Don’t Miss: Lyrid Meteor Shower & Stunning “City of Stars” Light Up the Sky

BY NASA'S JET PROPULSION LAB., APRIL 6, 2025

https://scitechdaily.com/dont-miss-lyrid-meteor-shower-stunning-city-of-stars-light-up-the-sky/

Composite image of Lyrid and not-Lyrid meteors over New Mexico from April 2012.

 Credit: NASA/ MSFC/ Danielle Moser

This April, the skies put on a dazzling show – watch planets like Jupiter, Venus, and Mars glide across morning and evening skies, catch the Lyrid meteor shower lighting up the night, and explore a stunning “city of stars” with the ancient globular cluster M3. Whether you’re a casual stargazer or a telescope pro, there’s something for everyone to enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxVhRW6Ye58

Following a planet-free morning sky in March, April brings planets back to your mornings, as well as the evening sky. Also look for Lyrid meteors, and hunt for the “faint fuzzy” wonder that is the distant and ancient city of stars known as globular cluster M3.

April (Meteor) Showers and See a City of Stars!

Enjoy a month full of skywatching opportunities! Look for bright planets in both the morning and evening skies, catch the Lyrid meteor shower mid-month, and search for a distant, ancient “faint fuzzy” known as M3 – a spectacular globular cluster sometimes called a “city of stars.”

Skywatching Highlights

All Month – Planet Visibility

Mercury: Briefly visible in the second half of April, extremely low in the eastern sky just before sunrise.

Venus: Now a morning object, rising low in the east during the hour before dawn.

Mars: Easy to spot after dark all month, glowing reddish and high overhead. Sets a couple of hours after midnight.

Jupiter: Bright in the western sky after sunset, setting a few hours later.

Saturn: Visible before sunrise in the last half of April, low in the east just below Venus.

Daily Highlights:

April 1 & 30 – Jupiter & Crescent Moon: Find the charming pair in the west as the sky darkens, setting about 3 hours after sunset.

April 4 & 5 – Mars & Moon: The Moon, around its first quarter phase, appears near Mars in the sky for two nights.

April 24-25 – Grouping of the Moon & Three Planets: Find Venus, Saturn, and the crescent moon gathered low in the east as dawn warms the morning sky. Mercury is also visible below them for those with a clear view to the horizon.

All month – Venus: Earth’s hothouse twin planet has made the shift from an evening object to a morning sight. You’ll notice it rising low in the east before dawn, looking a little higher each morning through the month.

All month – Mars: Looking bright and reddish in color, Mars is visible high overhead after dark all month. At the start of the month it lies along a line with bright stars Procyon and Pollux, but you’ll notice it moves noticeably over the course of April (~12 degrees or the width of your outstretched fist at arm’s length).3

The Life of Earth

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Ancient 6,000-Year-Old Irrigation Network Discovered in Mesopotamia

BY DURHAM U., APRIL 5, 2025

https://scitechdaily.com/ancient-6000-year-old-irrigation-network-discovered-in-mesopotamia/

Researchers uncovered a remarkably preserved network of over 200 ancient irrigation canals in southern Mesopotamia, revealing sophisticated water management techniques used as early as the sixth century BC. 

This discovery offers rare insights into early agriculture and the ingenuity of ancient farmers in adapting to the Euphrates River’s landscape.

 Credit: Durham University

Researchers have discovered an extensive and remarkably well-preserved system of ancient irrigation canals in the Eridu region of southern Mesopotamia, offering fresh insights into early agricultural practices.

The research team, led by geoarchaeologist Jaafar Jotheri, uncovered a sophisticated water management system that dates back to before the first millennium BC.

The discovery provides rare insight into how ancient farmers, from the sixth century through the early first millennium BC, used the Euphrates River to irrigate their fields.

This significant finding deepens our understanding of early irrigation practices and underscores the remarkable ingenuity and adaptability of these early agricultural communities.

Ancient landscape

The Eridu region, near Basra in present-day Iraq, remained untouched for centuries due to a shift in the Euphrates’ course in the early first millennium BC.

This left the area dry and uninhabited, thus preserving the ancient landscape, unlike other parts of Mesopotamia where older irrigation systems were buried beneath newer canals or river sediments.

By combining geological maps, satellite imagery, drone photography, and fieldwork, researchers identified over 200 primary canals directly connected to the ancient Euphrates.

Additionally, more than 4,000 smaller branch canals were mapped, linked to over 700 farms.

Advanced techniques

This complex irrigation network reflects the advanced water management skills of ancient Mesopotamian farmers, who used the natural landscape to their advantage.

Ground-truthing of the remote sensing work: A) drone images show two minor irrigation canals; B & C) photographs of the two small canals. 

Credit:

The high river levees allowed water to flow by gravity to surrounding fields, while breaks in the levees, known as crevasse splays, helped distribute water across the floodplain.

These techniques enabled farmers to cultivate crops on both sides of the river, although the northern side was more heavily farmed.

Centuries of knowledge uncovered

The study also highlights how the irrigation system evolved over centuries.

The canals required significant labor and expertise to maintain, suggesting that different parts of the network were likely used at different times.

Further research aims to date each canal to better understand changes in farming practices over time.

Comparing the canal designs with descriptions from ancient cuneiform texts could provide even more insight into agricultural management in Mesopotamia.

The project was funded by the British Institute for the Study of Iraq in London and is a collaboration between Durham, the University of Al-Qadisiyah in Iraq and Newcastle University, UK.

The birth of modern Man

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Improve your life by embracing everyday, even mundane, conversations? Research says yes

APRIL 5, 2025, by S. Leachman, U. of California - Santa Barbara

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-04-life-embracing-everyday-mundane-conversations.html

Credit: Yale University Press



It's 6 a.m. on a Saturday. You slept terribly and can think only of coffee. Bundled up in your baggiest sweats, hat pulled down over your hair and dark sunglasses for anonymity, you slink into the closest cafe hoping to slip back out just as quickly, hot cup in hand, without speaking to a soul.

Too late.

"Good morning! How's it going today?" inquires an overly perky barista before you've even ordered your latte. Ugh, you think to yourself. Now what?

