Jingszo !

By the time Curiosity’s current location formed, the long-lived lakes were gone in Gale Crater, the rover’s landing area, but water was still percolating under the surface­. The rover found dramatic evidence of that groundwater when it encountered crisscrossing low ridges, some just a few inches tall, arranged in what geologists call a boxwork pattern. The bedrock below these ridges likely formed when groundwater trickling through the rock left behind minerals that accumulated in those cracks and fissures, hardening and becoming cementlike. Eons of sandblasting by Martian wind wore away the rock but not the minerals, revealing networks of resistant ridges within.

The ridges Curiosity has seen so far look a bit like a crumbling curb. The boxwork patterns stretch across miles of a layer on Mount Sharp, a 3-mile-tall (5-kilometer-tall) mountain whose foothills the rover has been climbing since 2014. Intriguingly, boxwork patterns haven’t been spotted anywhere else on the mountain, either by Curiosity or orbiters passing overhead.

Animal teeth were amongst the most common materials utilised for personal ornament production during the Stone Age, especially in the Northern Hemisphere.

The results suggest that several different methods of tooth extraction are viable, but cooking animals using boiling or a pit method is highly efficient. These methods lead to high extraction rates with no tooth damage, while also rendering the meat from the skull edible and the bones usable for other applications, such as tool production.

Our work demonstrates the formation of nanoscale cavities in clay which is correlated with partial exfoliation, caused by the amino acid GABA. The findings of this study exemplify that irreversible structural changes in clay are induced by interaction with a meteorite-common, non-proteinogenic, weakly-interacting species that is not expected to undergo polymerisation, but instead creates 3D nanocompartments.

This sheds a new light on the possible significance of off-world organics, which possess a relatively high abundance of GABA and other exotic amino acids. It also demonstrates the need to revisit the role of clays beyond the synthesis of life’s building blocks, and explore their role in prebiotic compartmentalisation.

Apart from the field of origin of life, the unique exfoliant behaviour uncovered in this work introduces sustainable clay alteration possibilities for various applications in environmental, material and surface sciences. These include, among others; layered crystal engineering, toxic waste storage/management, soil treatment, development of Van-der-Waals heterostructures and diverse applications in the emerging field of nanogeochemistry.

A powerful new telescope in Chile has released its first images, showing off its unprecedented ability to peer into the dark depths of the universe.

In one picture, vast colourful gas and dust clouds swirl in a star-forming region 9,000 light years from Earth.

The Vera C Rubin observatory, home to the world's most powerful digital camera, promises to transform our understanding of the universe.

If a ninth planet exists in our solar system, scientists say this telescope would find it in its first year.

It should detect killer asteroids in striking distance of Earth and map the Milky Way. It will also answer crucial questions about dark matter, the mysterious substance that makes up most of our universe.

This once-in-a-generation moment for astronomy is the start of a continuous 10-year filming of the southern night sky.

Summary

The manufacture and use of tools, while widespread in terrestrial animals1, has been less frequently reported in marine taxa. In cetaceans, clear examples of tool use are largely restricted to foraging contexts, with no reports of cetaceans fashioning tools by modifying objects. Here, we report evidence of the widespread manufacture and use of allogrooming tools in a population of resident killer whales (Orcinus orca ater).

Do ants think? Do bees feel?

Animals were once considered mindless – incapable of thoughts or feelings. 

These views dominated common thought for millennia, until research indicated that mammals and birds can think and feel similarly to how we do.

Now the magnifying glass is being aimed even lower – the six-legged kingdom.

Is bigger better?

Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle placed insects and arachnids 10th in his scale of nature hierarchy, stamped between snails and jellyfish. 

It’s clear creepy crawlies are capable of something akin to thoughts. However, most seem to display very simple behaviours.

Swarm intelligence

Hymenoptera, the order enveloping bees and ants, exhibit complex behaviours like selective attention and social learning – both of which have long been observed in animals once thought to be of some ‘higher order’.

