Dogs Have a Deep Understanding of Words and Their Meanings.

Posted on March 22, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

dogs can remember the names of things

Golodenkov/Shutterstock

Records of dogs’ brain activity show that dogs seem to understand that words refer to specific objects.

Some dogs can retrieve a variety of objects on command, but few do well in such tests in the lab. Additionally, it is unclear whether dogs understand words as names of objects rather than instructions.

To explore this question further, Marianna Boros Researchers at Eötvös Lorand University in Budapest, Hungary, tested 18 dogs from a wide range of breeds, including border collies, toy poodles and Labrador retrievers.

Owners selected five objects that were familiar to each dog. In the test, they said the name of an object and showed the dog either the named object or another object.

Each dog’s brain waves were monitored using electroencephalography (EEG) to see if there was a difference in activity compared to when the word and object were the same, such as when the dog’s owner said “ball” and showed a stick. Ta.

“The idea was that if dogs understood the meaning of words, their brains would respond differently when presented with matching objects than when presented with mismatched objects,” Boros says.

The researchers found that the brainwave signals were different when the objects did not match, and that the effect was stronger for words that the individual dogs were familiar with. This is similar to results seen in humans and suggests that dogs know that certain words represent certain objects.

“The most important takeaway from this study is not only that non-humans have the ability to understand words referentially, but also that this ability appears to be present in dogs in general as well,” Boros said. says. “This study shows that dogs may understand more than they show.”

No one breed of dog seemed to exhibit better language skills than the other, Boros said.

susan hazel Researchers from the University of Adelaide in Australia say their study adds to our knowledge of dog cognition.

“I think both dogs understand more than we realize,” says Hazel. “This study shows that dogs seem to have mental representations of words they know, such as ball. This shows how dogs understand some words. This is no surprise at all to most dog owners.

On the other hand, many dog owners anthropomorphize their pets, ascribing emotions and understanding abilities to them that don’t exist, she says.

“Canine cognition is currently one of the most researched areas in the world,” says Hazell. “I love all the research about dogs, but I’d also like to learn more about the other animals we live closely with: cats, rabbits, horses.”

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

Revolutionary Anti-Aging Neurotechnology: The innovative device designed to maintain youthful brain function

Posted on March 22, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Living a healthier life can be achieved in many ways. Simple activities like daily walks, healthy eating, and brain-boosting puzzles like Sudoku can keep your mind and body active. For a unique approach, consider trying neuromodulation, which involves sending electric shocks to the brain.

Neuromodulation is an innovative method that uses a stimulator placed on the head to deliver electrical shocks directly to the nervous system. This non-invasive technique offers numerous health benefits and has gained traction as a cutting-edge technology for enhancing well-being.

The concept of neuromodulation has been around for some time, but companies like Parasin and gamma core have reignited interest in recent years. These companies claim to improve mental performance and overall health with their devices that can be used conveniently at home.

Research from reputable institutions like UCL, Harvard University, and University College London supports the effectiveness of neuromodulation. Even tech entrepreneurs like Brian Johnson have shown interest in this technology.

What is neuromodulation and how does it work?

Neuromodulation is a technique that alters neural activity by delivering electrical signals to specific areas. Imagine it as a dimmer switch that can increase or decrease nerve or brain activity. This method can excite or inhibit nerves to alleviate pain and modify neural patterns associated with various conditions like epilepsy and Parkinson’s disease.

Companies like Parasym use “auricular vagal neuromodulation therapy” to deliver electrical signals through the ear to target the vagus nerve, which plays a crucial role in connecting the brain, heart, and digestive system.

How technology can slow aging

Neuromodulation can help slow down the aging process by combating chronic inflammation, enhancing cognitive function, and improving cardiovascular health. Research shows promising results in addressing age-related issues like Alzheimer’s disease and heart conditions.

While neuromodulation offers benefits like improved heart rate variability and reduced fatigue and depression, it remains in the early stages of development. Safety concerns and experimental results underscore the need for further research and validation.

Is neuromodulation safe?

Neuromodulation has evolved since its inception in the 1960s, with modern devices providing safer options for users. Implantable devices offer more effective treatment but come with higher risks, including infections and other complications.

Non-invasive wearable devices like those from Parasym are considered safer, with minor side effects like skin irritation being the main concern. These devices require consistent use to deliver optimal results, making them a more accessible but less durable alternative to implantable devices.

While neuromodulation technology shows promise in improving health and well-being, users should weigh the benefits against the costs and potential risks before investing in these innovative devices.

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

Queen ants have a valid explanation for consuming their young.

Posted on March 22, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

A colony of black garden ants in a nest with several eggs, pupae, larvae and a large queen bee

Nick Bruning/Shutterstock

When a black ant queen notices that her young are sick, she eats them before the disease spreads to other parts of the nest.

Cannibal queens may not win the “Mother of the Year” award, but research suggests this strategy could be an effective way to protect the kingdom. The findings provide insight into the evolution of “filial cannibalism,'' the practice of parents consuming their children.

Ants and other colony-dwelling social insects can prevent the spread of disease by forcing workers to self-isolate when they become sick and by eliminating infected nestmates. These “social immunity” obligations are well known, he writes. Flynn Bizzell and christopher pull at Oxford University. But since the ant queen starts colonies alone, how does she protect herself from disease as she builds and grows her nest?

To find out, Bizell and Puru collected newly mated black ants (Lasius Niger) took the queen to the laboratory. Once the ants had laid eggs and started building nests, the researchers removed the larvae from the queen and exposed some to deadly ant spores. Metahydium A fungus that infects wild ant nests. After a period of time during which these larvae developed a potentially fatal infection, the researchers returned all of the larvae to their mothers, even though they were not yet contagious.

The queen ate 92 percent of the diseased larvae, but only 6 percent of the larvae were uninfected, indicating that the queen was able to detect infection and intervene. Failure to catch the infection can have dire consequences. When the researchers exposed the colonies to the carcasses of highly infectious larvae that had sprouted spore-producing fungi, all the larvae died. And even after spraying the carcasses with an acidic antibacterial toxin, only 20 percent of the queens survived.

Despite these risks, queen bees that feed on infected larvae appear to avoid harm. Researchers suggest that queen bees may be ingesting their own antimicrobial toxins to make their intestines hostile to fungal spores. Based on this conclusion, they Observation of worker ants before they swallow the poison The team then observed the queen bee tending to the openings of her venom glands.

“If the queen gets infected and dies, the colony dies as well,” he says. sebastian stockmeyer She is at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, as she is the only one with the ability to reproduce. Therefore, it makes sense that evolved strategies to deal with disease would emphasize queen survival.

There are other benefits to eating sick babies as well. The researchers found that queens that ate sick offspring laid 55% more eggs than queens that did not, suggesting that they recycled these caloric resources. The researchers argue that this benefit and the elimination of disease risk could indicate how filial cannibalism evolves in some species.

Joel Meunier Researchers at the University of Tours in France believe that offspring that hatch after their older siblings are eaten may have immune systems that better protect against fungal infections. If so, proving this may reveal the “double benefit” of filial cannibalism for both mother and offspring.

This finding suggests that there is overlap in the behaviors needed to care for young and prevent disease in young colonies. As a result, Bizell and Pule argue that workers' disease prevention behaviors may have evolved from common parental care found in many types of insects.

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

Rare stargazing event allows naked-eye view of Nova explosion

Posted on March 22, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

An uncommon cosmic eruption is set to happen in the Milky Way galaxy soon, resembling the appearance of a “new” star in the night sky for a brief period.

Referred to as Nova, this event presents a unique sky-watching opportunity for individuals in the northern hemisphere. NASA states that such explosions occur infrequently in our galaxy.

This stellar eruption will take place in the T Coronae Borealis star system, situated 3,000 light-years away from Earth. This system consists of two stars, one being a deceased star, or “white dwarf,” orbiting near a red giant star that is nearing the end of its life cycle. According to NASA, our solar system’s sun will face a similar fate.

In systems like T Coronae Borealis, the proximity between the two stars causes material from the red giant to overflow onto the white dwarf’s surface over time. This leads to a buildup of pressure and heat, culminating in an eruption.

“The buildup of material on the white dwarf’s surface results in increased temperature and pressure until it eventually explodes. It’s a runaway reaction,” explained Bradley Schaefer, a retired physics and astronomy professor from Louisiana State University.

Schaefer likened a nova explosion to a hydrogen bomb detonating in space, creating a visible fireball from Earth’s perspective. (Not to be confused with a supernova, which occurs when a massive star collapses and dies.)

At the peak of the eruption, it should be visible to the naked eye, making it easy to observe from your backyard, Schaefer stated.

Astronomers anticipate the nova explosion happening between now and September. The last eruption from this system occurred in 1946, with the next expected eruption in about 80 years.

Astronomers worldwide are monitoring the North Star system for activity. If an eruption is detected, it could quickly reach a brightness similar to Polaris in less than 24 hours, offering a spectacular view. The explosion might remain visible to the naked eye for several days before fading.

According to NASA, skywatchers could potentially spot the eruption for around a week after dark using binoculars.

NASA

Typically too faint to be seen with the naked eye, T-corona systems can be identified by looking for the constellation or northern cap. This constellation forms a small semicircular arc between Hercules and Boes.

Schaefer, who extensively researched the T Coronae system, encourages catching a glimpse of this incredible phenomenon.

“This system has a recurrence time scale of less than 100 years, with most cycles lasting around 1,000 years,” he stated.

In a recent publication by the Astronomical History Journal, Schaefer unveiled two previous “long-lost” Ti Coronae Borealis eruptions from historical records, observed in 1217 by a German monk and in 1787 by English astronomer Francis Wollaston.

Schaefer shared a historical anecdote, recalling the monks near Augsburg, Germany, describing such an eruption as a significant yearly event, even naming it “signum mirabile,” which translates to ‘great omen’ in Latin. It was considered a favorable omen.

Yet, predicting the exact viewing period for this “wonderful omen” presents a challenge.

“This event could happen tonight,” Schaefer stated. “Most likely in the next few months, possibly by the end of summer.”

Source: www.nbcnews.com

Stunning Images from Utah’s Annular Solar Eclipse Last Year

Posted on March 22, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Daniel J. Stein and Andrew McCarthy

This mesmerizing shot of the perfect alignment of the sun and full moon over Utah's Valley of the Gods last October is raising expectations for next month's total solar eclipse in North America.

This image, a collaboration between photographers Andrew McCarthy and Daniel Stein, shows an annular solar eclipse in which an outer “ring of fire” forms because the moon is too far from Earth to completely cover the sun. I am. The shot is the result of digitally stitching together thousands of images, combining Stein's landscape photography skills with McCarthy's experience capturing images of the sun.

After months of planning, the pair set up cameras and telescopes at carefully selected desert locations to capture the key shots, taking into account weather patterns, eclipse duration, and terrain features. did.

The image was published by Social media March 8th, exactly one month before a total solar eclipse, in which the moon completely covers the sun, will pass over North America. It will blanket much of the continent in darkness or completely, from Canada to the United States and Mexico. The path of the total eclipse will be much wider than the last similar solar eclipse in the region, covering almost 200 kilometers compared to about 115 kilometers in 2017.

“It’s easy to take the sun for granted, but [sun and moon] When combined during a solar eclipse, they are breathtakingly beautiful. I feel that incorporating landscape elements adds a sense of grounding to the images and allows the viewer to connect more deeply with the work,” says Stein.

New Scientist Eclipse Special
Find news and commentary about the North American total solar eclipse on April 8th. newscientist.com/article-topic/solar-eclipse-2024

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

Male and female spiders resembling a flower.

Posted on March 22, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

A brown male Thomisus guangxicus Spider (center) in a Hoya pandurata flower with a pale amber female just below it.

Wu Shimao

A species of spider discovered in China may have evolved a male-female pair that looks like a flower, allowing it to blend into the background.

“This may be the world's first case of cooperative imitation,” said Shi-Mao Wu of Yunnan University, who observed it with colleagues. Jiang Yun Gao.

Spiders of the family Tomicidae, also known as crab spiders, are ambush predators that usually live on or near flowers.

They are known for their excellent camouflage abilities that prevent them from being detected by prey or predators. Some species can even change color to match the color of the flower they sit on.

Wu and Gao were in the rainforest of southwestern China's Yunnan province when a male crab spider attacked them. Tomysus guanxicus Something caught Mr. Wu's attention.the spider was sitting on the flower Hoya pandurataa plant that lives on ancient tea trees in the forest.

“The first time I observed a male spider, I didn't see a female spider,” Wu said. Only when I got closer did I notice that the male spider was lying on the female's back. “They tricked my eyes really well,” he says.

Researchers hypothesize that the small, dark-colored males mimic pistils (female organs in the center of flowers), while the females mimic fused petals.

Researchers say that only when individual spiders of both sexes come together will the flowers match in appearance.

but, Gabriele Greco A professor at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences is not convinced. “It's very difficult to determine the nature of the observed behavior,” he says.

In fact, in many spider species it is common for the male to stand over the female during mating. “A simpler explanation might be simple interactions related to courtship and mating,” Greco says.

