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168 Nazca geoglyphs identified in Peru


Heritage Daily
Tue, 13 Dec 2022 02:37 UTC
Nazca Lines
© Yamagata University
YAMAGATA UNIVERSITY, WORKING IN PARTNERSHIP WITH PERUVIAN ARCHAEOLOGISTS, HAVE IDENTIFIED 168 NAZCA GEOGLYPHS IN THE NASCA PAMPA AND SURROUNDING AREA.

The researchers conducted field surveys using high-resolution aerial photography and drone images, leading to the discovery of 168 geoglyphs that date from between 100 BC and AD 300.

This adds to 190 geoglyphs previously discovered between 2004 and 2018, that led to the creation of an archaeological park in the Aja area in 2017 by the Peruvian Ministry of Culture.

The new geoglyphs depict images of humans, camelids, birds, orcas, felines, and snakes, which were created by removing black stones from the surface of the earth to expose a white sandy surface beneath.

Current research suggests that there are two types of geoglyphs: a linear type and a relief type. Of the geoglyphs discovered in the study, only five are linear, while 163 are relief type, measing less than 10 metres in diameter and mainly distributed along ancient trails.

Yamagata University, in collaboration with the IBM T.J. Watson Research Centre, is also conducting an AI-based study of the distribution of Nazca geoglyphs. By using the newly discovered geoglyphs for AI analysis, Yamagata University aims to clarify the distribution patterns of the geoglyphs. The results of this research will also be used for geoglyph conservation activities.
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Info

Cellular 'glue' to regenerate tissues, heal wounds, regrow nerves

Robin Marks
University of California San Francisco
Mon, 12 Dec 2022 02:19 UTC
Wendell Lim
© Photo by Elena ZhukovaWendell Lim, PhD, director of UCSF’s Cell Design Institute, holds a cellular model in his office at UCSF’s Mission Bay Campus.
Researchers at UC San Francisco have engineered molecules that act like "cellular glue," allowing them to direct in precise fashion how cells bond with each other. The discovery represents a major step toward building tissues and organs, a long-sought goal of regenerative medicine.

Adhesive molecules are found naturally throughout the body, holding its tens of trillions of cells together in highly organized patterns. They form structures, create neuronal circuits and guide immune cells to their targets. Adhesion also facilitates communication between cells to keep the body functioning as a self-regulating whole.

In a new study, published in the Dec. 12, 2022, issue of Nature, researchers engineered cells containing customized adhesion molecules that bound with specific partner cells in predictable ways to form complex multicellular ensembles.

"We were able to engineer cells in a manner that allows us to control which cells they interact with, and also to control the nature of that interaction," said senior author Wendell Lim, PhD, the Byers Distinguished Professor of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology and director of UCSF's Cell Design Institute. "This opens the door to building novel structures like tissues and organs."
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Music

Two solar cycles occur at the same time, lasting 17 years each, new study reveals


Space Weather
Mon, 12 Dec 2022 21:34 UTC
Solar Flare
© NASA GoddardFILE PHOTO: A past solar flare seen erupting from the sun on June 20, 2013
So you thought you knew the solar cycle? Think again. A new paper published in Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences confirms that there is more to solar activity than the well-known 11-year sunspot cycle. Data from Stanford University's Wilcox Solar Observatory (WSO) reveal two solar cycles happening at the same time, and neither is 11 years long.

"We call it 'the Extended Solar Cycle,'" says lead author Scott McIntosh of NCAR. "There are two overlapping patterns of activity on the sun, each lasting about 17 years."

Solar physicists have long suspected this might be true. References to "overlapping solar cycles" can be found in research literature as far back as 1903. A figure from the new Frontiers paper seems to clinch the case:

Comment: See also:


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Blue Planet

Loss of ecological niche caused downfall of dinosaurs following asteroid impact, new study claims

University of Edinburgh
Phys.org
Wed, 07 Dec 2022 12:00 UTC
Triceratops
© Henry SharpeTriceratops prorsus munching on cycads disturbs primitive cousins of placental (left) and marsupial (right) mammals in the underbrush—while a softshell turtle climbs up on a log, unaware that its freshwater ecology will shelter it from the impending doom from space.
Scientists have long debated why non-bird dinosaurs, including Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops, became extinct — whereas mammals and other species such as turtles and crocodiles survived.

The new study, led by an international team of paleontologists and ecologists, analyzed 1,600 fossil records from North America. Researchers modeled the food chains and ecological habitats of land-living and freshwater animals during the last several million years of the Cretaceous, and the first few million years of the Paleogene period, after the asteroid hit.

Paleontologists have known for some time that many small mammals lived alongside the dinosaurs. But this research reveals that these mammals were adapting to their environments and becoming more important components of ecosystems as the Cretaceous unfolded. Meanwhile, the dinosaurs were entrenched in stable niches to which they were supremely well adapted.

Comment: Alternative researchers have questioned why, following the fall out of the asteroid impact and once some sort of climate equilibrium had been reached, didn't the dinosaurs once again evolve to become top of the food chain? Surely there have been 'stable niches' for them to occupy since then?

A clue might lie in the incredible size of dinosaurs, who, according to some researchers, if exposed to our planet's current gravity force, would be under significant physiological strain. This has led some to propose that, perhaps the reason they didn't make a comeback is because the force of gravity was different back then:

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Biohazard

Dystopian artificial wombs would "reinvent evolution" through genetic engineering and use artificial intelligence to monitor physical features

Rhoda Wilson
The Exposé
Mon, 12 Dec 2022 00:00 UTC
ectolife
Last week we published an article about a dramatic decline in sperm count globally that could threaten mankind's survival - sperm count has dropped by 62% from 1973 to 2018.

