Category: Science and Stuff,

Climate Change Is Erasing Human History

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Europe,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

We’re standing on the bank of Ukkuqsi, a site that Jensen, Utqiaġvik’s resident archaeologist, has been monitoring since 1994, ever since the frozen body of a girl who died eight hundred years ago emerged from the bluffs. Iñupiat people have lived in and around Utqiaġvik (formerly Barrow) for more than a thousand years. Their history has accumulated in the ground beneath their feet, preserved in the same permafrost soils that underlie most of Alaska’s North Slope.

…On top of the erosion, a warmer atmosphere is causing Alaska’s permafrost to thaw. As that happens, exquisitely preserved remains—clothing, sod houses, scraps of food, human bodies—are starting to rot.

…It’s a story that’s playing out across the entire world, from mountaintop glaciers to Caribbean islands. Over the last several decades, archaeologists have watched in alarm as history and heritage are erased by rising seas, melting ice, and worsening storms. Researchers liken the vanishing remains to books containing priceless knowledge about past cultures, past ecosystems, and past climates.

…Jensen shows me artifacts from Walakpa, a major coastal archaeological site about fifteen miles southwest of Utqiaġvik that’s likely been occupied on and off for over 3,000 years. The site, which contains an extensive record of Birnik and Thule Eskimo cultures, started to erode about five years back. The oldest, deepest layers, which sit right along the coastline, are going fast.

…Hillerdal estimates that the entire site has about a decade left. But the areas she is actively excavating, which are close to the erosion edge, “can disappear this winter,” she says. There’s a lot to lose.

“The preservation is extraordinary,” Hillerdal tells me. “We have grass ropes, basketry, pretty much an amazing sample of Yu’pik pre contact life from this time period. The number of museum quality pieces is in the thousands.”

…But it remains to be seen who would fund a global effort to survey and excavate vanishing sites—or even a fraction of them. In the U.S., the National Park Service has taken on a leadership role, both in terms of planning for climate change impacts on cultural heritage sites, and funding researchers who want to study threatened sites that reside within parks. But NPS funds are limited.

Climate Change Is Erasing Human History

sigh…

Popular plant linked to Lyme disease is now banned in Maine

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Local Interest,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

Because of its invasive nature, starting this year, Japanese barberry cannot be sold in Maine.

Fish said it’s preventing native plants from growing and doesn’t provide the food or habitat wildlife needs.

…Studies suggest Japanese barberry may be fueling the spread of Lyme disease.

“They’re definitely a tick magnet . They’re very much a tick magnet and they not only are a tick magnet; they’re a mouse magnet and mice is where Lyme disease is reservoired,” Fish said.

Popular plant linked to Lyme disease is now banned in Maine | WGME

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Plastic Use and Banning Straws

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

The truth is that straws are just the tip of the trash heap when it comes to plastic waste.

…In 2015, plastic consumption worldwide totaled 300 million metric tonnes. That essentially means that for each one of the world’s 7.6 billion humans, we’re making 88 pounds of plastic a year. The packaging industry is still growing, according to Euromonitor, with flexible plastics leading the pack.

…People in the US now spend more money eating out than eating in — often with food coming in plastic or throw-away containers.

It’s not just food. Most plastic turns to trash after a single use. If you think you’re doing Mother Earth a solid by slinging your used plastics into the recycling, think again. More than 79% of all plastic waste ends up in landfills, or gets stuck in the natural world , regardless of which sorting bin you put it in. Another 12% gets burned up in incinerators, adding to particulate matter to the atmosphere. Only a remaining 9% is actually recycled, according to a 2017 report published in Science Advances.

…Some straws drift out to sea, becoming just one more piece of the 79 thousand-ton colossal floating iceberg of trash called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Scientists who’ve studied the patch, a trash heap wider than two whole Texases that bobs somewhere between Hawaii and California, have discovered it’s essentially a watery pit of litter and illegal dumps that’s trapped in the ocean currents, and it is basically all plastic. A 2018 report based on aerial and water surveys of the patch found that “more than 99.9%” of it is plastic, and it’s not just straws in there. Plastic objects identified in the patch included containers, bottles, lids, bottle caps, packaging straps, ropes, and fishing nets.