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

Aurora-like radio emissions detected above sunspots by solar astronomers

Posted on March 22, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Astronomers using the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array have observed long-lasting aurora-like radio bursts above sunspots. This discovery could help us better understand the behavior of our own star, as well as distant stars that emit similar radio emissions.

excellent other. We discovered radio bursts above sunspots that are similar to the radio emissions from the aurora borealis on Earth. The pink and purple stripes in this figure represent radio wave radiation, with high frequency radio signals near the sunspots, pink being high frequency and purple being low frequency radio signals. The thin lines represent the magnetic field lines above the sunspot. Sunspots are dark areas at the bottom of the sun. Image credit: Sijie Yu, New Jersey Institute of Technology.

“This sunspot's radio emission represents the first detection of its kind,” said Dr. Shijie Yu, an astronomer at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

“Such radio bursts were detected about 40,000 kilometers (25,000 miles) above sunspots (relatively cool, dark, magnetically active regions of the Sun) that had previously been observed only on planets and other stars. It was done.”

On other planets like Earth, Jupiter, and Saturn, auroras sparkle in the night sky when solar particles get caught up in the planet's magnetic field and are pulled toward the poles where the magnetic field lines converge.

As the particles accelerate toward the poles, they generate powerful radio emissions at frequencies around a few hundred kilohertz that collide with atoms in the atmosphere and emit light as auroras.

The research team's analysis shows that radio bursts on sunspots likely occur in a similar way, when high-energy electrons are captured and accelerated by magnetic fields converging on sunspots. It suggests.

However, unlike Earth's aurora borealis, the radio bursts from sunspots occur at much higher frequencies, from hundreds of thousands of kilohertz to approximately one million kilohertz.

“This is a direct result of the sunspot's magnetic field being thousands of times stronger than Earth's magnetic field,” Yu says.

Similar radio emissions have been previously observed from several types of low-mass stars.

This discovery raises the possibility that auroral-like radio emissions originate from large spots on these stars, in addition to previously proposed polar auroras.

“This discovery excites us as it challenges existing concepts of solar radio phenomena and opens new avenues for exploring magnetic activity both in the Sun and in distant star systems. ” said Dr. Yu.

“NASA's ever-growing heliophysics fleet is well suited to continue investigating the source regions of these radio bursts,” said NASA Goddard Space Flight Center heliophysicist and solar radio researcher. said Dr. Nachimthuk Gopalswamy.

“For example, the Solar Dynamics Observatory continuously monitors the active regions of the Sun, which could be causing this phenomenon.”

In the meantime, the authors plan to review other solar radio bursts to see if any resemble the aurora-like radio bursts they discovered.

“We aim to determine whether some previously recorded solar outbursts may be examples of this newly identified emission,” Dr. Yu said.

of findings appear in the diary natural astronomy.

_____

S.Yu other. 2024. Long-lasting aurora-like radio emission detected over a sunspot. Nat Astron 8, 50-59; doi: 10.1038/s41550-023-02122-6

Source: www.sci.news

The Amazon River was once home to a massive freshwater dolphin.

Posted on March 22, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Pebanista Yacluna are the closest living relatives River dolphin of South Asia (genus Platanista).

artistic reconstruction Pebanista Yacluna. Image credit: Jaime Blanc.

Pebanista Yacluna About 16 million years ago, it lived in the Miocene Amazon of Peru.

The ancient dolphin was estimated to be 2.8–3.5 m (9.2–11.5 ft) long, making it the largest freshwater dolphin species. dentate (Dolphins, porpoises, and all other toothed whales) are known.

Such large sizes have also been recorded in other proto-Amazonian inhabitants (i.e. fish and crocodiles) and may be due to the greater availability of resources in the proto-Amazonian ecosystem.

“16 million years ago, the Peruvian Amazon looked very different from what it looks like today,” said Dr. Aldo Benitez Palomino, a paleontologist at the University of Zurich.

“Most of the Amazon plain was covered by large lake and swamp systems called pebas.”

“This landscape included aquatic, semi-aquatic, and terrestrial ecosystems (swamps, floodplains, etc.) and spanned what is now Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, and Brazil.”

“When the Pebas system began to give way to what is now the Amazon about 10 million years ago, the new habitat caused Pebanista Yaclunaprey disappears, and the giant dolphin is driven to extinction. ”

“This opened up an ecological niche that is used by relatives of today's Amazon river dolphins (genus Delphinus). inia), and with the rise of new cetaceans such as modern dolphins, they were on the brink of extinction in the oceans. ”

holotype skull Pebanista Yacluna. Image credit: Benites-Palomino other., doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adk6320.

Pebanista Yacluna was a member of platanist ideasa group of dolphins that were common in oceans around the world from 24 million to 16 million years ago.

“We discovered that size is not the only thing to note,” said Dr. Aldo Benitez Palomino, a paleontologist at the University of Zurich and the Natural History Museum of the National University of San Marcos. Told.

“With this fossil record excavated in the Amazon, we expected to find a living relative of the Amazon river dolphin, but instead we found the Amazon river dolphin's closest relative. Pebanista Yacluna It is a river dolphin from South Asia. ”

“Pebanista Yacluna and Platanista Both share a highly developed facial crown, a specialized bone structure associated with echolocation, the ability to emit high-frequency sounds and “see” by listening to their echoes, which is useful for hunting. relies heavily on this. ”

“Echolocation and biosonar are even more important for river dolphins because the waters they live in are very murky, which impedes their vision,” said Dr. Gabriel Aguirre Fernandez, a paleontologist at the University of Zurich.

“The elongated snout with many teeth suggests that: Pebanista Yacluna Like other species of river dolphins today, they eat fish. ”

large adult skull Pebanista Yacluna It was discovered in 2018 at an exposed stratigraphic level along the Rio Napo in Loreto, Peru.

“After 20 years of research in South America, we have discovered several giant dolphins in this region, but this is the first of its kind,” said Dr. Marcelo Sánchez Vilagra, a paleontologist at the University of Zurich. .

“We were particularly intrigued by its unique and deep biogeographical history.”

team's paper Published in the Journal on March 20, 2024 scientific progress.

_____

Aldo Benitez Palomino other. 2024. The largest freshwater toothed whale: A relative of the South Asian river dolphin that lives in the primitive Amazon. scientific progress 10(12); doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adk6320

Source: www.sci.news

Sea buckthorn berries discovered to be packed with natural antioxidants in recent study.

Posted on March 22, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

berry Sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) The Canadian-grown fruit shows promising health benefits driven by its rich and diverse polyphenol profile and should be considered for further commercial expansion as a bioactive-loaded superfruit.

Sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides). Image credit: Svdmolen / CC BY-SA 3.0 Certificate.

Sea buckthorn is a deciduous, spiny plant that grows along the coasts of northwestern Europe and in temperate regions of central Asia.

Its fruits and leaves are widely used Sea buckthorn oil has nutritional, medicinal, and functional properties and is rich in omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, vitamins E, B, A, and polyphenols.

The plant was introduced in Canada in the early 2000s following research into the crop's commercial potential by government agencies.

“Sea buckthorn is a unique crop with great potential for use,” said Dr. Renan Danielski. student at the University of Newfoundland.

“Popular in Asia and northwestern Europe, there is an opportunity to replicate this success in North America by leveraging the unique qualities of locally grown varieties.”

Danielski and Professor Fereydoun Shahidi of Memorial University of Newfoundland were motivated by the experimental status and limited commercialization of sea buckthorn in North America to date, and research on the antioxidant properties of Canadian cultivars. We set out to characterize the unique composition of polyphenols, a type of chemical compound.

“Understanding how our varieties compare globally will help us communicate our benefits to consumers and establish our presence in the market,” Professor Shahidi said.

The findings highlight the presence of key polyphenolic compounds in sea buckthorn pomace and seeds, each boasting potential health benefits ranging from cardiovascular protection to anti-inflammatory properties. .

Importantly, geographic factors influence the polyphenol profile of sea buckthorn berries, and researchers found that several different compounds with enhanced bioactivity are present only in sea buckthorn varieties grown in Newfoundland. is that we have identified.

Additionally, sea buckthorn extract has demonstrated promise in vitro It has anti-diabetic and anti-obesity potential, paving the way for further research into its mechanisms and potential therapeutic applications.

“This is a first step toward understanding how sea buckthorn polyphenols can modulate our physiology in beneficial ways,” Danielski said.

“Future research should focus on understanding the mechanisms behind those effects and further experiments using animal models and humans.”

“If these effects are confirmed, in vivoWe can imagine using sea buckthorn polyphenols for therapeutic and pharmacological purposes to help prevent and treat diabetes, obesity, and many other conditions. ”

of result Published in Journal of Food and Agriculture Science.

_____

Renan Danielski & Fereydoun Shahidi. Phenolic composition and biological activity of sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides L.) Fruits and Seeds: Non-Conventional Sources of Natural Antioxidants in North America. Food and Agriculture Science Journal, published online on February 15, 2024. doi: 10.1002/jsfa.13386

Source: www.sci.news

Does biological sex impact cancer susceptibility?

Posted on March 22, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Cancer is the leading cause of death in humans, accounting for almost 13% of deaths worldwide. Global Health Observatory by the World Health Organization. Biological males (or those assigned male at birth) account for 56% of cancer-related deaths, while biological females (or those assigned female at birth) account for only 44%.

The researchers showed that these differences between biological sexes are not limited to mortality rates, but are also evident in cancer development, progression, and treatment. For example, in the United States, women have a higher risk of developing breast and thyroid cancers, while men are more likely to develop prostate, colon, and stomach cancers.

Doctors also found that women tend to have colorectal cancer more often on the right side of the body, while men tend to have colorectal cancer more often on the left side of the body. Doctors want to know how biological sex affects different aspects of cancer so they can develop treatments tailored to a patient’s gender.

A team of scientists from Adityunchanagiri Pharmaceutical University in Karnataka state, India recently reviewed research on the role of biological sex in cancer. They explained that because every cell in the human body is controlled by DNA, gender can influence cancer growth at the genetic, molecular, and hormonal levels. Every patient’s biological sex changes the types of hormones and enzymes they produce, as well as the way their bodies respond to and metabolize carcinogens.

Researchers have previously found that men and women have different immune responses to cancer and chemotherapy. Women tend to have stronger immune systems that respond more strongly to cancer than men. The researchers suggested that this discrepancy may explain why fewer women die from cancer.

They also looked at data from doctors treating cancer patients and showed that similar treatments for male and female patients with the same cancer diagnosis resulted in different levels of side effects. For example, female cancer patients experience higher levels of drug-induced toxicity, infection, nausea, and vomiting during treatment than male cancer patients. They found that some anti-cancer treatments can even cause women to develop diabetes.

The researchers concluded that cancer behaves differently in male and female patients. However, despite differences in immune responses and side effects, physicians are still unable to customize immunotherapy treatments for different patients based on their biological sex. They suggested that the typical “one size fits all” approach to cancer treatment could be better tailored to specific cancer patients.

They recommended that drug companies test how new drugs affect male and female cancer patients during clinical trials before the drugs are approved. They suggested that drug companies could use this data to better estimate how much medication male and female patients should take, or for how long. They proposed that treatments tailored to each patient’s biological sex could help doctors treat patients in a more efficient manner with minimal side effects.

Post views: 200

Source: sciworthy.com

Kuhl: Genetic Mutations Could Provide Protection Against Brain Diseases Linked to Cannibalism

Posted on March 22, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Cerebellum of a person suffering from kuru disease

Liberski PP (2013)

Genetic research in a very remote community in Papua New Guinea has revealed new insights into a brain disease that is spread when people eat dead relatives and has killed thousands of people over two decades.

Dotted with mountains, gorges, and fast-flowing rivers, Papua New Guinea’s Eastern Highlands province is extremely isolated from the rest of the world, and it wasn’t until the beginning of the 20th century that outsiders realized that about 1 million people lived there.

Some tribes known as the Fore practiced a form of cannibalism called “funeral feasts,” in which they consumed the bodies of their deceased relatives as part of their funeral rites. This could mean they ingested an abnormally folded protein called a prion, which can cause a fatal neurodegenerative condition called kuru associated with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). However, the local people believed that the Kuru phenomenon was caused by witchcraft. At least 2,700 Kuru deaths have been recorded in the eastern highlands.

Simon Mead Researchers at University College London examined the genomes of 943 people representing 68 villages and 21 language groups in the region. Although this region of Papua New Guinea covers just over 11,000 square kilometers, smaller than Jamaica, researchers say the different groups are as genetically different as the peoples of Finland and Spain, some 3,000 kilometers apart.

The study found that not everyone who attended the funeral died from the disease. Mead and his colleagues say it appears communities were beginning to develop a resistance to kuru, which led to tremors, loss of coordination, and, ultimately, death.

The study found that some of the elderly women who survived the feast had mutations in the gene encoding the prion protein, which likely conferred resistance to kuru disease.

By the 1950s, funeral feasts had become illegal, and the kuru epidemic began to subside, but visitors say that the number of women in some villages had dwindled because so many women had died from kuru. It pointed out. Mead said women and children are most susceptible to the disease, likely because they ate the brains of deceased relatives.

