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☆ Remarkable fossils reveal jellyfish that lived 505 million years ago
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-02 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —The oldest examples of swimming jellyfish, which lived in Earth’s oceans 505 million years ago, have been discovered high within the Canadian Rockies. The multitude of Burgessomedusa phasmiformis fossils at the site showed that large, swimming bell-shaped jellyfish evolved more than 500 million years ago. The Burgess Shale was first discovered in 1909 by Charles D. Walcott, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. The more that researchers study fossils from the Burgess Shale, the more complex the ancient food chain becomes. “This adds yet another remarkable lineage of animals that the Burgess Shale has preserved chronicling the evolution of life on Earth.”

Persons: Burgess, Jean, Bernard Caron, Medusozoans, ”, Joe Moysiuk, Desmond Collins, Raymond Quarry, Charles D, Walcott, Royal Ontario Museum’s Richard Ivey Organizations: CNN, Canadian Rockies, Royal Ontario Museum, Royal Society, University of Toronto, Royal Ontario, Smithsonian Institution Locations: Burgess, Canada's, British Columbia, Washington ,

☆ 505-Million-Year-Old Jellyfish Fossils May Be the Oldest Ever Found
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-01 | by ( Jack Tamisiea | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Jellyfish have been floating through Earth’s oceans seemingly forever. They rarely show up in the fossil record because jellyfish are 95 percent water and are prone to rapid decay. But Dr. Caron and other scientists recently described a cache of jellyfish fossils from the Cambrian period that found an improbable pathway to preservation. In a paper published on Wednesday in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the scientists posit that these 505-million-year-old animals are among the oldest swimming jellyfish known to science. “These new fossils represent the most compelling evidence of Cambrian jellyfish to date,” said David Gold, a paleobiologist at the University of California, Davis, who was not involved in the new study.

Persons: ”, Jean, Bernard Caron, Caron, David Gold, Davis Organizations: Royal Ontario Museum, Royal Society B, University of California Locations: Toronto

☆ The Prize for the Longest Pregnancy in Mammals May Go to This Whale
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-25 | by ( Miriam Fauzia | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For animals that humans almost drove into extinction, there’s a lot about whales we still don’t know. Consider the bowhead whale in particular. “But even today, we’re still learning very basic things about the reproductive cycle of animals like these. That would edge out elephant pregnancies — the longest known within the mammalian kingdom — by a month. Their findings, published on Wednesday in the journal Royal Society Open Science, illuminate the complexities underlying the whale’s population growth, which Dr. Lysiak hopes can guide conservation efforts, especially as an inhospitable climate looms.

Persons: ”, Nadine Lysiak, Lysiak Organizations: Royal Society Open Science

☆ 27,000-year-old pendants crafted from the skin of extinct giant sloths could help rewrite the human history of the Americas
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-15 | by ( Alia Shoaib | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Researchers found what appeared to be pendants made from the now-extinct giant sloth. It suggests humans lived in South America thousands of years earlier than previously thought. "It's very likely that multiple waves of people came to Americas," she said, according to The AP. Giant ground sloths could reach 13 feet long, weighed more than a thousand pounds and were equivalent in size to an Indian elephant. It walked on all fours and was one of the largest creatures in South America, per the report.

Persons: Mirian Liza Alves Forancelli Pacheco, Jeffrey Greenberg, Briana, paleoanthropologist Organizations: Service, Royal Society B, Royal, North America, Federal University of Sao, Associated Press, Universal, AP, Smithsonian Institution's National, of Locations: South America, Wall, Silicon, Siberia, Alaska, South, North, Federal University of Sao Carlos, Brazil, Florida, Americas, Washington

☆ ‘They’re Outsmarting Us’: Birds Build Nests From Anti-Bird Spikes
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-13 | by ( Emily Anthes | More About Emily Anthes | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The crows seemed to use the spikes differently, turning the sharp pins toward the interior of the nest. Although the idea remains unproven, positioning the spikes this way might provide the nests with more structural support, Mr. Hiemstra speculated. It is not entirely clear whether the birds are simply using the spikes because they are available — in the urban wild, they might be easier to come by than thorny branches — or whether they might be even better suited for the job than natural materials are. But the use of artificial nesting materials is common across the avian universe, according to a new review of the scientific literature by Dr. Mainwaring and his colleagues, which was published in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B on Monday. They found reports of tens of thousands of nests — built by 176 different bird species, on every continent except for Antarctica — that contained artificial materials, including plastic bags, cloth straps, fishing line, paper towels, dental floss, rubber bands and cigarette butts.

