An ornate four-wheeled chariot of iron, bronze and wood that archaeologists think was drawn by a team of horses in processions through Pompeii almost 2,000 years ago has been unearthed during excavations of a wealthy Roman villa. Source: https://www.livescience.com/chariot-unearthed-pompeii-astounds-archaeologists.html
Tag: Horses
Device that self-assembles in the uterus could limit wild horse births
To limit the spread of feral horses, researchers have invented a birth control delivery device that assembles with magnets inside the uterus and could help sterilise mares for years Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2266991-device-that-self-assembles-in-the-uterus-could-limit-wild-horse-births/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
Dog Domestication May Have Begun Because Paleo Humans Couldn’t Stomach the Original Paleo Diet
A new theory described today in Scientific Reports posits that hunter-gatherers whose omnivorous digestive system prevented too much protein consumption likely shared surplus meat with wolves. Those scraps may have initiated a step toward domestication. Scientific American reports: [Maria Lahtinen, a senior researcher at the Finnish Food Authority and a visiting scholar at the Finnish Museum of Natural History] did not…
What Are You Paying For in a $300 Chess Set? Mostly the Knights
If you bought a wooden chess set after watching “The Queen’s Gambit,” the price you paid was most likely dictated by just four pieces. From a report: The knights alone can account for as much as 50 percent of the cost of a nice wooden set. While the rest of the pieces can be machine-made, the knights are carved by hand…
Ranchers fight US government to corral the last wild horses of Nevada
The US government keeps wild horse populations in check with costly round-ups that use helicopters to frighten the animals into a pen, but some ranchers are now trying fertility darts Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2262698-ranchers-fight-us-government-to-corral-the-last-wild-horses-of-nevada/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
The Best Way To Win a Horse Race? Mathematicians May Have the Answer
sciencehabit summarizes a new article from Science magazine: Attention racehorse jockeys: Start fast, but save enough energy for a final kick. That’s the ideal strategy to win short-distance horse races, according to the first mathematical model to calculate how horses use up energy in races. The researchers say the approach could be used to identify customized pacing plans that, in theory,…
Why some animals have a penis bone shaped like an ice-cream scooper
The ‘penis bone’, or the baculum, is one of the most mysterious structures in mammal biology. To this day, no one really knows what it does or why it’s gone missing in humans, horses, elephants and a few other species. Source: https://www.livescience.com/why-animal-penis-bone-ice-cream-scoop-shape.html
Ransomware Attacks Take On New Urgency Ahead of Vote
A Texas company that sells software that cities and states use to display results on election night was hit by ransomware last week, the latest of nearly a thousand such attacks over the past year against small towns, big cities and the contractors who run their voting systems. From a report: Many of the attacks are conducted by Russian criminal groups,…
Today in science: Asaph Hall finds Mars moon Phobos
On this date in 1877, American astronomer Asaph Hall discovered the first small moon known to be orbiting Mars. Scientists now think this moon – called Phobos – is the latest incarnation of a cyclic ring-moon formation process that goes back billions of years. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/this-date-in-science-asaph-hall-discovers-a-moon-for-mars…
Sagittarius? Here’s your constellation
How to find Sagittarius on August evenings, plus the lore and science of this constellation. Source: https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/sagittarius-heres-your-constellation…