Jingszo !

Researchers find that varying stiffness and speeds at which skin grows lead to ‘mechanical’ formation of inward folds

Scales, hair or feathers typically formed on animals where particular genes were turned on during development as a result of certain chemicals – themselves produced from genes – acting on DNA. This gives rise to a regular pattern.

The dynamics behind this complex process were worked out by Alan Turing, the mathematician and computer scientist.

But it appears the scales on a crocodile’s head are not under such genetic control. Milinkovitch and his colleagues said the scales instead developed because the skin of the face and jaw grew faster than the tissues to which it was attached, and the layers of skin itself had different levels of stiffness. The upshot is the skin folds inward, giving rise to scales with an irregular pattern.

In other words, it is a purely mechanical process.

Furthermore, although BB shares a technological “background” with early Middle Pleistocene sites, there are some technological differences, particularly in the types of large-shaped tools, that cannot be explained solely by the specific contexts of each site.

This, along with the evidence of a non-linear evolution in core knapping strategies during the late Early Pleistocene and early Middle Pleistocene, points to the existence of migratory flows involving different population waves. In this scenario, BB may represent an early dispersal of the Acheulean from Africa around 1.4 million years ago, which may be related with ‘Ubeidiya.

This article originally appeared in The Skeptic, Volume 4, Issue 6, from 1990.

There seems little doubt that the late Ray Palmer was, if not the ‘father of flying saucers’, then at least the midwife who assisted at the birth of the most intransigent mystery of this, or any other century.

The parameters he ably established when he first espoused the ufological cause by publishing I Did See The Flying Discs by Kenneth Arnold in the pages of the first issue of his brand new magazine Fate in 1948, still have considerable influence today – especially in America where the ‘Aliens from Space Syndrome’ has gained a new lease of life by the implementation of the Freedom of Information Act.

From a hot, dense, uniform state in its earliest moments, our entire known Universe arose. These unavoidable steps made it all possible.

Key Takeaways

• At the start of the hot Big Bang, the Universe had almost unlimited potential: with a tremendous amount of energy inherent to an enormous number of fast-moving quanta of a variety of species.

• As time elapsed, however, the Universe expanded and cooled, with all of the quanta within the cosmos not only suffering the consequences, but stepping down in energy and increasing the total entropy of the Universe.

• What we wind up with, in the aftermath of this early, violent history, is a Universe ready to form atoms, molecules, stars, and later on, rocky planets and life. Here’s how it all unfolds.

Reports of unidentified flying objects in the northeastern U.S. are on the rise, but so far officials have few answers for alarmed residents

What’s bright, flying and reportedly swarming the night skies over northern New Jersey?

The answer is apparently “drones,” but no one seems to know—or, at least, to be able to disclose—much more than that.

We have only one example of biology forming in the universe – life on Earth. But what if life can form in other ways? How do you look for alien life when you don’t know what alien life might look like?

These questions are preoccupying astrobiologists, who are scientists who look for life beyond Earth. Astrobiologists have attempted to come up with universal rules that govern the emergence of complex physical and biological systems both on Earth and beyond.

By 2023, researchers had identified seven solar system objects that looked like asteroids but acted like comets. That was enough for the astronomical community to bestow upon them their own celestial object category: "dark comets." Now, with the finding of seven more of these objects, researchers could start on a new set of questions.

Two kinds of dark comets

The study's authors found that one kind, which they call outer dark comets, have similar characteristics to Jupiter-family comets: They have highly eccentric (or elliptical) orbits and are on the larger side (hundreds of meters or more across).

The second group, inner dark comets, reside in the inner solar system (which includes Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars), travel in nearly circular orbits, and are on the smaller side (tens of meters or less).

Where are baobabs found?

The tree is native to at least 37 countries in Africa and two in the Arabian Peninsula. The African baobab (Adansonia digitata) is the most widespread of the eight known baobab species. It endures in some of the harshest conditions, from salty water-bathed ocean shores to vast dry savannahs and forests. Of the rest of the baobabs, six are native to Madagascar, and one to northern and western Australia.

Baobabs are unique trees. They are among the world’s longest-living trees, with some being over 2,000 years old. They can survive prolonged droughts thanks to their ability to store water in their huge trunks, which can attain a diameter of 10 metres or more. The trunk has amazing regenerative ability, easily growing back after damage by humans in search of fibre or from wildlife like elephants trying to quench their thirst.

