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These 2,000-year-old human remains were found in a stone chambered cairn in Greenland. There has been an ‘ancient-DNA gold rush’, with the number of ancient-human genomes exponentially increasing since 2018. (Ashley Cooper/Getty)
Ten thousand ancient genomes sequenced
More than 10,000 ancient-human genomes have now been sequenced. In 2010, the first ancient-DNA sequence was published, of a man who lived 4,000 years ago. Since 2018, thanks to technological advances, there has been an explosion in the number of ancient genomes sequenced. The vast majority come from people who lived in Europe, Russia and the Middle East. “We need to shift that focus and obsession with numbers” and look at genomes from other parts of the world, says palaeogenomicist María Ávila-Arcos.
Reference: bioRxiv preprint (not peer reviewed)
Sources: Ref. 2, D. Reich
Parrots call each other to be less lonely
Giving pet parrots the opportunity to video call other birds helps to counter isolation and boredom in the intelligent animals. Researchers trained 18 pet parrots, ranging from macaws (Ara) to cockatiels (Nymphicus hollandicus), to phone a friend using Facebook Messenger. “All caretakers reported perceived benefits, some arguably life-transformative, such as learning to forage or even to fly by watching others,” write the authors in their paper, which includes some well-worth-watching video of parrots chatting.
Reference: CHI '23: Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems paper
Reader poll
Today, a lunar lander built by the Japanese firm ispace will touch down on the Moon’s surface. It will be the first private company to land on the Moon, and the first of several commercial lunar trips flying this year.
Briefing readers had mixed feelings about this burgeoning commercial space age: more than half of the respondents to our poll last week said they preferred when space exploration was led by governments only. Another 40% welcome private space missions.
Many readers felt the money pumped into space missions — both private and public ones — could be better spent on Earth, for example on addressing climate change. There were concerns about the amount of space debris that missions would create, and about the environmental impact of rocket launches. “There should be an international agency to regulate who can send what into space and clean up afterwards,” writes librarian Penelope Bulloch.
“I think we should reframe the conversation altogether,” suggests sustainability project manager Joan Suris. “Every time we have started mining resources on Earth we have created more environmental and social problems than we have solved. What are the unforeseen consequences of ‘commercial exploitation’ of the Moon?”
Features & opinion
Deep ocean exploration isn’t about science
Attempts to reach the bottom of the sea have a surprisingly long history, as Jeff Maynard recounts in The Frontier Below. The book is a brisk tour of diving and submersibles, heavy on engineering and light on science. “That’s fitting, because the endeavour was hardly ever about science,” writes reviewer and Nature reporter Alexandra Witze. Instead, it was about retrieving goods from wrecked vessels, military interests or finding a ‘lifeless’ place to dump nuclear waste.
How to create liveable suburbs
The sprawling outer areas of US cities are the physical embodiment of unequal distribution of wealth and opportunity, argues urban-design researcher Dana Cuff. Rigid and often absurd planning rules prevent the construction of blocks of flats, shops, schools, health facilities and workplaces. “It will take many creative solutions to redeem suburbs,” Cuff says, such as building housing for teachers on underused school land or offering loans for constructing affordable housing.
The far-reaching impacts of melting ice
How does melting ice contribute to destructive wildfires in the western United States? And how does ice loss lead to extreme floods in Nepal? A sobering yet hopeful quiz, accompanied by stunning visuals, clarifies how the shape of coastlines, the weather and the survival of communities are all tied to ice.
NPR | Interactive 5-min scroll
Image of the week
The moonlet Deimos is made of the same type of material as Mars, the latest observations suggest.Credit: Emirates Mars Mission
The first up-close images of Mars’s little-known moonlet Deimos have revealed that it is made of the same material as the red planet. The tiny, 12.4-kilometre-wide moon probably formed together with Mars, rather than as an asteroid that was captured in the planet’s orbit. (Nature | 4 min read) (Emirates Mars Mission)
