This year our Ten Things column each month is concentrating on science and scientists.
Where a group is described as “great” or “important” this is not intended to imply these necessarily the greatest or most important, but only that they are up there amongst the top flight.
Medical Discoveries
Welcome to this month’s well packed selection of links to items you may have missed.
Science, Technology, Natural World
An evolutionary biologist explains what we already know: cats are perfect. [££££]
Nevertheless we’re still trying to fully understand how cats purr.
A Pacific Footballfish (yes, really; they’re a type of anglerfish) has washed up on the Californian coast; only about 30 known specimens have ever been collected.
And now for something completely different … how many tectonic plates does Earth have?
Scientists are saying the Moon is 40 million years older than we thought. Well unless there’s a lot we’re not being told, I don’t find it totally convincing.
Meanwhile way, way out in space the two 50-year-old Voyager probes, now out beyond the solar system, are being given code updates to prolong their mission even more.
So you think quantum physics is weird? Well it isn’t; its weirder! [££££]
Health, Medicine
They’ve tested it, and it turns out the ancient honey-and-vinegar mix is a really effective wound treatment. But then so is superglue. [££££]
It’s long been received wisdom, but does chicken soup really help when you’re sick?
On which note, how many microbes does it take to make you ill? [LONG READ]
Another piece of long-held wisdom is that young, health adults were more vulnerable to the 1918 flu virus. Examination of some skeletons suggests this wasn’t so.
It may sound morbid or traumatising, but researchers are still trying to understand what really happens during a near-death experience. [LONG READ]
Environment
Many of the UK’s big wine retailers have joined forces on the Bottle Weight Accord aimed at globally reducing the weight of glass bottles.
Art, Literature, Language, Music
Aboriginal Australian languages have finally helped linguistics researchers show that a language’s grammar affects how the speaker sees. [££££] [LONG READ]
Many people have assumed the worst, but it is doubtful Lewis Carroll was actually a paedophile?
History, Archaeology, Anthropology
There’s this theory that men evolved to hunt and women evolved to gather (wrapped around childcare etc.). But the thing is, it’s wrong. [££££] [LONG READ]
There are some footprints in New Mexico which if correctly dated mean humans were in the Americas much earlier than thought. It also seems that the first American settlers weren’t who we thought [LONG READ] they were.
In Spain archaeologists have discovered 9500-year-old baskets and 6200-year-old shoes in a bat cave.
Did Stone Age peoples have toilets? It looks like at least some did. [LONG READ]
There’s one small glimmer of light amongst the climate change which is melting all the ice … some interesting ancient artefacts are coming to the surface from their alpine deep freeze. [LONG READ]
At the other end of the scale, scientists in Israel are having some success growing date palms from 2000-year-old seeds found at sites in the Jordanian desert.
Staying in Europe … in Italy a 2200-year-old tomb has been discovered – and it’s decorated with a mythical hellhound and sea-centaurs.
Declassified satellite images of Syria and Iraq from 1960s and 70s are revealing a large number of Roman forts in the area; far more than were expected.
Never let it be said that Romans didn’t have all mod cons, because it appears that at least some had their own wine fridge.
Also dating from the Roman period, an 1800-year-old sarcophagus, which held a woman of “special status” has been unearthed in NE France.
Let’s skip quickly over to the Americas again … the Mayan reservoirs relied on aquatic plants to help provide clean water.
And we’re back in Europe and with that melting ice … a rare, well preserved and possibly Viking, horse bridle has emerged from melting ice in Norway.
It seems that the Vikings had windows as fragments of Viking-Age window glass have been found in Denmark and Sweden.
Our favourite medievalist has written a short explication of the Holy Roman Empire. [LONG READ]
Medieval manors were actually important employers; here’s a look at some of the jobs.
Meanwhile medieval people got murdered, and some academics have put together murder maps for three cities.
Agrippa’s De occulta philosophia (1533), a manual of learned magic, explicated the ways in which magicians systematically understood and manipulated the cosmos. [LONG READ]
Now coming almost up to date … 19th-century Britain had this aversion to allowing women to practice medicine.