The discovery at the vicus close to the Roman legionary fortress of Bonn of a 14kg deposit of mail armour, comprising at least four different garments, offers insight into the organisation of the Roman military economy. In particular, the hoard emphasises the close relationship between the military installations along the German frontier and the extramural settlements that developed close by.

The mail seems likely to have been intended to be used for the repair and patching of other garments for the Roman army. The hoard therefore illustrates how military waste materials, especially scrap metal, could be processed by local craftworkers.

It also suggests that waste management and recycling extended beyond the melting of scrap for raw materials and included the skilled patching and repair of mail armour.

Nobody knows what sleeping mushrooms dream of when their vast mycelial networks flicker and pulse with electrochemical responses akin to those of our own brain cells.

But given a chance, what might this web of impulses do if granted a moment of freedom?

An interdisciplinary team of researchers from Cornell University in the US and the University of Florence in Italy recently took steps to find out, putting a culture of the edible mushroom species Pleurotus eryngii (also known as the king oyster mushroom) in control of a pair of vehicles, which can twitch and roll across a flat surface.

Through a series of experiments, the researchers showed it was possible to use the mushroom's electrophysiological activity as a means of translating environmental cues into directives, which could, in turn, be used to drive a mechanical device's movements.

What can plants or animals do when faced with harsh conditions? Two options for survival seem most obvious: move elsewhere or adapt to their environment.

Some organisms have a third option. They can escape not through space but through time, by entering a dormant state until conditions improve.

As it turns out, dormancy may not only benefit the species who use it. In new research, we found that a propensity for dormancy may affect the balance of competition between species, and make it possible for more species to survive together when environments change.

In the Middle Ages there were some unusual practices and customs when dealing with the dead. From great piles of bones to embalmed hearts, with stories about mass graves and sleeping for hundreds of years, here is our top 10 list of strange things done with the medieval dead.

Capable of handling extreme cold, acid, and dehydration, the microbe Deinococcus radiodurans handles doses of radiation that would kill a human tens of thousands of times over, earning it the nickname 'Conan the Bacterium' after the valiant pulp fantasy character.

The secret to micro-Conan's strength lies in an assortment of highly potent antioxidants that mop up the mess of oxygen radicals before they can damage proteins critical to the cell's repair process.

Canada's Department of National Defence has released an updated image of an unidentified object that was shot down.

A department spokesperson said a Royal Canadian Air Force plane captured the image shortly before a U.S. fighter jet fired on the object over Yukon in western Canada in February of 2023.

According to a defence spokesperson, the image was taken from a Royal Canadian Air Force CP-140 Aurora long-range patrol aircraft before the object was downed by a U.S. F-22 fighter jet, CTV News reported.

The UFO was shot down on Feb. 11, 2023, shortly after it entered Canadian airspace through Alaska. It was one of three unidentified objects blasted out of the sky that month.

The Hubble Space Telescope captured some weird, unidentified stuff in the most detailed photos ever taken of the immediate space surrounding a quasar.

So what could these things be?

Scientists have suggested at least some of the objects could be small orbiting galaxies on the precipice of falling into the central black hole, which is what's powering the quasar. All of the objects were found within 16,000 light-years of the black hole.

Researchers are preparing to make one of science’s most unusual journeys. They are planning to transport a container of antimatter in a lorry across Europe.

Antimatter is the most expensive material on Earth – it’s estimated it would cost several trillion dollars to make a gram – and it can only be manufactured in particle physics laboratories such as the Cern research centre near Geneva.

It is also extremely tricky to handle. If antimatter makes contact with normal matter, both are annihilated, releasing a powerful burst of electromagnetic radiation. Only by carefully combining sets of powerful electrical and magnetic fields in special devices can antimatter be stored safely.

A team of roboticists at the Beijing Institute of Technology, working with a pair of colleagues from the Technical University of Munich, has created a new kind of rat robot—one that was designed to interact in social ways with real rats.

In their paper, the group describes how they used artificial intelligence to train their robot rat to behave like a real rat.

Science fiction books and movies have long promised humanoid robots capable of interacting with humans in ways that make the humans forget that the robots are not human. Such robots are shown as being able to do the kinds of work humans prefer to avoid and provide companionship.

In the real world, robots are not near having this level of ability. But scientists are working on it. In this new effort, the team in China set out to make a robot that could fool lab rats into thinking they were interacting with other real rats. And it appears they have succeeded.

