​Taikonauts managed to grow rice in space ● It gets warmer when you see what the future holds ● What else was eaten in the Neolithic, 6000 years ago? ● The primates at the zoo changed their behavior during the pandemic

Tyconauts managed to grow rice in space

It’s not like he planted a few acres of corn, but it’s still quite an accomplishment. And this achievement took place at the Wentian Space Laboratory, the first of two laboratories that the Chinese proposed to connect to the Tiangong Space Station. Between us, this is not the first time that rice has been grown in space. The Chinese also did it in 2020, but so did some Indonesian students on the International Space Station in 2016.

The difference is that this time the Taikonauts hope to get the seeds of this rice to bring back to Earth, grow them and see if any mutations have occurred. So, this is a multi-stage experiment. The whole idea is that rice, a staple plant on Earth that is eaten by more than half of the planet’s population, will also be a staple plant in space when it comes to space travel. Or when we move agriculture up several floors. Not clear yet, but we’ll find out.

Currently, even if they are not growing in optimal conditions, these rice plants are growing within normal parameters, as the Chinese say. Two varieties are under observation. One in which the plant reaches 30 cm, and the other, more dwarf, somewhere only 5 cm. In addition to rice, the Taikonauts also planted some types of flowers, also to observe the appearance of possible genetic mutations. If there are no mutations, we are out. We can say that we have taken the first important steps towards the first bowl of space pilaf.

You feel warm when you see what the future has in store

It’s good that the Chinese are testing space rice crops, because they know what they know, and they don’t tell us that anything lower will be in short supply. This is what experts from about 20 countries say in a study published in Reviews of Geophysics. Thus, on the basis of “not a day out of seven without a flurry of global warming news”, we report that things are going to be bad in the Middle East and the eastern part of the Mediterranean, that is, from Greece to Egypt.

The aforementioned researchers estimate that this century alone, the average temperature will rise by at least 5 degrees Celsius, which will lead to the disappearance of the main sources of drinking water, respectively, to the disappearance of food sources for more than 400 million people. Only the disappearance of the Nile Delta against the background of rising Mediterranean Sea levels and salinization of the area will mean the disappearance of one of the most important sources of food in northeastern Africa. Not to mention the other effects that no one will be able to live there.

At the end of the day, this study tells us what almost everyone else is saying. This means that action must be taken immediately, because the dust is rising. Until then, the Paris Agreement, which entered into force in 2016 and aims to limit the increase in global temperature to 2 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, would have been more on paper. Actually see what they say.

What was eaten in the Neolithic, 6000 years ago?

If this important question concerns you, the team of researchers from the University of Bristol will answer you quickly and honestly. Thus, in a study published in Nature Communications, the above-mentioned archaeologists claim to have found traces of prehistoric diets on pottery vessels that are particularly well preserved in several underwater sites in the coastal area of ​​Scotland.

It turned out that the people of that time, that is, about six thousand years ago, consumed grains, in particular wheat, and it is not a great discovery that it was the Neolithic period, because they invented agriculture. Interestingly, the experts were able to identify by studying the lipids absorbed by the ceramics and how they prepared the corresponding grains.

In particular, they used different sizes of vessels for different recipes. Porridge from cereals and milk is prepared in smaller vessels. A kind of stew was cooked in slightly larger vessels, also made from cereals, but also containing products of animal origin. To be honest, this is not a great find either, as these recipes are found wherever there are Neolithic sites. Even those people didn’t get around to making a Viennese cake.

But British archaeologists find it interesting that they found traces of wheat, although barley was usually grown there. Who can know? The fact that humans have been trading with each other for tens of thousands of years may be a clue. Finally, and if I haven’t blown you away with this news, I’ve at least given you an idea of ​​what to cook if you’re out of ideas.

Primates at the zoo changed their behavior during the pandemic

The consequences of the COVID pandemic, and when we say consequences we especially think of restrictions, bans, lockdowns, etc., have also affected primates, some English researchers from Nottingham, Wolverhampton and Newport tell us. It affected the behavior of primates and the fact that people were banned from visiting zoos.

For example, the chimpanzee no longer had an appetite. Gorillas and bonobo chimpanzees decided to retire and spend time alone. To make matters worse, the baboons stopped having sex, but this was corrected when the visitors came again. Don’t get me wrong, the baboons were still absorbing the relationship between them, but with more enthusiasm after the restrictions ended, as if they knew something but couldn’t say.

It is therefore clear that primates have also suffered from the lack of visitors and other consequences of the pandemic. As I mentioned, they couldn’t say it, but they showed it. If he could talk, it’s a wonder he didn’t say anything to these baboons about Bill Gates, 5G, vaccines killing the planet, or other things that annoy them.

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