Tenzin's Article Summary Page
Article 16
People estimated New World migrators possibly split from their Asians ancestors 25,000 years ago but the most reliable proof is from 15,000 years ago.
No archaeological evidence of human settlement has ever been found in Beringia so that means they couldn't have split because the people living there couldn't move to the New World. Additionally, ice sheets in Alaska and Canada blocked the east and south giving more evidence that the people couldn't migrate away from Asia.
The Bering land bridge measured as much as 1,000 miles (1,609 kilometers) from north to south and as much as 3,000 miles (4,828 kilometers) from west to east. Scientists once thought this vast tract consisted mostly of tundra steppe, a treeless environment incapable of supporting a large human population.
But in recent years paleoecologists—scientists who study ancient environments—have been drilling sediment cores in the Bering Sea and in bogs in Alaska. The samples have yielded plant and insect fossils, as well as pollen, indicating that Beringia's tundra steppe was dotted with oases of brushy shrubs and even trees such as spruce, birch, willow, and alder.
But the earliest undisputed evidence of people in the Americas dates back to only about 15,000 years ago. So some scientists speculated that a population of humans, numbering perhaps a few thousand individuals, must have settled down somewhere during that 10,000-year interval.
Article 15
Scientists understand the koalas' weird biological functions.
Koalas have always been weird for example they eat toxic eucalyptus leaves but they are easily susceptible to diseases that usually don't affect animals too much. But scientists have now figured why and how they pull off their feats. For example, koalas smell their eucalyptus leaves before eating them to separate the leaves from other things. Also, koalas are able to eat to toxic eucalyptus leaves because they evolved the ability to flush the toxins out of their body.
But even with all their useful abilities, they are still in trouble. Like I mentioned before they are easily susceptible to disease like chlamydia and it's harder to treat them because of their evolved stomachs that flush out the medicine before it can work. Additionally, the eucalyptus trees they eat from are get cut down to build more buildings and others.
Thankfully people are trying to help koalas. For example, Rebecca Johnson was the lady who leads the group of researchers and scientist to find these facts out. Also, there are a lot of diseases koalas suffer from and most of them don't have a cure for the koala but there is a lot of people studying the koala's genes to understand their body so they can give them better medicine.
Overall we are learning more about the koala and learning how we can help the koalas survive.
Article 14
Fashion was significant to the French.
Ever since the reign of Louis XIV, French aristocrats looked to royalty to know what not to wear. The French had strict rules that prevented the court from wearing certain fabrics, and accessories at certain times of day, and certain occasions.
After Louis' death in 1715, fashion took a turn to a lighter style, transitioning from baroque to rococo. Rococo was defined by pastel colors, revealing frocks, and lots of frills, ruffles, bows, and lace. This look was copied by the elite in European capitals.
Clothing had always been a powerful signifier of nationality. When Marie-Antoinette, a young Austrian princess, traveled from Austria to France to be married to Louis XIV, she stopped between the two countries with her group. Then Marie-Antoinette got rid of all her Austrian clothes and dressed in clothing made in France. This showed she changed from Austrian to French.
Overall, fashion was a staple to French society and your clothes reflected on yourself.
Article 13
During the American Revolution a secret spy group was formed that changed the tide of the battle.
In the middle of the Revolution Americans were losing badly. They had lost an important port and Congress had run away from Philadelphia, so George Washington had to employ volunteers as spies but this was hard since spying wasn't seen as a "noble" or "gentlemanly". One notable spy that did volunteer was Nathan Hale, unfortunately, he was caught and hanged after a week of working as a spy.
Next Washington made a spy group including Sackett and a few other people. But yet again they failed, most of the agents failed including Sackett, who got fired after six months. Fortunately, Sackett's replacement, Benjamin Tallmadge, was better. He made the Culper Spy Ring, which is regarded as one of America’s greatest espionage operations. The spies made a code made up of numbers and converted 763 cities, names, and words into numbers. Washington asked a physician named James Jay to invent the invisible ink.
None of the Culper spies were ever caught, and even Washington himself never learned exactly who was in the group. The ring’s very existence wasn’t discovered until the 1900s, and to this day no one knows for certain how many members it had. People claim the Culper Ring was the only reason that America won the war.
Overall spying had an important part in the Revolutionary war and the Culper Ring was an important part of American history.
