oldest meteorite
The age of the oldest meteorite fragment has just been pushed back by 10 million years, thanks to a discovery in the Pilbara craton, an area where extremely old rocks outcrop in Western Australia. The age of spherules embedded in rocks, discovered in 2019, was estimated at 3.48 billion years, conclude geologists from the University of New South Wales, who presented their results in early April at the 54e lunar and planetary science conference in Texas. The oldest meteorite crater, also located in Western Australia, is 2.3 billion years old.
Quiz
What do elephants and bonobos have in common?
PHOTO CHARMAINE NORONHA, ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES
Elephants bathing in Botswana
Answer: They are the only two animal species capable of “self-domesticating” like humans do. This conclusion of Dutch biologists, published in mid-March in the journal PNAS, derives from an analysis of genes linked to cognitive and social behavior. Self-domestication is a process where group life is facilitated by a hormonal reduction of aggressiveness with morphological impacts, and the adoption of tools and game rituals. Prior to this analysis of the elephant by researchers at the Max-Planck Institute in Nijmegen, self-domestication had been observed only in bonobos.
The number
PHOTO ROBERT STEINBACH, GETTY IMAGES
The amount of squash bees began to climb with the appearance of this crop in Mexico 4000 years ago.
100 times
This is the increase in the North American population of bees feeding on the nectar of squash flowers for a millennium, according to a new American study. The amount of squash bees began to climb with the appearance of this culture in Mexico 4000 years ago, then exploded when the natives living in eastern America at the time of the arrival of Europeans began to populate this region, around the year 1000. Biologists from the University of Pennsylvania, who published their work in mid-March in the journal PNAS, suggest that the phenomenon is interesting given the current threat to the bee populations.
Milk in Tibet
PHOTO YU ZHAO, GETTY IMAGES
The Potala Palace in Lhasa, capital of Tibet
Milk consumption was crucial to human occupation of the Tibetan plateau 3,500 years ago, according to a new Sino-German study. Paleontologists from the Max-Planck Institute for Anthropology in Leipzig and Sichuan University, who publish their results in mid-April in the journal Science Advances, analyzed 26 remains of Tibetans who lived between 842 and 1500 BC. The 19 individuals who lived at altitude consumed milk, but none of the 7 individuals living at lower altitudes. The milk from the cattle helped counter the harsh conditions of the altitude, according to the researchers.
A roll-up space telescope
IMAGE FROM THE MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL PHYSICS WEBSITE
Artist’s illustration of roll-up telescopes produced with new German technology
A space telescope twice the size of the James Webb could be possible at a lower cost with a new German vacuum membrane mirror manufacturing technology. These mirrors could be rolled up rather than folded back on themselves, reducing their size at launch. The diameter of the telescope’s main mirror James Webb, deployed last year, has a size of 6.5 m. Researchers from the Max-Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics described their discovery in early April in the journal Applied Optics.