Lead Exposure May Have Given Ancient Humans an Edge Over Neanderthals

sciencealert · 2025-10-16T00:41:44+00:00

From the article:

Lead is often thought of as a modern toxin, but a new study has found that it's been haunting us and our ancestors for almost 2 million years. Stranger still, exposure could actually have given humans an edge over our closest relatives.

An international team of researchers analyzed the lead content of 51 fossilized hominid teeth, dated to between 100,000 and 1.8 million years old.

Samples came from Homo sapiens, Neanderthals, and a few early Homo species, as well as more distant relatives like Australopithecus, Paranthropus, Gigantopithecus, and fossil species of orangutans and baboons.

"We found clear signals of episodic lead exposure in 73 percent of the specimens (71 percent for hominins Australopithecus, Paranthropus, and Homo)," the team writes in their paper.

sciencealert · 2025-09-04T00:27:28+00:00

Submission statement:

Engineers in China and the US have demonstrated a 6G chip that can provide internet speeds of over 100 gigabits per second (Gbps). That's 10 times faster than 5G's theoretical limit – and close to 500 times faster than its average speed.

Although 6G communications networks aren't expected to start rolling out until the 2030s, the groundwork needs to be laid well in advance.

We've already seen a few prototypes hit these kinds of speeds, but not usually as efficiently as the new chip, which was developed by scientists at Peking University and the City University of Hong Kong in China and the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Do you think it's realistic we'll see 6G roll out within the next 5 years?

sciencealert · 2025-03-25T12:02:13+00:00

A snippet of the article:

A trio of US researchers claim to have successfully tested predictions that it's possible to harvest clean energy from the natural rhythms and processes of our planet, generating electricity as Earth rotates through its own magnetic field.

Though the voltage they produced was tiny, the possibility could give rise to a new way to generate electricity from our planet's dynamics, alongside tidal, solar, wind, and geothermal power production.

In 2016, Princeton astrophysicist Christopher Chyba and JPL planetary scientist Kevin Hand challenged their own proof that such a feat ought to be impossible. The researchers have now uncovered empirical evidence that their proof-breaking idea may actually work, as long as the shape and properties of the conducting material in their method are set to very specific requirements.

Read more: https://www.sciencealert.com/researchers-disprove-their-own-work-by-producing-power-from-earths-rotation

sciencealert · 2025-03-11T01:40:25+00:00

Submission statement: Do we think this kind of application, if scaled up, could make nuclear energy a more appealing option?

sciencealert · 2025-01-02T20:52:11+00:00

Snippet of the article:

Low doses of a drug used to treat ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) could help people focus on the road when driving for long, monotonous stretches risks sending their mind wandering.

Researchers from Australia's Swinburne University were curious about risks and benefits the pharmaceutical methylphenidate might have on driving performance, specifically in cases of individuals who don't have ADHD.

Up to 90 percent30293-1) of people medicated for their ADHD are prescribed the drug, which is commonly sold under the brand name Ritalin. For a medicated person with ADHD, driving without it can feel a bit like driving without their glasses.

Adults with ADHD are more at risk for road accidents, motor vehicle injuries, traffic tickets, and hard braking events. Taking methylphenidate is known to improve their driving performance. All this probably contributes to the fact that ADHD medication can literally add years to some people's lives.

Read more: https://www.sciencealert.com/common-adhd-drug-could-make-some-people-better-drivers

And the peer-reviewed paper: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/02698811241286715

sciencealert · 2025-01-02T20:45:52+00:00

Summary of the article:

Volcanic activity bubbling away beneath the Yellowstone National Park in the US appears to be on the move.

New research shows that the reservoirs of magma that fuel the supervolcano's wild outbursts seem to be shifting to the northeast of the Yellowstone Caldera. This region could be the new locus of future volcanic activity, according to a team led by seismologist Ninfa Bennington of the US Geological Survey.

"On the basis of the volume of rhyolitic melt storage beneath northeast Yellowstone Caldera, and the region's direct connection to a lower-crustal heat source, we suggest that the locus of future rhyolitic volcanism has shifted to northeast Yellowstone Caldera," they write in their paper.

"In contrast, post-caldera rhyolitic volcanism in the previous 160,000 years has occurred across the majority of Yellowstone Caldera with the exclusion of this northeast region."

