New Findings Reveal Europa’s Ice Shell is Significantly Thicker Than Previously Believed

Posted on January 29, 2026 by Igor Mitreski

Recent microwave measurements from NASA’s Juno spacecraft indicate that Europa’s icy shell could extend nearly 29 kilometers (18 miles) deep, significantly altering planetary scientists’ understanding of how this intriguing moon facilitates the exchange of vital chemicals between its hidden ocean and surface.

Artist’s concept showing a cross-section of Europa’s icy shell. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / Koji Kuramura / Gerald Eichstädt.

Europa has captivated planetary scientists for over 40 years.

The question of whether Jupiter’s icy moons can support life has sparked extensive debate among researchers.

Interest in Europa’s potential habitability surged when NASA’s Galileo spacecraft revealed an ocean of saline water beneath its icy crust, complemented by surface cracks.

On September 29, 2022, NASA’s Juno spacecraft flew by Europa at an altitude of 360 km (220 miles).

During this flyby, Juno’s Microwave Radiometer (MWR), which is primarily designed to analyze Jupiter’s atmosphere, gathered brightness temperature data at various depths within Europa’s icy crust.

Juno project scientist Steve Levin and his team utilized this MWR data to conclude that the icy shell averages approximately 29 kilometers in thickness.

“The estimated thickness of 29 km pertains to the cold, dense, electrically conductive outer layer of Europa’s water ice shell,” Dr. Levin stated.

“If a slightly warmer convective layer exists beneath, the total thickness could be even greater.”

“Conversely, if the ice shell contains a moderate amount of dissolved salts, as some models suggest, the thickness could decrease by around 5 km (3 miles).”

“A thicker shell implies that oxygen and nutrients have longer distances to travel to connect Europa’s surface with its subsurface ocean, as indicated by the MWR data.”

Understanding this exchange process is crucial for future studies on Europa’s habitability.

Furthermore, MWR data shed light on the composition of Europa’s subsurface ice.

This technology uncovered “scatterers,” irregularities such as cracks, pores, and voids that scatter microwaves reflected off the ice.

These scatterers, estimated to be only a few inches in diameter, are believed to extend hundreds of feet below the surface.

The small size and shallow depth of these features suggest they are unlikely to serve as significant pathways for transporting oxygen and nutrients from the surface to the salty ocean beneath.

“The thickness of the ice shell, along with the presence of cracks and pores, adds complexity to our understanding of Europa’s potential for habitability,” remarked Scott Bolton, Ph.D., Juno’s principal investigator at the Southwest Research Institute.

“These findings provide essential context for NASA’s Europa Clipper and ESA’s Juice missions, both en route to the Jupiter system.”

“The Europa Clipper is expected to arrive in 2030, followed by Juice the next year.”

The team’s new results were published in the Journal on December 17, 2025, in Nature Astronomy.

_____

S.M. Levin et al. 2026. Characterization of Europa’s ice thickness and subsurface structure using the Juno microwave radiometer. Nat Astron 10, 84-91; doi: 10.1038/s41550-025-02718-0

Source: www.sci.news

Why Scientists Originally Believed the Platypus Was a Hoax: Unraveling the Mystery

Posted on December 25, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

European scientists first discovered the platypus due to its unique fur and anatomy. A sketch sent from Australia in 1798 left them in disbelief.

This specimen was so extraordinary that British zoologist George Shaw initially deemed it impossible, stating there was no reason to doubt its authenticity.

Could a prankster have stitched a duck’s beak onto a beaver’s body? To verify, Shaw meticulously examined the specimen for seams, but none were found. Thus, he became the first person to officially describe the animal, naming it platypus anatinus, originally referred to as “duck-like flat feet.” Over time, the classification evolved to Ornithorhynchus anatinus, meaning “duck-billed platypus.”

The platypus resembles a whimsical creation from a children’s book, combining features from various animals. It has a duck’s beak, an otter’s body, and a beaver’s tail. Notably, it lays eggs like birds while nursing its young with milk, a trait shared with mammals.

After extensive research and debate, scientists classified the platypus as a primitive type of mammal known as monotremes.

The term “monotreme” comes from the Greek word for “single opening,” referring to a multifunctional orifice, or “cloaca,” utilized for excretion, reproduction, and laying eggs.

The platypus is among five living monotreme species, along with four echidna species, all of which lay eggs instead of giving live birth.

Image of a platypus swimming – Males possess hollow spurs on their hind legs to inject venom. Image courtesy of Getty Images

The female platypus lays two small, leathery eggs in a breeding burrow, typically surrounded by grass. After around ten days, the platypus hatchlings, known as “

About the size of a butterbean, these hatchlings are born blind and hairless, making them entirely dependent on their mother.

For the next four months, she nourishes them with rich, nutritious milk that she secretes through special pores on her hairless abdomen, which they lap up from her fur.

Furthermore, the platypus’ beak is equipped with special receptor cells that detect electric signals generated by prey movements, including crustaceans and insect larvae.

Untypically for mammals, the platypus is also venomous. Males utilize their hollow spurs to inject venom into rivals to attract female attention.

In terms of swimming style, platypuses differ from river otters, which use all four legs for propulsion or beavers that use their hind legs and tail. Instead, platypuses swim by paddling solely with their front feet, using their tails and webbed hind legs primarily for steering.

If that wasn’t strange enough, consider the platypus genome.

Unlike most mammals that have two sex chromosomes, the platypus has ten, along with genes typical of mammals, genes from reptiles, and some entirely unique genes.

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us at: questions@sciencefocus.com, or send us a message on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. (Remember to include your name and location.)

Explore our ultimate fun facts and discover more amazing science content!

Read more:

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

New Evidence Shows Humans Mastered Fire 400,000 Years Ago, Earlier Than Previously Believed

Posted on December 10, 2025 by

“This site, dating back 400,000 years, represents the earliest known evidence of fire not just in Britain and Europe but across the globe,” stated Nick Ashton, co-author of the study and curator at the British Museum. He noted that this discovery pushes back the timeline of when our ancestors might have first harnessed fire by approximately 350,000 years.

Researchers are uncertain about the uses of fire by these hominin ancestors. They may have roasted meat, crafted tools, or shared narratives under its glow.

Understanding when our ancestors mastered the use of fire is crucial to unraveling the complexities of human evolution and behavior.

One hypothesis suggests that the ability to start fire contributed to the increase in brain size among early humans, as cooking facilitates easier digestion and boosts caloric intake. Another theory posits that controlling fire may have fostered social gathering spots at night, boosting social behavior and cognitive evolution.

“We know brain size was increasing towards its current capacity during this period,” remarked Chris Stringer, research head in human evolution at London’s Natural History Museum and another author of the Nature study. “The brain is energetically costly, consuming about 20 percent of the body’s energy. Thus, the ability to use fire enhances nutrient absorption from food, provides energy for the brain, and allows for the evolution of larger brains.”

Stringer emphasized that this finding does not signify the beginning of fire usage among humans but is merely the earliest instance researchers can confidently point to. Other early indications of fire use have been found in regions of South Africa, Israel, and Kenya, though these are contentious and open to interpretation.

From an archaeological standpoint, it’s challenging to ascertain the cause of wildfires or whether they were initiated by humans.

“The key question is whether they collected it from a natural source, managed it, or created it themselves. On the surface, this appears to be a robust case suggesting that the group knew how to start fires,” noted Dennis Sandogyas, a senior lecturer in the archaeology department at Simon Fraser University in Canada, who was not part of the study.

In the recent Nature study, researchers highlight the presence of deposits with fire residue, fire-cracked stone tools including a flint hatchet, and two small fragments of pyrite likely brought to the site by humans for fire-making, as indicated by geological analysis.

The prehistoric hatchet stone tool was discovered near a 400,000-year-old fire site that researchers believe was frequently used by Neanderthals.
Road to Ancient Britain Project

Other outside researchers expressed skepticism.

Much of the evidence presented is “circumstantial,” wrote Will Loebloeks, a professor emeritus of paleolithic archaeology at Leiden University in the Netherlands, in an email.

Lowbrokes pointed out that later Neanderthal sites, dating to around 50,000 years ago, showed flint tools with wear signs indicating they had been struck against pyrite to produce sparks, an indication of humans creating fire. This evidence isn’t present in the current study.

“While the authors conducted thorough analysis of the Burnham data, they seem to be overstating claims by suggesting this is the ‘earliest evidence of a fire outbreak,'” Lobruks noted.

For our ancestors, fire was vital for warmth, nutrition, deterring predators, and even melting resins used in adhesives.

However, Sandgate emphasized that the evolution of fire-starting is not a straightforward path; it included sporadic adaptations and innovations. Evidence exists that early groups who learned to create fire sometimes lost that ability or ceased its use for cultural reasons.

“We must be cautious not to generalize any single instance … as proof that from this moment forward everyone will know how to start a fire,” Sandogyas remarked, referencing nearly 100 modern hunter-gatherer groups that have been meticulously observed. Some lacked the ability to generate fire.

“It’s probable that the art of fire-making was discovered, lost, rediscovered, and lost again across various groups over time. Its history is undoubtedly intricate.”

Source: www.nbcnews.com

Carbon storage might be only a tenth as effective in fighting climate change as previously believed.

Posted on September 3, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Recent research indicates that the ability to safely store carbon is significantly lower than earlier estimates, being only a tenth of what was initially predicted. This finding constraints its viability as a solution to the climate crisis.

New estimates, published in Nature, reveal that carbon capture could lower global warming by just 0.7°C, a stark contrast to the previously estimated 6°C.

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) involves capturing carbon dioxide (CO)₂ from the environment or industrial processes, transporting it, and storing it deep underground to prevent greenhouse gas emissions.

The study cautions that many areas once considered suitable for CCS may pose significant risks. Concerns such as leaks, seismic activity, and water contamination could render numerous potential sites unsafe.

The researchers conducted an extensive analysis of local mapping areas for viable carbon storage locations. Their findings suggest that, in reality, CCS can store only about 146 billion tonnes of CO.₂, approximately 10 times less than previously thought.

“Carbon storage is often framed as a solution to the climate crisis,” stated the lead author, Matthew Guido, a senior researcher at IIASA and the University of Maryland, USA. “Our findings indicate that its effectiveness is limited.”

“With current trends hinting at a potential rise of up to 3°C this century, even maximizing the available geological storage won’t suffice to limit warming to 2°C.”

Co-author Jori Rogelgi, a senior researcher and director at the Grantham Institute, emphasized that carbon storage should not be perceived as an endless solution for climate preservation.

“Instead, geological storage sites should be viewed as a precious resource that must be managed responsibly to ensure a safe climate future for humanity,” he remarked. “It should be employed to halt and counteract global warming rather than wastefully offset ongoing, preventable CO.₂ emissions.”

Trees naturally absorb carbon, while carbon storage technology responsibly hides carbon deep underground – Credit: A. Martin UW Photos

The study also suggests that nations like the US, Russia, China, Brazil, and Australia, as major fossil fuel producers, might benefit from utilizing depleted oil and gas fields for carbon storage.

“This issue transcends mere technology,” remarked co-author Siddharth Joshi, a research scholar at IIASA. “It encompasses concepts of transgenerational and national justice.”

“Countries with the highest historical emissions should lead in utilizing this resource wisely as they hold the most practical carbon storage options.”

Experts not involved in this research are currently debating the accuracy of the paper’s figures and their implications for the future of carbon storage as astrategy to mitigate the climate crisis.

However, Professor Carrie Leah, a climate scientist at Cardiff University who was not part of the study, stated that the finite nature of carbon storage should redirect focus towards reducing fossil fuel usage.

“There is no solitary solution to climate mitigation,” Leah noted. “It’s akin to a pie comprised of multiple slices.

“This study illustrates that the CCS portion of the pie is significantly smaller than previously believed, highlighting the urgent need to address the larger slices of fossil fuel reduction.”

Read more:

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

Human eggs accumulate fewer mutations than previously believed.

Posted on August 7, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Like all cells, human eggs are subject to mutations

CC Studio/Science Photo Library

Research indicates that human eggs may be shielded from certain types of mutations associated with aging. In a recent study, scientists discovered that as women age, there are no signs of accumulating mutations in the mitochondrial DNA of their egg cells.