Food, Drink
Researchers have finally revealed the true origins of grapes and wine. [££££] [LONG READ]
So just why are 1 in 7 of us addicted to ultra-processed foods? [LONG READ]
Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs
It that time of year, but Katherine May suggests ways in which the can lighten these dark months.
Here are ten questions to help start an important conversation with a teenager (well anyone really).
A professional architectural photographer talks about the magic of photographing the Romney Marsh Churches. [LONG READ]
Still down in Kent, my friend Katy Wheatley got to see round the late Derek Jarman’s Prospect Cottage which is in one of my favourite places, the desolation of Dungeness.
Shock, Horror, Humour, Wow!
Finally … the heroic and amazing exploits of animals working for us including ferret electricians and land-mine clearing rats. [LONG READ]
Here we go again with this month’s collection of links to items which interested me and which you maybe didn’t want to miss.
Science, Technology, Natural World
On the colours of the stars. [££££]
There are some small “earthquakes” on the moon, and the cause is somewhat surprising.
They’re still hunting for the missing flight MH370, and now there is hope of finding it using divination by barnacles.
Scientists have found a huge, remote, Fijian cave, and it’s full of tiny endangered bats. [££££]
Scientists are looking at dreaming and REM sleep across the animal kingdom.
So just how old is the oldest aquarium fish? We know koi carp can live to 80, but Methuselah is even older.
Health, Medicine
Explaining both the neuroscience and physiology of fear and anxiety.
More screening for cancers sounds like it could be good for many of us, but there are serious questions over whether the NHS could cope with it.
Girls, your vagina has it’s own microbiome (just as our guts and skin do), so here are a few pointers on how to look after it.
Yes, it turns out the so-called “male menopause” is a thing for at least some men. [££££]
So is pee sterile?
The medicinal leech has a long history, and is still used today.
Most of us suffer from delusions of some form, however mildly. Here are the five most common.
We all have childhood memories – some of us more than others – but how reliable are they?
It seems that some people whose brains flatline but survive can recall lucid “experiences of death“.
Sexuality
Just what were the rules around masturbation in Ancient Greece? As if one can put rules round such a thing! [££££]
Here are some things most of us don’t know, but probably should, about emergency contraception.
Environment
A recent report says that Britain’s ocean fish populations are in a quite some trouble.
Art, Literature, Language, Music
Seemingly the speed at which someone talks has no relationship to intelligence.
History, Archaeology, Anthropology
Researchers have calculated that the species which were to become Homo sapiens suffered a population bottleneck, and could have gone extinct, almost a million years ago.
Meanwhile researchers in southern Africa have discovered some ½million year old timbers which appear to have been woodworked.
5000-7000 years ago there was a culture in what’s now Eastern Europe which burned its houses down every couple of generations – but we don’t know why.
On the age of, and reasons for, the Egyptian pyramids.
Along with Greek rules around masturbation (see above) the ancient world had various rules about with female beauty. [££££]
Two rare Roman cavalry swords from around 200AD have been found in the Cotswolds.
On a similar note, an early medieval warrior buried with his weapons has been found in Germany.
In around 900AD there was a very powerful woman who ruled over that Papacy.
On the involvement of the Templars in the murder of Thomas Becket in 1170.
A bit further on … a 14th-century cannon has been found off Swedish coast.
Cannibalism in human history has rarely been just about eating to survive.
An Ode to the Rag-and-Bone Man.
Food, Drink
Notable Sandwiches #68: Francesinha e Francesinha Poveira.
Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs
Do opposites attract? Apparently not as research is suggesting that couples are more likely to be similar than different.
Another for the girls … Attractive though it may be, in more ways than one, apparently going braless does come at a cost. However if you’re going to wear a bra, then find your correct size, ‘cos it probably isn’t what you think.
So what is it about school nicknames? Harry Mount suggests that while they can be fantastically rude, the ruder they are, the more affectionate.
Shock, Horror, Humour, Wow!
Finally, this year’s Ig Nobel Prize winners have been revealed.
Here we go then with this month’s selection of links to items which interested me, and which you may have missed.
Science, Technology, Natural World
Let’s start with 16, possibly unexpected, facts about sweat.
Turmeric is supposedly one of those “cure-alls” but despite some interesting chemistry it looks like its claims are overstated.
