Posts in category: Science

We often associate the word “caveman” with crude simplicity. But based on a new finding, maybe we should, instead, use it as a stand-in for technological innovation.

Researchers discovered a new kind of fire pit dating back about 75,000 years. After analyzing its novel design — a ringed trench rather than a simple pit — and the traces of chemical components left behind by burning, they determined that Neanderthals used it to produce tar from rockrose (Cistus ladanifer). They then employed that tar to attach stone to wood for making both tools and weapons.

The scientists reverse-engineered the methods the Neanderthals likely used in this process and demonstrated that they did indeed produce tar. They reported their results in Quaternary Scientific Reviews.

Harnessing Fire

It’s essentially a given that, once early man discovered how to make, control, and even transfer fire, they tapped into it as a source for light, heat, and cooking. More recently, archeologists have also found evidence that Neanderthals also harnessed fire to smoke food, harden wood, and create resins needed to make tools.

“Our results advance our understanding of Neanderthal behaviour, as the ability to organize activities related with the use of fire,” said the authors in the paper.

The scientists used many chemical and geological analytical methods to determine how the pit was built and used. They detected minerals, pollen, and guano from the period.

Reverse Engineering Neanderthal Process

Here’s how they think the Neanderthals made tar. First, they lined the bottom of the trough with dried rockrose leaves. Next, they covered the leaves with a soil and sand mixture. Then they added a layer of guano on top, and lit dry grasses to start and maintain a fire. After the guano layer formed a crust and cooled off, they broke through it to harvest the pitch.

The researchers dug a pit similar to the one they found in the cave. Then they followed the step-by-step process they intuited via their analytical methods. Finally, they harvested the pitch and used it to haft a stone spear tip to a wooden shaft.

Producing Tar with Available Resources

“We managed to produce a significant amount of tar in a relevant period of time of not more than 4 hours, counting from collecting wood to hafting,” the authors said in the paper.

They noted that similar methods — but with different hearth or fire pit designs — have been used to create pitch from birch. But this design shows how early man could adapt to his surroundings and use specialized techniques to take advantage of available resources. For instance, there likely was plenty of rockrose in that area 75,000 years ago, but little or no birch.

This level of specialization shows that early man could be quite sophisticated in creating materials for tools.

“Neanderthals were able to construct layered and complex hearths with specific technological objectives that could have included tool, medicine and/or weapon elaboration,” the paper concludes.

Article Sources

Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:

Before joining Discover Magazine, Paul Smaglik spent over 20 years as a science journalist, specializing in U.S. life science policy and global scientific career issues. He began his career in newspapers, but switched to scientific magazines. His work has appeared in publications including Science News, Science, Nature, and Scientific American.

Since they debuted, injectable GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic have been in high demand. In addition to treating diabetes and obesity, these medications have cardiovascular benefits, and there’s evidence they may curb addiction and possibly even protect against some types of cancer, which has only further broadened their appeal. But for people who hate needles, these medications hold a glaring, obvious drawback: They require taking a weekly shot.

Now, though, on platforms like Instagram and Facebook, ads for oral knock-off versions of GLP-1 drugs are proliferating. After the brand-name GLP-1 drugs went into shortage in 2022, a booming industry of “compounding” pharmacies and telehealth clinics arose to offer copies of the medications, as they are legally permitted to do when shortages exist. But unlike the pharma giants that produce the originals, these virtual clinics and specialty pharmacies are offering versions of semaglutide and tirzepatide for weight loss that are taken by mouth. They offer lozenges, tablets, pills, cheek gels, drops, and dissolving strips, promising to deliver the same active ingredients as the trademark medications without the injections.

It’s an appealing prospect—especially since these drugs are offered at a fraction of the price of their name-brand counterparts and are often shipped overnight after a prospective patient fills out a quick online questionnaire. A month’s supply of semaglutide lozenges with vitamin B6 added from the telehealth startup Strut, for example, costs $149 without insurance, versus Wegovy’s $1,000-plus price tag.

“As a pharmacist, I can appreciate the excitement in the rise in oral semaglutide, since it is an easier route than injectables,” says Melinda Lee, a pharmacist who runs the pharmaceutical packaging company Parcel Health as well as a GLP-1 drug availability database. Oral versions also don’t need to be refrigerated like injectables, which makes them easier to ship and store. But although she understands the enthusiasm, Lee remains skeptical. While taking a drug by mouth might be more appealing than a needle, when it comes to GLP-1s, the evidence that they’re as effective just isn’t there yet, she says.