“When we consider age-related mutations, we typically think about older individuals having more mutations compared to younger ones,” notes Kateryna Makova from Pennsylvania State University. “However, this assumption doesn’t always hold true.”

Mitochondria, which provide the primary energy source for the body’s cells, are inherited solely from the mother. While mitochondrial DNA mutations are generally benign, they can sometimes result in complications that impact muscles and neurons, particularly due to their high energy demands. “Oocytes” [egg cells] serve as this biological reservoir,” explains Ruth Lehmann from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who was not part of this study.

Prior research has shown that older mothers tend to pass down more chromosomal mutations, leading to the general assumption that a similar pattern exists with mitochondrial DNA mutations. To investigate this, Makova and her team utilized DNA sequencing to identify new mutations across 80 eggs sourced from 22 women aged 20 to 42 years.

The findings revealed that mitochondrial mutations in female eggs do not actually escalate with advancing age, unlike those found in salivary and blood cells. “It seems we have evolved a mechanism that mitigates the accumulation of mutations, allowing for their replication later in life,” remarks Makova.

Previous research has indicated that mitochondrial DNA mutations in macaque eggs showed an increase while their reproductive capacity remained stable until the animal reached about nine years of age. “It would be worthwhile to also study younger women. This could apply to humans as well,” comments team member Barbara Arbetuber from Penn State University.

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

Water Could Be Even More Crucial for Alien Life Than Previously Believed

Posted on July 15, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

The alien world found in their “habitable zone” of their stars may not be suitable for life yet

pandorumbs/alamy

Recent findings suggest the potential number of planets capable of supporting alien life may be fewer than previously assumed, largely due to advances in understanding planetary climates. When carbon dioxide levels in an atmosphere surpass a critical threshold, conditions can become inhospitable.

Life as we know it requires liquid water, prompting astronomers to target “habitable zones” around stars—regions where temperatures allow for water to exist in liquid form. However, Haskelle White-Gianella from the University of Washington and her research team have revealed that having liquid water alone does not guarantee habitability.

The researchers conducted nearly 10,000 simulations to determine how CO₂ levels fluctuate based on surface water amounts on planets that are Earth-sized. Their results indicate that at least 20% of Earth’s total water must be present for a planet to be potentially habitable.

This is largely due to the role rainfall plays in carbon storage within the ground through chemical reactions in rocks; insufficient rainfall could lead to CO₂ accumulation in the atmosphere, trapping heat and rapidly increasing temperatures beyond 126°C (259°F).

“We discovered that there exists a water threshold essential for maintaining a stable climate,” White-Gianella stated during the Goldschmidt Geochemical Conference in Prague, Czech Republic, on July 10.

This indicates that simply being in a habitable zone does not guarantee that a planet can support life, according to White-Gianella, necessitating a deeper examination of geological histories.

A parallel situation may elucidate how Venus transformed into the inhospitable environment we observe today, White-Gianella shared at the conference. While the increase in the sun’s brightness since the solar system’s inception is believed to contribute to Venus’ atmospheric changes and temperature rise, it alone doesn’t account for all observed transformations. By re-running models with a Venus-like amount of starlight, the team found that even planets with water levels similar to Earth’s could lose too much CO₂, leading to uninhabitability.

This provides a compelling rationale for how planets similar to Venus can become excessively hot, as noted by Benjamin Tutoro from the University of Calgary in Canada. Over time, reductions in CO₂ emissions complicate planetary climates, as recorded in geological data from Mars.

In the case of Mars, liquid water attracted carbon dioxide and sequestered it as carbonate minerals, which ultimately thinned its atmosphere and cooled the planet, according to Tutoro. White-Gianella stated that the team’s simulations focused on Earth-like planets, agreeing that conditions on planets like Mars could differ significantly.

Topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

Keylistbones Emerged in Bird Ancestors Millions of Years Earlier Than Previously Believed

Posted on July 15, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

A group of paleontologists from Yale University and Stony Brook University made a significant discovery while studying dinosaur fossils, including two bird species found in the Gobi Desert, Mongolia.

This scene illustrates the oviraptorid dinosaur Citipati appearing astonished as it rests on sand dunes. The creature raises its arms in a threat display, exposing its wrists and emphasizing the small, relocated, closed carpal bones (highlighted in blue x-ray). Image credit: Henry S. Sharp.

For years, the identity of a particular carpal bone in the bird’s wrist was a scientific enigma, until researchers determined it functioned as a trap.

This bone, originally resembling a kneecap-like sesame bone, shifted from its original position in the wrist, replacing another carpal bone known as Urna.

Positions in modern birds indicate a link that enables the bird to automatically fold its wings when it bends.

The bone’s large V-shaped notch allows for the alignment of hand bones to prevent dislocation during flight.

Consequently, this bone plays a crucial role in the bird’s forelimb and is integral for flight.

“The carpal bone in modern birds is a rare wrist bone that initially forms within muscle tendons, resembling knee-like bones, but eventually takes the place of the ‘normal’ wrist bones known as Urna,” commented one researcher.

“It is closely associated with the muscle tissue of the arm, linking flying muscle movement to wrist articulation when integrated into the wrist.”

“This integration is particularly vital for wing stabilization during flight.”

In their recent study, Dr. Bhullar and his team analyzed two Late Cretaceous fossils: Troodontid (birds of prey, related to Velociraptor) and citipati cf. osmorusca (an oviraptorid with a long neck and beakless jaw).

“We were fortunate to have two rigorously preserved theropod wrists for this analysis,” said Alex Rubenstal, a paleontologist from Yale University.

“The wrist bones are small and well-preserved, but they tend to shift during decay and preservation, complicating their position for interpretation.”

“Observing this small bone in its correct position enabled me to thoroughly interpret the fossil wrists we had on hand, as well as those from previous studies.”

“James Napoli, a vertebrate paleontologist and evolutionary biologist at Stony Brook University, noted:

“While it’s unclear how many times dinosaurs learned to fly, it’s fascinating that experiments with flight appear only after they adapted to the wrist joint.”

“This adaptation may have established an automated mechanism found in present-day birds, although further research on dinosaur wrist bones is necessary to validate this hypothesis.”

Placing their findings within an evolutionary framework, the authors concluded that it was not merely birds but rather theropod dinosaurs that underwent the confinement of this adaptation by the origin of Penalaptra, a group of theropods that includes Dromaeosaurids and Oviraptorosaurs like Velociraptor.

Overall, this group of dinosaurs exhibited bird-like features, including the emergence of feathered wings, indicating that flight evolved at least twice, if not up to five times.

“The evolutionary replacement of Urna was a gradual process occurring much deeper in history than previously understood,” stated the researchers.

“In recent decades, our understanding of theropod dinosaur anatomy and evolution has expanded significantly, revealing many classical ‘bird-like’ traits such as thin-walled bones, larger brains, and feathers.

“Our findings suggest that avian construction is consistent with a topological pattern traced back to the origin of Penalaptra.”

The team’s paper was published in the journal Nature on July 9, 2025.

____

JG Napoli et al. Theropod wrist reorganization preceded the origins of bird flight. Nature, Published online on July 9, 2025. doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09232-3

Source: www.sci.news

Antidepressant Withdrawal Symptoms Might Be Less Prevalent Than Believed

Posted on July 9, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Withdrawal symptoms from antidepressants can include nausea and headaches.

Savushkin/Getty Images

SEI 258421425 — Withdrawal symptoms from antidepressants can include nausea and headaches.

Savushkin/Getty Images

While antidepressant withdrawal symptoms may not be as frequent as presumed with short-term usage, inquiries persist regarding the impact on individuals ceasing the medication after prolonged periods.

Individuals utilizing antidepressants for conditions like depression, anxiety, or phobias might experience withdrawal effects lasting several weeks, such as nausea, headaches, anxiety, and more. Though physicians may caution patients about this potentiality, the frequency of occurrence remains uncertain.

To delve deeper, Sameyer Jauhar from Imperial College London and his research team examined 49 randomized controlled trials concerning antidepressant consumption. They initially focused on a subgroup of studies tracking withdrawal symptoms experienced a week after discontinuation of antidepressants, in comparison to those on placebo or ongoing antidepressant treatment. The findings revealed that individuals who ceased the medication reported one additional symptom compared to those in the other groups.

In further analysis, the researchers scrutinized another subset of studies that observed the types of withdrawal symptoms faced by participants after stopping antidepressant or placebo tablets. Dizziness emerged as the most prevalent symptom, followed by nausea, tension or irritability.

Specifically, 7.5% of the antidepressant users experienced dizziness, compared to just 1.8% in the placebo cohort. Nausea, tension or irritability, and dizziness were reported by fewer than 5% of users in the antidepressant group, with under 2% in the placebo cohort.

These statistics are significantly lower than past projections for withdrawal symptoms. A review from 2019 reported that over half of individuals had faced symptoms, although this data stemmed from online surveys that might attract those experiencing more severe reactions. Michael Browning from Oxford University commented.

Another study published last year indicated that 31% of participants reported withdrawal symptoms, in contrast to 17% from the placebo group. However, specifics regarding the symptoms experienced were not detailed, mentioned Jauhar.

Susanna Murphy at Oxford University believes the recent reviews tackle these issues effectively. “This is essential for the field as it compiles and synthesizes data from many robust studies with a broader participant base compared to previous ones,” she stated.

Conversely, John Reed from East London University noted that most trials in the review focused on individuals who took antidepressants for only 8 to 12 weeks and pointed out that many patients remain on these medications for years. “There’s a notable correlation between the duration of antidepressant use and the likelihood of withdrawal symptoms, thus short-term studies may not adequately reflect actual outcomes,” he explained.

Therefore, they emphasize the necessity for further research to understand the implications of long-term use. Mark Horowitz from University College London illustrated this by saying, “It’s akin to crashing a car into a wall at 5 kilometers per hour and declaring it safe while ignoring that real-world driving speeds can reach 60 kilometers per hour.”

Topics:

Source: www.newscientist.com

Study Reveals Cambrian Explosions Happened Millions of Years Sooner Than Previously Believed

Posted on June 27, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Paleontologists have studied the body shapes of Ediacaran Cambrian organisms by utilizing trace fossils as a stand-in for body fossils.

Reconstruction of early Cambrian marine life in southern China. Image credit: Dongjing Fu.

The Cambrian explosion is often referred to as a pivotal period in Earth’s history when distinct animal body plans emerged.

Most researchers indicate that this event took place between 541 and 530 million years ago, marking the onset of the Cambrian period.

“The Cambrian explosion represents a significant era in the history of life that poses numerous unresolved questions,” stated Dr. Olmo Miguez Saras from the University of Barcelona at the Museum of Natural History in London, alongside Dr. Zekun Wang.

“In investigating biodiversity during this period, paleontological studies primarily concentrate on organisms with hard structures.”

“Nevertheless, microfossil investigations open avenues for understanding the activities of hard, soft-bodied, or skeletal-deficient organisms preserved in stratigraphic records.”

“The microfossil evidence is essential for shedding light on the evolutionary phases dominated by soft-bodied faunas.”

“Fossil traces mirror the behaviors of habitat-forming organisms, determined by their environment and reactions to ecological factors.”

“Consequently, these traces act as indicators of the paleoecological conditions experienced by the organisms that produced them.”

In their research, the authors concentrated on trace fossils from the Ediacaran-Cambrian transition, a period of great paleobiological interest that represents a pivotal moment in the evolution of complex life on Earth.

This transition experienced substantial shifts in biodiversity as well as the structure of organisms and ecosystems.

“The Ediacaran fauna consisted mainly of complex, multicellular, flexible organisms,” noted Dr. Miguez Saras.

“The shift to the Cambrian era involved numerous extinctions within the Ediacaran fauna, accompanied by a rapid diversification of complex multicellular organisms possessing hard structures (e.g., exoskeletons).”

“This encapsulates the core of evolutionary development that led to the emergence of the most modern animal phyla, commonly referred to as the Cambrian Explosion.”

The research indicates that slender-bodied organisms thrived around 545 million years ago during the Ediacaran period.

