Neanderthal children grew and were weaned similarly to modern humans

by University of Bologna
 

3D Reconstruction Of The Three Neanderthal Milk Teeth Analyzed. 

Credit: Federico Lugli

Neanderthals behaved similarly to modern humans in raising their children, whose pace of growth was similar to Homo sapiens.

Thanks to the combination of geochemical and histological analyzes of three Neanderthal milk teeth, researchers were able to determine their pace of growth and the weaning onset time. These teeth belonged to three different Neanderthal children who have lived between 70,000 and 45,000 years ago in a small area of Northeastern Italy.

Teeth grow and register information in form of growth lines—akin to tree rings—that can be read through histological techniques. Combining such information with chemical data obtained with a laser-mass spectrometer—in particular strontium concentrations—the scientists were able to show that these Neanderthals introduced solid food in their children's diet at around 5-6 months of age.

Not cultural but physiological

Alessia Nava (University of Kent, UK), co-first author of the work, says, "The beginning of weaning relates to physiology rather than to cultural factors. In modern humans, in fact, the first introduction of solid food occurs at around 6 months of age when the child needs a more energetic food supply, and it is shared by very different cultures and societies. Now, we know that also Neanderthals started to wean their children when modern humans do."

"In particular, compared to other primates," says Federico Lugli (University of Bologna), co-first author of the work, "it is highly conceivable that the high energy demand of the growing human brain triggers the early introduction of solid foods in child diet."

Neanderthals are our closest cousins within the human evolutionary tree. However, their pace of growth and early life metabolic constraints are still highly debated within the scientific literature.

Stefano Benazzi (University of Bologna), co-senior author, says, "This work's results imply similar energy demands during early infancy and a close pace of growth between Homo sapiens and Neanderthals. Taken together, these factors possibly suggest that Neanderthal newborns were of similar weight to modern human neonates, pointing to a likely similar gestational history and early-life ontogeny, and potentially shorter inter-birth interval."

Researchers at Goethe University cut paper-thin slices off of a Neanderthal milk tooth. The teeth are subsequently put back together and reconstructed Credit: Luca Bondioli and Alessia Nava, Rome, Italy

Presumably a Neanderthal child lost this tooth 40,000 to 70,000 year ago when his or her permanent teeth came in Credit: ERC project SUCCESS, University of Bologna, Italy

Home sweet home

The three milk teeth analyzed in this study were found in a limited area of Northeastern Italy, between the current provinces of Vicenza and Verona: in the Broion Cave, in the Fumane Cave and in the De Nadale Cave. Other than their early diet and growth, scientists also collected data on the regional mobility of these Neanderthals using time-resolved strontium isotope analyzes.

"They were less mobile than previously suggested by other scholars," says Wolfgang Müller (Goethe University Frankfurt), co-senior author. "The strontium isotope signature registered in their teeth indicates in fact that they have spent most of the time close to their home: this reflects a very modern mental template and a likely thoughtful use of local resources."

"Despite the general cooling during the period of interest, Northeastern Italy has almost always been a place rich in food, ecological variability and caves, ultimately explaining the survival of Neanderthals in this region till about 45,000 years ago," says Marco Peresani (University of Ferrara), co-senior author and responsible for findings from archeological excavations at sites of De Nadale and Fumane.

This research adds a new piece in the puzzling pictures of Neanderthal, a human species so close to us but still so enigmatic. Specifically, researchers exclude that the Neanderthal small population size, derived in earlier genetic analyzes, was driven by differences in weaning age and that other biocultural factors led to their demise.

This will be further investigated within the framework of the ERC project SUCCESS (The Earliest Migration of Homo sapiens in Southern Europe—Understanding the biocultural processes that define our uniqueness), led by Stefano Benazzi at the University of Bologna.


