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Recently, China officially launched its Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission, Tianwen-3, marking a significant step forward in planetary exploration. The mission aims to bring Martian samples back to Earth, where advanced laboratory instruments will be employed to conduct comprehensive analyses, seeking to determine whether life ever existed—or may still exist—on Mars.

Is there life on Mars?

Earth is the only planet we know that harbors life. Research traces the origin of life on Earth dates back to approximately 3.8 billion years ago, about 700 million years after the formation of our solar system. Drawing on theoretical, experimental, and observational approaches, scientists believe that Earth's evolution during its first 700 million years made it a planet capable of producing life and being habitable. However, definitive evidence is still lacking as to whether life on Earth arose solely through indigenous evolution.

Like Earth, Mars lies within the habitable zone of our solar system. Research suggests that Mars once had a dense atmosphere and a warm, moist climate early in its history, making it suitable for the emergence and development of microbial life. From an astrobiological perspective, the early Martian environment was conducive to the survival of many of the so-called extremophiles found on Earth.

The transition from bilateral to pentaradial symmetry in echinoderms has long proved controversial.

Until now, the paucity of characters unambiguously uniting radial and non-radial fossil forms had hampered efforts to investigate the early evolution of the phylum.

Our novel data on growth in the bilaterally symmetrical echinoderm Atlascystis confirm the presence of ambulacra in non-radial echinoderms, establishing homologies between all known fossil groups and enabling rigorous analyses of their phylogenetic relationships.

This reinforces the critical importance of the fossil record for elucidating the evolutionary assembly of animal body plans.

Museums tend to enjoy a high level of trust among the public. They’re widely seen as neutral, factual sources of historical knowledge.

But like all forms of storytelling, museums present the past in particular ways. They narrate events from a certain group’s or individual’s perspective and explain why events unfolded in the way they did.

Britain is set to hold public hearings at which military personnel can disclose their close encounters with UFOs. The US-style hearings will allow RAF, Army and Navy whistleblowers to tell all about experiences they have been previously banned from revealing under military non-disclosure rules and for fear of ridicule.

In their article, the researchers show that simple heat flow across thin, water‐filled pores can accumulate a wide variety of molecules with different chemical and physical properties, and allow these molecules to interact and form reactions in a confined space, even in the absence of a cell membrane.

In this very simple protocell, there is a thermal gradient that takes over the functions of a cell membrane, but not yet any physical boundary between the reaction and the diluted water.

"Our investigations show that this simple physical mechanism, which would have been very common on early Earth, can perform many functions that would normally require a cell membrane," says principal investigator of the study, Dieter Braun. The results suggest that heated rock pores could have been the natural setting in which biological cells emerged.

Results in this study challenge the current view that the transition to food-producing economies entailed diet-breadth expansion and increased plant-food consumption.

Rather, the Andean Altiplano case reveals surprising dietary stability across the transition from foraging to farming economies.

Both forager and early farmer diets were primarily composed of C3 plants with lesser caloric contributions from large mammals, including camelids and deer.

Surprisingly, this subsistence regime was maintained for some four millennia despite human population growth across the Archaic and Formative periods at the Altiplano. Although it is likely that during this transition period in Kaillachuro and Jiskairumoko, there was a gradual and flexible integration of domestic crops into the diets of Archaic foragers, reflecting a mosaic subsistence transition rather than an abrupt shift to agriculture.

The Andean case thus represents a remarkable case of economic resilience in the face of demographic and economic transformation.

Evidence for expanding trade networks and archery technology during the Terminal Archaic Period suggests that social and technological innovations are the likely explanations for subsistence stability across the forager-farmer transition.

This feat of resilience not only allowed Andean Altiplano populations to maintain previously successful dietary regimes but also resulted in the domestication of plants and animals that would go on to fuel the later emergence of urban centers, intensive agricultural strategies, and some of the world’s most expansive socioeconomic systems, including the Tiwanaku and Inca phenomena.

Evidence suggests that around 30,000 years ago, humans made a sea crossing—without maps, metal tools or modern boats—from what is now called Taiwan to some of the islands in southern Japan, including Okinawa. To find out exactly how this crossing was made, a team led by Kaifu performed various simulations and experiments, including the use of physical recreations, to learn the most plausible way this crossing was achieved.

Of the two newly published papers, one used numerical simulations to cross one of the strongest currents in the world called the Kuroshio. The simulation showed that a boat made using tools of the time, and the right know-how, could have navigated the Kuroshio. The other paper detailed the construction and testing of a real boat which the team successfully used to paddle between islands over 100 kilometers apart.

