DNA from ancient Egyptian mummies reveals their ancestry

The ancient Egyptians were the dream of an archaeologist. They left behind complex coffins, huge pyramids and beautiful hieroglyphic code of pictorial writing was broken in 1799. The Egyptians recorded tales of royalty and gods. They took note of the blends of life, too, as much fun as the beer revenue and doctor notes.

But there was a persistent hole in ancient Egypt identity: its chromosomes. Fresh and dry permafrost can preserve prehistoric DNA as a natural freezer, but Egypt is a gene incinerator. The area is hot. In mummies’ graves, where scientists expected to find genetic samples, moisture was destroying their DNA. In addition, sodium carbonate and other chemicals used by Egyptian embalmers damage the genetic material.

A study by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Science in the History of Humanity and the University of Tübingen in Germany has managed to connect some of these genetic deficiencies. The researchers destroyed the genetic material of 151 Egyptian mummies, radiocarbon dating New Kingdom of Egypt (the oldest to 1388 BC) to Roman times (the youngest to 426 AD), according to reports in the journal Nature Communications.

Johannes Krause, a paléogénétisme of the University of Tübingen and author of the study, said the main finding was that “during the year 1300, a complete genetic continuity is observed.” Despite the repeated conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great, the Greeks, Romans, Arabs and Arab Assyrians – and the list goes on – the ancient Egyptians showed little genetic change. “The other big surprise,” said Krause, “if we do not have many sub-Saharan African ancestry.”

The remains were from Abusir el-Meleq, an ancient Nile community in the middle of Egypt. Mummies, scientists have extracted bone samples from teeth and soft tissues. (Although Egyptian embalmers had removed the brains of the deceased, scientists wrote that “in most cases, unmixed mother heads still retain much of their soft tissue.”)

Difficult samples produced most of the DNA, perhaps because the teeth and bones were protected by the soft tissues or because the hiring process leaves a hard material intact. After preparing the samples in a sterilized room in Germany, the researchers bathed the samples under UV rays for one hour to minimize contamination.
The ancient Egyptians were closely related to those living along the eastern Mediterranean, according to the analysis. They also shared the genetic material with the residents of the Turkish peninsula at the time and in Europe.

Given Egypt’s location at the intersection of Africa, Europe and Asia, and the influx of foreign leaders, Krause said he was surprised that genetics appeared to be stable during this period. Scientists are particularly interested in the change of the ruling class at the beginning of the first millennium. First, the Hellenistic dynasty, following the conquests of Alexander the Great, from 332 BC. In the year 30 BC. AD, then the Roman rule in 30 BC. In the EA does not seem to be bothered by the change policy of 400 AD However, genetics community Abusir el-Meleq.

Scientists compared the ancient DNA to that of modern Egyptians 100 and 125 modern Ethiopians previously analyzed. If you ask the Egyptians, who say they have recently become more European, said Krause. “We see exactly the opposite,” he said.

It is relatively recent in Egypt’s long history that sub-Saharan genetic influences have become more pronounced. “In the last 1500 years, Egypt has become more African, if you will,” said Krause.

In their article, the researchers acknowledged that “our genetic data were obtained from a single site in Middle Egypt and may not be representative of ancient Egypt.” In southern Egypt, the authors wrote that sub-Saharan Africa’s influences could summer stronger.

