Archaeologists with the Vejle Museums have unearthed a 1,600-year-old weapon offering a chainmail as well as two fragments of a Roman helmet Elias Witte Thomasen uncovering the massive weapon offering at the site of Løsning Søndermark “During the examination of one of the largest weapon deposits — offered in a posthole of a house — two unusual iron plates were unearthed both roughly the size of a palm,” Vejle Museums archaeologist Elias Witte Thomasen and colleagues said in a statement conservators and archaeologists were able to see beneath the thick layers of rust surrounding the objects.” “The results revealed an extremely rare find — the remains of a Roman helmet.” this find is the only known Roman helmet ever found in Denmark and the earliest iron helmet found in the country “The two plates consist of a neck plate and a decorated cheek plate from a so-called crest helmet a type used in the Roman Empire in the 4th century CE,” the researchers said “Roman helmet finds from the Iron Age are exceptionally rare in southern Scandinavia and there are no direct parallels to this discovery.” “The few similar finds come from Thorsbjerg Moor in Schleswig or from southern Sweden and Gotland-none from Denmark.” X-ray image of neck and cheek guard from the Roman helmet The discovery raises a significant question: why were only the neck plate and one cheek plate discovered “The answer lies in the nature of post-battle rituals during this period of the Iron Age where weapons and military equipment were rarely deposited intact,” Dr “Spearheads were separated from their shafts and equipment was destroyed and divided among the parties involved in the conflict.” “The missing cheek plate and helmet bowl were likely distributed elsewhere.” “The helmet may have belonged to a Germanic warlord who served in the Roman auxiliaries bringing his personal equipment home after his service ended,” he said it could have been looted from a Roman legionary in battles closer to the Empire’s Germanic frontier and later brought to Jutland.” “Both on its own and in relation to the broader deposition of weapons and military gear at the site the helmet provides valuable insights into the military elite of the Iron Age and their connections to the powerful southern neighbor — the Roman Empire.” A set of Iron Age chainmail was recovered from an excavation in Denmark Two large fragments of the Roman helmet covered in rust A fragment of an \"oath ring\" — an Iron Age symbol of power — was discovered during an archaeological excavation in Denmark Archaeologists in Denmark have recovered dozens of lances chain mail and a Roman helmet from an Iron Age chieftain's house Archaeologists in Denmark have discovered a cache of more than 100 weapons buried under the house of an Iron Age chieftain. The 1,500-year-old collection — which is big enough to equip a small army and includes the only Roman helmet ever found in Denmark — may have been a "sacrifice" or offering "We suddenly feel very close to the people who lived here 1,500 years ago." possibly to keep the peace at the border with Scandinavia Archaeologists found the cache during a highway expansion project in August at a site called Løsning Søndermark The metal weapons lay beneath two early fifth-century houses that likely belonged to someone powerful enough to raise an army Because the weapons were purposefully buried during a house demolition researchers think that they were sacrificed after success in war The cache of metal objects included 119 lances and spears Very few examples of Iron Age chainmail have been found in southern Scandinavia and the Løsning chainmail is the first to be recovered from a settlement site rather than a burial This elaborate piece of armor was expensive and time-consuming to produce so it probably belonged to the chieftain himself Related: Ancient stone circles in Norway were hiding a dark secret: dozens of children's graves A couple of months later, the researchers discovered fragments of an "exceptionally rare" Roman helmet — the first of its kind in Denmark, according to a Feb. 3, 2025, statement researchers were able to use X-ray imaging to see the neck plate and decorated cheek plate underneath the rust which was often used in the Roman Empire in the fourth century Get the world’s most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox "The helmet may have belonged to a Germanic warlord who served in the Roman auxiliaries," Thomasen said in the latest statement it could have been looted from a Roman legionary [soldier] in battles closer to the Empire's Germanic frontier." archaeologists found fragments of two bronze neck rings known as "oath rings." These accessories were symbols of power in the Iron Age further attesting to the chieftain's influence The team also found fragments of a horse bridle and a bugle as well as a number of iron and bronze objects that have yet to be studied Although the weapons cache has been clearly linked to an Iron Age chief's house, archaeologists are unsure whether the objects belonged to local warriors or were amassed as the spoils of war. However, a similar Iron Age hoard found in the town of Vindelev just 10 miles (16 kilometers) west of Løsning points to the presence of numerous powerful chieftains in the area —Skull of Neolithic 'bog body' from Denmark was smashed by 8 heavy blows in violent murder —Denmark's oldest runes inscribed on ancient knife —50 Viking Age burials discovered in Denmark, including a woman in a rare 'Viking wagon' The researchers will continue their analysis of the site and its weapons sacrifice to better understand Iron Age warriors and society Many of the artifacts found in this excavation will go on display at the Cultural Museum in Vejle starting Feb Editor's note: This story was originally published Dec Kristina KillgroveStaff writerKristina Killgrove is a staff writer at Live Science with a focus on archaeology and paleoanthropology news Her articles have also appeared in venues such as Forbes, Smithsonian Killgrove holds postgraduate degrees in anthropology and classical archaeology and was formerly a university professor and researcher She has received awards from the Society for American Archaeology and the American Anthropological Association for her science writing you will then be prompted to enter your display name Hårby Valkyrie: A 1,200-year-old gold Viking Age woman sporting a sword Archaeologists discover hundreds of metal objects up to 3,400 years old on mysterious volcanic hilltop in Hungary (Title inspired by the Beatles. Blog inspired this song sent by an anonymous reader.) Customers can help avoid blackouts if they are given better information and prices you probably heard about the rotating power outages we had on August 14 and 15 due to insufficient electricity supplies While the outages were less than 1000 MW when demand was over 40,000 MW any gap in reliable electricity is a problem But these blackouts were just as important for what they say about California’s electricity planning process as for the direct hardship they imposed One thing they highlight is how little progress we’ve made towards incorporating demand responsiveness in the transformation of our electricity system away from fossil fuels The outages show what can go wrong if we don’t pay sufficient attention to the new constraints from changes in the grid: increasing peak electricity usage due to climate change closing gas-fired plants and nuclear plants widespread electrification of vehicles and homes Some critics are saying the blackouts demonstrate that California can’t pull off a renewables-dominant grid we need to redesign the way we do resource adequacy planning We must take a much more granular and empirically-verified approach to planning for supply/demand balance every hour of the year But the fastest and cheapest contribution to keep supply in sync with demand when the weather is variable and much of generation is intermittent is to reshape demand to more closely track supply California policymakers talk about demand responsiveness but efforts so far have been pretty halfhearted I’m not aware of any credible studies on the impact of California’s Flex Alert program we need reliable evidence on what it delivers Meredith and co-authors demonstrates that making CPP the default gets very high participation and also high satisfaction among customers Getting customers to make small demand changes is a cost-effective way to reduce the need for additional grid hardware California’s demand on the hottest days of the year is about 50% higher than on a typical summer day and that difference is virtually all cooling it takes about 20% less electricity to keep a building at 78 degrees rather than 74 (details of calculations in this blog are at the end) And the savings are even larger if you keep the house at 74 until the critical time period begins and then let it gradually drift up to 78 pre-cool the building to below 74 prior to the critical time and get even more reduction during the peak from this thermal mass form of storage those sorts of changes in cooling could cut more than 3000 MW but that is exactly the wrong time for customers to crank up electricity usage With so much solar generation now on the grid the biggest supply crunch comes later in the evening as the sun is setting typically between 6 PM and 8 PM in the most challenging months the best conservation window is more like 5 PM-9 PM than the 2 PM-7 PM that we were hearing from many authorities last week Then we have to make clear to customers what actions are important as does shifting use of electric clothes dryers Unplugging your cell phone or ipad doesn’t (Along with keeping the refrigerator door closed What household without teenagers needs to be told that And what household with teenagers would be helped by that suggestion?)  