Science News - December 2 2023
Science News - December 2 2023
Science News - December 2 2023
Ancient
Power Plays
New discoveries upend ideas about
who was in charge in Maya cities
VOL. 204 | NO. 9
Features
SN 10, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: BLAKE ELIGH/UNIV. OF TORONTO; JIMMY DAY/MIT MEDIA LAB; ERINN SPRINGER; COURTESY OF Q. SMITH; COURTESY OF D. BLANCO-MELO; EMILY WALKER; MAGDALENE COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, UNITED KINGDOM;
24 Balance of Power
COVER STORY Archaeologists have long thought
that kings ruled ancient Maya cities with absolute
NOLAN ZUNK/THE UNIV. OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN; MELANIE GONICK; M. WEBER; ELEPHANT: DAVID FETTES/GETTY IMAGES; LOUSE: VINCENT SMITH/NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM, LONDON (CC BY 4.0)
News
6 November 2022 Marsquakes and Human migrations
through October 2023 meteorite hits offer across the globe helped
were the hottest a detailed view of shape lice evolution
12 months on record the Red Planet’s heart
13 Mammalian cells can eat
7 Lowering levels of 10 A desert shrub’s salty bacteria-killing viruses
a DNA repair protein demeanor helps the
might help stave off plant soak up water 14 How diving kingfishers
4
Huntington’s disease are protected from brain
Some Australian
injuries
8 Remnants of the cosmic mangroves may thrive
with sea level rise In a Jedi-like trick, rats
Departments
collision that created
2 EDITOR’S NOTE
the moon may persist 11 Newfound corals moved virtual blocks
deep within Earth flourish in the Galápagos using only their minds 4 NOTEBOOK
Solving a Möbius strip
9 Dinosaur and bird fossils 12 Expanded monitoring at 15 Nitrogen-9’s atomic
mystery; microbial culprit
raise questions about U.S. airports could catch nucleus pushes nabbed in elephant deaths
the evolution of feathers the next COVID theoretical limits
32 REVIEWS & PREVIEWS
Go online to explore past
and present landscapes of
the American West
34 FEEDBACK
36 SCIENCE VISUALIZED
Astronomers spot a new
speedy jet on Jupiter
discovery of caves located beneath Maya temples that were used for ritual ADVERTISING AND SUBSCRIBER SERVICES
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ceremonies. He wrote about “immense plazas, elaborate buildings reserved for MAGAZINE MARKETING John Pierce
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That’s just one of many evocative descriptions of Maya cities that Bower has Email [email protected]
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and the first and last weeks only in July by the Society for
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20036.
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SOCIETY FOR SCIENCE
ADV E RTI SE M E NT
NOTEBOOK
INTRODUCING The fossils are the oldest lamprey specimens to clearly indi-
cate a preference in feeding mode, say paleontologist Feixang
Newfound fossilized lampreys Wu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and col-
probably feasted on flesh leagues. In fact, the tooth arrangement of both ancient species
Found in roughly 160-million-year-old rocks in northern strongly resembles that of a modern species of flesh-eating
FROM TOP: DAVID FETTES/IMAGE SOURCE/GETTY IMAGES; HEMING ZHANG
China, the Yanliao Biota is a diverse array of beautifully pre- lamprey in the Southern Hemisphere.
served fossils, including dinosaurs, pterosaurs and even early Yanliaomyzon occisor was larger than Y. ingensdentes. At
mammals. Paleontologists have now unearthed fossils of two about 64 centimeters, the length of a Dachshund, Y. occisor
surprisingly large ancient lamprey species there, swimming fell within the size range of modern lampreys.
menaces that latched onto and bored holes into their unsus- Lampreys, a lineage of jawless vertebrates, have been around
pecting neighbors. for 360 million years. But they rarely fossilize well,
Modern lampreys’ funnel-shaped, toothy mouths leaving large gaps in their evolutionary record and
tend to be adapted to consume either blood or flesh. uncertainty about their ecology and when their
Based on the arrangement of teeth and other feed- feeding styles evolved.
