Around 60,000 new seeds are being safeguarded in an Arctic vault, including sacred corn from the Cherokee Nation, Brazilian onions, and European crab apples Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2235116-svalbard-doomsday-vault-gets-first-big-seed-deposit-since-upgrade/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
Tag: seeds
The cosmic confusion of the microwave background
Roughly 380,000 years after the Big Bang, about 13.7 billion years ago, matter (mostly hydrogen) cooled enough for neutral atoms to form, and light was able to traverse space freely. That light, the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR), comes to us from every direction in the sky, uniform except for faint ripples and bumps at brightness levels of only a few…
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…
Extinct date palms grown from 2000-year-old seeds found in Israel
An extinct variety of date palm tree has been grown from ancient seeds preserved in the Judean desert for 2000 years, the oldest seeds ever germinated Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2232464-extinct-date-palms-grown-from-2000-year-old-seeds-found-in-israel/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
Extinct date palms grown from 2000-year-old seeds found near Jerusalem
An extinct variety of date palm tree has been grown from ancient seeds preserved in the Judean desert for 2000 years, the oldest seeds ever germinated Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2232464-extinct-date-palms-grown-from-2000-year-old-seeds-found-near-jerusalem/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
Ötzi the Iceman’s final days
Scientists have identified ancient mosses in, on and around the 5,300-year-old glacier mummy that add to the story of the final 48 hours before his murder. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/otzi-the-iceman-mummy-ancient-mosses…
Taurus? Here’s your constellation
How to find to find the constellation Taurus in your night sky. Plus the names of some of its bright stars and star clusters and its mythology. Source: https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/taurus-heres-your-constellation…
Citizen scientists identify new form of northern lights
Space researchers and amateur photographers in Finland have identified a new type of aurora, or northern lights. They call them “dunes.” Read more and see a video. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/citizen-scientists-new-aurora-northern-lights-dunes…
IBM’s Debating AI Just Got a Lot Closer To Being a Useful Tool
We make decisions by weighing pros and cons. Artificial intelligence has the potential to help us with that by sifting through ever-increasing mounds of data. But to be truly useful, it needs to reason more like a human. An artificial intelligence technique known as argument mining could help. From a report: IBM has just taken a big step in that direction….
Twenty years of discoveries changing story of human evolution
Archaeological discoveries are happening faster than ever before, helping refine the human story. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/archaeological-discoveries-changing-story-of-human-evolution…