​Mysterious Chinese space shuttle returns to earth after 276 days in space ● Why have we still not been able to find aliens? ● You inherited the height of your nose from Neanderthals

A mysterious Chinese space shuttle has returned to earth after 276 days in space

No one but Chinese officials can say exactly what it is. No photos or information have been released about the shuttle, which landed today at the center in Jiuquan, northwest China.

In fact, everything is shrouded in mystery. Authorities in Beijing did not want to comment on the technology used, data related to the flight of the mysterious shuttle (altitude reached, orbit, etc.), but especially on its purpose.

All that is known is that the shuttle took off last August and landed today after a 276-day mission in space. It is possible that the test involved a new type of technology that allows China to use reusable shuttles. This would give Beijing a much cheaper and more convenient alternative in the current space race.

Perhaps the same shuttle was launched in 2021, but then it was only a flight of several hours. The shuttle reached the edge of space and returned to the launch pad, where it landed “horizontally,” according to Beijing authorities.

The mystery aircraft is believed to be similar to the X-37B unmanned space plane developed by the US military, which is known to remain in Earth orbit for years. The X-37B’s last official flight ended last November after more than 900 days in space. And, yes, China considered the X-37B a potential weapon.

Why haven’t aliens been found yet?

Officially, humanity has never had contact with any intelligent or non-intelligent extraterrestrial entity. The point is, if we go by all the math, equations, statistics, and all the numbers possible, come on, not the universe, but at least the Milky Way should be teeming with life, even intelligent life.

And then, why haven’t we found anything or, most importantly, why hasn’t anyone contacted us?

It is true that we have not come far with space exploration either. We are just trying to establish the first base on our natural satellite. Yes, but for about 60 years we have been emitting radio signals strong enough to be intercepted. We also have telescopes to pick up any extraterrestrial signals. And yet nothing happened.

Obviously, this would have many explanations. You can even apologize to them. And one of them, nine, was just published by a researcher at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in a study recently published in The Astronomical Journal.

According to a Swiss astronomer named Claudio Grimaldi, the Earth may be in a bubble where there are no radio signals transmitted by aliens. Outer space is vast, and we must not forget that, and if such intelligent civilizations existed, it does not mean that their radio signals are everywhere.

All we need to do in this situation, explains Grimaldi, is to be patient and keep searching. After all, the statistics he provided show that artificial radio signals are about as frequent as supernovae. So not very often. This amounts to 1 to 5 electromagnetic radiations per century.

In the most optimistic scenario, we should encounter extraterrestrial transmission in another 60 years or so. Otherwise, in the most pessimistic scenario, we would have to wait at least about 2000 years. Oh, and one more thing: we have to point the radio telescopes exactly where they need to be, or we might miss the moment.

This means that there are a lot of conditions that need to be met, and frankly, the chances of success seem pretty slim. But there is a bright side. Namely, technology is constantly developing, and thanks to this, we discover new and new planets that have the potential for life. We should aim our antennae at something like that and wait, says the Swiss researcher. Now even if we don’t find anything, it’s still a result.

You would inherit the height of your nose from Neanderthals

The information, which seems very dubious, primarily because the nose of Neanderthals was very different from ours, has just appeared in Communications Biology and has been signed by a group of researchers from about ten countries (Great Britain, China, Argentina, France, Peru). , Germany, Chile, Colombia, Brazil and Mexico).

In the end, it doesn’t really matter where the researchers are from. The important thing is that there are many of them and they say the same thing. Namely, that the height of the nose (that is, not the whole nose) was inherited from the Neanderthals.

In particular, the researchers collected genetic data from more than 6,000 Latin American volunteers of European, North American, Asian or African descent. They also took pictures of people and tried to compare the height of each person’s nose to get an indication of any facial features influenced by genes.

Let’s talk about how this practice is related to research from the Nazi period and explain what nose height is. This is the distance from the root of the nose (nasio), located somewhere between the eyes, and the subnasal area. This is it.

Comparing the genetic data, the researchers found that there are 33 genes related to the shape of the face, one in particular, ATF3, is responsible for the height of the nose and, very importantly, comes from Neanderthals. So, the researchers congratulate themselves, we discovered that this attribute, that is, a face with a high nose, was inherited from Neanderthals. In addition, this trait helped us survive the last ice age.

Less enthusiastically than the authors of the study, we also wonder if our distant ancestors, not instilled with Neanderthal genes, wore trunks that were very useful in tropical areas, as shown by both elephants and tapirs today. Again, unless the higher nose trait provided a selective advantage, given that Neanderthals died out anyway and ours survived.

As for our role in the extinction of the Neanderthals, we ate them all (with their tall noses) so to speak, which is not based on any hard evidence, only the guesswork of grandma’s time, which is more derided today. So it wasn’t us that killed them, it was something else, and their noses didn’t help the equation at all.

Finally, when we talk about evolutionary advantage, we should also explain what it is. Then to prove with some tests that the high nose gave us better results than the others. Last but not least, to explain why Neanderthals had a completely different facial structure from ours (including, and especially, the nose), and then how the height of the nose had the same effect on different, perfectly formed individuals that differed from the nose . Only then do you come to these scientific discoveries. He said, he did not give boiling water.

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