“These organisms likely possessed a coelomic hydrostatic body with an anteroposterior axis, muscles, and perhaps segmented structures,” Dr. Miguez Saras explained.

“Additionally, these organisms may have exhibited directional movement and possessed sensory capabilities to navigate and feed on diverse substrates in environments dominated by microbial mats.”

“Thus, the so-called Cambrian explosion and its evolutionary significance could have arisen significantly earlier than previously thought.”

“These adaptations in body shape and mobility facilitated early animals in thriving within increasingly dynamic and complex environments, an ecological engineering process that could spur evolutionary innovation.”

The team’s study is slated for publication in the journal Geological.

____

Zekun Wang & Olmo Miguez-Salas. Quantitative decoding of Ediacaran Motion Microfossil Morphology: Evidence for the appearance of elongated anteroposterior body profiles. Geological Published online on June 9th, 2025. doi: 10.1130/g53332.1

Source: www.sci.news

The Ancient Mammoth Task Boomerang is Twice as Old as Previously Believed

Posted on June 26, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Ancient artifacts crafted from mammoth tusks are the earliest recognized boomerangs

Talamo et al., 2025, PLOS One, CC-BY 4.0

The earliest known boomerang could be over 22,000 years older than previously believed, indicating it was crafted during a time when early humans exhibited a rise in artistic expression.

In 1985, archaeologists discovered a 72-centimeter ivory boomerang buried beneath six layers of sediment within the Obwazwa Cave in Poland. Further analysis of sediment revealed bone beads from Homo sapiens, made from nearby thumb bones, antlers, fox teeth, and pendants. In the 1990s, radiocarbon dating estimated the thumbs to be 31,000 years old, while surprisingly, the boomerang dated only to 18,000 years ago—thousands of years younger than the associated crafts.

Sarataramo at the University of Bologna suspects contamination. “Even minor amounts of modern carbon from adhesives and maintenance can skew radiocarbon dates by tens of thousands of years,” she explains. The analysis of carbon-nitrogen ratios in the thumbs indicated collagen changes, suggesting that the samples were not suitable for reliable radiocarbon dating.

Redoing the dating on the contaminated boomerang would have wasted resources and unnecessarily harmed significant artifacts, according to Taramo. Instead, she and her team re-dated the human thumb bones and 13 nearby animal bones, using statistical modeling to reconstruct the timeline. Their findings indicated that the entire sediment layer—along with the boomerangs and thumb bones—dated to approximately 39,000 to 42,000 years ago.

“In a way, this serves as a reminder for museums; if you discover something extraordinary, avoid covering it with glue or any repair materials prior to completing thorough analysis,” she asserts.

This new timeline suggests that the ivory boomerang predates the second oldest known wooden boomerang created by Australian Indigenous peoples. Unlike other simpler throwing tools, like the 300,000-year-old wooden artifact found in Schoningen, Germany, the boomerang has a curved, aerodynamic design, although it may not always return when thrown, according to Taramo.

While it’s likely that these ancient boomerangs could fly, their size and construction likely meant they did not return to the thrower. They may have held symbolic or ritual significance, potentially related to their placement alongside the thumb bones within a decorative stone ring, which featured intricate carvings and reddish pigments, along with a smooth polished surface.

This discovery provides insight into the cognitive abilities and craftsmanship of early humans during a remarkable period of artistic growth, known as the early Aulignacian, which began around 40,000 years ago. This era saw the emergence of iconic artifacts, including mammoth ivory figurines, rock art, and aesthetically refined tools in Europe, notes Taramo.

Topics:

Source: www.newscientist.com

AI Analysis Suggests Some Dead Sea Scrolls Are Older Than Previously Believed

Posted on June 5, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Characterized by pale greening, a timeline of ancient handwritten manuscripts—like the scroll of death—is vital for reconstructing the progression of ideas. However, there is an almost complete absence of manuscripts with dates. To address this challenge, an international team of researchers developed an AI-driven date prediction model named Enoch, inspired by biblical figures.

Dead Sea Scroll 4Q7, fragment Genesis Wadi Qumran Cave4. ImageCredit: Ketefhinnomfan.

While some ancient manuscripts include dates, facilitating precise dating by archaeologists, many do not provide this information.

Researchers can estimate the age of certain undated manuscripts by analyzing the evolution of handwriting styles, but this requires a sufficient number of manuscripts with known dates for creating an accurate timeline.

In the recent study, the University of Groningen and Dr. Mladen Popović assessed the historical periods of manuscripts from various locations in contemporary Israel and the West Bank through radiocarbon dating and utilized machine learning to explore the handwriting styles of each document.

By merging these two datasets, they developed the Enoch program, which objectively estimates the approximate age range by comparing handwriting styles from other manuscripts in the area.

To validate the program, ancient handwriting specialists reviewed age estimates for 135 Ennochs from the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Experts concluded that around 79% of the AI-generated estimates were credible, while the remaining 21% were considered too old, too young, or uncertain.

Enoch has already aided researchers in uncovering new insights about these ancient manuscripts.

For instance, both Enoch and radiocarbon dating techniques estimated an older age for more Dead Sea scrolls compared to traditional handwriting analyses.

“While additional data and further investigation could enhance our understanding of the timeline, our findings offer novel perspectives on the creation periods of these documents,” the researchers stated.

“The Enoch tool serves as a gateway to an ancient world, akin to a time machine, permitting the exploration of biblical handwritten texts.

“It is thrilling to establish significant steps in developing new tools that can tackle the dating challenges of the Dead Sea Scrolls and examine other partially dated manuscript collections from history.”

“This achievement would not have been feasible without collaboration across diverse scientific fields and genuine teamwork.”

A paper detailing this study was published in the journal PLOS 1.

____

M. Popovich et al. 2025. Dating ancient manuscripts using radiocarbon and AI-based writing style analysis. PLOS 1 20 (6): E0323185; doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0323185

Source: www.sci.news

Scientists Reveal That Objects in Our Universe Dissipate Faster Than Previously Believed

Posted on May 14, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

A 2023 study by Professor Haino Falk and his team at Ladbou University revealed that not just black holes, but all cosmic entities can “evaporate” through a mechanism akin to Hawking radiation. Following the publication, the researchers were inundated with inquiries regarding the duration of this process. Their latest findings estimate that the universe’s conclusion is approximately 10⁷⁸ years away. If only radiation, similar to Hawking radiation, is taken into account, the timeline shortens to just a few years. This represents the time required for a white dwarf—the most stable astronomical object—to collapse through a Hawking-like radiation process. Previous research, which overlooked this effect, had estimated the lifespan of white dwarfs to be around 10¹¹⁰⁰ years.

An artistic depiction of neutron stars undergoing gradual ‘evaporation’ through Hawking-like radiation. Image credits: Daniëlle Futselaar/Artsource.nl.

“Thus, the ultimate conclusion of the universe will arrive significantly sooner than anticipated; however, rest assured, it will still take an incredibly long time,” noted Professor Falk.

In 1975, physicist Stephen Hawking proposed that particles and radiation could escape black holes, challenging the conventional framework of relativity.

Near the edge of a black hole, two transient particles emerge; one gets drawn into the black hole while the other successfully escapes.

A notable outcome of Hawking radiation is the gradual disintegration of black holes into particles and radiation.

This finding stands in opposition to Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity.

Professor Falk and his co-authors determined that the process of Hawking radiation applies to various objects with theoretically significant gravitational fields.

Their further calculations indicated that the “evaporation time” for an object is contingent entirely upon its density.

Surprisingly, neutron stars and stellar black holes have an identical decay time of 10⁶⁷ years.

This result was unexpected, given that black holes possess a more intense gravitational field.

“However, black holes lack a surface,” remarked Dr. Michael Wandrack, a postdoctoral researcher at Radboud University.

“They reabsorb parts of their own radiation, which inhibits the process.”

“We also explored how long it would take for humans and the moon to evaporate via Hawking-like radiation: about 10⁹⁰ years,” the researcher added.

“Naturally, other mechanisms could lead to faster disappearance for humans and the moon.”

“This research exemplifies an exciting interdisciplinary collaboration, merging astrophysics, quantum physics, and mathematics to yield new insights,” stated Professor Walter Van Suisilecom from Radboud University.

“By pursuing these inquiries and examining extreme scenarios, we aim to enhance our understanding of the theory. Hopefully, one day, we will unravel the enigma surrounding Hawking radiation.”

The new paper is set to be published in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics.

____

Haino Falke et al. 2025. The lifetime limit of the star remnants from gravity pair generation. jcap in press; Arxiv: 2410.14734

Source: www.sci.news

Venus Might Have More Surface Geologic Activity Than Previously Believed

Posted on April 1, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

It is called an unexpected phenomenon Convection It helps to explain many of the other features of the volcano and Venus landscape.

The artist’s impression is that a volcano erupts on Venus. Image credit: ESA/AOES Mediaab.

The University of Washington, Professor Slava Solomatov of St. Louis, said:

“Our calculations suggest that convection is possible and likely is likely. If so, it gives us new insight into the evolution of the planet.”

Convection occurs when the heated material rises towards the surface of the planet, and the cold material sinks, creating a constant conveyor belt.

On Earth, convection deep in the mantle provides the energy that drives plate tectonics.

The Earth’s crust, about 40 km thick on the continent and 6 km in the sea basin, is too thin to cool and cannot support convection.

However, Professor Solomatov and his colleague Dr. Chabi Jain of St. Louis suspected that Venus’ crust had a proper thickness (probably 30-90 km, and in some places 30-90 km), temperature and rock composition.

To confirm this possibility, researchers applied a new theory of fluid dynamics developed in the lab.

Their calculations suggested that Venus’ crust could indeed support convection. This is a whole new way of thinking about the geology of planetary surfaces.

In 2024, scientists used a similar approach to determine that convection would likely not occur in the mercury mantle. Because the planet is too small and has been cooled quite a bit since it formed 4.5 billion years ago.

Venus, on the other hand, is a hot planet both inside and outside. The surface temperature reaches 465 degrees Celsius (870 degrees Fahrenheit), and its volcano and other surface features show clear signs of melting.

Scientists have been wondering how heat from the interior of the earth is transferred to the surface.

“Crustal convection can be an important missing mechanism,” Professor Solomatov said.

“Convection near the surface can also affect the type and placement of volcanoes on Venus’ surface.”

The author hopes that future missions to Venus can provide more detailed data on crust density and temperature.

If convection occurs as expected, some areas of the crust must be warmer and less dense than others. This is a difference that can be detected using high-resolution gravity measurements.

But perhaps an even more interesting target is Plput, a frozen dwarf planet outside the solar system.

Images from NASA’s New Horizons mission revealed a prominent polygonal pattern in the Sputnik Planitia region of Pltune, which resembles the plate boundary on Earth.

These polygons are formed by the slow convection current in a 4-km thick layer of solid nitrogen ice.

“Pluto is probably the second planetary body in the non-Earth solar system, and the convection driving tectonics is clearly visible on the surface,” Professor Solomatov said.

“It’s an attractive system that we still need to understand.”

result Published in the journal Physics of the interior of Earth and Planets.

____

Viatcheslav S. Solomatov & Chhavi Jain. 2025. The possibility of convection in the Venus crust. Earth and Planet Physics 361:107332; doi:10.1016/j.pepi.2025.107332

Source: www.sci.news

New research suggests that the powerful Marzcake shock can travel to even more distant red planets than believed.

Posted on February 5, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

In new research, researchers on the planetary Used Global and high -resolution orbital images to discover fresh 21.5 m (71 feet) impact craters that appeared at the same time as one of the Marsquakes detected by NASA's Insight Lander. This means that the seismometer detected a meteor strike, not a geological activity in the planet. In the related research, they scan Through a large number of orbital image data, the 123 shock crater was formed from December 2018 to December 2022.

Calambus et al。 Textonically Active Cerberus Fossae A new 21.5-m MARS Impact Crater is associated with the Insight earthquake event S0794A. Image credit: NASA / JPL-CALTECH / Arizona University.

NASA's Insight Lander set the first seismometer on Mars and detected more than 1,300 Marsquakes. This is generated by the shaking deep of the planet (caused by a rock broken under heat and pressure) and a cosmic rock that collides with the surface.