However, genetic evidence shows that despite fears of the disease, there was a large influx of women into Fora tribal areas, particularly in areas where the highest levels of kuru were present.

“We believe it is likely that the sexual prejudice caused by Kuru caused single men in Kuru-affected communities to look further afield for wives than usual because they were unable to find potential wives locally. “We will,” Meade said.

He said the team wants to understand what factors confer resistance to prion diseases such as CJD, which caused a severe epidemic in the UK in the 1990s.

“[Our work sets] “This is a site to detect genetic factors that may have helped the Fore people resist kuru,” Mead said. “Such resistance genes may suggest therapeutic targets.”

Ira Debson Researchers from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney, Australia, say the study provides new insight into the “rich and unique cultural, linguistic and genomic diversity” of the Eastern Highlands region.

“This is a demonstration of how genomics can be used to look almost back in time, reading the genetic signature of past epidemics and understanding how they have shaped today’s populations. It helps.”

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

UK reaches Sulfer dioxide from Icelandic volcanic eruption

Posted on March 22, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Lava erupts from a fissure near Grindavik, Iceland, on March 20th.

Associated Press/Alamy Stock Photo

A recent eruption on the Reykjanes Peninsula in Iceland released a huge plume of sulfur dioxide (SO₂) currently floating around Europe. Fortunately, no significant weather or health impacts are expected.

yes₂ On March 20 in the EU, the plume moved across Ireland and the United Kingdom towards Scandinavia. Copernicus atmospheric monitoring service I said it today. It is scheduled to arrive in the Baltic states, Poland and Russia on Friday.

A person working at the Blue Lagoon Resort on the Reykjanes Peninsula, Iceland was hospitalized March 20, after being exposed to high levels of SO.₂ gas. However, the plumes moving over Europe are far above the ground and do not affect the air quality below.

Say, “The plume is at a higher altitude.” Mark Purrington At Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service.

Last November, a gigantic fissure, 15 kilometers long and several kilometers deep, formed under part of the Reykjanes Peninsula. Magma that had been accumulating deeper was poured into it at the fastest rate ever recorded.

On December 18, lava began erupting along part of the fissure. So far it has erupted four times, and the most recent and largest eruption began on March 17th.

“SO plume”₂ All of Europe was created at an early stage [of the latest eruption]” Freistein Sigmundson At the University of Iceland in Reykjavik.

Freistein said the eruption continued as of the afternoon of March 21, although the flow slowed from its initial stages. “This eruption is different from previous ones,” he says. “It's longer than last time.”

Some volcanic eruptions release enough SO₂ Although it has the potential to affect the global climate, the Icelandic eruption is not on this scale. Parrington said the plume's duration is too short to affect the weather.

Unlike the 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajokull, which disrupted air traffic over Europe for about a week, the Reykjanes eruption is of a different type and is not expected to produce large amounts of volcanic ash.

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

First-ever pig kidney transplant performed on a living human

Posted on March 22, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

The kidney transplant surgery is the first of its kind in a living person.

Michelle Rose/Massachusetts General Hospital

Surgeons successfully transplanted a pig kidney into a 62-year-old man with end-stage renal disease. Recipient Richard Suleiman is recovering well and is expected to be discharged from the hospital soon, just a few days after surgery.

Is this your first pig kidney transplant?

This is the first time a pig kidney has been transplanted into a living human, marking a major milestone in the field of xenotransplantation, or transplanting animal organs into humans.

“This successful transplant is the culmination of decades of hard work by thousands of scientists and doctors.” Tatsuo Kawai At Massachusetts General Hospital statement. “Our hope is that this transplant approach will provide a lifeline to the millions of patients around the world suffering from kidney failure.”

However, strictly speaking, this is not the first time a kidney has been transplanted from a pig to a human. This surgery has been performed five times in the past, each time on a person declared brain dead and placed on life support. The most recent of these was conducted by Robert Montgomery and colleagues at New York University Langone Health in July 2023. The kidney continued to function for over a month with no signs of rejection or infection.

When was the surgery performed?

Kawai and his colleagues performed the surgery on March 16th. reported that the procedure lasted four hours, and shortly thereafter the kidneys began producing urine and the waste product creatinine. new york times. Suleiman was also able to stop dialysis, which is a further indication that his kidneys are functioning properly.

Where do pig kidneys come from?

The organs were donated by the pharmaceutical company EGenesis. The company breeds pigs that are genetically engineered to carry certain human genes and lack a specific set of pig genes that are harmful to humans. These genetic modifications reduce the chance of transplant rejection, where the immune system attacks the organ and causes it to malfunction. Suleiman is also being given a cocktail of immunosuppressants to further reduce this risk. So far, there are no signs of rejection and Suleiman is able to walk on his own. His doctors hope he will be discharged soon.

What do we know about the recipient?

Suleiman has type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and kidney disease. He had previously received a human kidney from a donor in December 2018. However, the organ showed signs of malfunctioning after about five years. He started dialysis in May last year, but complications arose, and he needed to go to the hospital every two weeks. This seriously affected his quality of life while awaiting his second transplant.

is more than 100,000 people in the US They are waiting for organ transplants, and 17 of them die every day. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the experimental transplant for Suleiman due to a lack of other treatment options.

“I saw it as a way not only to help me but also to give hope to the thousands of people who need transplants to survive,” Suleiman said in a statement.

Have xenotransplant surgeries involving other organs been performed?

Only two other people received xenotransplants, and both received genetically modified pig hearts. The first, a man named David Bennett, died two months later from complications believed to be caused by a swine virus called porcine cytomegalovirus. So scientists genetically inactivated a virus similar to the pig virus from which Suleiman's kidneys came.

The second recipient, a man named Lawrence Fawcett, died six weeks later from transplant rejection.

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

Organic Farms Impact Pesticide Usage on Nearby Conventional Farms

Posted on March 21, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

On organic farms, conventional farming practices appear to inadvertently cause more pesticides to be used in surrounding fields

Daniel Balderas/Shutterstock

Organic farmers dedicate their working lives to producing food with minimal use of pesticides, but by curbing the use of chemicals on their land, they can unknowingly damage their neighbor’s fence. may be causing a sharp increase in pesticide use.

Ashley Larsen and colleagues from the University of California, Santa Barbara, evaluated land use and pesticide data across 14,000 fields in Kern County, California. It is one of the largest agricultural counties in the state, producing agricultural products such as almonds, grapes, carrots, and pistachios.

The researchers found that when organic farmland is surrounded by conventional agriculture, neighboring farmers appear to increase their use of pesticides, which is associated with a 10 percent increase in organic farmland. Total pesticide use in conventional fields increases by 0.3%. Most of that is due to increased use of pesticides, the researchers found.

This is because more insects, pests or not, are present on organic land and tend to ‘bleed-off’ onto adjacent conventional farmland, leading these farmers to increase their use of pesticides. It is considered. “Pests come and sow the seeds for new outbreaks. [farmers] We will increase the use of pesticides,” Larsen told reporters at a press conference. This effect appears to be strongest when the adjacent field is within 2.5 kilometers of the organic “focal field”.

Conversely, the researchers found that the presence of organic fields was associated with reduced pesticide use in adjacent organic fields, with a 10 percent increase in the area of surrounding organic fields reducing total pesticide use on organic fields by 3%. He pointed out that it is associated with a decrease in the percentage of organic focal field. This may be because larger areas of organic farmland allow for larger and more stable communities of beneficial insects.

Organic agriculture only covers about 2 percent of the world’s land, but in Kern County, about 5.5 percent of the farmed area is organic.

If organic farming occupies a high proportion of agricultural land, perhaps Researchers say that regardless of where organic fields are located, net pesticide use is reduced by more than 20 percent.

However, when relatively small areas of organic cropland are evenly distributed across the landscape, such as in Kern County, net pesticide use may actually be higher than if no organic cropland were present.

“Our simulations suggest that low levels of organic agriculture in the landscape may actually increase net pesticide use,” Larsen said.

However, she said this impact can be completely mitigated by clustering organic farmland to minimize potential pest spillover. “Basically, at the policy level, how do we encourage the spatial clustering of new organic fields to take advantage of the pest control benefits of organic and limit the potential costs of organic to conventional growers?” It might be worth considering.

This could include paying subsidies to farmers to convert more land to organic farming in certain areas, or even creating buffer zones between organic and non-organic land. be.

robert finger Switzerland’s ETH Zurich said the study results demonstrate the need for policymakers to consider land use policy at a “landscape scale” to maximize the environmental benefits of organic farming. “Fundamentally, it’s not enough to think about a single field or a single farm,” he says.

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

Capture Stunning Images of the April 2024 Total Solar Eclipse: A Photographer’s Guide

Posted on March 21, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Photographing a solar eclipse takes a little practice

Sebastian Kennerknecht/Minden Pictures/Alamy

Although some people spend years planning trips to see a total solar eclipse, the moment itself lasts only a few minutes at most. A well-taken photo will help you remember the moment years later.

Fortunately, with a little practice, even beginners can capture great images. Learn how to photograph a solar eclipse without any prior experience or fancy camera equipment.

location, location, location

Of course, you can’t photograph a solar eclipse unless you’re in its path. On April 8, everyone in North America will see at least a partial solar eclipse. A partial solar eclipse must be viewed through eclipse glasses and photographed using a solar filter (see details below).

Only those who have entered the path of totality can see the total solar eclipse. Much of the experience will be the same, with partial stages requiring eclipse glasses and eclipse filters, but midway through totality, where the moon completely blocks the sun for several minutes. Only during this period will the eclipse glasses and solar filters come off, allowing you to see and photograph the sun’s corona with the naked eye. This is the shot everyone wants.

How to photograph a total solar eclipse using a smartphone

If you’re in the middle of a totality, forget about handheld video or zooming in on the eclipse sun. The results of using a smartphone will be disappointingly bleak. Instead, focus on taking wide-angle shots that use silhouettes of people and objects to show off their overall beauty.

solar eclipse 2024

On April 8th, a total solar eclipse will pass over Mexico, the United States, and Canada. Our special series covers everything you need to know, from how and when to see a solar eclipse to the strangest solar eclipse experience of all time.

Just before dark, put your phone into wide-angle mode. Focus on something in the middle distance and press and hold your finger on the screen to lock focus. Burst mode allows you to capture images continuously as soon as totality begins. That way, you can catch the “diamond ring,” the last and first beads of sunlight peeking around the moon just before and after totality.

How to photograph a total solar eclipse with a camera

If you have a manual DSLR or mirrorless camera and a variety of lenses, you can choose to shoot wide-angle or close-up of the eclipse. In partial phases, solar filters should be used.

Just before totality, make sure the partially eclipsed Sun is in focus and set your camera to bracketing mode (if you want to take three different exposures of the same image). “Make sure your camera is shooting at a low ISO (200-400) before and after totality to reduce noise,” he says. Mike Mezur, nature photographer. Remember to remove the solar filter during the diamond ring, take a bracket shot during totality, and put the solar filter back on as soon as he sees the second diamond ring at the end of totality.

How to take photos of a partial solar eclipse

To capture impressive shots of a partially eclipsed sun with your smartphone, you need to use a solar filter and keep your smartphone still. The latter can be done by using a tripod and delaying the shutter for a few seconds. There is no problem if you use solar eclipse glasses for the filter. If you have a spare lens, try cutting out one lens and taping it to your phone’s camera lens. Another option is to purchase a smartphone eclipse filter from a company such as: solar snap or business solar.

Smartphones aren’t prone to damage when pointed at the sun, but don’t point your manual camera at a partially chipped sun unless the lens is protected by a solar filter. You can purchase expensive glass solar filters or make your own using inexpensive Baader AstroSolar safety film.

The steps required to take a photo of a partial solar eclipse are a little more involved than taking a standard selfie, but you can practice ahead of time whenever the sun is clearly visible. “Adjust focus and set exposure manually” Karl Heilman, a New York-based photographer who teaches solar eclipse photography workshops. He recommends using an aperture of f/8-11, a shutter speed of 1/800, and ISO 100.

Also, be careful not to spend all your time fiddling with your camera. “As much as you want to photograph the event, put down your camera and take the time to take it in, because this is one of the most amazing things you’ll ever see,” says Mezur.

topic:

photo shoot/
solar eclipse 2024

Source: www.newscientist.com

Mathematicians are adventurers, says 2024 Abel Prize laureate Michel Taragran

Posted on March 21, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Michel Taragrand named 2024 Abel Prize laureate

Peter Bagde/Typos1/Abel Prize 2024

French mathematician Michel Taragrand has won the 2024 Abel Prize for his work on probability theory and the description of randomness. As soon as he heard the news, new scientist We spoke to Tara Grand to learn more about his mathematical journey.

Alex Wilkins: What does it mean to win an Abel Prize?

Michel Taragran: I think everyone agrees that the Abel Prize is considered the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in mathematics. So this was completely unexpected for me and I never dreamed that I would win this award. And in fact, it is not so easy to do, since there is already a list of people who have received it. And in that list they are true giants of mathematics. And let me tell you, I don’t feel that comfortable sitting with them because it’s clear that their accomplishments are on a completely different scale than mine.

