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1918 Flu Pandemic Targeted the Poor After All

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New analysis of the remains of victims of the 1918 influenza pandemic, which killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide, contradicts the widespread belief the flu disproportionately impacted healthy young adults.

According to Konya News service, archaeologist Hasan Uguz, head of excavations of the Konya Museums Directorate, scientists have determined that “the local Christian people used the underground city in the 8th century to protect themselves from the raids that lasted for 150 years.” Yet while conventional archaeology may assign the city to the middle ages, the possibility that the structure may have been occupied during the Roman era, does little to explain just when the giant complex was actually designed and engineered. The builders were far more capable than Christian refugees of the Roman era are believed to be, and clearly had much greater resources at their disposal.
Elderly people who had lived in the area all their lives, says Uguz, played in the tunnels as children, and knew a very large underground city was nearby, but no one suspected just how enormous it was, and scientists did not believe the underground tunnels, corridors, and rooms could spread over such an extensive area. The human capacity and exact size of the complex is expected to become clear as the work progresses, but, for now, how people of Sarayini actually lived remains a mystery.
Since 2012, many astonishing subterranean sites in Turkey have drawn the attention of archaeologists from around the world. So far, over two hundred such cities have been reported, but most have not yet been adequately explored, and it seems certain that many more await discovery. Much of the recent digging has been guided by Semih Istanbulluoglu, an archaeologist from Ankara University. In December, 2015, Istanbulluoglu told Turkey’s Hurriyet Daily News, that scientists believe, pending further laboratory work, at least some of the underground cities will date back to even before the Hittites in the second millennium BC.
To this day nobody really knows the true extent of the area’s underground cities, but they are certainly substantial. Celebrated Boston University geologist Robert Schoch, in a report for Atlantis Rising Magazine, (AR #95) described two of the cities, “Kaymakli consists of at least eight floors or underground stories (only four of which are currently accessible), each extending in a labyrinthine manner over a vast area. The city may have supported a population of 3,000 to 4,000 people plus farm animals and supplies, all housed underground. Derinkuyu, with an estimated twenty floors and extending an estimated 85 meters (280 feet) below the surface may have supported anywhere from a few thousand to 10,000 people plus their livestock and goods. And the underground cities may not have been entirely isolated from one another. Kaymakli and Derinkuyu are less than a dozen kilometers (seven and a half miles) from each other and there are reports of a tunnel that may connect them.”
Cappadocia’s astonishing underground cities, Schoch believes, though, in all probability, occupied many times since, were originally built around the end of the last ice age, twelve to thirteen thousand years ago.

AR #90

“The Paraffin Mold Experiments,”

by Michael E Tymn

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How did Earth get its water?

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Our planet’s water could have originated from interactions between the hydrogen-rich atmospheres and magma oceans of the planetary embryos that comprised Earth’s formative years, according to new work from Carnegie Science’s Anat Shahar and UCLA’s Edward Young and Hilke Schlichting. Their findings, which could explain the origins of Earth’s signature features, are published in Nature.

For decades, what researchers knew about planet formation was based primarily on our own Solar System. Although there are some active debates about the formation of gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn, it is widely agreed upon that Earth and the other rocky planets accreted from the disk of dust and gas that surrounded our Sun in its youth.

As increasingly larger objects crashed into each other, the baby planetesimals that eventually formed Earth grew both larger and hotter, melting into a vast magma ocean due to the heat of collisions and radioactive elements. Over time, as the planet cooled, the densest material sank inward, separating Earth into three distinct layers—the metallic core, and the rocky, silicate mantle and crust.

However, the explosion of exoplanet research over the past decade informed a new approach to modeling the Earth’s embryonic state.

“Exoplanet discoveries have given us a much greater appreciation of how common it is for just-formed planets to be surrounded by atmospheres that are rich in molecular hydrogen, H2, during their first several million years of growth,” Shahar explained. “Eventually these hydrogen envelopes dissipate, but they leave their fingerprints on the young planet’s composition.”

Using this information, the researchers developed new models for Earth’s formation and evolution to see if our home planet’s distinct chemical traits could be replicated.

Using a newly developed model, the Carnegie and UCLA researchers were able to demonstrate that early in Earth’s existence, interactions between the magma ocean and a molecular hydrogen proto-atmosphere could have given rise to some of Earth’s signature features, such as its abundance of water and its overall oxidized state.  

