Chuck's picture corner to March 23, 2025

It's been a mainly sunny week and warm until yesterday when once again the winds of the north blew in.

The north wind blows today.

Looking like summer spring has arrived

Tomatoes are the first up

variety in the trees

The end of another spring day

The sun sets once again

A view of the USA on my way home from grocery shopping

snow going early in the week

the beginnings of this years garden,

the black birds have arrived

the eyes a green blue colours of grackles always fascinate me.

Enjoy your day and

 a bit of Life

Cheers

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

New Fossil Discovery Challenges Assumptions About Early Human Size

BY U. OF THE WITWATERSRAND, MARCH 22, 2025

https://scitechdaily.com/new-fossil-discovery-challenges-assumptions-about-early-human-size/

A fossil leopard’s lower jawbone next to a skull fragment of a juvenile Paranthropus robustus. Note the two punctures in the skull, which match the spacing of the tips of the leopard’s fangs—implying that this unfortunate hominin child was killed and eaten by a leopard. 

Credit: Jason L. Heaton

Remarkable new fossils from Swartkrans Cave reveal that a prehistoric relative of humans was also extremely small and vulnerable to predators.

Paranthropus robustus was a prehistoric hominin species that lived in what is now South Africa approximately two million years ago. It coexisted with Homo ergaster, a direct ancestor of modern humans. Fossils of Paranthropus robustus are particularly abundant at Swartkrans Cave, located roughly midway between Johannesburg and Pretoria. Since scientific excavations began there in 1948, researchers have uncovered numerous skulls and hundreds of teeth, offering valuable insights into the species’ diet and social behavior.

For instance, the extremely heavy jaws and thickly enameled teeth of Paranthropus robustus suggest that, during times of scarcity, it was capable of subsisting on low-quality foods that were difficult to chew. Moreover, some of the skulls and teeth of Paranthropus robustus are exceptionally large, while others are robust but not as large as those in the first group. This suggests that the species was characterized by larger males and smaller females, indicating a mating system known as polygyny, in which a single dominant male mates with multiple females.

Unfortunately, Swartkrans has yielded far fewer bones from the rest of the Paranthropus robustus skeleton over the years, limiting our understanding of its stature, posture, and locomotion, essential characteristics related to finding food and mates. A major new discovery from Swartkrans, the first articulating hip bone, thigh bone, and shin bone of Paranthropus robustus, is now changing that.

The new Paranthropus robustus thigh and shin bones, articulated at the knee joint. 

Credit: Jason L. Heaton

A Significant Fossil Find: Confirming Upright Walking

A team of international researchers affiliated to the Evolutionary Studies Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits University), in South Africa including Travis Pickering, Matthew Caruana, Marine Cazenave, Ron Clarke, Jason Heaton, A.J. Heile, Kathleen Kuman, and Dominic Stratford, indicates in new research that this group of fossils belong to a single, young adult Paranthropus robustus. The fossil not only demonstrates that the species was, like modern humans, a habitual upright walker, but also confirms it was also extremely small. The research was published in the Journal of Human Evolution.

“It is estimated that this individual, probably a female, was only about a meter tall and 27 kg when it died, making it even smaller than adults from other diminutive early human species, including those represented by the famous ‘Lucy’ (Australopithecus afarensis, about 3.2 million years old) and ‘Hobbit’ (Homo floresiensis, about 90,000 years old) skeletons, from Ethiopia and Indonesia, respectively,” says Professor Pickering from the Univesity of Wisconsin-Madison, who led the research.
Predators and Survival Challenge

The small size of the new Paranthropus robustus individual would have made it vulnerable to predators — such as sabertooth cats and giant hyenas — known to have occupied the area around Swartkrans Cave. This notion is confirmed by the team’s investigation of damage on the surface of the fossils, which includes tooth marks and other chewing damage identical to that made by leopards on the bones of their prey.

The newly described, leopard-chewed Paranthropus robustus hip bone fossil, superimposed on an outline of a complete hominin hip bone to show the extent of the chewing damage on it. 

Credit: Jason L. Heaton

“Although it seems that this particular Paranthropus robustus individual was the unfortunate victim of predation, that conclusion does not mean that the entire species was inept. We know that Paranthropus robustus survived in South Africa for over a million years and is found invariably, and at various sites, in spatial association with stone and bone tools,” says Pickering.

Those implements were used for a variety of purposes, including butchering animals for their meat and digging for edible roots and underground insects. It is a matter of current research whether Paranthropus robustus, contemporaneous Homo ergaster, or both, was the maker and user of those important tools—but the Swartkrans team believes that Paranthropus robustus very likely possessed the cognitive and physical capabilities to do both.

The team’s continued investigation of the fossils includes CT-scan analyses of internal bone structures, which will provide additional information on the growth and developmental patterns of Paranthropus robustus, as well as adding details to our growing appreciation of its locomotor behaviors.

The birth of modern Man

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Scientists Found The Silent 'Scream' of Human Skin For The First Time

18 March 2025, By M. STARR

https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-found-the-silent-scream-of-human-skin-for-the-first-time

Human skin can send signals to surrounding cells to communicate damage.

 (Arrow/DigitalVision/Getty Images)

The body you inhabit is made up of lots of moving parts that need to communicate with each other.

