide curves or rotate in place. Using multiple packs also allows researchers to study the “Cheerios effect,” where cereals and other similar floating objects cluster together. This occurs because they form a meniscus, or curved surface, in the fluid, and these surfaces are attracted to each other.

Wilt said 3D printed devices could be useful in education to help students intuitively understand concepts related to surface tension, but could also be carefully designed to produce more complex and elegant behavior. If this technology is developed, it can be expected to be applied to environmental and industrial processes.

For example, if there is a substance that needs to be dispersed throughout the environment and also acts as a suitable fuel, the robot can automatically disperse it around it. “Say you have a body of water that needs to release a chemical and you want it to be distributed more evenly, or say you have a chemical process that needs to deposit material over time,” Wilt says. . “I feel like there's some really interesting behavior here.”

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

Lessons from history: Strategies for defeating a wild emu

Posted on November 28, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

COP load of this

As COP29, the latest round of international climate negotiations, struggles in Azerbaijan, Feedback watches bemused from afar. We have previously covered several COPs and are still on most of the relevant mailing lists. So, as I write this on November 18th, we know that the Climate Action Network's Fossil of the Day is South Korea. That's because South Korea single-handedly blocked a deal by high-income countries to end oil and gas subsidies. Yes, that's enough.

Holding a conference dedicated to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in a country as heavily dependent on fossil fuel exports as Azerbaijan was always likely to backfire. Feedback believed that diplomacy was about understanding other people's motives, but apparently no one could reconcile what the Azerbaijani government wanted. Soon, President Ilham Aliyev announced that oil and gas “gift from god'', the country's chief negotiator was photographed saying in his opening speech. Apparently they are arranging it A meeting to discuss fossil fuel trading.

Then the conference actually started – or rather, it didn’t really start. On the first day, work stalled within the first hour as several countries objected to the rest of the meeting's agenda. This is how I spent my first day Renegotiating the agendawhile the delegates sat around with nothing to do. Still, climate change is not an urgent problem.

Feedback would like to think things are only uphill from here, but the experience of the past decade suggests otherwise. And I still get shivers when I think about the last night of one of the COPs we attended. It was well past the evening, so the agreement was signed and the party was supposed to start. But then we see young diplomats carrying stacks of take-out pizza boxes into the negotiating room, and we realize that even in the best case scenario, we'll be there until the early hours of the morning. I noticed. Feedback does not endorse this experience or any cases of caffeine addiction associated with it.

Find your inner villain

News Editorial Assistant Alexandra Thompson calls our attention to a brilliantly titled paper about the psychology research repository PsyArXiv.What it means to be a true badass: An experimental investigation of a commonplace concept.”. Its authors, Briana Nguyen and Michael Prinzing, set out to explain what we mean when we say someone is a “bad person.” It's not clear, since both Genghis Khan and Malala Yousafzai could be called villains, but “they are about as different as you can imagine,” they say. Well, quite a bit.

Researchers used a series of online surveys to find out what kinds of people were counted as bad guys and what kinds of people were not. From this, it became clear that “badass'' is a two-layered concept. It has a superficial meaning of being physically strong or having a “fearsome presence.” But there's also a deeper inner meaning about “moral resilience and courage.”

According to the author, Yousafzai embodies this inner evil, while Khan embodies more of the external evil. Feedback is less certain. We read a biography of Khan by John Mann, and he showed remarkable courage in a difficult situation. Still, the distinction between inner and outer badasses sounds plausible.

Feedback sometimes enjoys this kind of research, which delves into the subtle meanings of everyday terms, in quiet moments. A classic example is Harry Frankfurt's book About bullshit. Frankfurt was a philosopher who distinguished between lying (telling a falsehood with the purpose of clearly misleading someone) and bullshit (telling a lie, regardless of its truth or falsity, in order to serve one's own purpose).

About bullshit is useful to read because it explicitly states what we all implicitly understand. Once the concept is clear, it's easier to find examples, which is why June's paper was frankly titled.ChatGPT is bullshit“It's also great to have a term that is accurate and allows for the overused swear words. We think Frankfurt was the worst.

emu in flight

On November 15th, CBS News published twowild and untrainedAn emu (are there other types?) has escaped in South Carolina. They had apparently escaped three months earlier, but their escape didn't garner any attention until 43 monkeys escaped from a medical research facility in the same state. As of November 18th, Six of the monkeys remained at large.. Faced with hordes of marauding monkeys on the run, journalists began looking for similar stories and found (or rather, didn't find) rogue emus.

Feedback doesn't get any lower than at your local police department.Not EMU-SED“However, we would like to reiterate the following point. matthew downhour About Blue Sky: “Okay, if you didn't want them to get out of control and be irresponsible, why did you name them like that?“?That's a good question because the emus' names are Thelma and Louise.

If US authorities are unable to recapture the bird, they may take notes from the Australians. fought a famous short war against wild emus in 1932. surely, The emu decisively won the conflict.But failure is the best teacher.

Have a story for feedback?

You can email your article to Feedback at feedback@newscientist.com. Please enter your home address. This week's and past feedback can be found on our website.

Source: www.newscientist.com

Could fossilized excrement unlock the secrets of dinosaur dominance on Earth?

Posted on November 28, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

We now know that dinosaurs were giant reptiles that dominated the Earth, but scientists have long wondered why it took them 30 million years to reach their peak. New research on their fossilized poop and vomit may have found the answer suggests that there was food in their waste.

Carnivorous dinosaurs like tyrannosaurus may have their herbivore ancestors to thank for their enormous size. The researchers propose that if these plant-eating animals hadn’t ingested so many plants, dinosaurs might not have evolved into the giant creatures we know today.

The fossilized poop and vomit, known as bromalite or copralite, dates back to around 230 to 200 million years ago, a time long before the reign of the tyrannosaurus and the Chicxulub asteroid impact that led to the extinction of dinosaurs.

Scientists reconstructed a “food web” from the undigested meals of early dinosaurs, revealing the intricate relationships between different species during the Triassic period. By scanning over 500 fossils, they found evidence of various organisms, including beetles, bones, and partially digested fish.

Combining this information with climate data and other fossils provided insights into the diverse flora and fauna coexisting with dinosaurs on Earth.

“Sometimes seemingly ordinary fossils contain remarkable information that cannot be found anywhere else,” said Dr. Martin Kvarnström, a study co-author from Uppsala University in Sweden, as reported by BBC Science Focus.

Dr. Grzegorz Niedzwicki, another co-author from Uppsala University, added, “Understanding the diet of early dinosaurs may help us grasp why this group thrived. The evolution of life on Earth hinges on predator-prey dynamics and feeding habits.”

A study published in Nature analyzed digestive samples from south-central Poland during the Late Triassic period when the region was part of the Pangea supercontinent.

According to experts, increased volcanic activity and humidity favored the growth of moisture-loving plants during this time, potentially influencing the evolution of dinosaurs.

The study utilized advanced scanning techniques to reveal detailed information from the fossils, highlighting changes in vertebrate populations leading up to the dominance of dinosaurs.

The researchers aim to apply this model to study ancient species in other regions and emphasize the importance of fossilized waste in reconstructing ancient food webs.

“Everyone is focused on finding fossilized skeletons, but it’s the waste that offers valuable insights into events from millions of years ago,” remarked Niedzwicki.

About our experts:

Dr. Martin Kvarnström is a researcher at Uppsala University in Sweden, focusing on using fossils to understand reptile diets, including dinosaurs.

Dr. Grzegorz Niedzwicki, also from Uppsala University, specializes in the early evolution of dinosaurs and other quadrupeds.

Read more

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

Analysis of fossilized stomach contents provides insight into the origins of dinosaurs

Posted on November 28, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Swedish and Polish paleontologists are using hundreds of fossilized fecal and vomit samples from the Polish Basin in central Europe to reconstruct the rise of dinosaurs to play a dominant role in Earth’s ancient ecosystems. I investigated.

Bone-crushing archosaur fecal fossil smoke, smoke In the background is reconstruction. Image credit: Grzegorz Niedzwiedzki.

The fossil record shows that dinosaurs evolved during the mid-Triassic period (247 to 237 million years ago).

However, the dominance of dinosaurs in terrestrial ecosystems was not seen until the early Jurassic period, about 30 million years later.

Although many non-dinosaur tetrapods (four-limbed vertebrates) were expelled during this period, questions remain as to why dinosaurs came to dominate the ecosystem.

“The real detective work is piecing together ‘who ate who’ in the past,” said Martin Kvarnström, a paleontologist at Uppsala University.

“Being able to examine what animals ate and how they interacted with their environment helps us understand what enabled dinosaurs to be so successful.”

Dr. Kvarnström and his colleagues reconstructed the food web using more than 500 fossilized remains of digestive material (such as feces and vomit), known as bromalite, collected from the Polish Basin, which spans the Late Triassic to Early Jurassic period. We investigated this transition by constructing a.

“The research material was collected over a period of 25 years,” said Dr. Grzegorz Niedrzywicki, a paleontologist at Uppsala University and the Polish Geological Institute.

“It took years to piece everything together and paint a coherent picture.”

“Our study is innovative because we chose to understand the ecology of early dinosaurs based on their dietary preferences.”

“There were a lot of surprising discoveries along the way.”

Analysis of these remains (including 3D imaging of internal structures to reveal undigested food content) is compared to the existing fossil record, along with climate and botanical data, to determine the size and presence of vertebrates during this period. We estimated the change in quantity.

These data indicate that non-dinosaur tetrapods replaced omnivorous ancestors of early dinosaurs that evolved into the first carnivorous and herbivorous dinosaurs towards the end of the Triassic.

Researchers now believe that environmental changes associated with increased volcanic activity may have led to a greater variety of plant prey, which in turn led to the emergence of larger and more diverse herbivore species. Suggests.

This led to the evolution of even larger carnivorous dinosaurs by the beginning of the Jurassic period, completing the transition to dinosaur dominance within the ecosystem.

This analysis sheds light on the emergence of dinosaur dominance within the Polish Basin ecosystem.

“Our findings support the idea that stochastic processes and competitive advantage enabled dinosaurs’ great evolutionary success,” the authors said.

“Dinosaurs gradually achieved supremacy over 30 million years of evolution.”

“The processes illustrated by the Polish data may explain global patterns and shed new light on the emergence of environmentally dominated dinosaur dominance and gigantism that persisted until the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous.” We suggest that there is a

team’s paper Published in a magazine nature.

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M. Kvarnström others. Digestive content and food webs record the advent of dinosaur supremacy. naturepublished online on November 27, 2024. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-08265-4

Source: www.sci.news

Archaeologists Find North Americans Made Needles from Bones of Canids, Cats, and Hares

Posted on November 28, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

A 12,900-year-old bone needle discovered at the La Preure site in Wyoming, USA, was made from fox bone. rabbit. This could include felines such as bobcats, pumas, lynx, and even the now extinct American cheetah. New research from the University of Wyoming shows that the bones of these animals are sized to make bone needles, remain attached to fur sewn into intricate clothing, and are readily available within campgrounds. It is said to have been used by early Paleoindian gatherers at La Prele.

La Prele Bone Needle and Needle Preform Reconstruction and Comparison Micro-CT Scan of Animal Specimens. Image credit: Pelton others., doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0313610.

la prele Early Paleoindian mammoth trapping site and campground on a tributary of the North Platte River near Douglas, Wyoming.

Ten seasons of excavation in four major blocks yielded tens of thousands of artifacts related to a single occupation.

Among the wide variety of artifacts recovered from the site so far are fragments of 32 bone needles.

“Our study identifies for the first time the species and possible elements from which Paleoindian people produced bone needles with eyes,” said Wyoming State Archaeologist Spencer Pelton and colleagues.

“Our results provide strong evidence that tailored clothing is produced using bone needles and fur from fur-bearing animals.”

“These garments partially enabled the dispersal of modern humans into northern latitudes and, ultimately, the colonization of the Americas.”

In their study, Dr. Pelton and his colleagues examined bone needle fragments taken from the La Prele site.

The researchers used peptides (short chains of amino acids) obtained from these artifacts to identify animals known to have existed during the Paleoindigenous period, which refers to the prehistoric period of North America between 13,500 and 12,000 years ago. peptide.

As a result of the comparison, it was concluded that the bones of the red fox are bones. Bobcat, puma, lynx, or American cheetah. At La Preure, hares and rabbits were used to make needles.

“Despite the importance of bone needles in explaining the global dispersal of modern humans, archaeologists have not identified the materials used to make bone needles, making this important cultural innovation “This limits our understanding of the

Previous research has shown that to cope with the cold temperatures of northern latitudes, humans likely created tailored clothing with tightly sewn seams that provided a barrier against the elements.

There is little direct evidence of such clothing, but there is indirect evidence in the form of bone needles and the bones of fur owners whose fur was used for clothing.

“Wearing such clothing allowed modern humans to extend their range into areas that were previously inaccessible due to the threat of hypothermia and death from exposure. '' said the scientists.

“How did the people of La Prele Ruins obtain fur-bearing animals?

“It was probably a trap, not necessarily looking for food.”

“Our results are a reminder that foragers used animal foods for a wide range of non-subsistence purposes, and that the mere presence of animal bones at an archaeological site need not indicate a diet. ”

“Combined with a review of comparable evidence from other North American Paleoindian sites, our results suggest that early Paleoindians of North America had direct access to fur-bearing predators, probably by traps, and that It represents some of the most detailed evidence ever discovered regarding Indian clothing.

of findings Published in a magazine PLoS ONE.