Explore furtherA 48,000-year-old tooth that belonged to one of the last Neanderthals in Northern Italy
More information: Nava et al., Early life of Neanderthals. PNAS (2020). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2011765117. dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2011765117
Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences


Provided by University of Bologna
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New Los Alamos National Laboratory spin-off aims to put nuclear reactors in space

2-Nov-2020, by Los Alamos National Laboratory

A new agreement hopes to speed along a nuclear reactor technology that could be used to fuel deep-space exploration and possibly power human habitats on the Moon or Mars. Los Alamos National Laboratory has signed an agreement to license the “Kilopower” space reactor technology to Space Nuclear Power Corporation (SpaceNukes), also based in Los Alamos, NM

Newswise — LOS ALAMOS, N.M., Nov. 2, 2020— A new agreement hopes to speed along a nuclear reactor technology that could be used to fuel deep-space exploration and possibly power human habitats on the Moon or Mars. Los Alamos National Laboratory has signed an agreement to license the “Kilopower” space reactor technology to Space Nuclear Power Corporation (SpaceNukes), also based in Los Alamos, NM.

“We developed this technology at the Laboratory in partnership with NASA and the National Nuclear Security Administration,” said Patrick McClure, who served as project lead for Kilopower at Los Alamos and is now a partner in SpaceNukes. “By creating our own company, we’re hoping to be able to reach potential new sponsors who will want to take this technology to the next level and put it into space.”

Kilopower is a small, lightweight fission power system capable of providing various ranges of power depending on the need. For example, SpaceNukes offers low-kilowatt reactors to power deep space missions, middle-range reactors in the tens of kilowatts to power a lunar or martian habitat, and much larger reactors in the hundreds of kilowatts that could make enough propellant for a rocket to return to Earth after a stay on Mars.

“We think that nuclear power is needed for humans to exist and thrive in outer space, and we’ll go wherever we’re needed to make that happen,” said Dave Poston, who designed the reactor at Los Alamos and is another partner in SpaceNukes, which is named after his softball team since 1997. “This licensing agreement demonstrates how tech-transfer should work: the government and national laboratories invest in technologies that are unproven and advance them far enough to make them commercially viable.”

Jerome Garcia, acting deputy division leader for the Laboratory’s Feynman Center for Innovation, added, “Commercialization of technology is a key mission of Los Alamos National Laboratory, and this license exemplifies its wide-ranging benefits. Not only does it create a new private company right here in New Mexico that will add to the vibrancy of our local economy, but the technology is based on the Laboratory’s unique nuclear capability. This is a win for SpaceNukes, Los Alamos, and the State.”

SpaceNukes is pursuing opportunities with NASA for a lunar surface reactor and have presented their ideas to the U.S. Air Force and Space Force for reactor concepts for cislunar space. “We believe our team, through NASA’s private enterprise initiatives, can deliver abundant reliable power for space missions faster and at a much lower cost,” said Poston.

Poston and McClure are listed as the inventors on the patent that forms the basis of the licensing agreement. They are led by Andy Phelps, a long-time Bechtel executive and former Los Alamos National Laboratory associate director. Their goal is to commercialize the Kilopower technology and see a reactor in space in the next few years.

About Los Alamos National LaboratoryLos Alamos National Laboratory, a multidisciplinary research institution engaged in strategic science on behalf of national security, is managed by Triad, a public service oriented, national security science organization equally owned by its three founding members: Battelle Memorial Institute (Battelle), the Texas A&M University System (TAMUS), and the Regents of the University of California (UC) for the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration.

Los Alamos enhances national security by ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, developing technologies to reduce threats from weapons of mass destruction, and solving problems related to energy, environment, infrastructure, health, and global security concerns.

LA-UR-20-28713

Warming of 2°C would release billions of tonnes of soil carbon

2-Nov-2020, by University of Exeter


Newswise — Global warming of 2°C would lead to about 230 billion tonnes of carbon being released from the world's soil, new research suggests.

Global soils contain two to three times more carbon than the atmosphere, and higher temperatures speed up decomposition - reducing the amount of time carbon spends in the soil (known as "soil carbon turnover").

The new international research study, led by the University of Exeter, reveals the sensitivity of soil carbon turnover to global warming and subsequently halves uncertainty about this in future climate change projections.