Additionally, we have published numerous articles on the negative effect Covid injections have on both male and female fertility as well as the drop in birth rates, and increase in miscarriages and stillbirths after mass vaccination campaigns began.

After creating the problem, well, voila! There's a solution looming on the horizon - artificial wombs. So many people simply do not understand how fast humanity is being transformed or what's coming.

Comment: See also:

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Galaxy

Arizona astronomers spot ghostly light glowing throughout the solar system

Eric Mack
CNET
Fri, 09 Dec 2022 17:47 UTC
dust cloud solar system faint glow hubble
© NASA, ESA, Andi James (STScI)This artist's illustration shows the location and size of a hypothetical cloud of dust surrounding our solar system.
Scientists used NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to identify the presence of an unexplained glow amid the blackness of space.

The deep darkness of space might not actually be so dark in our solar system.

Astronomers analyzed over 200,000 images from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, making tens of thousands of measurements to try to locate a residual background glow in the night sky. The project is called Skysurf, which is based at Arizona State University and involves researchers there and around the world.

The team harvested the data from the images and then subtracted the glow from planets, stars, galaxies and even ethereal zodiacal light, which is light reflecting off dust within our solar system.
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Laptop

Light-based computer could outpace traditional electrical chip designs

Matthew Sparkes
New Scientist
Sat, 10 Dec 2022 10:43 UTC
Yi Zhang optical computer
© Yi Wang
A new type of computer that uses light rather than electricity could perform calculations faster, using less energy and less space.

Computer chips are made up of millions or billions of logic gates. These tiny components carry out the most basic of operations, such as checking if one bit of data matches another. It is by combining these gates in vast numbers that tasks like downloading a file, playing a video or running a computer game are managed.

Traditional chips work by ferrying electrons, but Yi Zhang at Aalto University, Finland, and his colleagues have managed to create optical logic gates that perform the same functions with light.

Optical computers have been created before, but they involve complex hardware and are limited to certain applications. Zhang says these new gates can be built from a single layer of molybdenum disulphide crystals just 0.65 nanometres thick using existing manufacturing techniques and they could be designed to carry out universal tasks in a small package.
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Microscope 1

Body defense against viral threats also regulates intestinal function and gut health


Science Daily
Wed, 07 Dec 2022 10:15 UTC
coronavirus
Besides the skin, the digestive tract is the tissue that is most exposed to environmental influences such as bacteria and viruses. Therefore, cells that form these barriers to the interior of the body also have special defence mechanisms. A research team led by Professor Dr Thorsten Hoppe has now shown that RNA interference, or RNAi for short, which is known to be a viral defence mechanism, also prevents the overproduction of the body's own proteins in intestinal cells. The study 'ER-Associated RNA Silencing Promotes ER Quality Control' has been published in the journal Nature Cell Biology.

Comment: This study is interesting because it highlights another way that normal exposure to viruses might have beneficial effects for the body, providing further support for a symbiotic relationship between viruses and human beings. See also:

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Ice Cube

Ice ages recur more frequently than previously assumed

University of Otago
EurekAlert
Tue, 06 Dec 2022 19:18 UTC
Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica
© Scientific AmericanRoss Ice Shelf, Antarctica
A chance find of an unstudied Antarctic sediment core has led University of Otago researchers to flip our understanding of how often ice ages occurred in Antarctica.

Lead author Dr Christian Ohneiser, of the Department of Geology, says it turns out they were much more frequent than previously assumed.

"Until this research, it was common knowledge that over the last million years global ice volume, which includes Antarctica's ice sheets, expanded and retreated every 100,000 years.

"However, this research shows they actually advanced and retreated much more often - every 41,000 years - until at least 400,000 years ago," he says.

The study, published in Nature Geosciences, came about after Dr Ohneiser sampled a sediment core from the Ross Sea for a different project which was designed to reconstruct the retreat of the Ross Ice Shelf after the last ice age.

"The 6.2 metre core was recovered in 2003 and placed in an archive in the US, but was not studied further. I sampled it because I was expecting the core to have a record spanning the last 10,000 or so years.

"I conducted a paleomagnetic analysis on the core, which reconstructs changes in the earth's magnetic field, and found a magnetic reversal showing it was much older and had a record spanning more than 1 million years."

Sedimentary and magnetic mineral indicators enabled Dr Ohneiser to reconstruct how big the Ross Ice Shelf, and the West Antarctic Ice Sheet which feeds the shelf, were.
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Blue Planet

Oldest DNA reveals life in Greenland 2 million years ago

Maddie Burakoff
ABC News
Wed, 07 Dec 2022 22:24 UTC
Greenland two million years ago
© Beth Zaiken/Handout/APThis illustration provided by researchers depicts Kap Kobenhavn, Greenland, two million years ago. Scientists have analyzed 2-million-year-old DNA extracted from dirt samples in the area, revealing an ancient ecosystem unlike anything seen on Earth today.
Scientists discovered the oldest known DNA and used it to reveal what life was like 2 million years ago in the northern tip of Greenland. Today, it's a barren Arctic desert, but back then it was a lush landscape of trees and vegetation with an array of animals, even the now extinct mastodon.

"The study opens the door into a past that has basically been lost," said lead author Kurt Kjær, a geologist and glacier expert at the University of Copenhagen.

With animal fossils hard to come by, the researchers extracted environmental DNA, also known as eDNA, from soil samples. This is the genetic material that organisms shed into their surroundings — for example, through hair, waste, spit or decomposing carcasses.

Studying really old DNA can be a challenge because the genetic material breaks down over time, leaving scientists with only tiny fragments.

But with the latest technology, researchers were able to get genetic information out of the small, damaged bits of DNA, explained senior author Eske Willerslev, a geneticist at the University of Cambridge. In their study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, they compared the DNA to that of different species, looking for matches.
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