Latest news with #BronzeAge
Yahoo
13 hours ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Earth's Rotation Is Speeding up This Summer—but Just for 3 Days
Here's what you'll learn when you read this story: Although the Earth completes one full rotation in 86,400 seconds on average, that spin fluctuates by a millisecond or two every day. Before 2020, the Earth never experienced a day shorter than the average by much more than a millisecond, but in the past five years, it's been more likely to see days during the summer than are nearly half-a-millisecond shorter than pre-2020s levels. In 2025, the Earth will continue this trend, and scientists predict that three days—July 9, July 22, and August 5—could be atypically short compared to historical averages. While many of the astronomical truths of existence feel like immutable facts compared to our relatively puny lifespans, the movement of the heavens is constantly changing and evolving. Take the Earth's rotation, for example. During the Mesozoic, dinosaurs actually experienced 23 hours days, and as early as the Bronze Age, the average day was 0.47 seconds shorter. 200 million years from now, a standard Earth day will actually be 25 hours long (and it remains to be seen whether or not humans will still complain about there not being enough hours in the day). While the Earth's rotation changes over cosmic timescales, it also fluctuates on daily ones. We all know that a day lasts 24 hours, or 86,400 seconds, but that's not perfectly accurate. Earthquakes, volcanoes, tidal forces, subterranean geology, and many other mechanisms can cause the planet's rotation to slow down or speed up, and those micro-adjustments can trend over time. Although Earth's overall rotational trend is to slow down, since 2020, scientists have noticed—thanks to the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS) at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington D.C.—that Earth's rotation is speeding up. So much so, in fact, that experts expect we'll need to subtract a leap second for the first time ever in 2029. A new report from claims that this fast-rotating trend won't be slowing down in 2025, either. According to IERS data, the three shortest days (mathematically speaking) this year will be July 9, July 22, and August 5. These are the dates when the Moon will be furthest from the equator, which will impact the speed of Earth's rotation. Current predictions place the shortest day, August 5, at roughly 1.51 milliseconds shorter than average. That doesn't quite beat out the recent record holder—July 5, 2024, which clocked in at 1.66 milliseconds shorter than average—but it's still a full half-millisecond faster than when this rotational trend began in 2020 (and, technically, it could still break the record once scientists measure the actual rotation on the day). 'Nobody expected this,' Leonid Zotov, an Earth rotation expert from Moscow State University, told Zotov co-authored a study in 2022 analyzing the cause of Earth's recent rotational uptick. 'The cause of this acceleration is not explained […]. Most scientists believe it is something inside the Earth. Ocean and atmospheric models don't explain this huge acceleration.' Scientists will continue to study the reasons behind the Earth's rotational fluctuation, and we'll all endure at least one leap second skip before abandoning leap seconds completely by 2035. However, Zotov also tells that this acceleration is not a new trend. In other words, we're not traveling back toward back toward the Mesozoic in terms of rotation. The planet will eventually continue its steady deceleration—this is, of course, it's natural tendency, but surface changes like polar ice melt can also contribute to the Earth's rotation slowing down. The only constant is change. You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?
The Independent
a day ago
- General
- The Independent
New ancient discovery unearthed at popular dog walking spot
Volunteer archaeologists uncovered a Bronze Age burial site at Trelai Park in Cardiff, Wales. Human remains, believed to be cremations from the Bronze Age, were found in three pits during an archaeological dig. The cremations were discovered next to a 1500 BC roundhouse previously found at the site. Experts suggest the proximity of the remains indicates the site held significant ceremonial importance or was a burial ground for cherished family members. The discovery highlights the rich history of Trelai Park, suggesting it has been an important location for thousands of years.