The estimated 230 billion tonnes of carbon released at 2°C warming (above pre-industrial levels) is more than four times the total emissions from China, and more than double the emissions from the USA, over the last 100 years.

"Our study rules out the most extreme projections - but nonetheless suggests substantial soil carbon losses due to climate change at only 2°C warming, and this doesn't even include losses of deeper permafrost carbon," said co-author Dr Sarah Chadburn, of the University of Exeter.

This effect is a so-called "positive feedback" - when climate change causes knock-on effects that contribute to further climate change.

The response of soil carbon to climate change is the greatest area of uncertainty in understanding the carbon cycle in climate change projections.

To address this, the researchers used a new combination of observational data and Earth System Models - which simulate the climate and carbon cycle and subsequently make climate change predictions.

"We investigated how soil carbon is related to temperature in different locations on Earth to work out its sensitivity to global warming," said lead author Rebecca Varney, of the University of Exeter.

State-of-the-art models suggest an uncertainty of about 120 billion tonnes of carbon at 2°C global mean warming.

The study reduces this uncertainty to about 50 billion tonnes of carbon.

Co-author Professor Peter Cox, of Exeter's Global Systems Institute, said: "We have reduced the uncertainty in this climate change response, which is vital to calculating an accurate global carbon budget and successfully meeting Paris Agreement targets."

###

The work was carried-out in collaboration with scientists from the Met Office and institutes in the USA and Sweden.

The study, published in Nature Communications, is entitled: "A spatial emergent constraint on the sensitivity of soil carbon turnover to global warming."

Bats Can Predict the Future, JHU Researchers Discover

29-Oct-2020, by Johns Hopkins University

A bat predicts the location of prey during a lab experiment. Note the bat's calls and head position change as it anticipates where the insect will be.

Johns Hopkins University

Using only sound, a bat can predict the location of prey while hunting.

Newswise — They can’t tell fortunes and they’re useless with the stock market but bats are quite skilled at predicting one thing: where to find dinner.

Bats calculate where their prey is headed by building on-the-fly predictive models of target motion from echoes, Johns Hopkins University researchers find. The models are so robust, bats can continue to track prey even when it temporarily vanishes behind echo-blocking obstacles like trees.

Although predicting object motion paths through vision has been extensively studied, these findings, published today in the journal PNAS, are the first to examine the comparable process in hearing. The work enhances the understanding of auditory-guided behaviors in animals and humans, including sight-impaired people who use listen to sounds to track objects in their surroundings.

“Just the way a tennis player needs to find out when and where they will hit the ball, a bat needs to anticipate when and where it will make contact with the insect it’s hunting,” said senior author Cynthia F. Moss, a neuroscientist and professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences. “The insect is flying. The bat is also flying. In this very rapidly changing environment, if the bat were to just rely on the information it got from the most recent echo, it would miss the insect.”

The bat uses the time delay between each echolocation call and the resulting echoes to determine how far away prey is. They tilt their heads to catch the changing intensity of echoes to figure out where the prey is in the horizontal plane. Bats must put together echo information about object distance and direction to successfully track an erratic moving insect.

But because bats are such good hunters, the research team thought that in addition, the bats must also be somehow using this information to predict where they prey is headed. To test this in the lab, they designed an experiment that closely mirrored the situation of a bat hunting in the wild.

They trained bats to stay on a perch and track insects. The team recorded the bat’s echolocation calls and head movements as they changed where the insects moved and how quickly. They also added obstacles that interrupted the echoes.

“We devised mathematical models to test the data and we came up with different hypotheses of what the bats could be doing,” said co-first author Clarice Anna Diebold, a doctoral candidate in Psychological and Brain Sciences.

If that bat wasn’t predicting where the insect would be, its head movements would always lag behind the target. But that wasn’t the case. If the bat kept his head in a fixed position, which sometimes reflected where the insect ended up, that would eliminate the prediction theory. But that wasn’t happening either. And if the bat was only using information from the echoes to estimate velocity, that wouldn’t be enough to explain the extent of the bat’s precision.