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SR Pelton others. 2024. Early Paleoindians used canids, felines, and hares to produce bone needles at the La Prele site in Wyoming, USA. PLoS ONE 19 (11): e0313610;doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0313610

Source: www.sci.news

Astronomers witness Jupiter’s ephemeral dark polar ellipse in ultraviolet light

Posted on November 28, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Earth-sized ovals at Jupiter's north and south poles, visible only at ultraviolet (UV) wavelengths, appear and disappear at seemingly random intervals, according to a study led by astronomers at the University of California, Berkeley.

False-color ultraviolet image of the entire planet showing a hood or cap of hydrocarbon fog covering the south pole. The edge of the arctic hood is visible at the top. Image credit: Troy Tsubota and Michael Wong, University of California, Berkeley.

Jupiter's dark ultraviolet ellipses are mostly located directly beneath bright auroral bands at each pole, similar to Earth's northern and southern lights.

This spot absorbs more ultraviolet light than the surrounding area, so it appears darker in images from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

In annual images of the planet taken by Hubble between 2015 and 2022, dark ultraviolet ellipses appear 75% of the time at the south pole, but only in one in eight images taken at the north pole. A dark oval will appear.

The dark ultraviolet ellipses suggest that unusual processes are occurring in Jupiter's strong magnetic field. This magnetic field propagates all the way to the poles and deep into the atmosphere, much deeper than the magnetic processes that produce auroras on Earth.

The dark ultraviolet ellipse was first detected in the 1990s by Hubble at the North and South poles, and later also at the North Pole by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, which flew close to Jupiter in 2000, but received little attention.

In a new analysis of Hubble images, University of California, Berkeley undergraduate student Troy Tsubota and his colleagues found that the oval shape is a common feature of Antarctica. They counted eight Southern Ultraviolet Dark Ovals (SUDOs) between 1994 and 2022.

In all 25 Hubble Earth maps showing Jupiter's north pole, only two northern ultraviolet dark ellipses (NUDOs) were found.

Most of the Hubble images were taken as part of the Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL).

“In the first two months, we realized that these OPAL images were kind of a gold mine. We quickly built this analysis pipeline and asked what we could get by sending all the images. We were able to confirm that,” says Tsubota.

“That's when we realized we could actually do good science and real data analysis and have conversations with our collaborators about why these things appear.”

The authors also aimed to determine the cause of these areas of dense fog.

They theorized that the dark ellipse was likely being stirred up from above by a vortex created when the planet's magnetic field lines rub at two very far apart locations. One is the friction in the ionosphere and the Earth's sheet, the rotational motion of which has previously been detected using ground-based telescopes. Hot ionized plasma around the planet emitted by the volcanic moon Io.

The vortex rotates fastest within the ionosphere and gradually weakens as it reaches deeper layers.

Like a tornado landing on dusty ground, the deepest parts of the vortex stir up the hazy atmosphere, creating the dense patches observed by astronomers.

It is unclear whether the mixing will dredge more haze from below or create additional haze.

Based on their observations, researchers believe that the oval shape may form over about a month and disappear within a few weeks.

Astronomer Dr Shih Zhang said: “The dark elliptical haze is 50 times thicker than typical concentrations. This is because this haze is due to the dynamics of the vortex, rather than a chemical reaction caused by high-energy particles from the upper atmosphere. This suggests that it is likely to have been formed by At the University of California, Santa Cruz.

“Our observations show that the timing and location of these high-energy particles do not correlate with the appearance of the dark ellipses.”

This discovery, which the OPAL project was designed to discover, will reveal how the atmospheric dynamics of the solar system's giant planets differ from what we know on Earth. .

“Studying the connections between different atmospheric layers is extremely important for all planets, whether exoplanets, Jupiter, or Earth,” said Dr. Michael Wong, an astronomer at the University of California, Berkeley.

“We see evidence of processes connecting everything throughout the Jovian system, from internal dynamos to satellites, plasma torii, ionospheres, and stratospheric haze.”

“Finding these examples helps us understand the entire planet.”

of study Published in a magazine natural astronomy.

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TK Tsubota others. Jupiter's ultraviolet to dark polar ellipse shows the connection between the magnetosphere and atmosphere. Nat Astronpublished online on November 26, 2024. doi: 10.1038/s41550-024-02419-0

This article is adapted from the original release by the University of California, Berkeley.

Source: www.sci.news

NASA astronaut Suni Williams reveals her Thanksgiving plans from space

Posted on November 28, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station are ready to break Thanksgiving bread in orbit.

NASA astronaut Suni Williams said she and her fellow crew members will be taking the day off to celebrate.

“I’m packing a lot of Thanksgiving-y food,” Williams said Wednesday in an interview with NBC News. “Smoked turkey, cranberries, apple cobbler, green beans and mushrooms, and mashed potatoes.”

She added that she plans to attend the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade before dining with American and Russian colleagues.

Williams has been living and working on the International Space Station for almost six months. She and fellow NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore arrived at the orbiting outpost in early June as test pilots for the first manned flight of Boeing’s Starliner space capsule.

The two were scheduled to stay on the ISS for only about a week, then return to Earth on the Starliner. However, problems with the spacecraft kept them in orbit for months longer than expected. Wilmore and Williams are scheduled to return home in February in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule.

Starliner’s difficult mission was a dramatic, months-long story for NASA and Boeing. But Williams said she doesn’t feel like she’s “stranded” in space.

“Our control team and management always had the option of us returning home,” she said. “Yes, we came here on the Starliner. We’re coming back on the Dragon, but there was always a plan for how we were going to get home.”

In the last few weeks, NASA dodged the rumors Williams reportedly suffered from health problems while in space. Although some news articles suggested that the astronauts had lost significant weight, the agency’s medical director said on Nov. 14 that the health of Williams and others on board the space station was He said the condition was good.

Williams told NBC News that he is enjoying his time in orbit and is in good spirits.

“We feel good, we exercise and we eat properly,” she said. “We’re having a lot of fun here, too. So people are worried about us. Really, don’t worry about us.”

June 5, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore of Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Chris O’Meara / AP File

Despite problems that occurred during Starliner’s voyage (mainly thruster and helium leaks), the capsule returned to Earth without a crew on September 7th. Williams said he wished he had been able to see Starliner’s mission to completion.

She added that Boeing and NASA would not hesitate to send Starliner into space again if they ironed out the problems that arose during the test flight.

“It might not be tomorrow because we need to incorporate some of the lessons we learned,” she said. “But once we knew we were on the right path, we fixed some of the issues we had — absolutely.”

Source: www.nbcnews.com

Parts of the US may be able to see the Northern lights this Thanksgiving

Posted on November 28, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Thanksgiving might bring cool and rainy weather to many parts of the country, but a solar storm could offer some Americans a chance to witness the beauty of the Northern Lights.

Thanks to a filament eruption on Monday, a mild to moderate geomagnetic storm is expected on Thursday and Friday, as the sun releases a cloud of high-energy plasma towards Earth, as reported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

This eruption has the potential to illuminate the night sky in the U.S. with shades of green, red, and purple over the Thanksgiving holiday.

The brightness of the aurora and how long it will be visible depends on the strength of the solar storm and whether it reaches G1 or G2 conditions, according to NOAA meteorologist Mike Betwi.

Residents in states like Washington, Montana, Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Maine are in prime locations to witness the Northern Lights this weekend, with those in northern parts of Idaho, Wyoming, New York, Vermont, and New Hampshire also having a chance, based on NOAA’s predictions.

NOAA experts anticipate that the Northern Lights will likely be visible from Thursday evening until early Friday morning, but it’s uncertain when and where the sky will light up during the geomagnetic storm. You can monitor the latest activity and forecasts using NOAA’s Aurora Dashboard and experimental tools.

Optimal viewing conditions will be in areas with clear skies, although cloudy weather in the Northeast, much of New England, and near the Great Lakes could obstruct the view.

Unlike a previous strong solar storm earlier this year, experts do not anticipate major disruptions to communication systems in the U.S. unless the storm intensifies unexpectedly, according to Betwi.

The aurora borealis is typically visible at high altitudes, but a significant solar storm can cause it to be visible in areas much farther south than usual.

These solar storms occur when coronal mass ejections from the Sun send large plasma clouds into space, which when directed towards Earth, interact with the planet’s magnetic field and upper atmosphere, resulting in the glowing auroras.

NOAA is gearing up for the expected peak in solar activity next July, which is why the aurora has been visible further south multiple times this year.

Source: www.nbcnews.com

The detrimental effects of banning frightening concepts may outweigh the sense of security it provides

Posted on November 28, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Yuichiro Chino/Getty Images

In 1818, Mary Shelley invented a technology that has been used for both good and bad in the centuries since. It's called science fiction.

Although you might not think that literary genres count as technology, science fiction has long been a tool for predicting and critiquing science. Shelley’s Frankenstein Considered by many to be the first serious science fiction novel, it was so powerful that South Africa banned it in 1955. This story set the formula with a story that still serves today as a warning against unintended consequences.

As far as we know, the exact science that the eponymous Victor Frankenstein used to create is impossible. But today researchers can restore dead human brains to something resembling life. Experiments are underway to restart cell activity (but importantly not consciousness) after death to test its effectiveness in treating conditions such as Alzheimer's disease (see “Fundamental treatments that bring people back from the brink of death”).

It reminds me of many science fiction stories that feature similar scenarios and I can’t help but imagine what will happen next. The same is true for the study reported in “1000 people’s AI simulation accurately reproduces their behavior.” In this study, researchers used the technology behind ChatGPT to recreate the thoughts and actions of specific individuals with surprising success.

The team behind this work blurs the lines between fact, fiction, and what it means to be human.

In both cases, the teams behind this research are blurring the lines between fact, fiction, and what it means to be human, and their research is being conducted under strong ethical oversight. We are deeply aware that there are ethical concerns in the details. It was announced early on. But now that the technology is proven, there is nothing to stop more violent groups from attempting the same thing without oversight, potentially causing significant damage.

Does that mean the research should be banned for fear of it falling into the wrong hands, as Shelley’s book was? Far from it. Concerns about technology are best addressed through appropriate evidence-based regulation and swift punishment of violators. When regulators go too far, they miss out on not only the technology but also the opportunity to criticize and debate it.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Deep sea affected by ocean acidification

Posted on November 27, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Deep sea coral reefs are at risk of acidification

Howard Chu/Alamy Stock Photo

Ocean acidification is penetrating to depths of 1,500 meters, posing new threats to creatures such as sea butterflies, sea snails and cold-water corals.

The ocean is the largest natural sink of carbon dioxide, absorbing about a quarter of our annual emissions. The uptake of CO2 makes the ocean surface more acidic, which affects sensitive ecosystems such as coral reefs. But until now, researchers didn’t know how far acidification was reaching the deep ocean.

jens daniel müller Researchers at the Federal Institute of Technology Zurich in Switzerland have developed a 3D reconstruction of how CO2 moves through the ocean, based on global measurements of ocean currents and other circulation patterns. They used this model to estimate how the carbon dioxide absorbed by the ocean has affected deep-sea acidity since 1800, around the beginning of the industrial revolution.

They found clear acidification signals down to 1,000 meters deep in most of the ocean. In some regions, such as the North Atlantic, where the powerful Atlantic Meridional Overturning Current (AMOC) transports carbon from the surface to the deep ocean, acidification was observed down to 1500 meters. Some pockets of deep water, which are more acidic in nature, showed even more acidification than the surface. Their high natural acidity reduces their ability to absorb added CO2, Mueller says.

This is more or less what researchers expected would happen as the oceans absorbed more carbon dioxide. Wang Hongjie at the University of Rhode Island. “But it’s another thing to actually see the data coming in that affirms this.”

Remarkably, about half of all acidification since 1800 has occurred since 1994, as CO2 emissions have increased exponentially. “We’re seeing this progress be quite rapid,” Muller says.

The scale of acidification is sufficient to threaten the survival of a wide range of life in the oceans. Chiropods such as sea snails and sea butterflies are particularly at risk because their shells are made of calcium, which dissolves when water becomes too acidic. Increasing acidification has doubled the number of areas where it is difficult for cold-water corals to survive.

And ocean acidification will continue as seawater absorbs more carbon dioxide. “Even if we were able to stop carbon dioxide emissions immediately, we would still see ocean acidification processes inland for hundreds of years,” Muller said.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Ancient Mars: Evidence of Hydrothermal Activity Uncovered by Meteorite

Posted on November 27, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Scientists from Curtin University and the University of Adelaide analyzed 4.45 billion-year-old zircon particles from a famous Martian meteorite called North West Africa 7034 (NWA 7034) to determine the geochemistry of the water-rich fluid. They found a “fingerprint.”

Northwest Africa 7034. Image credit: NASA.

NWA 7034 weighs approximately 320 grams and is a regolith breccia from Mars.

This meteorite, better known as Black Beauty, was discovered in Morocco's Sahara desert in 2011.

NWA 7034 contains the oldest Martian igneous material ever discovered (approximately 4.45 billion years old).

Dr Aaron Cavosy from Curtin University said: “This discovery opens new avenues for understanding not only the past habitability of Mars, but also the ancient Martian hydrothermal systems associated with magmatic activity.” Ta.

“We used nanoscale geochemistry to detect elemental evidence of Martian hydrothermal waters 4.45 billion years ago.”

“Hydrothermal systems are essential for the development of life on Earth, and our findings show that Mars also had water, a key component of a habitable environment, during its early history of crustal formation.” It suggests that.

