Chilly
We are cooling down. Our normal body temperature is no longer 37°C but lower, say researchers at the University of California. In some parts of the world, the difference is almost one degree. The scientists are groping in the dark for the reason behind this. Does it have anything to do with global warming? The hotter it gets, the less hard the body has to work. Or doesn’t it work like that?
Hunting
Men hunted and women gathered – that’s the conventional take on prehistorical times. But it’s wrong, say archaeologists from the University of California. A study of prehistoric graves in Central and South America shows that women were buried with hunting tools. The archaeologists conclude that 30-50 per cent of the hunters were women. Possibly. Well, you can still see those hunting instincts at work in shopping malls.
Eye contact
Is Earth visible from space? Yes, as a dot against the background of the sun. If you extend the circle the Earth travels around the sun into space, within 300 light years you’ll come across about 1100 suns like ours, which might have planets too. So say astronomers from Cornell University. Most of those stars are visible to the naked eye. So theoretically, we can be seen from those planets – as the world was 300 years ago. 1720 was the year of Baron Münchhausen’s birth. What would aliens have thought of him?
The colours of smells
Researchers at Tel Aviv University have designed an instrument that converts light on the infrared spectrum into visible light. In theory, the gadget can be attached to a standard camera, making it possible to photograph pollutants that emit infrared light. Are you too curious what colour bad breath is, or a fart?