{"id":252930,"date":"2022-11-28T03:15:22","date_gmt":"2022-11-28T03:15:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mathewingram.com\/work\/?p=252930"},"modified":"2022-11-28T03:15:22","modified_gmt":"2022-11-28T03:15:22","slug":"a-48500-year-old-virus-has-been-revived-from-siberian-permafrost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mathewingram.com\/work\/2022\/11\/28\/a-48500-year-old-virus-has-been-revived-from-siberian-permafrost\/","title":{"rendered":"A 48,500-year-old virus has been revived from Siberian permafrost"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Note<\/strong>: This is a version of my personal newsletter, which I send out via Ghost, the open-source publishing platform. You can\u00a0see other issues\u00a0and sign up here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seven types of viruses that have lain frozen in the Siberian permafrost for thousands of years have been revived. The youngest of these viruses were frozen for 27,000 years, while the oldest was on ice for 48,500 years old \u2013 making it the most ancient virus resuscitated so far<\/a>. \u201c48,500 years is a world record,\u201d says Jean-Michel Claverie at Aix-Marseille University in France, who did the work with his colleagues. Scientists are thawing out these ancient viruses in order to assess their impacts on public health. As the permafrost melts in the Northern Hemisphere, the thawing ice releases tons of trapped chemicals and microbes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

French man wins the right to not have to be \u2018fun\u2019 at work<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

France\u2019s highest court has ruled that a man fired by a Paris-based consulting firm for allegedly failing to be \u201cfun\u201d enough at work was wrongfully dismissed. The man, referred to in court documents as Mr. T, was fired from Cubik Partners in 2015 after refusing to take part in seminars and weekend social events<\/a> that his lawyers argued, according to court documents, included \u201cexcessive alcoholism\u201d and \u201cpromiscuity.\u201d Mr. T had argued that the culture in the company involved \u201chumiliating and intrusive practices\u201d including mock sexual acts and crude nicknames. In its judgment this month, the Court of Cassation ruled that the man was entitled to \u201cfreedom of expression\u201d and that refusing to participate in social activities was a \u201cfundamental freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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DNA showed a mother was also her daughter\u2019s uncle<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

How can a paternity test suggest a mother is also her daughter\u2019s father? The answer to that medical mystery, sparked by a confusing paternity test result, is \u201cWhen the genes of a vanished twin brother live on in the mother\u2019s DNA.\u201d The finding, which genetics experts reported earlier this month, suggests that such human \u201cchimeras\u201d<\/a> \u2014 people with DNA from more than one embryo \u2014 could be more common than we thought. \u201cWhat is the frequency of this? We don\u2019t really know,\u201d said Juan Yunis of Colombia\u2019s Instituto de Gen\u00e9tica. Only about 20 confirmed cases are documented, he said: \u201cProbably there are more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What people actually say before they die<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Mort Felix liked to say that his name, when read as two Latin words, meant \u201chappy death.\u201d When he was sick with the flu, he used to jokingly remind his wife, Susan, that he wanted Beethoven\u2019s \u201cOde to Joy\u201d played at his deathbed. But when his life\u2019s end arrived at the age of 77<\/a>, he lay in his study in his Berkeley, California, home, his body besieged by cancer and his consciousness cradled in morphine, uninterested in music and refusing food as he dwindled away over three weeks in 2012. \u201cEnough,\u201d he told Susan. \u201cThank you, and I love you, and enough.\u201d When she came downstairs the next morning, she found Felix dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Nutcracker\u2019s\u2019 dark Russian past<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Cute kids, antic elders, a dessert buffet that springs to life, all swirling to those gorgeous Tchaikovsky melodies \u2014 is it any wonder that \u201cThe Nutcracker\u201d is one of the most popular ballets in the country, if not the world? Yet when you dig into the Russian roots of this holiday classic, there\u2019s a dark history that may change the way<\/a> you think about it. At \u201cThe Nutcracker\u2019s\u201d premiere on Dec. 18, 1892, in St. Petersburg, the ballet paid homage to the czar and his empire, and within its affectionate tale of family celebration and childhood fantasy are the footsteps of a more brutal narrative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mystery behind blue whale songs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In 2001, a pair of physicists turned whale researchers noticed something puzzling in their data. John Hildebrand and Mark McDonald were trying to build a system that would allow them to automatically detect blue whale songs off the coast of southern California. But their algorithm kept crashing. Blue whale songs fall below the range of human hearing<\/a>. If you want to listen to one, to actually hear its ethereal patterns of wobbly pulses and haunting moans, you have to speed it up by at least two-fold. But according to Hildebrand and McDonald\u2019s instruments, the tonal frequencies of the songs had been sinking to even greater depths for three straight years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mount Rainier casts a shadow in the sky<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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All objects, big or small, cast shadows and so do mountains. However, one particular peak displays a peculiar behavior \u2013 it cast shadows not only on the ground, but also up in the clouds. This photo of Mt Rainier was captured by Lisa Bishop

[source: https:\/\/t.co\/gREzHTumjy<\/a>] pic.twitter.com\/u2kWmSWZvx<\/a><\/p>— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) November 26, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote>