BBC News
Several years ago, the team discovered broken jars in the tomb of Ptahmes, a high-ranking Egyptian official.
The archaeologists found a "solidified whitish mass" in one of the jars which they suspected was food but were unsure which kind.
Now a study has identified it as cheese, dating from 3,200 years ago. The discovery is significant as there has been no previous evidence of Ancient Egyptian cheese production, authors of the report, published in the journal Analytical Chemistry, said.
Ancient Egyptian mummification 'recipe' revealed
Examination of a mummy has revealed the original ancient Egyptian embalming recipe - first used to preserve bodies… The findings are published in the Journal of Archaeological Science. […]
So the basic recipe was:
- a plant oil - possibly sesame oil;
- a "balsam-type" plant or root extract that may have come from bullrushes;
- a plant-based gum - a natural sugar that may have been extracted from acacia;
- crucially, a conifer tree resin, which was probably pine resin
When mixed into the oil, that resin would have given it antibacterial properties, protecting the body from decay.
New pesticides 'may have risks for bees'
Attempts to find a new generation of pesticides to replace neonicotinoids have been dealt a potential blow. […]
Studies suggest a new type of pesticide seen as an alternative to the chemicals, which have been banned in many countries, may have similar risks.
The new insecticides may reduce bumblebee reproduction in the wild, according to a study by UK scientists… A study, published in Nature journal, looked at how one of the new class, known as sulfoxaflor, impacts on healthy, wild bumblebees.
Popular Science
Trees are migrating west to escape climate change
An individual tree has roots and, of course, it doesn’t move. But trees, as a species, do move over time. They migrate in response to environmental challenges, especially climate change. Surprisingly, they don’t all go to the Poles, where it is cooler. As it turns out, more of them head west, where it is getting wetter.
Sure, some species, such as evergreens, are heading to the Poles to escape the heat. But others, like certain oaks and maple, are going west in search of rain. For the most part, “tree migrations are moisture related,” said Songlin Fei, associate professor at Purdue’s University’s department of forestry and natural resources, who has studied this phenomenon in recent years. “Precipitation has a stronger near-term impact on species shift than temperature.”
Both trends are a consequence of climate change, which is producing more heat and heavier rainfall, fueling deforestation. This is worrisome, as forests soak up carbon from the atmosphere, and recent evidence suggests that soil is exhaling carbon dioxide faster than trees can take in. The migration of trees may help preserve individual species, but also threatens to destabilize forest ecosystems.
Check out these new flying pterosaur bones
Back in the day, dinosaurs roamed the earth, but pterosaurs were masters of the sky. Though better known as pterodactyls to the general public, pterosaurs are familiar to anyone with even a basic knowledge of paleontology. But while we know pterosaurs existed, we also know relatively little about them. Their fossilized remains are extraordinarily rare, and when it comes to the Triassic period of the prehistoric world, we’ve only found shoddy, dusty fragments of just 30 pterosaur specimens.
Well, that’s all we were left with. In a new paper published Monday in Nature Ecology & Evolution, scientists unveiled a bombshell find out of the Saints and Sinners Quarry in northeastern Utah: the 200-million-year-old bones of a new pterosaur species, Caelestiventus hanseni, whose genus means “heavenly wind.” The rare specimen is the first Triassic pterosaur found in a desert setting, and remains remarkably, unusually intact for its age. Pterosaurs seem to have been much more common and diverse than we thought.
“You always dream about these things,” says Brooks Britt, a geological sciences professor at Brigham Young University and the lead author of the new study. “Pterosaur bones are so uncommon. You don’t walk out there and say ‘I’m going to look for pterosaurs in the rock.’ They’re such a small component of the biota that’s being preserved.”
Humans have a hard time 'killing' robots, especially when they beg for their lives
In a recent paper in the journal PLOS ONE, German researchers asked 89 college students to team up with a tiny, bright-eyed robot named Nao to answer questions and complete menial tasks. It’s a robot partnership worthy of a buddy comedy. But, as is typical in experimental psychology, these tasks were a distraction from the real question under investigation: What happens when the humans had to turn the robot off?