Some of this communication – in the nervous system, for example – takes the form of bioelectrical signals that propagate through the body to trigger the appropriate response.

Now, US researchers have discovered that the epithelial cells that line our skin and organs are able to signal the same way to communicate peril. They just use a long, slow 'scream', rather than the rapid-fire communication of neurons.

It's a huge surprise, since these cells had been previously considered 'mute' – and may open new avenues for electrical medical devices to accelerate healing.

"Epithelial cells do things that no one has ever thought to look for," says polymath Steve Granick of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. "When injured, they 'scream' to their neighbors, slowly, persistently, and over surprising distances. It's like a nerve's impulse, but 1,000 times slower."

The team's research involved using a laser to wound (white dots) a single layer of skin cells, using electrodes (black circles) to detect the signals. 

(Steve Granick)



The body's communication networks keep it functioning. You'll whip your hand off a hot surface tout de suite without even thinking about it; that's your nervous system at work. Your heart's pumping action is regulated via electrical signals; the discovery of this enabled the invention of the artificial pacemaker.

Granick and his colleague, biomedical engineer Sun-Min Yu of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, designed a system to investigate cellular communication in the epithelium. Their system consisted of a chip connected to an array of around 60 electrodes.

This chip was coated with a single layer of lab-grown human keratinocytes, the main epithelial cells that make up the epidermis, the outer layer of skin. With a laser, the researchers "stung" the skin layer, using the electrode array to listen in to the electrical shifts that followed.

"We tracked how cells coordinated their response," Yu says. "It's a slow-motion, excited conversation."

The resulting signals propagated at speeds of around 10 millimeters per second, across quite large distances up to hundreds of micrometers from the site of the wound. It seems not dissimilar to the electrical calcium signaling observed in plants when damaged by a hungry, hungry caterpillar, as seen in the video below.

This communication, the researchers observed, relied heavily on ion channels, small pores in cell membranes that allow the transport of charged ions, predominantly calcium.

In particular, these epithelial-cell ion channels respond to a mechanical stimulus, such as pressure or stretching, which is slightly different from the ion channels of neurons, which respond to changes in voltage or chemistry.

The epithelial signals last much longer than neuronal signals, too, with some "conversations" recorded for up to five hours, according to the researchers. However, the voltage was of a similar amplitude to that observed in neurons, and the communication cycled through the phases that neuronal communication does.

Because this is only a newly discovered phenomenon, more work needs to be conducted to understand how it works, and the different contributing factors.

We don't know for sure what the cells are using for the signal, or if different kinds of epithelial cells are operating differently when it comes to communicating harm, though initial tests suggest calcium ions are involved.

However, the discovery hints at new possibilities for biomedical devices, like wearable sensors and electronic bandages that accelerate wound healing.

"Understanding these screams between wounded cells opens doors we didn't know existed," Yu says.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

2025's World Happiness Report Reveals Importance of Sharing Meals

22 March 2025, By A. PRATI, THE CONVERSATION

https://www.sciencealert.com/2025s-world-happiness-report-reveals-importance-of-sharing-meals

(Ezrin Nazan/Canva)

The importance of sharing meals is recognised across cultures, from the Jewish Shabbat meal to the fast-breaking Iftar meals during Ramadan.

The known link between food and social relationships is ancient. The English word companion, the French copain (friend) and the Italian compagno (partner) come from the Latin cum and pānis – literally "with-bread".

The Chinese term for companion/partner (伙伴) stems from a similar term (火伴) which literally translates to "fire mate", a reference to sharing meals over a campfire.

But how important is eating together to our happiness? This is the question that I and my co-authors answer in the World Happiness Report 2025. In our new data and analysis we looked at the link between how often people share meals and whether they feel good about their lives and experience positive emotions.

We also documented that there was a massive difference between countries and regions when it came to how often people shared meals.

Comparing the statistics from the 2022-23 Gallup World Poll about sharing meals with standard measures of wellbeing, we found a significant, positive relationship in almost all regions. Not only do countries where meal sharing is more common tend to report higher levels of wellbeing, but this is true even when comparing people who live in the same country.

The Gallup poll asked more than 150,000 people from 142 countries and territories how many lunches and dinners they shared with someone they know during the past week. The scores varied widely between regions.

Latin Americans share approximately two-third of their meals, with residents of Paraguay, Ecuador and Colombia reporting an average of more than ten shared meals per week.

At the bottom of the scale, there are relatively low levels of meal sharing in south and east Asian countries – in particular India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Japan and South Korea, where people share less than one meal out of three, on average.

While there is an association between sharing meals and wellbeing pretty much everywhere, this association is stronger in some regions than others.

Eating together is associated with happiness around the world. 

(DragonImages/Canva)



For instance, for a person who always dines alone in North America, Australia and New Zealand, the wellbeing benefit of starting to share most of their meals (eight or more times a week) in the life evaluation scale is big (the life evaluation scale is how people judge their life, with zero being the worst possible life and 10 being the best).

This boost is equivalent to the effect of doubling their income.

However, in Latin America, the Caribbean and sub-Saharan Africa, this effect is half as great and is essentially nil in south-east Asia. The reasons for this difference is as yet unclear.

