Rising costs for everyday foods like bacon and fruit have raised concerns about inflation. Here’s why you may be paying more for breakfast, and what that says about where prices might be heading in the future. Photo: Carter McCall/WSJ
The cross-discipline effort to work our how ancient humans learned to count.
In this episode:
00:45 Number origins
Around the world, archaeologists, linguists and a host of other researchers are trying to answer some big questions – when, and how, did humans learn to count? We speak to some of the scientists at the forefront of this effort.
News Feature: How did Neanderthals and other ancient humans learn to count?
07:47 Research Highlights
How sea anemones influence clownfish stripes, and how skin-to-skin contact can improve survival rates for high-risk newborns.
Research Highlight: How the clownfish gets its stripes
Research Highlight: Nestling skin-to-skin right after birth saves fragile babies’ lives
09:48 Briefing Chat
We discuss some highlights from the Nature Briefing. This time, an upper limit for human ageing, and could tardigrades survive a collision with the moon?
Scientific American: Humans Could Live up to 150 Years, New Research Suggests
Science: Hardy water bears survive bullet impacts—up to a point
It promised to transform how Californians travel but is now seen as a “bullet train to nowhere.” This is why America’s west coast megaproject has been far from high-speed.
Insects have long been a staple food in Asia. In Europe, not so much. But diets are changing, with ever more people trying to avoid meat – for health or moral reasons, or because raising farm animals is less and less sustainable. Now, the European Commission has officially declared mealworms to be food. It’s a game changer for insect farmers, many of whom have so far operated under temporary license. Insects are rich in protein: Up to 70 percent of their entire mass is protein. In addition to that, they’re also rich in healthy Omega-3 fatty acids, like fish. Some insects, especially the mealworm, have over 14 percent of fatty acids – that’s seven times as much as fish.
President Biden’s infrastructure plan calls for non-traditional projects like the removal of some highways. What Democrats want for cities like Baltimore says a lot about the President’s goals in the next wave of development. Photo: Carlos Waters/WSJ More from the Wall Street Journal: Visit WSJ.com:
As electric vehicle technology takes off—literally—how will the logistics of air traffic work out? Join American broadcaster Miles O’Brien and NOVA to watch how NASA researchers are writing the rules that will make air travel via electric vehicles safe. Tune in to “Great Electric Airplane Race” on Wednesday, May 26 at 9/8c or stream it on the PBS Video app or online now: https://to.pbs.org/3vNPEGF
Trillions of cicadas are starting to emerge in 15 US states after 17 years underground. Gene Kritsky has been studying them for decades and has created a citizen science app, Cicada Safari, to help track the brood.
More than 3000 cicada species have been described worldwide. Most have a yearly life cycle, but seven species in the US belonging to the Magicicada genus remain underground as nymphs for 13 or 17 years before emerging, a process called periodical brooding. The only other two species of cicada to do this are found in Fiji and India. Read more at https://www.newscientist.com/article/…
More than 60 percent of China’s population of 1.4 billion currently lives in cities. Within a decade, the share of urban dwellers is expected to increase to 75 percent. Construction is booming and competition for residential land is fierce.
But the right to live in a city in China is conditional. Authorities want their modern cities to be peopled with well-educated, highly-qualified or politically well-connected residents. As a result, certain standards have to be met to be eligible for a modern, urban home. Only members of China’s political classes and the financially successful have a hope of qualifying. Yet more than half of the people who live in cities are so-called “migrant workers.” They come from rural communities and have no official rights to settle in cities. They are there to work. With no proper rights, they are merely tolerated while they serve as merchants, servants, waitstaff, cleaners, construction workers and tradespeople.
But while they are indispensible to daily life in the cities, they are unable to afford their exorbitant rents. This documentary looks at how and where these workers live, and asks whether middle and working class Chinese even figure in the official vision of shiny, high-tech cities. The filmmakers also look at what happens to those who oppose official plans, or stand in the way of the building boom.
So-called green bonds have become more popular in recent years, and this fast-growing segment of the $128.3 trillion global bond market could grow even more. When an issuer sells a green bond, they’re making a nonbinding commitment to earmark the sale’s proceeds for environmentally friendly projects. That could include renewable energy projects, constructing energy efficient buildings or making investments in clean water or transportation. Green bonds fall under the wider umbrella of sustainable bonds, which include fixed-income instruments whose proceeds are set aside for social or sustainability projects. Big household names such as Apple and PepsiCo are diving into this space. A handful of massive banks and governments around the world are also issuing sustainable bonds, including China, Russia and the European Union. This may be contributing to the space’s rapid growth. A report from Moody’s said new sustainable bond issuance may top $650 billion in 2021. That would represent a 32% jump from 2020.
Boomers Daily 