ing apparatuses in the fossils, the newly discovered The earliest lampreys were only a few centi-
species were probably flesh eaters, scientists report meters long and lacked the powerful teeth of later
October 31 in Nature Communications. species. The newfound fossils suggest that by this
time in the Jurassic Period, lampreys had become
The fossilized mouth of the newfound ancient lamprey
Yanliaomyzon ingensdentes, shown in this artist’s rendition, fierce predators, acquiring larger body sizes and
suggests the species ate flesh instead of sucking blood. complex feeding structures. — Carolyn Gramling
ence. Hopefully, he says, participating peratures that locals would recognize as the long-term global warming trend. But
nations will take note of the findings as incredibly high. The team analyzed data the greatest temperature impact from
they negotiate how to reduce fossil fuel from hundreds of countries, states, prov- El Niño takes a year or so to develop as
emissions (SN: 5/7/22 & 5/21/22, p. 8). inces and major cities. heat disperses around the globe, Pershing
Global average numbers can be hard About 90 percent of the global popula- says. That means 2024 will probably
to grasp. So the report also quantifies tion, 7.3 billion people, experienced at least smash records.
How Huntington’s
might be stopped
Future therapies could target
a genetic pileup in brain cells
repeat. HTT typically has 26 or fewer CAG grow only in this type of cell is unclear. age brain cells. The new work suggests
repeats. But people who inherit even Based on the ages of the donors when targeting DNA instability also “holds
one copy with 40 or more repeats will they died and on computer simulations, therapeutic potential,” says neurobiolo-
develop Huntington’s disease. Symptoms Handsaker’s team noticed an unusual pat- gist Leora Fox of the Huntington’s Disease
generally don’t appear until people are in tern. It can take decades to go from about Society of America in New York City.
PLANETARY SCIENCE In recent decades, geophysicists have about 10 kilometers across. That allowed
125-million-year-old feather from the density of about 6,500 kg/m3 to 6,650 kg/m3. Because Mars and Earth were simi-
nonavian dinosaur Sinornithosaurus. The lar in their youth, better understanding the Red Planet “can tell us a lot about our
fossilized bird feather consisted mainly of own,” says planetary scientist Henri Samuel of CNRS in Paris. — James R. Riordon
alpha-keratin. Since it should have been
PLANTS PLANTS
makes her hopeful, she says, that there are sea level rise.”
other exciting water-harvesting materials In 2021, a team led by Wollongong
waiting to be found in the desert. environmental scientist Sarah Hamylton
ECOSYSTEMS
Louse DNA hints genes from 274 head lice found on people
around the world. The parasites mostly
recently via European colonists, scientists insights into events in human prehistory.
IMAGES; VINCENT SMITH/NATURAL
HONEST, TRANSPARENT
WITH SPECIFIC
SUGGESTIONS AND IDEAS!
IRA SCHULTE
Body – Cancer Survivor [email protected] or by speaking engagement
Mind – Feeling – Client
Social worker | Psychotherapist
ANIMALS
NEUROSCIENCE brains mentally time travel by revisiting Next, the scientists trained the rats
Nov. 3 Science, hints at how brains imag- spherical treadmill in the midst of a 3-D Daoyun Ji of Baylor College of Medicine in
ine new scenarios and recall past ones. virtual world projected onto a surround- Houston. “It is likely we humans imagine
The research “opens up a lot of exciting ing screen. While the rats poked around by activating hippocampal memories too.”
possibilities,” says neurophysicist Mayank their virtual world, electrodes recorded Compared with rats, Lee says, “humans
Mehta of UCLA. A deeper understanding signals from nerve cells in the hippo- can probably control their hippocampus
of the brain area involved in the feat could campus, a brain structure known to hold for longer durations with a larger reper-
help scientists diagnose and treat mem- complex spatial information. This let the toire, and the concepts being encoded
ory disorders, he says. team match patterns of brain activity with in the brain are probably much more
Neuroscientist Albert Lee studies how locations in the virtual world. complex.”
force (SN: 9/10/22, p. 4). But the force one previous study, Heinz notes. The possible discovery should come
can’t hold together nuclei that have wildly Scientists searching for nuclei beyond as reassuring news to experimentalists
the drip line are testing that definition. looking for other isotopes beyond the
“We’re interested in how far you can drip line, Heinz says.
go before you no longer can con- As for theoretical physicists, the new
sider these things new nuclei,” result should give them a push to improve
says study coauthor Robert their models of nuclei beyond the drip
Charity, a nuclear scientist line, Płoszajczak says. “These experiments
at Washington University show that the life of the nucleus extends
in St. Louis. far beyond the drip line.”