Still on turmeric, here’s a report on how researchers uncovered a scam of improving the colour of turmeric with lead. [LONG READ]
And while we’re on things yellow, a researcher thinks they’ve found a long-thought lost Ancient Greek and Roman medicinal plant.
And then there are wasps – in his case the common “yellow-jacket” Vespula vulgaris – where researchers using data from the Big Wasp Survey have found that the UK population is essentially genetically homogeneous. [Full disclosure: I’ve been part of Big Wasp Survey since its inception.]
Researchers are claiming that worms frozen in permafrost for 46,000 years are still alive and the oldest known living animals.
Continuing with the bizarre, in the deep Atlantic Ocean there lives a creature with 20 arms.
And so to the even more esoteric … Scientists continue to puzzle over whether nothingness exists.
On average your friends are on average more popular than you – on the paradox which links epidemiology and sociology.
Health, Medicine
Various scientists are making the observation that we aren’t prepared for the next pandemic (whatever that is) – here’s one. [LONG READ]
Covid cases have seen a small spike this summer; here’s why, and some thoughts going forward.
Here’s a look at six slightly surprising effects of common medicines. [££££]
In this one young researcher looks at the challenges she faced with OCD.
On the stigmatisation of menstruation through history to the current times.
Sexuality
There are different things helping towards great sex at various stages of life. [LONG READ]
Environment
Forget rich soil, try gardening with hardcore. [LONG READ]
More on wasps! There have been a number of sightings this year of Asian Hornets (aka. Yellow-Legged Hornet, Vespa velutina [image above], which is slightly smaller than a European Hornet, Vespa crabo [image below]) in the UK, most notably a cluster in Kent. While these are alien predators (often taking large numbers of honeybees) they are not the so-called “Murder Hornets” (aka Asian Giant Hornet, Vespa mandarinia, which are larger) which have invaded the American west coast. [As usual the article doesn’t really live up to the goriness of the headline.]
And there’s an even more recent report from the London area.
Art, Literature, Language, Music
Researchers at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium have used infrared light to reveal a hidden portrait beneath a 1943 painting by René Magritte.
One scientist offers some tips for good scientific writing – and they aren’t what we’ve often been taught.
History, Archaeology, Anthropology
As always let’s start old and get younger, with an overview of our extinct human relatives the Neanderthals.
They’re still researching Ötzi the Iceman, and have now determined that he was balding and had dark skin.
Who was the first literary hero? There’s a suggestion that it is actually the ancient goddess Inanna.
The remains of an Iron Age female warrior have been discovered on the Isles of Scilly.
Just take a look at the magnificence of the Roman Lighthouse at Dover – the oldest in England.
Staying with the Romans, some marble fragments are giving an insight into Emperor Hadrian’s diary.
Further east in the Roman Empire archaeologists have uncovered a Roman amphitheatre with blood red walls.
A medieval historian appears to have recognised a new source about the Norman Conquest of England, and it was hiding in plain sight.
Laying to rest the myth that the medieval Kerrs were left-handed and that spiral staircases were always built to advantage the defender.
People
In an interview for the Big Issue, Professor Alice Roberts says she got side-tracked into academia.
Why do we always think that terminally single (and childless) women are unfulfilled, because they’re often happier?
Shock, Horror, Humour, Wow!
And finally two amusements. First one young lady pots up her Lego succulents.
And finally, finally someone has installed a urinal on the side of Sonning Bridge over the River Thames.
We bring you this month’s action-packed collection of links to items you may have missed.
Science, Technology, Natural World
When cells divide how do they accurately copy their DNA once, and only once? [LONG READ]
Bats in the UK harbour coronaviruses; none apparently immediately dangerous to us, but we need to know more.
China has a mysterious wildcat, but is the Chinese Mountain Cat actually a discrete species? [££££]
On the Byzantine labyrinths that make up a cat’s nose. [££££]
In potentially good news there’s a plan to establish the UK’s first feline blood bank.
Octopuses change their skin patterns while sleeping, which suggests that they may be dreaming.
If insects actually have memories, it seems they may not survive across metamorphosis. [LONG READ]
Scientists have discovered a species of palm that flowers and fruits only underground, but they don’t yet understand how it is pollinated.