According to recent research, you should chill out—and lean in. Every interaction we have, even those we don't want, is a building block of our identities and beliefs. And collectively, they all comprise our "social biomes."

"A social biome is our ecosystem of day-to-day communication," explained Andy Merolla, a professor of communication at UC Santa Barbara. "It's the totality of our moments of communication—in-person and digital—with loved ones, acquaintances, co-workers, neighbors, customers and complete strangers.

"These are interactions we choose to engage in, those thrust upon us, and those we just happen to bounce in and out of. Our social biomes are a complex mix of the choices we make as communicators and the constraints placed upon us by the communication environments we happen to live in."

Drawing in part from their own research, Merolla and collaborator Jeffrey A. Hall, at the University of Kansas, elucidate a new way to think about our relational life in "The Social Biome: How Everyday Communication Connects and Shapes Us" (Yale University Press, 2025). The book, which was featured this week in a New York Times interactive article, is a social science-backed exploration into the complexities of, and opportunities within, day-to-day communication.

Communication can be awkward. It can be excruciatingly hard. And it isn't always positive—especially, the two authors noted, in this era of acute polarization and uncertainty. There are no simple recipes or magic formulas for "good" interpersonal communication, they argue, but research does provide general blueprints for working through the many barriers that exist to social connection.

The first step, Merolla said, is simply to own it.

"Normalizing the challenges of interpersonal communication can go a long way," he said. "Struggle, conflict and disappointment are not antithetical to care, love and support. They're all parts of being interdependent with others. When we endeavor to connect, we're inevitably going to fall short at times.

"Life demands a lot from us each day, and there are ever-growing external forces pulling us apart from one another. Against these headwinds, it's totally understandable that we'd prefer to sidestep the messiness and awkwardness of everyday interaction—be it with strangers, coworkers, friends or family.

"But there can be real costs to this at individual and societal levels. Turning away from others can crystallize into personal routines of disconnection. Once that kind of social inertia sets in, it can become difficult for us to endure the social stress necessary to be trusted and accountable relational partners—the bedrock of healthy relationships."

So how do you cultivate a healthy social biome? According to the authors, it depends. Variability abounds. Some of us are already maxed out on daily communication due to work and family responsibilities and can't manage a shred more. Others have loads of alone time and fewer opportunities for interaction. Some face stigma and threats to safety that may restrict who they're comfortable interacting with. Merolla and Hall's book attempts to meet people where they're at.

And wherever you are, they note, the value of small moments—from office chit-chat to quick texts to a friend—shouldn't be discounted. Connection and responsiveness are crucial.

"Our individual social biomes can be healthier if we can be more responsive to those around us, particularly those who are isolated or too often treated with indignity," said Merolla, who will discuss the book as a panelist at the 2025 Los Angeles Festival of Books.

"When we strive to connect with others, we do so in an inherently and increasingly complicated social world. The interdependence underlying relationships also means that any one person's ability to connect is shaped by other people's willingness and capacity to match their efforts. There's only so much we can control.

"But I continue to see genuine and realistic hope in these ideas. We can try to be more responsive to those around us, even in—perhaps especially in—those awkward mundane moments of everyday life. Even small changes to our communication habits can, over time and across people, scale up and reverberate across our social ecosystems.

These moments alone, of course, won't fix all the problems we face. Nor will they always go as planned. Bit by bit, though, they can catalyze connection and build our confidence to be our best, if imperfect, selves in the higher-stakes interactions that await."

The birth of modern Man

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

A breakthrough moment: Researchers discover new class of antibiotics

MARCH 26, 2025, by McMaster U.

https://phys.org/news/2025-03-breakthrough-moment-class-antibiotics.html

A new class of antibiotics has been identified by McMaster University researchers. 

Credit: McMaster University



The last time a new class of antibiotics reached the market was nearly three decades ago—but that could soon change, thanks to a discovery by researchers at McMaster University.

A team led by researcher Gerry Wright has identified a strong candidate to challenge even some of the most drug-resistant bacteria on the planet: a new molecule called lariocidin. The findings were published in the journal Nature on March 26, 2025.

The discovery of the all-new class of antibiotics responds to a critical need for new antimicrobial medicines, as bacteria and other microorganisms evolve new ways to withstand existing drugs. This phenomenon is called antimicrobial resistance—or AMR—and it's one of the top global public health threats, according to the World Health Organization.

"Our old drugs are becoming less and less effective as bacteria become more and more resistant to them," explains Wright, a professor in McMaster's Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences and a researcher at the university's Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research. "About 4.5 million people die every year due to antibiotic-resistant infections, and it's only getting worse."

Wright and his team found that the new molecule, a lasso peptide, holds great promise as an early drug lead because it attacks bacteria in a way that's different from other antibiotics. Lariocidin binds directly to a bacterium's protein synthesis machinery in a completely new way, inhibiting its ability to grow and survive.

"This is a new molecule with a new mode of action," Wright says. "It's a big leap forward for us."

Lariocidin is produced by a type of bacteria called Paenibacillus, which the researchers retrieved from a soil sample collected from a Hamilton backyard.

The research team allowed the soil bacteria to grow in the lab for approximately one year—a method that helped reveal even the slow-growing species that could have otherwise been missed. One of these bacteria, Paenibacillus, was producing a new substance that had strong activity against other bacteria, including those typically resistant to antibiotics.

"When we figured out how this new molecule kills other bacteria, it was a breakthrough moment," says Manoj Jangra, a postdoctoral fellow in Wright's lab.

In addition to its unique mode of action and its activity against otherwise drug-resistant bacteria, the researchers are optimistic about lariocidin because it ticks a lot of the right boxes: it's not toxic to human cells, it's not susceptible to existing mechanisms of antibiotic resistance, and it also works well in an animal model of infection.

Wright and his team are now laser-focused on finding ways to modify the molecule and produce it in quantities large enough to allow for clinical development. Wright says because this new molecule is produced by bacteria—and "bacteria aren't interested in making new drugs for us"—much time and resources are needed before lariocidin is ready for market.

"The initial discovery—the big a-ha! moment—was astounding for us, but now the real hard work begins," Wright says. "We're now working on ripping this molecule apart and putting it back together again to make it a better drug candidate."