What are your qualities as a mathematician?

I can’t learn mathematics easily. I have to work. It took a lot of time and I have bad memories. I forget things. So I try to work despite my handicap, but my way of working has always been to try to understand simple things really well. Really, really, in detail. And it turned out to be a successful approach.

Why are you attracted to mathematics?

Once you learn mathematics and begin to understand how it works, it is completely fascinating and extremely fascinating. There are all kinds of levels and you are the explorer. First you have to understand what people before you understood, which is quite difficult, and then you start exploring on your own and soon you like it. Of course, it’s also very frustrating. Therefore, you must have the personality to accept frustration.

But my solution is that when I get frustrated with something, I put it aside, and when it’s clear that I’m not going to make any more progress, I put it aside and do something else, and come back to it later. . I used that strategy very efficiently. And the reason it’s successful is the way the human brain functions, things mature when you don’t look at them. The problem I’ve been dealing with for literally 30 years is back again. And in fact, even after 30 years, I was still making progress. That’s what’s amazing.

How did you get started?

Now, that’s a very personal story. First, it helped that his father was a math teacher, and of course that helped. But in reality, the deciding factor is that I was unlucky to be born with a retinal defect. Then, when I was 5 years old, I lost my right eye. When I was 15 years old, I suffered from multiple retinal detachments and was hospitalized for an extended period of time, taking 6 months off from school. It was very traumatic and I lived in constant fear of having another retinal detachment.

I started studying to escape from that. And his father really helped me very much when he knew how difficult it was. When I was in the hospital, my father visited me every day and started talking about simple math to keep my brain functioning. The reason I started studying difficult mathematics and physics was precisely to combat fear. Of course, once you start studying, you’ll get better at it, and once you’re good at it, it’s very attractive.

What is it like to be a professional mathematician?

There’s no one telling me what to do, so I have complete freedom to do whatever I want with my time. Of course, it suited my personality and I was able to fully devote myself to my work.

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

The impact of climate change on food costs: A prediction of rising prices and worsening conditions

Posted on March 21, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Food prices are on the rise

AFP (via Getty Images)

Because of global warming, you are already paying more and more for groceries. And rising temperatures will cause food prices to rise significantly over the next decade.

By 2035, rising temperatures alone are expected to increase global food prices by 0.9 to 3.2 percent each year, according to a study conducted in collaboration with the European Central Bank. This would increase the overall inflation rate by 0.3 to 1.2 percentage points.

“We are often shocked and surprised by the magnitude of these effects,” he says. Maximilian Kotz He mentioned discussions he had with economists during his research at Germany's Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

Abnormal weather due to global warming Increasingly impacting food production around the world And if farmers don't adapt, the losses will become even more severe as the world continues to warm.

To find out how this is affecting food prices, Kotz and his colleagues looked at monthly price data for a variety of goods and services for 121 countries from 1996 to 2021 and the exposure to which those countries were exposed. The weather conditions were compared.

Researchers looked at the correlation between food prices and factors such as average monthly temperatures, temperature fluctuations, droughts and extreme rainfall. They found a strong association between average temperature and food prices a month or so later.

Areas north of 40 degrees latitude, such as New York City, Madrid, and Beijing, experienced warmer-than-average winter temperatures, leading to lower food prices. But not just in the summer, temperatures in other parts of the world have always been above average, causing food prices to rise.

Moreover, the impact on prices is long-lasting. “If prices go up based on one of these shocks, they stay high for at least the rest of the period,” Kotz says.

The study didn't look at why prices have increased, but one possible explanation is that extreme heat is reducing yields, he said. “The vines may be dry when the crop should be harvested.”

Kotz said factors such as extreme rainfall had a smaller impact on food prices than average temperatures. This may be because flooding tends to be localized, whereas above-average temperatures can be very widespread.

Other studies have reached similar conclusions, Kotz said. But his team went a step further and investigated how food prices would change based on increases in average temperatures in climate model projections. Under the team's worst-case emissions scenario, global food inflation due to climate change will exceed 4% per year by 2060. However, the team believes the 2035 prediction is more reliable, as many other factors could have changed by then.

“There are a lot of things that could happen that will change the way the economy responds to climate change,” Kotz said. For example, inflationary pressures would be reduced if farmers adapted their practices to better cope with rising temperatures. But so far, he says, there is no sign that farmers are adapting.

“I think these are realistic predictions. They are based on solid empirical evidence.” Matin Kaim At the University of Bonn, Germany. “We need to recognize the fact that climate change poses new and major challenges to food and nutrition security.”

according to Food Price Index of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, The cost of food fell in real terms between 1960 and 2000, but has risen since then. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 caused a massive surge – factors that influence this Protests are occurring in many countries. The index price has since fallen, but remains higher than before the invasion.

Like the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of England, the European Central Bank aims to: keep inflation around 2%. Rising food inflation will make achieving this goal even more difficult, Kotz said.

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

The distinctive chemical makeup of adolescent perspiration includes hints of musk and urine aromas

Posted on March 21, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Body odor usually worsens around puberty

Carlos Barquero/Alamy

Teens appear to produce chemicals in their sweat that cause body odor, such as urine, musk, and sandalwood. Awareness of these chemicals may lead to more effective odor control measures, such as more effective deodorants.

Because the chemical compounds in sweat are volatile, they easily turn into gases that are perceived as odor. Hormonal changes that occur during puberty are associated with increased body odor.

helen ruth Researchers at Germany’s Friedrich-Alexander University studied how body odor changes from childhood to adolescence.

The team recruited 18 children up to the age of three and 18 adolescents between the ages of 14 and 18. They all washed themselves with unscented gel before bed and had cotton pads sewn to the sides of their clothes.

The researchers then extracted the compounds absorbed by the pads and identified them using a technique called mass spectrometry. They then used a process called gas chromatography and trained evaluators to detect the odorous chemicals. “The human nose is used as a detector,” Roos says.

Overall, the body odor-causing chemicals in the two groups were similar, but the chemicals collected from the teens contained higher levels of some carboxylic acids, and the judges described it as “cheap”, “musty” and “earthy”.

The researchers also identified two steroids unique to the teens’ samples, which smelled of “urine and musk” and “sandalwood and musk,” respectively. Chemical differences between teen body odor and toddler body odor may be why toddlers are generally considered to have more pleasant smells, the researchers write.

Ruth says further research into the scents we produce at different ages could help scientists develop more effective odor control measures.

but andreas natsch Swiss fragrance maker Givaudan notes that the study only assessed overnight body odor. “In adults, more pungent odors occur when they are under mental or physical stress,” he says.

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

Australia may be home to the world’s fluffiest beetles

Posted on March 21, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

A new species of fluffy longhorn beetle discovered in Queensland, Australia

James Tweed

An entomologist camping with his partner in Queensland, Australia, has discovered what could be a candidate for Australia’s, and perhaps the world’s, fluffiest beetle.

This discovery was made by James Tweed Held at the University of Queensland at Binna Burra Lodge in Queensland’s Gold Coast hinterland during the 2021 Christmas period.

Tweed, who usually studies insects on Norfolk Island in the South Pacific, was emerging from his tent when he noticed what he thought was droppings on a common flax-like shrub. Romandra. However, upon closer inspection, it turns out that it is actually a spectacular beetle, 10 millimeters long and covered in magnificent red and black hairs, with the fur on the upper half of its body being particularly dense.

He quickly realized that it was a type of longhorn beetle (a family of about 36,000 described species), but no other comparable species was known. It has been designated as a new genus and species. Excustra arbopilosa, This means “white and hairy, from the camp.”

“There are quite a few hairy beetles out there,” Tweed said. “But this one is really unique in the length and pattern of the hairs. It’s not unusual for beetles to be hairy, but it’s unusual for them to be this hairy.”

It’s unclear why the beetle is so hairy, but one possible explanation is that its hair looks like it’s infected with a fungus, making it unpalatable to predators, Tweed said.

The specimen he collected is now kept as a model specimen in the Australian National Insect Collection, and is the only one found despite numerous searches around the campsite since its discovery.

Tweed said this is likely to be a relatively rare species. “But while it may be common, we haven’t found out where it lives yet. As far as we know, it’s on trees that we haven’t surveyed. It may be living in.”

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

Neuralink Question: Has Elon Musk Achieved a Revolutionary Advance in Brain Implant Technology?

Posted on March 21, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Noland Arbor can play chess using Neuralink implant

Neuralink

Neuralink, the brain-computer interface company founded by Elon Musk, has revealed the identity of its first patient who says its implant “changed his life.” But experts say it’s not yet clear whether Neuralink has done more than replicate existing research efforts.

Who was Neuralink’s first patient?

Musk announced in January that the first human patient had received a Neuralink implant, but few details were released at the time. We now know from something. Live stream video by company – Who is that person and how will the test be done?

Noland Arbaugh explains in the video that an accident eight years ago dislocated his fourth and fifth vertebrae, leaving him a quadriplegic. He previously controlled the computer with a mouth interface, and is shown moving the cursor with just his thoughts, apparently using a Neuralink implant.

“Once I started imagining the cursor moving, it became intuitive,” Arbaugh says in the video. “Basically, it was like using ‘force’ on the cursor, and I was able to move the cursor anywhere I wanted. I could just look anywhere on the screen and the cursor would move where I wanted it. It was a very wild experience.”

He uses the device for reading, language learning, and computer games such as chess, and claims he uses it for up to eight hours at a time, at which point he needs to charge the device. “It’s not perfect, I’ve run into some problems. But it’s already changed my life,” he says.

What does the implant contain?

Neuralink did not respond to requests for an interview, but its website says the current generation coin-sized implant, called N1, generates neural activity through 1,024 electrodes distributed across 64 threads that extend into the user’s brain. It is said that it records. These are so fine that they must be placed by a surgical robot.

In a livestream video, Arbaugh said he was discharged from the hospital the day after his implant surgery, and that from his perspective the surgery was a relatively simple process.

The implant uses a small battery that is charged through the skin by an inductance charger and communicates wirelessly with an app on your smartphone.

Does this mean the first human trials were successful?

Reinhold Scherrer Researchers at the University of Essex in the UK will decide whether Neuralink’s first human trial was a success because the company “has not released enough information to form an informed opinion” He said it was too early.

“While the video is impressive and there is no doubt that it took a lot of research and development work to get to this stage, it is unclear whether what is being shown is new or groundbreaking,” he said. Masu. “Although control appears to be stable, most of the studies and experiments presented so far are primarily replications of past studies. Replication is good, but major challenges still remain. ”

Who else is working on brain implants?

Neuralink isn’t the only group exploring this idea. A number of academic organizations and commercial startups have already conducted human experiments that have successfully interpreted brain signals and produced some sort of output.

A team at Stanford University in California placed two small sensors just below the surface of the brain of a man who was paralyzed from the neck down. Researchers may be able to interpret the brain signals when a man decides to put pen to paper and translate them into text that can be read on a computer.

When will Neuralink be available and how much will it cost?

It’s too early to tell, as this has a long way to go before it becomes a commercial product, with much testing and certification to come. But Musk has made it clear that he intends to commercialize the technology.of The first product planned was named Telepathy.allows users to take control of their mobile phones and computers.

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

People engage in watching sports, engaging in sexual activities, procreating, and conducting research.

Posted on March 21, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

children’s victory

Data from a study by Gwynyay Maske and colleagues at University College Dublin in Ireland shows that spectator sports are good for kids – good for them.

The data covers major American football, association football (soccer), and rugby union tournaments in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America.

The researchers found that, “with a few exceptions,” these popularity contests “continue to increase in number of births and/or fertility 9 (±1) months after notable team wins and/or tournaments.” “It was associated with an increase in the ratio.” .

Sporting events at this level seem to work that way for the winners, but not for the losers, says a study published in the journal Peer J. No joke, the downsides are significant. “Unexpected losses by Premier Soccer League teams were associated with fewer births nine months later.”

celebratory sex

The study of sports viewing begins with the following fascinating sentence: “Major sports tournaments may be associated with increased birth rates nine months later, possibly due to celebratory sex.”

Not many researchers have focused on the topic of celebratory sex. However, four academics from the University of South Dakota wrote in a 2017 paper thatMidwestern college students reported sexual activity in parked cars.”.

The quartet candidly write about their observations:[Some people] For birthdays, holidays, graduations, proms, new car “run-in” sessions, we planned days and weeks in advance to have “celebratory” sex in a slow, long park… Parking Sex during men and women was primarily a positive sexual and romantic experience for both parties. “

The abstract climax of this study ends with the simple idea that “future research on sex in parked cars in urban settings is recommended.”

Timeliness of time

The eternal question, “What is time?'' staggered onto the stage. The first was the Finnish report on Russia's time zone, and the second was the varied actions of the Kazakh state.

Neri Piatteva and Nadezhda Vasileva from the University of Tampere in Finland,Controlling the time zone: a national large-scale assessment of time as a means in the Russian Federation”.