Finding a nucleus as When it came to nitrogen-9, experi-
far beyond the drip line ment beat theory to the punch. But better
as nitrogen-9 — five theories could make it possible to start
looking for extremely drippy nuclei on
Nitrogen-9’s nucleus purpose, which would, in turn, make it
has two neutrons easier to verify theories about how nuclei
(blue) and two protons
(red) encircled by hold together. When that happens, “we
five protons. As the will start to have a kind of a discussion —
nucleus decays, it a talk with nature,” Płoszajczak says.
loses the five protons
and shrinks (dashed “Then, I think the whole field will explode.
lines). So we are just at the beginning.”
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FEATURE
Lauren Schroeder
PALEOANTHROPOLOGIST
University of Toronto
to Watch
since age 3 and bones since age 10. During appearance of genes, appeared to be at
university, she started studying the early play in the shape of braincases across
evolution of the Homo genus and it turned the genus, she reported in the Journal of
into her Ph.D. Many fossils have taken her Human Evolution in 2017. Such nonadap-
This year’s scientists breath away, she says, but a 2-million- tive processes may play a bigger role in
year-old Homo habilis skull holds such a human evolution than previously realized.
look to the world special place in her heart that it’s tattooed, “All aspects of Lauren’s research have been
and their colleagues opposite a coyote skull, on her inner fore- consequential for the discipline,” says bio-
arm. “I think I can safely say that I’m doing logical anthropologist Benjamin Auerbach
How do we adapt to climate change? Can what I wanted to do,” she says. of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
we fight back against Alzheimer’s disease? Schroeder, a paleoanthropologist at the “We’re witnessing maybe a change in the
What will it take to build a more equitable University of Toronto, works to untangle way we talk about human evolution.”
society? The researchers on this year’s the various processes by which humans
SN 10: Scientists to Watch list are tackling have evolved. One such process, natu- Overcoming obstacles
slices of these and other grand challenges. ral selection, is adaptive: Changes in an Schroeder, who grew up in South Africa,
For the eighth year, Science News is recog- organism’s features make it more suited to remembers noticing early on that most
nizing 10 early- and mid-career scientists its environment. But some changes are not of the paleoanthropological research in
who have innovative ideas and unique selected for, or are even totally random. her country was conducted by foreign
skill sets — and are applying their talents Despite the existence of these “nonadap- researchers, and the field was “so white.”
to shape our future and our understand- tive” processes, paleoanthropology has As a Black African woman, “it was such a
ing of ourselves. But they aren’t doing it often focused on adaptation alone. While lonely place, actually, for a long time,” she
alone. Each credits parents, mentors and a Ph.D. student, Schroeder questioned this says. Schroeder has struggled to publish
colleagues with inspiring their success. emphasis. “It was very clear that some- papers, received sexist reviews and expe-
Many emphasize the power of collabora- thing was missing,” she says. rienced blatant racism. Some things have
tion, the value of other perspectives and improved, she adds, but there is still a long
BLAKE ELIGH/UNIV. OF TORONTO
the importance of mentoring the next Standout research way to go. Schroeder recently secured
generation of scientists. Speaking of the During her Ph.D., Schroeder scanned and tenure at the University of Toronto. As the
future, if you know someone who belongs analyzed fossil Homo skulls dating from first in her family to attend university, it
on the next SN 10 list, send their name, 2.8 million years ago until just tens of thou- means a lot to her and her parents. “They
affiliation and a few sentences about their sands of years ago. Some features showed don’t necessarily get everything I do,” she
work to [email protected]. a strong adaptive signal; a changing diet laughs. But “we’re in disbelief that I’ve got-
— Elizabeth Quill, Executive Editor likely drove jaw evolution, for instance. ten here.” — Anna Gibbs
Greenhouse gas
Deblina Sarkar
NANOTECHNOLOGIST
leaks can’t stay
MIT hidden for long
Motivation
New York has a greenhouse gas account-
ing problem. The state broadly tracks
its sources of air pollution, from energy
production to transportation to waste
management, but the books don’t
always match what’s actually in the air.
The amount of methane over New York
City, for example, is puzzlingly higher
than expected. It’s a mystery that Róisín
Commane is trying to solve.
