Los neandertales, una especie humana que vivió durante cientos de miles de años en Eurasia, hablaban de una forma muy similar a la nuestra, con un lenguaje complejo y eficiente. Esta es la principal conclusión de un equipo internacional liderado por in…
You turn on the shower, and pleasantly hot water disperses from its faucet. Looks like we're getting clean. And yes, that is true. But it is no less true that There are many things that are rushing into our bodies besides that seemingly clean water..
Firstly, after each use, the faucet can retain hot water for several hours, which prevents bacteria from drying out.
Bacteria and other microbes find an ideal place in the shower faucet to settle in biofilms, both on the pipes and on the shower heads. In this environment, they can also collect everything that floats in the water, as if they were sea sponges. There are liters and liters of water that often pass.
As explained Rob Dunn in his book Home alone?:
As a result, the biomass contained in shower diffusers amounts to twice or more than that contained in tap water itself. Furthermore, this biomass is made up of a much smaller number of species than tap water, hundreds or even dozens, rather than thousands.
Yes, in water there is more diversity, because it is more difficult to multiply: the easier it is to do the latter, the more difficult diversity is. These species, then, end up forming very stable ecosystems in which each one of them performs a specific function. There are even predatory bacteria:
Right now, in the shower head of every home, these tiny "pikes" are clinging to other bacteria, boring into their sides and releasing chemicals to digest them. Biofilms also support protises that eat the “pikes,” and even nematodes that feed on the protises, as well as fungi that do their own fungal work. This is the food chain that falls on us every time we shower.
That doesn't mean we should avoid showering. Not at all. It is better to shower than not to do so (and not just because of the likely smell we will give off). Furthermore, despite everything said, water saves lives. And it also prevents overpopulation (just as the lack of electricity favors it):
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The news
Everything that falls on you when you take a hot shower
was originally published in
Xataka Science
by
Sergio Parra
.
Until now, these gigantic quadrupeds, the titanosaurs, were not known, dating back more than 120 million years. But this newly found is 140 million years old. Titanosaurs, then, originated at the beginning of the Cretaceous period.
This fossil specimen of tyrannosaur excavated in Patagonia of Argentina, Ninjatitan zapatai, It was part of a creature 20 meters long.
The discovery of Ninjatitan has taken place in the Bajada Colorada Formation, southeast of Neuquén. The first discovery was a very complete scapula of this animal. In the following campaign, three vertebrae and some bones from its hind legs appeared; a part of the femur and what would be his fibula.
Ninjatitan represents an impact on knowledge about titanosaurs. Since the discovery of Nijatitan zapatai The idea is reinforced that titanosaurs had a Gondwanan origin, in the southern supercontinent made up of what is currently South America, Africa, India, Australia and Antarctica.
According to Pablo Gallina, researcher at the Azara Foundation at Maimónides University and lead author of the study that describes the discovery, in the journal Ameghiniana:
This discovery is also very important for understanding the evolutionary history of sauropods, because fossil records from the beginning of the Cretaceous period, about 140 million years ago, are really very scarce throughout the world.
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The news
A titanosaur is discovered that is 20 million years older than the oldest in Patagonia
was originally published in
Xataka Science
by
Sergio Parra
.
A bird has been unexpectedly rediscovered in Borneo 172 years after its only description, according to inform BirdLife International. Specifically, two inhabitants of the South Kalimantan province of Indonesia have found it.
Is about black-browed cowbird.
The black-browed cowbird was described by the French ornithologist Charles Lucien Bonaparte in 1850. Its description was based on a specimen collected sometime in the 1840s by the German geologist and naturalist Carl ALM Schwaner, during his expeditions to the East Indies.
Since then, no other specimens or sightings have been reported. Until now. As explained Panji Gusti Akbar, lead author of A study describing details of the rediscovery:
We also know what the black-browed cowbird really looks like: the bird photographed now showed several differences from the only known specimen, specifically the color of the iris, beak, and leg. These three parts of a bird's body are known to lose their dye and are often artificially colored during the taxidermy process. The discovery also confirms that this species continues to exist despite massive deforestation and habitat conversion in this little-known part of Borneo. Therefore, there is a very high possibility that it will be seriously threatened by habitat loss.
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The news
A bird that was believed to have been extinct for almost 200 years appears in Borneo
was originally published in
Xataka Science
by
Sergio Parra
.
Cada treinta años, aproximadamente, Marte y la Tierra coinciden en aquellos puntos de sus órbitas respectivas en que estas se acercan más una a la otra. Cuando esto ocurre, como sucedió en 1877, Marte se halla a tan solo unos 56 millones de kilómetros …
Excerpt from the book 'Don't Let Them Fool You About Food: An Essential Guide to Knowing If You're Eating Well', by Miguel Ángel Lurueña
La gran variedad de mamíferos que hoy pueblan la Tierra, entre ellos los humanos, deben en parte su existencia a los dinosaurios. O mejor dicho, al hecho de que un asteroide de 10 km los eliminara de la faz del planeta hace 66 millones de años, causand…