The researchers used mathematical modeling to explore the exchange of materials between molecular hydrogen atmospheres and magma oceans by looking at 25 different compounds and 18 different types of reactions—complex enough to yield valuable data about Earth’s possible formative history, but simple enough to interpret fully.
Interactions between the magma ocean and the atmosphere in their simulated baby Earth resulted in the movement of large masses of hydrogen into the metallic core, the oxidation of the mantle, and the production of large quantities of water.


Caption: An illustration showing how some Earth’s signature features, such as its abundance of water and its overall oxidized state could potentially be attributable to  interactions between the molecular hydrogen atmospheres and magma oceans on the planetary embryos that comprised Earth’s formative years. Illustration by Edward Young/UCLA and Katherine Cain/Carnegie Institution for Science.


Even if all of the rocky material that collided to form the growing planet was completely dry, these interactions between the molecular hydrogen atmosphere and the magma ocean would generate copious amounts of water, the researchers revealed. Other water sources are possible, they say, but not necessary to explain Earth’s current state.
“This is just one possible explanation for our planet’s evolution, but one that would establish an important link between Earth’s formation history and the most common exoplanets that have been discovered orbiting distant stars, which are called Super-Earths and sub-Neptunes,” Shahar concluded.

This project was part of the interdisciplinary, multi-institution AEThER project, initiated and led by Shahar, which seeks to reveal the chemical makeup of the Milky Way galaxy’s most common planets—Super-Earths and sub-Neptunes—and to develop a framework for detecting signatures of life on distant worlds. Funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, this effort was developed to understand how the formation and evolution of these planets shape their atmospheres. This could—in turn—enable scientists to differentiate true biosignatures, which could only be produced by the presence of life, from atmospheric molecules of non-biological origin.

“Increasingly powerful telescopes are enabling astronomers to understand the compositions of exoplanet atmospheres in never-before-seen detail,” Shahar said. “AEThER’s work will inform their observations with experimental and modeling data that, we hope, will lead to a foolproof method for detecting signs of life on other worlds.”

AR #123

What Does Water Remember”

by Jeane Manning

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Archaeologists discover world’s oldest wooden structure

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Half a million years ago, earlier than was previously thought possible, humans were building structures made of wood, according to new research by a team from the University of Liverpool and Aberystwyth University.

The research, published in the journal Nature, reports on the excavation of well-preserved wood at the archaeological site of Kalambo Falls, Zambia, dating back at least 476,000 years and predating the evolution of our own species, Homo sapiens.

Expert analysis of stone tool cut-marks on the wood show that these early humans shaped and joined two large logs to make a structure, probably the foundation of a platform or part of a dwelling.

This is the earliest evidence from anywhere in the world of the deliberate crafting of logs to fit together. Until now, evidence for the human use of wood was limited to its use for making fire, digging sticks and spears.
Wood is rarely found in such ancient sites as it usually rots and disappears, but at Kalambo Falls permanently high water levels preserved the wood.

This discovery challenges the prevailing view that Stone Age humans were nomadic. At Kalambo Falls these humans not only had a perennial source of water, but the forest around them provided enough food to enable them to settle and make structures.

Professor Larry Barham, from the University of Liverpool’s Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, who leads the ‘Deep Roots of Humanity’ research project said:
This find has changed how I think about our early ancestors. Forget the label ‘Stone Age,’ look at what these people were doing: they made something new, and large, from wood. They used their intelligence, imagination, and skills to create something they’d never seen before, something that had never previously existed.

They transformed their surroundings to make life easier, even if it was only by making a platform to sit on by the river to do their daily chores. These folks were more like us than we thought.

The specialist dating of the finds was undertaken by experts at Aberystwyth University.

They used new luminescence dating techniques, which reveal the last time minerals in the sand surrounding the finds were exposed to sunlight, to determine their age.

Professor Geoff Duller from Aberystwyth University said:
At this great age, putting a date on finds is very challenging and we used luminescence dating to do this. These new dating methods have far reaching implications – allowing us to date much further back in time, to piece together sites that give us a glimpse into human evolution. The site at Kalambo Falls had been excavated back in the 1960s when similar pieces of wood were recovered, but they were unable to date them, so the true significance of the site was unclear until now.

