​A new type of NASA rocket can cover the distance to Mars in just 45 days ● The true extent of global warming has so far been hidden from us ● Neolithic people were not very kind

h2: A new type of NASA rocket can cover the distance to Mars in just 45 days

NASA is known to provide funds to third parties or agencies to create all kinds of technological prototypes to be used in future space missions. This also applies to the current project, which was proposed and initiated by a group of specialists from the University of Florida.

In particular, NASA decided to revive a program that had been defunded in 1973, a program that involved the creation of nuclear power plants. And these systems were based, in principle, on two concepts: nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) and nuclear electric propulsion (NEP), both of which had already been tested during the space race in the USA and the USSR.

The innovation comes from the combination of two concepts, which until now have been used separately. Thus, the bimodal system proposed by the Florida team could reduce the time needed to travel the distance from Earth to Mars, at least in theory, to just 45 days, compared to the six to nine months it would take with current technology.

So far, the new type of rocket is only at the first stage of design, but given the fact that it is based on already proven technologies, the result may appear sooner than we imagine.

​h2: The true extent of global warming has been hidden from us until now

No, it’s not about some worldwide occult that hides the true effects of global warming, it’s just about the sands of deserts, especially in Africa and Asia. At least this is what a team of climatologists from the University of California explains to us in a study published in Nature Reviews Earth and Environment.

In short, satellite data and measurements of marine sediments or ice caps have shown that levels of windblown sand in the atmosphere have increased by 55% since 1850. and? To be healthy, someone might say! Well, that’s not quite the case.

This sand in the atmosphere played the role of reflecting the sun’s rays and cooling global temperatures by almost 8% compared to the values ​​they would have without it. As it turns out, the warming values ​​of global temperatures we have now are not real. In reality, they would be somewhat higher.

Whether the sand in question will continue to rise into the atmosphere at the same rates as it has been until now remains unknown. But if that doesn’t happen, we could be in a situation where the temperature will rise by 1.2 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels, and that’s not good at all.

​h2: Neolithic people were not very kind

Violence and bloody clashes between Neolithic communities were more common than one might imagine, especially since the prevailing image of human communities around 4,000-8,000 years ago were peaceful groups engaged in agriculture, pottery, and other useful human activities.

This was not the case, according to a recent study published in PNAS. The research in question was conducted by scientists from Denmark, France, Great Britain, Spain, Germany, Sweden, etc. analyzed more than 180 Neolithic sites in the mentioned countries and, in particular, the human remains discovered there.

It turned out that more than 2,300 skeletons, that is, more than 10% of those analyzed, have traces of injuries caused by weapons, especially stone axes and arrows. Well, in some cases, we can talk about mass graves, which testify to the destruction of entire communities. And this happened everywhere in Europe.

What do we understand from this and what will we learn today? Well, first of all, it was not happiness to live in the Neolithic. Agriculture may have produced a surplus of food, but it also created severe inequality. And those who had less went to take from those who had more. It seems that force was the strong point in negotiations and this has been the rule for thousands of years, little has changed in that time.

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