In 43 cases, the Verge reported earlier this month, “the robot protested, telling participants it was afraid of the dark and even begging: ‘No! Please do not switch me off!’” As the researchers predicted, participants struggled to switch the machine—which they had previously worked with as a partner—off. Thirty of the humans took twice as long on average to turn off the robots compared to the group whose robots said nothing at all. And 13 people refused to comply altogether, leaving Nao on.
“People perceive robots to be somewhat alive,” Christoph Bartneck, a leading researcher in human-robot interaction, wrote in an email. This phenomenon things like movie and robots as though they’re humans is called “the media equation.” And it can create some serious moral quandaries.
Science Daily
'Abrupt thaw' of permafrost beneath lakes could significantly affect climate change models
Methane released by thawing permafrost from some Arctic lakes could significantly accelerate climate change, according to a new University of Alaska Fairbanks-led study.
The study, which was published Aug. 15 in the journal Nature Communications, focuses on the carbon released by thawing permafrost beneath thermokarst lakes. Such lakes develop when warming soil melts ground ice, causing the surface to collapse and form pools of water. Those pools accelerate permafrost thaw beneath the expanding lakes, providing food for microbes that produce the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane.
Lead author Katey Walter Anthony and her colleagues studied hundreds of thermokarst lakes in Alaska and Siberia during a 12-year period, measuring their growth and how much methane was bubbling to their surface. By combining field work results with remote-sensing data of lake changes during the past two years, they determined the "abrupt thaw" beneath such lakes is likely to release large amounts of permafrost carbon into the atmosphere this century. The lake activity could potentially double the release from terrestrial landscapes by the 2050s.
Autism linked to egg cells' difficulty creating large proteins
New work from Carnegie's Ethan Greenblatt and Allan Spradling reveals that the genetic factors underlying fragile X syndrome, and potentially other autism-related disorders, stem from defects in the cell's ability to create unusually large protein structures. Their findings are published in Science.
Their work focuses on a gene called Fmr1. Mutations in this gene create problems in the brain as well as the reproductive system. They can lead to the most-common form of inherited autism, fragile X syndrome, as well as to premature ovarian failure.
It was already thought that Fmr1 plays a pivotal part in the last stages of the process by which the recipe encoded by a gene is used to construct a protein.
Acid coastal seas off US putting common fish species at risk
Scientists have shown that coastal waters and river estuaries can exhibit unique vulnerabilities to acidification than offshore waters. This acidification, detected in waters off the United States West Coast and the Gulf of Mexico, can lead to disorientation and cognitive problems in some marine fish species, such as salmon, sharks, and cod. This work is presented at the Goldschmidt Conference in Boston.
Scientists have recently discovered that marine creatures can be adversely affected by hypercapnia, a condition of too much dissolved CO2 in seawater (CO2 partial pressure, or pCO2). When this level rises above 1000 micro atmospheres (1000 μatm), some fish species suffer cognitive problems and disorientation, such as losing their way or even swimming towards predators. Surface ocean CO2 partial pressures tend to be around 400 μatm, so until now scientists have thought that hypercapnia was a problem which would only become apparent over time in subsurface waters.
Now researchers from several U.S. marine laboratories have found that in subsurface coastal waters, the pCO2 levels can rise to levels which begin to threaten the wellbeing of fish and is likely to disproportionately affect colder northern waters, which Pacific salmon depend on to grow from juveniles to adults.
Live Science
Scientists Calculate the Speed of Death in Cells, and It's Surprisingly Slow
Cells in our bodies die all the time, and now we know just how fast.
Scientists found that death travels in unremitting waves through a cell, moving at a rate of 30 micrometers (one-thousandth of an inch) every minute, they report in a new study published Aug. 10 in the journal Science. That means, for instance, that a nerve cell, whose body can reach a size of 100 micrometers, could take as long as 3 minutes and 20 seconds to die.