The Life of Earth

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For the first time in 25 years, California has a snowpack trifecta

April 2, 2025, by I. James

https://phys.org/news/2025-04-years-california-snowpack-trifecta.html

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

The year may have started with a dry spell, but the end of California's storm season has brought more fresh snow to the Sierra Nevada, pushing the state's snowpack to 96% of average on April 1, when the snow season typically reaches its peak.

The near-average snowpack has given the state a third straight year of ample water supplies in the mountains—something that hasn't happened in a quarter of a century.

"Earlier on, there were some indicators that we might have a dry year, but fortunately, the storm windows have stayed open and given us a good boost in February and March to be where we are today," said Andy Reising, manager of snow surveys and water supply forecasting for the California Department of Water Resources.

This near-average winter followed an extremely wet and snowy 2023 and a wet 2024. This time last year, the snowpack measured 111% of average.

The dominance of wet weather has brought a reprieve from the severe drought Californians endured from 2020 through 2022, the state's driest three-year period on record.

The last time California had three consecutive years of average or above-average snow was from 1998 to 2000, Reising said. At that point, it had been 20 years since a similar pattern occurred, from 1978 to 1980.

This year's storms have brought ample rains at lower elevations, and statewide precipitation since Oct. 1 measures 103% of the average for this time of year.

The last two wet years have also left California's reservoirs in good shape. The state's major reservoirs are now at 117% of average levels.

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which delivers water for 19 million people in six counties, has a record amount of water banked in reservoirs and underground storage areas.

"The reservoirs are above average for this time of year, and so that's a great sign for this year moving forward," Reising told reporters during a briefing Tuesday.

California's snowpack typically provides nearly a third of the state's water supply.

The latest storms and increased snowpack prompted state water officials last week to increase their forecast of water deliveries this year from the aqueducts of the State Water Project, which transports supplies from the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta to Southern California. The allocation was increased to 40% of requested supplies, up from 35% a month earlier.

The Trump administration also announced last week that it increased water allocations this year for the Central Valley Project, or CVP, the federally managed system of dams and reservoirs that delivers supplies from the Delta to farmlands and communities in the San Joaquin Valley.

Many agencies that receive water from the CVP were already set to receive 100% of their allotments, and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced that agricultural irrigation districts south of the Delta will now receive 40% allocations, up from an initial 35%, while those that receive water from the Friant–Kern and Madera canals will get 100% of their allotments.

The federal agency said in a written statement that it was seeking to "maximize" water deliveries as President Donald Trump recently directed in an executive order. Large agricultural water districts in the Central Valley have supported Trump's order, while environmental advocates have raised concerns that federal efforts to increase pumping in the Delta could threaten vulnerable fish species that have already suffered declines in recent years.

The Bureau of Reclamation said that, acting under Trump's executive order, it would "continue to maximize pumping whenever possible at the federal pumping facility to move water to parts of California where it is needed most."

Although the ample snowpack and nearly full reservoirs mean stable water supplies for California for the time being, officials and experts caution that the next dry spell could come at any time.

Scientific research has shown that droughts are growing more intense in the western United States because of global warming and that average snow lines have been creeping higher in the mountains as temperatures rise, altering runoff patterns.

In February, scientists noted that the snowpack was significantly smaller at many lower-elevation monitoring sites in the mountains after months of warmer-than-average temperatures.

This year also brought a pattern of more snow and wetter conditions in Northern California, with less snow and drier conditions in Southern California. As of Tuesday, the snowpack measured 118% of the average in the northern Sierra Nevada, 91% of the average in the central Sierra and 84% of the average in the southern Sierra.

Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA, said in a social media post that after Tuesday's cold weather system departs, "spring will begin in earnest across California," with much drier and warmer conditions in the coming days.

The Life of Earth

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Nations divided ahead of decisive week for shipping emissions

APRIL 4, 2025, by Pol-Malo LE BRIS

https://phys.org/news/2025-04-nations-decisive-week-shipping-emissions.html

The IMO holds key talks next week on whether to approve a carbon tax on international shipping.

Members of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) are divided over whether to approve a carbon tax on international shipping, ahead of a meeting starting on Monday to finalize emissions-reduction measures.

The carbon tax, the most ambitious measure on the table, would make it more expensive for shipping companies to emit greenhouse gases, encouraging them to curtail emissions.

But some member states, including China and Brazil, are proposing other measures, arguing the carbon levy would increase the cost of goods and contribute to food insecurity.

The IMO expects to come to an initial agreement by Friday next week on which mechanism to adopt to help reach carbon neutrality in shipping by 2050.

The stakes are high as shipping accounts for nearly 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the IMO.

"(It is) difficult to say what will happen next week," Fanny Pointet, sustainable shipping manager at European advocacy group, Transport and Environment, told AFP.

The United States has been notably quiet about the issue, having not commented since President Donald Trump returned to the White House.

The Pacific and Caribbean island states are leading the group pushing for a carbon tax, with support from other countries including the UK.

They argue that funds raised from a levy could be redistributed to nations most vulnerable to climate change to help adapt and mitigate its effects.

"Climate change is a terrifying lived reality for my country," said Albon Ishoda, the Marshall Islands' representative to the IMO.

'Terrifying lived reality'

However, around 15 countries strongly oppose the carbon levy, arguing it would exacerbate inequalities between nations and raise the costs of goods such as palm oil, cereals and corn.

Concerns are also mounting that the European Union, once a supporter of a carbon tax, could water down the measure in favor of a carbon credit system.

Such a system would allow companies or countries to buy and sell credits representing the right to emit a certain amount of carbon dioxide.

According to University College London research, the option of no levy presents the biggest risk to meeting the shipping sector's climate goals.

It could also distort fuel prices and create an uneven playing field, favoring states with strong industrial policies, such as China, researchers said.

"The fastest and cheapest energy transition is brought about by a strong levy," combined with a global fuel standard to reduce the carbon intensity of fuels used by ships, they added.

Challenges also remain with the fuel standard system, particularly the risk of using alternative fuels such as palm oil and soybean oil, which indirectly contribute to emissions through deforestation, Pointet explained.

