Science & TechnologyS


Beaker

US company wants to 'resurrect' mammoth, dodo bird and Tasmanian tiger


RT
Thu, 16 Jan 2025 19:44 UTC
mammoth
© Getty Images / leonello
Texas-based Colossal Biosciences aims to bring back from extinction the woolly mammoth, the Tasmanian tiger and the dodo bird, and has just raised another $200 million for the projects.

The startup is headed by AI entrepreneur Ben Lamm, who told Bloomberg that Colossal is on track to have a mammoth calf by 2028.

"We're not going to do anything until we get the genomes right," Lamm said in an interview with Bloomberg Technology on Wednesday.

The company is currently in the "editing phase" of the project, with the Tasmanian tiger, or thylacine, "actually ahead of schedule," Lamm said.

A team of 17 is working on artificial wombs, the first of which ought to be ready within two years, he added.
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Microscope 1

Gut bacteria found to help worms brave harsh Antarctic cold

Sneha Khedkar
The Scientist
Wed, 15 Jan 2025 19:25 UTC
antarctica worm microbiome survive cold climate
© Michael Tangherlini and Marco Lo MartireMarine worms in Antarctica rely on their microbiome to help them adapt to the extreme cold conditions. Operators dive into the sea through holes in the ice to sample the worms.
The microbiome of Antarctic worms helps them cope with extremely cold conditions, providing insights into the role of the microbiome in host health and adaptation.

In the coldest, most isolated place on Earth, a group of scientists braves the icy winds in search of answers. Clad in thick, red gear that contrasts with the blue and white landscape, researchers retrieve worms from the frigid waters of the Southern Ocean circling Antarctica. They will bring these squirming creatures back to their labs to study how they manage to survive sub-zero temperatures without any protective gear.

"Antarctica has one of the most extreme environments on the planet," said Cinzia Corinaldesi, a marine ecologist at Marche Polytechnic University. "And in marine ecosystems we have temperatures that can be very close to minus two degree [Celsius]."
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Volcano

Experts on high alert as 100 volcanoes in Antarctica edge closer to erupting

Ellyn LaPointe
The Daily Mail
Mon, 13 Jan 2025 21:33 UTC
antarctica volcanoes
© corbis.com/WofgangKaehlerMore than 100 volcanoes lie beneath the surface of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. In fact, what appears to be a frozen wasteland is actually the largest volcanically active region on Earth
Experts are on red alert after uncovering a ticking time bomb in Antarctica that would reshape the continent and dramatically increase sea levels worldwide.

More than 100 volcanoes lie beneath the surface of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which is 'particularly vulnerable to collapse, yet its position atop an active volcanic rift is seldom considered,' the study noted.

Scientists have warned that as climate change causes the ice sheet to melt, this drives increased volcanic activity that speeds up melting at the surface, creating a 'positive feedback loop.'

As the ice sheet melts, the amount of mass pushing down on the surface decreases, which creates an uplifting effect in the subsurface.
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Microscope 2

Discovery of fat-filled cartilage cells explains why noses are springy

Sahana Sitaraman, PhD
The Scientist
Tue, 14 Jan 2025 21:02 UTC
fat cartilage cells flexible tissue nose
© Maksim Plikus, University of California, IrvineResearchers have discovered a new type of cartilage cell called lipo-chondrocyte, that is filled with large fat droplets (shown here in green) and is found in many mammalian species.
A newly identified cartilage cell generates fat vacuoles and makes the surrounding tissues pliable. This helps keep the ear and nose tips bouncy.

The smooth functioning of the body's joints, the flexibility of the ears and nose, and the shaping of bones are all made possible by the skeletal tissue known as cartilage.1 According to popular medical textbooks, cartilage is made up of only one type of specialized cell called a chondrocyte, which is small and secretes large quantities of extracellular matrix, giving cartilage its biomechanical properties.2 But now, new research makes these textbooks outdated.

More than a decade ago, while studying fat cells in the mouse ear skin, Maksim Plikus and his colleagues observed a puzzling pattern in dye uptake. "There were some fat cells that stained, which were the true adipocytes," said Plikus, a developmental biologist at the University of California, Irvine. "Then there was another group of fat cells that didn't [stain], no matter which marker." Initially, he thought these odd adipocytes could simply be a type that stubbornly resisted dyes. However, upon digging deeper, Plikus realized that they were a completely new type of fat-laden cartilage cells that formed the pliable lipo-cartilage in body parts like the nose, ear and throat. "At first we really had to pinch ourselves because it made no sense," Plikus exclaimed.
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Satellite

BepiColombo spacecraft's 6th and final flyby returns stunning images of Mercury


Space.com
Mon, 13 Jan 2025 18:02 UTC
BepiColombo flyby mercury probe
© ESA/BepiColombo/MTMThree images acquired by the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo spacecraft during its sixth Mercury flyby on Jan. 8, as selected by the ESA.
The BepiColombo spacecraft has made its sixth and final flyby of the closest planet to the sun, Mercury, capturing some incredible images of the tiny world. The photos offer tantalizing hints about some of the mysteries BepiColombo will investigate when it moves into orbit around the planet next year.

The joint European Space Agency (ESA) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) mission made its latest passage of Mercury on Wednesday (Jan. 8) at 00: 59 EDT (0259 GMT).