A recent study published in PLOS One unveils groundbreaking findings that refine our understanding of the Early Upper Paleolithic period in Central Europe. Central to this research is the discovery of a “boomerang” artifact made from mammoth tusk at Obłazowa Cave in Poland, which is estimated to be approximately 40,000 years old. This remarkable object is among the oldest known of its kind in Europe and provides new insights into the technological capabilities and cultural expressions of early modern humans who inhabited the region during this transformative era.

The Early Upper Paleolithic, a period that marked profound shifts in human behavior, culture, and technology, has long been a focal point for archaeologists and paleoanthropologists aiming to reconstruct the emergence of modern human societies. The Obłazowa Cave site has yielded a rich assemblage of bone and lithic artifacts, enabling researchers to reassess the chronology and contextual significance of these materials with advanced dating techniques. It is within this framework that the mammoth tusk “boomerang” takes on special importance, symbolizing both a technological innovation and a form of symbolic behavior indicative of complex cognitive processes.

The artifact itself exhibits an expertly curved design, crafted from durable mammoth ivory, which suggests deliberate shaping and utilization. Such craftsmanship demonstrates an acute understanding of raw material properties and indicates sophisticated tool-making skills, previously difficult to attribute definitively to Paleolithic populations in this geographical area. The preservation state of the object allows for detailed morphometric analyses, which contribute to the ongoing debate about early human mobility and cultural exchange across Europe during this dynamic period.

Paper:

Boomerang and bones: Refining the chronology of the Early Upper Paleolithic at Obłazowa Cave, Poland

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0324911

Researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory are developing the Buoyant Rover for Under-Ice Exploration, a technology that could one day explore oceans under the ice layers of planetary bodies. The prototype was tested in arctic lakes near Barrow, Alaska.

In the evolving field of geological assessment and heritage preservation, the application of non-destructive testing methods has gained unprecedented importance. One of the most promising techniques in this realm is in situ gamma-ray spectrometry, a sophisticated analytical tool that enables precise characterization of building stones without causing any damage to the structure under study.

Gamma-ray spectrometry capitalizes on the detection and analysis of gamma photons emitted naturally by radioactive isotopes contained within materials. These isotopes, typically uranium-238, thorium-232, and potassium-40, are intrinsic components of many geological formations and building stones. Their gamma emissions, detected and quantified by portable spectrometry devices deployed directly at the site, provide a fingerprint of the mineralogical and radiological composition of the stone. This eliminates the need for destructive sampling, which can compromise both the integrity and aesthetic value of valuable historical buildings or geological samples.

In their study, the research team found evidence of two distinct types of marks—bowl-like and long and thin. Such differences could speak to various behaviors, such as display and nest building. They also noted that prior digging at some of the dancing spots had revealed marks in different strata, suggesting a given site was used by different dinosaurs at different times. Different marks, they noted, also showed different dancing styles, such as dragging a claw.

The team's discovery reveals how the upward flow of hot material from the deep mantle is strongly influenced by the tectonic plates—the massive solid slabs of Earth's crust—that ride above it.

Over millions of years, as tectonic plates are pulled apart at rift zones like Afar, they stretch and thin—almost like soft plasticine—until they rupture. This rupturing marks the birth of a new ocean basin.

Many of the recently discovered Earth-like exoplanets are hosted by M and F stars, stars that emit intense UVC, especially during a flare.

We studied whether such planets are nevertheless habitable by irradiating a desert lichen, Clavascidium lacinulatum, with 254-nm 55 W/m2 UVC nonstop for 3 months in the laboratory.

Only 50% of its algal photobiont cells were inactivated.

To put this in perspective, we used the same setup to challenge the photobiont cells but grown in pure culture, and Deinococcus radiodurans, the most radiation-resistant bacterium on Earth.

Entire monolayers of hundreds of cells were inactivated in just 60 s.

Further studies indicated that the cortex of the lichen was rendered UVC-opaque by deposits of phenolic secondary metabolites in its interstices.

The lichen was injured only because, while most photochemical reactive oxygen species were quenched, photochemical ozone was not.

We conclude that UVC-intense exoplanets are not necessarily uninhabitable to photosynthetic organisms.

The phase of activity that includes the erection of the standing stone alignments at the Le Plasker starts a few decades after the construction of the tomb, initiating a 300-year project that saw the gradual addition, and subsequent increasing density, of standing stone architecture. New standing stones and alignments were placed along the same axis north-northwest to south-southeast as the previous ones, respecting and perpetuating the original model and demonstrating a persistence in societal traditions and symbolism. The partial alignment of cooking pits with standing stones in some areas also appears intentional, though the use of these pits remains to be defined.

