Secrets and techniques of area
New knowledge trace that darkish power’s density, recurrently idea to stay consistent, would possibly range over the years, Emily Conover reported in “3D map hints at darkish power’s secrets and techniques” (SN: 5/4/24 & 5/18/24, p. 6).
In the usual image of the cosmos, the volume of darkish power is expanding because the universe expands. Reader Mark Granville questioned the place new darkish power comes from.
Darkish power’s supply is a long lasting thriller. Quantum fluctuations in empty area, by which debris pop into life for very transient moments, may well be one rationalization, Conover says. However those fluctuations yield much more questions. Some calculations are expecting that a lot more darkish power exists than researchers are gazing within the universe, by way of 120 orders of magnitude, Conover says. Scientists nonetheless don’t understand how to give an explanation for that discrepancy.
Really feel the ache
Tattooing experiments recommend that the tattoos of Ötzi the Iceman, who lived 5,200 years in the past, have been hand poked, no longer sliced, into his pores and skin, Bruce Bower reported in “How Ötzi the Iceman actually were given his tattoos” (SN: 5/4/24 & 5/18/24, p. 4).
Reader Amy Perry questioned whether or not the tattooing procedure was once painful for Ötzi and whether or not ache reduction measures have been to be had.
Tattoos in most cases may also be painful. The ache an individual studies is dependent upon their ache tolerance, the instrument and methodology used, and tattoo length and location at the physique, says archaeologist Aaron Deter-Wolf of the Tennessee Department of Archaeology in Nashville.
Scientists can’t know needless to say the extent of ache Ötzi felt all the way through the tattooing procedure. However the rather small markings and his rugged way of life might imply that the tattoos didn’t reason him an excessive amount of ache, Deter-Wolf speculates.
Whether or not Ötzi used ache reduction for the tattoos is unknown. His mummified physique was once discovered with herbal elements that experience disinfecting and pain-relieving homes. Scientists suppose that the Iceman will have used those elements, which come with lavatory mosses and a kind of fungus known as birch polypore, to decorate wounds all the way through his ultimate days. It’s onerous to mention whether or not he carried out the elements to his tattoos, which had lengthy since healed, says Katharina Hersel, a spokesperson at South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, Italy, the place Ötzi is saved.
Sleeper species
Some invasive crops lurk for centuries in a brand new location sooner than choking out local species there, Susan Milius reported in “Plant invasions can take centuries” (SN: 5/4/24 & 5/18/24, p. 15).
Reader Christina Gullion requested if the lags are pushed by way of genetic mutations that, over the years, permit to begin with well-behaved invaders to thrive in a brand new setting.
That is one possible rationalization, says invasion ecologist Shaun Coutts of the College of Lincoln in England. Earlier research have recommended that diversifications might stand up and unfold inside of an invasive inhabitants after it has arrived in its new house, Coutts says.