it’s always a fine idea if no one is in the room four strong LED bulbs (surely you don’t light anything with incandescent hogs anymore and some of the gas plants will play a critical role for at least another decade but reshaping demand is the most agile strategy That’s particularly important given the uncertainties that climate change is throwing at us It is time to take demand response as seriously as we take the hardware solutions to grid reliability DISCLOSURE: I am a member of the Board of Governors of the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) CAISO dispatches power on the California grid and was the entity that required utilities to institute outages when supply ran short on August 14 and 15 CAISO does not determine or make investments in generation and is not part of the policy process that sets retail rates I’m still tweeting energy news stories/research/blogs most days @BorensteinS ———————————————————————————————————– “If the outdoor temperature is 95 degrees, it takes about 20% less electricity to keep a building at 78 degrees rather than 74”. In steady state, the amount of energy required to keep a building X degrees below the default level is linear in X, as explained here which I confirmed consulting with two engineers There is some subtlety about the default level based on sun exposure and thermal mass of the building but a simple calculation would use the outdoor air temperature energy savings would be 1-(95-78)/(95-74)=0.19 when California needs it most.”  Assume that all of the load between a 32,000 MW weekday and a 48,000 MW week day is cooling and the calculation in the previous paragraph applies This does assume that demand response comes from all of that incremental cooling but it ignores the fact that much of the load at 32,000 MW is also from cooling and  could also respond to peak pricing (as could as many other uses) all of this understates the savings if buildings are kept at 74 or pre-cooled to an even lower temperature and allowed to drift up to 78 during the beginning of the critical period changing your A/C setting 4 degrees will probably cut electricity usage by more than 2 kWh.” If a customer has central air conditioning a reasonable estimate is that it pulls 6000 W when operating I assume that it would be cycling on for half the time during the critical period – likely to be an underestimate during the worst days of the year – which implies 3000 W over four hours or 12 kWh “Not charging your phone will save about 0.03 kWh and unplugging your charged devices will save I know it’s time to get a new one) uses 7w when charging even if it charged for all four hours of the critical period it  reaches full charge in less than four hours I tried this with both my iPad and my laptop computer In all cases it was 1-2 Wh per day or less about the same as turning the LED lights off in a room four strong LED bulbs use about 0.2 kWh.” Replacements for 75 W incandescent bulbs typically use 13w or less Uncategorized Severin Borenstein is Professor of the Graduate School in the Economic Analysis and Policy Group at the Haas School of Business and Faculty Director of the Energy Institute at Haas His research focuses on the economics of renewable energy economic policies for reducing greenhouse gases and alternative models of retail electricity pricing Borenstein is also a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge He served on the Board of Governors of the California Power Exchange from 1997 to 2003 he was a member of the California Attorney General's Gasoline Price Task Force he served on the Emissions Market Assessment Committee which advised the California Air Resources Board on the operation of California’s Cap and Trade market for greenhouse gases he was appointed to the California Energy Commission’s Petroleum Market Advisory Committee which he chaired from 2015 until the Committee was dissolved in 2017 he served on the Advisory Council of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District he has been a member of the Governing Board of the California Independent System Operator Glad to see you’re up to the iPhone 6 now That’s a big upgrade over your old iPhone 3GS But I’m glad to see that someone is reading the fine print somehow I never hear anyone who’s on the verge of bankruptcy; anyone who’s lost their job due to the Covid-19 crisis or job outsourcing or who’s living below the poverty threshold asking the question “Why don’t we shift the problem of insufficient electricity on the people least able to afford it?” so-called “demand-response” is justified on the premise bills will be lower for people who use electricity at the right times electricity costs are first raised for everyone – then customers wishing to merely maintain their costs of electricity are forced to use electricity at the times least convenient to do so They’re paying the price in convenience “Why don’t we do it with demand?” might be “Because it’s unethical?” one could also have the default be no-CPP for customers on CARE and CPP for customers who are not on CARE I suppose somewhere there’s an optimal balance between CPP and TOU where critical peaks can be met but essential access to electricity relies as little on time-of-use as necessary I can’t see any strictly-TOU scenario that doesn’t shift cost to financially-disadvantaged customers We can’t keep one or two gas-fired plants online if renewables are unavailable – we have to keep them all online renewable solar and wind will never exceed grid penetration in excess of their capacity factor a theory advanced in a remarkable 2015 paper by Jesse Jenkins and Alex Trembath We could do a little of each of these – OK at least until they come up with something much more cost-effective than the boondoggles in SC and GA.” there is plenty of support for TOU pricing from people who never need to use it Ask someone who’s been unemployed by COVID (they’re easy to find) whether they’ll adjust their schedule to PG&E’s so its customers in Los Altos can have reliable electricity whenever they like Carl’s steadfast unwillingness to contemplate all of the many ways to accomplish this while honoring the principles of convenience ease of use and equity (some of which have been laid out here reducing the cost of the transition for all while giving consumers choices that can lower their bills even further gives rise to questions about why he is so invested in an anachronistic and unrepresentative take on flexible demand you continue to get the wrong end of the stick misunderstanding my comment and flying off on rants about things that really are tangential to this conversation You’re stuck in 1975 and unwilling to consider empirical evidence offered here by many commenters that the world has moved on We all get it – equity matters at least as much as economic efficiency and none of this will work for anyone if it’s based on inconvenience there are many ways to do this and respect those principles It’s not at all clear whom you think you’re arguing with at least not among the commenters to this blog post You correctly point out that customers on flat rates create additional risk mitigation costs above those on TOU and CPP rates The problem is the political resistance from residential ratepayer advocates who oppose any type of risk premium pricing for flat rate customers Commercial customers in California on TOU rates have been subsidizing flat rate residential customers for decades those residential ratepayer advocates also have not yet acknowledged that tiered rates do not produce conservation savings either based on the 2014 study out of UCEI Richard – not sure what you mean by “property rights to a certain electricity consumption level” No one is entitled to a minimum amount of electricity every customer is expected to pay a fee proportional to what they use in a given month literally “the state of being useful came to be used as a shortening of the phrase “public utility company” Though it had origins in anti-trust sentiment dating to the end of the 19th century it was during the Great Depression when reformers began to view electricity as an essential public good: Franklin Roosevelt (FDR) vowed to fight ‘the Ishmaels and Insulls whose hand is against everyman’s.’ Subsequent New Deal reforms established…programs designed to bring electricity to rural America [when] private industry demonstrated little interest in serving rural America due to the high construction costs and perceived lack of ability for customers (e.g. Electrification was seen to be an important technology to combat poverty and improve the quality of Americans’ lives.” Click to access UTAustin_FCe_History_2016.pdf farmers of access to what FDR considered (and I consider) to be an essential public good and there is scant difference between being denied access to electricity because a customer can’t afford a flat electricity rate and because a customer can’t afford to buy it when it’s most useful You are exactly right that I should have included shifting EV load as one of the responses recommended One of the links in the paragraph about the effectiveness of CPP programs is to a study of commercial customers I am not aware of a great study on industrial customers but I know that some of my colleagues at EI are working on one CPP relies “critically” on a functioning end-use communications infrastructure I just installed a Nest thermostat with two remote sensors The Nest app then crashed and deleted all connections to my wi-fi devices and I have yet figured out how to fight my way through the underbrush of that major platform to restore the app Remote control of major electricity-consuming devices won’t work if we can’t talk to our devices But since we’re considering customer response to pricing – not payment for utility control or load shed – the devices don’t have to talk back A one-way price broadcast would have spared your Wifi As long as the systems make sure that the price gets through the intertubes to the devices https://gridintegration.lbl.gov/publications/small-business-demand-response Are there any estimates of what it would cost to keep some of the natural gas units online longer to be used during the summer A/C season when we have peak demand and during the time solar power is waning and the wind is not strong It seems like we need more of something to “serve the neck of the duck” so to speak I am wondering of how quickly such a market incentive could be put in place and the cost of this option vs the cost of your enhanced consumer price option and a combination of these two approaches may be the best option I think it may be a good idea to retain and use more of the natural gas fleet at least until we get enough battery capacity online in the best places and some experience using the batteries for this purpose Few Californians have an appreciation for how insignificant the contribution of batteries is – or will ever be – to their electricity grid LS Power’s Gateway Energy Storage Project billed as the Largest Grid Battery in the World was rushed online in August “just in time for California’s heatwave” according to an August 19 report from the starry-eyed hopefuls at GreenTech Media LS didn’t quite make it in time to keep A/C online during the widespread outages of August 14-15 the Largest Grid Battery in the World would be capable of powering California’s grid for a little less than 3 seconds it’s useful eye candy for greenwashing the gas generation making up 98% of its power portfolio and its exorbitant capital cost will be billed to PG&E ratepayers Gateway will be charged not by solar panels or wind turbines but with electricity from the direct output of Moss Landing Power Plant ensuring plenty of gas is used – and wasted – to promote its batteries makes a profit on the gas it sells to PG&E to generate electricity Central battery storage may not ever play a huge role in state but that does not mean distributed batter storage won’t Local battery storage combined with PV can provide resiliancy to the building as well as to the grid EVs add to that capacity and could become especially useful during critical peak events I think of natural gas or even (shudder) hydrogen as the central storage of the future If we get “too much” renewable generation we can use fuel cells to generate it for future peaking use I agree with Severin that some form of time-based pricing is necessary While I have removed myself from these debates for quite some time I still remember a former Executive Director of The Utility Reform Network attaching the label “Heat Wave Pricing” to CPP and other which is probably why they remain off-limits Up here in the Sierras we don’t have air conditioning but we do use window fans to precool our home at night so that even on the warmest summer days the indoor temperature never gets above 74 degrees is to have fans pull air through the house just like a whole house fan would I’m not so sure I’d require new construction to include whole house fans but I think they should be publicized far more than they are(n’t) right now The root cause of California’s current problems involve both supply and demand but your focus on demand and price is right on target Almost twenty years ago during the states first series of devastating forced outages a California Energy Commission effort pursued three initiatives to put in place the demand response capability to avoid future deliberate rotating outages: (1) advanced metering these three initiatives would have provided the state with the ability to rapidly target minimal temporary reductions in service avoiding crude indiscriminate rotating outages Advanced metering capable of supporting dynamic pricing and utility-to-customer communication was justified based on a solid economic business case all three California investor-owned and several municipal utilities made the investment and implemented systems that are still working today To support the move to critical peak pricing the CEC and all three investor-owned utilities implemented the largest pilot test in US history to test demand response and customer support That two-year test was successful on all counts Customers fully understood and responded reducing demand and achieving bill savings in excess of expecations the effort to implement critical peak pricing failed to achieve support from either the CPUC or investor-owned utilities the CEC with engineering assistance from UC Berkeley developed minimum specifications for advanced communicating thermostats that could be used by customers to automatically respond to critical peak pricing the same technology used successfully in the pricing pilot However a CEC effort to incorporate smart thermostats in a new Title 24 building standard also failed due to lack of support over the last twenty years commercially available smart communicating thermostats have become a ubiquitous consumer technology but not necessarily available for utility-to-customer applications The bottom line – the solution to problem that Severin describes is the same today as it was twenty years ago The only question – are the utilities and regulators finally ready to implement a solution Sev is correct that some form of dynamic pricing would probably have eliminated the rolling blackouts I generally agree with him that surcharges for usage in critical hours (critical peak pricing or CPP) is more effective that credits for load reduction in critical peak hours (critical peak rebates But Maryland has made CPR the default rate and has very high customer acceptance and participation while no state has made CPP a default rate design Despite our agreement that CPR is inferior to CPP we should both consider the advantage that 100% participation brings to the evaluation I favor whatever form of dynamic pricing has the highest customer response — which is a combination of customer participation rate and the underlying effectiveness of the rate design doing nothing is definitely not the right answer including direct load control of key loads like water heating Another is automatic underfrequency shedding of these loads with no communication from the utility required That California is still relying on the blunt instrument of rolling blackouts when it has invested billions of dollars in smart meters and smart system operators is really a failure of the state regulatory system: utilities should be penalized for their failure to implement some form of pricing or control mechanism to assure system reliability for the few hours per year when the system reaches its limit Absolutely agree with the failure to use the AMI network that we’ve invested billions in over the last 14 years PG&E couldn’t use the system to detect line outages that led to catastrophic fires and they are failing to exert true load management I have sophisticated clients who cannot easily read their AMI data to manage their loads in real time They often go to 3rd party vendor to pay yet again for data that they already paid for in the AMI investment There needs to be a cooperative effort among all parties as to how to design the system so that there is a balance between load management and other in order to get a more advanced system up and running The current system of competition between all the parties is creating chaos and just throwing money around is not the answer For example if there were a law that funded people to clean up their yards this would just stimulate a lot more people to have dirty yards These price stimulations cannot drive the kind of system that is needed Such a system needs to be centrally designed and funded by all parties coming to the table and together designing the future systems Investments are bid out and reviewed and then selected and paid for and guaranteed to earn a small return with no risk thus lowering the cost of those investments Then the operating costs are optimized and paid by everyone The fees appear on all bills and there are no wild price swings and no blackouts So please throw away all your current system plans and market rules and start over with a new design that is better planned for the benefit of everyone Centralized utility planning through the 1970s is what led us our current situation with too much pollution The core of almost all of our power grid woes arise from unwinding that mess Decentralized technologies have arisen just fine for may other network applications There are inefficiencies in both decentralized and centralized approaches (ask the Soviets how central planning went…) The question then is what are the relative tradeoffs to what degree does one process better foster other social benefits (e.g. Visit Our Website Essential Blog Posts Follow us on Bluesky Follow us on LinkedIn Join Our Email List Donate Today Email: ei-haas@berkeley.edu EI Website Bluesky LinkedIn Subscribe Share this articleShareShare on FacebookShare on XShare on PinterestCopy LinkConstipationLearn more about managing constipation, from the symptoms and causes to how it's diagnosed and treated. Get expert insight into how to prevent it, how long it may last, and which foods to eat and avoid. since they were developed as a treatment method before the invention of oral and intravenous medications.