The site of Kalambo Falls on the Kalambo River lies above a 235 metres (772 foot) waterfall on the border of Zambia with the Rukwa Region of Tanzania at the edge of Lake Tanganyika. The area is on a ‘tentative‘ list from UNESCO for becoming a World Heritage site because of its archaeological significance.


The wooden structure
Professor Duller added:
“Our research proves that this site is much older than previously thought, so its archaeological significance is now even greater. It adds more weight to the argument that it should be a United Nations World Heritage Site.”

This research forms part of the pioneering ‘Deep Roots of Humanity’ project, an investigation into how human technology developed in the Stone Age. The project is funded by the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council and involved teams from Zambia’s National Heritage Conservation Commission, Livingstone Museum, Moto Moto Museum and the National Museum, Lusaka.

Professor Barham added:
“Kalambo Falls is an extraordinary site and a major heritage asset for Zambia. The Deep Roots team is looking forward to more exciting discoveries emerging from its waterlogged sands.”

This is the earliest evidence from anywhere in the world of the deliberate crafting of logs to fit together. Until now, evidence for the human use of wood was limited to its use for making fire, digging sticks and spears.
Wood is rarely found in such ancient sites as it usually rots and disappears, but at Kalambo Falls permanently high water levels preserved the wood.

This discovery challenges the prevailing view that Stone Age humans were nomadic. At Kalambo Falls these humans not only had a perennial source of water, but the forest around them provided enough food to enable them to settle and make structures.

Professor Larry Barham, from the University of Liverpool’s Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, who leads the ‘Deep Roots of Humanity’ research project said:
This find has changed how I think about our early ancestors. Forget the label ‘Stone Age,’ look at what these people were doing: they made something new, and large, from wood. They used their intelligence, imagination, and skills to create something they’d never seen before, something that had never previously existed.

They transformed their surroundings to make life easier, even if it was only by making a platform to sit on by the river to do their daily chores. These folks were more like us than we thought.

The specialist dating of the finds was undertaken by experts at Aberystwyth University.

They used new luminescence dating techniques, which reveal the last time minerals in the sand surrounding the finds were exposed to sunlight, to determine their age.

Professor Geoff Duller from Aberystwyth University said:
At this great age, putting a date on finds is very challenging and we used luminescence dating to do this. These new dating methods have far reaching implications – allowing us to date much further back in time, to piece together sites that give us a glimpse into human evolution. The site at Kalambo Falls had been excavated back in the 1960s when similar pieces of wood were recovered, but they were unable to date them, so the true significance of the site was unclear until now.

The site of Kalambo Falls on the Kalambo River lies above a 235 metres (772 foot) waterfall on the border of Zambia with the Rukwa Region of Tanzania at the edge of Lake Tanganyika. The area is on a ‘tentative‘ list from UNESCO for becoming a World Heritage site because of its archaeological significance.

The wooden structure
Professor Duller added:
“Our research proves that this site is much older than previously thought, so its archaeological significance is now even greater. It adds more weight to the argument that it should be a United Nations World Heritage Site.”


This research forms part of the pioneering ‘Deep Roots of Humanity’ project, an investigation into how human technology developed in the Stone Age. The project is funded by the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council and involved teams from Zambia’s National Heritage Conservation Commission, Livingstone Museum, Moto Moto Museum and the National Museum, Lusaka.
Professor Barham added:

“Kalambo Falls is an extraordinary site and a major heritage asset for Zambia. The Deep Roots team is looking forward to more exciting discoveries emerging from its waterlogged sands.”

https://news.liverpool.ac.uk/2023/09/20/archaeologists-discover-worlds-oldest-wooden-structure/

AR #108

Civilization from Before the Deluge
by Frank Joseph

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When Worlds Collide: New Evidence for Immense Ancient Impacts

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A Neptune-sized planet denser than steel has been discovered by an international team of astronomers, who believe its composition could be the result of a giant planetary clash.

TOI-1853b’s mass is almost twice that of any other similar-sized planet known and its density is incredibly high, meaning that it is made up of a larger fraction of rock than would typically be expected at that scale.

In the study, just published in Nature, scientists led by Luca Naponiello of University of Rome Tor Vergata suggest that this is the result of planetary collisions. These huge impacts would have removed some of the lighter atmosphere and water leaving a multitude of rock behind (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06499-2).