While Brazil defends the key role of these biofuels, more than 60 environmental protection NGOs have raised objections to their inclusion in the future shipping fuel mix.

Other potential solutions include synthetic hydrogen-based fuels, currently very expensive to produce, or the installation of wind-powered propulsion systems onboard ship.

The birth of modern Man

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Lichens Thrive in Harsh Mars-Like Conditions, Groundbreaking Study Finds

04 April 2025, By J. COCKERILL

https://www.sciencealert.com/lichens-thrive-in-harsh-mars-like-conditions-groundbreaking-study-finds

Cetraria aculeata superimposed on Mars.

  (Pensoft Publishers/CC-BY4.0)


Lichens are true pioneers, setting themselves up in environments so harsh as to be considered virtually barren. Given time, they can lay the foundations for whole fields of stone, sand, or even rooftops to transform into diverse ecosystems.

So why not Mars?

A team of biologists from Jagiellonian University in Poland and the Polish Academy of Sciences investigated just that in an experiment conducted inside the Polish Academy of Sciences' Space Research Center. They wanted to know which physical and biochemical properties might help lichens survive Mars-like conditions while remaining metabolically active.

"Our study is the first to demonstrate that the metabolism of the fungal partner in lichen symbiosis remained active while being in an environment resembling the surface of Mars," says lead author Kaja Skubala, a botanist from Jagiellonian University in Poland.

"These findings expand our understanding of biological processes under simulated Martian conditions and reveal how hydrated organisms respond to ionizing radiation – one of the most critical challenges for survival and habitability on Mars."

Lichens are bizarre structures in which a fungus and an algae or cyanobacteria partner up to form a colony that can survive conditions they never would on their own.

They can enter a state of dormancy when times are tough, reviving on contact with water to feed and grow once more. Like the tardigrades that sometimes inhabit their nooks and crannies their ability to survive Earth's harshest conditions makes them prime candidates for extraterrestrial study.

Because the fungi-algae duos are fundamentally reliant upon one another, each kind of lichen is still named as if it is a single species. The two species entered in this Mars simulation were the crusty, pale, and bulbous Diploschistes muscorum, and the dark, branching, seaweed-like Cetraria aculeata.

Each lichen was awoken with a light misting of water before being placed inside a vacuum chamber for five hours, with the first two hours set to a Martian daytime surface temperature of 18 degrees Celsius (about 64 degrees Fahrenheit), dropping gradually into a two-hour-long Martian night at -26 degrees Celsius.

Gas consisting of 95 percent carbon dioxide was pumped into the tank to simulate a Martian atmosphere at ground level, with humidity ranging from an extremely arid 8 to 32 percent. The pressure was set to a very low 5 to 7 millibars, which is more than 1000 millibars lower than the pressure of Earth's atmosphere at sea level.


How lichens cope with Martian levels of UV radiation and other harsh conditions has already been studied extensively, so Skubala and team were focused instead on the ionizing power of X-rays.

The lichens were zapped with a 50-gray dose of X-ray radiation, comparable to what the surface of Mars can receive in a year via energetic Solar particles and flares. The red planet has a thin atmosphere and no global magnetic field; two factors that protect us Earthlings from the solar onslaught.

Only one of the species survived these conditions: D. muscorum. The researchers think its heavy crust, laced with calcium oxalate crystals inside and out, might have protected it from radiation damage.

"While calcium oxalate has a relatively low atomic number, which makes it less effective at absorbing X-rays than heavier elements, the dense crystal deposits on the [lichen's] surface could allow calcium atoms to interact with low-energy X-rays, absorbing part of their energy," the authors write.

The other species, C. aculeata, did not fare so well, though it was selected for its ability to survive extreme Earth environments in the Arctic and Antarctic.

The scientists knew the melanin pigments that give this lichen its dark brown to black colour would protect it from unbridled Martian sunburn, since the coloration can filter radiation in the UVB and UVA spectrum. But melanin is also a powerful antioxidant, which the team thought may help it withstand ionizing radiation.

Yet, C. aculeata experienced high levels of stress from the X-rays, which showed up as damaged membranes, failing enzymes, and hydrogen peroxide build-up. Notably, this lichen has no calcium oxalate, which may be a deciding factor in Mars survival.

Of course, whether we should introduce new species to unknown environments to achieve our goals is a different question – one we humans don't exactly have the best track record with.

That's if it's even possible: a simulation like this provides just a small taste of the harsh realities of the red planet.

"Ultimately, this research deepens our knowledge of lichen adaptation and their potential for colonizing extraterrestrial environments," Skubala says.

The Life of Earth

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Once Lush Sahara Was Home to a Surprisingly Unique Group of Humans

03 April 2025, By T. KOUMOUNDOUROS

https://www.sciencealert.com/once-lush-sahara-was-home-to-a-surprisingly-unique-group-of-humans

(Sapienza University of Rome)

Currently a harsh, arid sandscape, it's hard to believe the Sahara was once studded with sparkling water bodies that nourished lush green savannas. But the remains of human pastoralists and their livestock have been found in the region's rock shelters.

A new genetic analysis suggests the humans who called this 7,000-year-old version of the Sahara home largely kept to themselves, genetically speaking.

Max Planck Institute evolutionary anthropologist Nada Salem and colleagues sequenced the ancient DNA of two female individuals buried at the Takarkori rock shelter in what's now southwestern Libya.

View from the Takarkori rock shelter in Southern Libya.

 (Sapienza University of Rome)

The 7,000-year-old Takarkori women shared the most genes with 15,000-year-old foragers from Morocco, suggesting a long-standing, stable human population existed in North Africa before and during the Saharan humid period.

"Evidence from ancient lake deposits, pollen samples, and archaeological artifacts confirm human presence, hunting, herding, and resource gathering in the currently arid desert region," Salem and team explain in their paper.

This shared Saharan human lineage took a different path from those in sub-Saharan Africa around the same time that modern humans first left the continent more than 50,000 years ago.

The lineage then remained relatively isolated for many thousands of years, with only small traces of genes entering from the Levantine region to the northeast – including some from Neanderthals.

"Our findings suggest that while early North African populations were largely isolated, they received traces of Neanderthal DNA due to gene flow from outside Africa," says anthropologist Johannes Krause, from the Max Planck Institute in Germany.