Russia has 11 time zones. Piattyeva and Vasileva tell us that “the existence of multiple time zones indicates the lack of a unified spatiotemporal nature.” And they express ideas that no one has ever been able to articulate clearly. “Bureaucratically, the desire for simultaneity and synchronicity takes the form of meticulously ordering sequences of actions through normative documents.” They argue that there is a hinge to everything. is revealed. “In our analysis, we repeatedly returned to the most difficult question: What is time?”

On its own, the Kazakh government added clarification, surprise, and perhaps confusion to the general timeliness. On March 1, Kazakhstan changed its two time zones to a single time zone nationwide.

period of central asia reported two weeks before the big day that “not all citizens are happy about this, and some claim it will affect their health.” times In an interview with Sultan Turekhanov of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, he warned: In particular, it is a change in the temporal structure parameters of human biological rhythms. ”

The feedback is, above all, a tribute to the audacity of those who dare to play with the temporal structural parameters of the biological rhythms of human tissues.

unread, non-existent

How many studies are there that no one reads…and eventually disappear? And how many studies disappear that no one reads even before they disappear? Both? Rough answer to the question – it's not exactly the same question. – Now it exists.

The first question was answered almost 20 years ago when Lockman I. Mejo of Indiana University Bloomington published a paper (which has not disappeared) called “.The rise of citation analysis”.

Meho writes: “It is a solemn fact that approximately 90% of papers published in academic journals are not cited at all. In fact, 50% of his papers are never read by anyone other than the authors, reviewers, and journal editors. not.”

Martin Paul Eve from Birkbeck, University of London got the second question right. His new research (also not extinct yet) is called “.Poor preservation of digital academic journals: A study of 7 million articles”. The study “evaluated” 7,438,037 academic citations with unique identification codes called DOIs. Now, in the research, we attempted to evaluate. According to Eve's report, 2,056,492 (27.64%) of them appear to be missing.

Eve also said that 32.9 percent of organizations responsible for digitally preserving documents “do not appear to be doing adequate digital preservation.”

Feedback: old ideals: The study should raise more questions than answers.

Mark Abrahams hosted the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony and co-founded the magazine Annals of Improbable Research. Previously, he was working on unusual uses of computers.his website is impossible.com.

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

Psychologists advise against causing alarm and pessimism for better mental health

Posted on March 21, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Imagine waiting for your school exam results or having a dental appointment on the horizon. Many believe that preparing for uncertain outcomes by expecting the worst is a good strategy.

This way, you won’t be as shocked if the test results are disappointing or the dentist visit is unpleasant. Hence the phrase “hope for the best and plan for the worst.” But is this approach truly beneficial?

According to psychological research, the answer is no.

One downside of preparing for the worst is that it can lead to feeling sad and anxious before an event. By convincing yourself that something bad will happen, you are setting yourself up for negative emotions.

Thinking positively and expecting things to go well can actually make you feel better before your exam results or dental appointment. But what about when things don’t go as planned?

Unfortunately, research shows that people feel just as bad about disappointing outcomes whether they anticipated them or not. This applies immediately and even after the results are known.

Similar research has found that having negative expectations about a task like public speaking can make you feel worse, not better, right after performing it. The idea of emotional defensiveness doesn’t seem to work well.

These findings are relevant to the debate around trigger warnings, which aim to prepare individuals for emotionally challenging content. However, studies indicate that trigger warnings are not effective in emotional protection.

Concerns about over-optimism and complacency are valid, but optimism can boost motivation. Optimistic individuals tend to put more effort into their studies and typically achieve better grades as a result.

The key is to combine optimism with effort. Simply hoping for the best without taking action is not a sound strategy. Are you thinking positively and putting in the work needed to succeed?

If you have any questions, please email us at: questions@sciencefocus.com or send us a message on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Remember to include your name and location.

Check out our ultimate Interesting Information and more amazing science pages.

Read more:

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

Exploring the mysteries of black holes using a ‘Quantum tornado’

Posted on March 21, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

If you think a regular tornado is scary, fasten your seatbelts. Scientists have created a tornado so powerful that it resembles a black hole. why? This giant vortex closely mimics a black hole, so it could offer great potential for black hole research.

It was published in the magazine Nature experimental study We created something never seen before: a quantum tornado. Basically, while a normal tornado circulates by tearing apart trees and houses, a quantum tornado circulates atoms and particles.

To make the tornado mimic a black hole, the researchers needed to use helium in a “superfluid” state, meaning it has a low viscosity and can flow without resistance. These properties allow scientists to closely observe how helium interacts with its surroundings.

This led to the discovery that small waves on the liquid surface simulate the gravitational conditions around a rotating black hole.

So how did they do it? First, the team led by the University of Nottingham needed to achieve the right properties for the liquid. This involved cooling several liters of superfluid helium to the lowest possible temperature, below -271°C.

Normally, tiny objects called “quantum vortices” in liquid helium spread apart from each other. But at this new, ultra-low temperature, liquid helium takes on quantum properties and stabilizes.

Helium “quantum tornado” experimental equipment at the black hole laboratory. – Photo credit: Leonardo Solidoro

Using a new cryogenic device, researchers were able to trap tens of thousands of these tiny objects, creating a “vortex” similar to a tornado.

The success of this experiment will allow researchers to compare the interactions inside a simulated black hole with their own theoretical projections, giving scientists a new way to simulate theories of curved spacetime and gravity. Possibilities will be unlocked.

“When we first observed clear signs of black hole physics in our first analog experiments in 2017, it was a discovery of some strange phenomena that are often difficult, if not impossible, to study in other ways.” It was a breakthrough moment for understanding the phenomenon.” Professor Silke Weinfurtneris leading the research at the Black Hole Institute, where this experiment was developed.

“Now, with more sophisticated experiments, we have taken this research to the next level. This may lead to predictions of what will happen.”

read more:

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

New findings suggest that smoking may lead to an increase in unseen belly fat

Posted on March 21, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

When picturing a smoker, the image of a slender and stylish individual like Audrey Hepburn may come to mind. However, recent research indicates that even slim smokers could be harboring unhealthy fat hidden deep within their abdomens.

Despite the common belief that smoking can suppress appetite and the fear of weight gain upon quitting, a new study reveals that smokers are more likely to be underweight. Not only that but smokers also tend to accumulate more harmful deep abdominal fat, known as “visceral fat,” which is linked to increased risks of heart attack, diabetes, and dementia. This type of fat can be challenging to detect, leading to a false sense of fullness even with a flat stomach.

To investigate the relationship between lifelong smoking and belly fat, researchers at the University of Copenhagen utilized a statistical analysis tool called Mendelian randomization. This tool categorizes individuals based on their genetic information to identify causal connections between exposures like smoking and outcomes such as abdominal fat distribution.

The study involved analyzing genetic data from numerous studies on smoking habits and body fat distribution among individuals of European ancestry. By identifying specific genes associated with smoking behaviors and body fat distribution, the researchers were able to determine the impact of smoking on belly fat independent of other influencing factors like alcohol consumption and socio-economic background.

The lead author, Dr. Germán D. Carrasquilla, emphasized the importance of large-scale efforts to prevent and reduce smoking in light of their findings published in the journal Dependence. He believes that reducing smoking prevalence can indirectly decrease the prevalence of abdominal fat and ultimately improve public health outcomes.

Read More:

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

Nuclear Physicist Investigates Tantalum Decay in 180m Isotope

Posted on March 21, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Tantalum-180m (^180mTa) is a rare isotope of tantalum whose decay has never been observed, and whose lifetime is expected to be about a million times longer than the age of the universe.

Modified Majorana module in assembly glovebox with germanium detector crystal and tantalum sample installed. Image credit: Majorana Collaboration.

Tantalum, a chemical element with symbol Ta and atomic number 73, is a rare, hard, blue-gray, shiny transition metal with excellent corrosion resistance.

It has multiple stable isotopes: 2 stable radioisotopes and 35 artificial radioisotopes.

Tantalum-180, the least abundant isotope, occurs naturally in a long-lived excited state.

In an excited state, the protons or neutrons in the nucleus have a higher energy level than normal.

Although energetically possible, radioactive decay of this excited state in tantalum-180m has never been observed before.

Nuclear physicists from the Majorana collaboration are currently conducting experiments aimed at measuring this decay, which is expected to have a lifetime about a million times longer than the age of the universe.

For the experiment, they Majorana Demonstrator At Sanford Underground Research Facility.

Additionally, a significantly larger amount of tantalum samples were introduced compared to tantalum samples previously used in similar studies.

Over the course of a year, they collected data using a series of high-purity germanium detectors with exceptional energy resolution.

They also developed analytical methods specifically tailored to detect multiple expected decay signatures.

As a result of these combined efforts, we were able to establish unprecedented limits that fall within the range of 10.¹⁸ up to 10¹⁹ Year.

This level of sensitivity represents the first example in which half-life values predicted from nuclear theory have become achievable.

Although the collapse process has not yet been observed, these advances have significantly enhanced existing limits by one to two orders of magnitude.

Additionally, this advance allowed the Majorana team to ignore certain parameter ranges associated with various potential dark matter particles.

“With a new limit of up to 1.5*10¹⁹ “This is the most sensitive search for a single β and electron capture decay achieved to date,” the authors said.

“Across all channels, you can exclude attenuation with T1/2<0.29*10.”¹⁸For years. ”

of result appear in the diary physical review letter.

_____

IJ Arnquist other. (Majorana collaboration).Constraints on collapse ^180mTa. Physics.pastor rhett 131 (15): 152501; doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.131.152501

Source: www.sci.news

5,000 years ago, Cacao likely spread from the Amazon to other regions in Central and South America

Posted on March 21, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Humans have a long history of transporting and trading plants, contributing to the evolution of cultivated plants. The cacao tree (Theobroma cacao), whose beans are used to make products such as chocolate, liqueurs, and cocoa butter, is native to the Neotropics of South America. However, little is known about its cultivation and use in these regions. In a new study, archaeologists analyzed ceramic residues from a large sample of pre-Columbian cultures in Central and South America. Their findings reveal that cacao was widely used in South America outside of its Amazonian region, going back 5,000 years.

Recent discoveries have recorded the domestication of cacao trees (Theobroma cacao) inhabited its native Amazon region of Ecuador by at least 5,300 years ago. Lanau other. This study shows that a large-scale landscape of domestication of cacao outside of its native region along the Pacific coast of South America occurred simultaneously during this same early period and later periods. Image credit: Fernando Granier.

The modern cacao tree (its scientific name means “food of the gods”) is one of the world’s most important crops.

Eleven genetic groups are known, including the widely used Criollo and Nacional strains.

Although it is well established that the cacao tree was originally domesticated in the upper Amazon basin, it has not been clear how the use of cacao by other cultures spread throughout Central and South America.

In a new study, AGAP Institute researcher Claire Lanau and colleagues found 352 ceramic remains from 19 pre-Columbian cultures dating back approximately 5,900 to 400 years, spanning Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Mexico, Belize, and Panama. was analyzed.

Researchers tested ancient cacao’s DNA and the presence of three methylxanthine (mild stimulant) compounds (theobromine, theophylline, and caffeine) present in modern cacao tree lineages to determine the ancient cacao’s DNA. Identified the residue.

The authors also used genetic information from 76 modern cocoa samples to establish the ancient cocoa ancestry present in ceramic products. This could reveal how ancient cocoa strains diversified and spread.

The study results show that cacao was domesticated in the Amazon at least 5,000 years ago, and was soon cultivated extensively along the Pacific coast, with high diversity among ancient lineages likely due to genetic This shows that different populations were bred together.

The presence of cacao genotypes originating from the Peruvian Amazon in the Valdivia coastal region of Ecuador suggests that these cultures have been in contact for many years.

The Peruvian strain was also detected in artifacts from Colombia’s Caribbean coast.

“Taken together, these indicate that cocoa varieties spread widely across countries and were interbred to adapt to new environments as different cultures adopted the use of cocoa,” the researchers said.

“A better understanding of cocoa’s genetic history and diversity may help combat the threats facing modern cocoa varieties, such as disease and climate change.”

a paper The survey results were published in a magazine scientific report.

_____

C. Lanau other. 2024. Revisiting the history of pre-Columbian cacao cultivation revealed through an archaeogenomic approach. science officer 14, 2972; doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-53010-6

Source: www.sci.news

New Study Suggests That Venus’ Clouds Could Potentially Support Life

Posted on March 21, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Planetary scientists have long speculated that Venus' potential habitability lies not in its hot surface but in a cloud layer at an altitude of 48 to 60 kilometers, where temperatures match those of Earth's surface. However, it is commonly believed that Venusian clouds cannot support life because their chemical composition is concentrated sulfuric acid, a highly aggressive solvent. In the new study, chemists studied 20 biogenic amino acids across a range of sulfuric acid concentrations and temperatures in the Venus cloud. After four weeks, the researchers found that 19 of the biogenic amino acids tested were either unreactive or chemically modified only in their side chains. Their main discovery is that the amino acid backbone remains intact in concentrated sulfuric acid.

This composite image taken by JAXA's Akatsuki spacecraft shows Venus. Image credit: JAXA / ISAS / DARTS / Damia Bouic.

“What is quite surprising is that concentrated sulfuric acid is not a universally hostile solvent for organic chemistry,” said MIT researcher Dr. Janusz Petkowski.