Persons: Hiemstra, Mainwaring Organizations: Royal Society

☆ Ancient pendants made from giant sloth bones suggest humans were in Americas earlier than thought
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-12 | by ( Katie Hunt | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

While G. phoenesis was thought to have been a relatively small species of giant sloth, some ancient sloth species were so big that their fossilized burrows are now caves in southern Brazil that humans can walk through. One of the three pendants made from giant sloth bone. However, Pansani said the team dated other material — sediment, charcoal and other giant sloth bones — from the same layer as where the artifacts were recovered. Many experts are skeptical that humans occupied the Americas any earlier than 16,000 years ago, the study noted. For the new study, Pacheco said the team hadn’t considered the possibility of trying to extract genetic material from the sloth-bone pendants.

Persons: —, Thais Pansani, Federal University of São Carlos, phoenesis, Thaís Pansani, Pierre Gueriau, Mírian Pacheco, Pacheco, ” Pansani, Pansani, “, ” Pacheco, hadn’t, ” Organizations: CNN, Federal University of São, Paleobiology, Royal Society Locations: Brazil, Santa, Americas, South America, New Mexico, Russia

☆ Ancient shrimplike predator was misunderstood, according to new research
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-04 | by ( Katie Hunt | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. CNN —With appendages growing out of its head and an armored mouth, an ancient shrimplike creature was thought to be the quintessential apex predator of its time. The 2-foot-long (0.6-meter-long) Anomalocaris canadensis was one of the largest marine animals to live 508 million years ago. The model was based on a well-preserved but flattened fossil found in the Burgess Shale formation in the Canadian Rockies. The marine animal was one of the largest of its time.

Persons: ”, Russell Bicknell, Anomalocaris canadensis Bicknell, Bicknell, ” Bicknell Organizations: CNN, American Museum, Natural, University of New, Canadian Rockies, Royal Society Locations: University of New England, Australia, Germany, China, Switzerland, United Kingdom

☆ John Goodenough, Nobel laureate and battery pioneer, dies at 100
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] John B. Goodenough, 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry winner, speaks during a news conference at the Royal Society in London, Britain October 9, 2019. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls/File PhotoJune 26 (Reuters) - Nobel laureate John Goodenough, a pioneer in the development of lithium-ion batteries that today power millions of electric vehicles around the globe, died on Sunday just a month short of his 101st birthday. In recent years, Goodenough and his university team had also been exploring new directions for energy storage, including a “glass” battery with solid-state electrolyte and lithium or sodium metal electrodes. Goodenough also was an early developer of lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cathodes as an alternative to nickel- and cobalt-based cathodes. After completing a bachelors in mathematics at Yale University, Goodenough received an masters and a PhD in physics from the University of Chicago.

Persons: John B, Goodenough, Peter Nicholls, John Goodenough, “, Jay Hartzell, Britain's Stanley Whittingham, Japan's Akira Yoshino, Paul Lienert Organizations: Royal Society, REUTERS, University of Texas, Chemistry, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Yale University, University of Chicago, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Oxford, Thomson Locations: London, Britain, Austin, Jena, Germany, Detroit

☆ How a 3.2-million-year-old human relative named Lucy walked
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-13 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Lucy's fossil includes 40% of her skeleton, one of the most complete Australopith fossils found to date. Edwin Remsberg/Alamy Stock PhotoAnalysis of Lucy’s fossil over the past 20 years has suggested that she and others of her species walked upright. Then, she used scans of Lucy’s fossil to determine how her joints were articulated and moved in life. Muscle modeling of Lucy, dubbed "AL 288-1," is compared side by side with human muscle maps. “Lucy likely walked and moved in a way that we do not see in any living species today,” Wiseman said.

Persons: “ Lucy, ”, Lucy, Edwin Remsberg, Dr, Ashleigh L.A, Wiseman, didn’t, Isaac Newton, waddle, Dr Ashleigh Wiseman, ” Wiseman, “ Organizations: CNN, Sky, Royal Society Open Science, University of Cambridge, Leverhulme, Isaac, Isaac Newton Trust, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research Locations: Ethiopia, United Kingdom

☆ This Extinct Dolphin Had Tusks That Fish Were Wise to Avoid
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-13 | by ( Jack Tamisiea | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The waters off New Zealand 25 million years ago were home to early baleen whales, megatooth sharks and human-size penguins. Now researchers are adding a bizarre dolphin to the mix that may have used tusklike teeth to thrash prey into submission. “Mentally, I just couldn’t figure out what could possibly need teeth like that,” Dr. Coste said. In a paper published Wednesday in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Dr. Coste and her colleagues described the snaggletoothed dolphin as a unique species, Nihohae matakoi. The curious cetacean’s genus, Nihohae, is a combination of the Maori words for “teeth” and “slashing.”