…What it really comes down to is living with less plastic, and changing old behaviors. Other countries are aggressively regulating plastics already. Morocco, once a land laden with fields full of drifting plastic bags, banned the production, sale, and import of plastic bags completely in 2016 . Rwanda was one of the first places in the world to ban plastic bags , in 2008, and in the US, both California and Hawaii followed suit, while other states (like Michigan) rose up against the idea of ever weaning themselves off plastics and banned bans. India says all single-use plastic will be banned there by 2022. In England, Queen Elizabeth now insists that no plastic straws or bottles appear on the royal estates.

Why plastic straws are being banned by cities, businesses – Business Insider

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Trump Accuses California Of Causing Wildfires By ‘Diverting’ Water To Pacific

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Environment,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

Trump finally weighed in on the tragedy, …blaming California for the blazes because it “diverts” water to the Pacific Ocean.

He also blamed the state’s “bad environmental laws” — the most protective in the nation — and trees. He called for a “tree clear to stop fire spreading.”

He failed to express condolences to the families of the victims, thank firefighters, or offer comfort to Californians afraid for their lives, homes and communities.

…It’s unclear what the president meant by water “diverted” into the Pacific. California allocates water among residents, agricultural and industrial use, and for wetlands and wildlife, including water mandated to protect endangered species. But state waters eventually drain into the ocean. As one tweeter responded: “Water running into the Pacific Ocean is called a river.” And firefighters haven’t complained of a lack of water for battling the blazes.

…The scientific consensus is that fires are becoming more common because of climate change, which Trump once called a Chinese “hoax.”

Trump Accuses California Of Causing Wildfires By ‘Diverting’ Water To Pacific | HuffPost

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Diet Hit A Snag? Your Gut Bacteria May Be Partly To Blame

On By peanutgallerynhIn Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

The successful dieters had an increased abundance of a bacteria called Phascolarctobacterium, whereas another bacteria, Dialister, was associated with a failure to lose the weight. And, Kashyap says it’s likely that there are other types of bacteria that might influence dieting as well.

Diet Hit A Snag? Your Gut Bacteria May Be Partly To Blame : The Salt : NPR

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Human remains buried at Stonehenge 5,000 years ago offer a clue to where they came from

On By peanutgallerynhIn Europe,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

By creating a map of strontium isotope ratios across a geographical area and comparing that with those found in a bone fragment, scientists can determine a human or animal’s place of origin — or at least where they spent the majority of the last 10 years before they died.

In this study, the researchers identified bone fragments belonging to 25 distinct individuals that had been buried at Stonehenge. The strontium isotope analysis revealed that the bones of 15 of these people exhibited the same strontium isotope ratio that existed in the area around the monument.

The results from the other 10, however, showed that these people did not consume food grown in the local area alone.

…The researchers can’t be totally sure where these 10 people came from, but the strontium isotope ratios in their bones are consistent with a region in west Wales that is known to be the source of some of the stones in the monument.

Further analysis also suggested that the wood fuel that was used to cremate some of these people did not come from the area around the monument either.

Human remains buried at Stonehenge 5,000 years ago offer a clue to where they came from

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Stonehenge mystery solved? Study sheds light on people buried at monument – CNN

On By peanutgallerynhIn Europe,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

The results revealed that 40% of the people buried at Stonehenge likely came from west Wales, the suggested origin of the site’s smaller bluestones.

…The bone analysis suggested that within the last ten years of their lives, these people were not living at Stonehenge nor originally from the area around Stonehenge, known as the Wessex region.

 

 

Stonehenge mystery solved? Study sheds light on people buried at monument – CNN

4 Environmental Activists Are Killed Every Week

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, The Americas,Leave a comment

Latin America is by far the world’s most dangerous place to be an environmental defender. Almost 60 percent of the environmental killings recorded in 2017 took place in the region.

Mexico’s tropical forests, for example, have been ravaged by everything from illegal cattle ranching to avocado farming. In January 2017, Isidro Baldenegro López, a prominent indigenous activist who won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize for his work protecting the forests of the Sierra Tarahumara mountain range in northern Mexico from logging, was shot dead.

…The Global Witness report records several massacres in countries such as Brazil and the Philippines ― in the latter country, the military reportedly killed at least eight indigenous people in December as they tried to protect their land from a coffee plantation.

