"Pompeii: Ancient Roman who died in volcanic eruption has had their genome sequenced"
The hot volcanic ash that buried the ancient Roman town of Pompeii killed many of the town’s inhabitants – but it didn’t destroy their DNA. The first complete genome from Pompeii reveals genetic markers that haven’t been seen before in ancient Roman DNA.
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“There was the expectation that the high temperatures would make our effort in DNA sequencing in Pompeii fruitless,” says Gabriele Scorrano at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. “Cremated bodies, for example, show no sign of DNA preservation according to multiple studies.”
But Scorrano and his colleagues decided to look for ancient DNA anyway. They focused on the skeletal remains of two people discovered in a building called the Casa del Fabbro, which translates to House of the Craftsman. The pair – a man in his 30s and a woman who was at least 50 years old – seem to have been lying on a low couch in what may have been a dining room at the moment they died.
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Screencast recording failed, will try again
Tried something new this morning, I did a screen recording as I went through my RSS feeds and read the morning's news. Foolishly, I didn't check to make sure the recording setup was working since it was the first time doing it. After I finish, I open the video to discover it had recorded my mouse movements on a black screen and no audio. So... that didn't exactly work as expected. But, I might try it again another time. We'll see.
"US regulators will certify first small nuclear reactor design"
Many of the small modular designs involve different technology from traditional reactors, such as the use of molten uranium salts as the reactor fuel. NuScale has a much more traditional design, with fuel and control rods and energy transported through boiling water. Its operator-free safety features include setting the entire reactor in a large pool of water, control rods that are inserted into the reactor by gravity in the case of a power cut, and convection-driven cooling from an external water source.
A truly amazing moment of TV from Doctor Who
@mamatriple Replying to @joeriley22392 #drwho #fyp #vincentandthedoctor #vincentvangogh
? Doctor Who Theme (TV Version) - Ron Grainer
Okay, not only am I sharing this scene, but also I finally added the ability for me to embed Tiktoks. I don't expect to be sharing them frequently, but it is a bit enough thing in online culture, I need the ability to easily handle it.
New York State declares monkeypox a disaster
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has declared a state disaster emergency over the monkeypox outbreak, a move she says will enable the state to ramp up its vaccine distribution as case counts grow.
New York currently has the most recorded monkeypox cases of any state, accounting for more than a quarter of the 5,189 cases nationwide. Hochul’s emergency declaration will allow a greater number of health professionals to administer the vaccine, according to the New York Times, and it directs state agencies to help local governments respond to the virus. In California, which has the second-largest number of infections, the city of San Francisco also recently declared a state of emergency.