The Takarkori individuals had less Neanderthal DNA than the Moroccan foragers, but significantly more than those from further south of Africa. That suggests that something stemmed the gene flow from Europe from spreading beyond the Sahara region.

Amount of Neanderthal ancestry in early modern humans across Africa, Asia and Europe. 

(Salem et al., Nature, 2025)

Archaeological evidence suggests that the Takarkori people were early herders of livestock, unlike the older Moroccan lineages who were foragers. That they picked up this practice without much gene exchange is also telling.

"This discovery reveals how pastoralism spread across the Green Sahara, likely through cultural exchange rather than large-scale migration," Salem explains.

7,000-year-old natural mummy found at the Takarkori rock shelter in Southern Libya. 

(Sapienza University of Rome)



The diverse mix of ecosystems, including wetlands and mountains, may have provided a southern barrier for migration, the researchers suspect.

"By shedding light on the Sahara's deep past, we aim to increase our knowledge of human migrations, adaptations, and cultural evolution in this key region," concludes Sapienza University archeologist Savino di Lernia.

The birth of modern Man

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

He Tried to Levitate a Diamond – What He Discovered Could Change Medicine Forever

BY U. OF BRISTOL, APRIL 3, 2025

https://scitechdaily.com/he-tried-to-levitate-a-diamond-what-he-discovered-could-change-medicine-forever/

Microscope photo of a cluster of microparticles assembled using acoustic impulse control as seen down a microscope. Early development testing was done on microparticles. 

Credit: Luke Cox

Groundbreaking Technology Uses Acoustic Waves to Move Living Cells Without Contact

This innovation could replace bulky lab equipment, revolutionizing drug discovery and enabling rapid, personalized treatment testing. Born from a student project levitating diamonds, the tech has evolved into a compact benchtop device that automates key biomedical tasks and speeds up pharmaceutical research. Its potential to streamline clinical testing and unlock faster cures for diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s could reshape the future of medicine.

A New Way to Move Cells

Engineers at a University of Bristol spin-out company have created a new technology that can move cells without touching them, enabling critical tasks that currently require large pieces of lab equipment to be carried out on a benchtop device.

The invention could accelerate the discovery of new medicines and unlock personalized medicine screening in clinics.

The groundbreaking concept was unveiled for the first time today in an article in Science published by Dr. Luke Cox, where he describes his journey from University of Bristol student to CEO of start-up company Impulsonics. The article is a prize essay in the Bioinnovation Institute and Science Prize for Innovation.

How does it work?

Acoustic waves exert a force on their surroundings, this is why they are able to produce the tiny vibrations in your eardrum that enable you to hear. This same principle can be used to move very small objects such as cells. Impulsonics’ technology uses multiple small speakers to carefully control the sounds produced and therefore the movement of the cells. By playing different sounds in a sequence the cells can be observed to “dance,” around their container.

The Challenge of Cell-Based Drug Testing

Behind every new drug lies thousands of hours spent by scientists growing cells in a petri dish to test it before it is tried on patients. Even in 2025 this remains a highly manual and difficult to automate process, leading to expensive and sometimes unreliable processes that make it harder to develop novel lifesaving drugs to the point when they can be used in the clinic.

The new technology uses acoustic waves to move cells, which appear to “dance.” This capability replaces the need for many large pieces of equipment in a lab and could make it significantly easier to automate cell growth and help scientists discover new drugs faster. It also opens up new possibilities in the clinic, such as personalized medicine screening, where many different drugs can be tested to find the most effective before being given to a patient.

Computer rendering of a concept for the device when it is taken to market. 

Credit: Impulsonics Ltd
From Floating Diamonds to Moving Cells



Luke initially worked on the physics of acoustic levitation of a diamond, creating an experiment to hold objects in mid-air against gravity. Observing this seemingly magical experiment, he realized that the technology had the potential to transform our ability to handle small-delicate objects. This led him to next work on moving cells. The final step was realizing that this technology could replace many of the common processes performed in biomedical labs. From this realization, the company Impulsonics emerged.

Luke and his team have now developed this idea to the point where complex biomedical tasks, such as expanding a cell population, can be performed with this technology. Dr. Luke Cox said: “A huge benefit of this technology is that it allows the process of screening new drugs to be accelerated. This means it can help discover new drugs for all kinds of diseases ranging from cancer to Alzheimer’s.”

Dr. Luke Cox next to the current prototype of the device inside a compact pipetting robot which provides peripheral capabilities for lab. 

Credit: Impulsonics Ltd



Compact, Powerful, and Data-Driven

Professor Bruce Drinkwater, an academic at the University of Bristol and a co-founder of Impulsonics, said “The device is small, with a footprint half the size of a standard lab bench where previous technologies took up whole rooms. Critically it also helps produce very high-quality data quickly, which is exactly what is needed in biomedical research.”

In the future, this invention has many potential applications across biotechnology. Luke Cox concluded: “I look forward to expanding this unique technology platform to accelerate development across the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries wherever cells are grown.”

The birth of modern Man

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Helicopter-mounted sensor reveals volcanic CO₂ emissions could be three times higher than anticipated

by U. of Manchester, APRIL 2, 2025

https://phys.org/news/2025-04-helicopter-mounted-sensor-reveals-volcanic.html

Helicopter at Soufrière Hills Volcano.

Credit: Alexander Riddell

Estimates of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from volcanoes may have been significantly underestimated, according to new research by The University of Manchester.

Published in the journal Science Advances, scientists have developed an advanced sensor that can detect volcanic gases with rapid speed and precision.

Using the sensor mounted on a helicopter, the research team measured emissions at Soufrière Hills Volcano on the Caribbean Island of Montserrat, revealing that the volcano emitted three times more CO2 than earlier studies had estimated.

Scientists typically monitor volcanic emissions by focusing on hot vents, known as fumaroles, which release high concentrations of easily detectable acid gases like sulfur dioxide (SO₂) and hydrogen chloride (HCl). However, many volcanoes also have cooler fumaroles, where water-rich hydrothermal systems on the volcano absorb the acidic gases, making them harder to detect. As a result, CO2 emissions from these cooler sources are often overlooked, leading to significant underestimations in volcanic gas output.

