Recent news coverage that give us insight into humanity and life on Earth long ago, and the future of life and humanity’s impact in space
In just the past few days a variety of major archaeological and astronomical news has broken. Three million year old fossils from New Zealand may be rewriting a well established and believed history of seal evolution, and an extinct human ancestor shows how one species may be favored for a while, before the world changes and ushers them out.
In far northern latitudes, the past continues to be revealed. A lake underneath a mile of ice in Greenland potentially revealing past ice-sheet behaviors crucial to predicting future behaviors, and a Viking-age ship burial in Norway which, when explored further may give new insights into Scandanavian living a millennium ago.
Looking to the future of life and humanities impact beyond Earth, two major articles have been published. A common plot for movies and TV shows like that of “Avatar” (2009) and “The 100”(2014-2020), the reality of mining for minerals in space looks to be reliant less on complicated machinery and more on bacteria extracting the minerals, with shockingly high efficiency. Digging even further into questions speculative fiction has explored for ages, NASA investigates planets which may show a possibility of hosting some form of life right in our solar system.
Below is a collection of semi-chronologically organized articles to read if you feel the desire to feel a bit existential or simply in awe of life. Likely both will happen, honestly. Enjoy.
The Past
Primeval Greenland lake found buried beneath a mile-thick slab of ice
This Extinct Human Ancestor Evolved to Cope With Climate Change, But Didn’t Survive
Archaeologists Discover Viking Age Ship Burial in Norway
The Future
ISS Experiment Reveals How We Could Mine Rocks in Space With 400% Efficiency