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Blue Planet

Unprecedented study of single woolly mammoth shows where it roamed from birth to death 17,000 years ago

Jeanne Timmons
Gizmodo
Thu, 12 Aug 2021 18:18 UTC
mammoth
© James Haven
Illustration of a woolly mammoth
Paleontologists have reconstructed the life history of a male mammoth who traveled across Alaska 17,000 years ago.

We might not be able to study a walking, breathing woolly mammoth in real life, but what if we could track its movements and get a sense of where it traveled, from its birth to its death? For the first time ever, scientists have done just that.

An international team of researchers published a paper this week in the journal Science that reveals the 28-year movement history of a male woolly mammoth. With exciting detail about where it roamed throughout northern Alaska, its seemingly favorite locations — as it returned time and time — and where it eventually died, this paper offers unparalleled insight into an animal that lived approximately 17,000 years ago.

Comment: For more fascinating insight into our world back then and the cataclysmic shifts it endured, check out Pierre Lescaudron's book: Cometary Encounters: Flash-Frozen Mammoths, Mars-Earth Discharge, Comet Venus and the 3,600-Year Cometary Cycle

The followng articles will provide a taste of what's in the book: Also check out SOTT radio's:

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Alarm Clock

In mainstream journal, ID theorists explore "waiting times" for coordinated mutations

Casey Luskin
Evolution News
Wed, 18 Aug 2021 03:05 UTC
wristwatch watch
A new peer-reviewed paper in the Journal of Theoretical Biology, "On the waiting time until coordinated mutations get fixed in regulatory sequences," is authored by three key scientists in the intelligent design (ID) research program: Ola Hössjer, Günter Bechly, Ann Gauger. The paper is part of the "Waiting Times" project, spurred by Discovery Institute as part of its ID 3.0 initiative, and it investigates a question of vital interest to the theory of intelligent design: How long does it take for traits to evolve when multiple mutations are required to give an advantage? A previous peer-reviewed publication from this team appeared as a chapter in the 2018 Springer volume Stochastic Processes and Applications. This latest paper is lengthy, technical, and math intensive. In other words, it's not for the fainthearted, but it's open access and free to read here. If you feel up to the challenge download and read!

Comment: Update from Uncommon Descent:
We hope the journal isn't intimidated by Darwin's Outrage Machine, Inc. Just think, some people are now allowed to bring this up. And not just as an inhouse titter, followed promptly by dismissal of the question.

Ola Hössjer, Gunter Bechly, and Ann Gauger, are competent scientists who happen not to be Darwinists.
...

Update updated: Apparently, the disclaimer below applies only to an earlier article: "The Journal of Theoretical Biology and its co-Chief Editors do not endorse in any way the ideology of nor reasoning behind the concept of intelligent design. Since the publication of the paper it has now become evident that the authors are connected to a creationist group (although their addresses are given on the paper as departments in bona fide universities). We were unaware of this fact while the paper was being reviewed. Moreover, the keywords "intelligent design" were added by the authors after the review process during the proofing stage and we were unaware of this action by the authors. We have removed these from the online version of this paper. We believe that intelligent design is not in any way a suitable topic for the Journal of Theoretical Biology."

Neither paper was retracted. A friend asks us to have pity on the poor editors who are like deer among the wolves, when it comes to dealing with Darwin mob. Very well. We shall. Kudos to them for publishing something despite the mob.
See also:

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Robot

Boston Dynamics drops new video of 5-foot atlas humanoid robot

Elias Marat
The Mind Unleashed
Wed, 18 Aug 2021 16:11 UTC
The footage of the Atlas robots performing parkour is as impressive as it is unsettling.
Robots
© The Mind Unleashed
Robot maker Boston Dynamics has released new video of its two-legged Atlas robot effortlessly completing a parkour obstacle course, offering a new display of its humanoid machines' unsettling repertoire.

In the video, a pair of Atlas robots can be seen leaping over large gaps, vaulting beams, and even performing backflips. The robot can even be seen jumping over a board while using its arm to remain steady.

While the display seems like anything but "free" running - as the original developers of parkour had envisioned - the routine does seem like an impressive, if terrifying, display of effective coding that took months to perfect, according to the Hyundai-owned robotics firm.