Health, Medicine
It seems that we have a gene which prevents most bird flu viruses from infecting us.
Nightmare Warning … There’s an unidentified something which causes a green hairy tongue – luckily it’s benign, just disturbing.
Sexuality
In a possible explanation of why vibrators are so effective, researchers have discovered neurons in the clitoris and penis which are especially sensitive to vibration. [££££]
One couple talk about sex in their mid-70s.
Social Sciences, Business, Law, Politics
One tax specialist is of the opinion that the UK’s Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) has a completely erroneous view of the economy. [LONG READ]
Art, Literature, Language, Music
Some rarely seen Holbein sketches of the Tudor court are going on display later this year at the Queen’s Gallery.
When the fantasy world wants a pest do they always choose rats?
History, Archaeology, Anthropology
Pendants made from bits of giant sloth indicate that humans settled in the Americas a lot earlier than previously thought.
At the same time archaeologists believe they’ve found the USA’s oldest stone tools to date. [LONG READ]
Back in the UK a rare Neolithic polissoir has been found hiding in plain sight in Dorset.
Pyramids and other remains have been discovered off the western tip of Cuba.
The Carnyx, a brass musical instrument, was used as a psychological weapon of war by the ancient Celts.
Pompeii continues to provide surprises. In a current excavation archaeologists are uncovering a building containing a bakery oven (above), courtyard, a fountain and a number of frescos including one of what has (jokingly) been described as an early pizza (below).
The story of Salisbury’s Medieval Giant.
London
London’s Hyde Park was once the playground of Tudor and Stuart monarchs, courtiers, and the upper echelons of society. [LONG READ]
There’s a hidden world underneath Waterloo Station, which is being revealed on its 175th anniversary prior to redevelopment.
Food, Drink
The Guardian‘s food writer, Felicity Cloake, looks at a few food rules and suggests they can be safely ignored.
Rachel Roddy recreates that Pompeii “pizza” (see above).
Do we need to be worrying about the sweetener aspartame in diet drinks? Spoiler: probably not. [LONG READ]
Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs
A ramble around body hair and hairless bodies through the ages.
Shock, Horror, Humour, Wow!
And finally, please enjoy some highlights from this year’s Finnish Hobbyhorse Championships.
Here are the answers to this month’s five quiz questions. If in doubt, all should be able to be easily verified online.
July Quiz Questions: Medical
Answers were correct when questions were compiled in late 2022.
Again this year we’re beginning each month with five pub quiz style questions, with a different subject each month. They’re not difficult, but it is unlikely everyone will know all the answers, so hopefully you’ll learn something new, as well as have a bit of fun.
July Quiz Questions: Medical
Answers will be posted in 2 weeks time.
And yet already we arrive at time for our monthly round-up of links to items we thought interesting, and you might too.
Science, Technology, Natural World
A new dinosaur species has been discovered on the Isle of Wight.
There’s a crack squad of hunters keeping the island of Jersey free of the invasive Asian Hornets (above). And no these aren’t the “murder hornets” which are invading the west coast of North America which are even nastier.
Scientists are taking another look at just when animals like foxes started living alongside humans. [££££]
A new study is finding clues to when masturbation evolved in primates – because it isn’t just humans that indulge.
Palaeontologists believe that Homo naledi in South Africa may have made etchings on cave walls and buried its dead. [££££]
Well now this (isn’t) surprising … it seems that air quality filters are picking up airborne DNA which reveals what species are nearby.
Changing tack somewhat … the US is being urged to reveal its UFO evidence amid (more) claims it has intact alien vehicles.
Meanwhile the “gateway to the underworld” megaslump in Siberia is revealing secrets from 650,000 year old permafrost.
And back to humans … there’s a myth that we use only 10% of our brain, but it is just a myth. [££££]
Health, Medicine
Here are nine things you probably didn’t know about saliva.
Also from the Zoe Health Study, here’s a look at the importance of bile.
Sexuality
Some curious scientist has taken an in-depth look at the condition known as “Blue Balls“, and discovered some interesting things about sexuality.
