SCIENCES.ENERGIES.ENVIRONNEMENT: SCIENCES ENERGIES ENVIRONNEMNT

Les Dear olivier hartmanshenn,

Here is your customized Science X Newsletter for week 38:

	RNA has been recovered from an extinct species for the first time A new study shows the isolation and sequencing of more than a century-old RNA molecules from a Tasmanian tiger specimen preserved at room temperature in a museum collection. This resulted in the reconstruction of skin and skeletal muscle transcriptomes from an extinct species for the first time.
	Jewel of the forest: New electric blue tarantula species discovered in Thailand In an exciting discovery, a new species of tarantula with electric blue coloration was found in Thailand.
	Spider silk is spun by silkworms for the first time, offering a green alternative to synthetic fibers Scientists in China have synthesized spider silk from genetically modified silkworms, producing fibers six times tougher than the Kevlar used in bulletproof vests.
	New Indo-European language discovered during excavation in Turkey An excavation in Turkey has brought to light an unknown Indo-European language. Professor Daniel Schwemer, an expert for the ancient Near East, is involved in investigating the discovery.
	Mature sperm lack intact mitochondrial DNA, study finds New research provides insight about the bedrock scientific principle that mitochondrial DNA—the distinct genetic code embedded in the organelle that serves as the powerplant of every cell in the body—is exclusively passed down by the mother.
	Study finds human-driven mass extinction is eliminating entire branches of the tree of life The passenger pigeon. The Tasmanian tiger. The Baiji, or Yangtze river dolphin. These rank among the best-known recent victims of what many scientists have declared the sixth mass extinction, as human actions are wiping out vertebrate animal species hundreds of times faster than they would otherwise disappear.
	The fundamental process behind memory has been captured live Researchers from the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience have, for the first time, witnessed nerve plasticity in the axon in motion.
	Parasitic plant convinces hosts to grow into its own flesh—it's also an extreme example of genome shrinkage If you happen to come across plants of the Balanophoraceae family in a corner of a forest, you might easily mistake them for fungi growing around tree roots. Their mushroom-like structures are actually inflorescences, composed of minute flowers.
	Theoretical study shows that Kerr black holes could amplify new physics Black holes are regions in space characterized by extremely strong gravity, which prevents all matter and electromagnetic waves from escaping it. These fascinating cosmic bodies have been the focus of countless research studies, yet their intricate physical nuances are yet to be fully uncovered.
	How bats evolved to avoid cancer A new paper titled "Long-read sequencing reveals rapid evolution of immunity and cancer-related genes in bats" in Genome Biology and Evolution shows that rapid evolution in bats may account for the animals' extraordinary ability to both host and survive infections as well as avoid cancer.
	New study disproves Leonardo da Vinci's 'rule of trees' A "rule of trees" developed by Leonardo da Vinci to describe how to draw trees has been largely adopted by science when modeling trees and how they function.
	Large fossil spider found in Australia A team of Australian scientists led by Australian Museum (AM) and University of New South Wales (UNSW) paleontologist Dr. Matthew McCurry have formally named and described a fossil spider, Megamonodontium mccluskyi, which is between 11–16 million years old. The findings on this new genus of spider have now been published in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.
	Ancient human remains buried in Spanish caves were subsequently manipulated and utilized Caves served as sites for burial and later modification of human remains for thousands of years in the Iberian Peninsula, according to a study published September 20, 2023, in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Zita Laffranchi and Marco Milella of the University of Bern, Switzerland, and Rafael Martinez Sanchez, Universidad de Córdoba, Spain, and colleagues.
	A model probing the connection between entangled particles and wormholes in general relativity Quantum entanglement is a physical process through which pairs of particles become connected and remain so even when separated by vast distances. This fascinating phenomenon has been the focus of numerous research studies, due to its mysterious nature and promising real-world applications.
	Scientists discover nanofabrication of photonic crystals on buried ancient Roman glass Some 2,000 years ago in ancient Rome, glass vessels carrying wine or water, or perhaps an exotic perfumes, tumble from a table in a marketplace, and shatter to pieces on the street. As centuries passed, the fragments were covered by layers of dust and soil and exposed to a continuous cycle of changes in temperature, moisture, and surrounding minerals.
	Plate tectonics 4 billion years ago may have helped initiate life on Earth The Earth's oldest surface layer forming continents, termed its crust, is approximately 4 billion years old and is comprised of 25–50km-thick volcanic rocks known as basalts. Originally, scientists thought that one complete lithospheric crust covered the entire planet, compared to the individual plates we see today which were believed to have only begun formation 1 billion years later. However, attitudes towards this hypothesis are being challenged.
	Box of donated artifacts turns out to be treasure trove of Neanderthal bones A team of historians, paleontologists and biologists affiliated with institutions across Spain has discovered that a box of artifacts donated to a museum in Spain back in 1986 contained a treasure trove of Neanderthal bones. In their paper published in the journal Frontiers in Earth Science, the group describes the history of the bones, how they turned up at a museum and what the group has learned about the objects so far.
	Pollen analysis suggests dispersal of modern humans occurred during a major Pleistocene warming spell It's an Ice Age mystery that's been debated for decades among anthropologists: Exactly when and how did the flow of Homo sapiens in Eurasia happen? Did a cold snap or a warming spell drive early human movement from Africa into Europe and Asia?
	NASA's Curiosity rover reaches Mars ridge where water left debris pileup Three billion years ago, amid one of the last wet periods on Mars, powerful debris flows carried mud and boulders down the side of a hulking mountain. The debris spread into a fan that was later eroded by wind into a towering ridge, preserving an intriguing record of the Red Planet's watery past.
	Florida pays python hunters to clear the Everglades. Ten years later, is it working? Monsters slither throughout the crooked mangroves and serrated sawgrass of Florida's Everglades, 20 feet long and up to 200 pounds of sinewy muscle built by devouring everything in their path.