Not often we see the term “Geologic Triumph.”
Geologic triumph
I’m making a note here: drill success
Also taking notes: ready to initiate second phase of operation chaos
A ‘lost world’ of early microbes thrived one billion years ago
Fat-like compounds in ancient rocks point to a vast array of previously unknown microorganisms that once dominated complex life on Earth.
Somewhere, A Monster Cables exec is incredibly aroused right now…
There will be a oot of “yuck” in response to this idea, but consider what could be gained!
It’s not like you have to drink it, right? /s
As Homo sapiens, we often consider ourselves to be the most intelligent hominins. But that doesn’t mean our species was the first to discover everything; it appears that Neanderthals found a way to manufacture synthetics long before we ever did.
Neanderthal tools might look relatively simple, but new research shows that Homo neanderthalensis devised a method of generating a glue derived from birch tar to hold them together about 200,000 years ago—and it was tough. This ancient superglue made bone and stone adhere to wood, was waterproof, and didn’t decompose. The tar was also used a hundred thousand years before modern humans came up with anything synthetic.
eLife (where this study was published) gives an editor’s evaluation at the top of all articles. For this article they make it clear that the authors don’t have strong data yet; “valuable” but “incomplete” might be the worst assessment for an eLife article I’ve read in the 6 months since they started this.
In this valuable study, the authors investigate the mechanism of amyloid nucleation in a cellular system using their novel ratiometric measurements and uncover interesting insights regarding the role of polyglutamine length and the sequence features of glutamine-rich regions on amyloid formation. Overall, the problem is significant and being able to assess nucleation in cells is of considerable relevance. The data, as presented and analyzed, are currently still incomplete. The specific claims would be stronger if based on in vitro measurements that avoid the intricacies of specific cellular systems and that are more suitable for assessing sequence-intrinsic properties.
Scientists at the University of Minnesota have successfully transplanted rat kidneys that were thawed after up to 100 days in ultracold storage — a milestone that could one day revolutionize how and when human organs are transplanted.
Early days, but still pretty cool. At a balmy 70 Kelvins.