Who knew that until fairly recently many countries officially provided whores for wartime soldiers near the battlefield? No, it isn’t much known and talked about. And it wasn’t just in wartime.
Social Sciences, Business, Law, Politics
England is apparently going to trial providing a “universal basic income“. The trial will be in just two places with a very small number of people for two years, so don’t hold your breath.
One historian is suggesting that we’re on the brink of civil war – the US in particular but the Western world in general – but that we can avert it if we wake up. [LONG READ]
Art, Literature, Language, Music
So who actually knew there were officially many shades of black? [LONG READ]
History, Archaeology, Anthropology
Archaeologists have found evidence of plague in Britain 4,000 years ago. And it is being suggested this might be the reason the culture and people who built Stonehenge suddenly vanished from the record.
A stunning 3,000 year old bronze sword (above) has been found in a Bronze Age grave in Bavaria.
Cricket clubs don’t generally expect to be the custodians of several Roman gods’ heads.
Also with the Romans, a stunning mausoleum has been discovered on a building site in Southwark.
Here’s the story of St Ursula and the 11,000 virgin martyrs. [LONG READ]
Minstrels played an important role in medieval society, and it is now being appreciated that their work could be mad, bad and bawdy.
A pair of shipwrecks full of Ming era porcelain in the South China Sea are telling us a lot about the historic Silk Road trade routes.
Myths based in medieval goings-on are not always accurate. Here’s the case of the Fowlmere Tunnel. [LONG READ]
Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs
And finally for this edition, here are 13 signals all cat owners should recognise. [LONG READ]
And so to this month’s collection of links to items you dodn’t know you din’t want to miss! Let’s start, as usual, with the tough science stuff.
Science, Technology, Natural World
Some scientists have been thinking about how life would have started and self-assembled. [LONG READ]
Turning the tables round, will we actually know alien life when we encounter it? [LONG READ]
While we decide that, how likely is it that alien life is eavesdropping on our mobile phone calls? [££££]
Staying with the cosmological … Observers have detected the largest cosmic explosion ever seen.
Meanwhile the James Webb telescope has found asteroids in the Fomalhaut star system.
And it gets weirder, as astronomers think they’ve seen live-action of a star swallowing one of its planets.
Coming back a little nearer to sanity … hare’s a look at Alan Turing and the most important machine that’s never been built. [LONG READ]
After which, riddle me this … How do you find a new species of Demon Catshark? By reading it’s eggs, of course. [££££]
But then again, genetics turns up many surprises, including the mutation which turned ants into parasites in one generation. [LONG READ]
More strangeness on genetics … it turns out strawberries have eight sets of chromosomes, which have contributed to their domestication and survival. [££££]
Deeper and deeper into plants, photosynthesis actually requires four photons to complete the transfer of sunlight into chemical energy but the details of the final step are only now coming to light. [££££]
And so back into the (almost) real world. Clever palaeontologists have been able to recover the DNA of the wearer of a 25,000-year-old pendant.
Health, Medicine
How accurate are all those old-wives tales – you know like “chocolate causes acne” and “carrots help you see in the dark”?
So just what are puberty blockers and how do they work? Side issue: should we be using them? [££££]
Medics now seem to have decided that removing just the Fallopian Tubes will significantly reduce the number of women with ovarian cancer. [££££]
Meanwhile, deciding whether to have HRT treatment for the menopause is a difficult decision for many women. [LONG READ]
Sexuality
Here’s the usual, and regular suggestion of ten ways to improve your sex life.
Environment
All the rubbish buried along the Thames estuary is coming back to the surface to bite us. Why do we think we can treat the place like a trash can? [LONG READ]
There’s one thing you do not want in your garden (or anywhere): Japanese Knotweed. [LONG READ]
Social Sciences, Business, Law, Politics
Historian and headmaster Sir Anthony Seldon has been writing book-length report cards on British prime ministers for 40 years. His latest is on Boris Johnson, and he’s not impressed.
Art, Literature, Language, Music
Oh dear. Some of the southern Italians are upset. They’ve decides that a mermaid statue is too provocative. Judge for yourself …
London’s Courtauld Gallery has released almost a million rarely seen photographs from their collections online anf free.