Each bee is an individual with a unique external experience, capable of deciphering conflicting food sources and potential threats and directing attention appropriately. 

Bee-haviour

Kit says it’s important to understand that bees are able to think and have some sort of feelings.

We seem to uncover more about their cognitive capacities every day.

Shocked researchers even managed to coax bumblebees into playing soccer.

In recent years, the proliferation of conspiracy theories has surged across both traditional and digital media platforms, capturing the attention of scholars and the public alike. While much of the prior research has centered on unraveling the psychological impulses that drive individuals toward such beliefs, a burgeoning area of inquiry seeks to explore the profound societal implications that these beliefs carry. One domain of critical concern is sustainability—the intricate balance of social equity, environmental stewardship, and economic viability necessary for the continuation of human civilization. Emerging evidence suggests that conspiracy beliefs may pose significant challenges to sustainable development, undermining efforts to foster healthier societies, safeguard ecosystems, and maintain robust economies.

At the heart of the investigation lies the recognition that conspiracy theories seldom exist in isolation as harmless curiosities. Instead, they often function as vehicles that erode trust in scientific institutions, governmental authorities, and collective action mechanisms. This skepticism can attenuate public health initiatives by cultivating resistance to vaccinations, mask-wearing, and other preventive measures crucial for community well-being. Consequently, the social sustainability of populations is jeopardized, as diminished health outcomes and increased polarization fracture social cohesion and threaten fundamental human rights.

Time, not space plus time, might be the single fundamental property in which all physical phenomena occur, according to a new theory by a University of Alaska Fairbanks scientist.

The theory also argues that time comes in three dimensions rather than just the single one we experience as continual forward progression. Space emerges as a secondary manifestation.

"These three time dimensions are the primary fabric of everything, like the canvas of a painting," said associate research professor Gunther Kletetschka at the UAF Geophysical Institute. "Space still exists with its three dimensions, but it's more like the paint on the canvas rather than the canvas itself."

Link to Paper:

https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/epdf/10.1142/S2424942425500045

A bold new era in space science has begun: ESA and OHB have officially partnered to launch LISA, the world’s first space-based gravitational wave observatory.

Flying three spacecraft in a triangle 2.5 million km apart, LISA will “listen” to ripples in spacetime from the most cataclysmic events in the cosmos, like colliding black holes. It’s not just a technological marvel, but a gateway to exploring hidden aspects of the Universe and challenging the very laws of physics.

We found that the human niche began to expand substantially from 70 ka and that this expansion was driven by humans increasing their use of diverse habitat types, from forests to arid deserts. Thus, humans dispersing out of Africa after 50 ka were equipped with a distinctive ecological flexibility among hominins as they encountered climatically challenging habitats, providing a key mechanism for their adaptive success.

A spinning universe isn't the only universe

To understand why a rotating universe implies more than one universe, Poplawski refers to "frames of reference." These are sets of coordinate systems that are integral to physics, which allow motion and rest to be measured.

Imagine two scientists, Terra and Stella. Each is in their own frame of reference, but Terra on Earth, Stella in a spacecraft traveling past our planet. Terra sees Stella's frame of reference (the spacecraft) moving in relation to her own (the Earth), which is at rest. Stella, meanwhile, sees her frame of reference at rest while it is Terra's frame of reference in motion as the Earth races away.

Poplawski pointed out that if the universe is rotating, then its frame of reference is rotating, and that only makes sense if it is rotating in relation to at least one other frame of reference.

"If the universe is rotating, it must rotate relative to some frame of reference corresponding to something bigger," he continued. "Therefore, the universe is not the only one; it is a part of a multiverse."

"I Located A UFO Base In Arizona!" (ft. Ross Coulthart) Jesse Michels

A research team led by Occidental College has identified a previously unknown symbiosis; deep sea spiders that cultivate and feed on bacteria that oxidize methane.

Three undescribed species of Sericosura sea spiders were discovered to host dense layers of methane- and methanol-consuming microbes on their exoskeletons. The microbes not only thrive there but serve as a dominant primary nutritional source for the spiders.

If it exists, Planet Nine would be a true giant, roughly 5-10 times the mass of Earth, orbiting somewhere between 400-800 times farther from the Sun than our planet does. At such an enormous distance, it would be incredibly faint and nearly impossible to spot with traditional telescope searches that rely on detecting reflected sunlight....

After this meticulous analysis, the researchers identified two candidates. Both objects appear in the predicted location and emit the amount of infrared light that theory suggests Planet Nine should produce. While this doesn't constitute definitive proof, it represents the most promising lead in the search for our Solar System's hidden giant.

These discoveries mark an important milestone, but the journey isn't over. The candidates require follow up observations with more powerful telescopes to confirm whether they're truly moving in ways consistent with Planet Nine, or whether they're imposters, perhaps background galaxies or other astronomical objects.

If confirmed, the discovery of Planet Nine would revolutionise our understanding of how our Solar System formed and evolved. It would also demonstrate the power of thinking creatively about astronomical searches, sometimes the best way to find something isn't to look directly at it, but to feel its warmth instead!

This work shows that humans have been using the site for much of the last 48,000 years or more. Occupations bridge the Middle to Later Stone Age transition, which occurred sometime between about 40,000 and 25,000 years ago in southern Africa.

That transition is a time period where we see dramatic changes in the technologies people were using, including changes in raw materials selected for making tools and a shift towards smaller tools. These changes are poorly understood due to a lack of sites with occupations dating to this time. Knysna Eastern Heads Cave 1 is the first site on the southern coast that provides a continuous occupational record near the end of the Pleistocene (Ice Age) and documents how life changed for people living on the edge of the Palaeo-Agulhas Plain.

Before the Ice Age, people there collected marine resources like shellfish when the coastline was close to the site. As the climate began to cool and sea levels dropped, they shifted their focus to land-based resources and game animals.

The Bogong moth follows the stars to fly hundreds of miles

Since stars appear in predictable patterns each night, scientists suspected they might help lead the way. They placed moths in a flight simulator that mimicked the night sky above them and blocked out the Earth’s magnetic field, noting where they flew. Then they scrambled the stars and saw how the moths reacted.

When the stars were as they should be, the moths flapped in the right direction. But when the stars were in random places, the moths were disoriented. Their brain cells also got excited in response to specific orientations of the night sky.

A 146,000-year-old skull from Harbin, China, belongs to a Denisovan, according to a recent study of proteins preserved inside the ancient bone. The paleoanthropologists who studied the Harbin skull in 2021 declared it a new (to us) species, Homo longi. But the Harbin skull still contains enough of its original proteins to tell a different story: A few of them matched specific proteins from Denisovan bones and teeth, as encoded in Denisovan DNA.

So Homo longi was a Denisovan all along, and thanks to the remarkably well-preserved skull, we finally know what the enigmatic Denisovans actually looked like.

The face of a Denisovan

So what did a Denisovan look like? Harbin 1 has a wide, flattish face with small cheekbones, big eye sockets, and a heavy brow. Its upper jaw juts forward just a little, and it had big, robust molars. The cranium itself is longer and less dome-like than ours, but it’s roomy enough for a big brain (about 1,420 millimeters).

Some of those traits, like the large molars and the long, low cranium, resemble those of earlier hominin species such as Homo erectus or Homo heidelbergensis. Others, like a relatively flat face, set beneath the cranium instead of sticking out in front of it, look more like us. (Early hominins, like Australopithecus afarensis, don’t really have foreheads because their skulls are arranged so their brains are right behind their faces instead of partly above them, like ours.)

The strength of Earth’s magnetic field and the amount of oxygen in its atmosphere seem to be correlated—and scientists want to know why

The strength of Earth’s magnetic field seems to rise and fall hand-in-hand with the abundance of oxygen in its atmosphere, a study of geological records spanning the last half billion years has found.