“We found that the building blocks of life on Earth are stable in sulfuric acid, which is very interesting as we consider the possibility of life on Venus,” said Sarah Seager of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. the professor added.

“That doesn't mean life there will be the same as it is here. In fact, we know it's unlikely. But this study suggests that Venus' clouds support the complex chemicals necessary for life. We advance the idea that there is a possibility that

The search for life in Venus' clouds has gained momentum in recent years, spurred by the detection of the controversial molecule phosphine, a molecule thought to be a signature of life, in the planet's atmosphere. There is.

Although the discovery remains debated, the news reignited old questions about whether life could actually exist on Earth's sister planet.

In search of answers, scientists are planning several missions to Venus. That includes the first largely privately-funded mission to Venus, backed by California-based launch company Rocket Lab.

The mission, for which Professor Seeger is the principal scientist, aims to send a spacecraft into the planet's clouds and analyze their chemistry for signs of organic molecules.

Ahead of the mission's launch in January 2025, Professor Seager and his colleagues will test various materials in concentrated sulfuric acid to find out whether debris from life on Earth might be stable in Venus' clouds. I've been testing molecules. The most acidic place on earth.

“People have a perception that concentrated sulfuric acid is a very aggressive solvent that will tear everything apart, but we are finding that this is not necessarily true,” Dr. Petkowski said.

In fact, the authors have previously shown that complex organic molecules, such as some fatty acids and nucleic acids, are surprisingly stable in sulfuric acid.

They are careful to emphasize, as they do in the current paper, that complex organic chemistry is of course not life, but without organic chemistry there is no life.

In other words, if certain molecules can survive in sulfuric acid, Venus' highly acidic clouds are probably habitable, if not necessarily habitable.

In the new study, researchers focused on 20 biogenic amino acids, amino acids that are essential for all life on Earth.

They dissolved each type of amino acid in a vial of sulfuric acid mixed with water at concentrations of 81% and 98%, representing the range found in Venus' clouds.

They then used a nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer to analyze the structure of the amino acids in sulfuric acid.

After analyzing each vial several times over a four-week period, they found that the basic molecular structure, or “skeleton,” of 19 of the 20 amino acids was stable and unaltered, even under highly acidic conditions.

“Just because this skeleton was shown to be stable in sulfuric acid does not mean there is life on Venus,” said Dr. Maxwell Seager, a researcher at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

“But if we had shown that this spine was compromised, there would have been no possibility of life as we know it.”

of study Published in this week's magazine astrobiology.

_____

Maxwell D. Seeger other. Stability of 20 biogenic amino acids in concentrated sulfuric acid: Implications for the habitability of Venusian clouds. astrobiology, published online March 18, 2024. doi: 10.1089/ast.2023.0082

Source: www.sci.news

Ancient Canoe Uncovers Early Advances in Navigation Technology

Posted on March 21, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

More than 7,000 years ago, Neolithic people used technologically sophisticated boats to navigate the Mediterranean Sea, according to a new study.

The 7,300-year-old canoe Marmotta 1 is on display at the Museum of Civilization in Rome. It is a huge dugout canoe made from an oak trunk, approximately 10.43 meters long, 1.15 meters wide at the stern, and 0.85 meters wide at the bow. Depending on the part of the canoe, the height is 65 to 44 cm. Image credit: Gibaja other., doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0299765.

Many of Europe's most important civilizations were born along the Mediterranean coast.

The Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, and Carthaginians took advantage of the virtually enclosed sea to move quickly between islands along the coast.

At various times in history, the Mediterranean Sea has been a space of travel and a means of communication.

However, one of the major migration phenomena in history occurred during the Neolithic period, when rural societies began to spread around Europe and North Africa.

The beginning of the Neolithic period is recorded in the Near East around 10,000 BC, but communities from that region gradually occupied the entire Mediterranean Sea around 7500-7000 BC, reaching the coast of Portugal around 5400 BC.

In a new study, Dr. Juan Guibaja and colleagues from Spain's National Research Council dug out a tree from La Marmotta, a Neolithic lakeside village near Rome, Italy, between 5700 and 5100 BC. Five dugout canoes that were built were investigated.

Analysis revealed that the canoe was constructed from four types of wood, which is unusual for similar sites, and incorporated advanced construction techniques such as lateral reinforcement.

Three T-shaped wooden objects are also associated with one canoe, each with a series of holes that may have been used to secure ropes tied to sails or other nautical elements. there is.

These features, together with previous reconstruction experiments, indicate that these are seaworthy vessels, a conclusion supported by the presence of stone tools associated with nearby islands.

“These canoes are exceptional examples of prehistoric vessels, and their construction required a well-organized and specialized workforce, as well as a detailed understanding of structural design and wood properties,” the researchers said. said.

“The similarities between these canoes and modern navigation technology support the idea that many major advances in sailing took place during the early Neolithic period.”

“Direct dating of a Neolithic canoe discovered at La Marmotta reveals it to be the oldest in the Mediterranean and provides valuable insight into Neolithic navigation,” the study said. they added.

“Our research reveals the remarkable technological sophistication of early agricultural and pastoral communities, highlighting their woodworking skills and complex shipbuilding.”

of study Published in an online journal PLoS ONE.

_____

JF Gibaha other. 2024. The first Neolithic ship in the Mediterranean: the settlement of La Marmotta (Anguillara Sabazia, Lazio, Italy). PLoS ONE 19 (3): e0299765; doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0299765

Source: www.sci.news

Understanding the Most Disturbing Theory of Reality: A Guide

Posted on March 21, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Are there so many people in so many parallel worlds, almost duplicates of you, reading almost duplicate articles of this article? Is consciousness a fundamental property of all matter? The reality is Is it a computer simulation? Dear reader, I can hear you groaning from right here in California.

We tend to reject ideas like this because they sound ridiculous. But some of the world's leading scientists and philosophers support them. why? And assuming you are not an expert, how should you react to this kind of hypothesis?

Things quickly go awry when faced with fundamental questions about the nature of reality. As a philosopher specializing in metaphysics, I argue that strange things are inevitable and that fundamentally strange things will turn out to be true.

That doesn't mean all weird hypotheses are created equal. On the contrary, some strange possibilities are worth taking more seriously than others. The idea of Zorg the Destroyer hidden at the center of the galaxy, pulling protons by invisible threads, would of course be laughed off as some sort of explanation. But even in the absence of direct empirical tests, we can carefully evaluate various seemingly absurd ideas that are worth serious consideration.

The key is to become comfortable weighing competing unreality. Anyone can try this, as long as they don't expect everyone to come to the same conclusion.

First, let me start by clarifying that we are talking here about a tremendously big and scary problem: the foundations of reality and the foundations of our understanding of those foundations. Sho. What is the underlying structure?

Source: www.newscientist.com

Discovering how humans survived the super-eruption of the Toba volcano through an ancient campsite

Posted on March 21, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Ruins in the Ethiopian lowlands where ancient humans lived 74,000 years ago

John Kappelman

A campsite in what is now Ethiopia may have been used in the years before, during, and after a massive volcanic eruption 74,000 years ago that changed the Earth’s climate.

The eruption of supervolcano Toba on the Indonesian island of Sumatra was the largest eruption on Earth in the past 2 million years. Some researchers believe it may have caused a volcanic winter that lasted several years and wiped out most humans alive at the time, but the magnitude of that effect is debated .

Bones found at Ethiopian ruins suggest people living there had to adapt their diet to survive the dry year or two after the eruption, but the effects were mild It seems like it was.

“It was a pretty lucky discovery,” he says. John Kappelman A team from the University of Texas at Austin discovered the site in 2002. “There’s no question about that.”

Most of the remains of early humans are caves that were inhabited for tens of thousands of years, he says. However, this camp is an outdoor location near the Simfa River, a tributary of the Blue Nile. “Our intuition is that this place has probably been occupied for about five to 10 years,” Kappelman said.

The researchers found thousands of stone fragments from the tool’s manufacture, along with several stone tips believed to be among the oldest arrowheads ever discovered. “We have evidence of archery in the form of these small stone points,” Kappelman says.

Researchers also found ostrich eggshells and numerous animal bones, some with cuts and signs of cooking. Therefore, it is believed that people brought animals back to the site for slaughter and cooking.

The researchers also found volcanic ash in the form of tiny glass shards, known as cryptephra, in the middle of layers of sediment containing stone chips and bones. “They’re just tiny little glass shards,” Kappelman says – and their composition matches other debris from the Toba supereruption.

Isotopic analysis of ostrich shells suggests that the climate became drier after the eruption. This is consistent with a four-fold increase in the amount of fish carcasses identified and a decrease in other types of animal carcasses.

The research team explains that the Shinfa River is seasonal, and during the dry season it dries up to create a water hole. Immediately after the Toba eruption, the dry season was long, making it easier to catch fish in the narrowed water holes. The researchers suggest that this compensated for the decline in terrestrial predators.

Over the next few years, food debris returned to pre-eruption levels and there were no signs of mass mortality, Kappelman said.

Other researchers argue that early humans moved to wetter areas as conditions dried, he says. For this reason, it is also believed that the migration of people from Africa took place during times when the climate was wetter, allowing them to survive in the usually arid region between Africa and Eurasia.

“Our remains show that humans adapted to seasonally dry conditions,” Kappelmann says. He thinks this means that the migration of modern humans from Africa, which may have occurred as recently as 65,000 or 60,000 years ago, may have occurred during a dry period.

However, Kappelman agrees that early migration from Africa by less sophisticated peoples may have been limited to wet periods.

“This is an interesting paper for many reasons: the likely precise link to the Toba supereruption, environmental evidence, survival behaviors including fishing, the possible use of bows and arrows, and the possibility that it facilitated dispersal from Africa. “A certain behavioral adaptation,” says chris stringer At the Natural History Museum in London.

“While each of these proposals will certainly stimulate debate, I think the authors have presented a plausible, if not conclusive, case for each scenario they propose,” he says.

The study also adds to the evidence that the global effects of the Toba supereruption were relatively small and short-lived, Stringer said.

but stanley ambrose One researcher at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign believes that Toba wiped out most humans, but he disagrees. He said the site may represent a much longer period of time than Kappelman’s team thinks, meaning the impact on people could have been much greater. There is.

“Material deposited by humans long before and long after the eruption, perhaps centuries to more than a thousand years ago, was deposited by well-known disturbance processes such as rodent burrowing and cracks forming during desiccation. It could have been juxtaposed with a volcanic ash layer, season,” Ambrose says.

Source: www.newscientist.com

Planets consumed by billions of stars

Posted on March 20, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Artist's impression of a planet grazing the surface of a star

K. Miller/R. Hart (California Institute of Technology/IPAC)

It appears that at least one in every 12 stars devours a planet. This is because the star system can easily be destabilized when external objects such as rogueworlds or other stars fly nearby, and the disturbance can shake up the planet's orbit and throw the planet into the star. It is thought that it is.

Huang Liu Researchers from Australia's Monash University investigated how often this happens by observing 91 pairs of stars using some of the world's most powerful telescopes. They selected stars that were most likely to have formed together in a binary. This is because these couples should be formed with the same chemical composition. In doing so, researchers were able to determine whether one of them had swallowed a planet in the past. Doing so would change the planet's composition compared to its binary partner.

They found that about 8 percent of pairs contain one star that has eaten a planet, and show signs of being richer in heavy elements than its twin. Each of these stars appears to have ingested between 1.7 and 8.4 Earth masses of material. This is consistent with previous predictions.

“Our estimates are conservative,” Liu says. “I think the actual percentage may be higher, but it's still probably less than 20% or around 20%.” This can vary depending on where in the galaxy a particular star is born.

Understanding how many stars are eclipsed by planets is a potentially important part of understanding the abundance of life in the universe and our chances of finding it.

“The question is: how many stars and planets behave in ways that are conducive to the development of life?” meridith joyce Member of the research team at the Konkoli Observatory in Hungary. “Knowing how many stars there are and how many host planet stars there are are two parts of the calculation, but we also need to know how many stars are eating those planets.”

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

Clues from ancient canoes suggest thriving trade in the Mediterranean region 7,000 years ago

Posted on March 20, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Canoes are up to 10 meters long and are made by hollowing out trees.

Gibaja et al., 2024, PLOS ONE, CC-BY 4.0

More than 7,000 years ago, skilled craftsmen built wooden canoes to probably transport people, animals, and goods across the Mediterranean.

Scientists identified five boats with evidence of advanced navigation techniques, such as lateral bracing and towing attachments. The canoe, found in a freshwater lake and inadvertently kept secret for decades, likely enabled trade and transportation between Mediterranean farming communities during the Neolithic period. Niccolo Mazzucco At the University of Pisa, Italy.

Along with the well-preserved village where they were discovered, the canoes “opened a window into the past,” he says.

In 1989, Italian researchers discovered a site buried beneath a lake slightly northwest of Rome, 38 kilometers upstream from the west coast of the Mediterranean Sea, and named it La Marmotta. In addition to several wooden buildings, a dugout canoe made by burning and hollowing out wood was also found.

