⌛ Pre-Inca: the dangerous journey of sacred feathers

👉 Many centuries before the Inca, people brought their parrots from the Amazon alive and well to the coast of Peru. Their brightly colored feathers were used there in rituals and elite burials. DNA and chemical analyses show that the birds were transpo...

🔗 https://whyrwe.com/@26/0311-2122

#️⃣ #history – factually fun!

🧪 The black mamba turns out to be even more dangerous! 🐍

👉 Black mambas appear to have a double-acting venom. First it causes paralysis, and then severe muscle spasms follow. Existing antivenom only partially works because of this double tap and actually reveals the second venom effect. Researchers are calli...

🔗 https://whyrwe.com/@25/1001-1312?y=26

#️⃣ #science – factually fun!

🚀 The universe vibrates with colliding black holes

👉 Forget the ones from IKEA or your favorite gamestore on the corner: scientists have published a new catalog of gravitational waves. These occur when black holes or neutron stars collide. L-shaped detectors – such as LIGO – capture these extremely...

🔗 https://whyrwe.com/@26/0311-0818

#️⃣ #space – factually fun!

⌛ Chimpanzees also turn out to love crystals!

👉 Chimpanzees appear to have a strong interest in crystals. In experiments they clearly chose shiny stones over ordinary rocks and examined them more than attentively. Scientists think properties such as transparency and symmetry are attractive to both...

🔗 https://whyrwe.com/@26/0311-0920

#️⃣ #history – factually fun!

🧪 Molecule triggers chain reaction in autism

👉 Researchers have discovered that nitric oxide can start a chain reaction in brain cells that is linked to autism. The molecule can damage the protective protein TSC2, causing a certain system to become too active. And this overactivity can in turn di...

🔗 https://whyrwe.com/@26/0311-0904

#️⃣ #science – factually fun!

⌛ Ancient seafaring to Greenland (and beyond)

👉 Archaeologists have discovered that Paleo-Inuit people were already traveling to remote Greenlandic islands 4,500 years ago. On the Kitsissut islands they found hundreds of archaeological traces, including tent structures. The journey was a dangerous...

🔗 https://whyrwe.com/@26/0310-1950

#️⃣ #history – factually fun!

🧪 Earth warming is accelerating faster than expected

👉 Scientists see that the warming of our planet has been accelerating since 2015. The originally used calculation models, on which much policy has been based, turned out not to be entirely correct since natural warming was also included in them. By rem...

🔗 https://whyrwe.com/@26/0310-2151

#️⃣ #science – factually fun!

🚀 Weird, a galactic cloud without stars

👉 Astronomers have discovered a gas cloud without a single star. The object – called Cloud-9 – does contain a lot of dark matter but no visible starlight at all. As a result it looks like a galaxy that never really formed and was suddenly cut off h...

🔗 https://whyrwe.com/@26/0308-1513

#️⃣ #space – factually fun!

⌛ This farm is older than America!

👉 A large Indigenous agricultural area has been discovered in Michigan. It was built by the ancestors of the Menominee tribe. Thanks to modern technology, ancient fields have suddenly become visible. The discovery partly changes the picture of agricult...

🔗 https://whyrwe.com/@25/1001-1251?y=26

#️⃣ #history – factually fun!

🧪 Nice, a more-than-stretchy worm!

👉 A new species of worm has been discovered off the Spanish coast. The animal can fold itself down to one fifth of its length. It was named after the wife of a scientist as a wedding gift… romantic! The venomous worm lives underwater and, due to its...

🔗 https://whyrwe.com/@25/0507-2306?y=26

#️⃣ #science – factually fun!