The new technology exposes those hidden emissions, offering a more accurate quantification of the volcano's gas output.

The findings also have significant implications for volcano monitoring and eruption forecasting.

Alexander Riddell, lead researcher from The University of Manchester, said, "Volcanoes play a crucial role in Earth's carbon cycle, releasing CO2 into the atmosphere, so understanding the emissions is crucial for understanding its impact on our climate. Our findings demonstrate the importance of fast sampling rates and high precision sensors, capable of detecting large contributions of cooler CO2-rich gas.

"However, it's also important to realize that despite our findings that CO2 emissions could be around three times higher than we expected for volcanoes capped by hydrothermal systems, volcanoes still contribute less than 5% of global CO2 emissions, far less than human activities such as fossil fuel combustion and deforestation."

Mike Burton, Professor of Volcanology at the University of Manchester and co-author, added, "Development of high-sensitivity high-frequency magmatic gas instruments opens up a new frontier in volcanological science and volcano monitoring. This work demonstrates the new discoveries which await us.

"By capturing a more complete picture of volcanic gas emissions, we can gain deeper insights into magma movement, observe potential signs of impending eruptions and signs that an ongoing eruption might be ending. For the people living near active volcanoes, such advancements could enhance early warning systems and improve safety measures."

The Life of Earth

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'Quiet eye': Psychologist identifies links between a steady gaze and elite performance

APRIL 2, 2025, by B. Beasley, U. of Notre Dame

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-04-quiet-eye-psychologist-links-steady.html

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

In his book on basketball great Bill Bradley, writer John McPhee proposed that Bradley's greatest asset had little to do with speed, strength or agility. It had to do, McPhee proposed, with his eyes.

"His most remarkable natural gift ... is his vision," McPhee observed. "During a game, Bradley's eyes are always a glaze of panoptic attention."

The work of University of Notre Dame researcher Matthew Robison suggests that McPhee may have been on to something. In a recent study, Robison documented a phenomenon in eye movement—or "oculomotor dynamics"—that links a steady, focused gaze with superior levels of performance. The study is published as a pre-print on PsyArXiv.

Robison, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology, made the discovery thanks to the unique capabilities of his lab, which includes more than a dozen precision instruments for tracking eye movement and pupil dilation. These devices capture images of the eyes every four milliseconds, providing 250 frames per second.

This ultra-detailed look at the eyes allows Robison to "read" the complex language of minute eye movement. A slight wiggle in the eye, for example, can reveal that a study participant was distracted by a stimulus entering their field of vision—even though their facial expression never altered. Or a dilation of the pupil might indicate a participant is struggling to solve a complex math problem.

Recently, though, Robison has been most interested not in why our eyes move, but in why we might—or might want to—keep them still. He was inspired to investigate the meaning of a steady gaze by the work of applied sports psychologists helping athletes achieve high levels of performance.

"Sports psychologists regularly advise that if you're about to putt, pick a spot on the back of the golf ball and keep your eyes still there for a second or two. Then hit the ball," Robison said.

"Or, if you're shooting a free throw in basketball, pick a spot on the rim and focus on it for a few seconds. Then shoot the free throw. The advice seems sound in many cases. But the causal pathway behind this phenomenon has not been thoroughly demonstrated or explained."

Robison hypothesized that a steady gaze had to do with attention control and thus would lead to better performance not only in sports but also in almost any mentally demanding activity, whether it was comprehending a difficult passage of text, solving a complex problem, remembering new information or multitasking.

To test his hypothesis, he recruited nearly 400 participants to perform a series of tasks in his lab over a two-hour period while their gaze was being recorded by eye trackers and pupilometers.

Robison found that, across the board, those participants who kept their gaze steady in the moments just before being called upon to complete a task performed with greater speed and with greater accuracy. Borrowing a term from sports psychologist Joan Vickers, Robison called this specific quality of gaze "quiet eye." He said it is more than a lack of motion.

Like Bradley's gaze that so impressed McPhee, "quiet" eyes are not just still. They are focused—able to resist distractions and remain vigilant, ready and "awake."

His work documenting quiet eye suggested another question for Robison to explore: Would it be possible to train individuals to perform better by training them not in the task itself but in developing a steadier gaze?

Robison has launched a new three-year project focused on answering that question. "Our aim is to make the benefits of 'quiet eye' available to anyone who wants to learn them," he said.

And while it will not immediately lead to Bill Bradley levels of basketball virtuosity, the benefits could be widespread. Robison hopes that "those who learn this skill are able, in turn, to sustain and control their attention, which will yield benefits for their performance in almost any complex or demanding task."

Natalie Steinhauser, a program officer at the Office of Naval Research, said she looks forward to starting this new research that bridges two aspects of her Prepared Warfighter Portfolio. Her portfolio focuses on "understanding attention control and how it impacts warfighter performance" and "accelerating and innovating training approaches to maximize warfighter readiness."

This research, she said, "brings those worlds together in hopes of training our naval warfighters to optimize their attention and, thus, performance."

The birth of modern Man

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Jupiter’s Defenses Collapse Under Massive Solar Storm, Scientists Shocked by 500°C Heat Surge

BY U. OF READING, APRIL 3, 2025

https://scitechdaily.com/jupiters-defenses-collapse-under-massive-solar-storm-scientists-shocked-by-500c-heat-surge/

For the first time, scientists observed a solar storm punching into Jupiter’s magnetic shield, creating a vast, scorching hotspot.

 Turns out, giant planets aren’t as invincible as we believed, and what happens to them could help us brace for solar threats here on Earth. (Artist’s concept.) 

Credit: SciTechDaily.com

Jupiter got body-slammed by the solar wind, and scientists have finally caught it in action.

A massive solar event compressed Jupiter’s protective magnetic field, causing a dramatic temperature spike across half the planet. Using data from telescopes and spacecraft, researchers saw how solar wind ripples through the giant’s atmosphere, suggesting Jupiter and other gas giants aren’t as shielded from the Sun’s wrath as once thought.

Jupiter’s Bubble Gets Smashed by Solar Wind

A powerful wave of solar wind that compressed Jupiter’s magnetic shield has been detected for the first time.