"It's not the robot just magically deciding to do parkour, it's kind of a choreographed routine, much like a skateboard video or a parkour video," said Atlas control lead Benjamin Stephens.

See for yourself:
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Bizarro Earth

Earth's inner core is growing lopsided

Cody Cottier
Astronomy
Wed, 18 Aug 2021 18:32 UTC
A geological mystery is unfolding far beneath our feet, and it may shed light on the life-sustaining magnetic field that extends far above our heads.
Earth's Inner Core
© Vadim Sadovski/Shutterstock
Each year, the solid-iron inner core at the heart of our planet expands by about a millimeter as the Earth's nether regions cool and solidify. According to a recent study, one side appears to be growing faster — but scientists don't know why.

This phenomenon likely dates back to the inner core's creation, between 1.5 billion and half a billion years ago. At this point, after billions of years of cooling, the Earth's fiery interior finally lost enough heat to begin an ongoing process of crystallization. Now, as the outer core's molten iron loses heat, it crystallizes to become the newest layer of the inner core.

The center of this hyperactive hemisphere lies 1,800 miles (2,896 kilometers) under Indonesia's Banda Sea: About 60 percent more iron crystals form at that point on the inner core than on the other side of the world.

Today, the inner core boasts a radius of about 750 miles (1,207 km) — not to mention a scorching temperature of more than 9,000 degrees Fahrenheit (4,982 degrees Celsius). Yet even after an eon of lopsided growth, it hasn't actually deformed. Gravity acts constantly to mold it, redistributing the excess in the east and maintaining a spherical shape. Besides posing a captivating puzzle, this asymmetrical growth may help power the Earth's magnetic field (and enable our survival).
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Blue Planet

Indigenous Filipino group has highest known Denisovan ancestry

Annie Melchor
The Scientist
Fri, 13 Aug 2021 12:00 UTC
Negritos
© OPHELIA PERSSON.
ABOVE: Self-identified Negritos from various islands of the Philippines.

Researchers found the relatively high proportion of DNA from a hominin cousin — nearly 5 percent — when they scanned more than 1,000 genomes from 118 distinct ethnic groups.
Until recently, scientists thought the modern humans with the highest proportion of Denisovan ancestry lived in Papua New Guinea and Australia. According to a new study published yesterday (August 12) in Current Biology, however, an Indigenous group in the Philippines called the Ayta Magbukon have 30 to 40 percent more Denisovan DNA than these other frontrunners, for a total of nearly 5 percent of their genomes.

Denisovans were a group of archaic humans first identified from a single pinkie bone in a Siberian cave. They coexisted with modern humans and other archaic human species, such as Neanderthals, for hundreds of thousands of years, until they went extinct an estimated 30,000 to 50,000 years ago. According to Gizmodo, only Pacific Islanders and Southeast Asians have substantial Denisovan ancestry. By comparison, most people in other parts of mainland Asia have less than 0.05 percent Denisovan ancestry, and people of African and European descent don't have any.

Comment: See also:

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Cell Phone

Researchers say they've found a flaw exposing millions of devices' camera data and audio to hackers

Ryan Lovelace
The Washington Times
Tue, 17 Aug 2021 19:28 UTC
iPhone tracking, smartphone data privacy
© iStock/The Washington Post
Cybersecurity researchers said Tuesday they discovered a flaw that exposes live video data and audio from millions of internet-connected devices to hackers.

The vulnerability affects more than 83 million devices that use ThroughTek's Kalay network, according to the cybersecurity firm FireEye's Mandiant division. ThroughTek is a technology company started in Taiwan that services "internet-of-things" (IoT) devices and develops software.

"This vulnerability, discovered by researchers on Mandiant's Red Team in late 2020, would enable adversaries to remotely compromise victim IoT devices, resulting in the ability to listen to live audio, watch real-time video data, and compromise device credentials for further attacks based on exposed device functionality," Mandiant said in a statement. "These further attacks could include actions that would allow an adversary to remotely control affected devices."
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Beaker

Study shows zinc's oxidation state can be made +3, fundamentally changing the element's chemistry


PhysOrg
Mon, 16 Aug 2021 13:52 UTC
zinc oxidation new form
© Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain
Zinc traditionally has a valence of two, meaning two electrons take part in the element's chemical reaction. A new paper by Virginia Commonwealth University researcher Puru Jena, Ph.D., shows that the chemistry of zinc can be fundamentally changed, making it trivalent — or a valence of three — with the proper reagent.

