Our monthly look at what happened 100 years ago.
On this day, 4 March 1923 …
On this Day in 1923
Category Archives: science
Monthly Links
Here’s this month’s collection of links to items you may have missed. But oh dear, there are a lot of long reads.
Science, Technology, Natural World
We were recently buzzed by an unannounced asteroid.
Quaoar, a dwarf planet out in the Kuiper Belt, is host to a dust ring which really shouldn’t be there.
Confounding things a bit further, astronomers think they’ve spotted the Universe’s first stars. [LONG READ]
Meanwhile cosmologists are wondering if they can untangle the universe’s most elusive mysteries. [LONG READ]
Not to be left out the SETI alien hunters are beginning to use AI to analyse signals. [LONG READ]
Back on terra firma there’s been a recount which has doubled the number of Japan’s islands.
Archaeologists are also using new LIDAR technology to scan huge areas from the air; with years of fieldwork possible in an afternoon!
A fossil “crocodile” found on the Jurassic Coast at Charmouth, Dorset turns out to be a new genus of ancient croc-like animal.
Researchers have finally been able to work out how fingerprints form, and it follows a model proposed in 1950s by mathematician Alan Turing.
Health, Medicine
Misophonia, otherwise known as “sound rage”, is a markedly decreased tolerance to certain sounds and it can be truly debilitating.
Scientists have discovered albicidin, a plant toxin which uses a previously unknown method to kill bacteria, and so could be a route to new antibiotics.
Leprosy is an ancient disease, but one which scientists still don’t properly understand.
And here’s another puzzle: the anti-TB vaccine BCG is 100 years old; the puzzle is that it can also be active against a number of other diseases including some cancers and even Covid.
So, really, how does caffeine affect our bodies? [LONG READ]
It is being increasingly recognised that depression is not caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain, but the jury is still out on the actual cause. [LONG READ]
Is it possible for our brains to be taken over, turning us into zombies?
Sexuality
We all look for that elusive spark, but what really does ignite a long-lasting relationship? [LONG READ]
Research into intimacy challenges popular notions about sexual fulfilment and a great sex life.
Environment
Planting more trees in cities could cut deaths from summer heat.
History, Archaeology, Anthropology
Palaeontologists have discovered apparently 3 million year old stone tools in Kenya. But who made them?
Fast forward to ancient Egypt and a gold-covered mummy found in newly discovered tombs at Saqqara.
Also at Saqqara scientists have analysed the residue in various pots to thrown more light on Egyptian embalming techniques.
Roll forward a bit more in time and across to Britain where archaeologists have found a trove of lost jewellery in a Roman bathhouse drain near Hadrian’s Wall.
And so to Spain, where a lost medieval synagogue has been revealed in a former Andalusian bar.
Back in Britain, a metal detectorist has unearthed a stunning gold pendant and chain associated With Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon.
There’s a shipwreck just off the south coast of England, near Eastbourne, which turns out to be an important 17th-century Dutch warship.
London
London has a surprising number of abandoned tube stations; here are the stories behind eleven of them.
Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs
Dowsing has long been controversial, but one journalist is brave enough to try it out.
Calmness is important, so here are a few ways in which we can try to achieve it.
And that goes hand-in-hand with meditation without meditating!
Having mastered that here are ten rules of philosophy to live by. [LONG READ]
And finally three items on one of my pet subjects: naturism.
First, how can we normalise naturism in modern society? [LONG READ]
Having done that let’s indulge in Work Naked Day.
Then we can use conscious nudity for enchantment and reconnection with the earth. [LONG READ]
Ten Things: February
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.
Dangerous Elements
- Fluorine
- Polonium
- Plutonium
- Arsenic
- Mercury
- Francium
- Beryllium
- Chromium
- Caesium
- Strontium
Monthly Links
Welcome to this the first of our 2023 round-ups of links to items you my have missed the first time. There’s plenty here, with a lot of long reads, so let’s get going!
Science, Technology, Natural World
Last year London’s Natural History Museum officially named 351 new species, and surprisingly a quarter of them are wasps.
Still at London’s NHM, Anna Turns in the Guardian visits their secret vault of whale skeletons.
