Origin of Black Death
Studying ancient DNA samples, a team of international researchers traced the origin of the Black Death to modem-day Kyrgyzstan in the late 1330s. In June 2022 researchers analysed ancient DNA taken from the teeth of seven skeletons discovered in burial sites in the Tian Shar Shan showed region. The sequencing they contained Yersinia pestis the plague bacterium. Also, archaeological evidence from the cemeteries of Kara-Djigach and Burana, located in the Tian Shan region, identified a disproportionately high number of burials between 1338 and 1339 and a number of the tombstones noted the cause of death as pestilence. The Black Death was first detected in the 1330s and was the initial wave of a nearly 500-year-long pandemic termed the Second Plague Pandemic. It swept across Europe, the Middle East and northern Africa killing up to 60% of the population.
Changesite-(Y)
China announced the discovery of a new mineral from moon samples in September 2022. The China National Space Administration named the phosphate mineral Changesite-(Y). The mineral contains the isotope Helium 3, which is considered a great potential source of nuclear fusion energy.
The announcement places China as only the third nation to find a new mineral on the moon, after the U.S. and Russia, and is the sixth mineral to be identified since the first samples were brought back by NASA's Apollo 11 in 1969.
A rescue helicopter flies on July 4, 2022 over the glacier that collapsed the day before on the mountain of Marmolada, the highest in the Dolomites, one day after a record-high temperature of 10 degrees Celsius was recorded at the glaciers summit. Rescuers resumed the search for survivors after an avalanche set off by the collapse of the glacier. the largest in the Italian Alps, killed at least six people and injured eight others.
Going, going, gone?
In November 2022, a UNESCO report revealed that some of the world's most famous glaciers are set to disappear by 2050 due to global warming. Glaciers in a third of UN World Heritage sites will melt within three decades, the report said.
About 18,600 glaciers have been identified across 50 UN World Heritage sites. They represent almost 10% of the Earth's glacierised area and include some of the world's best-known glaciers, such as the Dolomites in Italy, the Yosemite and Yellowstone parks in the U.S. and Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
The remaining glaciers in the other two thirds of UN World Heritage sites could be saved, but only if the world limits global warming to 1.5C the authors say.
Nun cho ga is here…
Miners working in the Yukon in northwestern Canada uncovered a frozen baby mammoth while excavating permafrost in July 2022. They named the animal "Nun cho ga." which means "big baby animal" in the local native language. Incidentally, this was not the only mammoth news of 2022.
Colossal Biosciences, which calls itself the world's first de-extinction company, stirred up a debate about bringing back the woolly mammoth to life.
Tut's discovery: A century on…
It is one hundred years since the British archaeologist Howard Carter (1874-1939) discovered the 3,000 year-old tomb of the "boy king" Tutankhamun, in Egypt's Valley of the Kings. It was on Nov 1, 1922, that Carter began clearing a row of ancient stone huts, formerly used by workmen and close to a much larger tomb, rubble from which was strewn around the site it led to the discovery of not just the tomb, but some of the most priceless archeological wonders.
Picture Credit : Goog1e
