Fourteen people just found out that one of their distant cousins probably painted the Mona Lisa.
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A portrait of Leonardo da Vinci by Lattanzio Querena.(DeAgostini/Getty Images) comments
Mona Lisa.
Researchers with Rockefeller University s Leonardo Da Vinci DNA Project in New York have pored through 620 years worth of documentation in order to trace the male lineage of artist Leonardo da Vinci, and believe they have found 14 of his living relatives.
The relatives range in age from one to 85, and include farmers, office workers, an upholsterer, a porcelain seller, a pilot and an artist. And most were close to ecstatic when they learned about the famed genius in their family tree, says Jesse Ausubel, head of the project.
Living descendants of Leonardo da Vinci identified in Tuscany
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Comments Off on Quieter Oceans Offer a Rare Chance to Listen
WOODS HOLE, Massachusetts, April 21, 2021 (ENS) – Coronavirus pandemic travel restrictions and economic slowdowns slammed the brakes on human activities in the oceans starting last spring and ongoing. Noise levels are down as cargo ships, cruise ships, and seafloor exploration vessels have slowed or stopped their operations.
The relative silence creates a unique moment for scientists to begin a time-series study of the impacts of human sounds on marine life they have planned for years.
Using hydrophones, microphones that detect sound waves underwater, the study will measure ambient sound in hundreds of ocean locations to reveal variability and changes in intensity at a range of frequencies.
We wish to thank Dr. Giorgios Kallis for his wide-ranging response to our lead essay and for his collegiate tone. Kallis writes that “The problem now is not resource scarcity, but damage to the environment (e.g., biodiversity).” He notes that “Resource use grows hand in hand with GDP, even in service economies like the US or the UK where economists expected reductions,” and he advocates in favor of “degrowth.” Finally, Kallis believes that “satisfactory levels of wellbeing can be achieved at a fraction of the highest national incomes.”
The focus on environmental damage as a by-product of population growth, economic growth, and growth in consumption has a long pedigree. In 1982, for example, a group of ecological economists met in Stockholm and published a manifesto warning of natural limits on human activity. “Ecological economists distinguished themselves from neo-Malthusian catastrophists by switching the emphasis from resources to systems,” wrote one histor
‘Profound ignorance’: Microbes, a missing piece in the biodiversity puzzle
by Ian Morse on 26 April 2021
Researchers are certain that human activity has resulted in a decline in plant and animal species. But a huge unknown remains: what impacts have human actions ranging from climate change, to ocean acidification, deforestation and land use change, nitrogen pollution, and more had on the Earth’s microbes?
A new paper poses this significant question, and offers a troubling answer: Science suffers from “profound ignorance” about the ways in which microbial biodiversity is being influenced by rapid environmental changes now happening on our planet.
Researchers are supremely challenged by the microbial biodiversity question, finding it difficult to even define what a microbe species is, and uncertain how to effectively identify, analyze and track the behaviors of microbes on Earth microorganisms estimated to be more numerous than stars in the known universe.
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