Somewhat differently, palaeontologists have been working out the details of sex with Neanderthals. [LONG READ]
And here’s an interview with Nobel laureate Svante Pääbo on understanding Neanderthals.
Turns out there are human only genes which increase brain size. We need to be very careful with them.
On the improvement of synthetic routes to recreational drugs.
It’s the hidden properties of many rare earth elements which have enabled our modern technology. [LONG READ]
Roman concrete was much different from our modern version, and its self-healing properties could benefit modern construction.
Meanwhile, a volcanic eruption in the wrong place could cause havoc for world trade, much worse than a ship stuck in the Suez Canal ever could. [LONG READ]
So what actually happens when a huge ship sinks? How are the worst effects of a disaster averted? [LONG READ]
From lost ships to lost nuclear weapons which no-one can find. [LONG READ]
Which brings us conveniently to a look at the discovery, properties and politics of uranium. [LONG READ]
There’s long been talk of an undiscovered Planet Nine in our solar system, but if it is there why hasn’t it been seen? [LONG READ]
And finally in this section, one for those who like their brain strained … quantum reality is impossible to measure, so how can we possibly understand it? [£££]
Health, Medicine
All is not always what it seems … it appears there is a mystery virus which confers protection against monkeypox. [LONG READ]
In complete contrast, here’s a brief history of the clitoris.
Environment
Fewer and fewer migrant birds are visiting our shores as the climate crisis takes its toll.
Art, Literature, Language, Music
On the peculiarity of American copyright law.
Against which here are five lesbian expressions from the 19th century to remember when watching Gentleman Jack.
History, Archaeology, Anthropology
What do we know about the lives of Neanderthal women? [LONG READ]
Egyptian researchers have used high-tech digital scanning to to look at a 2300 year old mummified boy.
Archaeologists reckon to have found the world’s oldest runestone in Norway.
It seems there was a medieval habit of dividing the night into “two sleeps“. [LONG READ]
A medieval pendant unearthed in Germany has had its secrets unveiled by neutron imaging.
Here’s our favourite medievalist on the gossiping of the female. [LONG READ]
And again we have said medievalist, this time on medieval standards of beauty. [LONG READ]
There were many medieval manuals which taught sword-fighting, but modern experts are unable to decode all the tricks. [LONG READ]
Twenty years ago the remains of a medieval trading ship were discovered in Newport, South Wales. The remains have now been preserved and its custodians now have a huge 2500 piece jigsaw.
Here’s a look at the dilemmas in dating old buildings. [LONG READ]
The blog A London Inheritance goes back 300 years and looks at the London events of 1723. [LONG READ]
Coming almost up to date, the Dutch have released a WWII map purporting to show where a hoard of Nazi treasure is hidden.
Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs
Tom Lamont in the Guardian takes a look at some of the UK’s more ribald placenames.
According to the 2021 census, the fastest growing religion in England & Wales is shamanism. But what is it?
The idea of “love languages” – or how we feel nourished by our partners – has been around for 30 years and does seems to help people.
So this is what the experts suggest about how to be the best possible parent, lover, friend, citizen or tourist.
A look at why the right to protest and dissent is so important.
People
Christina Bowen Bravery on becoming a world champion stone skimmer.
Shock, Horror, Humour, Wow!
One young art student discovers that her pubic hair is a capitalist.
And finally, some incredible images of the eerie shipwrecks in the Baltic Sea.
Ten Things: January
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.
Important Physics Discoveries
- Gravity
- Laws of Motion
- Wheel
- Atomic structure
- Speed of light
- Transistors
- Electromagnetism
- Spectrum of light
- Heliocentric planetary system
- Doppler Effect
Mars & the Moon
(and the Moon too)
and just plant some damn trees.
Just think how much good all that money could do, and how much
environmental refurbishment could be done by just 10% of the money.
Monthly Links
And so to the final 2022 edition of my monthly links to items you may have missed.
Science, Technology, Natural World
There are quite a few scientific discoveries this month, so let’s start at the bottom and work up …
Scientists have discovered what they think is the world’s longest animal off Western Australia: a 45-metre-long deep-sea siphonophore.