Persons: Amber Coste, Coste Organizations: New Zealand, University of Otago, Royal Society B Locations: New, Otago

☆ Lessons from the original Industrial Revolution
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-09 | by ( Edward Chancellor | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

These are brilliantly described by Martin Hutchinson, a former Breakingviews columnist, in his new book “Forging Modernity: Why and How Britain Developed the Industrial Revolution”. In fact, several pioneers of the Industrial Revolution were self-taught. The Industrial Revolution can be viewed as the world’s first successful energy transition. The task of financing the Industrial Revolution fell to banks that were scattered across the country, some 800 in all. We are so accustomed to the economic growth sparked by the Industrial Revolution that we tend to view economic expansion as pretty much inevitable.

Persons: Martin Hutchinson, King Charles I, Charles, Duke, Bridgewater, Hutchinson, Josiah Wedgwood, Trent, Samuel, Richard, Adam Smith, William Pitt the Younger, Lord Liverpool, Smith, ”, “, Adam Smith’s, Peter Thal Larsen, Oliver Taslic Organizations: Reuters, Royal Society, Industrial, Nations, Reuters Graphics Reuters, Government, Dudley, Thomson Locations: Britain, England, British, Manchester, Birmingham, Bridgewater, Mersey, Samuel Whitbread’s, West Indies, Netherlands, United Kingdom

☆ There's one big reason why workers don't want to go back to the office 5 days a week
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-27 | by ( Sam Tabahriti | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Few workers enjoy the hassle of commuting to the office five days a week. Studies show that commuting is the main reason many don't want to stop working from home. A recent report by Centre for Cities, a UK think tank, suggested that policymakers should "encourage the benefits of office working while reducing the costs to workers of doing so." But Paul Swinney, its policy and research director, told Insider that employers could say commuting costs are covered by salaries, leaving companies "reluctant to set a precedent." ShutterstockBut many workers don't just regard commuting as a waste of money.

☆ AI boom could expose investors’ natural stupidity
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Felix Martin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

Indeed, enthusiasm about AI has become the one ray of light piercing the stock market gloom created by the record-breaking rise in U.S. interest rates. It’s a good moment for investors to be especially alert to the tendency of natural stupidity to drive stock market valuations to unrealistic – and therefore ultimately unprofitable – extremes. However, the most important lessons of behavioural economics relate to a more fundamental question: Will the new generation of AI do what it promises? Behavioural economics offers some cautionary tales for such attempts to apply AI in the wild. For example, stock market returns can be affected by a small number of rare but extreme movements in share prices.

☆ Juice mission launches to explore Jupiter’s icy ocean worlds
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

CNN —The European Space Agency has sent a spacecraft to explore Jupiter and three of its largest and most intriguing moons. The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer mission, or Juice, launched Friday at 8:14 a.m. Toward the end of the mission, Juice will focus solely on orbiting Ganymede, making it the first spacecraft ever to orbit a moon in the outer solar system. The Juice mission was designed to unravel what takes place as Jupiter interacts with its moons, including auroras, hot spots, radio emissions and waves of charged particles. Given the eventual distance between the spacecraft and Earth, it will take 45 minutes to send a one-way signal to Juice.

☆ The Juice mission will soon launch to Jupiter’s icy ocean worlds
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer mission, or Juice, was expected to lift off Thursday at 8:15 a.m. European Space AgencyGanymede, Callisto and Europa are ice-covered worlds that may contain subsurface oceans that are potentially habitable for life. European Space Agency“With Juice, we want to confirm there’s liquid water in these moons, confirm their heat sources. Testing and modeling of Jupiter’s radiation belts allowed engineers to prepare for what Juice will encounter. Given the eventual distance between the spacecraft and Earth, it will take 45 minutes to send a one-way signal to Juice.

☆ Tigers have personality traits similar to human extroverts and introverts, researchers say
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-08 | by ( Alia Shoaib | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Tigers have personality traits similar to extroversion and introversion in humans, researchers have found. Tigers that score higher on "majesty" eat more, have higher group status and mate more often. Tigers that scored for "majesty" were highly rated on words such as dignified, confident, and fierce and placed low on terms like withdrawn oterms feeble. "Steadiness" in tigers was associated with high ratings for words like friendly, gentle, and loving but ranked low for words such as aggressive or cruel. Abdellaoui told The Guardian that the words were all initially Chinese, and some of their meanings might be harder to translate.

☆ Fact Check-Document mentioning cryogenic-electron microscopy does not prove Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine contains graphene oxide
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Graphene oxide is not an ingredient in the vaccine,” she said. When contacted by Reuters, a Pfizer spokesperson sent a link with the full list of ingredients of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine (here, see page six). No graphene oxide is listed. “We confirm that graphene oxide is not used in the manufacture of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine,” the spokesperson said. The Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine does not contain graphene oxide.

☆ Employees would rather return to the office for a four-day workweek than have five days of hybrid work, a survey shows
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Huileng Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Two-thirds of staffers prefer RTO for a four-day work week than work hybrid for five days, per a survey. One-third of employers would be more likely to consider a four-day work week if staff RTO every day. The UK trialed a four-day work week from June to December last year with 3,300 workers at 70 firms. And employers seem to agree — about one-third would be more likely to consider offering a four-day workweek if employees came to the office daily. On top of that, just under 90% of survey respondents said a four-day workweek could improve employee mental health and well-being.

