LINKS - December 6th, 2023
Welcome to LINKS — my attempt to provide Rhapsody readers with five interesting stories that tell us something about what it means to be human. LINKS is published every Wednesday. Have a link you want to share? Drop it in the comments.
Maya reservoirs relied on aquatic plants like water lilies to help keep water clean
By Jennifer Oullette, Ars Technica
“In her latest paper, Lucero points out that zeolite is typically found in volcanic deposits in highland Guatemala and would not have been readily available to residents of the southern lowlands. This might explain why the Corriental reservoir is the only one of the 50 Maya reservoirs excavated or cored thus far to have a zeolite-based filtration system. She suggests that the Maya also used a diverse array of aquatic plants to keep their water clean, much like today's constructed wetlands—specifically cattails, sedges, reeds, bamboo, and water lilies. Lucero based this suggestion on evidence gleaned from archaeological excavations, settlement maps, sediment cores, current wetlands, and iconographic and hieroglyphic records.”
Cave of Swords
By Jason Urbanus, Archeology.com
“In a cave near the ancient settlement of Ein Gedi on the banks of the Dead Sea, archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority have discovered an assemblage of four extremely well-preserved iron swords. For the investigators, just getting to the cave was a challenge, as it is located around 500 feet up a remote cliff face. Accessing the swords required reaching deep into a narrow crevice in the cave’s upper section.”
Frugal innovation: why low cost doesn’t have to mean low impact
By Nature
“Studies of frugal innovation are uncommon in the natural sciences literature, but appear more often in the social-science literature. This is partly because such research has historically not been a priority for science and engineering in high-income countries. That is something that the Nature Portfolio journals, among others, are making a concerted effort to change — not least because it is also relevant to accelerating progress towards meeting the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.”
Your Organs Might Be Aging at Different Rates
By Lori Youmshajekian, Scientific American
“The new research, published on Wednesday in Nature, identified about one in five healthy adults older than 50 years old as an “extreme ager”—a person with at least one organ aging at a highly accelerated rate, compared with a cohort of their peers. One in 60 adults had two or more organs that were aging rapidly. The study team measured proteins related to organs, including the brain, heart, immune tissue and kidneys. The researchers hope their findings will lead to a future blood test that can pinpoint rapidly aging organs, letting doctors target them for treatment before disease symptoms begin.”
How Museum Items Go Missing
By Jeannette Plummer Sires, Sapiens
“One of the principal justifications museums often give for denying the restitution and repatriation of cultural objects is the purported need to safeguard the material within the institutions. The recent thefts contradict this argument and have strengthened claims from advocates representing countries such as Greece and Nigeria for the rightful return of their cultural heritage.”