MI weekly selection #424
Black hole may not be at galaxy’s center
There may be a fuzzy clump of dark matter, not a supermassive black hole, in the center of the Milky Way. Researchers say the dark matter could be made of fermions known as darkinos, which would possess milder gravitational forces that allow gas clouds like G2 to exist in their orbits.
Ancient hunter-gatherers took part in brutal attacks
Hunter-gatherers of different cultures participated in savage raids about 13,400 to 18,600 years ago at a cemetery site in modern-day Sudan. Researchers examined the remains of adults and children bearing evidence of battle injuries, some healed others not, suggesting they were sustained in repeated incidents.
Axion may hold answers to key physics questions
Scientists are on the hunt to find evidence of the axion, a theoretical particle that may help explain dark matter and bring more clarity to the Standard Model theory of particle physics, writes theoretical physicist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein. The axion “is pretty much everything we know enough to want in a dark matter candidate, except that we’ve still never seen it and don’t know for sure that it’s real,” she writes.
Red-handed tamarin calls change when near pied tamarins
Red-handed tamarin monkeys alter their territorial calls when communicating with neighbors from different species. Researchers recorded the calls of red-handed tamarins and their neighboring pied tamarin species, and noted the former communicated with their neighbors by adopting similar signaling tones, while the latter did not.
Human lifespan up to 150 years, probably
A new study challenges the Biblical story of Methuselah with findings from data across the US, UK and Russia. As human bodies take longer to recover from stressors such as injury, illness and careers, the findings point to the body’s ability to cope with stress completely diminishes between age 120 to 150.