“Through nanoscale imaging and spectroscopy, the research team identified the elemental pattern of this unique zircon, including iron, aluminum, yttrium, and sodium.”

“These elements were added when zircon formed 4.45 billion years ago, suggesting that water was present during early magmatic activity on Mars.”

The authors show that water was present in the early pre-Noachian period before about 4.1 billion years ago, even though the Martian crust withstood massive meteorite impacts that caused large-scale surface deformation. showed.

“A 2022 Curtin study on the same zircon particle found that it had been 'shocked' by a meteorite impact, making it the first and only known shocked zircon from Mars. “It turns out,” Dr. Kavosie said.

“This new study identifies telltale signatures of water-rich fluids when the particles formed and provides geochemical markers of water in the oldest known Martian crust. This brings us one step closer to understanding early Mars.”

of findings appear in the diary scientific progress.

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Jack Gillespie others. 2024. Zircon trace element evidence of early hydrothermal activity on Mars. scientific progress 10(47);doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adq3694

Source: www.sci.news

Equipment deployed by NASA’s European Clipper spacecraft

Posted on November 27, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

NASA’s European Clipper, the largest spacecraft the agency has ever developed for a planetary mission, is already 20 million kilometers (13 million miles) from Earth.

An artist’s concept for NASA’s Europa Clipper shows the spacecraft silhouetted on the surface of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa, with the magnetometer boom fully deployed on top and the antenna for the radar instrument pointing out from the solar array. It’s growing. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Europa Clipper launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on October 14, 2024.

The spacecraft is hurtling toward the Sun at 35 kilometers per second (22 miles per second).

Europa Clipper will travel 2.9 billion kilometers (1.8 billion miles) to reach Jupiter in 2030 and begin a series of 49 flybys in 2031, collecting data using an array of instruments. , will tell scientists whether the icy moon and its interior ocean influenced the icy moons. Conditions necessary for life to exist.

For now, the information mission teams are receiving from the spacecraft is strictly engineering data, telling them how the hardware is working.

Immediately after launch, Europa Clipper deployed a giant solar array extending the length of a basketball court.

Next on the list was the magnetometer boom, which unwound from a canister attached to the spacecraft body and stretched 8.5 meters (28 feet) in length.

To ensure that all boom deployments went well, the team used data from three magnetometer sensors.

Once the spacecraft reaches Jupiter, these sensors will measure Europa’s surrounding magnetic field, confirming the existence of an ocean believed to lie beneath the moon’s icy crust, and telling scientists about its depth and salinity. I’ll let you know.

After the magnetometer, the spacecraft deployed several antennas for radar instruments.

Four high-frequency antennas extend laterally from the solar array, forming what appear to be two long poles, each 17.6 m (57.7 ft) long.

Eight rectangular very high frequency antennas, each 2.76 m (9 ft) long, were also deployed, two on each of the two solar arrays.

“This is an exciting time for the spacecraft to complete these important deployments,” said Jordan Evans, a researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and project manager for Europa Clipper.

“Most of what the team is focused on right now is understanding the small, interesting things in the data that help us understand the behavior of the spacecraft on a deeper level. It’s really good to see that. That’s it.”

The remaining seven devices will be powered on and off throughout December and January so engineers can check their health.

Some instruments, including visible imagers and gas and dust mass spectrometers, will remain under protective covers for the next three years or so to prevent potential damage from the Sun while Europa Clipper was in the inner solar system. I plan to make it.

Once all equipment and engineering subsystems are checked out, the mission team will shift its focus to Mars.

On March 1, 2025, Europa Clipper will reach Mars’ orbit and begin orbiting Mars, using Mars’ gravity to gain speed.

The mission navigator has already completed one course correction maneuver to keep the spacecraft on the correct course as planned.

On Mars, as a test run, the rover’s thermal imager will be turned on to take multicolor images of Mars.

They also plan to collect data on the radar equipment so engineers can verify that it is working as expected.

The spacecraft is scheduled to perform another gravity assist in December 2026 and swoop down to Earth before making the remainder of its long journey to the Jupiter system.

At that time, the magnetometer measures the Earth’s magnetic field and calibrates the instrument.

Source: www.sci.news

The Rise of Dinosaurs Told through Fossilized Feces

Posted on November 27, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

A plant-eating sauropod dinosaur that evolved in a humid environment during the early Jurassic period.

Marcin Ambrozik

The contents of feces and vomit from 200 million years ago are helping to show how dinosaurs conquered the world at the beginning of the Jurassic period.

Whole insects embedded in various shapes and sizes of well-preserved plants, bones, fish parts, and even ancient animal feces show that dinosaurs varied in comparison to other groups of animals. This suggests that dinosaurs were able to survive in the ecosystem thanks to their wide-ranging diet. This led to their further growth and eventually led to the establishment of a “land dynasty.” Martin Kvarnström At Uppsala University, Sweden.

Fossil evidence shows that the first dinosaurs had prominent hip joints that placed their legs underneath their bodies like mammals, rather than sprawling sideways like lizards. More than 230 million years ago During the Triassic. For tens of millions of years, these early dinosaurs blended into a landscape filled with many other types of reptiles. But by about 200 million years ago, dinosaurs had essentially taken over the Earth, around the time most other reptiles disappeared during the end-Triassic extinction.

What led to this dominance remains somewhat of a mystery. Kvarnström and his colleagues suspected that important clues might be hidden in the bromalites (fossilized feces and vomit) of dinosaurs and other animals. So they Polish Geological Institute collected by a prior research group from eight locations in Poland between 1996 and 2017.

The research team estimated the age of each bromalite based on the layer of sediment in which it was found, and determined its size, which ranges from a few millimeters to a “fairly large fecal mass,” and the animals that may have produced it. A suitable shape was used. The researchers then 3D scanned the fossil to examine its contents. “We noticed that it was clogged with food debris,” Kvarnström says.

Coprolites, or fossilized feces, of herbivorous dinosaurs containing plant remains

Grzegorz Niedzwicki

Combining the known fossil record and past climate information, researchers determined that the emergence of dinosaurs occurred in several different stages. First, the omnivorous ancestors of early dinosaurs began to outnumber non-dinosaurs. They then evolved into the first carnivorous and plant-eating dinosaurs.

At that point, increased volcanic eruptions and movement of tectonic plates caused flooding and waterway development. The resulting humidity and related changes in climate likely led to a wider range of plants and the evolution of larger and more diverse herbivorous dinosaurs. On the other hand, animals other than dinosaurs (such as dicynodonts, which eat plants weighing up to 1 ton) Lisowisia, Their feces contained mainly coniferous debris and they were less able to adapt to changes in vegetation.

As herbivorous dinosaurs grew larger, so did their predators. By the beginning of the Jurassic period, about 30 million years after the first dinosaurs appeared, the transition to a dinosaur-dominated world was complete, Kvarnström says.

“This study shows how climate primarily affected dominant plants, which created opportunities for new herbivores at certain points in time,” he says. michael benton from the University of Bristol, UK, was not involved in the study.

Although it's difficult to be sure that the researchers matched the scat to the right animal, the discovery nonetheless suggests that the dinosaur species had already expanded significantly in South America before major climate change. This confirms earlier research, he says. “But it took the end-Triassic mass extinction for the final stage of the takeover to begin.”

for emma dunn The study, conducted at Germany's Friedrich-Alexander University, helps answer long-standing questions about the emergence of dinosaurs. “It's not every day that a fossil poop is published in such an influential journal,” said Dunn, who was not involved in the study. “This is obviously interesting, but it's also very useful for understanding prehistoric environments. So if you think of the evolution of early dinosaurs like a jigsaw puzzle with pieces missing, there are new It’s just a lot of pieces thrown in.”

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Diamond storage breaks records by holding data for millions of years

Posted on November 27, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Diamond can store data stably for a long time

University of Science and Technology of China

The famous marketing slogan that diamonds are forever may be just a slight exaggeration for diamond-based systems that can store information for millions of years. Now, researchers have developed a system with a record-breaking storage density of 1.85 terabytes per cubic centimeter.

Previous technology used laser pulses to encode data onto diamond, but due to its higher storage density, a diamond optical disc with the same capacity as a standard Blu-ray could hold approximately 100 terabytes of data (Blu-ray). (equivalent to approximately 2,000 rays). It lasts much longer than the typical Blu-ray lifespan of just a few decades.

“Once the internal data storage structure is stabilized using our technology, diamond can achieve an extraordinary lifetime of millions of years of data retention at room temperature without requiring maintenance,” he says. Wang Ya at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei.

Wang and his colleagues conducted their research using tiny pieces of diamond, just a few millimeters long, but say future versions of the system could use rapidly spinning diamond discs. Their method used ultrafast laser pulses to knock some of diamond’s carbon atoms out of place, leaving single-atom-sized empty spaces, each exhibiting a stable brightness level.

By controlling the laser’s energy, the researchers were able to create multiple empty spaces at specific locations within the diamond, and the density of those spaces influenced the overall brightness of each site. . “The number of free spaces can be determined by looking at the brightness, so the stored information can be read,” Wang says.

The team then saved the images, including a colorful painting by artist Henri Matisse. cat with red fish And a series of photographs taken by Eadweard Muybridge in 1878, showing a rider on a galloping horse, maps the brightness of each pixel to the brightness level of a specific region within a diamond. The system stored this data with over 99% accuracy and completeness.

This preservation method is not yet commercially viable because it requires expensive lasers, high-speed fluorescence imaging cameras, and other devices, Wang said. But he and his colleagues hope that the diamond-based system can eventually be miniaturized to fit in a space the size of a microwave oven.

“In the short term, government agencies, research institutes, and libraries with a focus on archives and data preservation may be eager to adopt this technology,” he says.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

NASA to investigate subterranean ocean of Uranus’ moon

Posted on November 27, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Some of the icy moons in the Jupiter and Saturn systems appear to have oceans of liquid water inside them. Although our knowledge of Uranus' moons is more limited, future tours of the Uranian system may be able to detect subsurface oceans. To plan for this, we need to understand how the internal structure of satellites, with and without oceans, relates to observable quantities. New research from the University of Texas Geophysical Institute and the University of California, Santa Cruz shows it may be possible to diagnose the presence or absence of liquid water oceans inside some of Uranus' moons, including Miranda and Ariel. There is, Umbriel, and it is thought that this, combined with measurements of the gravitational field, may provide comprehensive constraints on the internal structure and history of Uranus' moons.

Uranus' four major moons, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, and Oberon, may have oceanic layers. Salty seas, or salty seas, are found beneath the ice and above water-rich and dry rock layers. Miranda is too small to retain enough heat in the ocean layer. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

When NASA's Voyager 2 flew by Uranus in 1986, it took grainy photos of the large icy moon.

Now, NASA plans to send another spacecraft to Uranus, this time equipped to see if those icy moons hide oceans of liquid water.

The mission is still in the early planning stages, but planetary researchers are preparing by building a new computer model that can be used to detect oceans beneath the ice using only the rover's cameras.

Their computer model works by analyzing the moon's tiny vibrations, or wobbles, as it orbits its parent planet.

From there, you can calculate how much water, ice, and rock is inside. A small wobble means the moon is mostly solid, while a large wobble means its icy surface is floating in an ocean of liquid water.

When combined with gravity data, the model calculates the depth of the ocean and the thickness of the overlying ice.

Dr. Doug Hemingway, a planetary scientist at the University of Texas Geophysical Institute, said: “If we find that Uranus' moons have an inland ocean, it means there are a huge number of potentially habitable worlds across the galaxy. It may mean,” he said.

“The discovery of oceans of liquid water on Uranus' moons will change our thinking about the range of possibilities for life.”

All large moons of the solar system, including the moons of Uranus, are tidally locked.

This means that the same side always faces the parent planet while orbiting, as the gravity matches their rotation.

However, this does not mean that the satellite's rotation is completely fixed; all tidally locked satellites will oscillate back and forth during their orbit.

Determining the extent of the wobble is key to learning whether Uranus' moons have oceans, and if so, how large.

A satellite with an ocean of liquid water splashing inside will wobble more than one that is entirely solid. However, even the largest oceans experience only small wobbles. The moon's rotation can shift by just a few hundred feet as it passes through its orbit.

This is still enough for a passing spacecraft to detect it. In fact, this technique was previously used to confirm that Saturn's moon Enceladus has an internal ocean.

To find out whether the same technique would work on Uranus, Dr. Hemingway and his colleague Dr. Francis Nimmo of the University of California, Santa Cruz performed theoretical calculations on Uranus's five moons, using a variety of the most I came up with a plausible scenario.

Detecting smaller oceans means the spacecraft will need to get closer or carry more powerful cameras.

“The next step is to extend the model to include measurements from other instruments and see how this improves the interior of the satellite,” Dr. Hemingway said.

of the team work Published in a magazine Geophysical Research Letters.

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DJ Hemingway and F. Nemo. 2024. Search for the underground ocean inside Uranus's moon using balance and gravity. Geophysical Research Letters 51 (18): e2024GL110409;doi: 10.1029/2024GL110409

This article is a version of a press release provided by the University of Texas.

Source: www.sci.news

Archaeologists Uncover Possible 2,100-Year-Old Temple in Egypt

Posted on November 27, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Archaeologists have uncovered an entrance to a large stone temple in an ancient Egyptian town, Athribis, near the modern city of Sohag.

The south tower of the Athribis pylon and the hill behind it. It is believed that there is a sanctuary here. Image credit. Marcus Müller, Athribis Project.

