When did cannibalism appear in the genus Homo? ● What ESA is aiming for by launching the Euclid space telescope ● First in medicine, transplanted organs after 100-day freezing

When did cannibalism appear in the genus Homo?

The fact that the practice of anthropophagy has accompanied man since time immemorial is no secret. The only problem is proving it, because if paleoanthropologists are to be believed, the only reliable way to talk about cannibalism is as a court witness.

In this case, a group of American researchers claims in a study published in the journal Nature that they managed to discover the oldest evidence of anthropophagy, approximately 1.45 million years old. Their claims should be treated with some skepticism, as they also do not claim to be 100% certain of what they have discovered.

This is a hominid tibia fragment discovered in 1970 by Mary Leakey, wife of the famous British-Kenyan prehistorian Louis Leakey. To be more precise, the fossils were excavated at the Ethiopian site of Koobi Fora, a site known for its abundance of human fossils belonging to both early members of the genus Homo and some members of the Australopithecus family.

The idea is that only now, after careful microscopic analysis, have American researchers been able to observe certain incisions on the relevant bone. Nine of them are said to have clearly been made with a stone tool, while two incisions were made by the teeth of a cat with a dagger.

As I said, there are some problems with the cannibalism claim. First, it was not possible to determine exactly which type of hominid the fossil belonged to. Originally thought to come from an individual of the species Paranthropus boisei (a late form of Australopithecus), later thought to come from Homo erectus, without consensus. And since cannibalism inevitably involves the consumption of a representative of the same species, it becomes quite clear that we cannot talk about such things here.

Koobi Fora now had 1.45 million of at least three different hominid species, all using stone tools. Since you don’t know what species the victim belonged to, and since you can never prove who ate it, cannibalism is more difficult.

In addition, there is a part that absolutely all prehistorians have faced when it comes to alleged cannibalism. Do the incisions left on the bones come from the need to consume the victim’s tissue, or do they represent a ritual evisceration practice? It is difficult to say until we have an idea of ​​how evolved, for example, representatives of the species Homo erectus, because they were the most developed at that time.

Finally, we add the fact that notches on hominin bones have been around for at least 2.6 million years. Those described in the study are not the first. But it was never clearly established whether it was cannibalism or something else. In addition, there is no need to talk about this either.

So, when did cannibalism appear? The straight answer is…we don’t know. But most likely it appeared together with the appetite for meat of the first hominids.

What is ESA aiming for by launching the Euclid space telescope

The Euclid space telescope will be launched on July 1 from Cape Canaveral, USA, on a Falcon 9 rocket developed by Spacex X. Its purpose, like the whole European Space Agency mission, which cost about 1 billion euros, will be to answer some of the most important questions in cosmology In particular, those related to dark energy and dark matter in the universe.

The two “dark” components make up more than 95% of the cosmos, but at the moment no one can say much about them. Their existence has been identified by how they interact with matter, but aside from these observations, energy and dark matter remain among the universe’s greatest mysteries.

The telescope will be placed approximately 1.5 million kilometers from Earth’s orbit, at the so-called Lagrange 2 (L2) point. From there, during the six-year mission, it will image more than a billion galaxies with unprecedented precision.

Euclid will not only create a detailed map of an important part of the universe, but with the help of the data he will receive, he will provide feedback about the genesis of galaxies, how they are grouped together, and also answer about matter and dark energy, the factors “to blame” for expansion of the universe.

Initially, the Euclid telescope was supposed to be launched using a Soyuz rocket in cooperation with Roscosmos. Due to recent events at the geopolitical level, cooperation between Roskosmos and ESA was interrupted, and Space X took over the mission of launching the telescope into outer space.

The first medical, transplanted organs after 100 days of freezing

For the first time in the history of medicine, scientists managed to transplant organs after they were first frozen and then thawed. The feat was accomplished at the University of Minnesota, and while it’s only been done in lab mice so far, it’s a huge step forward for what similar transplants mean for humans.

In a study published in Nature Communication, American researchers claim to have created a method of thawing organs even after 100 days without being irreparably affected by ice crystals.

The freezing process was carried out with the help of cryoprotective chemicals (hence the name of the cryopreservation process). In fact, there was nothing new here. The challenge was to thaw them and bring them to body temperature without damaging the organs.

The innovation came in the form of the so-called “nanoheating” process, a process in which organs are rapidly heated from the inside. In particular, nanoparticles of iron oxide are injected into the blood vessels of the corresponding organ. After stimulation with the help of electromagnetic waves, they evenly heat the organ without experiencing microdamage.

During laboratory tests, researchers transplanted kidneys into at least five laboratory mice. And after 30 days, absolutely all the transplanted kidneys functioned flawlessly and could no longer be distinguished from healthy organs.

The question is when this method can be applied to humans, given that about 20% of kidneys obtained from donors are damaged before they reach people who need a transplant. For now, this step will not be taken, the authors of the study claim. The next step will be testing on pigs. But getting back to the question of applying these techniques to humans, well, that could take a few more years.

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