Comment: There's a lo more to Mercury than amazing photos, as other probe have revealed:

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Ice Cube

Massive recovery in Antarctica Sea ice unreported by Net Zero-obsessed mainstream media

Chris Morrison
The Daily Sceptic
Fri, 10 Jan 2025 09:00 UTC
Antarctica
© UnknownAntarctica
Remember all that alarmist guff about Antarctica sea ice recording lower levels in winter a couple of years ago? Georgina Rannard of the BBC wrote a story headed 'Antarctic sea ice at "mind-blowing" low alarms experts', while Clive Cookson at the Financial Times gave us his suggestion that the area "faces a catastrophic cascade of extreme environmental events... that will affect the climate around the world".

The scare story caravan has moved on to pastures new these days, not unrelated to the fact that at the end of 2024 the extent of sea ice in Antarctica was roughly the same as the 1981 to 2010 average. According to the U.S.-based National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC), "this provides a sharp illustration of the high variability of Antarctica sea ice extent".

It does indeed, and it also provides us with a classic case study of how a short-term natural variation, well understood by many scientists, is weaponised by activists in science, politics and journalism to induce mass climate psychosis with the aim of promoting the political Net Zero lunacy.

Comment: See also:

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Archaeology

166 million-year-old dinosaur 'highway' discovered in UK quarry - used by some of Jurassic's biggest dinosaurs

Patrick Pester
Live Science
Fri, 03 Jan 2025 20:25 UTC
dinosaur tracks quarry england
© University of BirminghamThe team uncovered five separate trackways, the longest stretched for more than 150 metres
Researchers have excavated the largest dinosaur footprint site in the U.K. after a quarry worker found tracks left by two of Britain's biggest Jurassic dinosaur

Researchers and quarry workers have uncovered a massive dinosaur "highway," which includes hundreds of footprints left by some of U.K.'s biggest dinosaurs.

The tracks were uncovered at Dewars Farm Quarry in Oxfordshire and date back to the middle of the Jurassic Period (201.3 million to 145 million years ago). It is the largest dinosaur footprint site in the U.K., researchers said.

A quarry worker named Gary Johnson discovered the first footprints after he felt strange bumps on the quarry floor last year. In June, researchers worked with quarry staff to excavate the dinosaur "highway," according to a statement released on Jan. 2.
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Bizarro Earth

NASA is watching a vast, growing anomaly in Earth's Magnetic Field

Peter Dockrill
Science Alert
Sun, 29 Dec 2024 15:55 UTC
The South Atlantic Anomaly.
© NASA Goddard/YouTubeThe South Atlantic Anomaly.
NASA has been monitoring a strange anomaly in Earth's magnetic field: a giant region of lower magnetic intensity in the skies above the planet, stretching out between South America and southwest Africa.

This vast, developing phenomenon, called the South Atlantic Anomaly, has intrigued and concerned scientists for years, and perhaps none more so than NASA researchers.

The space agency's satellites and spacecraft are particularly vulnerable to the weakened magnetic field strength within the anomaly, and the resulting exposure to charged particles from the Sun.

The South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) - likened by NASA to a 'dent' in Earth's magnetic field, or a kind of 'pothole in space' - generally doesn't affect life on Earth, but the same can't be said for orbital spacecraft (including the International Space Station), which pass directly through the anomaly as they loop around the planet at low-Earth orbit altitudes.

During these encounters, the reduced magnetic field strength inside the anomaly means technological systems onboard satellites can short-circuit and malfunction if they become struck by high-energy protons emanating from the Sun.
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Volcano

'Mystery volcano' that erupted and cooled Earth in 1831 has finally been identified

Mindy Weisberger
CNN
Fri, 03 Jan 2025 18:54 UTC
Simushir Island mystery volcano 1831
© Oleg DirksenSimushir Island in the northwest Pacific was the source of a previously unidentified 1831 eruption. The remote and uninhabited Simushir is part of the Kuril Islands, an area disputed by Russia and Japan.
An unknown volcano erupted so explosively in 1831 that it cooled Earth's climate. Now, nearly 200 years later, scientists have identified the "mystery volcano."

The eruption was one of the most powerful of the 19th century, spewing so much sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere that annual average temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere dropped by about one 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit). The event took place during the last gasp of the Little Ice Age, one of the coldest periods on Earth in the past 10,000 years.

While the year of this historic eruption was known, the volcano's location was not. Researchers recently solved that puzzle by sampling ice cores in Greenland, peering back in time through the cores' layers to examine sulfur isotopes, grains of ash and tiny volcanic glass shards deposited between 1831 and 1834.

Comment: Mystery Volcano May Have Triggered Mini Ice Age

The same effect is being seen today.

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Skull

Elephant warfare: These tusked warriors stopped Alexander the Great, but at great cost

Papiya Bhattacharya
RT
Sun, 29 Dec 2024 22:59 UTC
india elephants war history weapons
© RT
Elephants in India suffered population bottlenecks 100,000 years ago and then 2,000 years ago. Scientists believe the most recent event was because they became animals of war and helped stop the Macedonian conqueror in his tracks

Evolutionary scientists have found that Indian elephants faced a population bottleneck nearly 2,000 years ago that lasted 1,500 years. This drastic reduction in population was not the result of an epidemic or the environment or of migration, but was mostly the wages of war. Elephants were, once upon a time in India, used for warfare; even Alexander of Macedonia had to stop his eastward expansion due to elephant armies.

Historical accounts show that populations of elephants in ancient India were caught and used in warfare from prior to the Mauryan Period (321 to 185 BCE) until a little before the Mughals, around 500 years ago. Ancient Greek sources suggest that King Chandragupta Maurya (4th Century BCE) had anywhere between 3,000 and 6,000 elephants.
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