Senior Research Associate and co author Dr Phil Carter from the University of Bristol’s School of Physics, explained: “We have strong evidence for highly energetic collisions between planetary bodies in our solar system, such as the existence of Earth’s Moon, and good evidence from a small number of exoplanets.

“We know that there is a huge diversity of planets in exoplanetary systems; many have no analog in our solar system but often have masses and compositions between that of the rocky planets and Neptune/Uranus (the ice giants).
“TOI-1853b is the size of Neptune but has a density higher than steel. Our work shows that this can happen if the planet experienced extremely energetic planet-planet collisions during its formation.

“These collisions stripped away some of the lighter atmosphere and water leaving a substantially rock-enriched, high-density planet.”

Now the team plan detailed follow-up observations of TOI-1853b to attempt to detect any residual atmosphere and examine its composition.

Associate Professor and co author Dr Zoë Leinhardt concluded: “We had not previously investigated such extreme giant impacts as they are not something we had expected. There is much work to be done to improve the material models that underlie our simulations, and to extend the range of extreme giant impacts modelled.”

AR #111

Catastrophism Reconsidered

by William B. Stoecker

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Timing of Massive Ice Age Extinction Event Scrutinized

Could History Be Repeating Itself?

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The end of the last Ice Age also marked the end for more than three dozen genera of large mammals in North America, from mammoths and mastodons to bison and saber-toothed cats. Details concerning the precise timing and circumstances, however, have remained murky ever since.

A team of scientists recently focused on the famous Rancho La Brea Tar Pits in southern California in their quest to provide answers to these questions, resulting in the most exact and detailed timeline for the extinctions that happened during the latter part of the Pleistocene period in North America, along with some foreboding insight into the area’s present and future. Their work is featured on the August 18, 2023 cover of Science (https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abo3594).

Texas A&M University archaeologist Dr. Michael Waters, along with roughly a dozen fellow researchers examined the timing and cause of the extinction of a variety of large mammals, known as megafauna, that got stuck in tar at Rancho La Brea, ensuring the preservation of their bones. The team used the radiocarbon dating method to date 169 bones from seven different animals — bison, horse, camel and ground sloths as well as the carnivores that ate them, including the saber-toothed cat, dire wolf and American lion. They also compared those findings to regional pollen and charcoal records along with continent-wide data on human and large mammal populations.

Armed with their new data, the researchers subsequently used time-series modeling to produce the most detailed chronobiology to date, showing the relationships between climate and vegetation change, fire activity, human demographics and megafauna extinctions — groundbreaking results they report in the world-leading academic journal.

Waters says the team’s findings reveal that Ice Age mammal populations in southern California were steady from 15,000 to around 13,250 years ago. Afterward, there was a sharp decline in the population of the seven animals studied, and they all became extinct between 13,070 to 12,900 years ago.

In an interesting modern-day parallel, this extinction event corresponds with a change in the environment from 13,300 to 12,900 years ago marked by warming and drying that made the land more vulnerable to fires in southern California. Charcoal records show that fires increased around 13,500 years ago and peaked between 13,200 and 12,900 years ago. Studies show that humans arrived in North America’s Pacific coast 16,000 to 15,000 years ago and lived alongside the megafauna for 2,000 to 3,000 years before their extinction.

While humans hunted animals during this period, Waters says the impact of hunting on the demise of the megafauna likely was minor because of the low population of humans on the landscape. However, the fires would have been devastating, resulting in the loss of habitat causing the rapid decline and extinction of the megafauna in southern California. The study suggests these fires were ignited by humans, which had increased in number by that time.
“Fire is a way that small numbers of humans can have a large impact over a broad area,” said Waters, who also cautions that climate changes observed in present-day California are similar to those of the late Pleistocene.
“This study has implications for the changes we see in southern California today,” Waters added. “The temperatures are rising, and the area is drying. We also see a dramatic increase in fires. It appears that history may be repeating itself.”

While Waters acknowledges that this is the story of extinction at Rancho La Brea, he says it has the potential to offer insights into when extinctions happened across all of North America.

“Mammoths and mastodons survived in many parts of North America until around 12,700 years ago,” he added. “These animals were hunted by the Clovis people between about 13,000 and 12,700 years ago. We are now dating megafauna remains from other locations to give a broader understanding of the Rancho La Brea research in the context of North America.”

