- How could a star be older than the universe? Methuselah is commonly known- is one of the universe's oldest known stars. Scientists estimated its age at 16 or 14 billion years old, whereas the universe is 13.8 billion.
- Mongoose mothers help their colonies thrive by forgetting which pups are theirs. After giving birth, the well-fed mothers doted on the smaller kids born to the underfed mongooses by feeding, carrying, protecting, and grooming them more often than their larger pups.
- The environment tied the fate of bats and indigenous communities inextricably. For millennia, Indigenous people have lived in and stewarded 80 percent of the planet's biodiversity. And bats have an incredible amount of functions that all help maintain the fragile equilibrium of their ecosystems.
On Oct 17, 2019, The space.com published, astronomers have been observing a curious star located some 190 light-years away from Earth; Methuselah is commonly known- is one of the universe's oldest known stars. Scientists estimated its age at 16 or 14 billion years old, whereas the universe is 13.8 billion. The star's predicted age raised a principal problem. How could a star be older than the universe?
Scientists suspect that they have missed something that creates this paradox. That's not because the cosmologists are in any way sloppier, but because age determination of the universe is subject to more and arguably trickier observational and theoretical uncertainties than that of stars.
On Jun 23, 2021, sciencemag.org printed, Pregnant mongooses in a colony all give birth on the same night, a phenomenon that makes it harder for mothers to know which pups are their own. But that confusion works in their favor-and may even lead to a fairer distribution of scarce resources. After giving birth, the well-fed mothers doted on the smaller pups born to the underfed mongooses by feeding, carrying, protecting, and grooming them more often than their larger pups.
And, on Jul 18, 2021, scientificamerican.com wrote, In the spring of 2020, as COVID was ravaging communities across the globe, word spread to the village of Culden, Peru, that the virus that causes COVID originated in bats. Mistakenly believing that the animals spread the virus to humans, inhabitants of the village burned a nearby colony of mouse-eared bats, intent on extermination.
For millennia, we associated bats with evil and darkness. People don't know them, and it's easy to fear what you don't know. They have an incredible amount of functions that all help to maintain the fragile equilibrium of their ecosystems. Bats fill significant ecological roles based on what they eat. Large-nosed fruit bats sink their teeth into large, ripe fruit, dispersing the seeds and pollinating plants. Insect-eaters expertly capture disease-bearing bugs, consuming pests by the literal ton. The mouse-eared bats burned in Peru, for example, hunt the mosquitoes that transmit diseases like malaria. Marinkelle's sword-nosed bat, which uses its unicornlike horn to swoop insects out of the air.
The environment tied the fate of these bats and indigenous communities inextricably. For millennia, Indigenous people have lived in and stewarded 80 percent of the planet's biodiversity. Indigenous practices play a role in not just preserving but enhancing bat biodiversity. Indigenous people have marked impacts in shaping their environments through generations of forest management, traditional hunting practices, and crop cultivation. The idea that the Amazon is a pristine, untouched natural habitat is a myth. The Amazon is a hub of cultural diversity, biodiversity, and Indigenous people have historically taken a broad role in maintaining the ecosystem of the Amazon.
It is not just pandemics; if we don't change the roots of how humans are treating the planet, not only are pandemics going to keep coming, but we are going to lose a whole world of animals and plants.
