Hi, I’m assistant news editor Sarah Lewin Frasier. And here’s a short piece from the April 2020 issue of the magazine, in the section called Advances: Dispatches from the Frontiers of Science, Technology and Medicine.
The article is titled “Quick Hits,” and it’s a rundown of some noncoronavirus stories from around the globe.
From Bolivia:
A new study traces how smoke plumes from heavy Amazon burning in 2007 and 2010 deposited black carbon and dust in the Andes, speeding up melting of the Bolivian Zongo Glacier by boosting heat absorption.
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From Italy:
New analysis suggests a fragment of ancient glass may have formed from a Herculaneum inhabitant’s brain, heated by the A.D. 79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
From Cameroon:
Bones of children buried 3,000 and 8,000 years ago in Cameroon grasslands provided the first ancient human DNA from this region. The discovery illuminates early genetic diversity and at least one long-gone population.
From Finland:
Aurora chasers in Finland helped to identify a new feature in the Northern Lights. Nicknamed “the dunes,” it may reflect an elusive type of ripple in Earth’s upper atmosphere.
From Japan:
Researchers isolated and grew an intriguing single-celled microorganism in the lab from sediment off the coast of central Japan. The tentacled Archaean uses proteins common to multicellular organisms and might lend insight into how the latter evolved.
From New Guinea:
Off the island of New Guinea and northern Australia, researchers spotted four species of intricately patterned sharks that walk on their fins to hunt during low tides. They average less than a meter long and bring the total of known “walking” sharks to nine.
I’m Sarah Lewin Frasier.