“The entrance to the temple in the rock appears to lie beneath a still-untouched pile of rubble behind it,” said archaeologists Professor Christian Reitz and Dr Markus Müller from the University of Tübingen.

“Since 2022, we have been working with Mohamed Abdelbadia of the Egyptian Antiquities Authority and the Egyptian team at Asribis to excavate the large stone temple.”

“Excavations have been underway since 2012 to reveal an ancient temple district built between 144 BC and 138 AD.”

“The width of the complex was a total of 51 meters, and the monumental temple entrance towers were each 18 meters high.”

“Today there is only about five meters left. The rest was sacrificed to quarrying,” they added.

“Thanks to the fallen coins, the removal of this stone may have taken place in 752 or shortly thereafter.”

Archaeologists also discovered a relief of a king offering a sacrifice to the lion-headed goddess Lepit and her son Kolantes.

A newly discovered hieroglyphic inscription reveals for the first time which king was responsible for the decoration of the pylon, and perhaps also for its construction: Ptolemy VIII in the 2nd century BC.

“We unexpectedly encountered a previously unknown chamber in the northern tower,” the researchers said.

“We used air cushions, wooden scaffolding and rollers to remove ceiling blocks weighing approximately 20 tonnes.”

“We found a chamber about 6 meters long and 3 meters wide.”

“It was a storage room for temple utensils and was later used to store amphora.”

“A corridor led to the room through a pylon, allowing access from outside.''

“This entrance is also decorated with reliefs and hieroglyphs,” they added.

“Once again we see the goddess Lepit, but on the opposite door frame the fertility god Min is depicted, along with two very rarely depicted beings, the falcon-headed decan (who can measure the hours of the night) It is accompanied by a star.

“Unique in Egyptian temple architecture is the second door in the façade of the pylon, which opens onto a previously unknown staircase that led to the upper floors on at least four floors. It has now been destroyed and further storage rooms may be rebuilt there.”

“Finely smoothed limestone blocks in vertically cut rock facades may belong to rock sanctuaries,” says Professor Wrights.

“The finds over 3 meters high and the typical decorations at the top of the temple, such as the cobra frieze, indicate that there may have been a door behind the temple.”

Source: www.sci.news

Astronomers reveal new main-belt comet mistaken for active asteroid

Posted on November 26, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

456P/Panstars, an active main-belt asteroid first discovered in 2021, is repeatedly active, and its activity is linked to volatile ice formations, according to new observations from the Magellan-Baade and Lowell Discovery telescopes. It is likely that this is caused by sublimation.

456P/PanSTARS image taken on October 3, 2024 with the Magellan Baade Telescope in Chile and with the Lowell Discovery Telescope in Arizona on October 26, 2024. At the center of each image is the comet’s head or nucleus, the tail extends to the right. Image credits: Scott S. Sheppard / Carnegie Institution for Science / Audrey Thirouin, Lowell Observatory / Henry H. Hsieh, Planetary Science Institute.

“Main-belt comets are icy objects found in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, rather than outside the cold solar system, where icy objects would normally be expected,” said Henry Hsieh, senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute.

“They have comet-like features, such as tails that extend away from the sun and fuzzy clouds as the sun’s heat evaporates the ice.”

These objects were first discovered in 2006 at the University of Hawaii by Dr. Hsieh and his then-doctoral supervisor, Professor David Jewitt.

“Main-belt comets belong to a larger group of Solar System objects known as active asteroids, which look like comets but have asteroid-like orbits in the warm inner Solar System,” the astronomers said.

“This large group includes not only objects that emit dust from evaporated ice, but also objects that have clouds or tails of ejected dust from collisions or rapid rotation.”

“Both main-belt comets and active asteroids in general are still relatively rare, but scientists are discovering them.”

456P/PANSTARRS was discovered as P/2021 L4 (PANSTARRS) through observations by Pan-STARRS1 on June 9 and 14, 2021, and observations by Canada, France, and Hawaii telescopes on June 14, 2021.

Dr. Hsieh and his co-authors observed the object twice in October 2024 using the Magellan-Baade Telescope and the Lowell Discovery Telescope, establishing its status as a main-belt comet.

“This object is not just an asteroid that experienced a one-off event, but is essentially an active icy object, like other comets in the outer solar system,” Hsieh said.

If 456P/PANSTARRS’s activity is due to something other than ice evaporation, its tail would be expected to appear only once, randomly, and not repeatedly as it approaches the Sun.

On the other hand, icy objects heat up every time they approach the sun, and the evaporated ice is carried away with the dust.

As the object moves away from the sun and cools, it ceases to be active.

Observations of repeated dust ejection activity during their approach to the Sun are currently considered the best and most reliable method of identifying main-belt comets.

“Confirmed main-belt comets are still largely unknown,” Dr. Xie said.

“We want to grow the population so we can understand more clearly what its broader characteristics are, such as its size, active period, and distribution within the asteroid belt. We will be able to better utilize them to track ice within the asteroid belt and across the solar system.”

of findings Published in American Astronomical Society Research Notes.

_____

Henry H. Shea others. 2024. Recurrence activity of main belt comet 456P/Panstars (P/2021 L4) confirmed. Resolution memo AAS 8,283;doi: 10.3847/2515-5172/ad90a6

This article is a reprint of a press release provided by the Planetary Science Institute.

Source: www.sci.news

The impact of artificially stopping your period on your body

Posted on November 26, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

People with a uterus experience menstruation about once every 28 days for approximately 40 years of their lives.

Menstruation goes beyond just blood. It’s common for 84% of women to experience menstrual pain regularly. Severe menstrual pain can lead women to miss numerous days of education or work each month. Additionally, periods are costly, with an estimated lifetime cost of around 4,800 pounds (approximately $6,100).

Given these challenges, it’s only natural to want to stop menstruation. While periods may naturally cease during pregnancy, breastfeeding, or menopause, many women in the UK opt to stop their menstrual cycles using hormonal contraception.

Contraceptive pills, implants, and hormonal coils work by releasing hormones that prevent ovulation. Without an egg being released or the lining of the uterus thickening for pregnancy, menstruation, which occurs due to shedding of this lining, typically stops when it ceases to grow.

“There’s nothing harmful about not having a menstrual cycle,” affirms Dr. Nicola Tempest, a researcher and gynecologist at Liverpool Women’s Hospital. “Taking hormones doesn’t detract from your body’s wellbeing.”

But are there any drawbacks to not having periods?

For individuals with regular menstrual cycles (not taking hormonal contraceptives), the sudden absence of periods may signify underlying health issues.

While the occasional missed period isn’t typically worrisome, a prolonged absence of periods after having regular cycles could indicate potential problems such as early menopause or polycystic ovarian syndrome.

Tempest notes that individuals with such conditions may require hormone medication as part of their treatment, which could help in diagnosing these conditions along with other associated symptoms, even if periods have ceased due to birth control pills.

There may be certain side effects associated with hormonal contraceptives, such as a slight increase in the risk of breast, liver, and cervical cancer with long-term use. However, Tempest emphasizes that prolonged use of birth control also reduces the risk of endometrial and ovarian cancer.

In her view, menstruation is not an indispensable aspect of a person’s health. “If you wish to forego menstruation, you have that choice,” she states.

This article addresses the question “Can I stop my period?” posed by Veronica Nielson via email.

If you have any queries, please reach out to us via email: questions@sciencefocus.comor connect with us on Facebook, ×or Instagram (please include your name and location).

Explore more interesting fun facts Discover more fascinating science insights.

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Dr. Nicola Tempest I am a clinical researcher and gynecologist at Liverpool Women’s Hospital. Her research includes chronic pelvic pain, exercise and reproduction, and endometriosis.

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

Hubble Space Telescope Spots Spiral of Condensation in NGC 2090

Posted on November 26, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have taken surprising new photos of spiral galaxy NGC 2090.

This Hubble image shows NGC 2090, a spiral galaxy located south of the constellation Columba, about 40 million light-years away. Color images were created from separate exposures taken in the ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared regions of the spectrum using Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). This is based on data obtained through six filters. Color is obtained by assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / D. Tilker.

NGC2090 It is a spiral galaxy located south of the constellation Columba.

Also known as ESO 363-23, IRAS 05452-3416, LEDA 17819. discovered It was announced by Scottish astronomer James Dunlop on October 29, 1826.

“NGC 2090 is notable as part of a group of galaxies being studied. Hubble's Extragalactic Distance Scale Key Project“This study aimed to determine a new, state-of-the-art value for the Hubble constant, one of the main scientific goals of the then-new telescope,” Hubble astronomers said in a statement.

“NGC 2090's contribution was to calibrate the Tully-Fisher (TF) distance method by observing Cepheid variable stars in the galaxy.”

“Cepheid-based measurements from a 1998 study estimated the distance of NGC 2090 to be 37 million light-years.”

“Latest measurements in 2020 using the TF method place NGC 2090 slightly further away, at 40 million light-years.”

Before and after that project, NGC 2090 has been well studied as a very prominent nearby example of star formation.

It has been described as a cotton-like spiral, meaning a spiral galaxy with a speckled, dusty disk and flaky or no visible arms.

“This Hubble image gives a good indication of why NGC 2090 received such a description, with its spiral arms looking like lanes of light winding through the dust,” the astronomers said. said.

“NGC 2090 remains an active galaxy, with clusters of star formation in various stages of evolution spread throughout the disk.”

“Investigating star formation and the movement of matter within galaxies was the motivation for these Hubble observations taken in October of this year.”

“Likewise, Hubble's partner in space astronomy, NASA/ESA/CSA's James Webb Space Telescope, also scouted this galaxy to add infrared data to the picture of galaxy evolution.”

Source: www.sci.news

Nanopasta: The World’s Thinnest Spaghetti Emerges

Posted on November 26, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

The world's thinnest spaghetti is only 372 nm wide, which is about 1/200th the width of a human hair.

Britton others. Using a scanning electron microscope, they scanned the mat with a focused beam of electrons and created images based on the patterns of electrons that were deflected, or bounced away. The individual strands are too thin to be clearly captured by any form of visible light camera or microscope. Image credit: Beatrice Britton/Adam Clancy.

Beatrice Britton, a researcher at University College London, and her colleagues said: “This novel nanopasta is not intended as a new food product, but rather that strands of ultra-thin material called nanofibers have a wide range of uses in medicine and industry. It was made with usage in mind.”

“Nanofibers made from starch are particularly promising and could be used in dressings to aid wound healing and as scaffolds for bone regeneration and drug delivery.”

“But they rely on starches that are extracted and purified from plant cells, a process that requires a lot of energy and water.”

“A more environmentally friendly method is to create nanofibers directly from starch-rich raw materials, such as the flour that pasta is made from.”

To create the spaghetti, which is just 372 nm in diameter, the authors used a technique called electrospinning. In this technique, a thread of flour and liquid is pulled through the tip of a needle by an electric charge.

“To make spaghetti, you push a mixture of water and flour through metal holes,” says Adam Clancy, a researcher at University College London.

“In our study, we did the same thing, except we charged the flour mixture and forced it through. It's literally spaghetti, but much smaller.”

The new nanopasta forms a mat of nanofibers about 2 cm in diameter that is visible to the eye, but the individual strands are too thin to be clearly captured by any form of visible light camera or microscope. Therefore, its width was measured using a scanning electron microscope.

Professor Gareth Williams, from University College London, said: “Nanofibers, such as those made from starch, are highly porous and therefore show potential for use in wound dressings.”

“Additionally, nanofibers are also being investigated for use as scaffolds for tissue regrowth because they mimic the extracellular matrix (the network of proteins and other molecules that cells build to support themselves). .”

“Starch is a promising material to use because it is abundant and renewable. Starch is the second largest source of biomass on Earth after cellulose, and it is biodegradable, so it can be broken down in the body,” Clancy said. the doctor said.

“However, refining starch requires a lot of processing. We have shown that a simple method of making nanofibers using wheat flour is possible.”

“The next step is to investigate the properties of this product.”

“We want to know, for example, how quickly it breaks down, how it interacts with cells, and whether we can produce it at scale.”

In electrospinning, the needle containing the mixture and the metal plate on which the mixture is deposited form the two ends of the battery.

When a charge is applied, the mixture flows out of the needle and onto the metal plate, completing the circuit.

Electrospinning with starch-rich raw materials, such as refined flour, is more difficult than with pure starch because impurities (proteins and cellulose) increase the viscosity of the mixture, making it impossible to form fibers.

The researchers used flour and formic acid instead of water. This is because formic acid breaks down the giant helical stacks that make up starch.

This is because the layers of helices stuck together are too large to be the building blocks of nanofibers.

When the noodles fly through the air and reach the metal plate, the formic acid evaporates.

The scientists also had to carefully warm the mixture for several hours and then slowly cool it to the right consistency.

“As the newly developed material is composed of fibers formed by extruding and drying flour, it could be defined as pasta, breaking the previous record for the thinnest pasta runga by about 1,000 the researchers concluded.

their paper appear in the diary Nanoscale advances.

_____

Beatrice Britton others. Nanopasta: Electrospinning white flour nanofibers. nanoscale advancepublished online October 30, 2024. doi: 10.1039/D4NA00601A

Source: www.sci.news

How can we solve the planet’s plastic pollution crisis?