Explaining the link could help to reveal fundamental trends in the evolution of life on Earth — and could show astronomers the most promising places to look for signs of complex life on other planets. But it is so far unclear whether Earth’s magnetism plays direct a role in keeping oxygen levels high — and sustaining animal life — or whether both are influenced by a third, unidentified mechanism.

Underground fungi may be one of Earth s most powerful and overlooked allies in the fight against climate change, yet most of them remain unknown to science. Known only by DNA, these "dark taxa" make up a shocking 83% of ectomycorrhizal species fungi that help forests store carbon and thrive. Their hotspots lie in tropical forests and other underfunded regions. Without names, they re invisible to conservation efforts. But scientists are urging more DNA sequencing and global collaboration to bring these critical organisms into the light before their habitats, or the fungi themselves, disappear forever.

Ex-CIA Officer Confirms Alien Hybrids Exist - John Ramirez - DEBRIEFED ep. 42

"Pre-metazoan cells have mechanisms of dividing and separating, probably with some themes and variations. Then this protein complex allowed cells to stop at the stage just before separation," Glotzer said. "Maybe multicellular life evolved because of a genetic change that prevented cells from fully separating."

"A mutation that disrupted the assembly of centralspindlin is what allowed my colleagues and me to find these proteins in the first place, more than 25 years ago," he continued. "And it appears that the evolution of this exact same region contributed to the evolution of animal life on the planet, which is mind-blowing."

If hycean planets do exist, they're likely common around red dwarfs (M dwarfs.) Red dwarfs are the most plentiful type of star in the galaxy, and Hycean worlds' thick hydrogen atmospheres might protect them from the devastating flaring behaviour of these small, long-lived stars. Hycean worlds may have larger habitable zones because of all their water, but their hydrogen atmospheres may contribute to the runaway greenhouse effect. When it comes to habitability, these hypothetical worlds are intriguing and mysterious.

Following the shooting events, which had significant impacts, the study group continued to make regular use of the dump as a primary food source, despite the regular human presence. Within the dump, the workers would often offer items of food found in refuse sacks to the baboons, creating positive interactions with these humans, thus enhancing the commensal relationship.

The baboons thus appeared to differentiate between their relationships with dump workers and the perceived increased risks from humans in other locations after the shooting events.

This suggests that the impacts of persecution may not be obvious in many contexts without the integration of longer term behavioural and physiological measures, and that the relationships between people and wildlife may be more complex and nuanced than immediately evident.

All contemporary Eurasians trace most of their ancestry to a small population that dispersed out of Africa about 50,000 years ago (ka). By contrast, fossil evidence attests to earlier migrations out of Africa.

These lines of evidence can only be reconciled if early dispersals made little to no genetic contribution to the later, major wave. A key question therefore concerns what factors facilitated the successful later dispersal that led to long-term settlement beyond Africa.

Here we show that a notable expansion in human niche breadth within Africa precedes this later dispersal. We assembled a pan-African database of chronometrically dated archaeological sites and used species distribution models (SDMs) to quantify changes in the bioclimatic niche over the past 120,000 years.

We found that the human niche began to expand substantially from 70 ka and that this expansion was driven by humans increasing their use of diverse habitat types, from forests to arid deserts.

Thus, humans dispersing out of Africa after 50 ka were equipped with a distinctive ecological flexibility among hominins as they encountered climatically challenging habitats, providing a key mechanism for their adaptive success.

During the Early Cretaceous, southeastern Australia was some of the closest land to the South Pole. Here, the night lasted for three months in winter, contrasting with three months of daytime in summer. Despite this extreme day-night cycle, various kinds of dinosaurs still thrived here, as did flies, wasps and dragonflies.

And, as our recently published research in Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology reveals, termites also chewed through the decaying wood of fallen trees. This is the first record of termites living in a polar region – and their presence provides key insights into what these ancient forests were like.