For social scientists, the frequency of sharing meals offers an indicator for social connectedness (the ways that people interact with and relate to one another). Unlike measures that capture people's subjective feelings about social wellbeing, the number of shared meals gives us a concrete measure on which to base our analysis.

While interpretations of friendship or perceptions of closeness may change over time or between countries, the number of meals shared with others does not.

Meal sharing by region and age:

(Author supplied)

Of course, those who share more meals can differ in many other aspects, but even when we take into account characteristics such as gender, age, income, living alone and people's ability to meet basic needs for food, the relationship between sharing meals and wellbeing still holds strong.

While the global data we used was only introduced in 2022, some countries have collected information on meal sharing for longer.

In the United States, where the American Time Use Survey has been running for more than 20 years, we find clear evidence that with every passing year, Americans are dining alone more often, particularly young adults.

Today, 18 to 24-year-olds in the US are 90% more likely to eat every meal alone on a given day than they were in 2003. We also find that Americans who eat at least one meal with others report higher levels of happiness and lower levels of stress, pain and sadness on that day.

How meals sharing is linked to emotions in the US:

From our data, we can't tell how much of a wellbeing boost sharing an extra meal creates, and to what extent people share more meals because they are already happy, but it is reasonable to assume that it is not just the latter.

This would reflect previous research which has shown the importance of social capital (networks of social connections which are conducive to a well-functioning society) and the positive benefits of in-person interactions.

In a world where loneliness is increasingly recognised as a public health issue, rethinking how we gather around the table, and how often, could provide practical solutions to reduce social isolation and raise wellbeing.

Institutions where people routinely eat their meals together can play a critical role on this front. The other side of the coin is the surge in working from home, which could raise levels of solitude.

So, if you don't have plans for lunch tomorrow, maybe this is the good moment to message someone you would like to spend more time with.

The birth of modern Man

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Earth Could Have Billions More People Than We Ever Realized

22 March 2025, By D. NIELD

https://www.sciencealert.com/earth-could-have-billions-more-people-than-we-ever-realized

(Susan S. Xie/Moment/Getty Images)

Is our little blue marble of a planet actually a lot more crowded than we thought? A new study suggests we've been significantly undercounting populations in rural areas, because of the grid-based method typically used to count people.

The grid idea is simple: Split the world into squares, and estimate the population in each square based on census data.

But because these estimations have mostly been calibrated in urban rather than rural settings, inaccuracies in rural areas have gone undetected, according to researchers from Aalto University in Finland.

Rural regions account for 43 percent of the world's population – estimated to be just over 8 billion, at the last count – and if the calculations in this new study are correct then the number of unaccounted-for people could potentially stretch into the billions.

The researchers looked at data across 35 countries.

 (Láng-Ritter et al., Nature Communications, 2025)

"For the first time, our study provides evidence that a significant proportion of the rural population may be missing from global population datasets," says environmental engineer Josias Láng-Ritter from Aalto University.

"We were surprised to find that the actual population living in rural areas is much higher than the global population data indicates – depending on the dataset, rural populations have been underestimated by between 53 percent to 84 percent over the period studied."

The team analyzed population data for the period 1975-2010, looking at the effects of dam construction work on people displacement – a scenario for which there is usually verifiable, on-the-ground data for.

Crunching the statistics on 307 dam projects across 35 countries, the researchers compared the official number of displaced people in these areas against the number of people thought to be there by five different major population datasets.

The significant disparity between the population estimates and the actual number of people moved in an area is ultimately because far less granular data is available for rural areas, the researchers say: including census data, health data, and infrastructure data.

"The results are remarkable, as these datasets have been used in thousands of studies and extensively to support decision-making, yet their accuracy has not been systematically evaluated," says Láng-Ritter.

Not everyone is convinced. Scientists who weren't involved in the study told Chris Stokel-Walker at New Scientist that improvements in satellite imagery and the quality of data collecting in some countries would make these discrepancies smaller.

However, there's definitely a conversation to be had. Even if the miscount is more moderate, we could still be looking at a correction encompassing hundreds of millions of people.

Population estimates are crucial in everything from providing public services to estimating the impacts of climate change, and the team behind the new research wants to see more investment in population tracking in rural areas – to make sure these people don't miss out.

"To provide rural communities with equal access to services and other resources, we need to have a critical discussion about the past and future applications of these population maps," says Láng-Ritter.

The birth of modern Man

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Origin of life: How a special group of single-celled organisms laid the foundation for complex cells

MARCH 21, 2025, by P. Rüegg, ETH Zurich

https://phys.org/news/2025-03-life-special-group-celled-laid.html

An artist’s depiction of an Asgard archaeon, based on cryo-electron tomography data: the cell body and appendages feature thread-like skeletal structures, similar to those found in complex cells with nuclei. 

 Credit: Margot Riggi, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry

Ten years ago, nobody knew that Asgard archaea even existed. In 2015, however, researchers examining deep-sea sediments discovered gene fragments that indicated a new and previously undiscovered form of microbes.

With computer assistance, the researchers assembled these fragments like puzzle pieces to compile the entire genome. It was only then that they realized they were dealing with a previously unknown group of archaea.