Researchers at the University of Reading identified a solar wind event from 2017 that struck Jupiter and temporarily compressed its magnetosphere, the giant magnetic bubble that surrounds and protects the planet. This impact created an unusually hot region in the upper atmosphere, stretching across half of Jupiter’s circumference and reaching temperatures above 500°C (932°F). That’s significantly hotter than the planet’s typical atmospheric temperature of around 350°C (662°F).

According to a new study published today (April 3) in Geophysical Research Letters, this type of solar burst appears to hit Jupiter regularly, around two to three times per month.

“We have never captured Jupiter’s response to solar wind before, and the way it changed the planet’s atmosphere was very unexpected,” said Dr. James O’Donoghue, lead author of the study. “This is the first time we’ve ever seen a thing like this on any outer world.”

Giant Planets Are Not So Tough After All

“The solar wind squished Jupiter’s magnetic shield like a giant squash ball. This created a super-hot region that spans half the planet. Jupiter’s diameter is 11 times larger than Earth’s, meaning this heated region is enormous,” said O’Donoghue.

“We’ve studied Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus in increasing detail over the past decade. These giant planets are not as resistant to the Sun’s influence as we thought – they’re vulnerable, like Earth. Jupiter acts like a laboratory, allowing us to study how the Sun affects planets in general. By watching what happens there, we can better predict and understand the effects of solar storms which might disrupt GPS, communications, and power grids on Earth.”

Solar Storms Could Disrupt Even the Mightiest Planets

By combining ground-based observations from the Keck telescope with data from NASA’s Juno spacecraft and solar wind modeling, the researchers determined that a dense region of solar wind had compressed Jupiter’s enormous magnetosphere shortly before the observations began. This compression appears to have intensified auroral heating at Jupiter’s poles, causing the upper atmosphere to expand and spill hot gas toward the equator.

Scientists had previously thought Jupiter’s rapid rotation would confine auroral heating to its polar regions through strong winds. This discovery shows otherwise, suggesting planetary atmospheres throughout our solar system may be more vulnerable to solar influences than previously understood. Solar bursts could significantly alter big planets’ upper atmospheric dynamics, generating global winds that drive energy distribution across the planet.

Forecasting Space Weather from Jupiter to Earth

Professor Mathew Owens, a co-author from the University of Reading, said: “Our solar wind model correctly predicted when Jupiter’s atmosphere would be disturbed. This helps us further understand the accuracy of our forecasting systems, which is essential for protecting Earth from dangerous space weather.”

The Life of Earth

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Grow Your Own Ozempic? Students Engineer Plants to Produce Life-Saving Drugs

BY U. OF OTTAWA, APRIL 2, 2025

https://scitechdaily.com/grow-your-own-ozempic-students-engineer-plants-to-produce-life-saving-drugs/

University of Ottawa students developed Phytogene, a plant-based system that could let people grow vital medications at home. Inspired by Ozempic shortages, this eco-friendly innovation won global recognition and promises to shake up how we access medicine.

A group of Canadian undergrads is using plants to revolutionize medicine. Faced with soaring drug prices and global shortages, they created Phytogene, a sustainable biomanufacturing platform that uses tobacco plants to produce essential medications like Ozempic alternatives.

Their innovation could slash pharmaceutical pollution and cost, letting people grow life-saving drugs in their own backyards. After earning a gold medal at the iGEM Grand Jamboree in Paris, the team is now refining their work and aiming for real-world application, with hopes to reshape the future of medicine.

Tackling Medication Inequity with Plants

To address global disparities in access to essential medications, an issue particularly acute in developing countries, a team of undergraduate researchers at the University of Ottawa has created a new biomanufacturing platform called Phytogene. This innovative system uses a plant-based production method known as biopharming to offer a more sustainable and affordable way to produce peptide-based pharmaceuticals.

The project, led by fourth-year biotechnology and biomedical science students Victor Boddy and Teagan Thomas, is designed to help alleviate medication shortages and reduce the high cost of treatment, ultimately making vital drugs more accessible around the world.

iGEM uOttawa seeks sustainable semaglutide production amid Ozempic shortage. 

Credit: Amelia Adams



Green Tech Meets Drug Production

Phytogene uses Nicotiana benthamiana, a relative of the tobacco plant, to produce medications like GLP-1 receptor agonists, a class of drugs that includes the widely used type 2 diabetes treatment and weight-loss drug Ozempic. Compared to conventional pharmaceutical manufacturing, this plant-based approach has the potential to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and chemical waste.

“Inspired by the recent Ozempic shortage,” explains team leader Victor Boddy, “we built a proof-of-concept model system that expresses functional GLP-1 agonists in plants. We aim to create a future where people can reliably grow their own treatments at home, free from concerns about insurance, cost, or availability.”

Winning on the Global Stage

The team recently showcased their work at the iGEM Grand Jamboree in Paris, where they competed against over 430 international teams. Their exceptional performance earned them a gold medal and placed them among the top 5 teams within the biomanufacturing stream.

Teagan Thomas, co-leader of the project, highlights the potential impact: “Phytogene offers a unique, sustainable approach to biotechnology by providing an environmentally friendly solution to the critical crisis of medication access. We’re excited to further develop this concept into a commercially viable project with support from venture capitalists and scientific advisors.”

Tools for Global Collaboration

The research team has also published an open-source biopharming toolkit on the iGEM Parts Registry, enabling other researchers to build upon their work. This toolkit includes genetic tools for rapid screening of subcellular localizations in plants and various constructs for expression in multiple cell types.

The project, which began in late 2023, involved a collaborative effort from 23 uOttawa undergraduate students across various faculties, with guidance from Adam Damry, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biomolecular Sciences, and Allyson Maclean, Associate Professor, Department of Biology. The team conducted their research in the bioGARAGE laboratory space and in collaboration with other university labs.

While the project shows great promise, it’s important to note that it is still in the testing phase. “The extract has not been tested on humans,” adds Boddy. The team is now working on optimizing protocols to be able to test the activity of these compounds. “We are currently analyzing blood glucose and insulin levels to assess response. We also plan to conduct bioactivity assays to test the drug’s effectiveness on human cells,” adds Thomas.

