Did Neanderthals Capture Golden Eagles?

When you ask the average person what a neanderthal is, the most likely answer that one is going to receive is that a neanderthal is an insult that is meant to call someone stupid or an idiot. This is in reference to the commonly believed notion that neanderthals were stupid, which is why they eventually died off all those years ago. But, according to new research, we may have actually learned something from our seemingly dumber hominin cousins.

What anthropologists were trying to link was golden eagles to neanderthals, claiming that they could have trapped the animal some 130,000 years ago. So, they went and reviewed so golden eagle bones at specific sights where neanderthal remains were known to be and they were able to examine that at places where little meat would be found on the bird, there were cut marks. These marks suggest that Neanderthals would take the feathers off of the bird (since the wings had very little meat), and similar cuts were found by the leg and foot bones as well.

While no neanderthal jewelry has been found with a golden eagle part as of yet, other eagles have. The talons of a white-tailed eagle have been found around a neanderthal necklace in 2015, suggesting there could be a chance that neanderthals did the same for the golden eagles as well.

The suggestion that we learned this from neanderthals stems from the fact that neanderthals were thought to have been making this type of jewelry for thousands of years before we did, leading scientists to believe that we may have taken the idea from neanderthals initially.

Or we both could have just had the same idea. We might never know for sure.

The biggest waves are growing thanks to climate change

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Well this is a shocker.

The Southern Ocean – already called home to the world’s largest waves and most dangerous storms for sailors – has been recorded to have an increase in wave size over the past few decades, and the reason behind this is climate change.

The way climate change and the rising height of the tallest waves, which have grown 30 centimeters since 1985, are linked is by faster winds. Winds drive ocean waves, so faster winds will, in turn, lead to faster waves. But that isn’t how climate change is directly effecting the process of waves getting taller. This process is actually can be stemmed from a previous effect – the rise in global temperatures.

When the global temperature rises, everything, of course, gets a bit warmer. That is also true for the oceans, so when the temperatures get warmer, the tropics start to expand. Then, since there is an expansion of the tropics, the wind speed will also begin to increase as well. And, as previously mentioned, an increase in wind speed then leads to taller waves.

Of course, more research is needed to further link the two topics of climate change and the taller waves in the Southern Ocean, but it is still a bit scary to think of all of the effects that climate change will have on our planet that hasn’t been researched or discussed yet. Only time will be able to give us a clearer picture of how we are damaging the only place we can call home in our universe.

A White Dwarf Star Ripped This Planet To Bits

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Astronomers recently found what seems to be a planet around a white dwarf star, or what’s left of it anyway. Due to the intense gravity of the white dwarf star, which is what our Sun will become after its done being a red giant in the future, the planet was ripped the shreds, with what it once called part of itself, orbiting around the white dwarf.

Not cool.

Actually it’s very cool to see something like this happen, since for astronomers to see an exoplanet this small is very hard to do, making this quite the special occurrence. The only reason this planet survived the red giant phase of its star, named an appropriate SDSS J122859.93+104032.9 (catchy), was because it was out far enough from its parent star that it was not able to be swallowed whole by the behemoth the star once was.

Technically, the scientists didn’t see the planet as I see my screen right now. Using a method that measured the amount of brightness being sent from calcium ions, which alerted them there was gas circulating in the disk, they were able to determine that it was a planetesimal orbiting the star. Previously, they had been monitoring this specific white dwarf since it is one of the only ones of it kind with a disk filled with gas and debris. They were not able to get the look they needed until recently in the past couple of years, which eventually led them to this conclusion.

While this is cool and exciting news, it does put into perspective just how powerful the world around us is. An entire planet was shredded due to an insane amount of gravity, something that we feel every day. It makes me appreciate the situation us as humans are in in our sanctuary we call Earth just that much more.

New Antimatter Discovery: Could This Help Solve The Antimatter Problem?

Recently, physicists at the Large Hadron Collider, or LHC for short, observed a behavior in decays of particles called D mesons. It was previously calculated years ago by physicists that this type of behavior would occur in these particles, but was only observed for the first time recently, fitting the standard model of particle physics.

So what does this all mean?

To be honest with you, it is all still pretty confusing for me too, so I’m just going to break down the basics of it here. If you’re interested in the full article, the hyperlink in the first paragraph has got you covered.

The article states that “the discovery reveals one small mechanism that contributes to there being more matter than antimatter”. This furthering of our understand of why there is such a ratio of matter to antimatter in the universe is imperative for learning what antimatter truly is. Our knowledge of it defines it as “a material composed of the antiparticles (or “partners”) of the corresponding particles of ordinary matter.” If its value were equal to that of matter, the universe would be empty, and we would not be having any discussion about this right now, or anything for that matter.

Luckily for us, that is not the case, and the universe is teeming with matter and objects of all sizes. So the question still remains: why is there such a disparity between the two? This finding gets us closer to that answer, but still doesn’t account for the whole thing, the article suggests.

There are still more experiments to be done with the Large Hadron Collider and more findings to be had, and hopefully they make another significant breakthrough soon.