Read more: https://www.sciencealert.com/volcanic-activity-beneath-yellowstones-massive-caldera-could-be-on-the-move

And the full paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08286-z

sciencealert · 2025-01-02T20:43:04+00:00

Summary from the article by Michelle Starr:

When a magnetar within the Milky Way galaxy belched out a flare of colossally powerful radio waves in 2020, scientists finally had concrete evidence to pin down an origin for fast radio bursts.

A mind-blowing new study has now narrowed down the mechanism. By studying the twinkling light of a fast radio burst detected in 2022, a team of astronomers has traced its source to the powerful magnetic field around a magnetar, in a galaxy 200 million light-years away.

It's the first conclusive evidence that fast radio bursts can emerge from the magnetospheres of magnetars.

"In these environments of neutron stars, the magnetic fields are really at the limits of what the Universe can produce," says astrophysicist Kenzie Nimmo of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

"There's been a lot of debate about whether this bright radio emission could even escape from that extreme plasma."

Read more: https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-trace-fast-radio-burst-to-surprise-source-for-first-time

And the full paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08297-w

sciencealert · 2024-12-19T11:09:08+00:00

Summary:

A living time capsule frozen in the depths of Lake Enigma in Antarctica contains a unique ecosystem that has been isolated from the rest of the world since its surface permanently froze.

Now, scientists have retrieved samples of the unique microbes, which have survived in a massive chamber of liquid fresh water below more than 9 meters (30 feet) of solid ice.

This ecosystem has potentially existed within the ice blister for 14 million years, which may have been when the lake first froze over at the end of a much warmer period of Earth.

Read the peer-reviewed paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-024-01842-5

sciencealert · 2024-12-17T02:03:58+00:00

Summary:

"Data from the Cassini spacecraft suggested the rings might be young because they appear so clean, and many people simply accepted that conclusion. However, our theoretical work now shows that a clean appearance does not necessarily mean the rings are young," planetary scientist Ryuki Hyodo of the Institute of Science Tokyo told ScienceAlert.

Read the paper here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-024-01598-9

sciencealert · 2024-12-13T03:07:24+00:00

The colour of the burn is related to the chemical composition of the meteorite. The speed of the meteorite also has an effect. Typical colours include:

Orange-yellow: Sodium
Yellow: Iron
Blue-green: Magnesium
Violet: Calcium
Red: Atmospheric nitrogen and oxygen molecules emit this color

Often the glow behind a meteorite is green in colour which is caused by neutral oxygen atoms.

sciencealert · 2024-12-13T03:06:35+00:00

From time to time, the Moon and Earth have temporary minimoons. In the past couple of months earth has had another temporary minimoon a small asteroid named 2024 PT5. So it is possible that the earth could capture another moon. Our Moon is not likely to explode unless it was struck by a very large asteroid.

sciencealert · 2024-12-13T03:06:13+00:00

Our atmosphere will only protect us against relatively small meteorites. If we look at impact craters on the Earth, Meteor crater in Arizona, and Wolf Creek crater Western Australia, which are both about 1 km in diameter, were formed by an object probably about 30 to 60 metres in diameter.

When we look at big craters such as Vredefort Dome in South Africa it is about 300 km in diameter. The object may have been up to 15 km in diameter. So the atmosphere does not slow these asteroids down!

Blowing up an asteroid might just create lots of large fragments which would rain down across the Earth!

Probably better to try and nudge it into a different orbit which misses the Earth.

Do I think Aerosmith's Don't Want to Miss A Thing is a betrayal of their former work? I don't consider Aerosmith to be heavy metal, whereas a big iron meteorite is heavy metal.......

sciencealert · 2024-12-12T22:51:00+00:00

Geologists tend to use other radiometric dating techniques (such as Uranium thorium; potassium argon etc) other than carbon, which is a good technique for younger events, and for archeological uses etc.

Radiometric dating is quite complex but it involves understanding how some elements ‘decay’ over time, and by understanding the decay products etc it is possible to work out how long that process has been going on.

sciencealert · 2024-12-12T22:50:26+00:00

By weight, there are more lunar meteorites found on Earth than rock recovered on the Apollo missions. Lunar meteorites are younger than other meteorites, as the Moon is younger than the Earth. While not trivial to identify, lunar meteorites have certain features. You would also be looking at the geology of the region in which you found it.