That may sound morbid, but it's precisely this lethal tide that keeps us alive and healthy. Apoptosis — or programmed cell death — is necessary for clearing our bodies of unnecessary or harmful cells, such as those that are infected by viruses. It also helps shape organs and other features in a developing fetus. (There is a second way cells can die, called necrosis, which is a different process that occurs as an unplanned response to a stressful event).
California Logged Its Hottest Month Ever, and Things Are Only Going to Get Worse
As wildfires burn huge swaths of California, the month of July blazed through climate records.
It was not only the hottest July in California's history, but it was also the state's hottest month ever, according to a new report issued Wednesday (Aug. 15) by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Across the U.S., July was also hotter than usual. Average temperatures in the lower 48 states climbed to 75.5 degrees Fahrenheit (24.2 degrees Celsius). At 1.9 degrees F higher than the 20th century average, these sizzling temperatures rendered the month the 11th hottest July on record for the U.S., NOAA scientists reported at a press briefing.
Heat Wave Reveals Cropmarks of Lost Civilizations in England
This summer's unrelenting heat has helped to reveal hidden marks of ancient civilizations, including Neolithic monuments, Iron Age barrows, prehistoric settlements and ancient farms.
Archaeologists working with Historic England, a British historical preservation body, took to the skies to find hidden markings from past archaeological sites that typically become more apparent following dry soil conditions, according to a statement. These markings, called cropmarks, are outlines of buried structures.
"This spell of very hot weather has provided the perfect conditions for our aerial archaeologists to 'see beneath the soil,'" Duncan Wilson, chief executive of Historic England, said in the statement.
CBC News
Why scientists suspect proof of a turning point in Earth's history is sitting in a lake in Milton, Ontatio
Some scientists believe human activity and technology have pushed us into a new geological epoch called the Anthropocene. What they still need to figure out is exactly when this turning point began.
A team of researchers from three universities in Ontario is betting the answer lies at the bottom of a lake in Milton, just west of Toronto.
"We feel strongly that Crawford Lake has all the right stuff," said Francine McCarthy, the team's leader and an earth sciences professor at Brock University who has been studying the lake since the 1980s.
This gene prevents elephants from getting cancer and scientists are taking note
For almost half of us, cancer will become an unfortunate reality in our lifetime. But elephants have one of the lowest rates of cancer in any mammal.
Now, a new study from the University of Chicago published in Cell Reports reveals the elephant's genetic secret and it could inspire new anti-cancer strategies in humans.
Cancer is ultimately a disease of one of two things: old age or having lots of cells. Any cell in the body can become cancerous with the right set of bad mutations to the DNA.
That should mean that elephants — the world's largest living land animal — would be among the highest risk for cancer with over 100 times more cells than a human. Instead, it's estimated less than five per cent of elephants die from cancer.
Canada to phase out pesticides linked to bee deaths, sources say
The federal government will begin phasing out the outdoor use of nicotine-based pesticides beginning in 2021, part of an effort to stem the mysterious decline of honey bee colonies around the world.
The Pest Management Regulatory Agency of Canada will announce Wednesday a three-year phaseout of two of the three main neonicotinoid pesticides currently approved for use in the country, sources close to the decision tell The Canadian Press.
The agency has already announced plans to phase out the third pesticide in all outdoor uses, meaning it can't be sprayed or used to pretreat seeds before planting.
The Washington Post
New Trump power plant plan would release hundreds of millions of tons of CO2 into the air
Trump plans this week to unveil a proposal that would empower states to establish emission standards for coal-fired power plants rather than speeding their retirement — a major overhaul of the Obama administration’s signature climate policy. The plan, which is projected to release at least 12 times the amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere compared with the Obama rule over the next decade, comes as scientists have warned that the world will experience increasingly dire climate effects absent a major cut in carbon emissions.
