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Teeth pendants speak of the elk’s prominent status in the Stone Age

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Roughly 8,200 years ago, the island of Yuzhniy Oleniy Ostrov in Lake Onega in the Republic of Karelia, Russia, housed a large burial ground where men, women and children of varying ages were buried.

Many of the graves contain an abundance of objects and red ochre, signifying the wish to ensure the comfort of the buried also after death. Pendants made of elk incisors were apparently attached to clothing and accessories, such as dresses, coats, cloaks, headdresses and belts.

Although no clothing material has been preserved, the location of the elk teeth sheds light on the possible type of these outfits. [Read more…] about Teeth pendants speak of the elk’s prominent status in the Stone Age

Researchers take key step toward cleaner, more sustainable production of hydrogen

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Efficiently mass-producing hydrogen from water is closer to becoming a reality thanks to Oregon State University College of Engineering researchers and collaborators at Cornell University and the Argonne National Laboratory.

The scientists used advanced experimental tools to forge a clearer understanding of an electrochemical catalytic process that’s cleaner and more sustainable than deriving hydrogen from natural gas.

Findings were published today in Science Advances. [Read more…] about Researchers take key step toward cleaner, more sustainable production of hydrogen

Research uses a video game to identify attention deficit symptoms

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Adapting a traditional endless runner video game and using a raccoon as the protagonist, researchers from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) and the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM, in its Spanish acronym), among other institutions, have developed a platform that allows the identification and evaluation of the degree of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children and adolescents.

ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder with an estimated prevalence of 7.2% in children and adolescents, according to the latest evaluations. It is clinically diagnosed, and this diagnosis is based on the judgement of health care professionals using the patient’s medical history, often supported by scales completed by caregivers and/or teachers. No diagnostic tests have been developed for ADHD to date.

In a paper recently published in Brain Sciences, this team of researchers proposed using a video game that children are already familiar with to identify the symptoms of ADHD and evaluate the severity of the lack of attention in each case. [Read more…] about Research uses a video game to identify attention deficit symptoms

Modeling rainfall drop by drop

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Using a network of a newly introduced type of rain gauge that can measure rainfall with drop-by-drop precision, KAUST researchers have developed a high-frequency rainfall model to improve understanding of rainfall/runoff dynamics, such as flash flooding and hydrodynamics in small watersheds.

Rainfall modeling is one of the core aspects of weather forecasting and is often used to predict other weather parameters, such as wind and solar irradiance. Yet the power and insight of such models are limited by the data used to construct them.

When it comes to precipitation, this means that modelers have to rely on sparse recordings of rainfall at 6-15-minute intervals at best, but more often hourly intervals. [Read more…] about Modeling rainfall drop by drop

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Current food production systems could mean far-reaching habitat loss

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The global food system could drive rapid and widespread biodiversity loss if not changed, new research has found.

Findings published in Nature Sustainability shows that the global food system will need to be transformed to prevent habitat loss across the world. It shows that what we eat and how it is produced will need to change rapidly and dramatically to prevent widespread and severe biodiversity losses.

The international research team was led by the University of Leeds and the University of Oxford. [Read more…] about Current food production systems could mean far-reaching habitat loss

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Hardly any sports but more physical activity during lockdown

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In spring 2020, when soccer and sports clubs closed for sever-al weeks due to the Corona pandemic, children and adoles-cents looked for alternative physical activities.

According to a supplementary study covering more than 1700 children and adolescents aged from 4 to 17 as part of the Motorik-Modul Study (MoMo) conducted by Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and Karlsruhe University of Education (PHKA), the children were physically active about 36 minutes longer every day, but also spent an hour more in front of screens and monitors.

“Surprisingly, boys and girls looked for a replacement of the cancelled sports offers, also those, who had not been physically active before,” says Dr. Claudia Niessner. [Read more…] about Hardly any sports but more physical activity during lockdown

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How nearby galaxies form their stars

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Stars are born in dense clouds of molecular hydrogen gas that permeates interstellar space of most galaxies. While the physics of star formation is complex, recent years have seen substantial progress towards understanding how stars form in a galactic environment. What ultimately determines the level of star formation in galaxies, however, remains an open question.

In principle, two main factors influence the star formation activity: The amount of molecular gas that is present in galaxies and the timescale over which the gas reservoir is depleted by converting it into stars. While the gas mass of galaxies is regulated by a competition between gas inflows, outflows and consumption, the physics of the gas-to-star conversion is currently not well understood.

Given its potentially critical role, many efforts have been undertaken to determine the gas depletion timescale observationally. However, these efforts resulted in conflicting findings partly because of the challenge in measuring gas masses reliably given current detection limits. [Read more…] about How nearby galaxies form their stars

Three flavors are better than one – in ice cream and supernova research

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Any Neapolitan ice cream lover knows three flavors are better than one. New research from Northwestern University has found that by studying all three “flavors” involved in a supernova, they’ve unlocked more clues as to how and why stars die.

Scientists look at neutrinos (subatomic particles) for critical information about supernova explosions. While previous research identified three “flavors” of neutrinos, many researchers continued to simplify studies on the topic by studying “vanilla” while ignoring “chocolate” and “strawberry”.

By including all three flavors in the study, Northwestern researchers have developed a deeper knowledge of dying stars and begun to unravel existing hypotheses. [Read more…] about Three flavors are better than one – in ice cream and supernova research

AI-designed serotonin sensor may help scientists study sleep and mental health

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Serotonin is a neurochemical that plays a critical role in the way the brain controls our thoughts and feelings. For example, many antidepressants are designed to alter serotonin signals sent between neurons.

In an article in Cell, National Institutes of Health-funded researchers described how they used advanced genetic engineering techniques to transform a bacterial protein into a new research tool that may help monitor serotonin transmission with greater fidelity than current methods. Preclinical experiments, primarily in mice, showed that the sensor could detect subtle, real-time changes in brain serotonin levels during sleep, fear, and social interactions, as well as test the effectiveness of new psychoactive drugs.

The study was funded, in part, by the NIH’s Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative which aims to revolutionize our understanding of the brain under healthy and disease conditions. [Read more…] about AI-designed serotonin sensor may help scientists study sleep and mental health

Shipwrecked ivory a treasure trove for understanding elephants and 16th century trading

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In 1533, a Portuguese trading vessel carrying forty tons of gold and silver coins along with other precious cargo went missing on its way to India. In 2008, this vessel, known as the Bom Jesus, was found in Namibia, making it the oldest known shipwreck in southern Africa. Now, an international collaboration of researchers in Namibia, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States reporting in the journal Current Biology on December 17 have found that the ship’s cargo included more than 100 elephant tusks, which paleogenomic and isotopic analyses trace to many distinct herds that once roamed West Africa.

The study is the first to combine paleogenomic, isotopic, archeological, and historical methods to determine the origin, ecological, and genetic histories of shipwrecked cargo, according to the researchers. That’s noteworthy in part because ivory was a central driver of the trans-continental commercial trading system connecting Europe, Africa, and Asia via maritime routes. The findings also have implications for understanding African elephants of the past and present.

In the new study, the team, including Alfred L. Roca and Alida de Flamingh, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, along with Ashley Coutu and Shadreck Chirikure, affiliated with the University of Oxford and University of Cape Town, wanted to pinpoint the source of elephant ivory that was widely circulated in the Indian and Atlantic trading systems during early trade and globalization. [Read more…] about Shipwrecked ivory a treasure trove for understanding elephants and 16th century trading