The chronology, with construction periods both short and long, proves that the creation of a cultural landscape such as Carnac did not happen all at once, but more likely in several stages over a protracted period. This opens up new perspectives for understanding of the significance of the alignments and their construction. While uncovering the purpose of the alignments lies beyond the scope of this article, the discovery of Le Plasker contributes to our widening awareness of the communal effort in which these early megalithic societies engaged as they added, and made changes, to such vast architecture over three centuries or more in a living dynamic megalithic landscape.

A team of scientists is proposing a bold alternative to the Big Bang theory, suggesting that our universe may have formed inside a colossal black hole residing in a larger, parent universe. The Big Bang theory, along with Einstein's general relativity, has successfully explained major cosmological phenomena, including the cosmic microwave background, the universe's large-scale structure, and its accelerating expansion often linked to dark energy.

The former head of Congress’ UFO investigation project "AARO" is being offered 100k for an interview with one of his toughest critics.

Sean Kirkpatrick is well known in the UFO community as a skeptic whose controversial 2024 Report on the Historical Record of U.S. Government Involvement with Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) Volume 1 threw cold water on the idea of alien off-world technologies. While serving as the head of AARO, Congress’ UFO investigation office, Kirkpatrick also published an op-ed in The Scientific American stating that many of supposed UFO encounters he investigated were “unauthorized disclosures of legitimate U.S. programs or related R&D that have nothing to do with extraterrestrial issues or technology.”

Now Kirkpatrick may be headed for a payday, as one of the top UFO content producers on Youtube is offering him $100k for a single unedited interview.

The largest were the baths built by the emperor Diocletian (284–305). Around 3,000 people a day could bathe at this 13-hectare complex.

These baths, like most, contained a room (the caldarium) heated by air ducts in the walls and floors. The floors were so hot special sandals were worn.

Another room leading from it was milder (the tepidarium), before bathers entered the frigidarium, which contained a cold pool. A 4,000-square-metre outdoor swimming pool was the central feature.

Public baths also often featured gymnasiums, libraries, restaurants and exercise yards.

Baths and the grim reality of slavery

Baths were places of great social importance, and nudity allowed bathers to show off their physical prowess.

Archaeological evidence suggests even dentistry was performed at the baths.

Behind these images of indulgence, however, lay the grim reality of slavery. Slaves did the dirtiest work in the baths.

They cleaned out cinders, emptied toilets and saw to the clearing of drains.

Slaves came to the baths with their owners, whom they rubbed down with oil and cleaned their skin with strygils (a type of scraper). They entered the baths through a separate entrance.

What If It's All Real? | The Richard Dolan Show

On occasion, it is of vital importance to consider how little we know about the spinning rock we all live on. Take coral reefs, for example. Given how much they've been studied, you'd think we've learned just about everything about them by now. But talk to a marine biologist, and they will quickly disabuse you of this notion.

A majority of the things that are out there on coral reefs are simply unknown to us or haven't been formally described or named

Soft and stony corals locked in a feud millions of years in the making

Corals come in a dizzying kaleidoscope of forms, and their lineage is incredibly ancient. Anthozoa—the group that contains all corals and sea anemones, plus a hodgepodge of animals with grabby tentacles called gorgonians, zoanthids, sea pens and others—originated roughly 771 million years ago.

Soon after Anthozoa split in two, one group—the Hexacorallia—would evolve into stony corals and their many relatives (black corals, various sea anemones). The other, Octocorallia, evolved into soft corals and their respective relatives (gorgonians, organ pipes, sea pens, etc.). This means that what we typically refer to as corals are made from two vastly different lineages that are less related to each other than land plants are to algae.

NASA’s Psyche Spacecraft, Exploring Solar System Origins, Is Back on Track after Thrusters Lost Power

This explorer spacecraft is heading to a rare asteroid with a naked metal core. It could hold clues to how Earth began

The robotic spacecraft Psyche has regained propulsion after a snag cut its propellant system in April. Engineers had to switch to a backup system, and full thruster operations resumed last week. The satellite is now on schedule to fly by Mars in May 2026—and then slingshot into orbit around a very unusual asteroid (also named Psyche) in August 2029. The propulsion problem had put this schedule, and indeed the entire mission, in jeopardy for a while. “In another few weeks, if some things we tried didn’t work, the blood pressure would have started to rise,” says Linda Elkins-Tanton, the mission’s principal investigator and a planetary scientist at Arizona State University.

Why It Matters

About 4.5 billion years ago, our solar system was a cloud of gas and dust with no planets.Astronomers used to think planets grew very slowly, over hundreds of millions of years, as gravity gradually clumped the gas and dust together. But more recent evidence points to a much faster process involving high-energy hit-and-run collisions among dust, pebbles and rocks that crashed together and then got blown apart within a short time. Some of these crashes might have melted metals to form a core (such as the one found at the center of Earth) and surrounded it with a rocky rind. Our planet’s core is many hundreds of miles deep, however—too far down to observe directly and accurately.