Posted on November 26, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

plastic waste in indonesia

PA Image/Alamy

The world currently generates more than 50 million tonnes of “mismanaged” plastic waste each year, and some researchers predict that this flood of plastic pollution will double by mid-century. But he also said that if countries could agree to adopt four key policies during this period. This number could be reduced by 90 per cent if this week's global plastics deal is negotiated.

Plastic pollution ultimately chokes land and sea ecosystems. “This affects every level of the food chain, from phytoplankton cells to humans,” he says. Sarah-Jeanne Royer at the University of California, San Diego. Plastics also account for about 5% of greenhouse gas emissions.

That's why most of the world's countries are meeting this week in Busan, South Korea, to hammer out the final details of a global treaty to end plastic pollution. By 2022, 175 countries have already agreed to adopt a legally binding treaty For the past two years, we have been debating what exactly we should require, with particular disagreements over setting limits on production of new plastics.

To make the discussion more clear, douglas mcquarley The researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara, used an artificial intelligence model trained on economic data to test how the policies they were considering would affect global plastic pollution. “I wasn't sure that [eliminating plastic pollution] It was actually possible,” McCauley said. “But it turns out we can get pretty close.”

They predict that under current conditions, plastic pollution is expected to almost double by 2050, reaching between 100 million and 139 million tonnes. However, all four policy combinations are still on the bill. Current draft treatywas sufficient to reduce this by over 90%.

The most influential of these was the mandate that plastic products contain at least 40% recycled material. This rule alone will cut plastic pollution in half by mid-century. Mr McCauley said this effect was significant because it would reduce demand for newly made or “virgin” plastics, while also stimulating demand for recycled materials. “Suddenly, there was a huge global recycling market.”

But recycling alone wasn't enough. “If our goal is to eliminate plastic pollution, we need to address it throughout its lifecycle,” he says. Further reductions would have required limiting virgin plastic production to 2020 levels. According to the model, this production cap would have reduced plastic pollution by about 60 million tons per year by mid-century. This change also had the biggest impact on greenhouse gas emissions from plastic production, as the extraction of fossil fuels and conversion into virgin plastics involves processes with large emissions.

A third policy would spend $50 billion on waste management, roughly equal to the production cap, especially if these funds go to low-income countries with poor infrastructure and where plastic pollution is most severe. reduced pollution. “When we start talking about global finance, [the amount of money needed] It’s not that big,” McCauley said. “Building a sanitary landfill is different from building a port.”

Plastic waste is increasing, and while some is recycled or destroyed, the majority is “mismanaged” and piles up as plastic pollution.

A. Samuel Pottinger et al.

Finally, a small tax on plastic packaging has reduced pollution by tens of millions of tons. The researchers based this estimate on case studies of how people reduced their plastic use in response to similar taxes. 5 cents fee Regarding disposable plastic bags in Washington DC. Funds raised through such taxes could also be used to pay for other changes, such as building waste management infrastructure or improving recycling systems.

Royer, who was not involved in the study, said he thinks all of these policies will help. Reducing the use of single-use plastics, such as shopping bags and plastic forks, through taxes or bans could also make a difference, she says. “If you look at plastic pollution in general, 40% of the plastic produced is single-use.”

However, she points out that local rules alone will never solve the problem. California, for example, banned some single-use plastic bags a decade ago and this year banned all such bags. But most of the plastic pollution that washes up on our shores comes from outside the state, with California's plastic waste typically washing ashore from Asia across the Pacific or being left behind by fishing. “There are no borders,” Royer says.

This is where the World Treaty comes into play. Researchers explore how different policies around the world can reduce three things: the amount of poorly managed plastic waste, the production of new plastics, and plastic-related greenhouse gas emissions. I showed you. By combining the four key policies seen in the graph below, all three measures reduced, specifically mismanaged waste, by 91%.

Researchers estimated the impact of different policies to reduce plastic

Source: www.newscientist.com

Posted in Science | Tagged crisis, planets, plastic, pollution, solve | Leave a reply

Webb Reveals a Fresh Perspective on the Sombrero Galaxy

Posted on November 26, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

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**sharp resolution Web’s mid-infrared device (MIRI) focuses on details of the outer ring of the Sombrero Galaxy, providing insight into how dust is distributed.**

This web image shows the Sombrero Galaxy. Image credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI.

The Sombrero Galaxy is located approximately 28 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo.

This spiral galaxy, also known as Messier 104, M104, or NGC 4594, was discovered by French astronomer Pierre Méchain on May 11, 1781.

It is about 49,000 light-years in diameter, about one-third the size of our Milky Way galaxy.

The Sombrero galaxy has a very large central bulge and a supermassive black hole.

We are looking directly at the galaxy, at an angle of 6 degrees south of its face. Its dark dusty path dominates the view.

“The clumpy nature of the dust, in which MIRI detects carbon-containing molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, may indicate the presence of young star-forming regions,” Webb astronomers said in a statement.

“But unlike some of the galaxies studied with Webb, such as Messier 82, which has 10 times as many stars as the Milky Way, the Sombrero galaxy is not a special hotbed of star formation.”

“The Sombrero ring produces less than 1 solar mass per year of stars, compared to about 2 solar masses per year for the Milky Way.”

“The supermassive black hole at the center of the Sombrero galaxy, also known as an active galactic nucleus (AGN), is fairly docile, even at a massive 9 billion solar masses,” the researchers noted.

“Classified as a low-luminosity AGN, it slowly chews up material falling from the galaxy while emitting bright and relatively small jets.”

“Also, there are about 2,000 globular clusters within the Sombrero galaxy, which are collections of hundreds of thousands of old stars held together by gravity,” the researchers said.

“This type of system acts as a pseudo-laboratory for astronomers to study stars. There are thousands of stars in one system of the same age but with different masses and other properties, making it difficult to compare It’s an interesting opportunity for research.”

“In the MIRI images, galaxies of different shapes and colors are scattered across the cosmic background.”

“The different colors of these background galaxies can tell astronomers about their properties, such as their distance.”

Source: www.sci.news

Posted in Science | Tagged fresh, galaxy, perspective, reveals, Sombrero, Webb | Leave a reply

Japanese researchers discover a new species of pterosaur

Posted on November 26, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

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**Paleontologists have announced the discovery of a new species of Quetzalcotorin azhdarchopterosaur. *Nippotherus mifunensis* from the Late Cretaceous of Japan.**

Restoration of life in the giant azhdarchid group, *Quetzalcoatlus nothropi* foraging in the Cretaceous fern steppe. Image credit: Mark Witton / Darren Naish.

Pterosaurs were highly successful flying reptiles (not dinosaurs, as is commonly misunderstood) that lived between 210 and 65 million years ago.

They were the first flying vertebrates on Earth, with birds and bats appearing much later.

Some pterosaurs, like the giant azhdarchids, were the largest flying animals in history, with wingspans exceeding 9 meters (30 feet) and a standing height comparable to modern giraffes.

“Pterosaurs, the earliest vertebrate group to achieve powered flight, exhibit remarkable morphological diversity, with a fossil record that spans from the Late Triassic to the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary. '' said Dr. Naoki Ikegami of the Mifune Dinosaur Museum and Dr. Naoki Ikegami of the University of São Paulo. Rodrigo Pegas and his friends.

“The pterosaur skeleton's fragile air bones make its fossil record particularly irregular and uneven.”

“Most well-preserved, relatively complete archaeological sites are confined to a few Lagerstätten around the world. In contrast, most other deposits that yield pterosaurs are typically fragments. generate a typical sample.

“For one thing, there are very few records of pterosaurs in Japan, so every artifact has special significance.”

“The first pterosaur specimen discovered in Japan came from the Ezo Group in Hokkaido, and is representative of an indeterminate pterosaur species consisting of a femur, metatarsals, foot phalanges, and part of the caudal vertebrae. It is.”

6th cervical vertebra *Nippoterus mifunensis*. Image credit: Zhou *others*., doi: 10.1016/j.cretres.2024.106046.

The newly identified species is Quetzalcoatrinae a subfamily of the pterosaur family Azhdarchidae.

“Azhdarchids represent a very special clade of pterosaurs, particularly notorious for containing some of the largest flying creatures in history, with wingspans of 10 to 11 meters (33 to 36 feet).” *Quetzalcoatlus nothropi*, *aramburgiania philadelphia* and *Hatzegopteryx tanbema*'' said the paleontologists.

“The azhdarchid clade, most prominently characterized by elongated cervical vertebrae with reduced neural spines, is widely distributed in Turonian to Maastrichtian pterosaur communities around the world.”

“They represent the most diverse and widespread group of pterosaurs during the Late Cretaceous.”

named *Nippoterus mifunensis* the new species lived in what is now Japan about 90 million years ago (late Cretaceous period).

“*Nippoterus mifunensis* “This is the first nominally Japanese pterosaur species,” the researchers said.

“This new species exhibits many Quetzalcoat line characteristics and bears a striking resemblance to the unnamed Burcant azhdarchid of Mongolia's Turonian-Coniacian.”

Part of the 6th cervical vertebra *Nippotherus mifunensis* It was produced from an outcrop of the Mifune Group near Amagi Dam in Mifune Town, Kumamoto Prefecture, Kyushu.

“The specimen was found in a 30-centimeter (12-inch) thick layer of coarse lenticular sandstone, nestled between two tuff layers, in the middle of the upper formation of the Mifune Group,” the scientists said. said.

their paper Published in this month's magazine *Cretaceous research*.

_____

Zhou Xuanyu *others*. Re-evaluation of azhdarchoid pterosaur specimens from the Mifune Group, Late Cretaceous of Japan. *Cretaceous research*published online on November 16, 2024. doi: 10.1016/j.cretres.2024.106046

Source: www.sci.news

Posted in Science | Tagged discover, japanese, pterosaur, researchers, species | Leave a reply

Disputed COP29 deal highlights deteriorating climate cooperation

Posted on November 25, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

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When COP29 President Mukhtar Babayev stepped up to the podium on Sunday morning at the closing session of the Baku Climate Summit, he had two speeches ready. According to sources who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, one speech was prepared in anticipation of a much-anticipated deal, while the other was prepared in case of a deadlock after the summit collapsed. It was seen as a contingency plan.

An official from the COP29 Presidency revealed that negotiations were tough until the last minute to secure the Baku breakthrough, but they were still preparing for various outcomes. The final speech was being crafted to address different possibilities.

Ultimately, without giving his detractors a chance to react, Babayev succeeded in pushing through a $300 billion funding plan to assist developing countries in handling the escalating costs of global warming over the next decade, earning praise for his efforts.

He lauded the agreement as a significant achievement and criticized skeptics, labeling them as “wrong,” along with many individuals targeted by the climate deal accused of being grossly inadequate.

The audience was already aware that Babayev was preparing for a mixed outcome at the divisive Baku summit, signaling that negotiations were unlikely to proceed smoothly.

Concerns about the imminent withdrawal of the United States from global climate cooperation, geopolitical tensions, and the surge of isolationist politics that have sidelined climate change in many nations’ priorities had lowered expectations for the deal.

An activist holds up a globe balloon during a protest at the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, on November 21.
Maxim Shemetov/Reuters

Potential obstacles loomed large over Baku. The coming months will continue to cast a shadow over global efforts to address climate change as Brazil gears up to host a major conference next year in the Amazon rainforest city of Belem. The world will then embark on a multi-year plan for deeper emissions cuts and building climate resilience.

Trump Effect

One major factor clouding the negotiations in Baku was the impending return of Donald Trump as the President of the United States, the world’s largest economy, historically the largest emitter of greenhouse gases, and a significant producer of oil and gas, who has been a climate change skeptic.

President Trump, due to take office again in January, had vowed to withdraw the US from the global Paris climate accord, repeating his stance from his previous term and dismissing climate change as a hoax.

Negotiators at the Baku conference noted that while the US delegation contributed to developing a climate finance agreement, the country was unable to play the high-profile leadership role seen in previous climate summits. Doubts persisted about the administration’s commitment to honoring the agreement.

“As far as the United States is concerned, the voters have spoken, and that’s where we stand. We are unsure of their intentions,” stated South Africa’s Environment Minister Dion George.

US officials attending COP29 tried to assure global partners that even if President Trump withdraws from the international process, market forces, federal subsidies, and state mandates will continue driving the deployment of renewable energy.

Furthermore, conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East diverted global attention towards security and energy availability, compelling many governments to tighten their budgets, making it challenging to secure larger climate finance amounts, noted observers.

“Given the current political climate, maintaining climate finance at its current level is an uphill battle,” remarked Joe Thwaites, a senior adviser at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The pledged $300 billion annually by 2035 would theoretically triple the previous commitments of rich countries to provide $100 billion by 2020. Rich countries’ reluctance to offer further funding and the pressure to reach agreements amidst political turmoil disappointed least developed countries and small island states left out of negotiations at the Baku conference.

At one point during the summit’s final stages, the negotiating bloc representing these nations staged a walkout in protest, leading to a delay in reaching an agreement.

Representatives from Marshall Islands and India voiced their dissatisfaction with the climate finance deal, highlighting the reluctance of developed countries to fulfill their responsibilities, setting the stage for challenges at COP30 in Brazil.

“This could prove contentious in Belém. Brazil must find a way to rebuild trust,” remarked Oscar Soria, head of the Common Initiative focused on global financial reform.

Source: www.nbcnews.com

Posted in Science | Tagged climate, cooperation, COP29, Deal, deteriorating, disputed, highlights | Leave a reply

The complexity of Viking expansion into the North Atlantic was underestimated.