"This technology allows you to manipulate chemistry at the fundamental level, making synthesis of new materials with tailored properties possible," said Jena, Distinguished Professor of Physics in the College of Humanities and Sciences.

While zinc is categorized as a transition metal element, its third electron shell — arranged around the nucleus and containing electrons — is full, and unlike regular transition metals, does not take part in zinc's chemical reaction and does not allow zinc to be magnetic. However, Jena found that when reacted with highly stable trianions, zinc's properties can be changed.
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Bug

Insect-killing plant found by Australian highway is new to science

Penny Sarchet
New Scientist
Tue, 17 Aug 2021 13:46 UTC
Nicotiana insecticida
© Maarten Christenhusz
Nicotiana insecticida, a newly described tobacco plant that kills insects
A newly described species of wild tobacco that scientists found growing next to a highway truck stop in Western Australia is covered in sticky glands that trap and kill small insects, including gnats, aphids and flies.

While a range of carnivorous plants are known across the plant kingdom, this is the first wild tobacco plant discovered to kill insects. Dubbed Nicotiana insecticida, it was uncovered by a project looking for tobacco plants across Australia.

The team, which included Mark Chase of London's Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, collected seeds from the insecticidal plant at a truck stop on the Northwest Coastal Highway, and then cultivated them at Kew, where the plants went on to develop the same sticky glandular hairs and to kill insects inside the greenhouses.
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Black Cat 2

Study finds 'contrafreeloading' rare in domestic cats

Amy Quinton
University of California, Davis
Mon, 09 Aug 2021 19:07 UTC
Cats and Free Food
© Mikel Delgado/UC Davis
When cats were offered the choice of readily available food in a tray or working for it using a simple puzzle, cats most often chose the free food.
When given the choice between a free meal and performing a task for a meal, cats would prefer the meal that doesn't require much effort. While that might not come as a surprise to some cat lovers, it does to cat behaviorists. Most animals prefer to work for their food — a behavior called contrafreeloading.

A new study from researchers at the University of California, Davis, School of Veterinary Medicine showed most domestic cats choose not to contrafreeload. The study found that cats would rather eat from a tray of easily available food rather than work out a simple puzzle to get their food.

"There is an entire body of research that shows that most species including birds, rodents, wolves, primates — even giraffes — prefer to work for their food," said lead author Mikel Delgado, a cat behaviorist and research affiliate at UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. "What's surprising is out of all these species cats seem to be the only ones that showed no strong tendency to contrafreeload."

In the study, Delgado, along with co-authors Melissa Bain and Brandon Han of the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, provided 17 cats a food puzzle and a tray of food. The puzzle allowed the cats to easily see the food but required some manipulation to extract it. Some of the cats even had food puzzle experience.

"It wasn't that cats never used the food puzzle, but cats ate more food from the tray, spent more time at the tray and made more first choices to approach and eat from the tray rather than the puzzle," said Delgado.
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Blackbox

Research study finds Buddhist monks' bodies decay very slowly at death


mindmatters.ai
Sun, 15 Aug 2021 16:47 UTC
buddhist monk
© Claro Cortes / Reuters
According to traditional meditation lore, they are in a meditative state (thukdam) until their consciousness is clear; only then does the body begins to decay
We are told that one of the more remarkable effects of a lifetime of meditation can be a comparatively slow decay process for the body. Recent evidence for that emerged in the death of Tibetan Buddhist monk Geshe Lhundub Sopa, August 28, 2014, at the age of 91.

Geshe Lhundub Sopa, who had been tutor to the Dalai Lama in Tibet, moved to Wisconsin in 1967. There he co-founded the Deer Park Buddhist Center and taught South Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin, becoming a friend of prominent American neuroscientist Richard J. Davidson.
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