SCIENCES ENERGIES ENVIRONNEMENT

 

VOICI MON PROGRAMME DE TRADUCTIONS 

Dear olivier hartmanshenn,

Here is your customized Science X Newsletter for week 41:

	Could a new law of physics support the idea we're living in a computer simulation? A University of Portsmouth physicist has explored whether a new law of physics could support the much-debated theory that we are simply characters in an advanced virtual world.
	Roundup herbicide ingredient connected to epidemic levels of chronic kidney disease For the past couple of decades, tens of thousands of people living in rural Sri Lanka have been devastated by kidney failure due to unclear causes, also known as CKDu. Similar incidences of mysterious kidney diseases have emerged in tropical farming communities around the world.
	Flipped coins found not to be as fair as thought A large team of researchers affiliated with multiple institutions across Europe, has found evidence backing up work by Persi Diaconis in 2007 in which he suggested tossed coins are more likely to land on the same side they started on, rather than on the reverse. The team conducted experiments designed to test the randomness of coin flipping and posted their results on the arXiv preprint server.
	Using different flours for sourdough fosters different bacteria—and flavors A new study of the microbial ecosystem in sourdough finds that using different types of flour fosters distinct bacterial communities, and that these differences contribute to the variation of sourdough aromas and flavors.
	Researchers find pre-Columbian agave plants persisting in Arizona landscapes A new paper in the Annals of Botany reveals that researchers have found unaltered agave plant species cultivated by several early cultures including the Hohokam people, a large Native American group in the Southwest that existed between 300 and 1500 CE.
	New research offers a theory on how gold, platinum, and other precious metals found their way into Earth's mantle Scientists at Yale and the Southwest Research Institute (SRI) say they've hit the jackpot with some valuable new information about the story of gold.
	Thousands of programmable DNA-cutters found in algae, snails, and other organisms A diverse set of species, from snails to algae to amoebas, make programmable DNA-cutting enzymes called Fanzors—and a new study from scientists at MIT's McGovern Institute for Brain Research has identified thousands of them. Fanzors are RNA-guided enzymes that can be programmed to cut DNA at specific sites, much like the bacterial enzymes that power the widely used gene-editing system known as CRISPR. The newly recognized diversity of natural Fanzor enzymes, reported Sept. 27 in the journal Science Advances, gives scientists an extensive set of programmable enzymes that might be adapted into new tools for research or medicine.
	New research shows why hunting for the cheapest plane ticket is a waste of your time Buy your ticket on a Tuesday. Search in your browser's incognito mode. Use a VPN to pretend you live in Suriname.
	Research finds dramatic increase in cranial traumas as the first cities were being built, suggesting a rise in violence The development of the earliest cities in Mesopotamia and the Middle East led to a substantial increase in violence between inhabitants. Laws, centralized administration, trade and culture then caused the ratio of violent deaths to fall back again in the Early and Middle Bronze Age (3,300 to 1,500 BCE). This is the conclusion of an international team of researchers from the Universities of Tübingen, Barcelona and Warsaw. Their results were published in Nature Human Behaviour.
	Beyond the periodic table: Superheavy elements and ultradense asteroids Some asteroids have measured densities higher than those of any elements known to exist on Earth. This suggests that they are at least partly composed of unknown types of "ultradense" matter that cannot be studied by conventional physics.
	Reexamination of ancient jawbone found in Ethiopia concludes it came from Homo erectus infant An international team of geoscientists, archaeologists and anthropologists has found evidence that strongly suggests an infant jawbone found in the Ethiopian highlands came from a Homo erectus child. In their study, reported in the journal Science, the group conducted multiple tests to learn the true nature of the fossil.
	Officially extinct fish is alive and well, according to DNA analyses The houting, a fish species that lived in North Sea estuaries and is officially extinct, turns out to be alive and well. Researchers from the University of Amsterdam and the Natural History Museum London extracted DNA from multiple houtings conserved in the museum, up to 250+ years old. Next they compared the DNA of these museum fish with DNA from various currently occurring sibling species. The biologists found hardly any genetic difference between houting and a species called European whitefish. Since this species is still common, houting therefore isn't extinct.
	Discovery of half-million-year-old wooden structure shows we're wrong to underestimate our ancient relatives To most people, complex technologies separate modern humans from their ancestors who lived in the Stone Age, thousands or hundreds of thousands of years ago. In today's fast changing world, older technologies, even those from a few years ago, are often described dismissively as "Stone Age."
	NASA's Webb captures an ethereal view of NGC 346 Within a neighboring dwarf galaxy known as the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) lies a dramatic region of star birth—NGC 346, shown here. As the brightest and largest star-forming region in the SMC, it has been studied intensely by a variety of telescopes. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope showed a visible-light view filled with thousands of stars. More recently, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope offered a near-infrared vista highlighting both cool and warm dust. Now, Webb has turned its mid-infrared gaze to NGC 346, revealing streamers of gas and dust studded with bright patches filled with young protostars.
	Saturday Citations: Gravitational waves, time travel and the simulated universe hypothesis This week, researchers proved empirically that life isn't fair. Also, you'll notice that, in a superhuman display of restraint, I managed to write a paragraph about the simulated universe hypothesis without once referencing "The Matrix." (Except for this reference.)
	Long-term lizard study challenges the rules of evolutionary biology Charles Darwin said that evolution was constantly happening, causing animals to adapt for survival. But many of his contemporaries disagreed. If evolution is always causing things to change, they asked, then how is it that two fossils from the same species, found in the same location, can look identical despite being 50 million years apart in age?
	Neanderthal cuisine: Excavations reveal Neanderthals were as intelligent as Homo sapiens The fact that Neanderthals were able to make a fire and use it, among other things, for cooking, demonstrates their intelligence. "This confirms our observations and theories from previous studies," explains Diego Angelucci, archaeologist at the University of Trento and co-author of the study.
	Research suggests commonly-used herbicide is harmful to adolescent brain function Herbicides are the most used class of pesticides worldwide, with uses in agriculture, homes and industry. Exposures to two of the most popular herbicides were associated with worse brain function among adolescents, according to a study led by researchers at the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science at University of California San Diego.
	Neanderthals hunted dangerous cave lions, study shows Neanderthals hunted cave lions and used the skin of this dangerous carnivore, a new study has shown for the first time.
	The race is on for a new internet Europe is pushing to create a network infrastructure based on quantum physics.