Despite these discoveries, the language barrier prevented it from becoming internationally famous, and almost all relevant information was only published in Italian, it said. Mario Mineo At the Museum of Roman Civilization in Rome, which took part in the discovery.

Now, Mazzucco, Mineo, and their colleagues have made new observations of these canoes using modern methods and shared their findings in English.

Lasse Sorensen David, from the National Museum of Denmark, who was not involved in the study, said he was unaware of these boats, despite having done extensive research on dugout canoes in Scandinavia.

He is particularly intrigued by a wooden T-shaped device attached to the canoe. Holes drilled in them suggest that they were probably used for ropes, implying that the boat was being towed. That way, Sorensen said, he would have been able to transport “more people, more animals, more goods.” “So these details are very important because they provide evidence of how they were actually able to transport large quantities of goods.”

Using the latest carbon dating techniques, the research team dated each ship to 6,000 BC. The two oldest ships were built in 5620 BC, and the newest in 5045 BC. Carbon dating of one of the T-shaped accessories revealed that it was made around 5470 BC.

The length of the boat is up to 10 meters. Its size suggests it was used at sea, Mazzucco said. Recent tests of replicas of these canoes confirmed that The original would have been seaworthy. Foreign grains, livestock remains, and stones found in the village indicate that the villagers were trading across the Mediterranean region.

To identify the wood used to build the boats, the team cut nine thin wood samples from each canoe. After analyzing them under a microscope, the researchers determined that two of the boats, including the oldest, were made from alder wood, which is lightweight and resistant to splintering and cracking. The newest boats were made of durable and rot-resistant oak, while the other two were made of poplar and beech.

“They probably had a good knowledge of wood types and their properties, so they selected them and used them based on those properties,” Mazzucco says. “They worked with wood with the same knowledge as today's carpenters, just with different tools.”

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

The Amazon’s Biggest Freshwater Dolphin Species Now Extinct

Posted on March 20, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Artistic restoration of Pebanista Yacuruna in the murky waters of the Peruvian Amazon

Jaime Blanc

The Amazon basin was once home to freshwater dolphins that grew up to 3.5 meters long, making them the largest river dolphin known to science.

Researchers say they made this surprising discovery during a 2018 expedition to Peru Aldo Benitez Palomino at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. When the research team saw the animal's fossilized skull sticking out of the river bank, they immediately knew it was a dolphin. Closer analysis confirms that this giant skull is unlike anything previously discovered.

Researchers named this new species Pebanista Yacluna. The name pays homage to the mythical aquatic people, Yacuruna, who are believed to live in underwater cities in the Amazon basin.

The 16 million-year-old fossils were unearthed in an area that was once covered by a “very large lake, almost like a small ocean in the middle of a jungle,” Benitez Palomino said. He says, based on the small eye sockets and large teeth of ancient dolphins. P. Yacluna It was probably a predator with poor eyesight. They relied heavily on echolocation to find fish. “We realized that it was really living in muddy water because its eyes started to get smaller,” Benitez-Palomino said.

Because the fossil was found in the Amazon basin, researchers expected the fossil's closest living relative to be the modern Amazon river dolphin.Instead, they found P. Yacluna It was more closely related to the river dolphin of South Asia. Like them, this ancient species also has a raised crest on its skull that enhances its echolocation abilities.

P. Yacluna Benitez-Palomino said it may have been driven to extinction amid broader ecological changes. “About 11 to 12 million years ago, this huge wetland system began to drain, making way for what is now the Amazon. At that moment, many species became extinct, which is why this giant dolphin Maybe it was fate.”

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

Researchers unravel the genetic code of the Etruscan shrew

Posted on March 20, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Scientists sequenced and analyzed the genome. Etruscan shrew (Suncus etruscus), with an average weight of about 2 grams, it is one of the world’s smallest mammals. This reference-quality genome is an important resource for studies of mammalian development, metabolism, and body size control.

Etruscan shrew (Suncus etruscus). Image credit: Trebol-a / CC BY-SA 3.0 Certificate.

The Etruscan shrew, also known as the white-toothed pygmy shrew, is recognized as one of the smallest living mammals.

This species weighs 1.2 to 2.7 grams and has a body length of 3.6 to 5.3 cm (1.4 to 2.1 inches), with a very large surface area to volume ratio.

As a result, shrews have very high metabolic rates and must consume approximately 1.5 to 2 times their body weight in food each day.

These unique physiological characteristics make the Etruscan shrew a valuable species to the scientific community, contributing significantly to various research fields such as behavioral science and neuroscience.

“High-quality genome assemblies are essential references to enable accurate high-throughput data analysis,” said computational biologist Dr. Yuri Bukman of the Morgridge Institute.

“This will provide valuable insight into the mechanisms of body size control and metabolic rate and will facilitate comparative biological studies.”

In their research, Dr. Buchmann and his colleagues sequenced and assembled the genome of a male Etruscan shrew using protocols developed by the Vertebrate Genome Project.

“Our new Etruscan shrew genome is the first chromosome-level genome assembly for the order Shrews. lilypotyphra,” they said.

The authors manually inspected the primary assembly and identified 22 chromosomes, including the X and Y sex chromosomes.

They also identified 39,091 genes, 19,819 of which were protein-coding genes.

“We found that the shrew genome has relatively little duplication,” Dr. Buchmann said.

“This result does not necessarily correlate with the smallness of the shrew itself.”

“Although shrews belong to a different mammalian family, some similarly small rodents have a lot of overlapping body segments, and Mus musculus is like the champion in the sense that it has the most overlapping segments. So it’s not a question of size.”

of result It was published in the magazine scientific data.

_____

YV Buchman other. 2024. Chromosome-level genome assembly of the Etruscan shrew Suncus etruscus. scientific data 11, 176; doi: 10.1038/s41597-024-03011-x

Source: www.sci.news

EPA introduces new regulations to decrease carbon emissions and encourage the use of electric vehicles and hybrids

Posted on March 20, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

The Biden administration revealed updated vehicle emissions standards on Wednesday, described as the most ambitious effort yet to reduce global warming emissions from passenger vehicles.

While the new regulations relax the original tailpipe limits proposed last year, they will ultimately align more closely with the stringent standards established by the Environmental Protection Agency.

These standards will be enforced in conjunction with the sale of electric vehicles, which must meet the requirements. The auto industry had opposed the EPA’s initial standards, announced in April last year, citing a slowdown in sales growth. The administration, however, remains committed to its ambitious plans to decrease emissions from passenger cars contributing to global warming.

Under the finalized rule, the EPA will mandate that by 2032, 56% of new vehicle sales should be electric vehicles, with at least 13% being plug-in hybrids or partially electric vehicles, along with more fuel-efficient gasoline-powered cars that get higher mileage.

The EPA estimates that these new standards will result in annual savings of $100 billion, over 7 billion tons of avoided global warming carbon emissions over the next three decades, reduced healthcare costs, fewer deaths, and more than $60 billion in healthcare savings, ultimately leading to overall cost savings in fuel, maintenance, and repairs.

On January 2, 2008, exhaust gas blows out of a car’s tailpipe in San Francisco.
David Paul Morris/Getty Images File

The EPA rule pertains to model years between 2027 and 2032, covering new emissions from new passenger cars, light trucks, pickup trucks, as well as greenhouse gas emissions like nitrogen oxides and particulate matter that contribute to global warming. It will also significantly reduce other forms of air pollution. The EPA asserts that the rule will help combat the climate crisis by substantially decreasing air pollution while promoting the adoption of cleaner vehicle technologies. The finalization of the rules follows a record increase in sales of clean vehicles, including plug-in hybrids and fully electric vehicles, last year.

The revised rules will push back the strict pollution standards’ implementation from 2027 to 2029 after the auto industry argued against the feasibility of the proposed benchmarks. By 2032, the rules will be bolstered to nearly meet the EPA’s recommended thresholds.

EPA Administrator Michael Regan affirmed to reporters that the final rule will yield pollution reductions equal to or greater than those outlined in the proposal. In addition to addressing carbon pollution, Regan emphasized that the ultimate standard will also lessen other severe air pollutants contributing to heart attacks, respiratory issues, exacerbating asthma, and diminishing lung function.

Regan stressed the critical nature of these new standards for public health, American jobs, the economy, and the planet. The standard is designed to be technology-neutral and performance-based, granting auto and truck manufacturers the flexibility to choose pollution control technology that aligns with their customer needs while meeting environmental and public health objectives.

The adjustments in the regulations seem aimed at addressing the strong industry resistance to the accelerated adoption of electric vehicles and the public’s hesitation to fully embrace new technology. Legal challenges in conservative courts also pose a legitimate threat.

With a conservative majority, the Supreme Court has increasingly restricted the power of federal agencies, including the EPA, in recent years. The court has limited the EPA’s ability to combat air and water pollution, further hindering their capability to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from power plants that contribute to global warming.

President Joe Biden has made fighting climate change a central feature of his presidency, with a focus on reducing carbon dioxide emissions from gasoline-powered vehicles, the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.

To achieve these goals, a Democratic president needs cooperation from the auto industry and political backing from auto workers, a crucial voting bloc. The United Auto Workers union, supporting Biden, endorses the transition to electric vehicles but aims to safeguard jobs and ensure that industry pays competitive wages to workers involved in producing EVs and batteries.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre expressed confidence in the EPA’s final rule, stating that the administration understands that achieving such goals takes time and remains committed to climate action.

Source: www.nbcnews.com

Michel Taragran awarded 2024 Abel Prize for breakthroughs in understanding randomness in mathematics

Posted on March 20, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Michel Taragrand: “Life is horribly random.”

Peter Budge/Typos1/Abel Prize 2024

Michel Taragran won the 2024 Abel Prize, also known as the Nobel Prize of mathematics, for his work on probability theory and the description of randomness. The news came as a surprise to Taragrand. He learned what he thought was his Zoom call within the department. He said: “My brain completely shut down for five seconds. It was an amazing experience. I never expected anything like this.”

Tara GrandBased at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), he has spent much of his 40-year career on extreme characterization of random or stochastic systems. These problems are common in the real world. For example, a bridge builder may need to know the maximum wind strength expected from the local weather.

Such random systems are often very complex and may contain many random variables, but Talagrand’s method of converting these systems into geometric problems allows us to extract useful values. can. “He is a master at getting accurate estimates, and he knows exactly what to add or subtract to get an accurate estimate,” he says. Helge HoldenChairman of the Abel Prize Committee.

Taragrand also developed mathematical tools and equations for systems that are random but exhibit some degree of predictability within that randomness, a statistical principle called concentration of measurements. His equation, known as the Taragrand inequality, can be used for many systems that exhibit concentration of measurements. Asaf Naor At Princeton University, he developed famous algorithmic puzzles such as the Traveling Salesman Problem. “Not only is he a great discoverer in his own right, but he is also an influence. He has provided the world with an amazing collection of insights and tools,” Naor says.

Perhaps inspired by his own work, Taragrand says he views his career as a random process. “It’s really scary when you look at your life and the important things that happened. They were determined by small random influences and there was no plan at all,” he says.

Although many of his works were general, he also had a particular interest in the mathematical basis of spin glasses. Spin glass is an unusual magnetic arrangement in which the atoms of a material can act like tiny magnets, pointing in random directions and exhibiting no apparent order. Repeating crystal structure in ordinary glass.

“This award is definitely well-deserved,” he says Giorgio Parisi from Sapienza University in Rome, Italy, won the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on spin glasses. Parisi and his colleagues first proposed a formula to describe these materials, named after Parisi, but it was not proven mathematically until the work of Taragrand and Italian physicist Francesco Guerra. . “It’s one thing to believe that a guess is correct, but it’s another to prove it. I believed it was a very difficult problem to prove,” Parisi says.

It also helped draw the field to the attention of other mathematicians, Parisi said. “This was a great proof and completely changed the game, because it was the starting point for a deeper understanding of the theory.”

For Taragrand, one of the keys to success was persistence. “You can’t learn mathematics easily. You have to work. It takes a lot of time and you have bad memories. You forget things. So despite these handicaps, I have to work. My way of working has always been to try to understand simple things really well.”

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

The top four discoveries from a significant new UN climate study

Posted on March 20, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has recently published a detailed report titled Current status of global climate in 2023, which synthesizes the latest scientific knowledge on climate change from the past year.

This report contains significant findings that shed light on the impact of human-induced climate change on the Earth. If you’re overwhelmed by the idea of reading through lengthy UN reports, fear not! We have highlighted some of the most fascinating and surprising discoveries for you.

1. Switzerland has lost 10 percent of its glaciers in the past two years

Glaciers are vital ecosystems formed when snow solidifies into ice in cold mountain regions. They flow slowly downhill, shaping the landscape as they move. Glaciers play a crucial role in the ecosystem by melting in the summer and nourishing rivers, providing essential water resources globally.

According to the WMO report, the unprecedented glacier loss in 2022-2023, primarily in North America and Europe, marks a record decline. Switzerland, in particular, has witnessed a distressing scenario with a 10 percent reduction in glacier volume over the past two years.