History, Archaeology, Anthropology
The Mediterranean keeps producing ancient shipwrecks. Now one off Sicily has been found to contain ingots of a rare alloy called orichalcum.
A look at the Port of London in Roman times.
A large Roman temple in France could have been used for the worship of many gods.
So what was the Medieval attitude to cats?
Food, Drink
Emma Beddington asks why we’re unable to give up salt – but doesn’t come up with a good answer.
Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs
This is Local London website runs a series of thoughtful articles by senior school pupils on various topics. One recent such looks at attitudes to gender identity.
Here are yet another ten reasons to embrace everyday nudity.
Shock, Horror, Humour, Wow!
A study – surely a contender for an Ig Nobel Prize – has discovered that it is “barely possible to identify a beautiful scrotum“. [££££]
In keeping with everything springing back to life and growing we have a blossoming collection of links to items you may have missed this month.
Science, Technology, Natural World
First off, here’s a Twitter thread from astrophysicist and science communicator Katie Mack assessing future technology.
Looking the other way, at the consequences of the universe’s origins, there appear to be four possible types of multiverse.
Weirdly it seems that the majority of planets in the Galaxy are in orbit around stars we cannot see. [££££]
And to “homemade” stars … the first atomic bomb (the Trinity Test) created a “forbidden” quasicrystal.
Meanwhile some evolutionary innovations wait millions of years for their chance to shine. [LONG READ]
Wasps complicated social lives can illuminate the evolution of animal societies.
Palaeontologists have recently found the oldest bat skeleton on record.
At the other end of the accessible world scientists have spotted an unknown fish at a record depth of 8300 meters off Japan.
Talking of unknown life in unexpected places … oceanographers have found a massive river and cavern beneath a West Antarctic glacier which is teeming with life. [LONG READ]
Finally in this section of the unexpected, scientists are reporting that plants emit rapid bursts of ultra-sound when stressed – although it isn’t clear if this is an artefact of their structure or a “deliberate” act.
Health, Medicine
Here’s a review of Kate Clancy’s new book Period, which aims to change we understand menstruation.
Sexuality
According to a recent survey Britain is a lot sexier than thought.
In an unsurprising finding it seems sexual wellness and talking about sex helps us flourish.
All of which makes sense when you consider that someone, somewhere, thinks we all need to learn the dos and don’ts of kissing.
Social Sciences, Business, Law
So are coincidences real, or are they merely us spotting patterns which should be expected? [LONG READ]
Art, Literature, Language, Music
Researchers have looked at the science underlying why some Renaissance artists used egg in their oil paints.
History, Archaeology, Anthropology
Let’s start this long section of history with the Ancient Egyptians … They seem to have been creating automata 4000 years ago.
Also in Ancient Egypt, archaeologists have found a collection of severed hands and suspect it is evidence of trophy-taking.
Across the globe in Mexico archaeologists have found what they believe is a scoreboard for the ancient Mayan ball game pelota (above).
Iceni Queen Boudicca who led a revolt against the Romans is enjoying a resurgence as a symbol of rebellion and a feminist icon.
New dendrochronology shows the Vikings really did live in Newfoundland around 1021, but we don’t know how long for.
A building archaeologist asks “what is a castle?“. [LONG READ]
In a surprise twist Pink Floyd have inspired research into medieval monks and volcanology.
Going Medieval takes a look at nobility, courtship, moral justification, and sexy tapestries. [LONG READ]
In another round of medieval myth-busting our building archaeologist looks at why the historic records may not tell you the date of your house. [LONG READ]
Etchings of the Coronation of Charles II in 1661 by Wenceslaus Hollar have been found hidden in the back of a cupboard.
Temple Bar was once an historic boundary to the City of London – and the site still is. [LONG READ]
They’re digging underneath the Palace of Westminster, and one recent discovery is an 18th-century fish token gaming counter.
London
Over 300 old London street signs are up for auction next month (18 May).
Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs
In a break with tradition, King Charles will use a new coach for the Coronation procession to Westminster Abbey – and it has electric windows and air con.
Some people absolutely cannot abide being in the same room as some of their hated foods.
People
And finally, the 40-year mystery of three abandoned children and two missing parents.