Part accountant, part sleuth, the atmo-
enter — and help — our brains looking for unidentified or incorrectly cat-
aloged sources of greenhouse gases. The
Standout research nanodevices that harvest energy from and info could improve our understanding
Deblina Sarkar makes little machines, for electrically stimulate cells, opening the of New York City’s emissions and assess
which she has big dreams. A nanotech- door for new types of brain electrodes how well its reduction efforts are working,
nologist at MIT, she develops ultratiny and subcellular pacemakers. Or fleets of Commane says, which could help the city
electronic devices that she hopes will remotely controlled devices could replace reach its goal of becoming carbon neutral
one day enter the brain. Her group’s most invasive surgeries — detecting a small by 2050. “We all have great intentions, but
innovative device so far may be the Cell tumor growing in the brain, for example, if we can show it’s reducing emissions,
Rover, a flat antenna that could monitor and maybe even killing it. She’s essentially that’s a much more tangible thing.”
processes inside cells. For a study pub- establishing a new field of science, at the
lished in 2022 in Nature Communications, intersection of nanoelectronics and biol-
Sarkar and colleagues used magnetic fields ogy, says collaborator and bioengineering
to finesse a Cell Rover, roughly the size of researcher Samir Mitragotri of Harvard Róisín Commane
a tardigrade, into a mature frog egg cell. University. “There are many opportuni- ATMOSPHERIC CHEMIST
The researchers showed that they could ties for the future.” Columbia University
make molecules in the nanodevice vibrate
at frequencies safe for living cells, and with Backstory
those vibrations, the device could commu- Born in Kolkata, India, Sarkar credits her
nicate with the outside world. parents as early inspirations. Her bold-
ness as a researcher comes from her
Big goal mother, who as a young woman defied
Sarkar confesses to working day and social norms by working to fund her own
night on her research. “There is an urgent education and speaking out against the
problem at hand,” she says. That problem dowry system. Meanwhile, Sarkar’s father
is Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s dis- sparked her fascination for engineering.
ease and other afflictions that assault the He was always fashioning devices to make
brains of millions of people worldwide. home life more convenient, including an
Sarkar hopes her minute machines can electricity-free washing machine and
someday help detect and reverse these vehicles that could freight hefty loads
disorders. Machines entering the brain down local byroads to their house. “That
may, for example, spot misfolded proteins got me very, very interested in science
that may be early signs of Alzheimer’s dis- and technology,” Sarkar says, “engineer-
ease. Cell Rovers could also be paired with ing specifically.” — Nikk Ogasa
State Energy Research and Development Smith says. During his Ph.D. at Johns examine lab-grown placentas to deter-
Authority, which funds Commane’s Hopkins University, Smith explored mine how environmental factors such as
research. “It’s sort of the old adage: You how physical and chemical cues can physical forces and chemical cues from
can’t manage what you don’t measure.” push these stem cells toward becoming the organ impact attached blood vessels.
— Jennifer Lu blood vessels. Using micropatterning — a — Erin Garcia de Jesús
Mexico, or UNAM, campus in Cuernavaca. virus B19 and a human hepatitis B virus.
Blanco-Melo had his first encounter The viruses were similar to contempo-
with ancient viruses as a Ph.D. student rary African strains and appear to have
at the Rockefeller University in New York come from Africa through the transatlantic
City. His research focused on particular slave trade. Published in 2021 in the jour-
viruses called endogenous retroviruses, nal eLife, the study is “of great scientific
remnants of past infectious viruses that and historical interest throughout the
have become integrated into a host’s world, but especially of interest in the
genetic instruction book. Amid the genetic Americas,” says Jesse Bloom, a virologist
remains left behind by an ancient retro- at Fred Hutch who wasn’t involved in the
virus called HERV-T that spread among work. — Pratik Pawar
Weber’s team works to bridge that gap by know no one else who is so knowledge- might be phosphine-powered fireballs.
developing resources for teachers that able about one molecule — any molecule,” Though alien hunting is still off the table,
highlight a diverse group of role models says astronomer Adam Burgasser of the she says, “I really would like to do some
in biology. — Meghan Rosen University of California, San Diego. So ghost-busting.” — Elise Cutts
FROM LEFT: NOLAN ZUNK/THE UNIV. OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN; MAGDALENE COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, UNITED KINGDOM
none reach back to the cosmic dawn era. matter, normal matter and dark energy, their race or socioeconomic background.