NASA to announce its first mission to ‘touch the Sun’ today

New Delhi, 31 May: In what is supposed to be a landmark in space science, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will officially announce its first mission to fly our sun directly into the atmosphere. Calling the first “touch the sun” mission, the space agency in its statement said it would make the announcement at 11 am EDT Wednesday (meaning HST 8:30 pm Wednesday). The announcement will be made at the Eckhardt Research Center William Auditorium at the University of Chicago. The official announcement reported that the event will be broadcast live on NASA television and the agency’s website.
NASA Solar Probe Plus (SPP) should be launched in the summer of 2018. The NASA spacecraft will be placed into orbit at least four million kilometers from the surface of the sun. In this orbit, the spacecraft will encounter heat and radiation, unlike any spaceship in history.
The sun is 93 million miles (about 150 million kilometers) from Earth. The connection and interaction between the Sun and Earth in car of the stations, the ocean currents, the weather, the climate, the radiation belts and the northern lights. Although it is special to us, there are a billion stars as our sun dispersed in the galaxy of the Milky Way. It is believed that NASA’s spacecraft to explore the outer atmosphere of the sun and make critical observations that answer questions about physics decennial how the stars work. The resulting data will improve the main meteorological forecasts weather phenomena that influence life on Earth, as well as satellites and astronauts in space.
According to reports, a block instrument of 370 kilograms (815 pounds) called Helios 2 arrived about 43 million kilometers (27 million miles) from the surface of the Sun in its mission to study the solar winds and the cosmic radiation in 1976. He was informed that NASA will be closer to the Helios 2 sun crown to improve understanding of the sun.
Participants will be part of NASA’s solar mission are Thomas Zurbuchen, associate director of the NASA Science Mission Directorate in Washington; Nicola Fox, scientific mission project at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, Eugene Parker, S. Chandrasekhar Distinguished Professor Emeritus Professor at the University of Chicago, Eric Isaacs, Executive Vice President Research, Innovation And the National Laboratories to the University of Chicago, Rocky Kolb, Dean of the Division of Physical Sciences at the University of Chicago.

Is the Great Barrier Reef now truly beyond saving?

Closed Tuesday, May 30, 2017, 17:39 – The Great Barrier Reef underwent major laundering of events, but it is the largest coral reef system in the world, really beyond all hope of ransom, as recently proclaimed Some titles

2016 and 2017 were very bad for the Great Barrier Reef. Due to rising ocean temperatures, the reef system, which lies along the northeastern coast of Australia, underwent two major whitening events in the last two years. As a result, the overall health of this important ecosystem has been threatened as a result, and further losses are expected in 2017.

The discoloration is the term used to describe how the warm waters of the ocean are like the corals expel the colored algae that provide them with a food source, so the white coral. This makes them vulnerable to diseases of corals, invasive algae species that do not benefit them, invasive populations of star coral and horn thorns unless ocean temperatures are beneficial enough that cold algae return opportunistic corals can starve.

The Australian government has launched since March 2015, the long-term 2050 Coral Sustainability Plan, which, at its core, a statement of how the “exceptional universal value” of the reef (as defined by the World Heritage Convention ) Was to increase every decade between the introduction of the plan and by the year 2050.

Recent scientific reef manifestations, however, were somewhat surprising.

Many caused damage to the reefs by these consecutive whitening events that the Coral 2050 plan simply is not enough to prevent the health of the reef system from continuing to decline.
Bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef, 2016-2017, shows that about two-thirds of the reef system was affected. Credit: GBRMPA

This does not mean that scientists have placed the Great Barrier Reef in palliative care, waiting for the moment when it has died and gone.

First, for any sustainability plan for the reef at work, experts say the plan should take climate change into account and include measures to combat it. Currently, the Coral 2050 plan does not.

A panel of experts who assessed the level of Coral 2050 in early May, said:

“Members agreed that, in our lives and in our clocks, large areas of the Great Barrier Reef and surrounding ecosystems are significant long-term damage that may be irreversible if action is not taken now. Science informs us we are unprecedented in the history of mankind.Although this is in itself can be a cause of action, the extraordinary speed of the changes we observe makes the one action even more urgent. ”
“The Committee believes that measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions should be essential to the response.This should be accompanied by increased efforts to improve the resilience of coral and other ecosystems that make up the Great Barrier Reef “On managing reefs to maintain the benefits offered by the reef.

At the recent Coral Summit, Townsville, Australia, these scientists have echoed this call to action.

