💡 The Top Science News

The latest from Nautilus and the wider world of science. [View in browser](| [Join Nautilus]( Together with Did a friend forward this? [Subscribe here.]( Hello there Nautilus readers, and thanks for stopping by. Today we find out what happened to the ancient megafauna. (Hint: It wasn’t the climate.) Plus, in the news: How different are we from Neanderthals, and can your name shape the look of your face? And more. Being critically ill or injured has a way of cementing certain things in memory—I remember how, after a biking accident that required six stitches, my dad wrapped my Jurassic Park tank top around my head to stop the bleeding. Check out your question today (on watching sports), and free story (on another side of Feynman) below. Take care! —Brian Gallagher The latest from Nautilus PALEONTOLOGY What Happened to Ancient Megafauna? Recent studies show it wasn’t the climate that did them in. BY SUMMER RYLANDER Giant ground sloths, musk oxen, and short-faced kangaroos: All have gone the way of the dodo, vanished from the face of the Earth. That’s just a sampling of the large mammals that are no longer with us. Of the 57 species of megaherbivores that are known to have existed 50,000 years ago, only 11 of them survive. That’s a grim 81 percent extinction rate. [Keep on reading]( DISCOVERIES The Top Science News This Week The Boundary Between Us and the Neanderthals Keeps Getting Blurrier They got up to 10 percent of their DNA from us, starting as long as 200,000 years ago. [Science→]( Bigger Bodies Don’t Actually Mean Bigger Brains Is there an overall trend for brain mass to increase through time? [Nature Ecology & Evolution→]( Can Names Shape Facial Appearance? The face–name matching effect could develop through a self-fulfilling prophecy. [PNAS→]( Brain Networks Can Reveal a Child’s Sex Gender, however, may be a “more complex construct that is not as clearly represented” in brain activity. [Science Advances→]( What Was the Last Common Ancestor to All Life Like? The latest estimates suggest LUCA (the last universal common ancestor) lived 4.2 billion years ago. Was the organism simple, or already complex? [Nature Ecology & Evolution→]( Why Melting Ice Sheet Are Making Our Days Longer As polar ice melts, water moves from the poles toward the equator—making our Earth bulkier and rotate slower. [The Washington Post→]( Humans Could Build a Base in This Moon Cave The Mare Tranquillitatis pit is, at 133 meters, the deepest lunar cavern we know of. [The Guardian→]( Why Doesn’t the Expanding Universe Break the Speed of Light? Just 13.8 billion years after the hot Big Bang, we can see objects up to 46.1 billion light-years away. No, this doesn’t violate relativity. [Big Think→]( What THIS Solo Vitamin Does for Your Brain, Bone, and Heart Health Is calcium actually good for your bone health? Bad news… In one of the largest bone health studies ever, women who took calcium and vitamin D every day did not see a difference in bone health risks. Meanwhile, a recent study found that women who ate [THIS protein]( for 6 months gained 7% more bone density… Which is how much density the average person loses in SIX YEARS! [Read More]( WE ARE CURIOUS TO KNOW... What made a sporting event you watched unforgettable? Let us know! Reply to this newsletter with your response, briefly explaining your choice, and we’ll reveal the top answers. (This question was inspired by “[Watching sports is good for you—thanks to its social bonding effects](.[”]() Top Answers to Our Previous Question(On What You Recall from a Time Being Very Sick or Injured) • I just felt a little off color. Over the course of a day it increasingly got worse but still just uncomfortable. My wife finally said, “This isn’t you, come—emergency room!” I went under protest telling her she's fussing over nothing. That was how I felt until the emergency doctor said, “Operating theater, now!” When I came to, they told me they’d removed a couple feet of small intestine. I didn’t go home for a week. – Mick G. • When I was 5 years old, I had a high fever. I was in my parents’ bedroom with our little black and white TV. I saw silhouetted carriages, horses and riders, prancing across the ceiling, followed by visits, first from Mr. Peanut, next from the wise graduation cape-and-gowned owl. This magical interlude was disturbed by sudden screams from the television—it