Brazil remains the most deadly country for environmental activists, with 57 murders last year ― the highest ever recorded by any country. Twenty-two members of one tribe ― the Gamela ― were assaulted in one land-grabbing incident. Some had their hands cut off.

4 Environmental Activists Are Killed Every Week So We Can Have Snacks, Meat And Coffee | HuffPost

Sigh….

Stanford study links depression to blood biomarker

On By peanutgallerynhIn Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

The collaborative study conducted by Stanford University and The Rockefeller University found people with depression had low levels of acetyl-L-carnitine, which helps the body produce energy.

…Rasgon said further research is required to determine whether supplementing patients with acetyl-L-carnitine could improve symptoms.

Stanford study links depression to blood biomarker

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Effect of Opioid vs Nonopioid Medications on Pain-Related Function in Patients With Chronic Back Pain or Hip or Knee Osteoarthritis Pain

On By peanutgallerynhIn Addiction,, Drugs & Drink,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

Pain intensity was significantly better in the nonopioid group over 12 months (overall P = .03); mean 12-month BPI severity was 4.0 for the opioid group and 3.5 for the nonopioid group (difference, 0.5 [95% CI, 0.0 to 1.0]). Adverse medication-related symptoms were significantly more common in the opioid group over 12 months (overall P = .03); mean medication-related symptoms at 12 months were 1.8 in the opioid group and 0.9 in the nonopioid group (difference, 0.9 [95% CI, 0.3 to 1.5]).

Conclusions and Relevance Treatment with opioids was not superior to treatment with nonopioid medications for improving pain-related function over 12 months. Results do not support initiation of opioid therapy for moderate to severe chronic back pain or hip or knee osteoarthritis pain.

Effect of Opioid vs Nonopioid Medications on Pain-Related Function in Patients With Chronic Back Pain or Hip or Knee Osteoarthritis Pain: The SPACE Randomized Clinical Trial | Emergency Medicine | JAMA | JAMA Network

 

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A Comprehensive Review of Opioid-Induced Hyperalgesia

On By peanutgallerynhIn Addiction,, Drugs & Drink,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

4.2 Clinical Evidence
Similar to basic science evidence, supporting clinical evidence has also been established (14,21,30,43-55). Clinical OIH has been described after intraoperative remifentanil infusion (30), in patients with detoxification from high dose opioids with improvement in pain (43), and increased pain sensitivity with methadone (21).

…6.4 Practical Considerations
The treatment of OIH can be time-consuming and at times, impractical. Weaning patients from high dose opioids usually requires time and patience (for both the physician and patient). While reducing the opioid dose, patients might experience transient increases in pain or mild withdrawal which can exacerbate pain. The hyperalgesic effect might not be mitigated until a certain critical dose of opioid is reached.

(21) Compton P, Charuvastra VC, Ling W. Pain intolerance in opioid-maintained former opiate addicts: Effect of longacting maintenance agent. Drug Alcohol Depend 2001; 63:139-146.

(43) Baron MJ, McDonald PW. Significant pain reduction in chronic pain patients after detoxification from high dose opioids. J Opioid Manag 2006; 2:277-282

(45) Hay JL, White JM, Bochner F, Somogyi AA, Semple TJ, Rounsefell B. Hyperalgesia in opioid-managed chronic painand opioid-dependent patients. J Pain 2009; 10:316-322.
(47) Fishbain DA, Cole B, Lewis JE, Gao J, Rosomoff RS. Do opioids induce hyperalgesia in humans? An evidence-based structured review. Pain Med 2009; 10:829-839.

(48) Mitra S. Opioid-induced hyperalgesia:Pathophysiology and clinical implications. J Opioid Manage 2008; 4:123-130.
(49) Cohen SP, Christo PJ, Wang S, Chen L, Stojanovic MP, Shields CH, Brummett C, Mao J. The effect of opioid dose and treatment duration on the perception of a painful standardized clinical stimulus. Reg Anesth Pain Med 2008; 33:199-206.

A Comprehensive Review of Opioid-Induced Hyperalgesia 

There appears to be some connection with withdrawal and experiencing the sensation of pain. According to the above, continued opioid use has the capacity to increase the level of pain a subject experiences.

