Medieval DNA solves problem of giant discovered in Portugal ● What are Australians doing with wine during global warming? ● Fish participate in the Sabbath water ● Throw away old toys immediately!

Medieval DN solves the problem of a giant discovered in Portugal

Recently, the skeleton of a man above average height was discovered at the medieval site of Torre Velha in Portugal. Huge, I mean he was over 1.8m, but that was enough to make him a true Goliath. It is clear that such a height was atypical for that time, namely the year 1000, especially for such an area as the Iberian Peninsula.

Archaeologists involved in the project initially believed they had come across human osteological remains from another part of Europe, probably Scandinavia. But genetic evidence indicates that the character in question was local and, moreover, is the earliest evidence of Klinefelter syndrome.

Klinefelter’s syndrome was discovered and named only in the middle of the 20th century. It appears mainly in people who have an extra X chromosome. If the sex of a person can be determined by the type of chromosomes, namely XX in women and XY in men, then in this situation we are talking about a person who had an XXY set of chromosomes.

Klinefelter syndrome, also known as 47,XXY, is characterized by infertility, reduced body hair, and average height. Well, that’s what affected the individual found on the Portuguese site.

Now, going beyond the fact that we are talking about the earliest discovery of its kind, the researchers say that the technique they used can also be applied to much older samples, some even tens of thousands of years old, to study the origin and spread of a genetic disease. Let’s add that, apparently, those who see giants everywhere throughout the entire past of mankind are also appeased in this way.

What are Australians doing with wine in the face of global warming?

I’m not doing anything about it! That’s what Australians do. While winemakers in France and other parts of Europe have been hit hard by the drought, with production forecast to be well below previous years, Australia is also facing other challenges. They have no way to sell it. About 400 million liters of wine remained in Australia’s stocks, and winegrowers were told they would have nowhere to sell their goods.

As a maximum, it is advised to change cultivated varieties to more popular ones or to focus on table grapes. China, Australia’s main importer of wine, no longer buys much, meaning a source of more than $1 billion a year in revenue has disappeared. In addition, the Chinese are beginning to capture the world market.

In recent years, China has established its own vineyards, and Chinese consumers are encouraged to consume local wines. Thus, Australians are forced to abandon this year’s grape production. If they produced even more wine, with the stocks they currently have, prices would plummet and they would still break even. However, if they change variety, they recover after about two to six years. That is, obviously, unless the Chinese come across these new varieties.

It’s like a fish takes to the water on Saturday

Already under terrible stress from overfishing, pollution and global warming, fish species that are primarily caught will reach a point where they can no longer recover, according to Swiss researchers at the University of Bern.

The people quoted say that global warming remains the main factor behind the sharp decline in natural fish stocks. In half of the marine areas studied around the world, the number of fish has decreased significantly in recent years.

The same experts say that an increase of only 0.3 degrees Celsius, that is, to 1.8 compared to the 1.5 recorded today, compared to the pre-industrial period, will lead to an irreversible effect. More precisely, the reduction of the fish population will no longer be controllable.

As it turns out, we have good news and bad news.

The good news is that we have front row seats to the next climate apocalypse. The bad news is that we’re right in the middle of the show.

Throw away old toys immediately!

The biggest mistake you can make is letting your kids play with old plastic toys. Throw them away immediately! In fact, don’t throw them away! Recycle them somewhere! This is better. Swedish researchers from the University of Gothenburg claim this in a study published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials Advances.

After so many bitter years, when we hit a ball for 35 lei on the street and played with dolls, cars, houses and other plastic objects, they found that they contain toxic substances sometimes in quantities and 400% more than usual. And this can lead to various serious diseases: cancer, infertility, etc.

The problem is that he doesn’t even know what to do with them. Let’s say you recycle them, fine, except that the toxic removal procedures only apply to new toys that contain far fewer harmful chemicals. As it turns out, you really can’t reuse them. That’s all. You got rid of them, that’s the first step! We’ll see what we do later.