“The planet is warming, and the ice is melting, but seeing parts of the Alps lose 10 percent of their glacier volume in just two years is astonishing,” stated Professor Jonathan Bamber, Director of the Bristol Glaciology Center.

2. On any given day in 2023, a third of the oceans experienced a heatwave.

The record-breaking sea surface temperatures in Florida are just one example of ocean warming trends. The report highlights that a significant portion of the Earth’s stored energy since 1971 resides in the oceans, leading to increased heat content.

In 2023, ocean warming reached its highest level on record, with ocean heat content at a depth of 2,000 meters peaking. This trend is expected to persist for centuries, if not millennia.

As ocean temperatures rise, water expands and contributes to sea level rise. Ocean heatwaves are becoming more frequent, with marine heatwave coverage averaging 32 percent in 2023, compared to 23 percent in 2016.

3. The cost of inaction on climate change could be staggering.

Addressing climate change and adapting to its costs will require substantial investments. The WMO estimates that annual climate finance investments need to increase more than sixfold to limit temperature rise to 1.5°C, amounting to nearly $9 trillion by 2030 and an additional $10 trillion by 2050.

However, the report emphasizes that the cost of inaction would far exceed these figures. Failing to take action between 2025 and 2100 could incur a massive cost of $1,266 trillion.

The cost of inaction on climate change will exceed $1,000 trillion by 2100. – Image courtesy of Getty

Dr. David Lippin stressed the urgency of taking action, citing the report’s warning that inaction on climate change is more costly than proactive measures.

“The time to act is now, and the need for action is urgent,” emphasized Dr. Lippin, a professor at the School of Environmental Geography at York University.

4. Antarctic winter sea ice was 1 million km² below the previous record

The vulnerable polar regions experienced unprecedented changes in Antarctica this year. The report revealed that Antarctic sea ice extent hit a record low in February.

While Antarctic sea ice typically peaks around September, it reached a record low this year, falling up to 1 million km² below any previous level recorded – equivalent to the combined area of France and Spain.

Senior Researcher at the National Center for Atmospheric Science, Dr. Till Kuhlbrodt, described the findings as alarming, reflecting extreme climate and weather conditions unprecedented in modern records.

Despite these challenges, Professor Tina van de Flierdt, Head of Geosciences and Engineering at Imperial College London, emphasized the importance of immediate action to mitigate the loss of the West Antarctic ice sheet and reduce global emissions.

About our experts

Jonathan Bamber: A physicist specializing in Earth Observation data, particularly on the cryosphere. With over 200 peer-reviewed publications, he is recognized as a leading researcher in his field.

David Lippin: Senior Lecturer in Physical Geography at the University of York, focusing on glacier dynamics and ice sheet research using advanced techniques.

Till Kuhlbrodt: Senior Research Fellow at the University of Reading, leading models to support climate change mitigation efforts. His recent work on sea temperature extremes was published in the American Weather Society Bulletin.

Tina van de Flierdt: Dean of the School of Geosciences and Engineering at Imperial College London, with research interests in paleoceanography, paleoclimate, and Antarctic ice sheet dynamics.

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

Lab experiment suggests CRISPR can disable and treat HIV

Posted on March 20, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Electron micrograph of HIV, which currently requires lifelong medication

Scott Kamazin/Alamy Stock Photo

A new way to eradicate HIV from the body could one day become a cure for infection with the virus, but it has not yet been proven effective in humans.

The strategy uses a relatively new genetic technology called CRISPR, which can make cuts in DNA and introduce errors into the viral genetic material within immune cells. “These findings represent a vital advance toward the design of therapeutic strategies,” the researchers said. Elena Herrera Carrillo Researchers from the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands said in a statement.

HIV infection used to be almost always fatal, but now people with the virus can take drugs that stop the virus from replicating. Therefore, as long as you diligently take your medication every day, you can maintain a nearly normal lifespan.

But when a person is first infected, some of the virus inserts its DNA into immune cells, where it becomes dormant. When you stop taking your HIV medication, this DNA “reawakens” and the virus begins to spread again through your immune system.

For treatment, we need some way to kill the latent virus in the body. Several strategies have been tried, but so far none have been found to work.

The latest approach uses a gene editing system called CRISPR. Originally discovered in bacteria, it targets specific DNA sequences and makes cuts there. By changing the targeted DNA sequence, the system could be applied as a form of gene therapy for many conditions, and such treatments were launched in the US and UK last year as a treatment for sickle cell anemia. first approved.

Several groups are working with CRISPR to target HIV genes as a way to disable the dormant virus. Now, Carrillo and her team have shown that when tested on immune cells in a dish, the CRISPR system can neutralize all viruses and remove them from these cells. The work will be presented at European Conference on Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Next month in Barcelona, Spain.

Jonathan Stoy Researchers at London’s Francis Crick Institute say the results are encouraging, but the next step is testing in animals and eventually humans to ensure the treatment is available to all people with dormant HIV. The aim is to show that it can reach immune cells, he said. Some of these cells are thought to reside in the bone marrow, but other parts of the body may also be involved, he says. “There is still considerable uncertainty about whether there are other stores in other parts of the body,” he says.

A California company called Excision BioTherapeutics has previously shown that a CRISPR-based approach can: Reduce the amount of latent virus in monkeys infected with a virus similar to HIV.

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

Pompeii in England: Remarkably Preserved Bronze Age Village Offers Glimpse into Ancient Life

Posted on March 20, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

An intact ax with an intact handle was found under one of the burnt structures on the grounds of Mast Farm.

cambridge archaeological unit

The ruins of a Bronze Age settlement in eastern England have been beautifully preserved after being destroyed by fire 3000 years ago. Exploring the ruins provides an incredible snapshot of how the British lived at the time, from what people ate for breakfast to the tools they used to build their homes.

Archaeologists first discovered the ancient wooden pillars in 1999 at the Mast Farm quarry near the small town of Whittlesea. A subsequent small-scale study tried to figure out if there was anything interesting there, he said. chris wakefield at the University of York, UK. But it wasn’t until his 2015 that Wakefield and his colleagues conducted serious excavations at the site.

The research team discovered the structural remains of four large circular dwellings (usually wooden circular dwellings with conical thatched roofs) dating from 3,000 to 2,800 years ago. Tree stumps suggest that it was built on raised platforms connected by wooden walkways over a small river that flows through the area. Judging by the size of the waterway, there may have been about 10 roundhouses in the settlement, Wakefield said.

Tree-ring analysis of wood taken from the structure suggests that the settlement was destroyed a year after its construction, with the houses falling into the muddy waters below. Wakefield said the waterlogged, oxygen-depleted environment prevented the settlement from deteriorating, resulting in its unprecedented level of preservation. The charring of objects by fire also served as a protective layer against environmental decay. “Almost everything that was in these people’s homes at the time of the fire has been preserved and is still being discovered nearly 3,000 years later,” Wakefield said.

The way items fell into the mud provided clues as to the layout of each house. Stepping through the door, the kitchen area tended to be on the east side of the house, with the sleeping area to the northwest and the livestock pens to the southeast.

Chemical analysis of kitchen utensils such as pots, bowls, cups and jars suggests that the settlement’s prehistoric inhabitants probably ate porridge, cereals, honey and stews made from beef, mutton and fish. .

“This is the best evidence we have for understanding prehistoric diets and cooking methods,” he says. Rachel Pope At the University of Liverpool, UK. “This is the closest you will ever get to walking through the doorways of a 3,000-year-old roundhouse and finding out what life was like inside.”

Illustration depicting daily life at one of the mast farm structures

Judith Dobie/Historic England

A toolbox filled with axes, sickles, and razors was a staple in every household. “One of the most beautiful things one of my colleagues found was an amazing two-part axe,” Wakefield says. “What’s amazing about this particular design is that the ax head itself is inserted into an additional piece of wood that can be replaced.”

The clothes recovered at the scene had a lush, velvety feel and were made from the finest fibers produced in Europe at the time, Wakefield said. Decorative beads, which may have been used in necklaces, have also been found throughout the site, and likely came from elsewhere in Europe or the Middle East.

The settlement has been likened to the ancient Roman city of Pompeii, which was buried in ash after a volcanic eruption in 79 AD. “Archaeologists sometimes talk about Pompeii-like discoveries, moments where time stood still, and this is one of them. Burnt-out settlements offer evidence of the time just before and after the fire some 2,900 years ago. It gives us a detailed look into people’s lives in the months leading up to it.” michael parker pearson At University College London.

“Mast Farm is not a once-in-a-generation site. It is very likely that there will never be another site that tells more about Bronze Age Britain.” Richard Maggwick At Cardiff University, UK.

topic:

archeology/
ancient humans

Source: www.newscientist.com

The human brain remains mysteriously intact after thousands of years

Posted on March 20, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

A 1,000-year-old human brain unearthed from a churchyard in Ypres, Belgium.The tissue folds, which are still soft and wet, are stained orange with iron oxide.

Alexandra L. Morton Hayward

Studies of human brains that have been naturally preserved for hundreds or thousands of years have identified 1,300 cases in which the organ survived when all other soft tissue had decomposed. Some of these brains are over 12,000 years old.

“This type of brain is the only one with preserved soft tissue and has been found in sunken ships and flooded graves with only floating bones.” alexandra morton hayward at Oxford University. “It's really, really weird.”

“To be honest, we don't expect the brain to be preserved in any environment,” she says. “As an archaeologist, if you were to dig a grave and find a brain rattling inside a skull, you would be shocked. But you don't expect soft tissue to be preserved, especially in a waterlogged environment. yeah.”

Morton-Hayward first became interested in brain preservation while working as a mortician. “The brain is known to be one of the first organs to decompose after death. I saw it liquefy pretty quickly. But I also saw it preserved.” she says.

Many researchers point out that the human brain is preserved more often than expected and in surprising circumstances, says Morton-Hayward. Now, she and her colleagues are conducting the first-ever systematic study of this phenomenon. They compiled a database of more than 4,400 preserved human brains found around the world.

They also collected and studied many preserved brains themselves. “We actually put it in an MRI machine, and that was a terrible mistake. We didn't know how much iron was in there,” says Morton Hayward.

In most cases, brain preservation can be explained by known processes. For example, the brains of sacrificial Incas buried atop volcanoes in South America around 1450 AD were freeze-dried along with the bodies, Morton-Hayward said.

2,400 years ago, the bodies and brains of swamp people like Tollundman, who was hanged and dumped in a swamp in what is now Denmark, were preserved through a tanning process similar to that used for leather.

Saponification, in which fatty substances are turned into a soap form called grave wax, also preserved the brains of some people who were shot and buried in mass graves in 1936 during the Spanish Civil War.

However, the known process preserves all soft tissue, not just the brain. They do not account for the 1300 cases in which the brain is the only surviving soft tissue.

“This unknown mechanism is completely different,” says Morton-Hayward. “The key feature of this device is that only the brain and bones remain. There is no skin, no muscle, and no intestines.”

For example, St. Hedwig of Silesia was buried in Poland in 1243. When her body was exhumed in the 17th century, it was discovered that her brain was preserved, and at the time it was thought to be due to divine powers.

Alexandra Morton Hayward holds a preserved 1000-year-old brain

graham poulter

Morton-Hayward's working hypothesis is that under certain circumstances, substances such as iron can catalyze the formation of cross-links between proteins and lipids, forming more stable molecules that resist degradation. The nature or ratio of proteins and lipids in the brain may be key.

“The mechanisms are similar to those seen in neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia,” she says. “So if we can understand what happens to the brain after death, we may be able to understand what happens to the brain as it ages during life.”

“It's great news that the data is being made public,” he says. brittany moeller He is one of the researchers at James Cook University in Melbourne, Australia who discovered that: Brain preservation is more common than thought. “This may raise researchers' awareness of the possibility of preserving brain material,” she says.

This is important because preserved brains are often the same color as the surrounding soil. “Therefore, it is very likely that brain material is not recognized for what it is and is frequently discarded during archaeological excavations,” Moller says.

Although this study focused on the human brain, the findings should also apply to animals. Morton Hayward says there are at least 700 examples of animal brains preserved as fossils, the oldest of which he says is an arthropod from 500 million years ago.

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

What is neuromodulation and how does it work?

How technology can slow aging

Is neuromodulation safe?

Is this your first pig kidney transplant?

When was the surgery performed?

Where do pig kidneys come from?

What do we know about the recipient?

Have xenotransplant surgeries involving other organs been performed?

location, location, location

How to photograph a total solar eclipse using a smartphone

solar eclipse 2024

How to photograph a total solar eclipse with a camera

How to take photos of a partial solar eclipse

Who was Neuralink’s first patient?

What does the implant contain?

Does this mean the first human trials were successful?

Who else is working on brain implants?

When will Neuralink be available and how much will it cost?

children’s victory

celebratory sex

Timeliness of time

unread, non-existent

1. Switzerland has lost 10 percent of its glaciers in the past two years

2. On any given day in 2023, a third of the oceans experienced a heatwave.

3. The cost of inaction on climate change could be staggering.

4. Antarctic winter sea ice was 1 million km2 below the previous record

About our experts

4. Antarctic winter sea ice was 1 million km² below the previous record