[1] Better and safer treatment options, such as laxatives mean enemas are typically recommended as a last resort for constipation Read on to learn more about how enemas can treat constipation and some safer treatment options to get your gut moving again How Does an Enema Treat Constipation?In an enema, fluid is introduced into the intestines via the rectum. This can treat constipation by softening and breaking up the stool, says Bryan Curtin, MD a gastroenterologist and the director of the center for neurogastroenterology and GI motility at the Melissa L Posner Institute for Digestive Health and Liver Disease at Mercy in Baltimore “While phosphorus-based enemas are traditionally considered the most potent I find that any enema can be effective if done correctly,” Dr “The oil-based enemas are fairly messy and I typically avoid those.” Fleet enemas can cause some electrolyte abnormalities so they have fallen out of favor in recent times Most doctors simply recommend tap water enemas now How to Administer an EnemaTo administer an enema follow the instructions on the box or leaflet closely Bharat Pothuri, MD, a gastroenterologist at Memorial Hermann in Houston offers the following tips for using an enema safely and effectively: “It’s important to make sure you hold onto the enema until the urge to defecate is strong,” Curtin says Side Effects of EnemasWhile enemas can be a useful tool for treating severe constipation they do come with some risks and are not meant for frequent use “Too much enema use can lead to anorectal pain disorders you should avoid using enemas regularly unless instructed to by your doctor.” People with colorectal cancer an enlarged and distended colon that may be more prone to perforation and people who have active inflammatory bowel disease should avoid using enemas unless they are specifically prescribed it by a medical professional Sometimes anti-inflammatory medications are given via enema route for treatment of proctitis and colitis If you have any questions about the safety of enemas, talk to your doctor. It’s best to consult your healthcare provider before using an enema and to exhaust all other ways of treating constipation first Safer Options for Constipation ReliefBecause of the possible side effects of enemas it’s usually only advised as a last resort to treat constipation make sure you’ve tried the following options your doctor will first start by recommending dietary changes,” Curtin says Adding fiber to your diet increases the bulk of your stool speeding up its passage through the digestive system Curtin says patients who are constipated should aim for 20 to 30 grams (g) of daily fiber. A good starting point is to add more fruits and vegetables into your diet, as well as whole grains, which are some high-fiber foods Only around 5 percent of Americans get this recommended amount of fiber If adding fiber to your diet through high-fiber foods is not working there are also fiber supplements available Talk to your doctor to learn if this is a good option for you Drinking enough water is vitally important for overall health “The main purpose of the colon is to reabsorb water from the stool and if you are dehydrated more water will be taken in leading to harder-to-pass stools,” Curtin says Note that not all this fluid has to be water. You can also include nutrient-rich foods and beverages like fruit, vegetables, juice, and tea. Also, it’s important to spread out the fluids over the day. Alcohol and caffeinated drinks can cause dehydration so you’ll want to avoid those if you’re constipated who may adjust your dose or switch your prescription Some prescription drugs are also available to treat chronic constipation Your healthcare provider will work with you to decide which one is best for you If there’s a structural problem in your colon that’s causing your constipation your doctor might recommend surgery in very severe and refractory cases Call your doctor to talk through options if constipation is a new issue for you or you’ve been constipated for more than a few weeks The TakeawayWhile enemas were a viable treatment option for constipation in the past it is not the ideal treatment method anymore Safer options for treating constipation include increasing fiber intake People with severe or chronic constipation may benefit from prescription medications Dr. Goel is published in peer-reviewed journals on gastroenterology and nutrition, and his work has appeared in networks and publications such as CNN, The New York Times, Time magazine, the Financial Times, and the BBC. Goel has received two Cannes Lions Awards and has been recognized by the United Nations for his work in human rights advocacy. He is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Ashley WelchAuthorAshley Welch has more than a decade of experience in both breaking news and long-form storytelling. She is passionate about getting to the crux of the latest scientific studies and sharing important information in an easy-to-digest way to better inform decision-making. She has written about health, science, and wellness for a variety of outlets, including Scientific American Mind, Healthline, New York Family, Oprah.com, and WebMD. She served as the health editor for CBSNews.com for several years as a reporter, writer, and editor of daily health news articles and features. As a former staff member at Everyday Health, she covered a wide range of chronic conditions and diseases. Welch holds a bachelor's degree from Fordham University and a master's degree from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York, where she studied health and science reporting. She enjoys yoga and is an aspiring runner. from the symptoms and causes to how it's diagnosed and treated Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker The Republican from Florida used expedited procedures laid out under the War Powers Act to force a floor vote on the bill, which would have required the Biden administration to withdraw the approximately 900 troops stationed in Syria within six months. Democrats from the Congressional Progressive Caucus joined libertarian and America First-aligned Republicans in rallying behind the Gaetz resolution but fell short of the votes needed to pass it amid opposition from leaders in both parties. “Congress has never authorized the use of military force in Syria,” Gaetz said in a statement upon introducing the bill last month. “The United States is currently not in a war with or against Syria, so why are we conducting dangerous military operations there? President [Joe] Biden must remove all U.S. armed forces from Syria.” The Defense Department first deployed troops to Syria to fight the Islamic State group in 2014. That conflict also saw the return of U.S. forces to Iraq. U.S. troops have remained stationed in both countries under a 2001 military authorization, which Congress passed in the wake of the 9/11 attacks to target al-Qaida in Afghanistan. Four presidents have since used the 2001 military authorization to justify at least 41 military operations in at least 19 countries across the globe. Since the territorial defeat of the so-called ISIS caliphate, the U.S. Defense Department has kept troops stationed in both Syria and Iraq. In Syria, they remain split in the northeast — where they aid the Kurdish-majority administration’s fight against ISIS sleeper cells — and the southeast garrison of al-Tanf, which has become a frequent target of attack for Iran-backed militias. House Foreign Affairs Chairman Mike McCaul, R-Fla., and ranking member Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., both argued the U.S. troop presence in Syria is legal under the 2001 AUMF and urged their colleagues to vote against the Gaetz resolution. “Even though ISIS no longer controls significant territory, there are still tens of thousands of hardened terrorist fighters in Iraq and Syria who are hellbent on establishing their terror state,” McCaul argued ahead of the vote. House lawmakers also voted down 155-273 a National Defense Authorization Act amendment last year from Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., that would have required Biden to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria if Congress does not pass an authorization specifically for that mission. (The House rejected a similar Bowman amendment in 2021.) Former President Donald Trump partially withdrew U.S. troops from the Syrian-Turkish border in 2019, paving the way for Ankara to launch a ground offensive against Kurdish forces in northeast Syria. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has shown interest in launching another offensive into northeast Syria, repeatedly issuing threats until the devastating earthquake last month that killed thousands in both countries. But Gaetz indicated he was not worried that pulling U.S. troops out of the area would greenlight another Turkish offensive against the Syrian Kurds. “I don’t believe that our presence is deterring much of anything,” Gaetz told Defense News last week. “I think that it’s a risk of us escalating the conflict.” Gaetz’s office noted he filed the bill after U.S. Central Command, which oversees Middle East military operations, disclosed that four service members were wounded in a raid against a senior ISIS official, Hamza al-Homsi. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley visited U.S. forces stationed in Syria on Saturday. Milley’s trip prompted protest from both the Syrian Foreign Affairs Ministry in Damascus and Gaetz, who accused him of trying to “justify America’s continued involvement in a Middle Eastern civil war.” Separately on Tuesday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin visited Iraq, where he vowed that U.S. troops would remain in the country at the invitation of Baghdad. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee also advanced legislation on Wednesday that would repeal the 1991 and 2002 Iraq War authorizations. However, those repeals would not result in the removal of U.S. troops from Iraq, since they are stationed there under the 2001 authorization. Bryant Harris is the Congress reporter for Defense News. He has covered U.S. foreign policy, national security, international affairs and politics in Washington since 2014. He has also written for Foreign Policy, Al-Monitor, Al Jazeera English and IPS News. Facebook pageTwitter feedRSS feedDefense News © 2025 Medievalists.net Archaeologists in Denmark have uncovered a remarkable Iron Age weapon deposit near Hedensted and a unique chainmail—now joined by another extraordinary discovery: fragments of a Roman helmet conducted by The Vejle Museums as part of the expansion of a highway has uncovered one of the largest known weapon sacrifices in Scandinavia the deposit includes 119 lances and spears and a rare chainmail—an elite piece of armour requiring immense skill and resources to produce These weapons and military artifacts were not merely lost or abandoned; they were carefully buried within two houses weapons were placed in postholes when the structure was dismantled they were packed around roof-bearing posts before the house was even completed Such placements hint at an offering tied to the residence of a powerful local chieftain possibly to secure divine favour or commemorate a military victory The already extraordinary find became even more remarkable with the identification of two iron plates discovered in a posthole X-ray analysis revealed that they belonged to a Roman crest helmet from the 4th century This marks the first time a Roman helmet has been found in Denmark Roman helmets are exceptionally rare in southern Scandinavia with the closest parallels found in Thorsbjerg Moor in Schleswig and parts of Sweden The find raises intriguing questions: How did a Roman helmet end up in Jutland bringing his personal equipment home after his service ended it could have been looted from a Roman legionary in battles closer to the empire’s Germanic frontier and later brought to Jutland.” the helmet was deliberately destroyed before being deposited Only a decorated cheek plate and a neck plate survived This aligns with known post-battle rituals in the Iron Age where weapons were systematically dismantled before being sacrificed the excavation uncovered fragments of at least two bronze neck rings resembling those seen in the Vindelev Hoard and other depictions of Iron Age rulers associated with rulers and warriors who swore loyalty to their leaders indicates that the site was home to an elite warrior class with connections beyond Denmark—possibly even to the Roman Empire The Løsning Søndermark site was continuously inhabited for nearly 500 years home to influential individuals who commanded warriors and participated in military campaigns The vast number of weapons uncovered provides tangible evidence of such conflicts archaeologists hope to determine whether the weapons belonged to local warriors or were taken as war booty from defeated enemies The latter would align with known South Scandinavian practices where war spoils were often ritually deposited in wetlands This discovery has already drawn international attention briefly putting the small Jutland town of Løsning in the global spotlight Starting February 8th parts of the weapon deposit will be displayed at the Vejle Cultural Museum this find promises to shed new light on the military and religious dynamics of Iron Age Scandinavia highlighting the region’s deep ties to the wider European world For updates on the findings and their significance, visit vejlemuseerne.dk Top Image: Sword and other weapons – Photo: Vejle Museums We've created a Patreon for Medievalists.net as we want to transition to a more community-funded model We aim to be the leading content provider about all things medieval podcast and Youtube page offers news and resources about the Middle Ages We hope that are our audience wants to support us so that we can further develop our podcast and remove the advertising on our platforms This will also allow our fans to get more involved in what content we do produce Member Login Dixon has received funding from the US National Science Foundation the National Aeronautics and Space Administration the Department of Energy and the Office of Naval Research View all partners This summer I worked on the Greenland ice sheet part of a scientific experiment to study surface melting and its contribution to Greenland’s accelerating ice losses Greenland has the potential to cause large and rapid increases to sea level as it melts a nonscientist friend asked me what the research showed about future sea level rise He was disappointed that I couldn’t say anything definite since it will take several years to analyze the data This kind of time lag is common in science but it can make communicating the issues difficult where decades of data collection may be required to see trends A recent draft report on climate change by federal scientists exploits data captured over many decades to assess recent changes and warns of a dire future if we don’t change our ways Yet few countries are aggressively reducing their emissions in a way scientists say are needed to avoid the dangers of climate change While this lack of progress dismays people Human beings have evolved to focus on immediate threats We have a tough time dealing with risks that have time lags of decades or even centuries I’m used to thinking on much longer time scales I see several kinds of time lags associated with climate change debates It’s important to understand these time lags and how they interact if we hope to make progress but may not support strict regulations or big investments in response statements made by scientists in the 1980s 1990s and early 2000s about global warming were often vague and full of caveats which made it easy for climate change skeptics to forestall action by emphasizing how uncertain the picture was Fortunately, scientists are improving at communication. The increasing frequency of coastal flooding, summer heat waves and droughts could also help to change minds but it may take a few more decades before a solid majority of Americans supports high-level action It will also take time for technological developments to support our transition to a low-carbon energy future A few decades ago renewable energy sources such as wind and solar seemed unlikely to replace a significant fraction of carbon-based energy electric vehicles seemed unlikely to meet a significant share of our transportation needs This year wind and solar power hit 10 percent of U.S. electricity generation for the first time. Electric vehicles and hybrids are also becoming more common The recent advent and rapid adoption of LED lighting could start to have an impact on our electrical consumption humanity’s carbon footprint will look quite different in a few decades Whether that’s quick enough to avoid 2 degree Celsius of warming is not yet clear Once we finally decide to make a low-carbon transition and figure out how to do it, it will cost trillions of dollars Capital markets can’t provide that sort of funding instantaneously Consider the cost of upgrading just the U.S. housing market. The United States has approximately 125 million households, of which about 60 percent (75 million) own their own homes. The majority of these are single-family residences If we assume that at least 60 million of these residences are single-family homes duplexes or townhomes where it is feasible for residents to upgrade to solar photovoltaic power then equipping just half (30 million homes) with a standard solar energy package and battery storage at a cost of about US$25,000 per household Our economy can support this level of capital investment over one or two decades but for most of the world it’s going to take longer Our ability to add carbon dioxide to the atmosphere greatly exceeds nature’s ability to remove it There is a time lag between carbon emission and carbon removal some atmospheric carbon dioxide at the ocean’s surface dissolves into seawater slowly breaking them apart and washing calcium and magnesium ions into rivers and streams and on into the oceans These materials combine into minerals such as aragonite which eventually sink and become entombed in sedimentary layers at the bottom of the ocean But since this process plays out over many centuries, most of the carbon dioxide that we put into the atmosphere today will continue to heat the world for hundreds to thousands of years We haven’t seen comparable temperature or sea level increases so far because of time lags in Earth’s climate response It takes a while for our elevated carbon dioxide levels to trigger impacts on this scale Given the various time lags that are in play it is quite possible that we have already exceeded the 2°C rise over preindustrial temperatures – a threshold most scientists say we should avoid – but it hasn’t shown up on the thermometer yet We may not be able to predict exactly how much future temperatures or sea levels will rise but we do know that unless we curb our carbon emissions our planet will be a very uncomfortable place for our grandchildren and their grandchildren Large-scale social changes take time: they are the sum of many individual changes Mission Statement: to assist the integration of foreign residents living in Spain and this is never more accurate than when you establish yourself as a foreign resident in a new country Being able to quickly familiarise yourself with the culture and customs can help ease the transition during a