Category: Uncategorized

THE MIGHTY INSECT. “The most advanced social insects—ants, termites, many species of bees and wasp—make up only about 3 percent of the known species of animals on earth. But on the land they make up in most habitats upwards of 50 percent of the biomass.” (The remarkable Professor EO Wilson) https://lnkd.in/dAbrgVEW View in LinkedIn

QUASAR OFFSPRING. “These studies indicate that quasar descendants are most likely not to live in privileged sites.” https://lnkd.in/dX4w36NJ View in LinkedIn

SURPRISE FINDING. “It has been found that the brightest quasars do not necessarily live in the highest density regions (rather the strongest correlation was found to be with low tidal field regions) of the early universe suggesting that their descendants may not necessarily be among the most massive haloes at z = 0.” https://lnkd.in/dX4w36NJ View in LinkedIn

THE EARLY UNIVERSE. “The discovery of highly luminous quasars at high redshifts (z > 6) suggests that black holes of masses around 10 billion solar masses existed in the early universe and the highest redshift quasar discovered so far is at z ∼ 7.” https://lnkd.in/dX4w36NJ View in LinkedIn

SALTATION. “The emergence of language was a defining moment in the evolution of modern humans. It was an innovation that changed radically the character of human society.” https://lnkd.in/d_bJcG9t View in LinkedIn

THE WHY. “My own brain is to me the most unaccountable of machinery — always buzzing, humming, soaring roaring diving, and then buried in mud. And why? What’s this passion for?” (Virginia Woolf). https://lnkd.in/d58kyzRB View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE for this and next weekend deals with the challenging topic of the evolution of language. One paper creates a linguistic computer model that reveals grammatical clues; the other looks at comparative anatomy and genetics. Leaving no fossil clues, reconstructing this is difficult. Linguistic deficits in patients, comparative anatomy, and genetic studies provide clues to the evolution of language. View in LinkedIn

The splendid Spanish tortilla. View in LinkedIn

THE INVENTORY. “Up to ~40 supermassive black holes (SMBHs) of >10(9) M⊙ have been observed till date, which are believed to power the optically bright quasars (>10(47) erg s−1) observed at z > 5.” https://lnkd.in/dHcpNrnR View in LinkedIn