Scientists not only glimpse the inside of Mars, as science glimpses how the waves of the earthquake change from these earthquakes when passing through the earth's crust, mantle, and core. I understand how all the rocky world, including the month, is formed.

In the past, researchers shot new shock craters images and found seismic data that matched the date and location of the crater layer.

However, two new studies indicate that the shaking and the new effects detected in Cerberus Fossae, which are particularly prone to earthquakes of 1,640 km (1,019 miles) of 1,640 km (1,019 miles) from insights, are the first correlation. Masu.

The diameter of the shock crater is 21.5 m, which is far from the insight than the scientist expected, based on earthquake energy.

Mars crusts have unique characteristics that are considered to suppress seismic waves generated by impact. The new analysis of Cerberusfossae concluded that the generated waves take more direct routes than the planet mantle.

The Insight team needs to re -evaluate the internal configuration and structural models of Mars, and explain how to make the impact -generated earthquake signals so deep.

“We thought that the energy detected from most of the earthquake events was moving through the crust of Mars,” said Dr. Constantinoscharamanbus, a researcher of Imperial College London. Masu.

“This discovery shows a deeper and faster path -it is called an earthquake highway, so that the earthquake can reach the farthest of the earth through the mantle.”

Researchers also wanted to find a crater within the location of about 3,000 km (1,864 miles) and find something that was formed while the Lander seismometer was recorded.

By comparing images before and after the context camera mounted on NASA's Mars Reconnasance Orbiter (MRO), I found 123 fresh craters to interact with INSIGHT data. Of these, 49 was a potential agreement with the earthquake detected by the Lander seismometer.

“I thought that CERBERUS FOSSAE has generated many high -frequency earthquake signals related to internal generated earthquakes, which suggests that some activities are not born there, and actually from the impact. Dr. Charalambous said.

The results of the survey also emphasize how researchers use AI to improve planetary science by using all data collected by NASA and ESA missions.

“Now, we have a lot of images from the moon and Mars, so the struggle is to process and analyze data,” said Dr. Dr., a member of the Bern University researcher. I mentioned it.

“We have finally arrived in the big data era of planetary science.”

Two new papers are posted journal Global physics research book。

______

VT BICKEL et al。 2025. New impact on Mars: Related to systematic identification and insight earthquake events. Global physics research book 52 (3): E2024GL109133; DOI: 10.1029/2024GL109133

Constantinos Chara Ranboo et al。 2025. New impact on Mars: Unleash CERBERUS FOSSAE's shock detection. Global physics research book 52 (3): E2024GL110159; DOI: 10.1029/2024GL110159

Source: www.sci.news

The frequency of giant solar flares from the sun may be higher than previously believed

Posted on December 12, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

This relatively small solar flare that occurred in October (a bright flash at the center discovered by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory) would be dwarfed by a superflare.

NASA/SDO

The sun can produce extremely powerful bursts of radiation more often than we think. According to research on stars similar to the Sun, such “superflares” appear to occur about once every 100 years, and are particle storms that can have a devastating effect on electronic equipment on Earth. may be accompanied by The last major solar storm to hit Earth was 165 years ago, so we may be hit by another solar storm soon, but how similar is our Sun to these other stars? is unknown.

Direct measurements of solar activity did not begin until the mid-20th century. In 1859, our star produced a very powerful solar flare, or emission of light. These are often associated with subsequent coronal mass ejections (CMEs), bubbles of magnetized plasma particles that shoot into space.

In fact, this flare was followed by a CME that crashed into the Earth, causing a violent geomagnetic storm. This was recorded by astronomers at the time and is now known as the Carrington phenomenon. If this were to happen today, communications systems and power grids could be disrupted.

There is also evidence that there were even more powerful storms on Earth long before the Carrington incident. Assessment of radiocarbon content in tree rings and ice cores suggests that extremely high-energy particles occasionally rained down on Earth over several days, but this could be attributed to a one-time, massive solar outburst. It is unclear whether this is the case or whether it is due to several solar explosions. something small. It’s also unclear whether the Sun can produce such large flares and particle storms in a single explosion.

The frequency of these signs on Earth, and the frequency of superflares that astronomers have recorded on other stars, suggests that these giant bursts tend to occur hundreds to thousands of years apart. .

now, Ilya Usoskin Researchers from the University of Oulu in Finland studied 56,450 stars and found that stars similar to the Sun appear to emit superflares much more frequently.

“Superflares in stars like the Sun occur much more frequently than previously thought, about once every century or two,” Usoskin said. “If we believe this prediction for the Sun is correct, we would expect the Sun to have a superflare about every 100 to 200 years, and the only extreme solar storms we know of occur about once every 1500 or 2000 years. There will be a mismatch.”

Using the Kepler Space Telescope to measure the brightness of stars, Usoskin and colleagues detected a total of 2,889 superflares in 2,527 stars. The energies of these flares were 100 to 10,000 times the size of the Carrington event, the largest flare measured from the Sun.

Usoskin said it remains to be seen whether such large flares also cause large-particle phenomena, such as there is evidence for on Earth, but current solar theory cannot explain such large flares. That’s what it means. “This raises questions about what we’re actually seeing,” he says.

“It’s very impressive for a stellar flare survey,” he says. Matthew Owens At the University of Reading, UK. “They’ve clearly developed a new way to detect flares with increased sensitivity.”

Owens says it’s even harder to determine how much this tells us about the Sun’s flaring activity, in part because it’s difficult to accurately measure the rotation rates of other stars. It is said that it is for the sake of “The devil is in the details,” he says.

“The rotation rate is important because it is related to how the star generates its magnetic field, and magnetic fields are related to flare activity,” Owens said.

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

The abundance of ice deposits on the Moon is greater than initially believed

Posted on October 4, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Previous studies have found signs of ice in permanently shadowed regions near the moon’s south pole, including areas within the Cabeus, Howarth, Shoemaker, and Faustini craters. A new analysis of data from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) shows there is widespread evidence of water ice outside Antarctica, at least within a permanently shadowed region toward 77 degrees south latitude. Ta.

This figure shows the distribution of permanently shadowed regions (blue) toward the moon’s poles at 80 degrees south latitude. They are overlaid on a digital elevation map of the lunar surface (gray) from the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter Instrument aboard NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Image credit: NASA / GSFC / Timothy P. McClanahan.

Ice may have been embedded in the lunar regolith by comet or meteor impacts, emitted as steam (gas) from the moon’s interior, or formed by chemical reactions between hydrogen in the solar wind and oxygen in the regolith. there is.

Permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) typically occur in topographic depressions near the moon’s poles.

Due to the low angle of the sun, these regions have not seen sunlight for billions of years and are constantly in extremely cold conditions.

Ice molecules are thought to be repeatedly stripped from the regolith by meteorites, cosmic radiation, or sunlight, traveling across the lunar surface and landing on the PSR, where they become trapped in the extreme cold.

The PSR’s continuously cold surface could store ice molecules near the surface for perhaps billions of years, accumulating in sediments large enough for mining.

“Our models and analysis show that the largest ice concentrations are near the coldest parts of the PSR below 75 Kelvin (minus 198 degrees Celsius, or minus 325 degrees Fahrenheit) and on poleward-facing slopes of the PSR. It is expected to occur near the base of the Dr. Timothy McClanahan, researcher at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

“It is not possible to accurately measure the volume of ice deposits in the PSR or determine whether they are buried beneath a dry layer of regolith.”

“However, we expect it to be 1 m for each surface.² If present above these deposits, there should be at least about 5 liters of ice within the top meter of the surface compared to the surrounding area. ”

McClanahan and his colleagues used LRO’s Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector (LEND) instrument to detect signs of ice deposits by measuring moderately energetic “exothermal” neutrons.

Specifically, they used LEND’s Collimating Sensor for Exothermal Neutrons (CSETN), which has a fixed field of view of 30 km (18.6 miles) in diameter.

Neutrons are produced by high-energy galactic cosmic rays that come from powerful deep space events, such as exploding stars, and impact the moon’s surface, destroying regolith atoms and scattering subatomic particles called neutrons.

Neutrons originate from depths of up to about 1 meter (3.3 feet) and ping-pong through the regolith, colliding with other atoms. Some are guided into space and detected by LEND.

Since hydrogen has approximately the same mass as a neutron, neutrons lose relatively more energy in collisions with hydrogen than in collisions with the most common regolith elements.

Therefore, if hydrogen is present in the regolith, its concentration will correspondingly reduce the number of medium-energy neutrons observed.

“We hypothesized that if all PSRs had the same hydrogen concentration, CSETN should detect hydrogen concentrations proportionally depending on their area,” Dr. McClanahan said.

“Therefore, more hydrogen should be observed towards the larger area of the PSR.”

of findings this week, Planetary Science Journal.

_____

TP McClanahan others. 2024. Evidence of widespread hydrogen sequestration within the lunar south pole cold trap. planet. Science. J 5, 217; doi: 10.3847/PSJ/ad5b55

This article has been adapted from the original release by NASA.

Source: www.sci.news

Super-Earths and Sub-Neptunes have significantly higher water content than previously believed

Posted on August 24, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Water is a key component of exoplanets, and its distribution – on the surface or deep inside – has a fundamental impact on the planet’s properties. A new study suggests that for Earth-sized planets and planets with more than six times Earth’s mass, the majority of water resides deep within the planet’s core.

Most of the water isn’t stored on the surface of exoplanets, but deep within their cores and mantles. Image courtesy of Sci.News.

“Most of the exoplanets known to date are located close to their stars,” said Professor Caroline Dohn of ETH Zurich.

“That means they consist mainly of hot worlds with oceans of molten magma that haven’t yet cooled enough to form a solid mantle of silicate rock like Earth’s.”

“Water is very soluble in these magma oceans, unlike, say, carbon dioxide, which quickly outgasssssssssssss and rises into the atmosphere.”

“The iron core is beneath a molten silicate mantle. So how does water partition between the silicates and the iron?”

“It takes time for the iron core to form. Most of the iron is initially contained in the hot magma soup in the form of droplets.”

“The water trapped in this soup binds to these iron droplets and together they sink to the center. The iron droplets act like a lift force, being carried downward by the water.”

Until now, such phenomena were known to occur only under moderate pressures, which also exist on Earth.

It was not known what would happen on larger planets with higher internal pressures.

“This is one of the key findings of our study,” Professor Dorn said.

“The larger and more massive the planet, the more likely the water is to be integrated into the core, together with the iron droplets.”

“Under certain circumstances, iron can absorb up to 70 times more water than silicates.”

“But because of the enormous pressure at the core, the water no longer exists in the form of water molecules, but in the form of hydrogen and oxygen.”

The research was sparked by an investigation into the Earth’s water content, which four years ago led to a startling result: the Earth’s surface oceans contain only a tiny fraction of the planet’s total water.

More than 80 of Earth’s oceans may be hidden within it.

This is shown by simulations that calculate how water would have behaved under conditions when the Earth was young, so experiments and seismological measurements are compatible.

New discoveries about the distribution of water within planets will have a dramatic impact on the interpretation of astronomical observational data.

Astronomers can use telescopes in space and on Earth to measure the weight and size of exoplanets under certain conditions.

They use these calculations to create mass-radius diagrams that allow them to draw conclusions about the planet’s composition.

“Ignoring water solubility and distribution, as has been done in the past, can lead to a massive underestimation of the water volume, by up to a factor of ten,” Prof Doern said.

“There’s a lot more water on the planet than we previously thought.”

The distribution of water is also important if we want to understand how planets form and develop: any water that sinks to the core will remain trapped there forever.

However, dissolved water in the mantle’s magma ocean can degas and rise to the surface as the mantle cools.

“So if we find water in a planet’s atmosphere, there’s probably even more water in its interior,” Prof Dorn said.

Water is one of the prerequisites for life to develop, and there has long been speculation as to whether water-rich super-Earths could support life.

Calculations have since suggested that too much water could be detrimental to life, arguing that on such a watery world, an alien layer of high-pressure ice would prevent vital exchange of materials at the interface between the ocean and the planet’s mantle.