That’s where Muñoz’s ruler comes in. another hidden piece of the cosmic puzzle. She ultimately pursued a Ph.D. in educa-
“He’s got an eye for interesting ideas,” says tion, but today her work goes beyond
Backstory that field. Now a bioethicist at Stanford,
Becoming a physicist, in itself, was Martschenko is interested in how findings
uncharted territory for Muñoz. As a from social and behavioral genomics — the
Julian Muñoz
child, he liked science. He recalls being study of how genetic differences among
THEORETICAL PHYSICIST
amazed by fossilized shark teeth that individuals influence complex behaviors
University of Texas at Austin
were millions of years old — perhaps his and social outcomes — affect society at
first experience grappling with such large, including inequity and injustice and
grand timescales. But Muñoz didn’t have how we respond to them.
a scientific role model; his parents didn’t
finish high school. He focused his atten- Motivation
tion on video games and coding until a With abundant access to genetic informa-
high school physics teacher encouraged tion, researchers can ask new questions
his scientific streak. He turned to physics, about what influences human behavior.
he says, where “it was possible to chan- But such studies can be prone to bias
nel all this nerdy energy for knowledge.” and can be misinterpreted or co-opted
That’s what drives Muñoz to explore the to promote unscientific and even harm-
questions that swirl around dark corners ful ideas. Today’s science tells us that race
of the cosmos. “I do it because I think the has no basis in genetics, but genetics has
answers enrich the human experience.” been invoked throughout history to jus-
— Emily Conover tify slavery, racial discrimination, forced
marginalized representation in research,” To better understand both processes, we’ll start seeing solutions in the coming
she adds, and building trust and access is Walker came up with an innovative tech- decades, whether from his lab or someone
key. — Martina G. Efeyini nique to trace carbon in leaves, research else’s. — Aaron Brooks
Balance
urban sprawl around ancient Maya
city centers, such as Caracol in Belize
and Tikal in Guatemala (shown).
of Power
New discoveries paint a complex picture
of ancient Maya politics By Bruce Bower
P
ots with fancifully molded eyes, noses and mouths were stretched 240 square kilometers, about the size of Milwaukee,
one of the tip-offs. before it was abandoned and swallowed by the forest.
Adrian Chase already had a growing sense that Maya Accumulating archaeological evidence had convinced Chase
society wasn’t quite what it’s been traditionally por- that shared social practices, such as placing pottery and other
trayed as: powerful rulers reigning while powerless commoners ritual items in special shrines, bonded groups of farm families into
THEPALMER/E+/GETTY IMAGES PLUS
obeyed — or perhaps lived far enough from seats of power to dozens of distinct neighborhoods within Caracol’s urban sprawl.
operate largely on their own. Work by Chase and others had Consider those face-decorated pots. Varying shapes and
started to create a picture of a more politically complex society. spacings of molded eyes and other facial features added up
An archaeologist at the University of Chicago, Chase leads to signature ceramic looks at different neighborhood-linked
excavations of residential sites in and near the ancient Maya city shrines. And those pots were just one element of a range of
center of Caracol in what’s now Belize. This city once sprawled shrine offerings — including three-legged plates, curved jars
across valleys, hillsides and hilltops. At its height, Caracol with thin necks, and small medicine bottles and paint pots — that
of power,” Chase says. “There was no simple division between Institute in New Orleans in 2021 as a visiting researcher. There she
Maya elites and commoners.” met Tulane archaeologist Francisco Estrada-Belli, who viewed her
pulses to detect remains of ancient structures and objects oth- Raised roads, or causeways, ran from farmsteads, neighbor-
erwise hidden by forests and ground cover. Lidar has revealed hoods and districts to urban centers, making foot travel easier
general features of interconnected Maya cities and exten- and pit stops convenient. Public plazas dotting the country-
sive rural drainage channels and terraces dating to at least side hosted ritual gatherings and served as marketplaces. Rural
2,300 years ago (SN: 10/27/18, p. 11). elites’ duties included mediating local disputes and orga-
The challenge was to develop a geometric measure of nizing community projects such as reservoir and causeway
collapsed vaulted structures that lidar could detect. construction, Estrada-Belli suspects. In exchange, local officials
Mystery officials
Excavations of those stone structures, guided by the lidar
findings, will help to clarify who lived there.