A Glimpse into a Greener, Healthier Future

As the world grapples with medication shortages and the environmental impact of pharmaceutical production, the Phytogene platform offers a promising solution. By harnessing the power of transgenic plants, this innovative approach could revolutionize the biopharmaceutical industry, making medications more accessible and sustainable for people around the globe.

For more information about Phytogene, please visit iGEM uOttawa.

The Life of Earth

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Plastic Supercapacitors Could Help Solve the Energy Crisis

BY U. OF CALIFORNIA - LOS ANGELES, APRIL 1, 2025

https://scitechdaily.com/plastic-supercapacitors-could-help-solve-the-energy-crisis/

Illustration of a PEDOT film on a graphene sheet that can be used in supercapacitors to store large amounts of energy.

 Credit: Maher El-Kady

A new method produces PEDOT nanofibers with enhanced electrical conductivity and increased surface area for improved charge storage.

UCLA chemists have developed a new textured, fur-like version of PEDOT, a conductive plastic commonly used to protect electronics from static and in devices like solar cells and electrochromic displays. This innovative form significantly increases the material’s surface area, allowing it to store nearly ten times more electric charge than standard PEDOT. When used in a supercapacitor, it also withstood almost 100,000 charge cycles. This breakthrough could help supercapacitors play a greater role in energy storage as the world moves toward renewable and sustainable energy sources.

Plastics have shaped our modern world and transformed the way we live. For decades, they were primarily used in electronics for their excellent insulating properties. However, in the 1970s, scientists accidentally discovered that some plastics can also conduct electricity. This breakthrough revolutionized the field and paved the way for new applications in electronics and energy storage.

One of the most widely used electrically conductive plastics today is poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene), commonly known as PEDOT. This material forms a flexible, transparent film that is often applied to surfaces such as photographic films and electronic components to prevent static buildup. PEDOT is also used in touchscreens, organic solar cells, and electrochromic devices, like smart windows that change transparency with the push of a button.

Despite its many applications, PEDOT’s use in energy storage has been limited. Commercial forms of PEDOT typically have low electrical conductivity and limited surface area, which restrict their ability to store significant amounts of energy.

UCLA chemists are addressing these challenges with an innovative method to control the morphology of PEDOT to grow nanofibers precisely. These nanofibers exhibit exceptional conductivity and expanded surface area, both of which are crucial for enhancing the energy storage capabilities of PEDOT. This approach, described in a paper published in Advanced Functional Materials, demonstrates the potential of PEDOT nanofibers for supercapacitor applications.

Supercapacitors vs. Batteries

Unlike batteries, which store energy through slow chemical reactions, supercapacitors store and release energy by accumulating electrical charge on their surface. This allows them to charge and discharge extremely quickly, making them ideal for applications requiring rapid bursts of power, such as regenerative braking systems in hybrid and electric vehicles and camera flashes. Better supercapacitors are, therefore, one route to reduced dependence on fossil fuels.

The challenge with supercapacitors, however, is creating materials with enough surface area to hold large amounts of energy. Traditional PEDOT materials fall short in this regard, which limits their performance.

The UCLA chemists produced the new material through a unique vapor-phase growth process to create vertical PEDOT nanofibers. These nanofibers, resembling dense grass growing upward, dramatically increase the material’s surface area, allowing it to store more energy. By adding a drop of liquid containing graphene oxide nanoflakes and ferric chloride on a graphite sheet, the researchers exposed this sample to a vapor of the precursor molecules that eventually formed the PEDOT polymer. Instead of developing into a very thin, flat film, the polymer grew into a thick, fur-like structure, significantly increasing the surface area compared to conventional PEDOT materials.

Exceptional Energy Storage Capabilities

“The material’s unique vertical growth allows us to create PEDOT electrodes that store far more energy than traditional PEDOT,” said corresponding author and UCLA materials scientist Maher El-Kady. “Electric charge is stored on the surface of the material, and traditional PEDOT films don’t have enough surface area to hold very much charge. We increased the surface area of PEDOT and thereby increased its capacity enough to build a supercapacitor.”

The authors used these PEDOT structures to fabricate supercapacitors with excellent charge storage capacity and extraordinary cycling stability, reaching nearly 100,000 cycles. The advance could pave the way for more efficient energy storage systems, directly addressing global challenges in renewable energy and sustainability.

“A polymer is essentially a long chain of molecules built out of shorter blocks called monomers,” said El-Kady. “Think of it like a necklace made from individual beads strung together. We heat the liquid form of the monomers inside a chamber. As the vapors rise, they react chemically when they come in contact with the surface of the graphene nanoflakes. This reaction causes the monomers to bond and form vertical nanofibers. These nanofibers have (a) much higher surface area, which means they can store much more energy.”

Record-Breaking Results and Durability

The new PEDOT material has shown impressive results, exceeding expectations in several critical areas. Its conductivity is 100 times higher than that of commercial PEDOT products, making it far more efficient for charge storage. What’s even more remarkable is that the electrochemically active surface area of these PEDOT nanofibers is four times greater than that of traditional PEDOT. This increased surface area is crucial because it allows for much more energy to be stored in the same volume of material, significantly boosting the performance of supercapacitors.

Thanks to the new process, which grows a thick layer of nanofibers on the graphene sheet, this material now has one of the highest charge storage capacities for PEDOT reported to date — more than 4600 milliFarads per square centimeter, which is nearly one order of magnitude higher than conventional PEDOT. On top of that, the material is incredibly durable, lasting through more than 70,000 charging cycles, far outlasting traditional materials. These advances open the door for supercapacitors that are not only faster and more efficient but also longer-lasting, which are essential qualities for the renewable energy industry.

“The exceptional performance and durability of our electrodes shows great potential for graphene PEDOT’s use in supercapacitors that can help our society meet our energy needs,” said corresponding author Richard Kaner, a UCLA distinguished professor of chemistry and of materials science and engineering, whose research team has been at the forefront of conducting polymer research for over 37 years. As a doctoral student, Kaner contributed to the discovery of electrically conductive plastic by his advisors Alan MacDiarmid and Alan Heeger, who later received a Nobel Prize for their work.

The birth of modern Man

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