American and French researchers have succeeded in reconciling the traditional knowledge of the American Great Plains natives and modern genetics. The Lakota, Comanche, and Pawnee believe that hunting on horseback has always been part of their way of life, even though there were no horses in America before the arrival of Europeans. In Science at the end of March, paleontologists from the universities of Colorado and Toulouse reveal that the horses of these tribes are descended from early 16th century Spanish horses. When the Americans arrived in the area 200 to 300 years later, hunting on horseback was well established.
Seal. More than 330 seals died last June and July in New England from the H5N1 avian flu that has plagued the world for several years. It is the first marine mammal to be susceptible to catching avian flu, which has affected ferret farms, bears and many seabirds, a probable source of contamination for seals. More than 6.5 million farmed birds died or had to be culled from bird flu in Canada in 2022. The study from Tufts University in suburban Boston was published in mid -March in the journal Emerging Infectious Disease.
That’s the lengthening of the annual growth span of trees in Ohio after a century of global warming, according to a study published in mid-March in the journal PLOS One. Climatologists at Ohio State University unearthed detailed observations from a farmer in Wauseon, upstate, who noted the beginning and end of foliage between 1883 and 1912. The fall leaves now occurs a month later on average.
Mercury is the smallest planet in the Solar System, 20 times smaller than Earth, but also second in density. American and French researchers think they understand how the planet closest to the Sun was formed, a phenomenon that intrigues astronomers. Based on data from the Messenger probe, which studied Mercury from 2011 to 2015, they explain that the giant planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune) formed much closer to our star, then moved away. separated by attracting each other. In doing so, they have agglomerated most of the protoplanets close to the Sun. This ballet also led to collisions between protoplanets that crumbled Mercury’s crust, which explains why its core represents 85% of its size, compared to 50% for Earth. The study was published at the end of March in the journal Icarus.
Taste receptors could be put to work in the fight against asthma, according to a new Israeli study. In mid-March, in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, immunologists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem presented a molecule that activates taste receptors located in the airways. These receptors enlarge the size of the airways.