“The last two years underscore the need to take urgent action to curb the decline of corals,” said Dr. Russell Reichelt, president of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. “The Great Barrier Reef is a large, rugged system that has previously been shown to be capable of rebounding, but the current changes are undermining the reef’s resilience.”

“The Summit expressed deep concern about the need for global action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the engine of climate change.”

Second, however, while the Coral 2050 plan can not achieve its main objective, according to The Guardian, experts call for a much more achievable goal – maintaining the ecological function of the reef system.

Global Warming Will Cost Cities Twice As Much Thanks To ‘Heat Islands’

It is expected that global warming will have a major impact on the economy, and a new study suggests that cities will be the most difficult.

The study published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change showed that the total economic costs of climate change for cities could be 2.6 times higher because of an effect researchers call the “urban heat island.”

The researchers examined 1692 cities and found that by the year 2100, they could be up to 8 degrees C warmer. Nearly 5 degrees would be due to global warming, but the rest comes from the heat island effect, which occurs when parks and lakes are replaced by concrete and asphalt.

Hot city

By 2050, cities could see temperatures rise two degrees from the islands of heat. This could mean more air pollution, poor water and poor health.

“Any hard-won victory over climate change in the world could be destroyed by the effects of uncontrolled urban heat islands,” Richard SJ Tol of the University of Sussex said in a statement.

The study found that the median city loses between 1.4% and 1.7% of GDP in 2050 and between 2.3 and 5.6% in 2100, according to the amount of heat that heats during this period. The poorest city could have losses of up to almost 11 percent of its GDP.

Toronto Fontaine

The researchers examined various policies that could mitigate the economic impact of global warming, such as planting more trees.

They found that the cheapest measure would be to install fresh ceilings and floors that absorb less heat and less reflected in the surrounding environment. The study found that modifying 20 percent of a city’s roofs and half of its sidewalks could save 12 times the cost of installation and maintenance and reduce the air temperature by 0.8 degrees.

Saturns moon Enceladus may have tipped over: study

New York, May 31 (PTI) Saturns icy, oceanic moon Enceladus may have been tilted in the distant past, probably due to a collision with a smaller body such as an asteroid, according to new data from the spacecraft Cassini of NASA.
The researchers found that the axis of rotation of the moons – the line through the north and south poles – has reoriented.
By examining the characteristics of the moons, the team showed that Elceladus seems to have been moved away from its original axis by about 55 degrees – more than half the way to the rolling completely on its side.
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“We have found a chain of weak areas or ponds that trace a belt across the surface of the moons which we believe are the fossil remains of a previous and previous equator and poles,” said Radwan Tajeddine, a team Cassini imagery associated with Cornell University in the United States.
The area surrounding the ice moons of the current South Pole is a geologically active area where long, linear fractures, called stem bands, intersect across the surface.
Researchers speculate that an asteroid may have struck the region in the past when it was closer to the equator.
“It is unlikely that the geological activity in this terrain was initiated by internal processes,” said Tajeddine.
“We believe that, in order to lead such a large reorientation of the moon, it is possible that an impact is behind the formation of this abnormal terrain,” he said.
In 2005, Cassini discovered that jets of water vapor and ice particles sprayed tiger strip fractures – evidence that an underground ocean drains directly into space beneath the active south polar terrain.
Whether it is an impact or another process, the researchers stated that the disturbance and creation of the tiger strip terrain resulted in a redistribution of the Enceladus mass, making the rotation of the moons unstable And stifling.
The rotation would have finally stabilized, probably after more than a million years.
By the time the rotation has taken place, the north-south axis would have reoriented to cross different points of the surface – a mechanism called “true polar wandering”.
The idea of polar wandering helps explain why the North and South poles of modern Enceladus seem quite different.
The south is active and geologically young, while the north is covered with craters and looks much older.
The original poles of the moons would have looked more like the event that prompted Enceladus to move and relocate the disturbed terrain of the tiger strip in the polar south region of the moons …….