​Traces of two catastrophic floods discovered on Mars ● Being lonely and sad is more harmful than smoking ● Moderate coffee consumption increases longevity ● A plesiosaur that is not a plesiosaur

Traces of two catastrophic floods have been discovered on Mars

Zhurong, a Chinese rover that will begin its Mars mission in 2021, recently reported the existence of two large-scale floods that occurred in the northern hemisphere of the Red Planet.

The rover is equipped with a radar that can receive information from a depth of up to 100 meters of the Martian soil using radio waves. So even if it didn’t detect water, as the Chinese had hoped, the radar detected unusual sediment levels that hint at two catastrophic episodes in the planet’s geological past.

The first level, located at a depth of 30 to 80 meters, is a conglomerate of rocks, in which the largest are at the base, and the small ones are above them. Due to the lack of evidence of volcanic activity, this pattern has been interpreted as the result of a great flood that occurred at least three billion years ago. The second level in question, located at a depth of 10 to 30 meters, shows a similar pattern and is estimated to be the result of another flood that occurred about 1.6 billion years ago.

Interestingly, water in liquid form, according to available data, would have disappeared from Mars at least 3.5 billion years ago. However, the data provided by Zhurong suggests a different situation. According to experts, the volume of displaced water in each of the two episodes exceeded 57 thousand cubic kilometers. For comparison, the Caspian Sea contains about 78,000 cubic kilometers of water.

In summary, China is simply rewriting from scratch what we knew about the Red Planet. As we are also told, stay on the planet, watch out for what’s next, prick up your ears, that this was just the first step, more and more will follow!

Being lonely and sad is more harmful than smoking

This is the conclusion of a study conducted by a joint Chinese-American team, recently published in the specialized journal Aging-US. Researchers analyzed data from no less than 11,914 Chinese citizens, all adults, to see what accelerates the aging process in them.

It turned out that this process occurs earlier in smokers, alcohol consumers, respectively, in people who have lung or heart problems. The most interesting aspect of the study was that it showed that premature aging is accelerated in people with a vulnerable mental state.

More precisely, the feeling of uselessness, unhappiness plays an important role in accelerating the process of premature aging, even more pronounced than in the case of smokers. Other contributing factors to aging are loneliness. With all these data, experts wanted to emphasize that the most important part of the entire aging process lies in the mind, as well as in the habits of each person.

The practical aspects of anti-aging, namely what can be done to slow it down, are no longer explained to us. At most, they can be removed. Quit drinking and smoking like you’re desperate, do sports and other useful things! As for how to stop grieving, that’s honestly the most useless advice anyone can give. As if you didn’t already know that.

The study does not say that journalists belong to the group with the highest degree of risk. For example, you’re working hard to document yourself and write interesting and useful things for people, and someone comes up and comments that you’re an “old woman with a neurological disorder” and that he/she doesn’t like the material. Aren’t you sad? Didn’t it eat up a few years of your life? Do you come to work early and leave looking like you’re in league with Methuselah? And don’t be sad. Tell him mutu’.

Moderate coffee consumption increases life expectancy

If the Americans and the Chinese advise us to quit smoking and be happy so as not to age prematurely, Australian researchers from the Institute of Diabetes Care in Melbourne are teaching us how to live longer. as? Simply, drink two cups, let’s say three, of coffee a day! But be small.

A study published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology claims that a moderate dose of coffee reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease and, implicitly, the number of deaths. Scientists observed 449,563 subjects, whose average age was 58 years, for 12.5 years. Obviously, they had to take everyone’s habits into account, namely smokers, alcoholics, etc. and divide them into different risk groups.

It turns out that the most effective dose in terms of preventing heart disease is 2-3 cups of coffee per day, regardless of whether it is decaffeinated, ground or instant coffee. This means that if you start drinking like Balzac, about 40-50 cups of coffee a day, and then eat the grounds with a spoon, you have no chance to live like a crow, on the contrary, your neighbors will find you with claws. up, tough, like the famous French writer. What a shame.

In conclusion, the authors of the study emphasize that “daily consumption of a small, even moderate, amount of coffee should not be encouraged, but considered a healthy behavior for your heart.” That’s what science says, that’s what we say too. Oh, let’s not forget, this coffee has to be without a cigarette, because then you’re a bit fussy for nothing.

A plesiosaur that isn’t a plesiosaur

In 1995, paleontologists from the National Museum of Wyoming, USA, discovered a partial skeleton of a plesiosaurus in a geological deposit dating back to the Cretaceous period, that is, the period 101-66 million years ago. Everything is good and beautiful. Don’t fall on your back with happiness that plesiosaurs are plentiful, on all roads, but still… By the way, for those who don’t know, plesiosaurs are or were marine reptiles (not dinosaurs), some of the long-lasting Mesozoic life forms . They appeared in the Triassic, more than 200 million years ago, and disappeared at the end of the Cretaceous period along with the dinosaurs.

The problem arose recently, when she thought of classifying it somehow. In principle, this will not be a great philosophy. Plesiosaurs fall into two groups: those with long necks and those with short necks and jaws similar to modern crocodiles. How hard can it be? Well, look, in this case it was that the animal was neither a horse nor a donkey. In particular, he had features of both groups.

The only conclusion was that a completely unknown species of marine reptile had just been discovered. This animal was named Serpentisuchops pfisterae, meaning “fixed that which is heard”, and was described as a local adaptation of plesiosaurs. What’s even more interesting is that this S. pfisterae lived alongside the common plesiosaurs that everyone knows them as. This raises a new and major evolutionary question mark that paleontologists must resolve. That is, why did it evolve to have the traits of both groups?

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