Source: https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/07/george-washington-spy-letter/
Article 12
Cats are driving the population of reptiles down.
Research has shown that cats, feral or not, can harm the ecosystem around them. For example the text states "one house cat and its offspring were purportedly all it took to push a bird that lived only on Stephens Island in New Zealand into extinction."
Additionally when researchers compared man-made cat-free zones to man-made zones with cats in them and after 2 years they discovered there were significantly more reptiles such as geckos.
Not only are cats harming reptiles but they are also killing and endangering fish and birds as well.
Overall even if cats are keeping the reptile population under control they are killing too many reptiles and endangering many reptiles and already made some reptiles extinct.
Source: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2018/08/cats-kill-reptiles-populations-australia-animals/
Article 11
Shark-repelling magnets might repel unwanted sharks when fishing.
According to research magnets repel rays and sharks from fish traps because sharks have sensory pores on the front of their heads that lets them sense electrical currents made by their prey letting them locate prey even when they can't see or smell their prey.
Strong, unnatural magnetic currents can confuse sharks leading them to avoid the traps. Repelling sharks from fish traps is important because even if the shark survive they may be disfigured, or stressed, also 10% of a fisherman's catch is unwanted rays and sharks.
Even though the magnets seem to work well in repelling sharks from fish traps, the magnets emit a magnetic field for about eight inches meaning, the magnets may be useful as trap openings, because sharks stick their heads here, but using them on hooks may be a bigger challenge.
Overall magnets seem to be the best choice to protect sharks and rays from fish traps even though it might not be perfect.
Source: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2018/08/sharks-repel-magnets-fishing-animals
Article 10
Because of a translation mix up on Facebook balloons appeared in Indonesian earthquake messages.
Recently on Lombok Island there was a magnitude 7.0 earthquake. On Facebook many Indonesian survivors used the word "Selamat", meaning "to survive" when they talked about the earthquake.
Animated balloons came when survivors wrote "Selamat" because "Selamat" also means "congratulations" and "unhurt".
The balloon feature is also used globally and Face is now apologizing and adding new software that may help in situations like this.
Overall Facebook has made the unfortunate mistake of sending animated balloons to Indonesian survivors in the wrong context.
Source: https://www.cnet.com/news/facebook-sorry-that-balloons-appeared-in-indonesia-earthquake-messages/
Article 9
We learn why Blue Diamonds, one of the rarest gems, are so rare
Getting Blue Diamonds are extremely rare, unlike most diamonds blue diamonds are found for times deeper underground than regular diamonds, making them really hard to find, and make up less than 0.02 of the worlds mined diamonds.
Boron, what makes the diamonds blue, aren't usually in diamonds most diamonds are usually just made of carbon. Boron is mostly found in the surface. So it baffles some scientist how the boron got so deep.
But we recently learned that the boron most likely just got on the sinking ocean rocks and the diamonds included the boron and became blue diamonds. Or went down by because of the tectonic plates.
In summary scientists were able to confirm how Blue Diamonds are made and why they're made so deep.
Source: https://www.popsci.com/blue-diamond-boron-origin#page-4
Article 8
Earth Overshoot Day came earlier than ever before.
Earth Overshoot Day is when you use one whole year worth of stuff, and obviously, it doesn't come the exact same day every year. In fact, an estimate is it comes earlier each year.
We become more wasteful each year. Last year we depleted our yearly resources on August 2, but this year we finished our resources on August 1. But of course that doesn't mean we don't use anymore resources after Overshoot Day, we use up next years resources, which then affects our future resources.
Each year our population grows and so does the number of harmful things to Earth.
Overall we are using more resources faster than ever before, making Overshoot Day earlier than ever before.
Source: https://www.popsci.com/earth-overshoot-day-2018#page-3
Article 7
Hunters start to hunt Yellowstone Grizzly Bears since they've been recovered
For half a century grizzly bears have been on the endangered list, but thankfully they have been recovered. But a new concern is coming, since grizzlies are off the endangered list 3 Western states are allowed to hold strict hunting seasons for the bear.
Arguments over if grizzles can even survive a hunting,and if grizzles should be hunted for sports started to pop up, though some people claim if hunting is limited and maintained correctly hunting would not affect the population too much.
The low estimate of how many Yellowstone bears are in the Greater Yellowstone area is 700 but it is more likely that there are 1,000.