☆ 'It's honestly changed my life': Employees from one of the biggest 4-day-workweek trials say working less improved their lives but was a big adjustment
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Employees working four-day weeks told Insider having the extra day off was an adjustment at first. "It's hard to overstate how good it's been," Jo Sims, a senior case manager at AKA Case Management, told Insider, adding: "It's honestly changed my life." Sims said the extra day off had improved her mental health, eased her stress levels, and left her with a new perspective. The study was led by academics from Boston College, the University of Cambridge, and the research organization Autonomy in partnership with the campaign groups 4 Day Week Global and 4 Day Week Campaign. A representative for the 4 Day Week Campaign put Insider in contact with the four employees that are referenced in this article.

☆ Russia says use of depleted uranium shells in Ukraine would harm population, land for decades
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

March 24 (Reuters) - Russia's defence ministry said on Friday that the use of depleted uranium shells in Ukraine would harm Ukrainian troops, the wider population and negatively affect the country's agriculture sector for decades or even centuries. Russia has reacted furiously to plans outlined by Britain earlier this week to send shells containing depleted uranium to Ukraine. Countries such as the United States and Britain say depleted uranium is a good tool for destroying a modern tank. Russia's defence ministry on Friday disputed those claims and said the use of depleted uranium shells, compared to Tungsten-based ammunition, "has no significant advantage" on the battlefield. Russia is also known to produce uranium weapons along with around 20 other countries, according to the International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons.

Depleted uranium is a dense by-product left over when uranium is enriched for use in nuclear reactors or nuclear weapons. The United States, Britain, Russia, China, France and Pakistan produce uranium weapons, which are not classified as nuclear weapons, according to the International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons. Ingesting or inhaling quantities of uranium - even depleted uranium - is dangerous: it depresses renal function and raises the risk of developing a range of cancers. "It's worth making sure everyone understands that just because the word uranium is in the title of depleted uranium munitions, they are not nuclear munitions, they are purely conventional munitions," Cleverly said. A spokesperson from Britain's defence ministry said: "The British Army has used depleted uranium in its armour piercing shells for decades."

☆ Fact Check-Dinosaurs existed and were documented before the term ‘dinosauria’ was coined in the early 1840s
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Dinosaurs existed long before the word ‘dinosauria’ was coined by paleontologist Sir Richard Owen in the 19th century, paleontology experts and a spokesperson for Britain’s Royal Society told Reuters, rejecting a claim to the contrary spreading online. They were invented by the Royal Society in 1841,” the individual says, referring to the academic organisation which is Britain’s national academy of sciences. However, three experts and a spokesperson for the Royal Society told Reuters separately that these claims are false. They say Sir Richard Owen first used the term ‘Dinosauria’ in the early 1840s but that dinosaurs and their fossils existed and were documented long before. Dinosaurs existed and were documented long before they were given a universal name in 1841, paleontologists and Britain’s Royal Society say.

☆ Colorful, 24-legged predators could save marine ecosystems on the West Coast
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Kelsey Vlamis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Kelp forests, one of the most diverse ocean ecosystems, are dying along North America's West Coast. A new study says recovering sunflower sea star populations could save the forests. The sea stars are voracious predators that feed on urchins and help keep the ecosystem in balance. The authors of a new paper suggest the loss of the sunflower sea stars is to blame. Meet the sunflower sea stars that scientists say could save them.

☆ The Barnes & Noble CEO says sales are rising because he trusts his booksellers to 'create good bookshops' and run each store the way they want to
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-25 | by ( Stephanie Stacey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Sales at Barnes & Noble are rising because staff are it's not trying to make stores "homogenous," its CEO said. "Sensible retailing principles" equal "terrible bookstores," Daunt told the Business Studies podcast. He took over as CEO of Barnes & Noble in 2019 with plans to update the chain's 600 stores across the US. By 2022, total sales at Barnes & Noble were 3% higher than pre-pandemic levels, with book sales up by 14%. "If you're in Alabama, you should run a very different bookstore to if you're on the Upper West Side of Manhattan," he told Business Studies.

☆ Facebook co-founder Moskovitz funds research into cooling the Earth with sunlight reflection
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Catherine Clifford | In Catclifford | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

(It's sometimes called solar radiation modification or solar geoengineering.) But it's potentially important, it could be very, very helpful, it could be disastrous," Stone told CNBC. And so it goes for solar geoengineering," Stone said. Everyone perceives it to be controversial," Camilloni told CNBC. "This is no one's Plan A for how you deal with climate risk, and whatever happens, we have to cut our emissions," Stone told CNBC.

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