Unlike the brand-name drugs Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, and Zepbound, compounded versions haven’t been rigorously tested in clinical trials, and they’re not approved by the Food and Drug Administration. And although by law they must contain the same active ingredient as the drug they mimic, these orally formulated medications may not work nearly as well as the injectable drugs.

Maria Daniela Hurtado Andrade, an obesity specialist at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, says she doesn’t recommend oral compounded GLP-1 medications to her patients. “I do not consider them, I do not prescribe them, and I do not endorse them,” she says.

The 36,000-year-old frozen specimen from Yakutia belongs to Homotherium latidens, a species of scimitar-toothed cat that inhabited Eurasia during the Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs, and significantly differs from a modern lion cub in the elongated front legs, the unusual shape of the muzzle with a large mouth opening and small ears, the very massive neck region, and the dark coat color.

Homotherium serum. Image credit: Sergiodlarosa / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Homotherium latidens was between 1.5 and 2 m in length, up to 1.1 m in height, and weighed up to 200 kg — about the average size of a modern lion or tiger.

However, its physical appearance differed from other big cats: the extinct species had long saber-like canines, a sloping back, and a short tail.

“Homotherium was widespread in the Plio-Pleistocene of Eurasia, Africa, and Americas,” said lead author Dr. Alexey Lopatin and his colleagues.

“For a long time, the latest presence of Homotherium in Eurasia was recorded in the Middle Pleistocene.”

“A significant event was the discovery of the mandible of the Late Pleistocene Homotherium latidens from the North Sea, which is dated to 28,000 years ago.”

“The largest number of Late Pleistocene finds of Homotherium is concentrated in North America (more than 30 localities), where they traditionally classified in the species Homotherium serum.”

In their new study, the authors examined the frozen mummified carcass of a Homotherium latidens cub found in the Pleistocene permafrost at the locality of Badyarikhskoe on the Badyarikha River in the northeast of Yakutia, Siberia.

“The numerous bones of mammoth fauna representatives are collected from the loess-like loams of the Yedoma horizon in this locality,” they said.

According to the researchers, the Badyarikha specimen is approximately 36,000 years old.

“The specimen includes the head and the anterior part of the body preserved approximately to the caudal edge of the chest,” they said.

“There are also incomplete pelvic bones articulated with the femur and shin bones.”

“They were found encased in a piece of ice along with the front part of the cub.”

The team’s analysis shows that most of the postcranial features of Homotherium latidens can be traced already at the age of three weeks.

“The length of the preserved part of the Homotherium cub body from the nose tip to the gap in the chest region (at the level of the 12th vertebra) is 248 mm,” the scientists said.

“The body is covered with short, thick, soft, dark brown fur with hair about 20-30 mm long. The fur on the back and neck is longer than on the legs.”

“On the upper lip two rows of vibrissae are clearly visible, mostly broken off at a height of 3-5 mm from the roots.”

“In the region of the mouth corner, the hair is significantly elongated.”

“The general morphology of the skull is typical of a juvenile felid,” they added.

“The skull is also distinguished by a relatively longer facial region, a rounded braincase, expanded zygomatic arches, a wide area of premaxillaries, and large upper deciduous incisors.”

“The nasal bones of the Homotherium cub compared to a lion cub are greatly shortened and widened.”

“The neck is longer and more than twice as thick as that of a lion,” they said.

“The difference in thickness is explained by the large volume of muscles, which is visually observed at the site of separation of the skin from the mummified flesh.”

“The length of the forelimbs in the Homotherium cub is 18-23% greater than that in the lion cub.”

“At the same time, the body length of the latter is equal to the dimension of Homotherium or exceeds it by approximately 10%.”

“The increased size of the oral fissure indicates for wide mouth gape adaptation.”

“The front paw of the Homotherium cub has a rounded shape. Its width is almost equal to its length, in contrast to lion cubs with their elongated and relatively narrow front paw.”

“All claws are sharp and strongly curved. In cross section, the claws are laterally compressed and have the same shape as in the lion cub.”

“The wide paw, the subsquare shape of its pads, and the absence of a carpal pad are adaptations to walking in snow and low temperatures.”