Also found in the deep off Madagascar, scientists have named two new species of rare six-gill sawsharks.
Female sexual anatomy is generally poorly studied in all species, and snakes are no exception. So it’s only now that scientists have discovered that female snakes have a clitoris, or two. Two articles: one from Science News, the other from The Scientist.
So what do you find in a museum cupboard? In this case the thought lost pelt and skeleton of the last Thylacine (aka. Tasmanian Tiger).
Still in Australia, a group of female cowgirls, sorry graziers, have discovered the first intact fossilised skull, and most of the body, of a 100m-year-old plesiosaur.
And still going up, scientists have now found that the Tonga volcano eruption last January was larger and more interesting than previously thought.
Finally for this section, the Guardian had a long article on the epic task of shutting down and cleaning up the Sellafield nuclear facility. [LONG READ]
Health, Medicine
Scientists are beginning to rethink their ideas about what actually causes Alzheimer’s Disease. [VERY LONG READ]
Careful scientific analysis shows that Covid vaccines can temporarily disrupt the menstrual cycle – although Covid itself doesn’t. [£££]
There’s been a huge rise in the number of girls questioning their gender identity, and the professionals don’t really understand why. [LONG READ]
Art, Literature, Language, Music
There’s now brouhaha surrounding the artist and sexual abuser Eric Gill, as Ditchling’s museum effectively chooses to totally ignore their most famous artist. (Just don’t get me started! None of this is new, his abuse has been known about for at least 50 years.)
History, Archaeology, Anthropology
The area around Stonehenge continues to throw up important archaeology. Experts have now figured out that some Neolithic stone axes were much later used as part of a goldsmith’s toolkit.
A group of researchers have discovered over 100 previously unknown designs in Peru’s ancient Nazca plain.
Archaeologists in Rutland have uncovered a barn which was converted into a Roman bathing suite (complete with steam room) for use by the house’s owners.
Yet more archaeologists, this time in Northamptonshire, have uncovered an early medieval burial with a stunning necklace. Two reports from the BBC and The Conversation.
London
The Houses of Parliament are probably hiding a medieval river wall.
Food, Drink
Are sweeteners as harmless as we thought? The jury is still out but it looks doubtful. [LONG READ]
Don’t despise the humble Brussels sprout; they contain as much vitamin C as oranges plus many other health benefits.
And while we’re on healthy food, here are six reasons why, despite popular myth, potatoes are good for you.
So microbiologists have found the ancestor of modern brewing yeast, and then discovered it living under their noses in Ireland.
Finally on food, Ali Ahmed Aslam, the inventor of chicken tikka masala, has died aged 77.
Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs
Yes, I am a nudist, so what?
People
And finally for this year, here are 10 reasons why Richard Feynman was more than just a physicist.
Monthly Links
Well then, guys & gals, it’s time for our monthly round up of links to items I thought interesting, and you might too. And having missed last month’s collection we have a lot to catch up on!
Science, Technology, Natural World
The latest research suggests that we Brits are not descended from a single group. Apparently the UK had at least two genetically distinct human groups at end of last ice age.
We, like all apes, have lost our whiskers, but for those animals that still have them they are incredibly important. Here are five things you didn’t know. [VIDEO]
Palaeontologists have been looking at some ancient fish fossils and found they highlight the strangeness of our vertebrate ancestors.
Still with things watery, scientists have discovered living specimens of a clam thought to have gone extinct 40,000 years ago.
Also in the oceans, the denizens of the deep near the Cocos Islands have a array of glassy fangs and glowing fins.
Back on dry land, entomologists are also finding things they thought they’d lost. This time they’ve been searching in Indonesia for surviving colonies of Wallace’s Giant Bee, Megachile pluto. Two stories, first from the Guardian, second from the Smithsonian.
Here’s another oddity … A UK cat charity is looking to find a home for a kitten which is neither male nor female (and no, not intersex either!).
Do we all experience colour in the same way? It’s an intriguing question. Initially you’d say “yes”, but on reflection that would probably change to “no”. So where is the truth?
