A virus has brought the world’s most powerful country to its knees. From a report: A pandemic can be prevented in two ways: Stop an infection from ever arising, or stop an infection from becoming thousands more. The first way is likely impossible. There are simply too many viruses and too many animals that harbor them. Bats alone could host thousands…
Tag: Caves
Divers Find Evidence of Prehistoric Mining Operation in North America
Iwastheone shared this article from CBS News:
Experts and cave divers in Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula have found ocher mines that are some of the oldest on the continent. Ancient skeletons were found in the narrow, twisting labyrinths of now-submerged sinkhole caves… The discovery of remains of human-set fires, stacked mining debris, simple stone tools, navigational aids and digging sites suggest humans went…
Evolution: Why it seems to have a direction, and what to expect next
Does evolution always and inevitably generates greater diversity and complexity, having a predictable direction? Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/evolution-direction-what-to-expect-next…
‘Exquisite’ dinosaur-age cockroaches discovered preserved in amber
A pair of 99-million-year-old cave-dwelling cockroaches are rewriting the early history of when bugs first moved into caves. Source: https://www.livescience.com/oldest-cave-dwelling-animal-cockroaches.html
A Long-Lost Legendary Roman Fruit Tree Has Been Grown From 2,000-Year-Old Seeds
“Scientists have cultivated plants from date palm seeds that languished in ancient ruins and caves for 2,000 years,” writes ScienceAlert. schwit1 shared their report: This remarkable feat confirms the long-term viability of the kernels once ensconced in succulent Judean dates, a fruit cultivar lost for centuries. The results make it an excellent candidate for studying the longevity of plant seeds. From…
A lazy cave salamander didn’t move from the same spot for 7 years
Olm are salamanders that spend all their lives in pitch-black caves, and it turns out they don’t move very much – sometimes lurking in the same spot for years Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2232176-a-lazy-cave-salamander-didnt-move-from-the-same-spot-for-7-years/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
Attention Mars Explorers: Besides Low-Gravity, There’s Also Radiation
The director of astrobiology at Columbia University saw something this week that he just had to respond to: Elon Musk “talking about sending 1 million people to Mars by 2050, using no less than three Starship launches per day (with a stash of 1,000 of these massive spacecraft on call).” Iwastheone shared this article from Scientific American: The martian radiation environment…
Last known appearance of Homo erectus was in Ngandong, Java
New research shows that Homo erectus, an ancestor of human beings, lived as recently as 108,000 to 117,000 years ago in Ngandong, on the Indonesian island of Java. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/homo-erectus-latest-date-ngandong-java…
Researchers describe 71 new species in 2019
New species from 5 continents and 3 oceans include geckos, goblin spiders, flowering plants, and Mediterranean ants. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/new-species-discovered-in-2019…
Shapeshifting robots for Saturn’s moons
NASA is testing a 3D-printed prototype of unusual mini robots that can roll, fly, float and swim, then morph into a single machine. They’re called Shapeshifters. The team envisions them as a way to explore Saturn’s moons. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/shapeshifting-robots-for-saturns-moons…