Current research has come to a different conclusion: Most of the water on super-Earths is locked away in their cores, rather than on their surfaces as previously assumed, so planets with deep aqueous layers are probably rare.

This has led astronomers to speculate that planets with relatively high water content could potentially form habitable environments like Earth.

“Their study sheds new light on the possibility that worlds rich enough in water to support life may exist,” the authors said.

of study Published in the journal Natural Astronomy.

_____

H. Luo othersThe interior as the main water reservoir of Super-Earths and Sub-Neptunes. Nat AstronPublished online August 20, 2024; doi: 10.1038/s41550-024-02347-z

Source: www.sci.news

Finds from the Bronze Age indicate that market economics may have originated earlier than previously believed

Posted on July 29, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Bronze Age metal hoard from Weisig, Germany

J. Lipták/Landesamt für Archäologie Sachsen

Bronze Age Europeans earned and spent money in much the same way we do today, indicating that the origins of the “market economy” are much older than expected.

That’s the controversial conclusion of a new study that challenges the view that elites were the dominant force in Bronze Age economies and suggests that human economic behaviour may not have changed much over the past 3,500 years or more.

“We tend to romanticize European prehistory, but the Bronze Age was not just a fantasy world where townsfolk and peasants served their needs as a backdrop for great lords,” he said. Nicola Ialongo “It was a very familiar world, with family, friends, social networks, markets, jobs, and ultimately having to figure out how to make ends meet,” says Professor at Aarhus University in Denmark.

Bronze Age Europeans, from 3300 to 800 BCE, were not meticulous bookkeepers like people in other ancient societies, such as those in Mesopotamia. But Ialongo and Giancarlo Lago Researchers at the University of Bologna in Italy suggest that the treasure trove of metal they left behind may hold important insights into their daily lives and the roots of modern economic behavior.

Lago and Ialongo analyzed more than 20,000 metal objects from Bronze Age burials in Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia and Germany. These metal objects came in many different forms, but around 1500 B.C. they began to be standardized by weight, which is how they were classified. Many experts These are distinguished as a type of pre-monetary currency.

“The discovery of widespread systems of measurement and weight allows us to model things that have been known for centuries in ways that have never been modeled before,” Ialongo says. “This not only gives us new answers to old questions, but it also gives us new questions that no one has asked before.”

The team found that the weight values in their vast sample followed the same statistical distribution as the daily expenses of a modern Western household: small everyday expenses, represented by lighter pieces, dominated the consumption pattern, while larger expenses, represented by heavier pieces, were relatively rare. This pattern is similar to that found in the average modern wallet, with many small bills and very few large bills.

Lago and Ialongo interpret their find as evidence that the Bronze Age economic system was regulated by market forces of supply and demand, with everyone participating in proportion to how much they earned. This hypothesis contrasts with the influential view put forward by anthropologist Karl Polanyi in the 1940s, who characterized the modern economy, based on monetary gain, as a new phenomenon distinct from ancient economies centered on barter, gift exchange, and social status.

Richard Brunton A researcher from Purdue University in Indiana called the study credible: “I think this argument will stimulate debate among archaeologists and economic anthropologists who have been based for decades on erroneous assumptions about the antiquity of market economies,” he said.

“I think this paper adds useful fuel to that criticism,” Brunton says, “and to me it sheds entirely new light on the function of bronze deposits and the potential use of bronze coins as a unit of exchange.”

but, Erica Schonberger Researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland are skeptical of the team’s conclusions. “It’s dangerous to assume that ordinary people in premodern times used money in normal economic activities,” says Schonberger. “For example, medieval English peasants only got money for selling their produce when lords began to demand money in lieu of rents or taxes in kind. They gave most or all of that money directly to the lords. They sold to get money, but they didn’t use it to buy things they needed. We’re still a long way from modern economic behavior.” [in the Middle Ages].”

Lago and Ialongo hope that their work will inspire other experts to carry out similar studies on artefacts from different regions and cultures. They suggest that market economies are a natural development across time and cultures, and that such systems are not something new or unique that has emerged in Western societies over the past few centuries.

“Technically, we haven’t proven that the Bronze Age economy was a market economy,” Ialongo says, “we simply have no evidence that it wasn’t. And we’re just pointing out a contradiction: why is everyone so convinced that there wasn’t a market economy when everything we see can be explained by a market economy model? In other words, if the simplest explanation works well enough, why should we have to imagine a more complex one?”

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

New understanding suggests LUCA, the last common ancestor of all life, emerged earlier than previously believed

Posted on July 12, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Illustration showing LUCA possibly being attacked by a virus

Scientific Graphic Design

The organisms that gave rise to all life on Earth evolved much earlier than previously thought – just a few hundred million years after Earth formed – and may have been more sophisticated than previous assessments had suggested.

The DNA of all living organisms today is E. coli There are many similarities in the evolution leading up to the blue whale, suggesting that we can trace our origins back to a universal common ancestor, LUCA, billions of years ago. While many efforts have been made to understand LUCA, studies taking a broader approach have revealed surprising results.

“What we're trying to do is bring together representatives from different disciplines to develop a comprehensive understanding of when LUCA existed and what its biological characteristics were,” he said. Philip Donahue At the University of Bristol, UK.

Genes that are currently present in all major lineages of life may have been passed down uninterrupted from LUCA, which could help us understand what genes our ancient ancestors had. By studying how these genes changed over time, we should be able to estimate when LUCA lived.

In reality, this is a lot more complicated than it sounds, as genes are lost, gained, and swapped between branches. Donohue says the team created a complex model that took this into account, to work out which genes were present in LUCA. “We've found a much more sophisticated organism than many have previously claimed,” he says.

The researchers estimate that 2,600 protein-coding genes come from LUCA, up from previous estimates of as few as 80. The team also concludes that LUCA lived around 4.2 billion years ago, much older than other estimates and surprisingly close to the formation of Earth 4.5 billion years ago. “This suggests that the evolution of life may have been simpler than previously claimed, because evolution happened so quickly,” Donohue says.

The earlier date is largely due to the team's improved methodology, but also because, unlike others, they don't assume that LUCA could have existed only after the Late Heavy Bombardment, when Earth was hit so hard by space debris that any new life that emerged could have been wiped out. Based on rocks returned from the Moon, the period has been put at 3.8 billion years ago, but there's a lot of uncertainty around that number, Donohue says.

Their reconstruction suggests that LUCA had genes that protected it from ultraviolet damage, which leads them to believe that it likely lived on the ocean's surface. Other genes suggest that LUCA fed on hydrogen, which is consistent with previous findings. The team speculates that LUCA may have been part of an ecosystem with other types of primitive cells that are now extinct. “I think it's extremely naive to think that LUCA existed on its own,” Donohue says.

“I think this is compelling from an evolutionary perspective.” Greg Fournier “LUCA is not the beginning of the story of life, but merely the state of the last common ancestor that we can trace back to using genomic data,” say researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The results also suggest that LUCA had a primitive version of the bacterial defense system known as CRISPR to fight viruses. “Even 4.2 billion years ago, our earliest ancestors were fighting viruses,” the team members say. Edmund Moodyalso at the University of Bristol.

Peering into the distant past is fraught with uncertainty, and Donohue is the first to admit that his team may have missed the mark. “We've almost certainly got it all wrong,” he says. “What we're trying to do is push the envelope and create the first attempt to synthesize all of the relevant evidence.”

“This won't be the last word,” he said, “and it won't be our last word on this subject, but we think it's a good start.”

Patrick Forter Researchers at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, France, who coined the term LUCA, also believe that the organism did not live in isolation. “But the claim that LUCA lived before the Late Heavy Bombardment 3.9 billion years ago seems to me completely unrealistic,” says Forterre. “I'm convinced that their strategy for determining the age and gene content of LUCA has several flaws.”

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

Meteoroids hit Mars more often than previously believed

Posted on June 29, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

A recent study indicates that the impact rate on Mars may be two to ten times higher than previously thought, depending on the size of the meteorite.

Mars. The entire Valles Marineris system is visible in the center of the scene. Image courtesy of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

“Mars may be more geologically active than previously believed, which could have implications for the age and evolution of its surface,” stated Dr. Ingrid Dover of Brown University.

“Our findings, although based on a limited number of examples, suggest that current estimates of the impact rate on planets are much higher than what can be observed from images alone.”

Dr. Dauber and his team utilized sensitive seismometers on NASA’s InSight lander to discover eight new impact craters caused by meteorites that were previously unknown from orbit.

The frequency of these cosmic impacts challenges existing notions of how frequently meteorites collide with the Martian surface and indicates the need to revise current Martian crater models to accommodate higher impact rates, particularly from smaller meteorites.

This revelation has the potential to reshape our understanding of the Martian surface and the impact history not only of Mars but of other planets as well, as the Martian surface continues to be shaped by small meteorite impacts.

“This will necessitate a reassessment of the models used by the scientific community to estimate the ages of planetary surfaces across the solar system,” Dr. Dover added.

Of the craters discovered, six were in close proximity to the stationary InSight lander’s location.

The two distant impacts identified in the data were the largest ever detected by scientists, even after years of observation from orbit.

These two larger impacts, each resulting in football field-sized craters, occurred just 97 days apart, underscoring the increased frequency of such geological events.

“An impact of this magnitude might be expected once every few decades or even once in a lifetime, but to have it occur twice within 90 days is highly unusual,” Dr. Dover remarked.

“It’s possible it’s a mere coincidence, but the likelihood of that is slim.”

“It’s more probable that the two large impacts are linked, or the impact rate on Mars is significantly higher than previously assumed.”

“Planetary impacts occur regularly throughout the solar system.”

“Our interest lies in studying these impacts on Mars to compare and contrast them with those on Earth.”

“This is crucial for understanding our solar system, its constituents, and the population of objects that impact it – not just as a threat to Earth, but historically as a hazard to other planets too.”

Published in today’s edition of Scientific Advances.

_____

Ingrid J. Dover et al. 2024. Seismologically detected craters on Mars: Enhanced recent impact flux? Scientific Advances 10(26); doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adk7615

Source: www.sci.news

Dark energy could be even more mysterious than previously believed

Posted on June 25, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

The choice to name a new project the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) may come across as presumptuous. Dark energy, you see, is completely unseen; it does not emit any detectable light for a spectrometer to analyze. In fact, dark energy has never been directly observed and has managed to evade capture despite efforts made using the most advanced telescopes and detectors available.

As far as we understand it, dark energy is invisible, uniformly spread throughout space, does not interact with matter or light, and serves the sole purpose of accelerating the universe’s expansion through a mechanism that remains a mystery to us.

So, with the recent announcement of DESI’s initial data release, are we witnessing a shift in our comprehension of dark energy, as promised?

In the search for elusive dark energy, our observations offer limited insights: dark energy merely stretches space-time. To investigate different theories about dark energy, we must examine how this stretching occurred over cosmic time.

One method is to observe the universe’s expansion history, while another involves examining how matter accumulated within galaxies and clusters at various junctures in the universe’s past.

Efforts to measure the expansion rate often involve constructing a precise 3D map of the universe’s matter. By studying the spectra of light, we can determine how much it has stretched due to the universe’s expansion. By combining this information with accurate physical distances, we gain valuable insights into the universe’s evolution.

DESI’s new model has stirred speculation by proposing that dark energy may have a more intricate history than previously believed. If these indications prove to be accurate, they could revolutionize our understanding of not just the universe’s past, but also its eventual fate.

The Concordance Model of Cosmology outlines the prevailing model of the universe and its components. In this model, dark energy is viewed as a cosmological constant, providing a minimal flexibility to every part of space.

DESI and other surveys commonly report their dark energy findings in terms of an “equation of state” parameter denoted as w. A value of w = -1 is expected if dark energy behaves as a cosmological constant. Any deviation from this value implies a different characteristic for dark energy.

The recent DESI findings present a puzzling scenario: while a constant w of -1 aligns well with the results, a scenario where w is variable suggests a different interpretation. When combined with data from other sources, these results hint at a changing w, implying a varying impact of dark energy on the universe over time.