Like bacteria, archaea are single-celled organisms. Genetically, however, there are significant differences between the two domains, especially regarding their cell envelopes and metabolic processes.

After a further search, microbiologists identified the corresponding organisms, described them and classified them as a separate archaeal sub-group: Asgard archaea. Their name, taken from the heavenly realm in Norse mythology, references their initial discovery close to Loki's Castle—a black smoker on the mid-Atlantic ridge between Norway and Svalbard.

In fact, Asgard archaea appeared almost heaven-sent for research: They turned out to be a missing link between archaea and eukaryotes—that is, between archaea and organisms whose cells contain a nucleus, such as plants and animals.

Tree of life with one branch fewer

In recent years, researchers have found growing indications of close links between Asgard archaea and eukaryotes, and that the latter may have evolved from the former. The division of all living organisms into the three domains of bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes did not hold up to this surprising discovery.

Some researchers have since proposed regarding eukaryotes as a group within Asgard archaea. This would reduce the number of domains of life from three to two: archaea, including eukaryotes, and bacteria.

Redrawing the tree of life, with eukaryotes descending from Asgard archaea.

 Credit: Florian Wollweber / ETH Zurich

At ETH Zurich, Professor Martin Pilhofer and his team are fascinated by Asgard archaea and have examined the mysterious microbes for several years.

In an article published in Nature two years ago, the ETH researchers explored details of the cellular structure and architecture of Lokiarchaeum ossiferum. Originating in the sediments of a brackish water channel in Slovenia, this Asgard archaeon was isolated by researchers in Christa Schleper's laboratory at the University of Vienna.



In that study, Pilhofer and his postdoctoral researchers Jingwei Xu and Florian Wollweber demonstrated that Lokiarchaeum ossiferum possesses certain structures also typical of eukaryotes. "We found an actin protein in that species that appears very similar to the protein found in eukaryotes—and occurs in almost all Asgard archaea discovered to date," says Pilhofer.

In the first study, the researchers combined different microscopy techniques to demonstrate that this protein—called Lokiactin—forms filamentous structures, especially in the microbes' numerous tentacle-like protrusions. "They appear to form the skeleton for the complex cell architecture of Asgard archaea," adds Florian Wollweber.

In addition to actin filaments, eukaryotes also possess microtubules. These tube-shaped structures are the second key component of the cytoskeleton and are comprised of numerous tubulin proteins. These tiny tubes are important for transport processes within a cell and the segregation of chromosomes during cell division

The origin of these microtubules has been unclear—until now. In a newly published article in the journal Cell, the ETH researchers discovered related structures in Asgard archaea and describe their structure. These experiments show that Asgard tubulins form very similar microtubules, albeit smaller than those in their eukaryotic relatives.


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However, only a few Lokiarchaeum cells form these microtubules. And, unlike actin, these tubulin proteins only appear in very few species of Asgard archaea.

Scientists do not yet understand why tubulins appear so rarely in Lokiarchaea, or why they are needed by cells. In eukaryotes, microtubuless are responsible for transport processes within the cell. In some cases, motor proteins "walk along" these tubes. The ETH researchers have not yet observed such motor proteins in Asgard archaea.

"We have shown, however, that the tubes formed from these tubulins grow at one end. We therefore suspect that they perform similar transport functions as the microtubules in eukaryotes," says Jingwei Xu, the co-first author of the Cell study. He produced the tubulins in a cell culture with insect cells and examined their structure.

Researchers from the fields of microbiology, biochemistry, cell biology and structural biology collaborated closely on the study. "We would never have progressed so far without this interdisciplinary approach," emphasizes Pilhofer with a degree of pride.

The structure of an Asgard microtubule, which consists of just five filaments (compared to 13 in eukaryotes.

Credit: Cell (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2025.02.027



Was the cytoskeleton essential for the development of complex life? While some questions remain unanswered, the researchers are confident that the cytoskeleton was an important step in the evolution of eukaryotes.

This step could have occurred eons ago, when an Asgard archaeon entwined a bacterium with its appendages. In the course of evolution, this bacterium developed into a mitochondrion, which serves as the powerhouse of modern cells. Over time, the nucleus and other compartments evolved—and the eukaryotic cell was born.

"This remarkable cytoskeleton was probably at the beginning of this development. It could have enabled Asgard archaea to form appendages, thereby allowing them to interact with, and then seize and engulf a bacterium," says Pilhofer.

Credit: Cell (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2025.02.027.

 https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(25)00254-5

Fishing for Asgard archaea

Pilhofer and his colleagues now plan to turn their attention to the function of actin filaments and archaeal tubulin along with the resulting microtubules.

They also aim to identify the proteins that researchers have discovered on the surface of these microbes. Pilhofer hopes his team will be able to develop antibodies precisely tailored to these proteins. This would enable researchers to "fish" specifically for Asgard archaea in mixed microbe cultures.

"We still have a lot of unanswered questions about Asgard archaea, especially regarding their relation to eukaryotes and their unusual cell biology," says Pilhofer. "Tracking down the secrets of these microbes is fascinating."

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Indonesia's Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki volcano erupts, prompting alert level to be raised

MARCH 21, 2025, by Edna Tarigan

https://phys.org/news/2025-03-indonesia-mount-lewotobi-laki-volcano.html

Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki spews volcanic materials into the air in East Flores, Indonesia Friday, March 21, 2025. 

