Commenters focused on the project of reconstructing perishable Stone Age technologies - rope, thread, textiles and even ephemeral bedding. delichon described sleeping on sand and speculated that ancient people might have used sand mattresses; rich_sasha suggested Neolithic pride may have centered on transient materials like fabrics or wooden tools rather than stone. alexpotato invoked a preservation-bias argument, saying material durability explains why some cultures leave buildings while others leave more written records. Several people, including Aardwolf, expressed curiosity about how ropes could be made long from short plant fibers, and MSFT_Edging and WalterBright answered that fibers are joined by weaving and friction to form extended yarns. Jakzurr and others praised video demonstrations of rope-making as convincing and instructive.
Opinion diverged on plausibility and detectability of perishable technologies. mr_toad pointed out that sand conducts heat and might be unsuitable in cold seasons, while bell-cot argued frequent transport of sand would create archaeological traces; delichon’s anecdote remained speculative. MengerSponge and incomplete brought the discussion toward practical reconstruction and resources, recommending Clickspring’s Antikythera and clock videos and sharing personal enthusiasm for seeing the Antikythera mechanism in a museum. Overall, commenters mixed technical curiosity, practical skepticism, and resource-sharing.
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A $1.8 billion global initiative is expanding efforts to create AI-ready biological data for disease research. Major partners like Biohub, NIH, DOE, Google DeepMind, and Meta aim to develop predictive models to accelerate understanding and treatment of diseases. (biohub.org)
Model collapse, where AI models lose rare and unconventional data, is not new and affects many areas beyond AI. It results in homogenized outputs that lack the diversity and mistakes crucial for progress and discovery. (rulr.dev)
Planet Nine is a hypothetical planet proposed to explain unusual orbits of distant objects in the solar system. Researchers continue to search for evidence and attempt to locate it through various methods. (en.wikipedia.org)
Vanillin has been identified as a potential aid in the healing of chronic wounds. Researchers at Flinders University are exploring its applications in medical treatments. (news.flinders.edu.au)
Margaret Hamilton developed critical software that enabled Apollo astronauts to land on the moon. Her contributions are recognized as foundational to NASA's space missions. (cnn.com)
LSD increases alpha and beta peak frequencies and reduces oscillatory power while also flattening the spectral slope and enhancing neural fractality. These changes predominantly affect sensory, language, emotion, and imagery networks, as revealed by MEG and machine learning analyses. (nature.com)
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