MU_Peter

MU_Peter, 9 months ago to random

#OTD

For the twentieth anniversary of the discovery of Homo floresiensis

20 years of Homo floresiensis
by PaigeMadison @fossilhistory
https://fossilhistory.wordpress.com/2023/08/31/20-years-of-homo-floresiensis/

MU_Peter, 9 months ago to random

Scientists used to love Twitter.
Thanks to Elon Musk, they’re giving up on it
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2023-08-25/column-scientists-used-to-love-twitter-thanks-to-elon-musk-theyre-giving-up-on-it

Today the question in many scientists’ minds is where to find an alternative to X.

MU_Peter, 9 months ago to random

The earliest known works of Japanese art date from the Jōmon period, which lasted from 10,500 to 300 BC.

A Brief History of Japanese Art:
From Prehistoric Pottery to Yayoi Kusama in Half an Hour
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iT_1Gj5VPP0

MU_Peter, 10 months ago to random

🦁 It's #WorldLionDay

"This prehistoric masterpiece painted over 30,000 years ago in Chauvet Cave shows that lions have captured our imaginations for millennia.

Understanding their past is key to helping protect them today and in the future."

The Leakey Foundation

MU_Peter, 10 months ago to random

Hybridization is increasingly recognized as an important evolutionary force for generating species and phenotypic diversity in plants and animals.

Hybrid origin of a primate, the gray snub-nosed monkey
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abl4997

MU_Peter, 10 months ago to random

Large scale databases are critical for helping decipher long-term patterns in human evolution. This paper describes the conception and development of such a research database

The ROCEEH Out of Africa Database (ROAD):
A large-scale research database serves as an indispensable tool for human evolutionary studies
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0289513

technewslit, 10 months ago to random

Thermo Fisher Scientific settles with family of Henrietta Lacks, whose HeLa cells uphold medicine

https://apnews.com/article/henrietta-lacks-hela-cells-thermo-fisher-scientific-bfba4a6c10396efa34c9b79a544f0729

MU_Peter, 10 months ago to random

The role of genetic selection and climatic factors in the dispersal of anatomically modern humans out of Africa
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2213061120

Apparent genetic adaptation over ~30Ky, maybe around Arabia, prior to dispersal across rest of Eurasia and to Australia.

mrundkvist, 10 months ago to random Swedish

Hey people over 45 -- how do you survive at workplaces where you're not allowed to take an afternoon nap? Massive coffee intake?

#caffeine

MU_Peter, 10 months ago to random

Neanderthal Legacy
A film by Kevin Augello and Dr Marie Soressi

The archaeological work in the cave of La Grande Roche at Quincay, France. How this can contribute to answering questions about our distant ancestors and Neanderthals.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yvmx1bBxUKg

MU_Peter, 10 months ago to random

Age estimates for hominin fossils and the onset of the Upper Palaeolithic at Denisova Cave
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0870-z

Presence:
Oldest Denisovan fossil suggests as early as 195 Kya. All Neanderthal between 80-140 Kya.
Modern-human not yet identified in Altai.

MU_Peter, 10 months ago to random

Cave That Housed Neandertals and Denisovans Challenges View of Cultural Evolution
https://scientificamerican.com/article/cave-that-housed-neandertals-and-denisovans-challenges-view-of-cultural-evolution/

Researchers deduced which early humans occupied Denisova and when, drawing surprising conclusions about who made sophisticated artifacts found there

MU_Peter, 10 months ago to random

The Scopes Trial
Almost a hundred years ago
July 21 1925

PS - I am Spartacus

MU_Peter, 10 months ago to random

Iconic images from Apollo are of footprints left in the lunar soil. But even though it has virtually no atmosphere, the footprints will disappear over time.

Here's the science of how it's happening, and how long it will take.
https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/astronaut-footprints-disappearing-moon/

MU_Peter, 10 months ago to random

A 300,000-year-old hunting weapon shines a new light on early humans as woodworking masters

A double-pointed wooden throwing stick from Schöningen, Germany:
Results and new insights from a multianalytical study
Annemieke Milks et al
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0287719

MU_Peter, 10 months ago to random

Lauren Schroeder looks beyond natural selection to rethink human evolution
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/human-evolution-lauren-schroeder-scientists-to-watch

Paleoanthropologists have long focused primarily on adaptive processes. Her research suggests nonadaptive processes play a bigger role than previously thought.

During her Ph.D. work, Lauren Schroeder analyzed this Homo habilis skull and other fossils to better understand how the human skull evolved. CHIP CLARK, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

MU_Peter, 10 months ago to random

Found today!

A beautiful side scraper of sandstone, made by a Neanderthal thousands of years ago and recovered at #Vanguard Cave in the #Gorham's Cave Complex Gibraltar!

h/t Clive Finlayson

MU_Peter, 10 months ago to random

This handaxe was made around 500 – 300, 000 years ago and was found at West Tofts in Norfolk, UK.

It appears the knapper has carefully preserved the outline of a shell in the cortex

A 3D model of the artefact: https://sketchfab.com/models/343ae7d92a384327aebec8f0ec8e5e54
h/t Jose Mills UCL

MU_Peter, 11 months ago to random

☀️Good morning...

No, these aren't photos.
They're super precise hyperrealistic paintings.

Kei Mieno, an oil painter based in Japan, stuns viewers with his hyperrealistic paintings recreated from photographs.
https://scoop.upworthy.com/no-these-arent-photos-theyre-super-precise-hyperrealistic-paintings-by-a-japanese-artist-561159-561159

MU_Peter, 11 months ago to random

Comment on “U-Th dating of carbonate crusts reveals Neandertal origin of Iberian cave art”
Ludovic Slimak et al
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aau1371

Critical evaluation of their geochronological data seems to provide stronger support for an age of 47,000 years.

MU_Peter, 1 year ago to random

DNA repair and anti-cancer mechanisms in the longest-living mammal: the bowhead whale
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.07.539748v1.full

Suggests rather than possessing additional tumor suppressor genes, bowheads rely on accurate and efficient DNA repair to preserve genome integrity.

MU_Peter, 1 year ago to random

Very sad news of the passing of Canadian musician
Gordon Lightfoot at age 84

Gordon Lightfoot's life in 10 songs
https://www.cbc.ca/music/gordon-lightfoot-s-life-in-10-songs-1.6809171

MU_Peter, 1 year ago to random

Slowly we are weaning off coal, a major driver of climate change.

But it's not good enough.

Phasing out coal for 2 °C target requires worldwide replication of most ambitious national plans despite security and fairness concerns
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/acadf6