While the implications of these findings remain uncertain, they raise intriguing possibilities about the future course of the universe and the role of dark energy within it. Though still preliminary, these results suggest that dark energy may continue to surprise us in unforeseen ways in the future.

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

There is a possibility that dark energy is even more mysterious than previously believed.

Posted on June 22, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Naming a new project the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) may come across as overly confident. This is because dark energy is undetectable and cannot be examined or analyzed through traditional methods like spectroscopy. Despite numerous attempts, dark energy has never been directly observed and remains a mystery in the realm of astrophysics.

Dark energy is believed to be a uniform force throughout the universe that does not interact with matter or light in any discernible way. Its primary function is to expand space at an accelerating rate, a process that baffles scientists due to its unknown underlying mechanism.

The recent release of data from DESI has sparked interest and debate in the scientific community. This project aims to shed light on the behavior of dark energy by mapping the expansion history of the universe. By studying the motion of galaxies and measuring the stretching of light emitted from distant objects, researchers can gain insights into the evolution of the cosmos.

The current prevailing model of cosmology suggests that dark energy exists as a static cosmological constant, affecting the fabric of space uniformly. However, DESI’s findings hint at a more complex history for dark energy, challenging conventional theories about its nature and implications for the future of the universe.

As researchers delve deeper into the mysteries of dark energy, they may uncover new discoveries that challenge existing paradigms and push the boundaries of our understanding of the cosmos. The DESI project represents an important step towards unraveling the enigma of dark energy and its profound impact on the universe.

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

The Milky Way’s most recent major merger occurred billions of years later than previously believed

Posted on June 7, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

The discovery was made possible by ESA’s Gaia spacecraft, which is mapping more than a billion stars across the Milky Way galaxy and beyond, tracking their motions, brightness, temperature, and composition.

This image visualizes the Milky Way and its surrounding halo of stars. New Gaia data reveals that the wrinkles seen in the Milky Way are likely the result of a dwarf galaxy colliding with the Milky Way about 2.7 billion years ago. Our galaxy’s two major satellite galaxies, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, are visible at the bottom right. Image credit: ESA / Gaia / DPAC / Donlon other./ Stephen Payne Waldenaar.

The Milky Way galaxy has grown over time as other galaxies have approached, collided, been torn apart, and been swallowed up.

Each collision still sends ripples through different groups of stars, influencing their movements and behavior in space.

One of Gaia’s goals is to study these wrinkles to unravel the history of our Milky Way galaxy. It does this by pinpointing the positions and motions of more than 100,000 stars close to Earth, a tiny fraction of the roughly 2 billion objects it observes.

“As we age, we tend to get more wrinkles, but our research shows that the opposite is true in the Milky Way – it’s like a cosmic Benjamin Button, and it gets less wrinkled over time,” said Dr. Thomas Donlon, an astronomer at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University of Alabama.

“By looking at how these wrinkles fade over time, we can trace when the Milky Way last experienced a major collision — and it turns out this happened billions of years later than we thought.”

The Milky Way’s halo contains many stars with unusual orbits, many of which are thought to have been incorporated into the galaxy in an event that astronomers call the last great merger.

As the name suggests, this is the last time the Milky Way has experienced a significant collision with another galaxy, which is proposed to have been a giant dwarf galaxy that smothered the Milky Way with stars passing very close to the center of the Milky Way.

Astronomers estimate that the merger occurred between 8 and 11 billion years ago, when the Milky Way was still in its infancy, and is known as Gaia-Sausage-Enceladus.

But data from Gaia’s Data Release 3 suggests that another merger could have resulted in the unusually behaving star.

“For the stellar wrinkles to be as clear as we see in the Gaia data, the stars would have had to have appeared on Earth less than 3 billion years ago — at least 5 billion years later than previously thought,” said Dr. Heidi Jo Neuberg, also of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

“Every time a star passes back and forth through the center of the Milky Way, a new stellar wrinkle forms.”

“If they had merged with us 8 billion years ago, there would have been so many wrinkles next to each other that we wouldn’t be able to see them as separate features.”

This discovery suggests that these stars did not result from the ancient Gaia-Sausage-Enceladus merger, but must have arisen from a more recent event called the Virgo radial merger, which occurred less than 3 billion years ago.

“The history of the Milky Way is currently being constantly rewritten, thanks in large part to new data from Gaia,” Dr. Donlon said.

“Our image of the Milky Way’s past has changed dramatically since even 10 years ago, and I think our understanding of these mergers will continue to change rapidly.”

“This finding that most of the Milky Way galaxy joined Earth within the last few billion years is quite different from what astronomers previously thought.”

“Many prevailing models and ideas about the growth of the Milky Way predict that a recent head-on collision with a dwarf galaxy of this mass would be extremely rare.”

“The Virgo radial merger likely pulled in a group of other small dwarf galaxies and star clusters, all of which joined the Milky Way at about the same time.”

“Future exploration will reveal which of these small objects previously thought to be related to the ancient Gaia sausage Enceladus are in fact related to the recent Virgo radial merger.”

of Investigation result Appears in Monthly Bulletin of the Royal Astronomical Society.

_____

Thomas Donlon otherThe year is 2024. The remains of the “last great merger” are dynamically young. MNRAS 531(1):1422-1439; doi:10.1093/mnras/stae1264

Source: www.sci.news

Russian Criminal Group Believed to Be Responsible for Cyber Attack on London Hospital, According to Experts

Posted on June 5, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

According to the former chief executive of the National Cyber Security Centre, a Russian cybercriminal group is responsible for a ransomware attack that disrupted operations and testing at a major NHS hospital in London.

The attack on pathology services firm Synovis resulted in a significant capacity impairment and was deemed a very serious incident.

Following the attack, the affected hospital declared a critical situation, halted operations and tests, and was unable to conduct blood transfusions.

A memo sent to NHS staff at multiple London hospitals and primary care services described the incident as a “major IT incident”.

During a BBC Radio 4 interview, Ciarán Martin confirmed that a group of Russian cybercriminals known as Kirin was behind the Synovis attack. These groups operate within Russia, targeting organizations globally for financial gain.

The cybercriminals, who have a history of attacks on various entities, inadvertently caused severe disruption to primary care with their ransomware attack.

While the government’s policy is to refrain from paying ransoms, companies affected by such attacks have the option to do so.

The National Cyber Security Centre is collaborating with NHS authorities to investigate the repercussions of the cyber attack.

Synovis has reported the incident to the police and the Information Commissioner.

Health Secretary Victoria Atkins assured that patient safety is the top priority and efforts are underway to resume services safely.

Synovis CEO Mark Darragh mentioned that a taskforce of Synovis and NHS IT experts is evaluating the impact and necessary measures.

It may take “weeks rather than days” to receive pathology results due to the severity of the attack, as per a senior source cited by the Health Service Journal.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Cyprus settled by hunter-gatherers much earlier than previously believed

Posted on May 20, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

With persistent stories of isolation, inaccessibility, and unattractiveness, one of the eastern Mediterranean islands was first populated by an influx of agricultural populations from the mainland under demographic pressures. It is generally considered to be a Neolithic phenomenon that began with. New research led by Professor Corey Bradshaw from Flinders University shows Cyprus may have been settled by hunter-gatherers by about 14,000 to 13,000 years ago, earlier than previously recognized. . This process must have involved a small number of large-scale migration events (hundreds to thousands of people), which infers the intentions and organization of these early humans.

Bradshaw uses the latest archaeological data, afterthought climate projections, and demographic models of age structure to other. They demonstrate evidence of an early arrival on Cyprus (14,257-13,182 years ago), within two to three major events occurring within 100 years, to ensure the risk of extinction is low. They expected a large group (1,000 to 1,375 people) to arrive.Image credit: Bradshaw other., doi: 10.1073/pnas.2318293121.

In researching when Cyprus was first occupied by humans, Professor Bradshaw and his colleagues discovered that the large Mediterranean islands were an attractive and preferred destination for Paleolithic people.

Their findings contradict previous research that suggested Mediterranean islands would have been inaccessible and inhospitable for Pleistocene hunter-gatherer societies.

Archaeologists used archaeological data, climate estimates, and demographic modeling to uncover Cyprus's early people.

Analysis of archaeological dating from the 10 oldest sites across Cyprus suggests that first human habitation dates between 14,257 and 13,182 years ago, which is longer than previously thought. It is also much older.

“The islands were then rapidly settled. Climate modeling shows that this early hominin population was able to survive in tandem with increases in temperature, precipitation, and environmental productivity sufficient to sustain large hunter-gatherer populations. “We show that this is the case,” the researchers said.

Based on demographic models, we believe that large groups of hundreds to thousands of people arrived in Cyprus over two or three major migration events within 100 years.

“This settlement pattern suggests systematic planning and the use of advanced vessels,” Professor Bradshaw said.

Within 300 years, or 11 generations, Cyprus' population grew to a median of 4,000 to 5,000 people.

Dr Theodora Muzio, an archaeologist at James Cook University and the University of Cyprus, said: “This result suggests that Cyprus, and perhaps other Mediterranean islands, were more likely to be inhospitable places for Paleolithic hunter-gatherer societies. “This suggests that it would have been an attractive destination.”

“The dispersal and settlement of humans in Cyprus and other eastern Mediterranean islands was due to rapid climate change, with coastal regions inundated by post-ice age sea level rise and farmers forced to move to new locations. , it is argued that this is due to demographic pressures on the mainland, an area of necessity rather than choice.”

“This interpretation has arisen as a result of significant gaps in the archaeological record of Cyprus, resulting from differences in the preservation of archaeological materials, bias in preservation, uncertainties associated with dating, and limited DNA evidence. '' said Australian Museum of Archaeology's archaeologist Dr Christian Liebmeyer. Australian Biodiversity and Heritage Research Council Center of Excellence, German Institute of Archaeology, and James Cook University.

“Our research, based on more archaeological evidence and advanced modeling techniques, changes that.”

“New findings highlight the need to reconsider the question of early human migration in the Mediterranean and test the validity of the perceived early settlement dates in the light of new technologies, field survey methods and data. ' said Professor Bradshaw.

Regarding this research, paper Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

_____

Corey J.A. Bradshaw other. 2024. Demographic models predict the onset of the late Pleistocene and rapid expansion of pre-agro-pastoralism in Cyprus. PNAS 121 (21): e2318293121; doi: 10.1073/pnas.2318293121

Source: www.sci.news

Study reveals sperm whale communication is more intricate than previously believed

Posted on May 9, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Sperm whale (physeter macrocephalus) They are highly social mammals that use clicks to communicate. New research shows that, just like in human language, they can combine and coordinate different clicks and rhythms to create complex calls.

Sperm whale (physeter macrocephalus). Image credit: Gabriel Barathieu / CC BY-SA 2.0 Certificate.

Communication is important for social animals to make group decisions and coordinate collaborative tasks such as foraging and raising children.

Sperm whales are social mammals that communicate with each other by clicking repeatedly.

Little else is known about sperm whales' communication systems, although some of their clicks have previously been shown to communicate their identity.

“Cetaceans are an important group for studying evolution and the development of sophisticated communication systems,” said Pratyusha Sharma, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and colleagues.

“Among cetaceans, long-term observational studies of sperm whales describe both a culturally defined, multilayered matrilineal society and a socially transmitted communication system.”

“Sperm whales are known for their complex social and foraging behaviors, as well as their collective decision-making.”

“They communicate using codas, stereotypical sequences of three to 40 broadband clicks. Codas are exchanged when whales interact with each other and during long, deep dives foraging. .”

For the study, the authors Dominican Sperm Whale Projectthe largest repository of sperm whale data.

They analyzed the records of about 60 different whales from the eastern Caribbean sperm whale clan and used them to define a “sperm whale phonetic alphabet” of click combinations from this clan's records.

They discovered that whales' communication systems are more complex and have greater information-transfer capabilities than previously thought.

We found that the combination and structure of the generated click sequences depended on the context of the individual's conversation.

Scientists also identified a “combinatorial structure” in whale language. Whales can combine and coordinate different clicks and rhythms to create complex vocalizations, similar to human language.

“Although the function and meaning of the click combinations are still unknown, the sperm whale language could potentially express a large number of meanings,” the researchers said.

Their paper It was published in the magazine nature communications.