“The small, low auricles and absence of the carpal pad in the Badyarikha Homotherium contrast with the taller auricles and normally developed pads in the lion cub. All these features can be interpreted as adaptations to living in cold climate.”

The discovery of a Homotherium latidens cub radically expands the understanding of distribution of the genus and confirms its presence in the Late Pleistocene of Asia.

“For the first time in the history of paleontological research, the external appearance of an extinct mammal that has no analogues in the modern fauna has been studied directly,” the authors concluded.

Their paper was published this week in the journal Scientific Reports.

_____

A.V. Lopatin et al. 2024. Mummy of a juvenile sabre-toothed cat Homotherium latidens from the Upper Pleistocene of Siberia. Sci Rep 14, 28016; doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-79546-1

‘Bomb Cyclone’ and Atmospheric River Will Pummel U.S. West Coast

By Andrea Thompson

A “bomb cyclone” is bringing damaging winds to parts of the U.S. Northwest and northern California today, and the storm is helping to set up powerful atmospheric river that one weather experts says will open a “firehose” of rain and snow onto parts of the West Coast. Northern California will be particularly hard-hit by extreme rainfall rates.

The term bomb cyclone refers to an area of low atmospheric pressure that suddenly “deepens,” or drops even further in pressure. This process, called bombogenesis, happens when a storm system’s pressure falls by a certain amount within 24 hours, based on the system’s current latitude. At a latitude of around 45 degrees North, bombogenesis occurs when pressure drops by at least 18 to 20 millibars. This storm will easily clear that hurdle, dropping between 60 and 70 millibars in 24 to 36 hours, wrote climate scientist Daniel Swain in a recent post on his blog. “This will likely be among the fastest if not the singularly fastest-deepening low pressure system on record in this region,” he added.

The storm will bring winds up to 70 miles per hours to parts of Washington State, Oregon and California, where it could knock out electricity and damage trees, according to the National Weather Service. Blizzard conditions are forecast for Washington’s portion of the Cascade Range.

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A front (essentially the boundary between two air masses with different temperatures and humidities) associated with the bomb cyclone is expected to stall near northern California on Wednesday, and that will set up a stream of water vapor called an atmospheric river. Such streams can be up to 2,000 miles long, 500 miles wide and two miles high, with a flow of moisture 25 times that of the Mississippi River. This atmospheric river will be pulling tropical moisture from around Hawaii and sending it over to the West Coast in in several waves of heavy to extreme precipitation, particularly in mountainous areas. It is a bit uncertain which areas will get the biggest impacts because the river can “wiggle” up and down along the coast, as Swain put it on his blog.

He also noted that this atmospheric river will likely pull in even more water vapor because of unusually high ocean temperatures along its path.

Though atmospheric rivers are crucial to supplying the winter precipitation that later provides water to the largely arid West during the dry season, the torrential nature of such rains can also be dangerous. They can cause mudslides and flash flooding—hazards that are particularly of concern near the burn scars of wildfires because the scorched soil cannot soak up the onslaught of water, raising the risk of landslides.

SpaceX launched the sixth test flight of its Starship rocket on Tuesday, as the company looks to keep up momentum of the mammoth vehicle’s development.

The rocket took off from SpaceX’s private “Starbase” facility near Brownsville, Texas. There were not any people onboard the Starship flight.

Starship reached space and traveled halfway around the Earth before reentering the atmosphere and splashing down in the Indian Ocean.

SpaceX had aimed to return the rocket’s “Super Heavy” booster after it separated from Starship and land it on the arms of the company’s launch tower. But SpaceX said during its webcast that the booster did not clear its “commit criteria” needed for the catch attempt, so the booster splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico instead.

As with each previous test flight, SpaceX is pushing development further by testing additional Starship capabilities, including this time reigniting an engine while in space and testing new elements of its heatshield.

Additionally, the evening launch time meant that this was the first time Starship made a daylight splashdown in the Indian Ocean.

In this episode, Associate Editor Cláudia Vilhena sits down with Ali Shaib, the lead author of an exciting new study showcasing expansion microscopy and the visualization of individual protein shapes using standard laboratory microscopes.

Tune in as Ali and Cláudia explore the “accidental” origins of the study, the importance of mentorship and collaboration, and the democratization of super-resolution methods.