Indian Express
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
Adopted from Maharashtra orphanage, raised in Denmark, conductor Maria Badstue returns to perform in India
Growing up in Thisted, a tiny Denmark town known for Langdos (a large Bronze Age burial mound) and a Romanesque church from the 13th century, Copenhagen-based music conductor Maria Badstue's world always felt simple yet strange. While her name sat nice and easy in Scandinavian conversations, the mirror revealed a different story. The person who stared back at her — a brown girl with brown eyes and dark hair — didn't look anything like her 'White parents and brothers' or everyone else around her. Badstue was just five months old when she was adopted by a Danish couple — a carpenter father and a cook mother who prepared food for the mentally ill — from an orphanage in Maharashtra's Pandharpur, a pilgrimage town on the banks of the Chandrabhaga. 'I was treated like everyone else at home, but I knew I was different,' says Badstue, now 43, whose parents told her early on about her adoption. On her sixth visit to India since her adoption, Badstue, who will conduct musicians from the Symphony Chamber Orchestra along with musicians from the Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus/Aalborg, and the Royal Danish Academy of Music on June 27 at the ocean-facing National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA) in Mumbai, says she is finally 'feeling at home'. Growing up, she says, she knew little about her ancestry. For a while, after seeing a Black woman pass her by in the street, she says she wondered if she was of African descent. 'My parents didn't explain much, mainly because they didn't know much, just that I was born in India and that my (birth) parents were probably poor,' says Badstue. She'd feel excluded when people spoke to her in English in Denmark even though she spoke perfect Danish, but Badstue was never overly curious about her ancestry. In fact, she didn't look at her adoption papers until 2017 despite having access to them. In 2017, she received an invitation to conduct the famed Italian opera, Il Matrimonio Segreto (The Secret Marriage), at Mumbai's Royal Opera House. That year, she finally opened the box with her adoption papers. Thirty-five years after her adoption, Badstue travelled to India, where she had an emotional moment post touchdown. 'I cried,' she says, 'For the first time, everyone looked like me.' Badstue, who has visited Pandharpur and the orphanage on one of her previous visits, says, 'It's a coincidence to actually be able to come here (India) with music. I can't think of a more beautiful way to connect with India. It is different to come here as a tourist, and I never did… because I thought I can't just go there as a tourist. Then, I was suddenly invited. This time (her sixth visit), for the first time, I am not astonished that everyone here is brown. It's a cliché, but it feels like home.' She still gets taken aback when people start speaking to her in Hindi and ends up with an awkward 'excuse me' in response. On Friday, Badstue will climb the podium and wield the baton to present music from Scandinavian repertoire, including compositions by prominent Danish composer Carl Nielsen, 19th-century Finnish-Swedish composer Ingeborg Bronsart von Schellendorf, and Finnish great Jean Sibelius. There will also be Piano Concerto No 2 in C Minor by Russian composing giant Sergei Rachmaninoff — composers that the Indian audience isn't used to. 'I know these are very different (compositions) for Indian ears, in a way, because they're very unfamiliar. But these composers are very close to my heart,' says Badstue, who even lived in Odense, birthplace of Nielsen, when she spent some time studying at Carl Nielsen Academy of Music. Badstue says she was always interested in Western classical music, if and when it played at home, although no one in her family is a musician. Over the years, she says, it has made her wonder if it is genetic. While she started playing the trumpet early on, starting with the brass band of the local scout organisation, she conducted her first brass band at 14. Having conducted her first professional orchestra at 20, she went to the Danish National Academy of Music, where she studied the trumpet. Conducting, says Badstue, was 'development for a shy and anxious kid' like her, in terms of being able to stand in front of musicians and guide them. Later, she was mentored by Finnish music giant Jorma Panula, perhaps the most influential music conducting teacher in the world. 