challenging time This is why Euro Weekly News makes it our mission to provide you with a free news resource in English that covers both regional and national Spanish news – anything that we feel you will benefit from knowing as you integrate into your new community and live your best life in Spain you can forget about translating articles from Spanish into awkward English that probably don’t make much sense Let us be your convenient and essential guide to all things that will likely affect you as a foreign resident living in Spain were placed on display at the Cultural Museum in Vejle During the Iron Age, 1,500–2,000 years ago, a Viking chieftain buried enough weapons for a small army in two structures located just northwest of Hedensted, between Vejle and Horsens in Denmark an incredibly valuable chainmail shirt and other items were buried indicating that the site was home to a powerful chieftain The manner in which the war equipment was buried suggests it was an offering to higher powers These remarkable finds were made during archaeological excavations at Løsning Søndermark in Hedensted where the Danish Road Directorate is currently expanding the motorway to three lanes The site was first inhabited as far back as the first century A.D according to a statement made in November 2024 but in the early fifth century the settlement became the home of a few powerful people the researchers made an exciting new discovery: Through X-ray imaging they concluded that two iron plates found onsite were actually parts of a Roman helmet The palm-sized pieces were once a neck guard and a decorated cheek guard from a crest helmet a type of headwear used in the Roman Empire around the fourth century The site was outside the borders of the Roman Empire and the researchers think the helmet dates to Denmark’s Late Iron Age Roman helmets from this period are “exceptionally rare in southern Scandinavia and there are no direct parallels to this discovery,” according to a spokesperson from the museum More than 200 weapons and other more mundane day to day personal items were discovered in what has proven to be a very important and unexpected hoard Subscribe to our Euro Weekly News alerts to get the latest stories into your inbox Euro Weekly News is the leading English language newspaper in Spain by delivering news with a social conscience we are proud to be the voice for the expat communities who now call Spain home With around half a million print readers a week and over 1.5 million web views per month EWN has the biggest readership of any English language newspaper in Spain The paper prints over 150 news stories a week with many hundreds more on the web – no one else even comes close Our publication has won numerous awards over the last 25 years including Best Free Newspaper of the Year (Premios AEEPP) Company of the Year (Costa del Sol Business Awards) and Collaboration with Foreigners honours (Mijas Town Hall) All of this comes at ZERO cost to our readers All our print and online content always has been and always will be FREE OF CHARGE Download our media pack in either English or Spanish particularly fascinated by the mysterious workings of the human brain in English at the University of Warwick in the U.K and spreads her infectious love of invertebrates You can follow Maria on Twitter 2018 — Fact checked by Jasmin CollierCancer is the leading cause of death across the globe researchers have led meticulous studies focused on how to stop this deadly disease in its tracks How close are we to finding more effective treatments In the United States alone, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) estimated 1,688,780 new cancer cases and 600,920 cancer-related deaths in 2017 other types of treatment are beginning to pick up steam: therapies that — on their own or in combination with other treatments — are meant to help defeat cancer more efficiently and Innovations in cancer treatment aim to address a set of issues that will typically face healthcare providers and patients including aggressive treatment accompanied by unwanted side effects and aggressive cancers that are resilient to widely utilized treatments we review some of the most recent cancer research breakthroughs that give us renewed hope that better therapies and prevention strategies will soon follow suit One type of therapy that has attracted a lot of attention recently is immunotherapy which aims to reinforce our own bodies’ existing arsenal against foreign bodies and harmful cells: our immune system’s response to the spread of cancer tumors But many types of cancer cell are so dangerous because they have ways of “duping” the immune system — either into ignoring them altogether or else into giving them a “helping hand.” some types of aggressive cancer are able to spread more easily and become resistant to chemotherapy or radiotherapy thanks to in vitro and in vivo experiments researchers are now learning how they might be able to “deactivate” the cancer cells’ protective systems A study published last year in Nature Immunology found that macrophages that are normally tasked with “eating up” cellular debris and other harmful foreign “objects” failed to obliterate the super-aggressive cancer cells in their interaction with the cancer cells the macrophages read not one but two signals meant to repel their “cleansing” action also showed the scientists the way forward: by blocking the two relevant signaling pathways they re-enabled the white blood cells to do their work A surprising weapon in the fight against cancer could be therapeutic viruses, as revealed by a team from the United Kingdom earlier this year. In their experiments, they managed to use a reovirus to attack brain cancer cells while leaving healthy cells alone “This is the first time it has been shown that a therapeutic virus is able to pass through the brain-blood barrier,” explained the study authors which “opens up the possibility [that] this type of immunotherapy could be used to treat more people with aggressive brain cancers.” Another area for improvement in immunotherapy is “dendritic vaccines,” a strategy wherein dendritic cells (which play a key role in the body’s immune response) are collected from a person’s body “armed” with tumor-specific antigens — which will teach them to “hunt” and destroy relevant cancer cells — and injected back into the body to boost the immune system researchers in Switzerland identified a way to improve the action of these dendritic vaccines by creating artificial receptors able to recognize and “abduct” tiny vesicles that have been linked to cancer tumors’ spread in the body By attaching these artificial receptors to the dendritic cells in the “vaccines,” the therapeutic cells are enabled to recognize harmful cancer cells with more accuracy Importantly, recent studies have shown that immunotherapy may work best if delivered in tandem with chemotherapy — specifically if the chemotherapy drugs are delivered first and they are followed up with immunotherapy But this approach does have some pitfalls; it is difficult to control the effects of this combined method healthy tissue may be attacked alongside cancer tumors scientists from two institutions in North Carolina have developed a substance that becomes gel-like: a “bioresponsive scaffold system.” The scaffold can hold both chemotherapy and immunotherapy drugs at once releasing them systematically into primary tumors This method allows for a better control of both therapies ensuring that the drugs act on the targeted tumor alone Speaking of specially developed tools for delivering drugs straight to the tumor and hunting down micro tumors with accuracy and efficiency the past couple of years have seen a “boom” in nanotechnology and nanoparticle developments for cancer treatments Nanoparticles are microscopic particles that have garnered so much attention in clinical research because they bring us the chance to develop precise they can target cancer cells or cancer tumors without harming healthy cells in the surrounding environment Some nanoparticles have now been created to provide very focused hyperthermic treatment which is a type of therapy that uses hot temperatures to make cancer tumors shrink managed to come up with a type of “self-regulating” nanoparticle that was able to expose tumors to heat while avoiding contact with healthy tissue “This could potentially be a game-changer in the way we treat people who have cancer,” said one of the researchers in charge of this project These tiny vehicles can also be used to target cancer stem-like cells which are undifferentiated cells that have been linked to the resilience of certain types of cancer in the face of traditional treatments such as chemotherapy Thus, nanoparticles can be “loaded” with drugs and set to “hunt down” cancer stem cells to prevent the growth or recurrence of tumors Scientists have experimented with drug-filled nanoparticles in the treatment of various types of cancer including breast cancer and endometrial cancer minuscule vehicles called “nanoprobes” can be used to detect the presence of micrometastases which are secondary tumors so tiny that they cannot be seen using traditional methods director of the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey in New Brunswick calls micrometastases “the Achilles’ heel of surgical management for cancer” and argues that nanoprobes “go a long way to solving [such] problems.” Another type of strategy that researchers have been investigating of late is that of “starving” tumors of the nutrients they need to grow and spread could be a saving grace in the case of aggressive resilient cancers that cannot effectively be eradicated otherwise Three different studies — whose