Credit: AP Photo/Ester Narek

The Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki volcano in south-central Indonesia erupted three times into Friday, sending an ash column 8,000 meters (26,000 feet) high and prompting authorities to expand the danger zone around the volcano.

The volcano on the remote island of Flores in East Nusa Tenggara province has had hundreds of earthquakes and visible volcanic activity has significantly increased in the last seven days.

An eruption followed by an explosion was heard Thursday evening as far away as Larantuka and Maumere, two cities about 50 kilometers (30 miles) to 85 kilometers (53 miles) from the volcano. The eruption was recorded at several monitoring stations on Flores island, Muhammad Wafid, chief of Indonesia's Geology Agency, said in a statement.

There were two other eruptions, and smaller activity occurred during the day Friday. Smoke blew around the crater with weak to moderate pressure, and firelight was seen at the peak, indicating the glowing volcanic material was at a shallow depth.

On Friday, the volcano was still spewing thick, gray clouds from the crater.

The ash from the eruptions also covered streets and plantations. Some residents tried to clear the streets of ash and fallen trees using simple tools, such as shovels and hoes.

A number of residents were injured by hot dust from the eruptions.

An Indonesian volcanology agency official takes photos of Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki in East Flores, Indonesia Friday, March 21, 2025.

Credit: AP Photo/Ester Narek

"They were all guarding the cornfield when the volcano erupted. And when they ran together with the hot lava that started to fall, it injured their legs and backs." said Maria Magdalena, a resident of Nurabelen village in East Flores district.

Authorities raised the eruption alert to the highest level and expanded the danger zone from 7 kilometers (4.5 miles) to 8 kilometers (5 miles) from the crater. No new evacuations were ordered.

"We are still waiting for instructions from the government to evacuate," said a resident, Paulina Telesiku.

Several airlines canceled flights between Australia and Indonesia's tourist island of Bali, while other international and domestic flights to the island have been delayed.

Residents were warned to be vigilant about heavy rainfall triggering lava flows in rivers originating from the volcano, Indonesia's geology agency said in a statement.

An eruption of Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki in November killed nine people and injured dozens.

The 1,584-meter (5,197 foot) mountain is a twin volcano with Mount Lewotobi Perempuan in the Flores Timur district.

Indonesia is an archipelago of 270 million people with frequent seismic activity. It has 120 active volcanos and sits along the "Ring of Fire," a horseshoe-shaped series of seismic fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.

The Life of Earth

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

Figs, meat—and not too much sex: A good diet in ancient times was more than what you ate

MARCH 20, 2025, by K. Panegyres, The Conversation

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-03-figs-meat-sex-good-diet.html

The Feast of Acheloüs by Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Brueghel the Elder, ca. 1615. 

Credit: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

In the modern world, we know good nutrition is essential for our health.

Doctors in ancient Greece and Rome knew this too—in fact diet advice was a mainstay of medical practice and health routines. There were extensive and intricate discussions of how to regulate food and drink to stay healthy.

Some of their ideas—such as eating fish and vegetables as a healthy way to lose weight—make sense today. But others may raise eyebrows, such as a fig-only diet for Olympic athletes.

So what did diet and nutrition look like in ancient times? And is there anything we can learn today?
An expansive diet

In modern times, diet refers to food and drink. In ancient times, however, the idea of diet was more expansive.

Our word "diet" comes from the ancient Greek word diaita. This could refer to what we eat and drink, but it could also refer to our lifestyle as a whole—including exercise, sleep, sex and other activities.

When prescribing a diaita, ancient doctors did not just tell patients what to eat and drink. They also advised them on what sorts of other activities they should be doing, like exercising or even going to the theater.

For instance, in the sixth book of the Epidemics, a medical text written in the late fifth century BC, the author calls for moderation not just in what we eat and drink, but also in exercise, sleep and sex.

Ancient doctors believed balance was important for health.

Extreme dieting

However, not all ancient texts advocate moderation. There are some extreme cases of dieting. For example, the historian Hegesander of Delphi (second century BC) wrote: "Anchimolus and Moschus, who were sophistic teachers in Elis, drank nothing but water all their lives and ate nothing but figs, but were no less physically vigorous than anyone else. Their sweat, however, smelled so bad that everyone tried to avoid them in the baths."

In the seventh century BC, athletic trainers also focused on diet as a way to improve their athletes' physical condition. Trainers such as Iccus of Tarentum introduced strict diets for their athletes to try and gain a competitive edge.

However, their methods were often questionable, according to today's standards and our knowledge of nutrition.

For example, the Olympic runner Chionis of Laconia apparently also had a strict diet of figs when he was training for his competitions. He won in his event at the Olympics in 668, 664, 660, and 656 BC, a remarkable record. Other athletes, such as Eurymenes of Samos (sixth century BC), opted for a diet comprised entirely of meat.

However, there is no evidence to show these restricted diets would have improved athletic performance—and would not be recommended today.

An ancient doctor's perspective

Greek and Roman doctors could not conduct controlled trials as scientists do today.

Nevertheless, they were keen observers of the effects of certain foods on their patients—and saw with their own eyes that a bad diet is not good for us.