So…. when we are giving pain medicine recipients turn opioid dependent people more opioids, like methadone, wouldn’t it follow that we -in effect- worsening the pain problem they had originally? …And the longer they are on opioids, the worse their pain situation and the further into addiction they are sent?

Oldest Greek Fragment of Homer Discovered on Clay Tablet

On By peanutgallerynhIn Europe,, Media and Culture,, Middle East,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

The epics of the Greek poet Homer, The Iliad and The Odyssey, have been recited around campfires and scrutinized by students for 2,800 years, if not longer. 

…It’s believed that The Odyssey and The Iliad come from an oral storytelling tradition. Whether the stories were composed by a blind poet named Homer is a source of debate, though many researchers believe Homer was probably not a historical individual but a cultural tradition that developed the stories over many decades or centuries, with scribes writing them down sometime around the 8th century B.C.

Oldest Greek Fragment of Homer Discovered on Clay Tablet | Smart News | Smithsonian

Wild.

Body of ‘witch’ tormented by villagers 1,600 years ago found buried with one-hand tied behind back

On By peanutgallerynhIn Chick Stuff,, Europe,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

The woman was found face down with her left hand fixed behind her back – a position hat was apparently used in witch burials to ensure that they do not return from the dead and haunt the villagers.

It is thought that she was the lover of a wealthy man, who would have blamed her ‘magic powers’ as the reason behind his adultery. This accusation would have been the cause of her torture by the villagers.

…Most women accused of witchcraft tended to be older yet occasionally young women found themselves accused of witchcraft, usually if they ended up in relationships with the wrong man or even if they had been sexually abused by a man of influence.

…This woman lived in times of the Chernyakhov culture. Her grave differs from burial traditions that existed in this area in the third and fourth centuries AD.”

The Chernyakhov culture is an archaeological culture that flourished between the 2nd and 5th centuries AD in a wide area of Eastern Europe, specifically in what is now Ukraine, Romania, Moldova and parts of Belarus.

Body of ‘witch’ tormented by villagers 1,600 years ago found buried with one-hand tied behind back – Mirror Online

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The country that brought a sea back to life, and its neighbor who chose to let the sea disappear

On By peanutgallerynhIn Central Northern Asia and The Caucasus,, Environment,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

At more than 67,000 sq km (26,000 sq miles), the Aral Sea was once the fourth-largest freshwater lake in the world. But the Soviet Union’s uncompromising agricultural policies in the 1950s led to water from two rivers – the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya – being diverted away from the sea to irrigate Central Asia’s desert steppes to boost cotton production. Water levels dropped and the once abundant populations of bream, carp and other freshwater fish dwindled with them.

Today, the sea is a 10th of its original size and has almost split in two. Mimicking the shape of a splintered number eight, the North Aral Sea – the top half of the body of water – lies in Kazakhstan. The South Aral Sea, which consist of a strip of water in the west and a dried-out basin in the east, sits in Uzbekistan.

In the 1990s, both bodies of water seemed headed for similar outcomes. But that changed when the World Bank stepped in with an $87m (£66m) rescue project in Kazakhstan.

This included constructing a 12km-long (7.5 mile) dyke across the narrow channel that connects the North Aral Sea to its neighbour to the south, with the aim of reducing the amount of water spilling out into the South Aral Sea. Improvements to existing channels of the Syr Darya river, which snakes northwards from Kazakhstan’s Tian Shan Mountains, also helped to boost the flow of water into the North Aral Sea.

…Raising the dyke walls by another four metres would help to keep an additional 15 billion cubic metres of water in the North Aral Sea, he adds. This would extend the area covered by the sea from 800sq km (300 sq miles) to 400sq km (150 sq miles).

….Plans to do this were put forward as part of a second phase of the World Bank project, but it has recently stalled. According to the World Bank the project is currently awaiting approval from the Kazakh government to move forward.

…Across the border in Uzbekistan, the story is very different. While the World Bank has worked on some projects to restore the existing lakes around the South Aral Sea, such as Lake Sudoche, it has had less success. The main obstacle appears to be the demand that Uzbeks have for it, as the Amu Darya river flows are used upstream for agricultural purposes and does not have enough water flow to fill up the South Aral Sea.