“We hypothesized that bats use both the velocity information from the timing of the echoes and further adjust their head aim,” said co-first author Angeles Salles, a postdoctoral fellow. “When we tested this model with our data, we saw it fit very well.”

The findings upend the previous accepted notion that bats do not predict an insect’s future position — a conclusion largely drawn from a 1980s study done before high-speed video was widely available.

“The question of prediction is important because an animal must plan ahead to decide what it’s going to do next,” said Salles. “A visual animal or a human has a stream of information coming in, but for bats it’s remarkable because they’re doing this with only brief acoustic snapshots.”

Although bats are studied here, the findings apply to any animals that track moving sounds, and even to people, like the blind, who use clicks and cane taps to help them navigate while avoiding obstacles.

This work was funded by Human Frontiers Science Program Fellowship LT000220/2018; NSF Fellowship GRFP 2018261398; NSF Brain Initiative Grant NCS-FO 1734744 (2017- 2021); AFOSR Grant FA9550-14-1-0398NIFTI; and AFOSR Grant N00014-17-1- 2736.

VIDEO available: https://youtu.be/jBBXHdzoP5Q

Scaramucci predicts 'landslide' for Joe Biden, says Trump knows he's going to lose

'The market is rallying off a Biden victory,' Scaramucci says

By Talia Kaplan | Fox News

Scaramucci predicts a Biden win: 'Consensus is' he'll 'be way better for the economy'

'You cannot cure the economic ills of the country if you let the virus rage in 47 states,' former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci tells 'America's Newsroom.'

Former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci, who spent 10 days in the Trump administration in July 2017 and now supports Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, told “America’s Newsroom” on Monday that he believes the former vice president will win the 2020 election by a “landslide.”

In a heated interview with host Sandra Smith, Scaramucci said, “We have to remove Mr. Trump so that we can save the country from the pandemic.

“You cannot cure the economic ills of the country if you let the virus rage in 47 states so we’re going to work on the virus and then we’ll work on the economy,” he continued.

“I’ll just remind everybody that when the Bush administration transitioned into the Obama Administration it was a pretty good economy,” Scaramucci went on to say. “The Federal Reserve is not changing its policies and so therefore, that’s the reason why the stock market’s up.”

He said that the “betting markets are with Joe Biden” and added that “the consensus is that he’s going to be way better for the economy.”

He went on to say that “the market is telling you something.”

“The market is rallying off a Biden victory,” Scaramucci said. “The market recognizes that we have to heal the country.

“You got to get the science right on this thing so that we can tamp down the virus and end the number of deaths and mortalities,” he added.

Scaramucci also said that he thinks President Trump knows he is likely going to lose the election by the “way he is campaigning.”

Smith noted that Scaramucci supported Trump in 2016 and pointed to his exact words from an interview that year where he was in favor of lowering corporate taxes.

Smith noted that in 2016 Scaramucci said lowering corporate taxes was a good idea because it would make the country “more competitive with the rest of the world” and would “create incentive for people to stop leaving the United States” as well as prevent “corporations from doing tax inversion.”

Biden has said the wealthy should pay more in taxes, and that the tax code should be more progressive and equitable. That includes eliminating loopholes that favor the rich and large corporations.

Biden would repeal changes made to individual income tax rates for the wealthy (individuals with incomes over $400,000) under the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which means the top rate would revert back to 39.6%, from 37%.

Biden would also raise the corporate tax rate to 28%. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act reduced the corporate tax rate to 21%, from 35%.

He has also proposed creating a minimum tax on corporations with at least $100 million in book profits, which means corporations would pay either their regular corporate income tax or a 15% minimum tax – whichever is greater. Companies would pay more on their foreign income as well under Biden’s tax plan.

Smith noted on Monday that in 2016, Scaramucci was “so passionate” about the corporate tax cut “being such a central focus of the Trump campaign and this time around you’re supporting a candidate that is talking about raising that corporate tax rate by more than 10% and raising taxes on anybody making over $400,000.”

