Forum for Science, Industry and Business

No Glacier Existed Twenty Thousand Years Ago In Trans-Ural Region

It was not that cold in subarctic areas of Russia during the epoch of the latest glaciation. This has been proved by the remains of animals found there - not only remains of such frost-resisting animals as mammoths and reindeers, but also those of horses.

During the latest ice age, i.e. 25-15,000 years ago, it was not that cold in the subarctic part of the trans-Ural region as it had been considered earlier. The territory was not covered by glacial wilderness, but by dry and low-snowy steppe. In these conditions, large herbivorous animals, such as mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses (Coelodonta), reindeers, musk-oxen and even ordinary horses felt pretty well. Glaciation took place much earlier in these area – more than 40,000 years ago.

Such conclusion has been made by the researchers of St.-Petersburg State University, after they investigated remains of plants and bones of large animals found on the banks of the Ob River in the area of polar circle. Bones and teeth of the mammoth, musk-ox and horse, pieses of wood, twigs of bushes, peat and silt were exposed to radiocarbon analysis. Almost all bones turned out to be younger than 40,000 years, while glacial sediment is evidently more ancient.

| alfa
Further information:
http://www.informnauka.ru

Im Focus: Unraveling the nature of 'whistlers' from space in the lab

A new study sheds light on how ultralow frequency radio waves and plasmas interact

Scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles present new research on a curious cosmic phenomenon known as "whistlers" -- very low frequency packets...

Im Focus: New interactive machine learning tool makes car designs more aerodynamic

Scientists develop first tool to use machine learning methods to compute flow around interactively designable 3D objects. Tool will be presented at this year’s prestigious SIGGRAPH conference.

When engineers or designers want to test the aerodynamic properties of the newly designed shape of a car, airplane, or other object, they would normally model...

Im Focus: Robots as 'pump attendants': TU Graz develops robot-controlled rapid charging system for e-vehicles

Researchers from TU Graz and their industry partners have unveiled a world first: the prototype of a robot-controlled, high-speed combined charging system (CCS) for electric vehicles that enables series charging of cars in various parking positions.

Global demand for electric vehicles is forecast to rise sharply: by 2025, the number of new vehicle registrations is expected to reach 25 million per year....

Im Focus: The “TRiC” to folding actin

Proteins must be folded correctly to fulfill their molecular functions in cells. Molecular assistants called chaperones help proteins exploit their inbuilt folding potential and reach the correct three-dimensional structure. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry (MPIB) have demonstrated that actin, the most abundant protein in higher developed cells, does not have the inbuilt potential to fold and instead requires special assistance to fold into its active state. The chaperone TRiC uses a previously undescribed mechanism to perform actin folding. The study was recently published in the journal Cell.

Actin is the most abundant protein in highly developed cells and has diverse functions in processes like cell stabilization, cell division and muscle...

Im Focus: Lining up surprising behaviors of superconductor with one of the world's strongest magnets

Scientists have discovered that the electrical resistance of a copper-oxide compound depends on the magnetic field in a very unusual way -- a finding that could help direct the search for materials that can perfectly conduct electricity at room temperatur

What happens when really powerful magnets--capable of producing magnetic fields nearly two million times stronger than Earth's--are applied to materials that...