For example, the physician Galen of Pergamum (129–216 AD), in his work Hygiene, attributes his patients' ill health to poor diet.

He observed, "Some who are continuously diseased, not due to the intrinsic constitution of the body, but through a bad regimen, or living an idle life, or working too hard, or being in error regarding the qualities, quantities or times of foods, or practicing some exercise that is harmful, or erring in regard to the amount of sleep, or excessive indulgence in sex, or needlessly tormenting themselves with grief and anxiety. Every year I see very many who are sick through such a cause."

Galen thought hard about how certain foods and drinks affect our health and wrote various books on the subject, such as On the Powers of Foods.

This work contains many anecdotes. For instance, one young man drank the juice of the scammony plant, "to cleanse his system" (presumably as a laxative). However, "five hours after the dose, no evacuation had taken place, and he complained that his stomach felt compressed, his belly was heavy and swollen, consequently he was pale and anxious."

Galen also recognized different diets affect people in different ways: "Some people are harmed and some are benefited by the same things and similarly with opposites. […] I know of some who immediately become sick, if they remain three days without exercise, and others who continue indefinitely without exercise and yet are healthy."

Nutrition and balance

Galen's advice for overweight or obese patients may sound familiar: a "thinning" diet and a lot of fast running. So, exercise, combined with foods that fill you up but don't make you gain weight.

According to Galen, this meant eating vegetables and fish and avoiding wheat, red meat, fruit and wine.

A lot has changed in the world of diet and nutrition. We now have professional dietitians and empirical methods to measure the nutritional values of foods.

However, in their broader definition of "diet," ancient doctors identified something that remains as true today: the importance of eating well as part of a healthy lifestyle, one that takes care of body and mind and includes exercise, sleep and pleasure.

The birth of modern Man

https://chuckincardinal.blogspot.com/

River water temperatures swing from hot to cold: National study uncovers fluctuations across the US

MARCH 20, 2025, by U. of Birmingham

https://phys.org/news/2025-03-river-temperatures-hot-cold-national.html

The number of surges (a) and plummets (b) observed at monitoring stations across the conterminous United States (US), with climate regions highlighted.

 Credit: Environmental Research Letters (2025). DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/adba78

Scientists have unveiled rapid fluctuations in river water temperature across the United States (US) with rivers controlled by dams showing more frequent and volatile thermal changes.

Their research was based on national-scale, open data from the US Geological Survey. Such data are an essential scientific resource for understanding environmental variability in different places and over time, especially in a warming and increasingly human-dominated world.

In turn, these river water temperature patterns are important to managing habitats for wildlife and biodiversity conservation, as well as understanding the impacts of hot and cold water pulses on socioeconomic activity such as energy production, recreation, fisheries, and drinking water.

Most scientific research on river water temperature to date has focused on extreme or average values, but other thermal factors are also important for maintaining healthy and productive waterways. One of these is how quickly river water temperature changes, which dictates whether animals and people can adjust or find safe places to survive during thermal shifts.

In the first study of its kind, experts at the University of Birmingham and Indiana University have analyzed 15 years' worth of high-resolution temperature data nationally and observed 6,507 surges (temperature rises) and 4,787 plummets (temperature falls) at 88 of the 102 stations assessed.

This research—recently published in Environmental Research Letters—not only revealed the prevalence of rapid temperature changes, but also how variable these events can be.

One striking finding was that both surges and plummets ranged between nearly freezing temperatures to conditions exceeding 40°C over some geothermal hotspots. The authors went on to describe water temperature changes of over 18°C within a single event, transcending extreme thermal shifts previously described worldwide.

Lead author Dr. James C. White, from the University of Birmingham, commented, "Our findings provide critical insights into the dynamics of rapid water temperature changes in rivers, which will help future studies unravel how different water sources and weather patterns affect the likelihood and characteristics of these events."

Evidence presented in this research is critical for informing more effective environmental management solutions, such as controlling dam flow releases or planting along riverbanks, especially as the climate changes.

The scientists reported several regional differences across the US, with rivers in western regions like California and Oregon experiencing fewer surges and plummets overall, which were often confined to droughts and heat waves.

In stark contrast, these rapid temperature shifts were more commonplace in the Upper Colorado river basin across the central-west US, where a combination of high aridity and mountainous snowmelt likely played a part. Frequent surges and plummets also manifested across southeastern regions like Florida and Georgia, with these probably a result of persistent storm events.

Co-author David Hannah, Professor of Hydrology and UNESCO Chair in Water Sciences at the University of Birmingham, commented, "By demonstrating how widespread these river water temperature surges and plummets are using long-term national-scale data, we have highlighted where and when rivers are most prone to rapid temperature fluctuations. This provides a critical step towards being able to pinpoint where and when interventions that can best mitigate river temperature volatility to safeguard and climate-proof vulnerable water courses."

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Earth’s Domino Effect: Melting Greenland Ice Could Trigger Amazon Rainforest Collapse

BY MARUM - CENTER FOR MARINE ENVIRO. SCI., U. OF BREMEN, MARCH 3, 2025

https://scitechdaily.com/earths-domino-effect-melting-greenland-ice-could-trigger-amazon-rainforest-collapse/

The Amazon rainforest and the Amazon region are ecosystems that react to changing patterns of precipitation. 

