A Science Roundup - Lots going on!

While we figure out how to save the forward-looking, scientific, open-minded, fact-facing civilization that’s been so good to us... let’s have a look at some recent news. Reasons to save it!

== Medical Wonders ==

Progress toward fighting Parkinson’s: After finding two surface antigens that might be important in the disease… “(T)argeting this interaction with drugs could significantly slow the progression of Parkinson’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases.“ Wow.

Side note: A combo of both human history and sci fi suggest that Covid was very mild compared to some future pandemic… and truly shook us awake and likely left us vastly better prepared for when one does come. Like the swift rollout of RNA vaccines. Though long Covid revealed a whole other layer to this one, alas.

And here’s another wow. A now ten year-old boy was born in 2014 after his mother, a 35-year-old woman who had been born without a uterus, received a donated uterus from a 61-year-old close family friend. A decade on, over 135 uterus transplants have been performed globally, resulting in the births of over 50 healthy babies.

** == Incredible views of the past ==**

The Herculaneum scrolls are hundreds of papyri that semi-survived the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. In their charred state, the ancient documents would crumble if anyone attempted to unroll them. Initial CT scans were computationally hard to interpret… till now. More than 2,000 characters — the first full passages — have been deciphered from a scroll. And more to come! Maybe even lost treasures. (The charred documents, now referred to as the Herculaneum scrolls, were recovered from a building believed to be the house of Julius Caesar’s father-in-law.)

And speaking of peering into the past...

Much farther back… Among many insights in this interview with David Reich, about the incredible new science of forensic paleontological genetics, revealing so much about past human migrations, cultures, replacements and waves of disease and repercussions. For example, all through Latin America, the Y chromosomes are 95% European and the mitochondria and 95% native. And yes the somewhat unpleasant implications are the same as the Y bottleneck 8000 years earlier.

Along such lines...

I just attended the annual CARTA Symposium (The Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny) this time about what recent DNA stuidies can tell us about our past. And the incredible details we now can perceive about the flow and ebb of Neanderthals, Denisovans and so many sub branches of ortho humanity! It’s like we’ve suddenly developed a backwards time viewer!

And EARTH has been around even longer! Not my novel by that name, but the planet! To which the next pertinent link…

Anton Petrov runs a daily science series on YouTube that’s way above average. And overall very informative about fascinating science news. In this one, he relates experiments with bacteria in slushy/icy water, to simulate conditions during the Kirschvink Eras… also called Iceball Earth… occasions when nearly all the planet was ice-covered, and the high viscosity gave a huge advantage to eukaryotes who clumped together into multi-cellular organisms. Which correlates with the known huge outburst of multicellular life, just after the Final Big Melt.

== Good – possibly great – tech news ==

Way cool. Geothermal has long been the way to go, a la Iceland! (With a side benefit of lots of minerals like lithium.) And no reliance on fickle sunlight or wind. MIT spinout Quaise Energy hopes to save a lot of infrastructure costs by drilling next to now-dormant former coal power plants, using existing generators, power lines & permits, with plenty of love from the locals.

Won’t such sites be less than ideal for drilling? What’s got me awhirl is the drilling tech, using microwave gyratrons to heat & blast rock ahead of the drill-bit. That *ought to* make hot rock accessible. Hey, I had that idea back in the 80s and failed to get anyone interested! Where are my shares, please?

“The company plans to begin harvesting energy from pilot geothermal wells that reach rock temperatures at up to 500 C by 2026. From there, the team hopes to begin repurposing coal and natural gas plants using its system,” reports MIT News.

… and along related lines…

If this pans out, maybe Denmark+Greenland will buy Alaska! “Copenhagen Atomics is a Danish molten salt technology company developing mass manufacturable molten-salt reactors. The reactor type invented by Copenhagen Atomics is a thorium molten salt breeder reactor, which fits inside a custom built 40 foot shipping container and can be mass manufactured on assembly lines with an expected output of minimum 1 reactor per day (per assembly line). The target customers are large plants producing commodities such as aluminum, ammonia or hydrogen.”

== Fun (and messy) Miscellany ==

A study out of Finland looks at different types of love in the human brain, including parental, romantic, pets, friends, nature, and strangers.

Apparently a dormant U.S. military outpost was wrecked just a couple of years ago by a huge tsunami way up in northern Greenland, propelled by a giant landslide… that no one noticed.

“Sunflowers Dance to Prevent Throwing Too Much Shade on Each Other.”

Far more intriguing… and I am a bit skeptical… is this news from the site for the IgNobel Prizes… a rain forest parasitical plant that mimics the leaves of its varied hosts. The amazing thing is that it can mimic even a plastic plant it is placed next to, and hence it is not pre-programmed of based on chemical signals. So what… a vision system? Sonar? Or a fake story? You tell us in comments!

Other IgNobels: Researchers found that hair whorls in children from the Southern hemisphere were oriented counterclockwise more frequently than in children from the Northern hemisphere, indicating possible environmental factors, although the team could not rule out genetic effects from specific population characteristics. Another team found that test animals with arrested breathing could get sufficient oxygen if it is pumped in anally – helping motivate me to keep up my covid shots! (And yes, there’s that Japanese company described on Colbert. Calling Jim Carrey and Le Petomaine!)

Though there’s apparently a better way to stay younger. Giving blood regularly may not just be saving the lives of other people, it could also be improving your own blood’s health at a genetic level, according to a new study. (Working on my 108th pint next week.) (Oh and honey is supposedly good. I just charged my hives rent!)

Caltech aims to promote the development of alternative natural rubber production from plants that can be grown in the U.S., including guayule, a plant native to the desert Southwest; certain species of dandelion; and mountain gum. Part of the trend of the last few years to encourage in-sourcing and reducing supply chain vulnerabilities and rendering obsolete the vast fleets of polluting freighters out there (as I depicted in Existence.)

The Gila River Indian Community, in south-central Arizona, plan an experimental effort to conserve water while generating electricity: floating solar. Between its canal canopies and the new project that would float photovoltaic panels on a reservoir it is building, for power and to preserve water from evaporation.

And yes, next time I may start my big posting about how and why Democrats should study Newt Gingrich’s so-called “Contract With America.”

Yes I mean it. And one of the reasons? Use that polemically successful yet ultimately deceitful set of promises to do a major judo move and (among other things) save science!