Science

A therapy that would once have been considered a feat of science fiction has reversed aggressive and incurable blood cancers in some patients, doctors report.

An ancient Egyptian pleasure boat that matches a description by the first-century Greek historian Strabo has been discovered off the coast of Alexandria, to the excitement of archaeologists.

California officials are warning foragers after an outbreak of poisoning linked to wild mushrooms that has killed one adult and caused severe liver damage in several patients, including children.

What I don’t get is why it took them decades to figure this out. Why have they been giving us sugar substitutes without understanding what they have been doing to us? Why were these approved for use in the first place?

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/11958

Archaeologists working at the Palace of Westminster have uncovered evidence of human activity dating back nearly 6,000 years - over a millennium older than the earliest earthworks at Stonehenge. The discovery includes more than 60 struck flint flakes, including one worked tool, likely dating to the late Mesolithic or early Neolithic period (around 4300 BC).

There’s a Mastodon bot that posts videos of random three-body problems (three planets orbiting each other), set to classical music. I figured this community would like it. The one that it just posted is the most interesting one I’ve seen yet.

Excerpts in case of paywall; the archive.org link isn’t working:

The study authors believe an eruption occurred around 1345, about two years before the start of the pandemic, from either a single volcano or a cluster of volcanoes of unknown location, likely in the tropics. The resulting haze from volcanic ash would have partially blocked sunlight across the Mediterranean region over multiple years, causing temperatures to drop and crops to fail.

Archaeologists in Greece have uncovered the grave of an ousted noblewoman whom they are calling “The Lady with the Inverted Diadem.” The seventh-century-B.C. burial is notable for the elaborate bronze crown placed upside down on the woman’s head, which may have signified a final end to her power.

We knew from prior analyses that a distant asteroid sampled in 2020 carried all but one of the molecules needed to kick-start life, and researchers have just found the missing ingredient: sugar

As Fleming’s story has significant inconsistancies, a few theories on how penicillin was actually discovered are discussed in this article.

In an article co-authored with his colleague Margarita Díaz-Andreu, the University of Barcelona researcher argues that 12 large shell trumpets found in Neolithic settlements and mines in Catalonia – and dated to between the late fifth and early fourth millennia BC – may have been used as long-distance communication devices and as rudimentary musical instruments.

“That fungus is called Cladosporium sphaerospermum, and some scientists think its dark pigment – melanin – may allow it to harness ionizing radiation through a process similar to the way plants harness light for photosynthesis. This proposed mechanism is even referred to as radiosynthesis.”

Found in Southwest North Carolina. They were all over the exposed root of a fallen tree, was really impressive to see.

Tectella patellaris, if I am not mistaken.

From the outside, it looks like any ordinary nappy – one of the tens of billions that end up in landfill each year. But the Hiro diaper comes with an unusual companion: a sachet of freeze-dried fungi to sprinkle over a baby’s gloopy excretions.

Researchers from Saarland University (UdS) have achieved an important breakthrough in Quantum Communication by demonstrating Quantum Entanglement and Teleportation over a 14 km long fiber link, the “Saarbrücken Quantum Communication Fiber Testbed”.

Researchers from Saarland University (UdS) have achieved an important breakthrough in Quantum Communication by demonstrating Quantum Entanglement and Teleportation over a 14 km long fiber link, the “Saarbrücken Quantum Communication Fiber Testbed”.

Acoustic frequency filters, which convert electrical signals into miniaturized sound waves, separate the different frequency bands for mobile communications, Wi-Fi, and GPS in smartphones. Physicists at RPTU have now shown that such miniaturized sound waves can couple strongly with spin waves in yttrium iron garnet. This results in novel hybrid spin-sound waves in the gigahertz frequency range.

Archaeologists are to resume digging at the Ness of Brodgar on Orkney after 3D radar technology led to an “extraordinary discovery”.

In short:

Study

Neutron counts under the Chernobyl sarcophagus rose, but the best evidence says the spike came from shifting moisture inside the wrecked reactor, not an approaching chain reaction.

SANLIURFA, Turkey, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Turkey unveiled dozens of new finds at a major archaeological site in southeast Turkey on Wednesday, giving fresh insight into an area seen as showing humanity’s transition from hunter-gatherers to settled societies more than 11,000 years ago.

Archived version

Archaeologists uncovered a 2,000-year-old building in what is modern-day United Arab Emirates that likely served as a sanctuary at which merchants and travelers could worship before and after trips across the Persian Gulf.

*Astrophysicist Prof Tomonori Totani says research could be crucial breakthrough in search for elusive substance*

Neuroscientists at the University of Cambridge have identified five “major epochs” of brain structure over the course of a human life, as our brains rewire to support different ways of thinking while we grow, mature, and ultimately decline.