Did Neanderthals Think Like Us?

Possibly...and possibly not.

We've now found evidence of higher growth of neurons in the frontal neocortex in modern humans compared to Neanderthals. This is caused by one amino acid change, one silly little mutation.

This does imply that we may in fact be smarter than Neanderthals (although they were plenty smart and clearly sentient and conscious).

It's long been theorized that a cognitive edge is what allowed us to outcompete them, although there are other strong theories (I personally like the one that Neanderthal cold adaptation meant they required a lot more calories than we do, resulting in a lower carrying capacity for territory. They were fine until we went and invented clothes).

The frontal neocortex is where we keep our executive function, which manages things like task switching.

If Neanderthals had weaker executive function than we do, then they would have difficulty with emotional regulation, planning, and seeing the bigger picture. Which would explain why we "won".

(Oh, and there's also a semi-joke circulating that autistic people think like Neanderthals and that's why we don't get on with anyone else).

But without a Neanderthal to talk to we can't be sure whether we were and are "smarter" than them. I still like clothes.

Diamonds are...

 ...as cheap as dirt.

This could become reality because somebody turned cheap plastic into diamonds.

They were very small diamonds, but they were nonetheless diamonds.

In addition to helping us understand how diamonds form on gas giants, this opens the door to turning, say, your discarded plastic water bottle into actual...actual...diamonds. It's done using lasers, and it makes diamonds that are normally made by, well, blowing things up. Or rather by highly contained explosions. On Earth, nanodiamonds are only formed by things like meteor strikes.

The nanodiamonds could be used:

* As antimicrobial agents.

* In vaccines and drug delivery systems, especially for cancer treatment.

* In tests for viral infections...this is already being done with HIV.

* In skin care.

* For after treatment of root canals and other really invasive dental stuff.

* To measure changes in weak magnetic fields.

* Other high performance sensor applications

* In optical computing

* In room-temperature quantum computing.

* In imaging systems.

If we really can make them out of plastic waste then we just discovered something really important.

It's the Diamond Age, folks. Maybe. Assuming it pans out outside the lab.

New Old Mammal

 We've pushed back the origins of mammals by about 20 million years. The new oldest mammal is Brasilodon quadrangularis, which was about 8 inches long and kind of like a shrew.

It probably spent much of its life burrowing.

Betelgeuse in the News Again

 So, it turns out that the red giant Betelgeuse was still in main sequence only two thousand years ago. Well, plus the light years it is away.

We know this from observations made by Chinese and Roman astronomers in about 100 B.C. In fact, the Chinese court astronomer at the time, Sima Qian, used Betelgeuse as an example of a yellow star. An example. This means that he considered it to be the best yellow star out there.

In about 1AD, Hyginus also described the star as yellow-orange, about the color of Saturn.

We also know that it was red by the 16th century, and perhaps we'll find observations that pinpoint when the change became visible.

(My initial reaction was "Did it change at about ya know...a certain time...and was Betelgeuse the Star of Bethlehem, but it looks like the Roman observations make it too late")

I'm actually wondering if it didn't turn visibly red until the 16th century. Surely a known yellow star turning red would have been marked down as an omen by somebody. Even if it wasn't in Europe, the Chinese, Arabs or even the Maya would have made note of it. Just a thought.

Weather Forecasting Is About to Get Better

Physicists have come up with a cost-effective way to predict coherent structures in a fluid. Earth's atmosphere behaves like a fluid and coherent structures are otherwise known as patterns of turbulence.

They might eventually be able to use this to dramatically improve weather forecasts, predict tornados with some actual accuracy, give better information about hurricane season and, of course, potentially make your next flight a little smoother. 

Take Two to the Moon

 Well, the vicinity of the moon anyway. The Artemis I launch has been rescheduled for Saturday. Don't hold your breath, it's a test launch and thus has a higher chance than normal of being scrubbed again.

The launch window is 2:17pm to 4:17pm ET with 60% favorable weather conditions.

NASA TV will start live coverage of preparations at 5:45am ET. I'm not getting up that early, but I will definitely be watching the launch if it happens.

We are going back to the moon. Decades late, but we are.

Alien tech in the ocean?

 Dr. Avi Loeb thinks so. He's planning to retrieve fragments of what might be an interstellar meteor from the ocean floor in the South Pacific. Said meteor may be an interstellar object.

He thinks it's a probe.

It's a little bit bold. On the other hand, if it did come from interstellar space, retrieving it and studying it will be worth it any way.

(This is the same interstellar object that was hard to prove because half the data was classified).