Overall the recovery and potential hunting of the Yellowstone Grizzly Bear was a controversial subject.
Source: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2018/07/can-grizzly-bears-survive-hunting-animals/
Article 6
Cuba's Reefs are perfect spotting amazing views
Jardines de la Reina, a 60 mile reserve in Cuba, is known for having pristine reefs, and an amazing view for scuba-diving.
The reserve has many unique animals and a whole ecosystem. Some of the animals include: Many different types of sharks like the Caribean reef shark, nurse shark, whale shark, hammerheads, crocodiles, goliath groupers, and many more species.
An unknown amount of Great Hammerhead sharks (not to be confused with their cousins the Hammerhead shark) use Jardines de la Reina as a pit stop on their way migrating.
Jardines de la Reina has amazing views, unique and numerous animals, and has a flourishing ecosystem
Source: https://www.popsci.com/great-hammerheads-cuba-reefs#page-2
Article 5
France bans smartphones in schools
In France lawmakers passed a law on Monday that prevents students from using phones at school. Agence France-Presse writes once the law starts in September students will have to leave their phones at home or turn them completely off during school.
Lawmakers hope to overcome the children's phone addiction and help kids get more focused. Unless phones are being used for academical purposes, or used because someone has a disability phones are not allowed.
France has banned phones in the past from being in cars even if they weren't driving. France was (obviously) trying to limit the number of car accidents and stop people from causing traffic because they were looking at their phones.
So in general France has passed another law against phones. Banning them from being used in cars, and now recently in schools.
Source: https://www.cnet.com/news/french-to-ban-smartphones-in-schools/
Article 4
Scientists takes a large portion of a boy's brain, his brain still works normally.
A boy with severe epilepsy had a large portion of his brain taken out in a desperate attempt to cure his epilepsy. He had removed out his occipital lobe, which carries out visual and auditory processing. After the surgery his brain still functioned normally and beside from the fact his is blind to the left side of the world he id doing better than ever.
Because of the removal of the occipital lobe he can't the information on left side of the world, he can't feel, he see, or hear from the left side.
Fortunately he was able to learn to recognize things and faces from the left side. Scientists believe that these skills were able to come so quickly because they were still developing before the surgery, therefore people already developed may not be able to get over this change soo quickly.
In the end the boy is healthy and he hopes to be a neurosurgeon in the future
Article 3
The first snake ever found in amber is a baby from the dinosaur age
Scientists who have analyzed the amber have realized that the snake (which is 10 cm long) was from 100 million years ago, and that the snake was from an island in the Indian Ocean. When the snake got trapped in the sap, the sap hardened as the island drifted north and became a part of Myanmar.
U only 4 cm of the snake survived, so the skull is missing. But the scientist also found a second second piece of amber which also has a piece of skin probably shed by the same species of snake.
Finding a snake fossil is extremely lucky since snake fossils of any kind are really rare. Around the world there are only about 15 fossils found from this period. Also no snakes have ever been found in amber.
So in all there was a rare snake fossil found.
Article 2
A Supermoon will Eclipse the Sun on Friday the 13
Sky-watchers around South Pacific can see this phenomenon that hasn't happen in 44 years.
They will be able to see a partial solar eclipse that will be seen from the southeastern coast of: Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand’s Stewart Island, and the northern coast of Antarctica.
The amount of the sun hidden by the moon will depend on each watcher's location. In Australia, you will be able to see less than half. While watchers in Tasmania, will be able to see 3.5% of the sun blocked out.
Any researchers that happens to be at the Casey or Dumont d'Urville research stations in Antarctica will get the view, since about 21% of the sun is covered during the deepest part of the eclipse.
To in conclusion there will be a exiting supermoon solar eclpise in July 13.
Article 1
Animal Migration
All migrations have 5 special characteristics; it is prolong movement, that carry the animal out of their usual habitat; usually being in a straight line but can also be different: before migrating the animal has to prepare in some way; distributes energy unusually.
Migrations happen when the seasons change and the animal needs to go to a different, more warmer location.
When migrating the animals focus should be solely on migration. Food, rest, and mating are for later until they finish migrating.
Each migration will be different for each species.
In all migrating is a complex system that is vital to the animals that that migrates life.
Source: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2010/11/great-migrations/