Trump plans to announce the measure as soon as Tuesday during a visit to West Virginia, according to two administration officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the White House was still finalizing details Friday.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s own impact analysis, which runs nearly 300 pages, projects that the proposal would make only slight cuts to overall emissions of pollutants — including carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides — over the next decade. The Obama rule, by contrast, dwarfs those cuts by a factor of more than 12.
FDA approves first generic version of EpiPen
The Food and Drug Administration approved the first generic version of EpiPen on Thursday, a move that will bring new competition for the lifesaving allergy injection that helped spark public furor over high drug prices.
The new drug, from Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, is the first to be deemed a therapeutic equivalent of the EpiPen, which means that it can be automatically substituted at the pharmacy counter for prescriptions for EpiPen or EpiPen Jr. […]
The EpiPen, made by Mylan, is used to inject the hormone epinephrine into the thigh to quell potentially fatal reactions to bee stings, peanuts and other allergens. Although the key ingredient is cheap and the EpiPen itself was first approved in 1987, Mylan began increasing the price of the product, from less than $100 in 2007 for a pack of two injectors to $608 today. In response to criticism over the price of its drug, EpiPen introduced its own half-priced generic in 2016.
Ars Technica
African palm oil expansion is bad news for the continent’s primates
Palm oil is ubiquitous and is set to become more so over the next few decades. The oil is used in food, cleaning, and beauty products and as biofuel, so demand is set to grow rapidly. With this skyrocketing demand comes a need for the land on which to grow more oil palms—and a threat to the ecosystems currently using that land.
Currently, Southeast Asia is the oil palm hotspot, and the deforestation and ensuing damage in the region have been well publicized. But much of the future expansion may happen in Africa, introducing the likelihood of new conservation problems. A paper published in this week’s PNAS argues that there's a huge overlap between the land where oil palms could be grown and the land that houses the continent’s primates. “Large-scale expansion of oil palm cultivation in Africa will have unavoidable, negative effects on primates,” write Giovanni Strona and his colleagues.
The nightmarishly complex wheat genome finally yields to scientists
Bread, like wine, is pivotal in Judeo-Christian rituals. Both products exemplify the use of human ingenuity to re-create what nature provides, and the fermentation they both require must have seemed nothing less than magical to ancient minds. When toasted, rubbed with garlic and tomato, doused with olive oil and sprinkled with salt like the Catalans do, there are few things more delicious than bread.
Wheat is the most widely cultivated crop on the planet, accounting for about a fifth of all calories consumed by humans and more protein than any other food source. Although we have relied on bread wheat so heavily and for so long (14,000 years-ish), an understanding of its genetics has been a challenge. Its genome has been hard to solve because it is ridiculously complex. The genome is huge, about five times larger than ours. It's hexaploid, meaning it has six copies of each of its chromosomes. More than 85 percent of the genetic sequences among these three sets of chromosome pairs are repetitive DNA, and they are quite similar to each other, making it difficult to tease out which sequences reside where.
The genomes of rice and corn—two other staple grain crops—were solved in 2002 and 2009, respectively. In 2005, the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium determined to get a reference genome of the bread wheat cultivar Chinese Spring. Thirteen years later, the consortium has finally succeeded.
Oregon Public Broadcasting
Fixing The Willamette's Toxic Algae Problem Could Start At Ross Island
It’s not unusual for toxic algal blooms to close a lake or pond. And in recent years, these algae have been contaminating another type of swimming spot: the Willamette River. In early August, the Oregon Health Authority advised Portland residents to keep themselves and their pets out of the water in certain areas.
Such warnings have become increasingly common along Portland’s stretch of the Willamette, and most of the blooms have been traced back to one location: the lagoon on Ross Island just upstream of downtown Portland. The Human Access Project, an organization that aims to get more Portland residents swimming in the river, wants to change the nature of Ross Island lagoon to prevent blooms like this in the future.