'Conducting is abstract. It is much more about the whole personality, stamina and what you can endure. And he (Panula) is very smart; he can really see through people. He knows what different people need, and understands the mental and psychological journey needed to be a conductor. It was important for me to have someone with that sort of capacity and fame to support me, because I came from sort of nowhere in Denmark. No one was a professional musician (at home). So I needed someone who really understood music,' she says. Armed with a master's degree in conducting from the Norwegian Academy of Music, she debuted with the Copenhagen Philharmonic in 2013. She is also the founder of the annual Nordic Masterclass for Conductors. Badstue, who remains committed to modern opera, says she was never curious to listen to, understand or learn Indian music despite Internet access. She says she also never came across anything by any Indian musician, including Pandit Ravi Shankar, whose music is popular in Europe. 'I just didn't do it. I was really a little bit reluctant. Also, because I didn't want to be put in this box of being Indian. Secondly, I was occupied with classic scores. Studying them engrossed me completely,' says Badstue, who attended an instrumental music performance on her last trip to India. Later this year, she will work with Nirupama Rao, India's former Foreign Secretary and a musician who heads the South Asian Symphony Foundation. Badstue will conduct the South Asian Symphony Orchestra and work on a Bollywood song project in Bengaluru in August. In India, where the art of orchestral conducting largely remains misunderstood, Badstue has met one of the profession's most significant exports from India: Zubin Mehta. 'I was taking rehearsals for him last August and met him for a week. It was so nice to meet him. I had never met a conductor of Indian descent and I think we were both a bit touched by that. He is, of course, a great conductor so it was pleasant to work for him,' says Badstue. Badstue, who lives in Copenhagen with her husband and daughter at present, currently splits her time between the city and international tours. She says she hopes to return to India often and help develop Western classical music here. 'India is a very young country when it comes to Western classical music. We lack teachers in India. There are no shortcuts to learning this music. We need the ones who teach every day. You can have master classes and fly someone in, but the music has to be practised regularly for it to develop into something,' says Badstue.
The Independent
2 days ago
- Science
- The Independent
Volunteers uncover ‘hugely exciting' burial site underneath Welsh park
Volunteer archaeologists have uncovered a Bronze Age burial site underneath a popular park in Wales. A number of pits were discovered during an archaeological dig at Trelai Park in Cardiff, with a small amount of human remains being found in three of them. The cremations are believed to date back to the Bronze Age, and were found next to a 1500 BC roundhouse that was found at the site two years ago. Experts believe the closeness of the remains suggests the site held 'significance' to those who lived there at the time, and that cherished family members may have been buried there. Volunteers for the Caerau and Ely Rediscovering (CAER) Heritage Project are now working to piece together the significance of the latest finds, which suggest the site could be more expansive than previously thought. 'The discovery of these cremations is hugely exciting and is yet another example of the rich history that lies so well preserved under Trelai Park,' CAER co-director Dr Oliver Davis, head of archaeology and conservation at the University of Cardiff, which is a partner in the project, said. 'The fact that the cremations have been buried so close to the roundhouse suggests they may have been laid there to remember cherished family members. It could also mean the site held a ceremonial significance to people at the time.' He added: 'This area, which we already knew was only 200 metres away from a Roman Villa, has clearly been an important place over thousands of years. It's providing us with a window onto some of the very earliest Cardiff residents who were living here in Caerau and Ely over three millennia ago. 'The work now begins to carefully dig through each layer, sifting through the materials we are finding here on an hourly basis. It's a real team effort.' Trelai Park is a well-used location for sports teams and dog walkers. It is half a mile from Caerau Hillfort, a heritage site of national significance where Neolithic, Iron Age, Roman and medieval finds have previously been discovered. Alice Clarke, 36, who lives in Caerau, has been volunteering with the CAER Project for five years and said: 'It's really fascinating. We've found a lot of quartz here so far. I will also work at the CAER Heritage Centre after the dig, cleaning all the finds that come in big bags. I love doing it. It's given me confidence – it's nice to get out and meet friends.' Another of the volunteers, 19-year-old Hannah Secker, has just finished her A Levels and wants to study archaeology and ancient history at degree level. She said: 'There is quite an exciting atmosphere here and everyone has been so welcoming. I had no archaeological experience before coming here, and it's been great to speak to students about their degrees. It's unbelievable finding artefacts that could be 3,000 years old and thinking about the people that have walked on this ground before us.'