Greater reliance on cotton production for income has also hindered attempts to restore the South Aral Sea to its former glory. From 1930 to 1990, Uzbekistan provided more than two-thirds of the cotton produced in the Soviet Union. It ranked fifth out of 90 cotton-producing countries, and it was the second-largest exporter of cotton fibre to the US. Today, Uzbekistan is still the fifth-biggest cotton exporter in the world after the US, India, Brazil, and Australia.

…In 2015, the eastern basin of the South Aral Sea completely dried up and the water never returned.

BBC – Future – The country that brought a sea back to life

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Pregnant women don’t learn about profound brain changes

On By peanutgallerynhIn Chick Stuff,, Modern Parenting,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

I was in the midst of the most rapid and dramatic neurobiological change of my adult life. The unmooring I felt, and that so many new mothers feel, likely was at least in part a manifestation of structural and functional brain changes, handed down through the millennia by mothers past and intended to mold me into a fiercely protective, motivated caregiver, focused on my baby’s survival and long-term well-being.

…Women experience a flood of hormones during pregnancy, childbirth, and breast-feeding that primes the brain for dramatic change in regions thought to make up the maternal circuit. Affected brain regions include those that enable a mother to multitask to meet baby’s needs, help her to empathize with her infant’s pain and emotions, and regulate how she responds to positive stimuli (such as baby’s coo) or to perceived threats. In the newborn months, a mother’s interaction with her infant serves as further stimulus to link her brain quite tangibly to her baby’s.

…After childbirth, the volume of gray matter in the mothers’ brains changed dramatically, particularly in regions involved in social processes and “theory of mind,” or the ability to attribute emotions and mental states to other people — key in raising a human. The degree of change, enough that researchers could easily sort the women who had had a pregnancy from those who hadn’t, surprised Elseline Hoekzema, a lead author on the 2016 paper who studies pregnancy and the brain at Leiden University in the Netherlands.

…Studies have found that fathers, including gay fathers raising children without maternal involvement, experience significant changes in brain activity, but those changes depend on exposure to the child. The more time a man spends as primary caregiver, the more activated the parental network in his brain becomes, and researchers suspect a similar effect may be present for others in a parental role.

…A surge of oxytocin at childbirth triggers changes that allow a woman quite literally to sync to her baby through a coordination of biology (synchronized brain responses and heart rates) and behavior (matching responses in gaze, touch, and vocalizations). That intense connection teaches a baby from the very first day how to relate to another person, says Ruth Feldman, Simms-Mann Professor of Developmental Neuroscience at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel. When we connect with friends, romantic partners, and colleagues and even as we view ourselves as a member of a sports team or as part of a nation, we “repurpose the basic machinery” established in the connection between mother and baby, she explained in a 2017 paper on the neurobiology of human attachment.

The parental brain incorporates human-specific functions such as empathy with ancient ones aimed at protecting the young for the survival of the species. That complexity makes it “a peak expression of human evolution,” she says. In fact, she speculates that the parental bonding phenomenon came first. Before there were humans.

Pregnant women don’t learn about profound brain changes – The Boston Globe

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Australian governments concede Great Barrier Reef headed for ‘collapse’

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Pacific Basin,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

The world’s climate change path means the Great Barrier Reef is headed for “collapse” according to a plan endorsed by state and federal governments that critics say turns a blind eye to Australia’s inadequate effort to cut carbon emissions.

…The comments depart starkly from previous official efforts to downplay damage wrought on the reef for fear of denting the tourism industry.

…It concedes that consecutive coral bleaching events and other stressors “have fundamentally changed the character of the reef”, which is one of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet.

“Coral bleaching is projected to increase in frequency … those coral reefs that survive are expected to be less biodiverse than in the past,” the plan says.

Australian governments concede Great Barrier Reef headed for ‘collapse’

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Endangered Species Act: Trump administration seeks to limit protections

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Environment,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

The short of it is this: There’s greater leniency in setting rules for threatened species on a case-by-case basis, there’s greater permission to include economic impacts in conservation decisions, and the services that enforce the ESA can use discretion in deciding what’s meant by the term “foreseeable future.”

These changes are part of a broad suite of policies advanced by the Trump administration to favor industries like mining and fossil fuels by eliminating or limiting the environmental protection rules they have to follow.

Endangered Species Act: Trump administration seeks to limit protections – Vox

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