results were all published in January this year — looked at ways of cutting off cancers’ nutritional supplies One of these studies looked at ways of stopping glutamine are known to use this amino acid to support their growth By blocking cancer cells’ access to glutamine the researchers managed to maximize the impact of oxidative stress a process that eventually induces cell death Some aggressive types of breast cancer may be halted by stopping the cells from “feeding” on a particular enzyme that helps them to produce the energy they need to thrive Another way of depleting cancer cells of energy is by blocking their access to vitamin B-2 as researchers from the University of Salford in the U.K “This is hopefully the beginning of an alternative approach to halting cancer stem cells.” This strategy could help individuals receiving cancer treatment to avoid the toxic side effects of chemotherapy Epigenetics refers to the changes caused in our bodies by alterations in gene expression which dictate whether certain characteristics appear or if certain “actions” are affected at a biological level According to research that addressed the impact of such changes, many cancers, as well as the behaviors of cancer cells, are determined by epigenetic factors “Recent advances in the field of epigenetics have shown that human cancer cells harbor global epigenetic abnormalities in addition to numerous genetic alterations.” “These genetic and epigenetic alterations interact at all stages of cancer development working together to promote cancer progression.” it is crucial for specialists to understand when and where to intervene and the expression of which genes they may need to switch on or off depending on their role in the development of cancer One study, for instance, found that the gene responsible for the advent of Huntington’s disease produces a set of molecules whose action may actually prevent cancer from occurring the researchers’ challenge is to channel the therapeutic potential of this process without triggering Huntington’s disease “We believe a short-term treatment cancer therapy for a few weeks might be possible,” says the study’s senior author Another recent study was able to establish that estrogen-receptor positive breast cancers that become resistant to chemotherapy gain their resilience through genetic mutations that “confer a metastatic advantage to the tumor.” But this knowledge also gave researchers the “break” that they needed to come up with an improved treatment for such stubborn tumors: a combination therapy that delivers the chemotherapeutic drug fulvestrant alongside an experimental enzyme inhibitor taking advantage of all the technological advances that science has achieved over recent years But what does that mean in terms of coming up with a cure for cancer Whether or not there will ever be a cure for all cancer types is currently a matter of strong debate; although promising studies are published and covered by the media almost every day This makes it very difficult to say that an approach that works for one type will be adaptable to all while there is much emerging research promising more effective treatments most of these projects are still in their early stages having conducted in vitro and in vivo experiments Some potential treatments still have a long way to go before clinical trials in human patients Still, that doesn’t mean we should lose all hope. Some researchers explain that these efforts should make us optimistic; while we may not be at the stage where we can claim that cancer can easily be eradicated our furthered knowledge and ever more precise tools keep us ahead of the game and improve our odds in the fight against this disease Overreliance on promises of new technology to solve climate change is enabling delay Their research published in Nature Climate Change calls for an end to a longstanding cycle of technological promises and reframed climate change targets Contemporary technological proposals for responding to climate change include nuclear fusion power ice-restoration using millions of wind-powered pumps and spraying particulates in the stratosphere Researchers Duncan McLaren and Nils Markusson from Lancaster Environment Centre say that: “For forty years climate action has been delayed by technological promises Contemporary promises are equally dangerous Our work exposes how such promises have raised expectations of more effective policy options becoming available in the future and thereby enabled a continued politics of prevarication and inadequate action “Prevarication is not necessarily intentional but such promises can feed systemic ‘moral corruption’ in which current elites are enabled to pursue self-serving pathways while passing off risk onto vulnerable people in the future and in the global South The article describes a history of such promises showing how the overarching international goal of ‘avoiding dangerous climate change’ has been reinterpreted and differently represented in the light of new modelling methods models and technologies have co-evolved in ways that enable delay: “Each novel promise not only competes with existing ideas enabling the repeated deferral of political deadlines for climate action and undermining societal commitment to meaningful responses They conclude: “Putting our hopes in yet more new technologies is unwise social and political transformation is essential to enable widespread deployment of both behavioural and technological responses to climate change.” The researchers map the history of climate targets in five phases: “stabilization” followed by a focus on “percentage emissions reductions” shifting to “atmospheric concentrations” (expressed in parts per million) “cumulative budgets” (in tonnes of carbon dioxide) and currently “outcome temperatures” 1992) technological promises included improved energy efficiency · In the second phase around the Kyoto summit (1997) policy promises focused on cutting emissions with efficiency fuel switching and carbon capture and storage (CCS) while policy focused on atmospheric concentrations · Phase four saw the development of sophisticated global carbon budgeting models and the emergence of a range of putative negative emissions technologies · Policy in phase five focused increasingly on temperature outcomes shows a pattern of behavior that has perplexed scientists and fascinated amateurs we’ve been scanning the skies with king-size antennas hoping to pick up a radio signal from space that would prove the existence of other technically adept beings our efforts have found only senseless static – it’s been a long fishing expedition without so much as a nibble However, today there are people who believe that someone is tugging on the line. They suggest that the peculiar behavior of a nondescript star 8,000 trillion miles away could be tipping us off to a massive alien construction project tens of billions of biology-friendly planets speckle our galaxy Surely at least some of those worlds house intelligent beings The star in question bears the unsentimental name although is more colloquially know as Tabby’s star in a nod to the Yale University astronomer who led the team that discovered its strange behavior Tabby’s star was observed by Nasa’s Kepler space telescope and– thanks largely to the work of astronomy enthusiasts – was found to be a very erratic light source followed by a relapse of darkening weeks or months later and doesn’t occur with the regular cadence that would mark the presence of an orbiting planet When this odd behavior was first recognized several possible explanations were offered by Boyajian’s team The most favored was the presence of large clouds of dust from disintegrated comets around Tabby’s star The orbiting detritus would occasionally mask its light But a more intriguing explanation was also proffered: perhaps this star shelters a planet boasting a civilization older and more technically adept than our own And perhaps these advanced beings have embarked on a massive engineering project building phalanxes of orbiting solar panels to supply the energy needs of their society This space-borne construction could cause the dimming This idea is so appealing, it has convinced some that an alien megastructure not only accounts for this star’s eccentricities, but also constitutes the first credible evidence for extraterrestrials. This thesis was first broached by Pennsylvania State University astronomer Jason Wright and was quickly picked up by an enthusiastic space media before alerting the United Federation of Planets Just about every time astronomers have found mysterious behavior in the skies someone has claimed it’s the work of aliens Cambridge astronomers found puzzling radio pulses coming from our galaxy – pulses as regular as the best clocks They half-seriously suggested that these might be due to LGMs some Russian astronomers noted erratic radio transmissions from distant galaxies which they also dared to propose were caused by aliens trying to get in touch they were just giant black holes doing their thing but the lesson of history is manifest: if you give aliens the credit for strange phenomena Still, skepticism shouldn’t yield to cynicism. After all, the premise that someone is out there is supported by many scientists, and no reasonable evidence should be ignored. In the case of Tabby’s star, there are also new clues. A recent analysis of Kepler data by astronomers Ben Montet and Joshua Simon has shown that this object can slowly this is not standard operating practice for stars It also makes explanations of Tabby’s star based on either pulverized comets or ambitious aliens trickier we still don’t know what’s going on in this star system is