The museum at La Brea Tar Pits holds the world’s largest collection of fossils from the Ice Age and has been central to the study of animal and plant life at the end of the Pleistocene epoch for more than a century. Its naturally occurring asphalt pools entrapped and preserved the bones of thousands of individual animals representing dozens of megafaunal species during the last 60,000 years, enabling scientists to determine when different species disappeared from the ecosystem and why.

The team’s research was supported by the National Science Foundation and various Texas A&M-specific grants, such as the CSFA and the North Star Archaeological Research Fund.

y.

AR #101

Facing the Extinction Threat

by William B. Stoecker

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Tracking Ancient Weather on Mars

New Evidence Reveals Frequent Wet and Dry Changes

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New observations of mud cracks made by the Curiosity rover show that high-frequency, wet-dry cycling occurred in early Martian surface environments, indicating that the red planet may have once seen seasonal weather patterns or even flash floods. The research has now been published in the journal Nature (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06220-3).

The presence of long-term wet environments, such as evidence of ancient lakes on Mars, is well-documented, but far less is known about short-term climate fluctuations.

After years of exploring terrain largely comprised of silicates, the rover entered a new area filled with sulfates, marking a major environment transition. In this new environment, the research team found a change in mud crack patterns, signifying a change in the way the surface would have dried. This indicates that water was still present on the surface of Mars episodically, meaning water could have been present for a time, evaporated, and repeated until polygons, or mud cracks, formed.

“These exciting observations of mature mud cracks are allowing us to fill in some of the missing history of water on Mars. How did Mars go from a warm, wet planet to the cold, dry place we know today? These mud cracks show us that transitional time, when liquid water was less abundant but still active on the Martian surface,” said Nina Lanza, principal investigator of the ChemCam instrument onboard the Curiosity rover. “These features also point to the existence of wet-dry environments that on Earth are extremely conducive to the development of organic molecules and potentially life. Taken as a whole, these results a giving us a clearer picture of Mars as a habitable world.”

The presence of long-term wet environments, such as evidence of ancient lakes on Mars, is well-documented, but far less is known about short-term climate fluctuations.

After years of exploring terrain largely comprised of silicates, the rover entered a new area filled with sulfates, marking a major environment transition. In this new environment, the research team found a change in mud crack patterns, signifying a change in the way the surface would have dried. This indicates that water was still present on the surface of Mars episodically, meaning water could have been present for a time, evaporated, and repeated until polygons, or mud cracks, formed.

“A major focus of the Curiosity mission, and one of the main reasons for selecting Gale Crater, is to understand the transition of a ‘warm and wet’ ancient Mars to a ‘cold and dry’ Mars we see today,” said Patrick Gasda of the Laboratory’s Space Remote Sensing and Data Science group and coauthor of the paper. “The rover’s drive from clay lakebed sediments to drier non-lakebed and sulfate-rich sediments is part of this transition.”

On Earth, initial mud cracks in mud form a T-shaped pattern, but subsequent wetting and drying cycles cause the cracks to form more of a Y-shaped pattern, which is what Curiosity observed. Additionally, the rover found evidence that the mud cracks were only a few centimeters deep, which could mean that wet-dry cycles were seasonal, or may have even occurred more quickly, such as in a flash flood. 

These findings could mean that Mars once had an Earth-like wet climate, with seasonal or short-term flooding, and that Mars may have been able to support life at some point.

AR #71

Water Ice on Mars

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Vast Network of Roman Roads Discovered in SW Britain

Aromas While Sleeping Sparks 226% Cognitive Increase

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A Roman road network that spanned Devon and Cornwall and connected significant settlements with military forts across the two counties as well as wider Britannia has been discovered for the first time.

Archaeologists at the University of Exeter have used laser scans collected as part of the Environment Agency’s National LiDAR Program to identify new sections of road west of the previously understood boundary.

Using sophisticated geographical modeling techniques, which incorporate information around gradients and flood risk, the researchers have then been able to map out the full extent of the network and begin to understand the rationale for its existence.

Among the things it reveals is that far from Exeter being the main nerve center of the network, it was North Tawton that supported strategically vital connections with tidal estuaries north and south of Bodmin and Dartmoor.

These findings are explored in Remote Sensing and GIS Modelling of Roman Roads in South West Britain, which has been published in the Journal of Computer Applications in Archaeology.