Posted on November 25, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

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Vikings played a prominent role among the peoples of the North Atlantic, and the populations founded by them might be expected to be genetically similar and homogeneous. New research suggests that the Icelandic and Faroese people had distinctly different founding fathers. This result is consistent with a scenario in which the male population of the Faroe Islands was formed by a more diverse population from the more diverse Scandinavian population than from neighboring Icelanders. Furthermore, this study conclusively shows that there is no evidence of post-founder admixture between the Faroese and Icelandic gene pools.

The Faroe Islands consist of an archipelago of 18 small islands located in the North Atlantic Ocean between southern Norway, Iceland, and Scotland. As a result of their demographic history and relative geographical isolation, the Faroe Islands, like other North Atlantic island populations, are genetically homogeneous compared to mainland populations. Historical and archaeological sources report that the Faroe Islands were settled around 800 AD by Vikings, primarily from western Norway. However, increasing evidence suggests that these islands were settled earlier, perhaps by Celtic monks or other people from the British Isles. Carbon dating of peat moss and barley grain supports two pre-Viking periods of settlement, approximately 300-500 AD and 500-700 AD. More recently, scientists detected sheep DNA in archaeological deposits from 500 AD, and based on modern whole-genome data, the original founding of the Faroe Islands occurred between 50 and 300 AD. estimated that it may have been two to three centuries earlier than previously thought. Based solely on archaeological findings. Image credit: Oscar CR

From the 8th century to about 1050 AD, Vikings roamed the Atlantic in longships all the way to Newfoundland, Labrador, and Greenland, as well as exploring the Mediterranean and Eurasia.

Among the places they are known to have settled are the Faroe Islands, an archipelago of 18 islands in the North Atlantic Ocean.

They probably weren’t the first. Archaeologists have found evidence that these islands have been inhabited since about 300 AD, perhaps by Celtic monks or other people from the British Isles.

However, according to *Fairinga Saga*written around 1200, a Viking chieftain called Grimur Kamban settled in the Faroe Islands between about 872 and 930 AD. But where in Scandinavia did Grimur and his followers come from?

“We have strong evidence here that the Faroe Islands were colonized by a diverse group of male settlers from multiple Scandinavian populations,” said University of Louisville researcher Dr. Christopher Tillquist. .

In this study, Dr. Tillquist and his colleagues genotyped 12 “short tandem repeat” (STR) loci on the Y chromosome of 139 men from the Faroese islands of Bordoloi, Streymoy, and Suzloj.

They assigned each man to the most likely haplogroup. Each haplogroup has a different known distribution across Europe today.

They compared the genotype distribution to that found in 412 men from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, and Ireland.

This allowed the team to reconstruct the source population of the founders of the Viking population.

Advanced analysis showed that the Faroe Islands sample range was similar to the broader Scandinavian genotype range, whereas the Icelandic genotypes were different.

The authors also developed a powerful and innovative genetic method called “variational distance from modal haplotype” to analyze SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) variation within STRs.

This has led to the “founder effect” (vestiges of random loss of diversity during historical colonization by a small number of people) that remains in the genetic composition of male populations in the Faroe Islands and Iceland today. was able to clarify.

“Scientists have long thought that the Faroe Islands and Iceland were settled by similar Nordic peoples,” Dr Tillquist says.

“However, our new analysis showed that these islands were founded by people belonging to different gene pools within Scandinavia.”

“One group of diverse Scandinavian origins settled in the Faroe Islands, while a more genetically distinct group of Vikings colonized Iceland. They had separate genetic characteristics that continue to this day. Masu.”

“Despite their geographic proximity, there appears to have been no subsequent interbreeding between these two populations.”

“Our findings show that Viking expansion into the North Atlantic was more complex than previously thought.”

“Each longship that sailed to these distant islands carried a different genetic heritage, and not just Vikings.”

“We can now trace the separate journeys of conquest and settlement, revealing a more nuanced story of Viking exploration than is told in history books.”

of findings appear in the diary *frontiers of genetics*.

_____

Alison E. Mann *others*. 2024. Genetic evidence points to distinct patrilineal colonization of the Faroe Islands and Iceland. *front. Genet* 15;doi: 10.3389/fgene.2024.1462736

Source: www.sci.news

Posted in Science | Tagged atlantic, complexity, Expansion, north, underestimated, viking | Leave a reply

Astronomers conduct simulations of undetected asteroids within our galaxy

Posted on November 25, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

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Astronomers discover large planets around other stars more often than small planets.whether to measure The gravitational pull of an exoplanet on its host starobserve How much starlight do exoplanets block?or Take a photo of the exoplanet itselfObservation methods for exoplanets are biased toward planets with masses twice the mass of Earth, or 12 septillion kilograms or more. But astronomers know that small planets exist. It's just harder to find because the smaller the planet, the more accurate equipment is needed.

Astronomers call planets smaller than Earth: *sub-earth* or *asteroid*. Current telescopes are bad at finding these tiny planets, so astronomers rely on simulations to determine how they behave. A team of astronomers studied the conditions of a hypothetical planetary system containing only asteroids. They argued that understanding where asteroids are likely to appear in large numbers will allow scientists to better understand how common these types of planets are.

To obtain a representative sample of the right conditions for planetary systems to form, astronomers simulation codeGenerate models of exoplanets similar to actual observations. Using this code, the team ran 33 sets of 1,000 simulations, each set with different starting parameters. Most stars in the Milky Way are in that size range, so they simulated a system containing stars ranging from 1/2 to 5 times the mass of the Sun. They ran all but the last two sets of simulations over a billion years of simulation time.

The first set was their point of comparison. This demonstrated that the code would produce a system containing asteroids given the same conditions as a solar system in which planets smaller than Earth are known to exist. In the next set of eight, they varied the mass of the host star, the spread of mass within the disk of matter's starting point, and the ratio of gas to dust in the system. The astronomers then ran four sets of experiments varying the period during which the asteroid could accumulate new material, ranging from 320,000 to 32 million years. The researchers ran 16 more sets, varying the amount of dust the system needed to start with, from exactly the same mass of Earth to 10,000 times the mass of Earth.

The astronomers' last four sets of simulations varied depending on the host star's mass, which ranges from 1.5 to 5 times the mass of the Sun. They ran their two largest sets on shorter timescales than the rest because large stars burn out their fuel faster and have shorter lifetimes than smaller stars. At the end of a star's life, it expands, sometimes quite dramatically. Scientists used these sets to find scenarios in which the star swallows the asteroid as it expands, and scenarios in which the star survives.

The researchers noted that computing power limits the scope of the simulation, as certain systems cannot perform calculations on more than 1,000 objects at once. Also, ice and rock were not allowed to accumulate at the edges of the system, as they do in real star systems. They said these factors limit the accuracy of models of planet formation processes and long-term system dynamics, respectively.

Overall, the research team found that asteroids should be extremely abundant in the universe. They found that under the parameters they studied, systems consisting of only planets between 1 and 110 million times the mass of Earth could “easily form.” They suggested that estimates of how often planets form around stars may significantly underestimate the actual frequency of planets.

Astronomers have found that the most important factor determining how large an asteroid becomes is the amount of dust it can initially form. But they also found that systems containing only small planets stop forming when the initial available dust exceeds 100 times the mass of Earth. Their final conclusions dealt with the outermost asteroids of certain systems, which are more than 10 times the distance from Earth to the Sun. They found that although these planets rarely grow larger than small moons, they can survive the star's inevitable expansion and persist for billions of years after the star's expansion.

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Source: sciworthy.com

Posted in Science | Tagged asteroids, astronomers, conduct, galaxy, Simulations, Undetected | Leave a reply

Bringing Science to Dog Training with a Unique Puppy Kindergarten Lab

Posted on November 25, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

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“Oreos were my best friend as a kid,” he says brian hair. Once Hare wanted to hone his baseball pitching skills, his Labrador eagerly took on fielding duties. If he decided to explore the nearby forest, Oreo was always happy to take him. But there was one place where the boy and the dog always parted ways. “Oreo has never set foot in our house. Not once,” Hare says.

Nowadays, the front door is not closed for most dogs in high-income countries, and many dogs spend their days relaxing on the couch or watching TV. You would think they would be in dog heaven. But Hare, an evolutionary anthropologist at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, believes development has kept them in a doghouse. For thousands of years, he says, we have relied on dogs to protect our property and protect our families at night. Now, we have different expectations. Not only do you want your indoor dog to be friendly to strangers and rest quietly throughout the night, but also to be toilet trained, avoid chasing other animals, and avoid getting dirty paws on upholstery. You also need to do so. “This is an evolutionary mismatch,” Hare says.

Fortunately, this problem is solvable. Many recent studies have shown that selective breeding and careful training can help dogs adapt to indoor life. Meanwhile, Hare and his team “Puppy Kindergarten” Their lab delves into necessary behaviors and sheds new light on the milestones of cognitive development in dogs. Even better, researchers have devised a technique…

Source: www.newscientist.com

Posted in Science | Tagged bringing, dog, Kindergarten, Lab, Puppy, science, training, unique | Leave a reply

The harmful effects of certain kitchen utensils on health

Posted on November 24, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

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Some kitchen appliances have become popular in our kitchens due to their cost-effectiveness, durability, and easy cleaning. However, recent studies indicate that certain food staples like black plastic utensils, plastic cutting boards, and nonstick pots may release harmful substances into our food. This is not the kind of seasoning we want in our healthy, nutritious meals.

So, what are the risks associated with these kitchen tools, and what are the safer alternatives available?

Issues with Plastic Utensils

Many of us may have a set of black plastic spatulas, spoons, and ladles tucked away in our kitchen drawers. New research reveals that these items can potentially leach toxic flame retardants like decabromodiphenyl ether (decaBDE) into our food.

These chemicals were originally used in electronics to reduce fire risks but are now present in black plastic kitchen utensils made from recycled electronic waste.

Another study found that 85 percent of black plastic household items examined, including fast food trays, children’s toys, and kitchen utensils, contained toxic flame retardants, with the highest levels found in kitchen utensils.

DecaBDE is particularly harmful, linked to cancer, hormonal disorders, thyroid issues, developmental problems in children, neurobehavioral effects, and toxicity in the reproductive and immune systems. Due to these concerns, it was banned in the UK in 2018 and in the US in 2021.

Researchers estimate that people may be exposed to an average of 34.7 ppm of deca-BDE daily through recycled black plastic kitchen utensils, posing a significant health risk as the chemicals can accumulate in the body over time.

Instead of using black plastic utensils, consider switching to safer alternatives like stainless steel or food-grade silicone options.

Cutting Board and Microplastics

Plastic cutting boards, although seemingly harmless, can release microplastics into our food. These small particles, known as microplastics, can be ingested unintentionally and pose health risks.

Recent research suggests that cutting boards made of polypropylene and polyethylene can release up to 1,114 microplastic particles with just one cut, leading to potential health issues related to microplastic ingestion.

Replacing plastic cutting boards with bamboo or wood alternatives can help reduce these health risks, as these materials are naturally resistant to bacteria and environmentally friendly.

**The Truth about Nonstick Cookware**

Nonstick pans are favored by many home cooks for their convenience, but the chemicals used in these coatings, such as PFAS, raise health concerns. While modern nonstick pans are considered safe, there are uncertainties about their long-term impacts, especially when exposed to high temperatures or damage.

Be cautious with nonstick pans to prevent overheating, which can release toxic fumes and particles. Scratches or damage to the coating can also release harmful substances into food.

Consider using alternative cookware options like stainless steel or cast iron to avoid potential health risks associated with nonstick pans.

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

Posted in Science | Tagged effects, harmful, health, Kitchen, utensils | Leave a reply

New study suggests hot baths may be more effective than cold water baths

Posted on November 23, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

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Influencers are big fans of post-workout ice baths.

But a recent small study suggests that recreational athletes may perform better when using hot tubs instead of cold ones, especially during breaks in training like halftime in football or soccer games. The study was presented at the Integrative Exercise Physiology Conference at the University Park, Pennsylvania.

According to Mamoru Tsuyuki, the lead author of the study and a master’s student in sports and health science at Ritsumeikan University, hot water promotes blood flow, helps muscles repair, and increases power output. He recommends soaking in hot water for 15-20 minutes to improve performance in the second half of a workout. Despite the benefits of hot water, Tsuyuki acknowledges that cold water can still be beneficial for relieving muscle pain and treating injuries.

Further research is needed to compare the advantages and disadvantages of both hot and cold water treatments. Different types of exercises may yield different results with each temperature soak.

**Why Hot Soaks are Beneficial**

To explore the effects of hot and cold water in more detail, Tsuyuki and his team conducted a three-part study involving 10 young men. After high-intensity interval running, the men soaked in either a 104-degree or 59-degree bathtub for 20 minutes or sat in water without soaking.

The study results showed that jumping heights were higher after hot water immersion compared to cold water immersion. Muscle soreness was not significantly different between the two groups.

Although cold baths can be soothing for injuries involving heat and inflammation, they may have a negative impact on post-workout recovery for intense workouts, according to Amy Leighton, an associate professor of applied physiology at Columbia University. Hot water facilitates circulation and speeds up the recovery process after strenuous exercise.

Dr. Spencer Stein, an orthopedic and sports medicine specialist at New York University, acknowledges the benefits of cold water baths in reducing pain but notes that warm baths are preferred by professional teams before a game. David Putrino, a rehabilitation innovation director, advises athletes to experiment with different temperatures and observe how their bodies react to determine the most effective recovery strategy.