Credit: Thomas Akabane, University of São Paulo

Adaptivity is threatened by global warming and deforestation.

The Earth’s climate system is highly complex, with its key components—the ocean, atmosphere, and vegetation—closely interconnected. Changes in one element can trigger widespread effects throughout the system. While these components exhibit some resilience and can absorb certain fluctuations, climate and Earth-system research suggest the existence of critical tipping points. If these thresholds are crossed, the climate system could shift rapidly into a different state.

Tipping points in the climate system are believed to interact, potentially triggering cascading effects. Two significant global tipping points are the Amazon rainforest and the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). Continued global warming could substantially weaken the AMOC, disrupting the oceanic conveyor belt that transports warm water to northern latitudes. This would alter temperature distribution across the Atlantic, which, in turn, could impact the Amazon region. Changes in Atlantic temperatures would influence the atmospheric water cycle, leading to shifts in precipitation patterns that could further destabilize the rainforest ecosystem.

Analysis of Residual Pollen and Carbon

Exactly how the AMOC and the Amazon are interconnected as systems, and how marine circulation affects the Amazon region, have not yet been extensively researched. A group of researchers led by Dr. Thomas Akabane and Prof. Dr. Christiano Chiessi from the University of São Paulo has now analyzed changes in the vegetation of the Amazon region. With their international team, they have analyzed pollen and carbon residues representing the past 25,000 years from a marine sediment core taken from the mouth of the Amazon River.

This analysis provides the team with a detailed glimpse into the past of one of the most species-rich ecosystems on Earth. The data show how the vegetation, along with wet and dry periods, has changed during the climate events of the last ice age, called Heinrich Events, when the AMOC was drastically weakened. The researchers found, in particular, a dramatic decline in rainforest vegetation in the northern part of the Amazon region.

Close Connection Between Atlantic Circulation and the Amazon Ecosystem

“The study is the result of a long-term German-Brazilian cooperative project, which began in 2012 with a joint expedition of the Research Vessel MARIA S. MERIAN in the estuarine area of the Amazon. Our data show that the Amazon ecosystem was able to adapt in the past to changes in the patterns of precipitation that resulted from weakened Atlantic circulation. But a weakening of the AMOC in the future occurring simultaneously with an increase in deforestation could threaten the stability of this important global system,” says Dr. Stefan Mulitza of MARUM.

Further studies employing climate and vegetation models indicate that a weakening of the AMOC under present-day conditions would have an effect on Amazon vegetation similar to that which it had during the past ice age. “The models have shown us that the AMOC need not completely collapse in order to have an effect on the rainforest. The northern areas of the Amazon region are massively impacted under mere moderate changes in the AMOC,” explains Dr. Matthias Prange of MARUM.

The results illustrate how complex the global system is. “Driving processes at high latitudes, like the melting of Greenland ice, can have a substantial effect on the tropics. Such long-distance influences often have severe regional effects, very often for people who are only minimally responsible for causing climate change,” adds Prof. Dr. Gerrit Lohmann of AWI.

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$8.4 Billion: Enormous Cache of Rare Earth Elements Discovered in America

BY U. OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN, MARCH 17, 2025

https://scitechdaily.com/8-4-billion-enormous-cache-of-rare-earth-elements-discovered-in-america/

An ash landfill in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. 

Recent research by The University of Texas at Austin tallied up the potential rare earth elements that could be extracted from coal ash around the country. 

Credit: Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection.



Coal ash in the U.S. holds substantial rare earth elements, potentially reducing dependence on imports, with ongoing research and pilot projects working to make extraction economically viable.

Coal ash, the powdery residue left after burning coal for fuel, has accumulated across the United States for decades. New research from the University of Texas at Austin reveals that this vast supply contains enough rare earth elements to significantly strengthen the nation’s reserves without the need for additional mining.

“This really exemplifies the ‘trash to treasure’ mantra,” said co-lead author Bridget Scanlon, a research professor at UT’s Bureau of Economic Geology at the Jackson School of Geosciences. “We’re basically trying to close the cycle and use waste and recover resources in the waste, while at the same time reducing environmental impacts.”

Rare earth elements, a group of 17 critical materials, are essential for modern technology and the transition to lower-carbon energy. They are key components in solar panels, batteries, magnets, and other advanced energy technologies.

Currently, the United States depends almost entirely on imports for its rare earth supply, with about 75% coming from China. This reliance raises concerns due to global supply chain complexities and geopolitical tensions.

A Vast, Untapped Domestic Resource

The new research found that there could be as much as 11 million tons of rare earth elements in accessible coal ash in the United States, which is nearly 8 times the amount that the U.S. currently has in domestic reserves, according to the researchers.

Total and potentially accessible coal ash reported by the electric power sector during 1985–2021. 

Credit: Reedy, et al

The study is the first study to tally up national coal ash resources. The researchers estimate that $8.4 billion worth of rare earth elements could be extracted from the accessible supply of coal ash.

The results were published in the International Journal of Coal Science & Technology. The U.S. Department of Energy is also applying the study’s methodology to conduct its own national assessment of coal ash resources.

