The science news of the week: This Stone Age sink is still capable of producing deafening sounds. Who would have thought that a seemingly simple washbasin, gathering dust for decades in the reserves of a French museum, would turn out to be the oldest musical instrument of its kind, played 17 millennia ago by representatives of a fairly advanced (for the Stone Age) civilization? The shell of the large sea snail, which lives in the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea, was discovered in 1931 during excavations in the famous Marsoulas cave in the Pyrenees. The walls of the cave are decorated with drawings made by the Magdalenians who lived there at the end of the last ice age. At first, scientists believed that ancient people living in caves simply picked up a shell on the shore and used it as a ceremonial bowl, and they gave it to the Museum of Natural History in Toulouse, where it was forgotten for a long time. However, recent research has revealed that ancient people didn’t just work on this shell, but turned it into a musical instrument capable of producing three notes: C, C sharp, and D. In addition, it was so loud that the sound reached 100 decibels within one meter of the sink. “This sound is our direct link to the Magdalenians,” writes lead researcher Karol Fritz, a senior scientist at the French National Center for Scientific Research, in the journal Science Advances. And while archaeologists have found even more ancient musical instruments, such as flutes made from the bones of large birds, the shell is still very important because it symbolizes the role the ocean played in the lives of Stone Age people. “As far as we know, the Marsoulas shell is unique in a historical context, not only for France, but for the entire Paleolithic period in Europe, and possibly the world,” Fritz notes.
Maori warriors still use shells as musical instruments for ritual purposes. We explain quickly, simply, and clearly what happened, why it matters, and what will happen next. The number of offers should remain: Episodes End of story: Podcast Advertising. But how did the scientists figure out that it was not just a shell, but a musical instrument? One of the explanations lay in the fact that on it were discovered barely noticeable red dots, in the shape and size suitable for fingertips. In addition, the edge of the shell was not accidentally broken, as the archaeologists who discovered it initially thought, but deliberately carved, and there were even two drilled holes where a mouthpiece had apparently been inserted. The Magdalene people, who lived throughout most of modern Europe from northern Spain to Germany, were skilled hunters and used numerous stone tools. They might use a sink capable of producing a sound as loud as an approaching train for ritual purposes or to summon fellow tribesmen. “The intensity of the sound produced by this shell is impressive,” admits the study’s co-author, the director of the Laboratory of Molecular and Structural Archaeology at the Sorbonne, Philip Walter. “You can imagine what it sounded like inside the cave.” The researcher believes that prehistoric people had many other notes in their repertoire. Unfortunately, archaeologists will never be able to guess exactly what music the Magdalenians played.
Dietitians warn: Recognizing the benefits of being overweight does not mean you can indulge in anything without consequences. Middle-aged people who gain excess weight live longer than their peers who have stayed in good shape throughout their lives. This paradoxical (but for some, inspiring) conclusion was reached by scientists during a 70-year study of two generations of Americans. At the same time, people who have been overweight since childhood have the highest risk of not reaching old age. “Our conclusions mainly concern those who had a normal weight at a young age, but then gradually started to gain weight, and by middle age were already overweight,” explains the study’s leader, Professor of Sociology at Ogai University, Huai Zheng. “So for these people, the chances of living longer increase.” The professor, along with colleagues, analyzed the data of more than 8 thousand residents of Massachusetts, their parents and their children, based on records kept since 1948. (The children were followed from 1971 to 2014). The trend of weight gain in both groups was about the same, but the scientists noted with concern that the tendency toward obesity in children was observed at an earlier age. They were also more likely to die from obesity than their parents’ generation. However, a small weight gain, says Professor Zheng, “adds years to your life with age.” Anti-obesity activists, however, caution that the new research does not mean you can give yourself the green light to stop monitoring your weight. “It’s perfectly normal to gain weight in midlife, and it’s true that this slight increase serves as protection against a number of diseases, including diabetes and cardiovascular disease,” says Tam Fry, representative of the National Obesity Forum. “But don’t imagine that at age 55 you can just throw it all away and dream of longevity.”
Mosaic virus kills cabbage, but it can also save… First of all, it must be clarified that this virus only protects you if you are a cabbage or broccoli or any other member of the cabbage family. But this does not diminish the importance of the discovery made by scientists (the results of their work were published in PNAS), who have found that in difficult times for plants, the mosaic virus, which affects many types of vegetables and often leads to their death, can come to their aid. However, everything depends on the weather. “Under normal conditions, the virus plays its usual role as a pathogen, killing the host plant,” explains Professor Santiago Fito Elena, a virologist at the University of Valencia. “But in drought, on the contrary, it helps the plant survive.” In order to understand the mechanism of such a strange care, scientists infected experimental plants with two variants of a virus that developed under normal and dry conditions, and then divided the infected plants into two groups, one of which was watered normally, while the other was deprived of water. Viruses that had experienced drought themselves spared their hosts even when they were generously watered, while those accustomed to water abundance destroyed their plants even when they themselves were dying of thirst. According to scientists, viruses accustomed to drought have learned to modify their hosts’ genes and alter their circadian rhythms to survive with less water. Of course, the virus does not do this completely selflessly, because by saving the plant, it also saves itself. Moreover, as researchers acknowledge, the mechanism that viruses use to boost plants’ resistance to drought is hardly universal. But learning to turn viral enemies into viral partners could be an invaluable service to agriculture. Especially as climate change threatens us with more severe and prolonged droughts.