​A 41-year-old British man will become the world’s first “para-astronaut” ● The mystery of ancient gold treasures and their common origin ● The origins of music lie in compassion

The 41-year-old Briton will become the world’s first “para-astronaut”.

That the rigor applied to all those who were going to fly into outer space was and remains somewhat draconian, such people must be in impeccable physical condition, is a fact known to everyone. However, the European Space Agency (ESA) has announced that it will break down these barriers, and soon humanity will have its first “para-astronaut”, that is, the first disabled astronaut.

The chosen one was a 41-year-old Briton named John McFall. Former Paralympian McFall lost his leg at the age of 19 in a motorcycle accident. It is not known when McFall will fly into outer space and what activities he will perform there. No one knows exactly how this will affect the performance of a person with disabilities in space, but ESA intends to find out by choosing John McFall to do so.

In fact, McFall is not the first person to be allowed to fly in space despite a condition or disability that could affect his performance. In 1996, astronaut Rich Clifford was cleared to fly aboard the space shuttle Atlantis and even completed a six-hour extravehicular mission to the Mir space station despite reporting early symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. Despite the fact that the astronaut had problems due to the partial lack of mobility of his right arm, the mission was considered a success.

The mystery of ancient gold treasures and their common origin

An international team of archeologists recently tried to determine the source of the gold in Priam’s hoard: from a much older hoard discovered at the site of Poliochini on the island of Lemnos, or from an archaeological dig in ancient Mesopotamia. the city of Ur, and the result turned out to be a big surprise. More precisely, the gold in these treasures has a common origin.

The 61 artifacts belonging to the three hoards, all dating from about 3,500 to 4,500 years ago, were analyzed to determine their chemical composition. Considering the high concentration of palladium and platinum in the studied objects, experts were able to conclude that the gold was obtained by washing gold sand.

What is really interesting is that the gold seems to come from the same source. As for the Priam treasure discovered in western Anatolia, experts also managed to discover the fact that the objects were made en masse, not individually. Given that precious stones and other luxuries were widely traded at the time, the possibility of acquiring gold is most plausible at this time, especially since there are no sources of gold in Mesopotamia, for example, which were used to create the royal treasury at Ur.

What has not been determined so far is the place of origin of this gold. The first hypothesis pointed to Anatolia, but chemical analysis of gold in Georgia seems to make this area more likely. However, it has not yet been possible to give an unequivocal answer. Experts say that the area covered by traders at the time was vast, from Greece to India, and there could always be other sources.

The origins of music lie in compassion

Music is one of the manifestations of art that has accompanied humanity since ancient times. How old? No one can say for sure. Moreover, why people decided to sing and compose music remained a mystery.

It is safe to say that music was also shared by other species of people and may even have been created by them. The oldest known musical instrument, a whistle made from a cave femur, is about 60,000 years old, was discovered in the Divje Babe cave in Slovenia, and is the creation of a Neanderthal.

As for why people in the distant past felt the need to express themselves through music, scholars have long argued that it originated as a form of emotional expression or even as a form of communication. Over time, it evolved from simple forms to particularly complex ones.

A recent study by researchers at the University of Oregon supports this hypothesis. They were able to correlate the ability to read and empathize with the emotions of some characters with the ability to associate different sounds with such experiences. In short, subjects who showed a high degree of empathy were those who could associate emotional states with sounds or melodic fragments.

In addition, the experts were able to demonstrate that the same neural circuits that respond to strong emotional states are the same ones that resonate with music. As they say, music is what can define us as people.

Photo source: profimediaimages.ro