And here’s another take on colour perception. [LONG READ]
Finally, away from biology … On Saturday 19 November 2022 – yes, that recently! – a tiny asteroid fell from the sky over Ontario, Canada. What’s so special, is that it was spotted just 3½ hours from touchdown, but in that time NASA were able to compute it’s exact impact location.
Health, Medicine
Bird flu (H5N1) is already a huge problem for the poultry industry across Europe with millions of birds being culled. But worryingly a small number of key mutations would make it more easily jump from birds to humans, and to spread between us. And we have no protection beyond lockdown.
Quietly, in their labs, scientists are still working on new Covid-19 vaccines, and they may urn out to work very differently. [LONG READ]
Another approach to controlling Covid-19, and indeed many other infectious diseases, is to use UV light – and scientists think they’ve found a UV wavelength which kills germs but is save for us. [LONG READ]
Now to an old disease … the Black Death of 14th Century is still affecting our health today.
Environment
Conserving the environment and economic progress are not mutually incompatible and dismissing environmentalists as “anti-growth” is wrong. [££££]
Art, Literature, Language, Music
Harry Mount (Editor of The Oldie) takes a look at the importance and joy of rude Latin graffiti.
History, Archaeology, Anthropology
Archaeologists working to reconstruct the ancient Mashki Gate in northern Iraq have unearthed beautiful rock carvings that are about 2,700 years old.
Here’s the latest article looking at the Antikythera Mechanism and what it is. [LONG READ]
Two stories on an exceptional collection of 24 ancient bronze statues found immersed in a Tuscan spa.
Analysis of gold coins found in Transylvania in 1713 suggest that the “fake” Roman Emperor Sponsian was actually real.
Now here’s our favourite medieval historian on the maintenance of monarchical succession. [LONG READ]
Meanwhile the Mediaeval Mythbusting blog looks at sex, stonemasons and the sacred. [LONG READ]
Just slightly more up to date, History Today takes a look at Tudor beds.
London
It seems the defunct Whitechapel Bell Foundry is up for sale as the American developers cannot fulfil their development plans. The London Bell Foundry are trying to acquire the site and restore it as a bell foundry.
Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs
At times we all hesitate to be kind when opportunity knocks, but psychologist Claudia Hammond maintains we should all be much less hesitant. [LONG READ]
Still on the psychological, British Naturism looks at the role of nudity in improving mental health.
And finally … Two looks at the work of Architect Peter Barber who is designing some extraordinary housing developments which get right way from the “bloody boring brown Lego architecture” (to quote an acquaintance) and high-rise.
Monthly Links
Here’s this month’s collection of links to items you may have missed – with minimal reference to last week’s state funeral.
Science, Technology, Natural World
It’s that time of year when we celebrate the Ig Nobel Prizes. [LONG READ]
In yet another round of modelling calculations, based on detailed measurements, scientists are suggesting that Saturn’s tilt and its ring system may be down to a missing moon.
Palaeontologists have studied growth lines and elements preserved in fossil teeth of Pantolambda bathmodon (a sheep-sized mammal and one of the first to expand into large-animal niches left vacant by the extinction of the dinosaurs) to reconstruct its day-to-day life.
There really are some strange creatures in the ocean depths; here’s one with eyes for a head.
Returning from the depths, Japanese scientists have found that tweezers modelled on a crow’s beak outperform our traditional design. [£££]
It might surprise you to know that bees and ants are both descended from primordial waasps. While we like bees, we mostly dislike ants and wasps. But ants are interesting, and incredibly useful in their own right.
Health, Medicine
Good grief! Archaeologists in Borneo have discovered the remains of a youngster who had a successful foot amputation 31,000 years ago!
I think we’ve been told about this before, but there is a Scottish woman who can smell if people have Parkinson’s disease years before they have symptoms – and she’s helping scientists develop a test.
Good news for some of us! A study has found that drinking tea may be linked to a lower risk of early death.
Sexuality
Scientists in Japan appear to have shown that significant female emission at orgasm is release fluid from the bladder. I cannot get my head round who would do this experiment, and who would willingly consent to being one of the guinea pigs. [£££]
Environment
A camera trap in south west London appears to have captured images of a wild pine marten; the first spotted in London for over 100 years. And it’s a damn good walk from the nearest known population.
