(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday Nov 30, 2024 [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-11-30 The crew of the Overnight News Digest consists of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, jeremybloom, Magnifico, annetteboardman, Rise above the swamp, Besame and jck. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) eeff, Interceptor 7, Man Oh Man, wader, Neon Vincent, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck (RIP), rfall, ScottyUrb, Doctor RJ, BentLiberal, Oke (RIP) and jlms qkw. OND is a regular community feature on Daily Kos since 2007, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing each day near 12:00 AM Eastern Time. Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments. Aloha! I am new to writing this digest so please feel free to give me advice or point out mistakes. Mahalo! I feel like a Paleolithic hunter, tracking down the prey and bring home the game. I hope you enjoy the feast. *** From Universe Today "Astronomers often use the Milky Way as a standard for studying how galaxies form and evolve. Since we’re inside it, astronomers can study it in detail with advanced telescopes. By examining it in different wavelengths, astronomers and astrophysicists can understand its stellar population, its gas dynamics, and its other characteristics in far more detail than distant galaxies. However, new research that examines 101 of the Milky Way’s kin shows how it differs from them." Universe Today We live in a weird galaxy. Why does that not surprise me? *** From Phys • Org "Research by astronomers and computer scientists at the University of Hawaiʻi Institute for Astronomy (IfA) could revolutionize our understanding of the sun. The study, part of the "SPIn4D" project, combines cutting-edge solar astronomy with advanced computer science to analyze data from the world's largest ground-based solar telescope atop Haleakalā, Maui." Phys.org *** From SciTechDaily "Scientists have discovered a significant drop in Earth’s freshwater supplies since 2014, influenced by factors including severe droughts, expanded agricultural demands, and climatic events such as El Niño. These observations, gathered through NASA and German satellite data, suggest a potentially long-term dry phase for the planet, exacerbating concerns over global warming’s impact on natural water storage and its availability for human and agricultural use." SciTechDaily This a source of deep concern. Historically, arid periods in the temperate zone have led to wars and civilizational collapse. *** From Archaeology Magazine "According to a Hürriyet Daily News report, archaeologists have uncovered two fragments of terracotta figurines in the southern province of Hatay within Antakya's Küçükdalyan neighborhood. A team led by Hatice Pamir of Hatay Mustafa Kemal University uncovered an area including a hippodrome, temple, and palace complex. At the site of the hippodrome, archaeologists unearthed a head that dates to the second century B.C., which may have been part of a child's toy, as well as the head and partial body of a figure that likely depicts an individual ancient philosophers referred to as a "sophist." This figure, which dates to between 300 and 200 B.C. during the early Hellenistic period, was likely cast by an artist without a mold." Archaeology The area known as Turkey today has a long and varied history. For centuries it was known as Anatolia and inhabited by Greeks. *** From Sci News "Pterosaurs were highly successful flying reptiles (not dinosaurs, as they’re commonly mislabeled) that lived between 210 and 65 million years ago. They were Earth’s first flying vertebrates, with birds and bats making their appearances much later. Some pterosaurs, such as the giant azhdarchids, were the largest flying animals of all time, with wingspans exceeding 9 m (30 feet) and standing heights comparable to modern giraffes. "Pterosaurs, the earliest vertebrate group to achieve powered flight, have left a fossil record spanning from the Late Triassic to the Cretaceous/Paleogene boundary, showcasing a remarkable morphological diversity,” said Mifune Dinosaur Museum’s Dr. Naoki Ikegami, São Paulo University’s Dr. Rodrigo Pêgas and their colleagues." Sci.news Every day paleontologists find new fossils and unearth new species. The stones of the earth are a book full of endless mysteries. *** From Scientific American "A finger-sized clay cylinder from a tomb in northern Syria appears to be the oldest example of writing using an alphabet rather than hieroglyphs or cuneiform. Researchers may have deciphered the oldest known scrap of alphabetic writing yet discovered, and it may be a nearly 4,500-year-old gift tag. A clay cylinder found in a tomb holding six skeletons in northern Syria bears the word “silanu,” which may be a name, says Glenn Schwartz, an archaeologist at Johns Hopkins University. Schwartz discovered the finger-sized cylinder, along with three others bearing similar etchings, in a tomb at Tell Umm el-Marra, an ancient city that sits between modern-day Aleppo and the Euphrates River." "It changes the entire narrative of how the alphabet was introduced,” Schwartz says. Small holes drilled into the cylinders could have been used to string them on thread. As such, the clay structures could have served as labels for goods; Sinalu might have been either the recipient or sender of some of the jars of food and beverage placed in the tomb to accompany its occupants into the afterlife, Schwartz says. The tomb likely belonged to a wealthy and powerful family in the city." Scientific American Fossils are not the only stories to be found in the book of earth. Archaeologists also uncover mysteries. *** "A tiny, four-fingered "hand" folded from a single piece of DNA can pick up the virus that causes COVID-19 for highly sensitive rapid detection and can even block viral particles from entering cells to infect them, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers report. Dubbed the NanoGripper, the nanorobotic hand also could be programmed to interact with other viruses or to recognize cell surface markers for targeted drug delivery, such as for cancer treatment. Led by Xing Wang, a professor of bioengineering and of chemistry at the U. of I., the researchers describe their advance in the journal Science Robotics." Phys.org/news Second article from this source, but it was too good to pass up. *** I hope you enjoyed my efforts here. I will be back in 2 weeks. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/11/30/2288719/-Overnight-News-Digest-Science-Saturday-Nov-30-2024?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/