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Researchers developed 3D analysis software to look at the facets of the rocks and markings on the surface. (A. Muller et al./R. Soc. open sci.)
Did ancient humans craft these balls?
Mysterious, spherical bashed-up rocks litter the archaeological record, popping up at many early human sites. Researchers analysed 150 baseball-sized limestone spheroids from what is now northern Israel and say that the balls were crafted on purpose — rather than by natural processes or being formed over time by being used as hammers, for example. “It appears that hominins 1.4 million years ago had the ability to conceptualize a sphere in their minds and shape their stones to match,” says archaeologist Antoine Muller, who led the research. “This takes remarkable planning and forethought, as well as a great deal of manual dexterity and skill.”
Reference: Royal Society Open Science paper
Two thousand unwanted rhinos get adopted
A cash-strapped private rhinoceros sanctuary that holds around 10% of all southern white rhinos (Ceratotherium simum simum) will be bought by the conservation group African Parks. Owner John Hume had put his operation up for auction but received no successful bids. Hume pursued a controversial, high-intensity approach to rhino breeding that ultimately led to around 2,000 of the animals living in a high-security enclosure. But he had a contentious plan to pay the bills: he intended to sell rhino horns, but this trade was never legalized. African Parks, which manages dozens of protected areas across the continent, says it aims to release the rhinos into the wild.
National Geographic | 7 min read
Icebreaker evacuates Antarctic researcher
The Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) has used an icebreaker to rescue a member of the skeleton crew that overwinters at the remote Casey outpost. “It's the earliest we’ve ever gone to an Antarctic station — just a day or two after the official end of winter,” says the AAD’s Robb Clifton. The icebreaker travelled nearly 3,500 kilometres from Hobart to within about 144 kilometres of the station. A helicopter was then dispatched to collect the expeditioner, who needed urgent medical care.
Features & opinion
Room-temperature superconductor claims
Physicist Ranga Dias and his colleagues have twice claimed to have made a room-temperature superconductor — most recently in a blockbuster Nature paper in March. “This was potentially a Nobel-prize discovery,” says theoretical condensed-matter physicist Lilia Boeri. However, others have struggled to replicate the research. In September, Nature added a note to the paper alerting readers that “the reliability of data presented in this manuscript is currently in question”. Dig into why the claim was remarkable, why it was met with scepticism and how it feeds into the wider search for an elusive room-temperature superconductor.
Nature | 18 min read (Nature’s news team is editorially independent of the journal)
Sources: 1911: H. Kamerlingh Onnes, research notebook 56; D. van Delft & P. Kes Phys. Today 63, 38–43 (2010). 2001: J. Nagamatsu et al. Nature 410, 63–64 (2001). 2013: M. Fujioka et al. Supercond. Sci. Technol. 26, 085023 (2013). 1993: A. Schilling et al. Nature 363, 56–58 (1993). 1994: L. Gao et al. Phys. Rev. B 50, 4260(R) (1994). 2015: Ref. 3. 2019: M. Somayazulu et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 027001 (2019). CSH 2023: Ref. 9. CSH 2020: E. Snider et al. Nature 586, 373–377 (2020); retraction 610, 804 (2022). LuNH: Ref. 1; R. Dias patent WO/2023/064019 (2022).
A new model for public health in Africa
Jean Kaseya, the director-general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) outlines a crucial year ahead for the organisation. It was launched in 2017 after the Ebola epidemic in West Africa and has since weathered the COVID-19 pandemic. He pinpoints six areas in which the Africa CDC aims to transform public health on the continent, including bolstered health systems and local manufacturing of vaccines, diagnostics and treatments.
Cannabis’s effect on brain development
With cannabis becoming more widely available and increasingly potent in the United States, neuroscientist Yasmin Hurd is doing crucial research on how it affects the developing brain. She is finding growing evidence that exposure to cannabis in the womb, or as a child or adolescent, can result in negative neurological consequences. Hurd doesn’t support rolling back legalization — it actually worsens the downsides of substance use, such as addiction, she says. Instead, she recommends regulating the drug’s potency and more funding for education and treatment.