Scientific American
3 days ago
- Science
- Scientific American
A Sodom and Gomorrah Story Shows Scientific Facts Aren't Settled by Public Opinion
In 2021 a multidisciplinary team of researchers claimed that a Tunguska-sized airburst, larger than any such airburst in human history, destroyed a Bronze Age city near the Dead Sea. The story went viral. This alleged destruction of Tall el-Hammam around 1650 BCE, with reports of melted pottery and mudbricks, pointed to the Bible, the team concluded in Scientific Reports, noting 'what could be construed as the destruction of a city by an airburst/impact event.' News outlets from Smithsonian to the Times in Britain covered the report. It had all the ingredients—with authors touting its connection to the biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrah—to make it pure clickbait gold. On the day it was published, one of the co-authors posted links on his blog to their three press releases. A week later he asserted that it was 'the most read scientific paper on Earth' based on 250,000 article accesses. Science, however, is not a popularity contest, and the 'cosmic outburst' story indeed holds a different lesson than the one first supposed, about how the public should hear incredible claims. In April, just before the study passed the 666,000 mark, Scientific Reports retracted the finding, writing that 'claims that an airburst event destroyed the Middle Bronze Age city of Tall el-Hammam appear to not be sufficiently supported by the data in the Article,' and that 'the Editors no longer have confidence that the conclusions presented are reliable.' Independent scientists (I was one of them) had alerted them to faulty methodology, errors of fact and inappropriate manipulation of digital image data. One study co-author responded to the retraction in an online post with claims that the editor had caved to harassment by skeptics, concluding that the 'court of public opinion is much more powerful than a shadowy hatchetman spamming a corrupt editor's inbox.' On supporting science journalism If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. Public opinion does influence policy decisions and funding priorities in science. People are interested in new medical cures and new starry discoveries, which helps explain why we have a NASA and an NIH. That's why it is important for the public to be scientifically literate and well informed. But scientific facts are determined by the scientific method, logic and evidence, all presented in peer-reviewed publications that require reproducible results. Scientists don't vote on findings, but they do achieve consensus by convergence on understandings based on multiple studies across many fields. The Sodom airburst paper instead represented the nadir of 'science by press release,' in which sensational but thinly supported claims were pitched directly to the media and the public. Press releases, rife with references to Sodom and biblical implications, appeared to be focused as much on titillation as on science. A meme, in its original definition, is a self-propagating unit of cultural information that is highly fit in the evolutionary sense. Like genes, memes can be engineered. Science by press release can be an effective first step in the creation and laundering of such memes into the public's collective consciousness. The authors of the Sodom airburst paper did this well. Their press releases were quickly picked up and repeated by both online clickbait media and mainstream media. The Sodom airburst meme was so successful that it achieved pop culture status and public acceptance within a year of the paper's publication, in this ' Final Jeopardy! ' question: 'A 2021 study suggested that an asteroid that struck the Jordan Valley c. 1650 B.C, gave rise to the story of this city in Genesis 19.' (Winning answer: 'What is Sodom?') I am under no illusion that this myth will suddenly be rejected by the public just because the paper was retracted. It is a sticky and compelling idea that has been around since it was suggested by astronomer Gerald Hawkins in 1961. I think it is far more likely that it will join the large and growing pantheon of persistent false beliefs, folk facts and urban legends. Contrary to that bastion of error, scientists know that humans use more than 10 percent of their brains, vaccines don't cause autism, 'detox diets' don't cleanse our bodies, toads don't give us warts, and bulls don't hate the color red. Many of those myths are harmless. It won't hurt you to avoid kissing toads, for example. Belief in other scientifically incorrect claims can be extremely dangerous. Avoid vaccinating your children, and you subject them to the risk of serious illness or death. What would it hurt if most people thought that God sent an asteroid to wipe out the people of Sodom, because of their wicked ways? That could go either way. The Old Testament, in Ezekial 16:49-50, says that they were punished because they were 'arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.' Would it be a bad thing if fear of an asteroid makes us better people? But it could also generate opposition to planetary defense programs to plan for and prevent the impact of an asteroid if we discover one on a collision course. If the majority of people think it's God's will and that we've got it coming, then why shouldn't we just accept our fate? Ultimately, science-informed choices are always the best ones, whether they involve personal decisions about vaccination or public policies for climate change mitigation. When faith inspires people to better themselves, I'm all for that, too. It shouldn't take irrational and unscientific fear of fire and brimstone from an asteroid airburst to make us want to be more humble, kind and generous than the people of Sodom supposedly were.