Putrino recommends soaking in hot water for 10-20 minutes at 98-104 degrees Fahrenheit and in ice water for 10-15 minutes at 50-59 degrees Fahrenheit. Start with a 5-minute soak if you are new to cold water treatment. Ultimately, the best temperature soak is the one that helps you recover the fastest, so individual experimentation is key.

Source: www.nbcnews.com

Posted in Science | Tagged baths, cold, effective, hot, study, suggests, water | Leave a reply

The earth’s biggest city is sinking beneath the ocean’s surface. What are the implications of this?

Posted on November 23, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

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Flooding is a common occurrence in the cities of Navotas and Malabon, located in densely populated areas north of Metro Manila in the Philippines.

These cities have adapted to the constant threat of floods. For example, the iconic jeepney vehicles are now made of stainless steel to prevent corrosion from seawater. Additionally, roads have been continuously elevated, reaching heights higher than people’s doors in some areas.

“They keep raising the roads higher and higher, and it’s a challenge to sustain this,” says Dr. Mahal Ragmay, Executive Director of the University of the Philippines Resilience Institute.

The struggle to combat floods in these cities is not just due to rising sea levels, but also to the lowering of the ground level. A study led by Lagmay and his team revealed that parts of Metro Manila sank by 10.6 centimeters (4.2 inches) per year between 2014 and 2020, significantly higher than the global average sea level rise.

This rapid decline has been a growing concern, especially in certain coastal areas around Manila Bay where floods have left half of the houses submerged, forcing rice farmers to turn to fishing for their livelihood.

Similar subsidence issues are observed in various highly urbanized regions worldwide, as highlighted by land subsidence expert Dr. Matt Way, who studies urban subsidence on a global scale.

The Impact of Land Subsidence

Subsidence measurements are now conducted using advanced technologies like satellite data, allowing researchers to make more accurate estimates of ground movement. With tools like GNSS and InSAR, scientists can track ground movement in 3D at specific points, providing detailed insights into subsidence patterns.

By analyzing subsidence data from various cities globally, researchers have found that many urban areas are experiencing significant sinking rates, posing a threat to millions of people.

Causes of Subsidence

Tighter regulations on groundwater extraction have slowed Jakarta’s sinking rate, but flooding still occurs – Credit: BAY ISMOYO

Subsidence in cities like New York and Manila has various causes, including post-glacial rebound and human activities like excessive groundwater pumping. While natural phenomena like seismic faults contribute to ground movements, human interventions play a significant role in accelerating subsidence rates.

Addressing subsidence requires a multi-faceted approach, from regulating groundwater extraction to monitoring and mitigating the impact of sinking urban areas.

Mitigating Urban Subsidence

Cities like Jakarta, Tokyo, and Houston have made strides in slowing subsidence rates by implementing stricter water regulations and alternative water supply solutions. In Manila, efforts to ban deep well drilling and reduce reliance on groundwater are underway to address subsidence issues.

While some areas may face relocation due to flooding and sinking, careful management of groundwater resources and proactive monitoring can help cities bounce back from subsidence challenges.

**About our experts**

**Dr. Matt Way** is an expert in oceanography and studies natural disasters and crustal geodesy at the University of Rhode Island.

**Dr. Mahal Lagmay** is the Executive Director of the University of the Philippines Resilience Institute, focusing on projects related to flooding and groundwater management in the Philippines.

**Read more:**

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

Posted in Science | Tagged beneath, biggest, City, Earths, Implications, oceans, sinking, surface | Leave a reply

Massive volcanic eruption discovered on the moon’s far side

Posted on November 23, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

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Today, the moon is a cold, dead world, but it hasn’t always been that way. Early in its history, the Moon was host to volcanic activity.

Now, the latest results from the first-ever samples returned from the far side of the moon by China’s Chang’e 6 spacecraft reveal this volcanic activity. It may have happened more recently More than previously suspected. But what remains unclear is how these eruptions were able to continue for so long.

The moon is tidally locked to the Earth, meaning the same side is always facing us. Throughout human history, the dark ocean on the moon’s near side (known as Mare) has been clearly visible.

However, the far side of the Moon was hidden from our view and remained a mystery until the advent of the Space Age. In 1959, the Soviet Union’s Luna 3 satellite returned the first-ever images of the far side of the Moon, revealing a completely different surface than the familiar near side. There are only a handful of small oceans on the moon. Instead, much of the opposite side is pocked with impact craters.

Why do we know so little about the far side of the moon?

The Moon is dual-faced, and each side has a markedly different appearance. In recent years, experiments such as NASA’s GRAIL satellite have revealed that this dual personality extends underground as well.

“There is a dichotomy of the crust between the near and far sides, and the crust on the far side is much thicker,” he says. Professor Clive Neal a planetary geologist at the University of Notre Dame in the United States.

The cause of this split is one of the biggest unanswered questions about the moon. To get to the bottom of it, researchers first need to investigate what causes the two different appearances in the first place.

In the ’60s and ’70s, the Luna and Apollo missions returned vast amounts of lunar rock, confirming what geologists had long suspected: that the lunar maria was formed primarily from basalt (cooled lava). We were able to confirm that it is made of minerals.

The moon’s oceans were actually ancient volcanic floodplains that formed between 4.3 billion and 3.1 billion years ago. This conclusively proved that there was volcanic activity on the surface.

A photo of the far side of the Moon taken and transmitted to Earth by the Soviet lunar probe Luna 3 in 1959. – Photo credit: Getty

The absence of maria on the moon may suggest that there are no signs of volcanic activity on the far side, but a closer look at the craters on the far side shows that this may not be the case. Over time, the rocky world develops the patina of impact craters from meteorite impacts.

If the planet is volcanically active, lava flooding the surface will fill these craters and erase them from the surface. This means that the more craters there are on a planet’s surface, the longer it has been volcanic.

Using orbital images of the moon’s surface, scientists have been able to count craters on the moon, and it appears that the far side of the moon has actually been carved clean by volcanic activity on roughly the same time scale as seen on the near side. I discovered that it looks like.

So what did the new mission find?

The only way to confirm this theory was to test for volcanic minerals on samples from the backside. Unfortunately, all early lunar exploration aimed at the easiest place to land: the brightly lit equator in front of the moon.

Things changed on June 1, 2024, when China’s Chang’e 6 lander touched down on the far side of an area known as the Antarctic Aitken Impact Basin. This was China’s second venture into the far side, after landing a spacecraft in 2019. Chang’e 6’s main purpose was to bring samples of the far side back to Earth, ultimately revealing how geologically different this region is from the far side. .

Immediately after landing, Chang’e 6 scooped up some of the moon’s soil, known as regolith. They also used a 2-meter (6.5-foot) long drill to collect samples from underground, where moon rocks are somewhat protected from the sun’s radiation.

In all, the mission collected 1,935 g (4.2 pounds) of lunar material, which was packaged into an ascent vehicle and returned to Earth on June 6.

The return capsule of the Chang’e 6 probe will land in Xiziwangban, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China, on June 25, 2024. – Photo credit: Getty

The return capsule was immediately taken to a special facility, where it was opened and subjected to preliminary tests, which revealed that the sample contained grains of basalt, proving that there was indeed a volcanic past behind it. It was done.

To learn more about what this past was like, more than 100 basalt fragments were extracted and sent to two independent teams of researchers who published their findings. *science* and *nature* November of this year.

They found that the basalt is about 2.8 billion years old, younger than the samples collected by Luna and Apollo.

How volcanic activity became possible is a “mystery”

The new sample matched a similarly young sample taken by China’s previous sample return mission, Chang’e 5.

Neither sample contained a group of metals called KREEP (potassium, rare earth metals, and phosphorus with the element symbol K) that were abundant in the previous samples. There was also a clear shortage of radioactive metals. Also a sample of Chang’e.

“The mystery is that young basalts, less than 3 billion years old, do not contain large amounts of KREEP radioactive elements either in the foreground or in the background,” said one of the few Western scientists allowed to cooperate in this research. Mr. Neil, one of the Analysis at this time.

“This is a mystery, but it matches the young basalt of Chang’e 5, which is 2 billion years old.”

Heat from the decay of radioactive metals is one of the main mechanisms that sustains volcanic activity on our planet, but their apparent disappearance does not seem to have immediately stopped volcanic activity on the Moon. As it turns out, the samples are very similar in many other ways.

“They are similar in bulk composition to previous samples, which adds to the mystery: What was the heat source that produced such magmas?” says Neal.

Getting to the bottom of the mystery will almost certainly require more samples taken from different parts of the moon, as well as a closer look at what’s happening beneath the surface.

“The absence of creep elements in the basalts on the far side suggests that the Moon’s mantle is also bipartite. To understand the nature of the Moon’s interior, we need to use global geophysical networks to You need to explore what’s inside.”

It appears the other side still wants to keep some of its secrets hidden, at least for now.

About our experts

Professor Clive Neil is an expert in civil and environmental engineering and geosciences at the University of Notre Dame in the United States. His research is *natural earth science*, *science* and *advances in space research*.

**read more**

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

Posted in Science | Tagged discovered, eruption, massive, moons, side, volcanic | Leave a reply

The Unimaginable Increase in Turbulence During Flight: The Surprising Explanation

Posted on November 23, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

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Turbulence is a common occurrence during flights and can sometimes be dangerous. It can result in emergency landings and even fatalities.

In May 2024, a flight from London to Singapore had to make an emergency landing after encountering severe turbulence over Myanmar. Sadly, one passenger died, and many others were hospitalized.

Shortly after this incident, another flight from Doha to Dublin experienced turbulence, leading to several passengers being hospitalized. These incidents raise concerns about the frequency and severity of turbulence.

Turbulence is typically caused by sudden changes in airflow due to various factors like storm clouds, fronts, and air movement over mountains. Pilots can often anticipate and avoid these known forms of turbulence.

However, clear-air turbulence, which occurs without warning due to speed differences between air masses, poses a more significant risk. This type of turbulence is invisible and challenging to detect, making it particularly dangerous for passengers and crew.

Experts predict that turbulence will increase with climate change, with clear-sky turbulence already on the rise. Studies show a significant increase in wind shear and severe turbulence on common flight routes, with projections indicating a further rise in turbulence incidents in the coming years.

While the risk of turbulence-related injuries remains relatively low, it is essential for passengers to always wear their seat belts during flights. This simple precaution can reduce the likelihood of injuries during turbulent conditions.

If you have any questions or concerns about turbulence or climate change’s impact on air travel, feel free to contact us via email at questions@sciencefocus.com or reach out to us on social media.

For more intriguing science facts and information, visit our website for engaging content.

*This article (by Dominic Hamilton in London) addresses the impact of climate change on turbulence during flights*.

**For more updates and interesting science content, follow us on social media:** **Facebook,** **Twitter,** **Instagram**

**Stay informed with our fun facts and engaging science articles!**

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Source: www.sciencefocus.com

Posted in Science | Tagged Explanation, flight, increase, surprising, turbulence, unimaginable | Leave a reply

47 million years ago, the world’s largest earthworm lizard roamed Earth

Posted on November 23, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

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**Paleontologists have described a new genus and species of the trogonophid Amphisbaenian (worm lizard) from fossil specimens discovered in Tunisia.**

rebuilding the life of *Terrastiodontosaurus Marcelo Sanchesi* Ready to prey on large snails of the Brimulidae family. Image credit: Jaime Chirinos.

*Terrastiodontosaurus Marcelo Sanchesi* They lived in what is now Africa during the Eocene epoch, about 47 million years ago.

The new species belongs to Trogonophidae, a small family of limbless carnivorous lizard-like reptiles belonging to the clade Amphisbaenia.

“Amphibians are a group of charismatic fossil squamates with bizarre morphological features and extreme anatomical variations,” said lead author Dr. Georgios Georgalis of the Institute of Animal Systemology and Evolution, Polish Academy of Sciences and his colleagues. said a colleague.

“In particular, its unique skeletal structure has fascinated and puzzled researchers since the 19th century.”

“Before the advent and widespread acceptance of phylogenetics, amphibians were considered to be the third major group of squamates, along with Serpenta and the paraphyletic 'Lacerthilla'.”

“However, recent phylogenetic analyzes place them as a sister group to lizards in the family Caricidae, and this topology is supported by both molecular evidence and a combination of morphological and molecular evidence. The name Lacertibaenia has also been proposed for the clade Amphisbaenia + Lacertidae.

“Amphibians have a relatively rich fossil record spanning the Cenozoic era in Europe and North America, in addition to several Neogene and Quaternary occurrences from South America and some from Africa. Paleogene, Neogene, and Quaternary productions, very few Neogene productions from the Arabian Peninsula, and very few Neogene occurrences from southwest Asia. is. ”

“Trogonophidae is a fairly distinctive group of amphibians that is today distributed across northern and north-central Africa (including Socotra Island in Yemen) and the Middle East,” the researchers added.

“Currently, four extant genera are recognized. *Agamodon*, *Diplometopon*, *Pachykaramasu*, and the type genus, *Trogonophis*”

The most distinguishing feature of trogonophids is their hooked teeth, a feature found only among squamates in the otherwise Iguanian group Chronophytes. ”

“Trogonophids have other unique features among amphibians, including locomotion and burrowing patterns, shoulder girdle or hemipenes morphology, chromosomes, spinal arrangement, lack of caudal autodissection, and triangular cross-section. It also has features.

some specimens *Terrastiodontosaurus Marcelo Sanchesi* It was discovered in a place where fossils of Jebel Chanbi Nature Park In Tunisia.