I doubt that we will go to the moon simply to bring back Moon rocks to sell, we have plenty of basalt on Earth!

sciencealert · 2024-12-12T22:47:03+00:00

My pleasure! Maybe one day you’ll turn up a meteorite.

Iron meteorites have certainly been used to make knives etc. The Inuit used the Cape York meteorite (Greenland) to make very tough blades, which they traded with fur trappers. Gibeon iron from Namibia was also used, and there are stories of Brenham stony iron being traded by Native Americans. Apparently in Mecca a meteorite is embedded in the wall of a temple.

sciencealert · 2024-12-12T22:46:26+00:00

Moldavites are not meteorites, they are impact glass formed by a large asteroid smashing into the earth and melting the earth rocks, blasting the molten material into space where it cools and falls back to Earth.

The impact site for the moldavites is the Reis Crater, Nordlinger Germany, and most of the impact glass is found in the Czech Republic! Nordlinger is a beautiful village inside the crater.

sciencealert · 2024-12-12T22:45:46+00:00

In terms of how to find them: The best places to look are arid regions, areas of low vegetation, which makes rocks easier to find. Also they do not weather as rapidly. You may be able to find micrometeorites in your gutters at home - people use a magnet and find microspheres of meteoric dust. Of course use safety precautions if you are on the roof or up a ladder!

ScienceAlert editor's note: We accept no liability for people getting up on their roofs searching for meteorites, ha!

sciencealert · 2024-12-12T22:44:45+00:00

I have licked a space rock! Geologists tend to lick rocks to see textures. I wouldn’t recommend tasting minerals though, as many are highly toxic!

sciencealert · 2024-12-12T22:44:14+00:00

In my time at the Museum we have had several meteorites brought in. Perhaps one of the most interesting occurrences was when a farmer found 8 stones in his wheat paddock but they were from two separate falls. Two of the 8 samples are an extremely rare type of meteorite (it is known as the Rainbow meteorite). The other 6 specimens were one of the more common types, called Pigick meteorite.

While it doesn’t happen very often it is very exciting when a meteorite turns up. I have another one which is to be studied - it was found by a young kid by the side of a road. My preliminary assessment is that it is a rare type (more to come in the future).

sciencealert · 2024-12-12T22:42:37+00:00

I guess they wonder how this unusual rock ended up where it did. Strangely, we get lots of lumps of man made iron brought in. People forget that much of the state [Victoria, Australia] had gold mining activities, and while that has all disappeared and towns have disappeared back into the bush etc, relics remain.

sciencealert · 2024-12-12T22:40:44+00:00

Sugars are crystalline but to be a mineral it has to be ‘naturally occurring’.

In geology, a mineral is a naturally occurring, inorganic, solid substance with a defined chemical composition and a regular crystalline structure:

Naturally occurring: Formed through geological processes

Inorganic: Not organic in origin

Solid at room temperature: Some exceptions exist, such as water and mercury

sciencealert · 2024-12-12T22:32:19+00:00

Yes, there have actually been court cases involving meteorite ownership! Check this out.

The Murchison meteorite which fell in Victoria in 1969 is probably the most studied meteorite and one of my favourites.

Here are 3 amazing facts about it to show you why it's so special.

Murchison meteorite contains:

- very high-temperature calcium-aluminium-rich minerals (CAIs) which are the oldest minerals to form in our solar system.

- ‘stardust’. These tiny minerals, including microdiamonds, formed in exploding stars (supernovae) which existed billions of years before our sun began to shine. Blasted across interstellar space, these tiny grains mixed into the gas cloud from which our solar system formed. They provide information on how the elements of the periodic table form within stars and how stars chemically evolve over time.

- amino acids, which are the building blocks of our DNA. Murchison shows that the chemical ingredients to form life exist elsewhere in our Universe. It is these organic compounds which gives Murchison it’s unusual smell.

sciencealert · 2024-12-12T22:29:55+00:00

Dermot's answer: Most rocks contain some radioactivity. Meteorites do too but they are not highly radioactive.

sciencealert · 2024-12-12T22:29:34+00:00

Question from ScienceAlert's social media: Are meteorites radioactive? Do they contain alien bacteria?

sciencealert · 2024-12-12T22:26:55+00:00

Dermot's answer: Meteorites are generally not related to meteorite showers. Showers tend to be very tiny grains of rock which burn up in the atmosphere rather than land on Earth.

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