But the asteroid Psyche, circling the sun between Mars and Jupiter, may have an exposed metal core. Radar reflections indicate this is at least partially so, says Jim Bell, an Arizona State University planetary scientist, who is in charge of the Psyche spacecraft’s multispectral imaging cameras. “If it was covered by rock, we wouldn’t get the signal that we’re seeing,” he says. That signal indicates substances composed primarily of nickel and iron. So a flyby of the asteroid could provide the first close-up view of what a planet’s core looks like and answer questions about how it formed.

What’s Next

The problem with the craft’s xenon gas thrusters appeared to be caused by a defective valve, and when engineers switched to a second fuel line, the craft regained motion. When Psyche meets up with its asteroid namesake in 2029, the probe’s instruments should be able to detect any uncovered core metal that collisions have blasted clean of rock. The orientation of magnetic particles in that core, like tiny compass needles, could indicate whether the asteroid once had a magnetic dynamo, as Earth’s core does. Remarkably, if there were impacts of debris on the molten metal, they could have splashed up and then frozen, leaving sharp cliffs for spacecraft cameras to show us.

More about Psyche

The asteroid Pysche orbits at about three astronomical units, or AU, from the sun (Earth’s orbit is at one AU). It’s often described as “potato shaped,” with a diameter of 140 miles and a surface area of 64,000 square miles.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nasas-psyche-spacecraft-exploring-solar-system-origins-is-back-on-track/

Slop Bowls Are a Marker of Human Civilization Dating Back to Mesopotamia

The humble bowl-dwelling midday mush dates back nearly to the start of human civilization. Recent tests run on “bevel-rimmed bowls,” found in abundance at Mesopotamian archaeological sites, suggest that these cheaply made, disposable containers were likely used to serve up pre-cooked meals made of grains, dairy, and meat.

The Roman Empire also ran on fast casual. Thanks to excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum, we know more about the ancient food counters known as thermopoliums, where locals would line up for hot dishes including meat, bread, cheese, and vegetables.

Recent genomic analysis of a skull fragment from Newgrange, Ireland, revealed a rare case of incest. Together with a wider network of distantly related passage tomb interments, this has bolstered claims of a social elite in later Neolithic Ireland. 

Here, the authors evaluate this social evolutionary interpretation, drawing on insecurities in context and the relative rarity of engendered status or resource restrictions in the archaeological record of prehistoric Ireland to argue that the status of individuals during this period is better understood through unstable identity negotiations. Inclusion in a passage tomb, while ‘special’, need not equate to a perpetual elite.

It is perhaps fitting to end with the words of O’Kelly himself: “We have no way of knowing in what way the people who were put inside Newgrange were special; it does not necessarily follow that they were royal or priestly, they may have been special in some quite different way.”

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

The statuary of Hatshepsut, who ruled Egypt during the Eighteenth Dynasty, is believed to have been targeted for violent destruction by Thutmose III, her successor. Yet the condition of the statues recovered in the vicinity of Hatshepsut’s mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri varies considerably and many survive with their faces virtually intact.

Through the examination of archival material from the original excavations, the author offers an alternative, more utilitarian, explanation of the treatment of these statues. Rather than outright hostility, much of the damage may instead derive from the ‘deactivation’ of the statues and their reuse as raw material.

As the next step in extraterrestrial exploration, many engineers and scientists revealed their intense interest in enabling multiplanetary human life, including colonizing Mars.

This study demonstrates that architecture on Mars can be realized by designing a synthetic community, including diazotrophic cyanobacteria and filamentous fungi, which produce large amounts of biomaterials to bond Martian regolith particles into a consolidated body.

Through 3D printing, a wide range of structures can be fabricated, such as buildings, houses, tables, and chairs.

Within the synthetic community, diazotrophic cyanobacteria will (1) fix carbon dioxide and dinitrogen from the atmosphere and convert them into oxygen and organic nutrients to help the survival and growth of filamentous fungi and (2) increase the concentration of carbonate ions by photosynthetic activities.

Filamentous fungi will (1) bind metal ions onto fungal cell walls and serve as nucleation sites for biomineral production and (2) enhance the growth of cyanobacteria by providing them with water, minerals, and carbon dioxide. In this study, such coculture systems have been created and displayed robust growth solely based on Martian regolith simulants, air, light, and an inorganic liquid medium without any additional carbon or nitrogen sources.

The cyanobacterial and fungal growth in such coculture systems is much more robust than their axenic growth due to mutual interactions.

The amounts and morphologies of the precipitated crystals vary remarkably depending on the cultivation condition.