Social Sciences, Business, Law
We’ll have just these two items on the Queen’s funeral, both about The Queue. They’re from Prof. Steve Reicher, a specialist in crowd behaviour from St Andrew’s University.
First: Don’t be fooled that everyone queueing in London is mourning the Queen.
Second: How the wait to see the Queen’s coffin transformed people.
Expect a lot more sociology on this in months and years to come.
Art, Literature, Language, Music
Actually, I sort of fibbed to you! Here’s another item related to the late Queen. Five photographers recall what it was like photographing Her Majesty.
History, Archaeology, Anthropology
A fairly thin history section this month with just two items on the medieval.
Medieval pilgrim badges were not always entirely wholesome: it seems the pilgrims often used bawdy badges as talismen to protect against plague an the like.
DNA analysis suggests that a significant find of Jewish remains in Norwich are the victims of a medieval pogrom.
London
Here’s one about my childhood stamping grounds. Bell Common, Upshire, Essex which is the alleged site of Boadicea’s last stand – except it isn’t; that obelisk is a conceit.
London blogger Diamond Geezer has been trying to set foot in every one of the 1463 1km grid squares within Greater London. And he’s down to the last few.
First he visits square TQ1575 and the Mogden Sewage Works in Hounslow.
Then he reported that he was down to two unvisited squares – no, make that one, and that last one was unvisitable as it’s in the middle of airside at Heathrow.
Oh but wait! Apparently it isn’t entirely airside, and you can legally set foot in that last square. Result: every one of the 1463 squares visited!
It’s nerdy perhaps, but that has to be some achievement!
Book Review: Endless Forms
Seirian Sumner
Endless Forms: The Secret World of Wasps
Collins; 2022
This is a book about wasps. It isn’t a book of wasps; not a field guide; nor an academic description of the minutiae of wasps. But it is about wasps.
Prof. Seirian Sumner (full disclosure: I have met her) has devoted her academic life to studying wasps, and specifically (but not only) social wasps like our friendly picnic-bothering yellowjacket. So this could have been an academic tome, but it isn’t. Instead it is a very accessible 380 pages of description which takes us through the world of wasps: what they are, how and why they work – and indeed why some seem unreasonably interested in our picnics. All of that is held together with stories and anecdotes about often hair-raising research field trips; some successful, others a total disaster.
With around 100,000 known species in the world, wasps are important: as predators and parasites of other insects, and as pollinators. No, don’t panic as the vast majority of those 100,000 species are solitary wasps; many are tiny (2mm or less) and most don’t sting. There are only 74 known species of hornets and yellowjackets worldwide, and it is these yellowjackets which bother our picnics. This is something which Seirian stresses and explains: they may be after a share of your chicken or burger; or late in the summer a share of your strawberry jam. Give them a share, on the side, at the other end of the table and they’ll generally leave you alone. Oh and DO NOT go flapping around: that’s the surest way to annoy them and get stung as you’ll remind them of their arch-predator, the badger.
Most of the social wasps are hunters, after juicy morsels of meat (usually arthropods, but also carrion) to feed their brood. The solitary wasps hunt too: some are predators of a meat feast for their young; others lay eggs on the still living meat to parasitise them. Yes, Nature is gruesome, but without wasp pest controllers we’d be knee deep in creepie-crawlies. Seirian estimates that even in a bad year a social yellowjacket nest can get through almost 300,000 arthropods; it can be 8-10 times that in a bumper year. That’s a lot of caterpillars!
And to cap it all? Without the ancestral wasps, we would have neither ants nor bees for both groups are descendants of ancient wasps. Ants are wasps which (mostly) lost their wings. Bees are wasps which forgot how to hunt. Social wasps are unusual in that they too have learnt to live in colonies.
Seirian takes us through all of this. How did wasps develop such a multitude of forms. Their lifestyles and how the societies of social wasps work. Why they’re important. How scientists have managed to work all this out.
This is a fascinating book, well written, eminently readable, and almost chatty. I found it hard to put down and had to restrict myself to a couple of chapters a night in order to not burn too much (expensive) midnight oil. I guarantee you’ll come away with a totally different view of wasps.
Overall Rating: ★★★★★