The research was led by Dr Christopher Smart and Dr João Fonte, specialists in landscape archaeology and the heritage of the Roman Empire, in Exeter’s Department of Archaeology and History. Dr César Parcero Oubiña, from the Institute of Heritage Sciences, Spanish National Research Council in Spain, specialist in geospatial technologies applied to archaeology, led the modelling of the Roman roads network.

“Despite more than 70 years of scholarship, published maps of the Roman road network in southern Britain have remained largely unchanged and all are consistent in showing that west of Exeter, Roman Isca, there was little solid evidence for a system of long-distance roads,” Dr Smart said. “But the recent availability of seamless LiDAR coverage for Britain has provided the means to transform our understanding of the Roman road network that developed within the province, and nowhere more so than in the far south western counties, in the territory of the Dumnonii.”

The National LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) Program was conducted between 2016 and 2022 by the Environment Agency covering the whole of England, and the data was made available via the DEFRA Data Services Platform. It transformed the amount of terrain mapped of Devon and Cornwall, which had previously stood at just 11%. The Exeter team, working with public volunteers, and funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund as part of the Digital Skills for Heritage initiative, studied the scans and together, they were able to map around 100km of additional roads.

AR #61

Appreciating Ancient Advancement

by J. Douglas Kenyon

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Really Cool—the ‘Freeze-Ray’ Is Coming

By Eric Williamson

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You know that freeze-ray gun that “Batman” villain Mr. Freeze uses to “ice” his enemies? A University of Virginia professor thinks he may have figured out how to make one in real life.

The discovery—which, unexpectedly, relies on heat-generating plasma—is not meant for weaponry, however. Mechanical and aerospace engineering professor Patrick Hopkins wants to create on-demand surface cooling for electronics inside spacecraft and high-altitude jets.
“That’s the primary problem right now,” Hopkins said. “A lot of electronics on board heat up, but they have no way to cool down.”

The U.S. Air Force likes the prospect of a freeze ray enough that it has granted the professor’s ExSiTE Lab (Experiments and Simulations in Thermal Engineering) $750,000 over three years to study how to maximize the technology.
From there, the lab will partner with Hopkins’ UVA spinout company, Laser Thermal, for the fabrication of a prototype device.

The professor explained that, on Earth—or in the air closer to it—the electronics in military craft can often be cooled by nature. The Navy, for example, uses ocean water as part of its liquid cooling systems. And closer to the ground, the air is dense enough to help keep aircraft components chilled.

However, “With the Air Force and Space Force, you’re in space, which is a vacuum, or you’re in the upper atmosphere, where there’s very little air that can cool,” he said. “So what happens is your electronics keep getting hotter and hotter and hotter. And you can’t bring a payload of coolant onboard because that’s going to increase the weight, and you lose efficiency.”

Hopkins believes he’s on track toward a lightweight solution. He and collaborators published a review article about this and other prospects for the technology earlier this month in the journal ACS Nano (https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsnano.3c02417).

The matter we encounter every day exists in three states: solid, liquid and gas. But there’s a fourth state: plasma. While it may seem relatively rare to us on Earth, plasma is the most common form of matter in the universe. In fact, it’s the stuff that stars are made of.

So how cold is cold? They determined they were able to reduce the temperature by several degrees, and for a few microseconds. While that may not seem dramatic, it’s enough to make a difference in some electronic devices.
After the pandemic delay, Hopkins and collaborators published their initial findings in Nature Communications last year (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-30170-5#Sec3).

ts were completely unachievable. Also, developing a light-weight but strong graphene tether connecting the shield with the counterweight is crucial.

AR #53

The Quest for X-Ray Vision

by John Ketler

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Ancient Fossil Spirals Were Different from Modern Ones

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A 3D model of a 407-million-year-old plant fossil has overturned thinking on the evolution of leaves. The research has also led to fresh insights about spectacular patterns found in plants.

Leaf arrangements in the earliest plants differ from most modern plants, overturning a long-held theory regarding the origins of a famous mathematical pattern found in nature, research shows.


The findings indicate that the arrangement of leaves into distinctive spirals, that are common in nature today, were not common in the most ancient land plants that first populated the earth’s surface.


Instead, the ancient plants were found to have another type of spiral. This negates a long held theory about the evolution of plant leaf spirals, indicating that they evolved down two separate evolutionary paths.


