Kate Rauner's Blog, page 2

The Future is Here – first de-extincted animals – now what? #extinction #environment

Ten thousand years ago, North America’s last Dire Wolf died, perhaps because the mega-fauna they hunted also died out as the Ice Age ended. But they left fossils and DNA behind. Can modern genetics re-create the lost species? Plenty of dire wolf remains have been discovered across the Americas, however, and that presented an opportunity […]

Lunar Eclipses and Lightning Strikes at Sea – I’d Never Have Guessed #Weather #pollution #BloodMoon

Lightning often strikes twice in the same place, because that’s a good place to complete the path from sky to surface. What’s one of the things that makes for a good path to ground? Maybe this is obvious to some, but it surprised me. For decades, ship emissions steadily rose as increasing global trade drove […]

Lead Poisoning and Enlightened Self-Interest #health #mentalhealth #leadpoisoning

Since the 2nd century BC, people have realized that lead is toxic. An engineer for Julius Caesar wrote, “water is much more wholesome from earthenware pipes than from lead pipes.” Wikipedia Those old Romans even used lead acetate, which tastes sweet, to improve their wine. Whether lead poisoning truly contributed to the fall of the […]

Woolly Mice – Step Toward De-Extincting Woolly Mammoth? #extinction #environment

Scientists at Colossal Biosciences have an interesting take on returning extinct animals to their previous ecosystems. Take a similar living creature and genetically engineer traits that made the lost species uniquely adapted. The company is working on dodo birds and Tasmanian tigers, but the big headlines go to the woolly mammoth. This approach is aimed […]

Tomb Ancient Egypt’s Eighteenth Dynasty Discovered & Identified #Egypt

A tomb of an ancient Egyptian king, discovered in the Valley of the Kings in 2022, has now been identified. Thutmose II, the last of the lost tombs of the kings of ancient Egypt’s Eighteenth Dynasty, which reigned for over two centuries between about 1550 BC and 1292 BC. It’s the first royal Egyptian tomb […]

What is Science Fiction Today? #scifibooks #science fiction

I ran across this piece recently. Are plot driven scifi stories obsolete? And, do readers no longer want to contemplate grand ideas? Where does that leave works like Wells’ War of the Worlds & The Time Machine? Asimov’s Foundation or The Last Question? Clark’s 9 Billion Names of God or, need I even say it, […]

Citizen Archivists Unlock History #history

I’m a fan of citizen scientists, and I see other fields benefit from volunteers too. The National Archives is loaded with old documents, but even AI can’t read some of them. Not well enough. History may be lost, even as we hold the documents in our hands. That’s where human volunteers come in. By transcribing […]

Let’s Build a Star in a Bottle #physics #fusion

Consider the Sun. No, don’t stare at it, you’ll damage your eyes (not not only during an eclipse – never stare at the Sun.) Just… think. The Sun burns via fusion. Atomic nuclei in an immensely strong gravitational field combine to produce a new element, and release subatomic particles and energy. Lots of energy. Why […]

Time to Remember #merrychristmas #merryXmas

European-art-Jesus, when shown preaching, looks like a rich Roman. But he was a poor Judean. Do people today know much about the true-life Jesus? Does it matter? Some years ago I read a book by Bart D. Ehrman, a scholar of the New Testament and early Christianity. He wrote about the historical Jesus, someone believers […]

Black Pod Disease is Coming for Your Chocolate #chocolate #biology

Is chocolate an endangered species? Cocoa trees are vulnerable to black pod disease, a fungus found in tropical areas that spreads during heavy rainfalls. It can cause a third of the crop to be lost, and kills a good number of trees. Farmers are fighting the disease with chemicals, biological controls, and better sanitation. So […]