_____

P. Sharma other. 2024. Contextual and combinatorial structure in sperm whale calls. Nat Commune 15, 3617; doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-47221-8

Source: www.sci.news

Europa’s oxygen production is lower than previously believed

Posted on March 5, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Using data from Jupiter aurora distribution experiment (JADE) Instrument equipped NASA spacecraft Junoplanetary scientists calculated that the proportion of oxygen produced on Jupiter's icy moon Europa is significantly lower than in most previous studies.

This diagram shows charged particles from Jupiter impacting Europa's surface, splitting frozen water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen molecules. Scientists believe that some of these newly produced oxygen gas may migrate toward the moon's subsurface ocean, as depicted in the inset image. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SWRI / PU.

With an equatorial diameter of 3,100 km (1,940 miles), Europa is the fourth largest of Jupiter's 95 known moons and the smallest of the four Galilean moons.

The moon has an internal liquid ocean and potentially habitable conditions beneath its frozen crust.

Its surface is constantly bombarded with radiation, which breaks down the icy crust into oxygen and hydrogen, most of which is either released from the surface and escapes into space, or remains and forms Europa's atmosphere.

The abundances of these atmospheric gases and ions, and consequently their production rates at the Earth's surface, are inferred primarily from remote sensing observations and are subject to large uncertainties.

“Europa is like an ice ball that slowly loses water in a flowing river,” said Dr. Jamie Zareh, a JADE scientist and researcher at Princeton University.

“However, the flow in this case is a fluid of ionized particles that are swept around Jupiter by Jupiter's unusual magnetic field.”

“When these ionized particles hit Europa, they break up the water ice on the surface molecule by molecule, producing hydrogen and oxygen.”

“In a sense, the entire ice shell is being continuously eroded by the waves of charged particles being launched.”

In the new study, Zarai and colleagues analyzed data from a flyby of Europa conducted by the Juno spacecraft on September 29, 2022. On this flight, the spacecraft flew 353 kilometers (219 miles) above Europa's surface.

They used a JADE instrument to extract abundant amounts of different pickup ions. Pick-up ions are charged particles produced by the destruction of atmospheric neutrals when they collide with high-energy radiation or other particles.

From these data, they calculate that about 12 kg of oxygen is produced every second on Europa's surface.

This is at the lower end of the range of 5 to 1,100 kg per second estimated from previous models.

The results suggest that Europa's surface may have less oxygen than previously thought, meaning that Europa's oceanic habitat is narrower. .

“Flying so close to the Galileo satellite during its long-duration mission allowed us to begin working on a wide range of science, including the unique opportunity to contribute to the study of Europa's habitability,” Juno Principal Investigator said researcher Dr. Scott Bolton. Southwest Research Institute.

“And we're not done yet. More moon approaches and the first exploration of Jupiter's close rings and polar atmosphere are still to come.”

of findings It was published in the magazine natural astronomy.

_____

JR Zarai other. Production of oxygen by dissociation of Europa's water and ice surfaces. Nat Astron, published online March 4, 2024. doi: 10.1038/s41550-024-02206-x

Source: www.sci.news

There May Be Less Oxygen in Europa’s Ocean, the Essential Fuel for Life, Than Previously Believed

Posted on March 4, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Jupiter’s moon Europa is covered with an icy shell

NASA/JPL-California Institute of Technology

Jupiter’s moon Europa may not be as ripe for life as we think. Beneath the icy shell is an ocean of water, but as we know, the frigid moon may lack the oxygen needed to support life.

On Europa, oxygen is produced when radiation hits the surface and breaks down the water ice there into its constituent parts hydrogen and oxygen. Models of this process suggest that oxygen production rates can range from 5 kilograms per second to more than 1000 kilograms per second.

Jamie Zareh Researchers at Princeton University made the new estimate using data from the Juno spacecraft, which flew just 353 kilometers above Europa’s surface in 2022. They discovered that oxygen is only produced at a rate of about 12 kilograms per second at the Earth’s surface. This corresponds to the lower bound of previous estimates.

“In a sense, the shell is like Europa’s lungs. It’s continually producing oxygen,” Zaray says. “That said, we can’t say what happens after the oxygen is produced at the surface. How much of the oxygen makes it into the ocean remains a question.”

But if less oxygen is produced in the first place, less oxygen will enter European waters. As a result, researchers may be less likely to discover organisms similar to those living on Earth.

One of the next steps is to figure out how much of that oxygen can penetrate through the alien moon’s icy shell. NASA’s European Clipper mission, scheduled to launch in October, should help solve that problem. It is hoped that this will allow researchers to measure the thickness of the ice and determine whether elements and compounds useful for life can pass through it.

topic:

satellite/
extraterrestrial life form

Source: www.newscientist.com

Homo sapiens are believed to have reached Northern Europe around 45,000 years ago, according to scientists.

Posted on February 1, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

homo sapiens is connected with Rinkombi Lanisia Yersmanovician Culture According to three papers published in , Neanderthals existed in central and northwestern Europe long before they became extinct in southwestern Europe. journal Nature And that journal natural ecology and evolution. The evidence is homo sapiens And the fact that Neanderthals lived side by side is consistent with genomic evidence that the two species occasionally interbred. Suspicions have also been raised that modern humans' invasion of Europe and Asia about 50,000 years ago may have driven Neanderthals to extinction.

Stratigraphy including location of homo sapiens Bones, a map of the LRJ site, and stone tools from the Ranis site in Germany. Image credit: Mylopotamitaki other., doi: 10.1038/s41586-023-06923-7.

The Paleolithic Rincombi-Lanisia-Jerzmanovician (LRJ) culture or technocomplex spread across northwestern and central Europe.

The Ranis Cave site in the Orla River Valley, Thuringia, Germany, is one of the eponymous LRJ sites based on its unique configuration of bifacial and monofacial points.

Previous dating had shown that the site was more than 40,000 years old, but there were no recognizable bones to show who made the tools, so it was unclear whether they were the product of Neanderthals. It was unclear whether it was a product of Neanderthals or not. homo sapiens.

“The new discovery is homo sapiens Who created this technology homo sapiens At this time, 45,000 years ago, they were this far north,” said Dr. Elena Zavala, a researcher at the University of California, Berkeley.

“So these are some of the earliest.” homo sapiens In Europe. “

“The cave ruins of Ranis provide evidence of initial dispersal. homo sapiens It is widespread throughout the high latitudes of Europe,” said Professor Jean-Jacques Hubelin, a researcher at the Collège de France.

“It turns out that stone structures thought to have been made by Neanderthals were actually part of early Neanderthals.” homo sapiens toolkit. ”

“This fundamentally changes what we know about this period. homo sapiens Long before Neanderthals disappeared in southwestern Europe, they reached northwestern Europe. ”

Scientists carried out genetic analysis of hominid bone fragments from new deep excavations carried out at Ranis between 2016 and 2022, as well as from earlier excavations in the 1930s.

Because the DNA in ancient bones is highly fragmented, she used special techniques to isolate and sequence the DNA. All of it is mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which is inherited only from the mother.

“We have confirmed that the bone fragments are: homo sapiens. Interestingly, some of the fragments shared the same mitochondrial DNA sequence, even if they were from different excavations,” Dr. Zavala said.

“This indicates that these fragments belong to the same person or his maternal relatives, and connects these new discoveries with discoveries from decades ago.”

The bone fragments were initially identified as human through analysis of bone proteins in a field called paleoproteomics.

The authors found that by comparing the Ranis mtDNA sequences with mtDNA obtained from human remains from other Paleolithic sites in Europe, they were able to construct an early Stone Age family tree. It's done. homo sapiens All over Europe.

All but one of the 13 Ranis fragments are very similar to each other and, surprisingly, to the mtDNA of a 43,000-year-old female skull discovered in the Zlaty Kush cave in the Czech Republic. Ta. The only standout player was in the same group as a player from Italy.

“That raises some questions: Was this a single population? What is the relationship here?” Dr. Zavala said.

“But when it comes to mtDNA, that's just one side of history. It's just the maternal side. We need nuclear DNA to investigate this.”

The researchers also found that Ranis Cave is primarily used by hibernating cave bears and denning hyenas, with only periodic human presence.

This low-density archaeological footprint is consistent with other LRJ sites and is best explained by short-term, opportunistic visits by small, mobile settler groups. homo sapiens.

“This means that even in these early groups, homo sapiens “Humans, dispersed across Eurasia, already had some ability to adapt to such harsh climatic conditions,” said Dr Sara Pederzani, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of La Laguna.

“Until recently, it was thought that resilience to cold climate conditions would not emerge until several thousand years later. So this is a fascinating and surprising result.”

The research team also carried out radiocarbon dating of human and animal bones taken from different layers of the site to reconstruct the site's age, focusing on bones with signs of human modification on their surfaces. They then correlated the age with the presence of humans in the cave.

“we, homo sapiens The Francis Crick Institute said Dr. Helen Furus, a postdoctoral researcher at .

“The evidence suggests that homo sapiens They occupied this site sporadically for 47,500 years. ”

Source: www.sci.news

New Study Claims Megalodon Sharks Were Not as Powerful as Previously Believed

Posted on January 22, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

A recent study suggests that the megalodon’s body shape might not have been as chunky as previously thought. Contrary to popular belief, researchers now suspect that this prehistoric fish, also known as the megalodon (Otodus megalodon), may have had a more elongated form, akin to modern slim sharks.

The typical estimation of the megalodon’s length is between 15 to 20 meters (50 to 65 feet), and they inhabited the earth’s oceans from 15 million to 3.6 million years ago. However, the fossil record contains limited evidence of the megalodon, mainly consisting of teeth and vertebrae rather than intact skeletons.

While previous estimates of its body size were based on the bodies of contemporary great white sharks (Carcharodon carcharius), resulting in the assumption of a thick and round body shape, a new study published in the Old Trogia Electronica journal suggests that the megalodon was more than just a larger version of the great white shark. The study contends that the animal may have had similarities to the slimmer modern mako shark.

So what’s the controversy?

Essentially, two groups of scientists are at odds over the actual size and shape of the megalodon.

A study led by scientists from DePaul University and the University of California, Riverside (UCR) employed a CT scanner on a live great white shark to compare its vertebral skeleton to existing reconstructions of the megalodon’s spinal column. This study suggests significant enough differences between the two sharks to propose that the megalodon was not merely a larger great white shark.

However, a UK-based research team utilized advanced 3D modeling to study the body structures of various shark species, including great whites, mako sharks, and salmon sharks. With this approach, they concluded that the megalodon may have been even larger than previously anticipated, with a dorsal fin comparable in size to an adult’s height.

The earlier study’s authors critiqued the new findings, asserting that they rely on circular logic and lack statistical validation. They also mentioned the absence of raw data for future researchers to verify or reproduce the study’s results. Their study was peer-reviewed by prominent shark experts from around the world, although not by the authors of the new study.

Yeah, but…can Jason Statham still defeat Megalodon?

Regardless of the megalodon’s shape, the lifespan and dietary habits of this extinct shark remain unclear. To further advance their understanding, researchers will need to find a complete or near-complete skeleton. The potential elongated body of the megalodon, if confirmed, could prompt a reassessment of its life, diet, and extinction causes.

As for the debate over the megalodon’s size and shape, the fact that it was a large, formidable predator is indisputable. However, the question of whether Jason Statham could defeat it in battle remains up for discussion.

“Even with the interpretation of the megalodon’s shape as more slender, I don’t think the odds for that matchup will change significantly,” Cooper stated. “Regardless of which theory you favor, whether the shark was fat or skinny, the short answer is that megalodon was still a very large shark. Either way, it’s a massive challenge for Statham.”

About our experts

Jack Cooper is a postdoctoral researcher in palaeontology at Swansea University. His research covers scientific report, scientific progress and the Fish Biology Journal.

Professor Catalina Pimiento is a Senior Lecturer in Paleontology at Swansea University. Her research specializes in Frontiers of ecology and evolution, natural ecology and evolution, and scientific progress.