Whether it is the vast swirl of a hurricane or the intricate spirals of the DNA double-helix, spirals are common in nature and most can be described by the famous mathematical series the Fibonacci sequence.


Named after the Italian mathematician, Leonardo Fibonacci, this sequence forms the basis of many of nature’s most efficient and stunning patterns.


Spirals are common in plants, with Fibonacci spirals making up over 90% of the spirals. Sunflower heads, pinecones, pineapples and succulent houseplants all include these distinctive spirals in their flower petals, leaves or seeds. 
Why Fibonacci spirals, also known as nature’s secret code, are so common in plants has perplexed scientists for centuries, but their evolutionary origin has been largely overlooked.


Based on their widespread distribution it has long been assumed that Fibonacci spirals were an ancient feature that evolved in the earliest land plants and became highly conserved in plants. 


However, an international team led by the University of Edinburgh has overthrown this theory with the discovery of non-Fibonacci spirals in a 407-million-year old plant fossil. 


Using digital reconstruction techniques the researchers produced the first 3D models of leafy shoots in the fossil clubmoss Asteroxylon mackiei – a member of the earliest group of leafy plants.


The exceptionally preserved fossil was found in the famous fossil site the Rhynie chert, a Scottish sedimentary deposit near the Aberdeenshire village of Rhynie.


The site contains evidence of some of the planet’s earliest ecosystems – when land plants first evolved and gradually started to cover the earth’s rocky surface making it habitable.


The findings revealed that leaves and reproductive structures in Asteroxylon mackiei, were most commonly arranged in non-Fibonacci spirals that are rare in plants today.


This transforms scientists understanding of Fibonacci spirals in land plants. It indicates that non-Fibonacci spirals were common in ancient clubmosses and that the evolution of leaf spirals diverged into two separate paths.
The leaves of ancient clubmosses had an entirely distinct evolutionary history to the other major groups of plants today such as ferns, conifers and flowering plants.


The team created the 3D model of Asteroxylon mackiei, which has been extinct for over 400 million years, by working with digital artist Matt Humpage, using digital rendering and 3D printing. 


The research was published in the journal Science (https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adg4014).

AR #100

Divine Proportions

by Patrick Marsolek

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Untouched Human Remains from 70,000 Years Ago

https://news.illinois.edu/view/6367/1087828937

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Fifteen years of archaeology in the Tam Pa Ling cave in northeastern Laos has yielded a reliable chronology of early human occupation of the site, scientists report in the journal Nature Communications. Excavations through the layers of sediments and bones that gradually washed into the cave and were left untouched for tens of thousands of years reveals that humans lived in the area for at least 70,000 years – and likely even longer. (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-38715-y)

“When we first started excavating the cave, we never expected to find humans in that region,” said University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign anthropology professor Laura Shackelford, who led the research with Fabrice Demeter, a professor of anthropology at the University of Copenhagen. “But beginning that first season when we started work there, we found our first modern humans. At the time, that made them the only early modern human fossils in the region.”
While the remains of modern Homo sapiens dating back roughly 197,000 years have been recovered in Israel, genetic studies suggest the main phase of early human migration out of Africa and into Asia occurred much later – around 50,000 years ago, Shackelford said. Her team’s earliest excavations in Tam Pa Ling found bone fragments from modern human remains dating to about 40,000 years ago. But as the excavations dug deeper, the age of sediments and animal remains found alongside human bones dated back much earlier.
In 2019, the team had excavated as far as they could in the cave, reaching bedrock about 23 feet (7 meters) below the surface. The excavations yielded dozens of animal bones and many fragments of human skeletal remains. The deepest human bone recovered – a partial tibia – was resting on bedrock near the bottom of the trench. Analyses of sediments taken not far above this bone indicate the soil was deposited there between 67,000 and 90,000 years ago.
The excavation of Tam Pa Ling cave involved digging a 23-foot (7-meter) trench from the surface of the cave to bedrock while painstakingly collecting and documenting the soils, animal bones and human bones discovered there.
“The entire section of the trench goes from about 30,000 years ago to 80,000 to 100,000 years ago,” Shackelford said. “Flood season after flood season, the sediments and bones washed into the cave and were deposited. They’ve been sitting there ever since.”

AR #110

Exploring Indonesia’s Bada Valley

by David Hatcher Childress