“Jebel Chambi National Park is located in the Kasserine region of central-western Tunisia,” the paleontologists said.

“Material for this study was obtained from a fossiliferous site (Chambi locus 1) consisting of fluvial-lacustrine deposits located at the base of the Chambi continental sequence.”

“These habitats support fish, amphibians, turtles, crocodiles, squamates, birds, and mammals such as bats, primates, euphorians, hyaenodonts, hyracoids, elephant shrews, marsupials, and mammals. It produces a diverse population of aquatic and terrestrial vertebrates, including rodents and sirenians.

*Terrastiodontosaurus Marcelo Sanchesi* At over 90 centimeters (35 inches) long, it was the largest amphibian ever known.

“Among the extant amphibian fliers, *Amphisbaena Alba* is the largest species, reaching a maximum total length of 81 centimeters (32 inches) and a skull length of more than 3.1 centimeters (1.2 inches), the researchers said.

Virtually all modern amphibians are burrowing animals and rarely appear on the surface outside of underground environments.

Nevertheless, certain features *Terrastiodontosaurus Marcelo Sanchesi* They seem to contradict this natural history pattern and instead suggest that ancient species likely lived on the surface of the earth.

This is further supported by the extreme size. *Terrastiodontosaurus Marcelo Sanchesi* which makes underground habits less likely to occur.

“*Terrastiodontosaurus Marcelo Sanchesi* “This is a significant contribution to the fossil record of the hitherto little-known African Amphisbaenia, making it only the fifth species to be named extinct on the African continent,” the scientists concluded. .

“Furthermore, the new material from Chambi further adds to the extremely poor fossil record of the Trogonophidae.”

Regarding new species, paper this week, *Zoological journal of the Linnean Society*.

_____

Georgios L. Georgalis *others*. 2024. The world's largest earthworm lizard: a new giant trogonophid (Squamata: Amphisbaenia) with extreme dental adaptations from the Eocene of Chambi, Tunisia. *Zoological journal of the Linnean Society* 202 (3): zlae133;doi: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlae133

Source: www.sci.news

Posted in Science | Tagged earth, earthworm, largest, lizard, million, roamed, worlds, years | Leave a reply

Scientists successfully capture the first baleen whale for hearing study

Posted on November 23, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

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Scientists recently performed a groundbreaking test on a baleen whale to assess its hearing abilities. This controversial step is bringing scientists closer to understanding how the largest and most intelligent creatures on Earth perceive the world.

In 2023, researchers captured two young minke whales off the coast of Norway, attached electrodes to their skin using suction cups, and measured their brain waves while playing tones at various frequencies. The young whales were both over 12 feet long and weighed around one ton each.

The findings of the research, published in Science on Thursday, surprised whale researchers by suggesting that whales have the ability to hear much higher frequencies than previously thought, exceeding the hearing capabilities of most mammals, including humans.

Dorian Hauser, the study’s lead author and director of conservation biology at the National Marine Mammal Foundation, described the discovery as “a little shocking.” He explained that whales have ultrasonic hearing, likely to detect killer whales, their primary predators, as they hunt prey using echolocation signals in a similar frequency range.

The startling revelation comes at a time of increasing concern over the impact of ocean noise from sources like naval sonar, oil and gas exploration, and shipping traffic, which can alter marine mammal behavior, cause hearing loss, and even lead to death. This new information may lead to revising regulations under the Marine Mammal Protection Act and restricting certain activities.

Susan Parks, a biology professor at Syracuse University, stated, “High-frequency sound from ocean activities has not typically been considered a threat to baleen whales, but this may now need to be reevaluated,” as mentioned in the study.

The research concluded a longstanding disagreement in the whale research community. Previously, baleen whales were never captured for hearing tests due to safety concerns for both the whales and researchers, given their large size.

Certain scientists and activists opposed the four-year Minke Whale Hearing Project, fearing the whales could experience stress and even mortality during brief captivity. The project faced criticism, with organizations like Whale and Dolphin Conservation advocating against it in an open letter to the Norwegian government.

The hearing abilities of the largest whale species on Earth have long been a mystery due to the limitations of studying these massive creatures in captivity. However, through innovative methods like the Minke Whale Hearing Project, researchers are making strides in understanding how these animals experience the world through sound.

Brandon Southall, a scientist involved in developing standards for ocean sound exposure, believes that the research could influence future regulations to protect marine mammals from harmful underwater noise sources. He emphasized the importance of conducting such studies carefully and professionally to guide conservation efforts.

While the Minke Whale Hearing Project is currently on hold, researchers hope to continue the exploration of these fascinating creatures’ hearing abilities should further funding become available.

Source: www.nbcnews.com

Posted in Science | Tagged Baleen, capture, hearing, scientists, study, successfully, whale | Leave a reply

There is no link between vaccines and autism. Can you explain further?

Posted on November 23, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s false claims linking autism to childhood immunizations have led to President-elect Donald Trump’s selection of him to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. As a result, it is undergoing new scrutiny. Budget is $1.7 trillion. He oversees research into both autism and vaccines.

The myth that autism is caused by childhood vaccines — proposed by a British doctor in 1998 He was later banned from practicing medicine In the UK — thoroughly exposed. hundreds of studies Vaccine found to be safe. The World Health Organization estimates that over the past 50 years, vaccinations have 154 million lives saved all over the world.

President Kennedy, who has espoused many health-related conspiracy theories, said the number of people diagnosed with autism has increased significantly in recent decades, from an estimated 1 in 150 in 2000 to 1 in 36 today. Vaccines are cited as an explanation for the rapid increase in cases among humans. Research shows that many of them increase This is due to increased awareness. and screening About the condition. redefining autism The spectrum includes milder symptoms that were not recognized in previous years. The same goes for advances in diagnostic technology.

“For far too long, the anti-vaccination movement has exploited families of autistic people, promoting a market for pseudoscientific treatments that don’t provide the answers they’re looking for and can expose autistic people to real harm.” ,” said Ari Nieman, co-founder of the nonprofit Autism Self-Advocacy Network and assistant professor of health policy and management at Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “An even less credible conspiracy theory linking autism and vaccines is not the answer.”

Timothy Caulfield, director of research at Canada’s University of Alberta Health Law Institute, who studies health misinformation, said people are more susceptible to diseases than to disabling diseases, whose causes are complex and not fully understood. He said people are often inclined to believe conspiracy theories about illnesses such as autism. obvious cause.

For example, people seem less likely to speculate about long-known alternative explanations for Down syndrome, which causes intellectual disability. Caused by extra copies of chromosome 21.

“It’s really unfortunate because there are families out there who are vulnerable.” [of people with autism] These are the people who need our help,” said Judith Miller, clinical psychologist, senior scientist and training director at the Autism Research Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “Every dollar and hour spent debunking a conspiracy theory is a dollar and hour spent understanding how to help families.”

**complex conditions**

Manish Arora, a professor of environmental medicine and climate science at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, said it’s difficult to pinpoint the cause of autism because it’s not a single disorder.

“Autism is a spectrum, not one narrow disease,” Arora says. “So many things come under one umbrella.”

People diagnosed with autism often similar strengths and assignment, “There are many pathways to autism, and there are many symptoms of autism,” Miller said.

Scientists have discovered a variety of risk factors for autism – most of which are exists before birth — But there is no single cause for neurological and developmental conditions. influence the way people interact Communicate, learn, and act with others.

Many traits that are sometimes seen in people with autism (for example, sensitivity to loud noises or difficulty interpreting social cues) are also found in people who have not been diagnosed with autism. Arora, founder and CEO of a start-up company researching biomarkers for autism and other neurological disorders, said doctors can diagnose autism based on a person’s behavior and that they can detect the coronavirus. Point out that there is no simple test for autism like there is for autism or diabetes.

Finding the cause of infections such as the flu, which is caused by the influenza virus, is much easier.

Researchers continue to study factors that influence the development of autistic traits, but “one thing we know that does not cause autism is vaccines,” says the University of California, Los Angeles said Katherine Lord, a psychologist and researcher at the Center for Autism Research and Treatment. Geffen School of Medicine.

**genetic vulnerability**

Doctors have long known that genes play a large role in autism, just because it can run in families. For example, in identical twins who share all their DNA, if one twin is autistic, the other will usually be autistic as well. For fraternal twins who share about half of their DNA, if one fraternal twin has autism, the chance that the other will also have autism ranges from 53% to 67%. According to the analysis of research studies.

Miller said scientists have identified more than 100 genes associated with autism, and 60 to 80 percent of autism cases are thought to be genetically involved.

“The genetics of autism are better understood than ever before,” said Dr. Gregory Sejas, medical director of the Autism Clinical Center and Fragile X Clinic at the University of Washington School of Medicine. “We are making breakthrough research into the known genetic causes of autism.”

However, it is clear that genes cannot explain all cases of autism.

Autism is very different from conditions such as sickle cell anemia or cystic fibrosis, which are caused by a single gene. Scientists believe that a combination of genetic vulnerability and environmental exposure causes people to develop autistic traits, Lord said.

“People are discovering so many different genetic patterns associated with autism, but none of them are exclusively associated with autism, and none of them are always associated with autism. It is not related to,” Lord said.

For example, Fragile X syndrome (caused by a mutated gene on the X chromosome) is the most common known cause Autistic. But only a small percentage of children with the gene mutation actually develop autism, Miller said. This mutation predisposes some people to developing autistic traits, while others with the same mutation are protected by as-yet-unidentified protective factors, making them less likely to develop autism. You may not develop the characteristics.

Some people blame the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine for causing autism. This is because this condition often develops around 12 to 15 months of age, the same time infants receive vaccinations. But Miller says, “Most genetic conditions that affect our lives and health are not obvious at birth. Symptoms and characteristics may not appear until much later, but the genetic code remains with us. It is with you.”

**Prenatal vulnerability**

Many of the known risk factors for autistic traits occur before or during birth, Arora said. babies experience complications at birth Things like having the umbilical cord wrapped around your neck increase the risk of autism.

So is the baby born early It’s probably because something happened in the womb.

Children are more likely to be diagnosed with autism If you have an older father And if you have an older mother, that’s a possibility, Miller said. It’s unclear whether there is something biological about older parents that increases the risk of autism in their children, or whether socioeconomic issues play a role. Older parents may be more likely to have their child diagnosed with autism because they have better access to medical care.

Studies show that maternal health affects a child’s risk of autism in different ways. were exposed to high levels of air pollution or developed a serious infection influenza and pneumonia during pregnancy.

Neiman, of the Autism Self-Advocacy Network, said she is not opposed to basic biological research into autism and its causes, but that such research is a challenge that autistic people face in their daily lives. said it does little to overcome barriers.

He points out that only 8.4% of the $419 million spent on autism research in the United States has been spent. Dedicated to support and service For people with autism.

“We need an autism research agenda that reflects the real priorities of autistic people and our families: lifelong support and community inclusion.” he said.

Source: www.nbcnews.com

Posted in Science | Tagged autism, explain, link, vaccines | Leave a reply

Ancient Martian hydrothermal fluids leave a mark on meteorite crystals

Posted on November 22, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Reply

Mars meteorite called Black Beauty

Carl B. Agee (University of New Mexico)

Crystals within a Martian meteorite suggest Mars may have had abundant hydrothermal water when the rock formed 4.45 billion years ago.

The rock, called Black Beauty, was blown into space by an impact on Mars' surface and eventually crashed into the Sahara desert.

We already know a lot about Mars from the study of a meteorite discovered in Morocco in 2011, officially known as Northwest Africa 7034.

aaron cabosy Researchers at Curtin University in Perth, Australia, have been studying the tiny fragments, which contain zircon crystals 50 micrometers in diameter, for years.

Kavosie describes Black Beauty as “a rock that looks like a trash can.” Because it was formed by hundreds of pieces smashed together. “This is a great buffet of Martian history, with a mix of very old and very young rocks,” he says. “But much of the debris it contains belongs to some of the oldest rocks on Mars.”

The fragments studied by Kavosy and his team had crystallized in magma beneath Mars' surface. When they tested the zircons, they also found, unusually, that the elements iron, aluminum, and sodium were arranged in thin, onion-like layers.

“We wondered where else could we find elements like this in zircon crystals,” Kabosie says. The answer, he says, lies in South Australia's gold ore deposits. The zircon crystals there were nearly identical to those from Mars, including the same unusual combination of additional elements.

“This type of zircon is known to form only in places where hydrothermal processes or hydrothermal systems are active during igneous activity,” Kabosie says. “The hot water facilitates the transport of iron, aluminum, and sodium into the crystals as they grow layer by layer.”

Zircon has been exposed to multiple large-scale traumas, including the impact of an ancient collision and then another meteorite that hit the surface of Mars 5 to 10 million years ago and blasted Black Beauty into space have experienced. Despite these violent events, the rock's crystal structure is still intact at the atomic scale.

The lack of radiation damage means the extra elements were part of the crystal from the beginning, rather than being contaminated later, Kavosy said.

Eva Scherer Researchers at Stanford University in California believe that if this rock really formed in the presence of hydrothermal fluid and magma beneath the surface of Mars, water vapor entered the Martian atmosphere before rivers and lakes formed. This suggests that it may have been released.

“We're at a very old time, 4.5 billion years, when Mars was formed,” Scherrer said. “So this would be the earliest evidence of water behavior on Mars.”

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

Posted in Science | Tagged ancient, crystals, Fluids, hydrothermal, leave, Mark, martian, meteorite | Leave a reply

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