Thanks to restoration efforts, Ross Island is a small oasis in the middle of the Willamette. It hosts populations of deer, riparian forests and dozens of types of birds.
How To Clean Sand: Volunteers Take On Microplastics At Oregon Coast
How do you clean all the sand on a beach? A group of volunteers didn’t do it grain by grain, but took on the task screen by screen.
With the guidance of Seaside-based conservation group Sea Turtles Forever, about 50 volunteers gathered to clean the sand near Haystack Rock using unique screen filtration systems.
Developed by Sea Turtles Forever founder Marc W. Ward, the systems look like a cross between a medical stretcher and a flour sifter. Dirty sand is piled on a sheet of fine mesh stretched between two long poles, and the mesh catches plastic and other foreign material while allowing the sand to fall through. According to Ward, a static charge in the mesh can catch plastic particles as small as 100 micrometers across.
Wild Bees May Benefit From Cleaning Up After Clearcuts
After cutting down trees in a section of forest, logging crews can do their local bees a favor by sticking around to clear the debris and flatten the ground.
A recent study from Oregon State University suggests that removing timber harvest residue — also known as “slash” — could help wild bee populations thrive in the wake of a clearcut logging operation.
The study was led by wildlife biologist Jim Rivers, principal investigator in OSU’s Forest Animal Ecology Lab. It was part of an effort to find out how the removal of slash to be used as biofuel might affect forest ecosystems — including the populations of many pollinators, like bees.
Gizmodo
Beetle Trapped in 99-Million-Year-Old Amber Was an Early Pollinator
Amber fossils containing bugs are nothing new, but the discovery of a beautifully preserved Cretaceous Period beetle with bits of pollen still around it is changing what we know about the planet’s earliest pollinating insects.
Earth’s oldest pollinating insects are a bit of a mystery, but fossilized insect dung containing bits of pollen suggest they first emerged during the Middle Triassic (247 million to 237 million years ago). More convincing evidence of insectoid pollinators dates back 165 million years, to the Middle Jurassic, in the form of fossilized scorpionflies, who likely used their long proboscis to pollinate non-flowering plants. Indeed, a fascinating aspect about early pollinating insects is that they were paired with non-flowering plants (gymnosperms), rather than flowering plants (angiosperms).
Evidence for early pollination is sparse, which is why this new study is so exciting. The new research, published today in Current Biology, is providing the earliest unambiguous fossil evidence of the relationship between gymnosperms and insects.
Fracking Uses a Lot More Water Than It Did 5 Years Ago
Public concern over hydraulic fracturing (better known as fracking) has often focused on the potential for this extractive process to pollute waterways. Well, a new study reminds us that fracking is messing with our water in more ways than one.
Published in Science Advances Wednesday, this study found that more and more water has been used for fracking since 2011, when the United States began to really ramp up oil and gas extraction via this method. […]
To understand how water use for fracking has changed as the industry has expanded in the US, the authors pulled data on water use and production volumes for fracking at over 12,000 wells from a range of sources, including state databases and the public FracFocus Chemical Disclosure Registry.
Huge Patch of Universe Is Strangely Opaque Despite Its Lack of Galaxies
The mere fact that we live in a universe boggles my mind every once in a while. But thankfully, our cosmic home is a place that follows rules; the laws of physics seem to agree everywhere, and galaxies are uniformly distributed throughout. Except for in this 300-million-light-year-long region, which seems to be missing something.
Scientists observed an opaque region of space in front of a quasar, an extra bright source of light, in the far distance. They realized that, confusingly, this light-blocking region had fewer galaxies than they expected.
The region sits in front of a quasar called ULAS J0148+0600 whose light left on its journey to us when the Universe was less than a billion years old. This area seems to absorb light for a stretch of over 300 million light-years. The team of scientists used the Subaru telescope in Hawaii to hunt for distant galaxies around the opaque region, and found far fewer than average, according to the paper published in The Astrophysical Journal. This is the opposite of what you’d expect—shouldn’t an opaque area have more matter?