Parenting can be tough, even for the young and energetic, but one elderly albatross is about to go through it all again—at the ripe old (and apparently record-setting) age of 74.

Wisdom, a Laysan Albatross, is one of millions of the huge seabirds that return to Midway Atoll, near Hawaii, every year to nest.

Wildlife experts say for decades she was doing this with the same partner—the birds are known to be monogamous—and has laid over 50 eggs in her lifetime.

But her partner has not been seen for years, and Wisdom has recently begun to flirt with other males.

On this year's visit, she has produced an egg that her new partner is helping her to incubate.

A bizarre incident in which a Chinese man fell into an abandoned well in Thailand and remained trapped for three days – his cries for help mistaken by villagers for ghostly sounds – has amused many on mainland social media.

The Universal Daily News in Thailand reported that on November 24, local police in Mae Sot, Tak province, near the Thai-Myanmar border, received reports from villagers who heard strange cries emerging from a nearby remote forest.

As police and rescue personnel ventured into the forest to investigate, they called out and were unexpectedly met with voices responding in return.

Following the source of the sound, they discovered a Chinese man trapped at the bottom of a 12-metre-deep dry well in the forest.

A new type of flying car could soon be ferrying passengers through the skies using a novel propulsion technology, engineers say.

On Nov. 5, CycloTech, an Austrian company that builds flying car components, unveiled blueprints for its new "BlackBird" demonstrator aircraft — a flying car that uses a custom-made alternative to propellers.

Dubbed the "CycloRotor," this all-electric propulsion system is based on the principle of the Voith Schneider propeller (VSP) — which is frequently used on tug boats and ferries.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfCDz9pxyyc

Lizards are ancient creatures. They were around before the dinosaurs and persisted long after dinosaurs went extinct. We’ve now found they are 35 million years older than we thought they were.

Cryptovaranoides microlanius was a tiny lizard that skittered around what is now southern England during the late Triassic, around 205 million years ago. It likely snapped up insects in its razor teeth (its name means “hidden lizard, small butcher”). But it wasn’t always considered a lizard. Previously, a group of researchers who studied the first fossil of the creature, or holotype, concluded that it was an archosaur, part of a group that includes the extinct dinosaurs and pterosaurs along with extant crocodilians and birds.

Now, another research team from the University of Bristol has analyzed that fossil and determined that Cryptovaranoides is not an archosaur but a lepidosaur, part of a larger order of reptiles that includes squamates, the reptile group that encompasses modern snakes and lizards. It is now also the oldest known squamate.

Why food scenes trigger such strong attention for agents is unclear, but may be because paying attention to who has food is important for survival. Intriguingly, our results showed very similar gaze patterns between the adult humans and the apes. As each scene unfolded, their gaze alternated between agent and patient.

Our results indicated that high levels of locomotor versatility are common among hunter–gatherers, and that proficiency of running, climbing, swimming and diving is found in societies across the geographical and ecological breadth of the sample. Each locomotor modality was found to be relevant not only to food acquisition but also in leisure, ritual and violent conflict.

Our results also indicated the prevalence of both male and female engagement within each locomotor modality, with climbing being the only modality to possess a notable bias towards male engagement in a substantial proportion of societies.

• Betelgeuse is normally the 10th brightest star in the sky, but has varied over the past five years to be as high as #7, or as low as #20, faintening and brightening unpredictably.

• Along with Antares, it’s one of the two closest red supergiant stars to Earth: a star destined to end its life in a core-collapse supernova.

• There hasn’t been a naked-eye supernova within the Milky Way since 1604, and the next one will be not only a scientist’s dream come true, but a delight for billions across the globe.

The extraordinary preservation of Cueva de Los Murciélagos (Albuñol, Spain) provides a unique opportunity to identify the materials and the techniques involved in archery during the Early Neolithic period. Arrows with preserved feathers, tied fibres, adhesive substance, and two probable bowstrings have been studied trough an unprecedented multi-proxy investigation, including microscopy and biomolecular methods, to unravel archery techniques.

The study has identified the oldest known sinew bowstrings, the first evidence for the use of olive tree (Olea europaea) and reed (Phragmites sp.) to produce arrow shafts in prehistoric European archery, and the identification of birch bark tar as a coating on the shafts.

The results of this study provide insights into ancient craft, technological solutions, and adaptations to local resources in the production of these reed-shafted hardwood tipped arrows and bowstrings. Their deposition in a burial cave sheds new light on the role of these artefacts in a Neolithic farming community.