Matt Willemsen @Nonog@fedibird.com

Unearthing Ancient Agriculture: Rare Pre-Contact Agave Species Discovered in Arizona
New findings recently published in the journal Annals of Botany reveal that researchers have found unaltered agave plant species cultivated by several early cultures including the Hohokam people, a large Native American group in the Southwest that existed between 300 and 1500 CE.
https://scitechdaily.com/unearthing-ancient-agriculture-rare-pre-contact-agave-species-discovered-in-arizona/ #more #artisanal #tequila #agave #precontact #Hohokam

A lady of leadership: 3D-scanning of runestones in search of Queen Thyra and the Jelling Dynasty
The authors use 3D-scanning to study rune carving techniques, combined with analyses of orthography and language, concluding that the Jelling 2 and Læborg stones are linked by the hand of the carver Ravnunge-Tue. The results suggest Thyra played a pivotal role in the emergence of the Danish state.
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/lady-of-leadership-3dscanning-of-runestones-in-search-of-queen-thyra-and-the-jelling-dynasty/AAB7888A86FFF997927143CB68E872E0 #viking #queen #runes #stone #Thyra #jelling #Bluetooth #3Dーscanning

Viking Queen Thyra’s Power And Position Revealed On Famous Jelling Runestones
Using 3D scanners, archaeologists have also identified the person who carved these 10th-century runes.
https://www.iflscience.com/viking-queen-thyras-power-and-position-revealed-on-famous-jelling-runestones-71044 #viking #queen #runes #stone #Thyra #jelling #Bluetooth

Revolutionizing Prosthetics – Scientists Develop Bionic Hand That Merges With User’s Nervous and Skeletal Systems
A Swedish woman who lost her right hand due to a farming accident was implanted with a novel human-machine interface into her residual bone, nerves, and muscles.
https://scitechdaily.com/revolutionizing-prosthetics-scientists-develop-bionic-hand-that-merges-with-users-nervous-and-skeletal-systems/ #Prosthetics #Bionic #Hand #Merges #Nervous #Skeletal #Systems

Is anything harder than a diamond?
News
Diamonds are naturally hard, but is there anything from Earth, space or even a lab that's harder?
https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/geology/is-anything-harder-than-a-diamond #diamonds #hard #AnythingHarder

"Millions of Americans are safer today because tens of thousands of dedicated healthcare workers fought for and won the critical resources they need and that patients need"

Kaiser Permanente Inks Landmark Labor Deal After Massive Strike
Kaiser Permanente on Friday reached a tentative deal with more than 85,000 unionized healthcare workers after a historic labor strike last week.
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/997375 #KaiserPermanente #Landmark #Labor #Deal #Strike #union #healthcare #historic

Reproducibility trial: 246 biologists get different results from same data sets
Wide distribution of findings shows how analytical choices drive conclusions.
Scientists who ran separate analyses on a single data set about the effect of grass cover on Eucalyptus seedlings arrived at vastly different answers.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03177-1 #reproducibility #trial #results #choice #analyses

Where Humans Think Aliens Are Most Likely to Land
Will extraterrestrials try to see the city or the countryside?
These maps show the locations of alien first contacts on Earth in almost a century of popular films, from Algol (1920), a Faust-from-outer-space parable made in Weimar Germany; to Annihilation (2018), a reflection on America’s loss of faith in the future of humankind.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/strange-maps-alien-landings #aliens #landing #FirstContact #movies

AI reads text from ancient Herculaneum scroll for the first time
Machine-learning technique reveals Greek words in CT scans of rolled-up papyrus.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03212-1 #AI #reads #text #ancient #Herculaneum #scroll #MachineLearning #Greek #CTscans #papyrus.

Thrombectomy Benefits Large-Core Strokes Selected by Simple Imaging: TENSION
A new trial has shown a sizeable and significant benefit of endovascular thrombectomy in acute ischemic stroke patients with a large vessel occlusion and an established large infarct identified with just simple imaging techniques, which should lead to many more patients able to be considered for this treatment.
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/997360 #endovascular #Thrombectomy #LargeーCoreStrokes #Simple #Imaging

‘Incredible’ asteroid sample ferried to Earth is rich in the building blocks of life
Samples of asteroid Bennu delivered by the OSIRIS-REx mission contain carbon, water and other ingredients from the primordial Solar System.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03178-0 #Bennu #OSIRISーREx #carbon #water #BuildingBlocks #organics

New Research Reveals That Soccer Goalkeepers Process the World Fundamentally Differently
Researchers have found that soccer goalkeepers process multisensory information uniquely, with efficient temporal binding windows and a tendency to segregate sensory information. The cause, either due to rigorous training or inherent abilities, remains a topic for further exploration.
https://scitechdaily.com/new-research-reveals-that-soccer-goalkeepers-process-the-world-fundamentally-differently/ #soccer #goalkeepers #mental #processing

‘Abortion tests’ developed in Poland spark concern
Scientists are questioning the reliability and ethics of tests to detect abortion drugs in biological samples.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03129-9 #poland #abortion #tests #drugs

Anthropologists Reconstruct Face of Homo heidelbergensis
Anthropologists in Greece have used facial reconstruction techniques to show how Homo heidelbergensis, a poorly understood relative of Neanderthals that lived between 700,000 to 200,000 years ago, might have once looked.
https://www.sci.news/othersciences/anthropology/homo-heidelbergensis-facial-reconstruction-12354.html #facial #reconstruction #Homo #heidelbergensis #paleoanthropology #Petralona #skull #MiddlePleistocene

Beyond Umami: Scientists Discover a Sixth Basic Taste
Besides the well-known tastes of sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami, recent research proposes that the tongue might also detect ammonium chloride as a basic taste.
https://scitechdaily.com/beyond-umami-scientists-discover-a-sixth-basic-taste/ #sweet #salty #sour #bitter #umami #AmmoniumChloride #SaltLicorice #OTOP1

11,000-Year-Old Painted Statue of Wild Boar Unearthed at Gobekli Tepe
Archaeologists in Türkiye (Turkey) have unearthed several ancient statues, including a life-size statue of a wild boar, at Göbekli Tepe, a Neolithic site known for its megalithic architecture with characteristic T-shaped pillars.
https://www.sci.news/archaeology/painted-wild-boar-statue-gobekli-tepe-12337.html #Painted #Statue #WildBoar #GobekliTepe
#Archaeologists #Türkiye

Berkeley Lab to lead US hunt for element 120 after breakdown of collaboration with Russia
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) is setting its sights on creating element 120 as part of a new US effort to discover the first elements in row eight of the periodic table. The move follows the breakdown of the US–Russian partnership, which had previously discovered the five heaviest elements, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/berkeley-lab-to-lead-us-hunt-for-element-120-after-breakdown-of-collaboration-with-russia/4018207.article #element120 #Berkeley #russia #titanium #californium

Surprising Tectonic Discovery: Geologist Unexpectedly Finds Remnants of a Lost Mega-Plate
A geologist has successfully reconstructed a previously unknown tectonic plate named Pontus, once approximately one-fourth the size of the Pacific Ocean. This discovery was made through field research in various regions, including Japan, Borneo, and the Philippines.
https://scitechdaily.com/surprising-tectonic-discovery-geologist-unexpectedly-finds-remnants-of-a-lost-mega-plate/ #tectonics #MegaPlate #pontus #plate #pacific