The iceman cometh and goeth
Scientists have pinpointed the birthplace of the famous iceman Oetzi, whose 5,300 year-old mummified body emerged from a glacier in 1991. Evidence suggests that the hunter’s travels were confined to a 60 km range near what is now the village of Feldthurns in northern Italy. The contents of his teeth and bone were compared with soil and water samples of the Alps to determine his place of origin. Biominerals deposited in different parts of his body allowed researchers to deduce where Oetzi had lived during various stages of his life. This is the first such study that has figured out the migration of a deceased person.
-Wendy Gu
Source: BBC NEWS
Meteorologists go native
Meteorologists in Australia are interviewing Aboriginal tribes to gather local knowledge about weather patterns. Scientists now realize that indigenous predictions hold a great deal of truth, and can be explained by modern science. For example, the Tiwi tribe claims that if the tide is high in the middle of the day, the monsoon storm that day will be big. This is in fact true, as the convergence of sea breezes that cause thunderstorms also cause high tides. Meteorologists are trying to gather more information of this sort, fearing it may disappear as these tribes become increasingly assimilated.
-Zoe Cormier
Source: The Guardian
Tagged sea turtles eaten
Conservationists were shocked to find that an estimated 30 per cent of sea turtles are killed every year by fishing, caught either for food or accidentally in fishing nets. Biologists first became suspicious after some animals’ tags revealed that they were far inland, indicating that they had been brought to villages and eaten. Suspicions were confirmed when tourists took photographs of some animals with the transmitter still attached. The remains of some tagged animals showed up in restaurants. At this rate biologists predict some species will be extinct in a few decades.
-ZC
Source: Nature