was the day Kennedy was shot. – Debbi B. • Three years ago I contracted a very bad infection and felt worse than I ever have, and I’ve had a bad case of COVID. That’s when I truly realized that I will actually die some day. As soon as I felt better, I went to my church and bought a cemetery plot, so that my wife would not have to deal with that problem when the time came. – Albert S. At age eight, I had a botched tonsillectomy—part of the gland was not removed and rotted. I developed life-threatening blood poisoning. I was lethargic, could not speak, hurt all over in a dull, crushing sort of way, and although I had a very high fever, I felt like I was in the snow. I also ceased to be able to see colors. Penicillin saved me. – Barb K. • I moved to Taos, New Mexico, a remote art colony and immediately took in four stray cats because of the harsh winter environment. Barely breathing, I collapsed with pneumonia. The cats took up a post at each of the corners of the bed and purred to me nonstop. They never moved for four days. I wouldn’t be here without them. – Cindy B. • At five years old I was in an accident that had me ejected from a truck going 50 miles per hour and I slammed head first into a metal streetlamp pole. I spent a year and a half in the hospital, and another recovering at home. What my damaged brain most remembers is the cleaning lady at St. Joseph’s Hospital, and the gift she gave the “poor little child” she saw every day—an Onondaga nation corn-husk doll richly decorated with traditional felt garb and carrying a miniature “false face” mask and a “wampum belt.” She told my mother the story of the doll to her nation, and of the garb, and that it would see me through. I still have the doll. My father put it away to give me in my teen years, and I kept it safe. – Thomas O. • When I was a kid I got a virus and spiked a fever of around 104 to 105 degrees. I was laying in my bed and suddenly the bed rose into the air, flew out the window, and circled around the yard before coming back into my bedroom. The fever broke shortly thereafter, and I was fine, and quickly regained strength within a day or two. – Richard K. QUOTE OF THE DAY “You’d think in the 21st century, astronauts would not be using diapers.” [Cornell University astrobiologist Sofia Etlin tells CNN about her new spacesuit.]( Your free story this Tuesday! HISTORY Another Side of Feynman Nine letters by Freeman Dyson portray his relationship with the Nobel Laureate. BY FREEMAN DYSON “All through a long life I had three main concerns, with a clear order of priority. Family came first, friends second, and work third.” [Continue reading for free→]( VIVE LES SCIENCES! The Tour de France is here and the perfect companion to cycling's biggest event is a print edition of Nautilus. [Issue 51]( features "Winning By a Hair," a story about the science and history behind cyclists shaving their legs, along with much more of our signature science storytelling. [Get your copy for only $15]( (Nautilus members get 15% off). [Get Issue 51 for only $15]( P.S. The American theoretical physicist Julian Schwinger died on this day in 1994. He was a rival of the renowned theoretical physicist Richard Feynman, with whom he shared (along with Shin'ichirō Tomonaga) a Nobel Prize in 1965. “They were both explaining the same experiments, which measure radiation interacting with atoms and electrons. But the two ways of explaining the experiments looked totally different, [Feynman drawing little pictures and Schwinger writing down complicated equations](,” wrote Freeman Dyson. “The flash of illumination on the Greyhound bus gave me the connection between the two explanations, allowing me to translate one into the other. As a result, I had a simpler description of the explanations, combining the advantages of Schwinger and Feynman.” Today’s newsletter was written by Brian Gallagher Thanks for reading.[Tell us](mailto:brian.gallagher@nautil.us?subject=&body=) your thoughts on today’s note. Plus, if you find our content valuable, consider [becoming a member]( to support our work, and inspire a friend to sign up for [the Nautilus newsletter](. Copyright © 2024 NautilusNext, All rights reserved.You were subscribed to the newsletter from [nautil.us](. Our mailing address is: NautilusNext360 W 36th Street, 7S,New York, NY 10018 Don't want to hear from us anymore? [Unsubscribe](