Scaramucci responded before taking a shot at Trump, "I’m a patriot. I’m supporting the country. I’m supporting the health of the citizens of the country. I love the people of the United States. I don’t use them [Americans] as props at rallies and leave them in the dust in 40-degree windy weather.

“You've got to heal the country first and make the people better,” he then reiterated. “Once you do that the economy is going to boom.”

Smith then asked, “How does Joe Biden do that then? What’s the answer? What is he saying he’s going to do that you’re supporting?”

Scaramucci said: “Very simply, we’re going to start listening to the scientists. And we’re going to start doing things like the South Koreans did.”

She interjected and asked, “What do we see from a Joe Biden presidency? How does he make the situation better, if you’re saying that the central focus is COVID-19?”

Scaramucci responded: “You are going to have a coronavirus task force. You are going to use the best practices like they use in South Korea and other nations that have carefully contained the virus and we are going to shut the virus down and leave the economy open.

“The economy will heal alongside of the health of the American people,” he continued. “It’s very, very simple.”

Smith also pointed out that Scaramucci praised Trump in 2016 for not being a classically trained politician who has been in the political system for years. She then pointed out that Scaramucci is now supporting a candidate who has been in the political system for decades.

“I am telling people to vote for the institutions of our democracy,” Scaramucci shot back. “The president had four years. He’s blown the economy, he’s made us sicker, he’s trying to destroy the Western post-World War II alliance.”

He then said that millions more Americans are “voting this year versus 2016 because of the wreckage that Mr. Trump, President Trump has caused in our society.”

“When the facts change, you change your mind. That’s what really smart people do and that’s why they’re waiting on line for six, seven, eight hours,” he continued.

Smith noted that she didn’t hear “a whole lot of policy talk on the issues when it comes to Joe Biden” from Scaramucci.

“It’s very simple, a very simple thing: Heal the people, rebuild the economy, extra stimulus, 7.5 million jobs more than the Trump plan,” he responded, adding that “that is a really good plan.”

Fox Business’ Brittany de Lea contributed to this rep

The growing U.S. deficit raises questions about funding as China cuts U.S. debt holdings
Weizhen Tan


The U.S. deficit is burgeoning and it's set to grow much bigger with a planned second stimulus package to beat the pandemic fallout.
The additional costs of funding the package will have to come from issuing more U.S. Treasurys — but that raises the question of who will buy them, given that China, previously the top purchaser of the Treasurys, is cutting its holdings.

© Provided by CNBC

The U.S. deficit is already burgeoning and it's set grow even bigger as lawmakers push for a second stimulus package to beat the pandemic fallout.

The additional costs of funding the package will have to be through issuing more U.S. Treasurys — but that raises the question of who will buy them. It comes amid new shifts in the geopolitical landscape, as China — previously the top purchaser of U.S. Treasurys — cuts its holdings, analysts pointed out.

"While the US economy is gradually healing, the costs of handling the pandemic are still stacking up," wrote Kristjan Mee, a research and analytics strategist at asset manager Schroders.

He pointed out that the rolling 12-month U.S. budget deficit was close to $3 trillion as of the end of August, following the CARES Act — the first relief package aimed at tackling the pandemic which added over $2 trillion to the already large deficit.

If another multi-trillion dollar stimulus package is approved by Congress, coupled with lower tax revenue, it would take the deficit to close to 20% of the country's GDP, Mee said.

"Looking ahead, the Treasury expects the issuance to remain high with the timing dependent on the passing of the next stimulus programme," he said in a recent note. "The key question then is: who will finance the heavy issuance associated with very large budget deficit."

According to Reuters, the debt of the U.S., the world's largest economy, has surged to a level not seen since the end of World War Two.

China cuts down its U.S. bond holdings

China was previously the largest holder of U.S. Treasurys, but it has been gradually shedding those holdings amid increasing tensions with the U.S. Chinese holdings fell to second place last June, behind Japan.

According to U.S. government data, China last held $1.06 trillion of U.S. bonds as of August this year, a decline from the $1.24 trillion it used to hold at the end of 2015.