The Denisovans Could Have Mated With Humans More Recently Than Previously Thought

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Everyone has heard the common insult of calling someone a neanderthal, as if to call them stupid or dumb due to the stigma behind neanderthals as also being stupid creatures. Calling someone a Denisovan, however, does not roll off the tongue quite the same. Besides, most people are not really sure what Denisovans are in the first place.

Denisovans are an extinct creature from the genus homo, and are speculated to have lived with homo sapiens (us) and the neanderthals for a period of time before dying off.

This map displays what area the Denisovans are thought to have existed; from Russia all the way down to New Guinea.

Very little is known about the Denisovans due to the lack of fossils found. The only fossils to have been found have all been in one place called Denisova Cave, and all fossils are fragments and do not give great insight into how one of these creatures may have looked.

But recently, a new study suggests that they may have interacted with humans some 15,000-30,000 years ago, which is drastically different than what was previously thought. As paleoanthropologist Chris Strigner points out, “A late surviving lineage [of Denisovans] could have interbred with Homo sapiens.”

Of course, some in the science communities following this study are skeptical of the claims that have been made, thinking that the estimate of interbreeding from 15,000-30,000 years ago is too recent.

Without better fossil records of the Denisovans, it will be impossible to confirm whether these estimates are science fact or science fiction. Needless to say, more studies need to be done in order to unravel the truth about our little known cousins.

Has HIV become curable?

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The HIV epidemic has proved to be a deadly and hard to combat disease, and over the years there has been some progress in the field of treating it, with everything from certain medications to blood transfusions (if you have that kind of money).

That is all done only to treat the virus and suppress the symptoms, but what if there was a way to CURE it?

The “Berlin Man”, Timothy Ray Brown, was so far the only human known to have been cured of their HIV, happening about a decade ago thanks to a stem cell transplant.

That all changed recently thanks to a similar transplant done to who is now called the “London patient”.

Both of these men received a CCR5 mutation, which allowed for both of the men to show no signs of HIV. For Timothy Ray Brown, it has been out of his system for years, and for the “London patient” about 18 months. However, it’s too early to consider this a cure, according to Ravindra Gupta, virologist at University College London. Although great progress has been made so far with the London patient, previous trials have shown that these types of treatments for HIV have proven faulty, as the it would still return into the patients body, but just later than what a usual person with HIV would see.

So if the London patient also shows no signs of HIV in the coming years, is it safe to say that HIV can be cured? Possibly, but the distribution of this type of treatment would be incredibly difficult. I think everyone can agree at this point that more funding and research needs to be done before any definite conclusions are to be made, but one can always hope for the best.

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Planet Nine Could Be Even More Likely Thanks To New Discovery

Planet Nine, sometimes called “Planet X”, is a theoretical planet that has been hypothesized to live in the dark, outer reaches of the solar system.

No, it’s not the planet that’s theorized by some crazies to collide with Earth and we’ll all die. That’s about as true as saying birds are a government conspiracy. It has negative legs to stand on.

On a more serious note, recent research supported this theory of a planet orbiting the far reaches of the solar system when looking at the striking similarities of eccentric orbits of objects (shown below).

This image shows the eccentric and similar orbits of objects and the hypothesized planet nine orbit — Could Planet Nine really exist?

The probability of this happening “is about .007 percent”.

This could not possibly be random.

The clustering of these far out object’s orbits was something Scott Shepard, an astronomer at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C., knew could very well be the tell tale sign of a 9th planet in the solar system. Sifting through his research, he found what he was looking for; yet another object that keeps furthering the idea that of a 9th planet’s gravity affecting the orbits of these far out objects. Properly named “FarFarOut” (since they had already used “FarOut”), this object is the farthest solar system object to have ever been discovered.

Shepard will have to verify whether or not this object correctly helps the theory of a ninth planet existing, but until then, the hopes are getting higher for there to be another planet out there somewhere in our solar system.

Night Vision is almost a reality thanks to the help of nanoparticles

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A recent research article initially published in the science journal Cell claims to have been able to give mice the ability to see in the dark. To be more specific, with the use of nanoparticles that convert infrared light to visible light in the eyes of mice, the mice were able to consistently show signs of being able to see the infrared light. One of the trials included placing the test group into water and illuminating a platform in infrared light for them to be able to get up and out of the water. Remarkably, the mice that were in the test group CONSISTENTLY went towards the stage that was illuminated by the infrared light, helping lead the research team to the conclusion that the mice could see the stage thanks to the nanoparticles.

This is amazing news, as researchers are beginning to theorize how these trials could translate to humans. From first responders to soldiers in combat, being able to have what was once perceived as superpower could now benefit people who are the actual superheroes. With the ability to see infrared light, these people can see the heat given off of a human’s body, allowing them to see where the people they need to deal with are at. While being able to see people in the dark comes as great and really cool news, human trials are still needed to be done, and even then who knows if it well be allowed for public use. I’m going to stay optimistic about the publicity of the nanoparticles but until then, I’m going to keep my eye out for some invisibility articles while I wait.