Professor John Hutchinson is Professor of Evolutionary Biomechanics at the Royal Veterinary College. His research spans nature communications, anatomy journal, and scientific progress.

read more:

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

Porous iceberg on Saturn’s moon Titan believed to be a strange ‘magical island’

Posted on January 17, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Infrared image of Saturn’s icy moon Titan

NASA/JPL-California Institute of Technology/Stephane Le Mouelik, Virginia Pasek

Saturn’s moon Titan is home to strange “magical islands” that appear and disappear over hours to weeks. These so-called islands are actually porous, sponge-like masses of snow that can slowly fill with liquid before sinking.

Titan’s thick atmosphere is filled with complex organic molecules that can clump together and fall to the moon’s surface like snow. Sintin Yu Researchers at the University of Texas at San Antonio thought that snow could be the cause of the magical islands. To test their idea, they took advantage of what we know about these atmospheric compounds and how they are expected to interact with Titan’s oceans.

Titan’s liquid is methane, not water, so any solids on the surface of these oceans would normally be expected to sink quickly. Water molecules tend to stick together and displace other substances, but methane easily sticks to other molecules, so the surface tension of a pool of liquid methane is very low.

“Water molecules just love themselves by excluding certain molecules,” he says. michael marasca from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California was not involved in the study. “But if you put methane on the same surface, it’ll start crawling all over the place.” That means Titan’s methane oceans and lakes should immediately swallow up any solids that are expected to float. It means that.

But that clearly won’t happen on the magical island, which appeared as a temporary bright spot in observations from the Cassini spacecraft. “For us to see magical islands, they cannot float briefly and then immediately sink,” Yu said in the paper. statement. “You have to stay afloat for a while, but not forever.” Researchers have found a solution to this problem. When large amounts of snow accumulate on the coast, they can form sponge-like, porous ice. Once these porous “icebergs” separated from the land, they could float in Titan’s oceans for long enough to rival Cassini’s observations. The researchers calculated that this would work if the sponge-like structure contained enough free space (at least about 25 to 50 percent, depending on the exact composition of the ice).

However, this does not mean that these mysterious islands are definitely porous icebergs. “We’re narrowing down different scenarios for the magical island, but we don’t know the answer yet,” Malasca says. Other possible explanations include nitrogen gas bubbles, waves caused by wind or solid ocean deposits. However, this provides evidence that Titan’s temporary islands may actually be suspended matter from this strange world’s atmosphere.

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

The True Color of Neptune: It’s Not as Blue as Previously Believed

Posted on January 5, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Voyager 2's original photo of Neptune (left) and the new study's reprocessed image (right)

Patrick Irwin

Neptune's true color is a pale greenish-blue similar to that of Uranus, contrary to popular belief that it is a much deeper blue.

NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft passed by the outer planet in the 1980s and sent back photos showing the strikingly different colors of Uranus and Neptune.

This is puzzling given their similar size, mass, and chemical composition. Models of the planet's atmosphere can explain some of the fluctuations, such as Uranus' thicker “haze layer” that reflects more white light and makes the planet appear brighter, but these may explain why the planet is It doesn't fully explain why you should have something like that. different shades.

now, Patrick Irwin Researchers at the University of Oxford have processed images from Voyager 2 to show what the planet looks like to the human eye.

The original photo of Neptune taken by Voyager 2 had an enhanced contrast ratio to highlight hard-to-see atmospheric features. In addition to how they balanced the colors to create the final composite image, this also made the planet appear bluer.

Scientists at the time knew this and included these changes in photo captions, but over time the captions became detached from the images and Neptune's deep blue hue became a fact in the public consciousness. According to Irwin, the shrine is now enshrined inside.

Images of Uranus (left) and Neptune (right) created in previous and new research

Patrick Irwin

He and his team developed a model that uses shots taken by the Hubble Space Telescope to convert raw image data into true-color images. This image contains more complete information about the light. This produced similar hues on both planets. “The way the eye works makes true-color images much more boring and bland,” Irwin says.

The researchers also used Hubble images and images from the Lowell Observatory in Arizona to build a model to predict how Uranus' color would change during its long 84-year orbit around the sun. Due to the rotation of the planet, more of the equator is visible at the vernal equinox, and more of the poles are visible at the summer solstice. At the equator, there is more methane and red light is absorbed. The planet also has a hood of reflective, brightening ice particles that forms at its sun-facing poles during the equinoxes, increasing the reflectance of red and green wavelengths.

This helps explain the long-standing mystery of why Uranus appears slightly green on the summer solstice. “We knew there was a hood, we knew there was less methane in the polar regions, but no one had put it all together to be able to explain what was really going on seasonally. “It was,” Irwin said.

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

New Study Finds Human Insulin is Less Sensitive to Temperature Than Previously Believed

Posted on December 24, 2023 by Igor Mitreski

A Cochrane review has shown that certain types of insulin can remain effective when stored at room temperature for several months, offering a practical solution for diabetes treatment in areas without stable refrigeration. This finding is particularly crucial for people with diabetes in low- and middle-income countries, as well as those affected by conflict, natural disasters, and environmental challenges.

Insulin storage options have been highlighted in the review, which summarizes the results of various studies investigating the effects of storing insulin outside the refrigerator. It was found that unopened vials and cartridges of certain types of human insulin can be stored for extended periods at temperatures up to 25°C and 37°C without any clinical consequences or loss of insulin activity. This has significant implications for people living in areas where access to refrigeration is limited.

Dr. Bernd Richter led a research team that conducted a comprehensive study on insulin stability under different storage conditions. The review analyzed 17 studies and found consistent insulin efficacy at temperatures ranging from 4°C to 37°C, providing reassurance that alternatives to powered cooling of insulin are possible without compromising its stability.

The study also identified areas for future research, such as better understanding the efficacy of insulin after storage under different conditions, studies of mixed insulin, effects of movement on insulin pumps, contamination of opened vials and cartridges, and cold environmental conditions.

The study was funded by the World Health Organization.

Source: scitechdaily.com

Immune cells exhibit greater independence than previously believed

Posted on December 24, 2023 by Igor Mitreski

New research reveals that immune cells can independently navigate complex environments by actively shaping chemical cues, a discovery with significant implications for understanding immune responses and cancer metastasis. have.

Immune cells exhibit a higher level of self-directed mobility than previously appreciated. InFLAMES researcher Jonah Alanko has shown that these cells are more than just passive reactors to surrounding chemical signals. Instead, they actively modify these signals and skillfully navigate complex environments through self-organization.

Directional cell movement is an essential and fundamental phenomenon of life. This is an important prerequisite for personal development, vascular remodeling, immune response, etc.

The research conducted by postdoctoral researcher Jonah Alanko focused on the migration and navigation of immune cells within the body. Chemokines, a type of signaling protein, play an important role in directing immune cells to specific locations. Chemokines, for example, form in lymph nodes and create chemical cues called chemokine gradients that cells in the body follow. According to Alanko, these chemokine gradients are like scent trails left in the air, getting brighter as you move away from their source.

The traditional idea was that immune cells recognize targets according to pre-existing chemokine gradients. In other words, cells that follow these cues have been viewed as passive actors, when in fact they are not.

Dendritic cells move through a microscopic maze with the help of chemokine gradients they create. In the upper image, the nucleus of the cell is drawn in blue, and the lines in the lower image represent the movement of the cell.Credit: Jonna Alanko, University of Turku

“Contrary to previous notions, we were able to demonstrate for the first time that immune cells do not need pre-existing chemokine gradients to find their way. They can create their own gradients, making complex We can move collectively and efficiently even in difficult environments,” Alanko explains.

cells consume chemokines

Immune cells have receptors that can sense chemokine signals. One of these receptors is called CCR7 and is present on dendritic cells.

Dendritic cells are specialized antigen-presenting cells that have a critical role in activating the overall immune response. We need to find the infection, recognize it, and then move to the lymph nodes with that information. In lymph nodes, dendritic cells interact with other cells of the immune system to mount an immune response against pathogens.

Alanko’s research showed that dendritic cells not only register chemokine signals at the CCR7 receptor, but also actively shape their chemical environment by consuming chemokines. The cells thereby create local gradients that guide their own movement and that of other immune cells. The researchers also discovered that another type of immune cell, her T cells, can benefit from these self-generated gradients to enhance their own directional movement.

“When immune cells are able to create chemokine gradients, they can guide the directional movement of themselves and other immune cells to avoid future obstacles in complex environments,” explains Jonah Alanko. do.

This discovery deepens our understanding of how immune responses are regulated in the body. But it can also reveal how cancer cells direct their movement to cause metastasis.

“The CCR7 receptor has also been found in many types of cancer, and in these cases this receptor has been shown to promote cancer metastasis. Cancer cells use the same mechanisms as immune cells to It may even guide its movement. Our findings therefore have the potential to help design new strategies not only to target specific cancers but also to modify immune responses. ,” said Jonah Alanco.

Reference: “CCR7 acts as both a sensor and a sink for CCL19 to coordinate collective migration of leukocytes” Jonna Alanko, Mehmet Can Uçar, Nikola Canigova, Julian Stopp, Jan Schwarz, Jack Merrin, Edouard Hannezo, Michael Sixt, September 1, 2023; scientific immunology.
DOI: 10.1126/sciimmunol.adc9584

Jonna Alanko is a postdoctoral researcher at the InFLAMES Flagship in the MediCity laboratory at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Turku, Finland. She carried out most of her recently published research in a research group led by Professor Michael Sixt at the Austrian Institute for Science and Technology (ISTA) in Austria.

Source: scitechdaily.com

New findings on ancient climate analysis suggest that CO2 is contributing to more warming than previously believed

Posted on December 7, 2023 by Igor Mitreski

A diagram of Earth 65 million years ago, when CO2 levels were much higher than today.

Chris Butler/Science Photo Library

Perhaps the most difficult question in climate science. That is, how much global warming does carbon dioxide cause? A new analysis of 66 million years of Earth’s climate history suggests that the Earth is far more sensitive to greenhouse gases than current climate models predict, which could lead to even warmer temperatures in the long term. This means that there is a possibility of further development.

A key factor determining the impact of our emissions on the planet is how much the planet warms in response to the extra CO2 we pump into the atmosphere. This sensitivity is affected by various feedback loops related to clouds, melting ice sheets, and other influences.

One way to measure this sensitivity is to look at how the climate has changed in the past. Gases trapped in ice cores can only take us back about 800,000 years, so to go even further back in time to look at temperatures and CO2 levels in the atmosphere, researchers used proxies. Masu. For example, the density of pores in plant leaves and the isotope levels in the fossil shells of marine organisms change in response to CO2 levels.

However, discrepancies between different proxies have led to an uncertain view of Earth’s ancient climate. Now, an extensive review by a team of over 80 researchers provides a clearer picture. More accurate representation of ancient CO2 levels. “We now have a much clearer picture of what carbon dioxide levels have been in the past,” he says. Berber Henisch He coordinated the project at Columbia University in New York.

This allows us to understand current CO2 levels in the atmosphere alongside the deep past. This indicates that the last time CO2 levels were as consistently high as they are now was about 14 million years ago, and much earlier than that. previous estimate.

By comparing this new CO2 data with temperature records, “we can learn how sensitive the climate has been to changes in carbon dioxide,” Hoenisch says. Current climate models estimate that doubling his CO2 levels in the atmosphere would result in a warming of 1.5°C to 4.5°C. However, the results suggest that the temperature increase is even larger, between 5°C and 8°C.

However, there is a big caveat. This new insight into the history of Earth’s deep climate covers trends over hundreds of thousands of years, rather than the short timescales of decades or centuries that are relevant to humanity today, and therefore It doesn’t tell you what the temperature is likely to be. “It’s a slow cascading effect that slowly kicks in,” Hoenisch says.

The vast time scales covered in this study also mean that details of climate sensitivity cannot be detected. michael man Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania say climate sensitivities may have been different at other times in Earth’s history compared to today, which is likely why the study yielded higher estimates than those based on more recent periods. I think this explains why I got there.

“The bottom line is that the climate sensitivity estimates from this study probably don’t apply to current anthropogenic warming,” Mann says. “Nonetheless, this study confirms a very close relationship between CO2 and global temperatures, highlighting the continuing threat of fossil fuel combustion.”

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com