"While private foreign investors have continued to purchase Treasuries, this has not been enough to offset the anaemic demand of official institutions," Mee said.

Relations between the U.S. and China have worsened on the trade front, and this year, the blame game on the coronavirus pandemic and the tech war intensified.

As a result, industry watchers have said, China will want to reduce its reliance on the greenback, by diversifying its foreign reserves into other currencies.

"An important new addition is the political element, whereby it is likely that China does not want increased interdependency with the U.S. associated with more dollar reserves," said Alan Ruskin, a strategist at Deutsche Bank.

"China will likely recycle most of any new reserve accumulation into non-USD assets, because this is a relatively passive form of reserve diversification that will garner much less attention than actively selling existing USD assets," he added.

China more than tripled its purchase of Japanese government bonds between April and July this year, surging to its highest level in more than three years.

Ruskin also pointed out that the situation now is different from a few years ago. In 2014, the appreciating yuan took a toll on China's competitiveness, since a stronger currency makes Chinese goods more expensive to export, and the country earned less on falling demand.

As a result, the lower earnings meant limited the growth of its reserves, and subsequently reduced China's purchase of U.S. Treasurys, according to Ruskin.

Who will buy U.S. Treasurys?

The most likely sources of purchases are probably a number of countries in Asia with "sizeable" foreign exchange reserves and "are known for intervening in the market," said Schroders' Mee.

He flagged the reserves of countries such as Taiwan and Singapore, which have increased "noticeably" since March.

Additionally, the U.S. has the "exorbitant privilege" of issuing the world's reserve currency, Mee pointed out.

"Perhaps ironically, further dollar weakness could spur (emerging markets) central banks to increase their Treasury holdings, as (emerging markets) central bank(s) often intervene by purchasing dollars to prevent their currencies from appreciating too much," he said.

A lot of emerging market countries are exporting economies. Their exports will no longer be as attractive if their currencies become too strong. By buying up U.S. dollars, they boost its demand, strengthening the greenback and comparatively weakening the emerging currencies.

The Fed would also likely have to step in to purchase Treasurys on a much larger scale when China holds back its purchases, said Deutsche Bank's Ruskin.

Trump fans stranded again after Georgia rally

Hundreds of fans were left waiting in 46-degree temperatures for hours

Justin Vallejo
New York

(Getty Images)

MORE TWEETS https://tinyurl.com/yycxp7bg

Supporters of Donald Trump were left out in the cold for the third time in a week after reported transport problems at president's rally in Georgia

Hundreds of fans were left waiting in 46-degree temperatures for hours as the president left Rome for his next rally in Florida, according to NBC News.

The traffic delays were in part due to a single, narrow road in and out of the venue shared by pedestrians, cars, busses and emergency vehicles.

NBC News reporter Julie Tsirkin captured scenes from the rally aftermath showing hundreds laying on the ground while others tried to hitch a ride out amid the high wind area of the rally.


It was a similar scene found in Pennsylvania and Nebraska, where some supporters were rushed to hospital after being stranded in freezing temperatures.

Mr Trump's rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday saw "thousands" of supporters wandering into the 41-degree night with no access to shuttles they expected to bus them between the rally and parking.

CNN political reporter DJ Judd tweeted images from the scene showing people blocking the street from ambulances and police, while reporter Ryan Nobles said many supporters were out in the cold for four to five hours waiting to hear Mr Trump speak.

“It became so frustrating for many of these Trump supporters, they ended up just walking,” Mr Nobles told CNN's Anderson Cooper. “That is the decision that our crew made, my producer and I walked about a mile to get to our parking lot.”

Three days earlier, seven people were taken to hospital and 30 were contacted for medical reasons after a rally at Eppley Airfield in Omaha, Nebraska left supporters stranded in freezing temperatures for hours.

Joe Biden said following the rally that the president's failure to plan responsibly was a snapshot of the president’s approach to the coronavirus pandemic.

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Hours after the President departed for Florida, this was the scene in Georgia as people were left for hours waiting for buses to take them to their cars:

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