Even though the level of rare earth elements in coal ash is relatively low when compared with those mined from geological deposits, the fact that the ash is readily available in large quantities makes it an attractive resource, said co-author Davin Bagdonas, a research scientist at the University of Wyoming.

“There’s huge volumes of this stuff all over the country,” Bagdonas said. “And the upfront process of extracting the (mineral host) is already taken care of for us.”

The researchers found that about 70% of the coal ash produced from 1985 to 2021 — a total of about 1,873 million tons — is potentially recoverable, with the material stored in landfills, ponds, and offsite storage areas. The rest of the coal ash has been sold and used by other industries, such as cement production and road construction.

Regional Differences in Rare Earth Element Content

Coal ash contains different levels of rare earth elements depending on where it originates. Place of origin also affects how much of the rare earth elements can be extracted.

For example, ashes from Appalachian Basin coal contain the highest amounts of rare earth elements, with an average value of 431 milligrams per kilogram. But only 30% of the rare earth elements it contains can be extracted. In contrast, coal from the Powder River Basin has the lowest average value of rare earth elements at 264 milligrams per kilogram, but it has an extractability of about 70%.

Estimated total associated ash from coal production in the United States by basin. About 83% of all ash produced during the period was from the Appalachian, Powder River, and Illinois basins combined. 

Credit: Reedy, et al.

Most of the work around rare earth element extraction is still in the research phase. Bagdonas is involved with a pilot project at the National Energy Technology Lab that’s extracting rare earth elements from the Powder River Basin coal ash.

Scanlon said that the foundational data provided in this study can help with building a broader market for coal ash as a resource.

“This kind of broad reconnaissance-level analysis has never been done,” Scanlon said. “It provides a foundation for others to go into more detail.”

Chris Young, the chief strategy officer at Element USA, a company that extracts critical minerals from mineral and metallic waste, said that the study underscores the great potential of coal ash as a resource. He said the challenge now for industry is developing the workforce and operations needed to extract rare earth elements and other materials from coal ash and other mining byproducts.

“The idea of getting rare earth elements out of tailings (mining by-products) just makes a lot of sense. It’s a common-sense approach,” he said. “The challenge is to convert that common-sense approach to an economic approach.”

To that end, Element USA is in the process of moving its analytical lab and pilot equipment to Austin to leverage the mineral expertise at The University of Texas at Austin and offer critical mineral experience to students interested in critical mineral research and careers.

“We’re excited about building that relationship with The University of Texas around mineral processing and mineral separation,” Young said.

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The spring equinox is here. What does that mean?

MARCH 19, 2025, by The Associated Press

https://phys.org/news/2025-03-equinox.html

This image provided by NOAA on March 19, 2025 shows Earth. 

Credit: NOAA via AP

Spring is almost here—officially, at least. The vernal equinox arrives on Thursday, marking the start of the spring season for the Northern Hemisphere and the fall in the Southern Hemisphere. On the equator, the sun will be directly overhead at noon. Equinoxes are the only time when both the north and south poles are lit by sunshine at the same time.

The events have been marked and celebrated around the world for centuries. Nowruz, the Iranian New Year, is based on the spring equinox, for example. And at the Mayan site Chichen Itza in Mexico, people gather during the equinox to watch the sun create a shadow pattern that resembles a serpent descending a building called El Castillo.

But what is happening in the heavens? Here's what to know about how we split up the year using the Earth's orbit.

What is the equinox?

As the Earth travels around the sun, it does so at an angle.

For most of the year, the Earth's axis is tilted either toward or away from the sun. That means the sun's warmth and light fall unequally on the northern and southern halves of the planet.

During the equinox, the Earth's axis and its orbit line up so that both hemispheres get an equal amount of sunlight.

An Iranian man jumps over a firework celebrating Chaharshanbe Souri, or Wednesday Feast, an ancient Festival of Fire on the eve of the last Wednesday of the Persian year, in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. Iranians celebrate their new year, or Nowruz, with arrival of the spring. 

Credit: AP Photo/Vahid Salemi

The word equinox comes from two Latin words meaning equal and night. That's because on the equinox, day and night last almost the same amount of time—though one may get a few extra minutes, depending on where you are on the planet.

The Northern Hemisphere's spring—or vernal—equinox can land between March 19 and 21, depending on the year. Its fall—or autumnal—equinox can land between Sept. 21 and 24.

What is the solstice?

The solstices mark the times during the year when the Earth is at its most extreme tilt toward or away from the sun. This means the hemispheres are getting very different amounts of sunlight—and days and nights are at their most unequal.

During the Northern Hemisphere's summer solstice, the upper half of the earth is tilted in toward the sun, creating the longest day and shortest night of the year. This solstice falls between June 20 and 22.

Meanwhile, at the winter solstice, the Northern Hemisphere is leaning away from the sun—leading to the shortest day and longest night of the year. The winter solstice falls between December 20 and 23.
What's the difference between meteorological and astronomical seasons?

These are just two different ways to carve up the year.

While astronomical seasons depend on how the Earth moves around the sun, meteorological seasons are defined by the weather. They break down the year into three-month seasons based on annual temperature cycles. By that calendar, spring starts on March 1, summer on June 1, fall on Sept. 1 and winter on Dec. 1.

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