that we are witnessing a perfectly natural phenomenon; one that we don’t yet understand but will eventually fathom The universe has shown itself to be endlessly creative in creating puzzles for our delectation and bafflement something other than a work of unthinking Nature And while the odds against Tabby’s star being a deliberate construction are long so are the odds that the cosmic ocean is entirely sterile So we’ll continue to cast our line into its murky depths Marina Abramović and Sharon Osbourne among stars describing the boycott movement as ‘an affront to both Palestinians and Israelis’ Their letter states that Eurovision’s “spirit of togetherness” across the continent is “under attack by those calling to boycott Eurovision 2019 because it is being held in Israel subverting the spirit of the contest and turning it from a tool of unity into a weapon of division” It continues: “We believe the cultural boycott movement is an affront to both Palestinians and Israelis who are working to advance peace through compromise While we all may have differing opinions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the best path to peace we all agree that a cultural boycott is not the answer.” Non-profit organisation Creative Community for Peace (CCFP) are behind the letter Also among them are Gene Simmons of the band Kiss Countdown co-presenter Rachel Riley and Spanish singer/songwriter Conchita said: “The members of the entertainment industry who have signed this statement along with the thousands of individuals who have endorsed its message all believe in building bridges through music and the arts as a means to achieving greater understanding and peace in the region.” which presents ‘Israel’s prettier face’ to whitewash and distract attention from its war crimes against Palestinians.” In January 2019, British figures including Vivienne Westwood, Peter Gabriel, Roger Waters, Mike Leigh, Julie Christie, Maxine Peake, Caryl Churchill and the band Wolf Alice signed a letter calling on the BBC to cancel coverage of the 2019 song contest The signatories criticised Israel over its occupation of Palestinian territories but it is not exempt from human rights considerations – and we cannot ignore Israel’s systematic violation of Palestinian human rights.” This article was amended on 30 April 2019 An earlier version said the former Eurovision winner Conchita Wurst had signed the letter It is in fact the Spanish singer/songwriter Conchita Researcher Anna Wargelius and her colleague Fernanda Almeida rub a genetically modified salmon to extract the eggs The fish in the photo has had its pigmentation genes removed – this is done so the scientists can see whether the gene editing has been successful This research is time-consuming because salmon have a long generation interval Geneticist Anna Wargelius inspects a tank containing various types of salmon It isn’t necessary to “knock out” the salmons’ pigmentation genes to make them albino but it allows the researchers to see whether the gene editing has worked Here Anna Wargelius is pictured holding an albino salmon This prevents escaped fish from spawning with wild salmon Now scientists have also worked out how to produce sufficient quantities of sterile salmon for commercial production Using sterile farmed salmon may solve the problem of escaped farmed fish interbreeding with wild fish Scientists had already discovered a method for making the fish sterile by cutting out a gene Now they have taken that method a step further so the fish can be mass produced “Initially we made the fish sterile by cutting out a particular gene in every single newly fertilised salmon embryo This method is time-consuming and cannot be used for commercial production” That’s why the scientists had to come up with a different method that would make it possible to produce sterile fish in large quantities: “We concluded that the simplest way to produce enough sterile salmon is to enable some of the sterile fish to reproduce.” the researchers had to find a way to reverse the impact of the genetic modification without removing it: “As the goal was for the young to inherit their parents’ sterility the parents had to be genetically sterile.” “We add an RNA molecule to the fish we want to use as ‘sterile parents’ This molecule contains a ‘recipe’ that means the genetically sterile fish develop germ cells they can produce young that inherit their parents’ genetic sterility” The sterile fish don’t reach sexual maturity so they don’t behave in the same way as other salmon do when they reach that life stage “Since the fish don’t become sexually mature their natural instinct to head to the rivers to spawn isn’t triggered they will probably not swim up the rivers where the wild salmon have gone to spawn” The fact that the fish don’t reach sexual maturity is also good for animal welfare at fish farms salmon head to fresh water when they start to sexually mature where sexually mature salmon are more susceptible to disease” The project to discover a good way of making farmed salmon sterile while also ensuring that they could reproduce if desirable “The project was made possible by the development of the CRISPR technique which allows you directly ‘cut’ from When they started their research, Wargelius’ team were some of the first people in Norway to start using the newly developed CRISPR technique. This year, the scientists behind the technique were awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry “This technique enables us to make the industry more sustainable by preventing genetic impacts on wild fish and also improving animal welfare at fish farms” “Although we don’t give the fish any new characteristics and only take away their ability to reproduce in Norway these fish are defined as genetically modified” if someone wants to produce fish of this kind Güralp, H., Skaftnesmo, K. O., Kjærner-Semb, E., Straume, A. H., Kleppe, L., Schulz, R. W., R. B. Edvardsen & Wargelius, A. (2020). Rescue of germ cells in dnd crispant embryos opens the possibility to produce inherited sterility in Atlantic salmon. Scientific reports Visiting addresses Privacy Policy Copyright © 2025 Institute of Marine Research 2021] Huawei launched the Smart Customs Solution globally during the Huawei Industrial Digital Transformation Conference 2021 and places to achieve comprehensive digital supervision capability making cross-border trade easier and secured Launch of the Huawei Smart Customs Solution President of Huawei's Global Government Business Unit said: "Serving 170 countries around the world Huawei understands the challenges and requirements of customs To achieve efficient clearance and ensure convenient declaration a comprehensive digital upgrade of customs services is needed As a leading global provider of ICT infrastructure and smart devices Huawei has worked with global ecosystem partners to leverage its strengths in cloud computing customs is expected to assume new and increasingly important responsibilities in support of national economy and trade development While strengthening the supervision of trade security convenient clearance services must also be provided to improve the overall service experience This is the driving force behind the digital transformation of customs With continuous development in cross-border e-commerce customs authorities are facing more and more pressure in the supervision of cross-border parcels and logistics inspection and quarantine are now a key priorities It is a universal challenge for customs to improve clearance efficiency while ensuring trade security Huawei cooperated with global ecosystem partners to jointly develop the Smart Customs Solution They have been invited to participate in the Customs Session to jointly release the solution together with Huawei Applying leading ICT technologies such as converged communications Huawei created a digital foundation for cloud-network-edge-device integration Ecosystem partners can then layer on their scenario-based services and applications such as smart customs clearance Huawei’s Director of Global Customs and Tax Industries who released the solution "The Smart Customs Solution will support and aid the implementation of self-service customs clearance in cross-border logistics while ensuring the entire process remain under security supervision The solution also achieves comprehensive management of goods Huawei has also developed the Intelligent Cube solution for customs clearance at ports customs clearance systems in a unified manner allowing customs authorities to build one-stop smart customs clearance capabilities quickly The average deployment time is reduced by approximately 60% with vehicle clearance time shortened to seconds greatly improving the intelligence and clearance efficiency of ports To meet the network requirements of different scenarios Huawei leverages years of expertise in network connectivity to develop an intent-driven customs network scenario-based solution This solution uses technologies such as Wi-Fi 6 and AI knowledge graph to achieve wide coverage and full connection in all customs scenarios ensuring low latency and zero packet loss for core services It also shortened the mean time to repair (MTTR) from 4 hours to 10 minutes and intelligent O&M capabilities meeting the digital transformation requirements of customs It is our firm belief that digital technologies will continue to drive the transformation of various industries Huawei will continue to iteratively innovate smart solutions to help reshape the future of smart customs facilitate its digital transformation making cross-border trade easier and secured We will also showcase the latest developments in areas including connectivity