Some occupants of rural vaulted structures may have
belonged to noble lineages that served the royal interests,
says anthropological archaeologist Andrew Scherer of Brown
University in Providence, R.I. Ancient DNA evidence indicates
that rulers of a 2,000-year-old nomadic empire in Asia followed
a similar strategy, sending members of royal lineages to oversee
distant territories.
Excavated pots displaying different types of stylized face decorations
But Maya rural elites may have acquired wealth and power (one shown) provided archaeologist Adrian Chase with clues to identi-
in local communities without being appointed by a paramount fying neighborhoods in the urban sprawl of the Maya city of Caracol.
central rulers for about 700 years. A royal dynasty assumed power
in A.D. 331. Successful wars against the nearby cities of Tikal and
Naranjo between 553 and 680 sparked a population boom. A
minimum of 100,000 people inhabited Caracol at its peak.
Urban and rural areas coalesced into a “garden city,” Chase
says. He has mapped 373 neighborhoods, each linked to a nearby
public space that hosted market and ritual events. In each neigh-
borhood, residents carved agricultural terraces out of adjacent
hillsides and constructed small reservoirs. Groups of neigh-
borhoods formed 25 districts, each containing a monumental
center with reservoirs, ballcourts or other large structures that
provided public services, he reported in the June Journal of
Anthropological Archaeology.
Chase ended up defining neighborhoods not just by com-
binations of pottery offerings and dental practices, but also
by distances of farmers’ huts to the nearest district plaza.
Farmers who would have walked similar routes over Caracol’s
rugged hills to district sites presumably forged ties on those
trips, which cultivated feelings of belonging to neighborhoods
with common practices, such as leaving certain types of offer-
ings at local shrines, Chase suspects.
Naranjo’s military defeat of Caracol in 680 ushered in roughly
a century of decentralized government, Chase says. “Faceless
administrators” who went unnamed in Maya writings oversaw
taxation and the provision of services to urban communities.
Policies at that time led to widespread wealth, community-wide
ritual ceremonies and relatively equal access to market products
and agricultural land.
New rulers who aligned themselves with powerful Maya gods
assumed power in 798. These kings instituted autocratic policies
and oversaw a sharp rise in wealth disparities. Those develop-
ments may have instigated a population exodus from Caracol.
150 m By 900, the garden city had been abandoned.
Estrada-Belli suspects a system of Caracol neighborhood
View from above In this lidar image of the ancient Maya site of and district officials operated out of regularly spaced, elite
Campeche on the Yucatán Peninsula, archaeologists discovered vaulted
structures (red outlines), nonvaulted structures (black outlines) and residences, much like the compounds of vaulted structures his
agricultural terraces (green lines). team has identified elsewhere. Plans are in the works to probe
lidar data at Caracol for signs of collapsed vaulted structures in
in a chapter of an upcoming book that he coedited, Ancient Meso- or near previously identified neighborhoods, Chase says.
american Population History. For instance, carved hieroglyphics Classic-era sites in the northern Maya lowlands of the Yucatán
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SOCIETY UPDATE
EMBRACING AI IN
THE CLASSROOM
As the capabilities of large language models and other
forms of generative artificial intelligence grow, teachers
must continue to navigate a changing educational
the Center for Equitable Artificial Intelligence and Machine
Learning Systems at Morgan State University in Baltimore,
Md. In her speech, Waters explored the fascinating history
landscape. Instead of regarding this new technology as of AI. She also shared concrete strategies for educators to
an obstacle, it is vital to explore how to leverage it as an incorporate AI ethically and equitably into their instruction
asset that can inspire creativity while improving student — from individualizing study plans to collaboratively
outcomes. workshopping prompts to jump-start inspiration.
This was the focus of Gabriella Waters’ keynote address This year’s conference (shown above) welcomed
at the 2023 Middle School Research Teachers Conference, 75 middle school STEM educators from across the United
produced by Society for Science, which publishes Science States for an immersive weekend of peer-led professional
News. Waters is the Director of Research & Operations at development.
978-0-2281-0413-1 paperback
978-0-2281-0421-6 hardcover
72 pages in color, diagrams and photos
ADV E RTI SE M E NT
FEEDBACK
ADV E RTI SE M E NT
SCIENCE VISUALIZED
Telescope reveal a speedy jet stream encircling the equator at and clock its movement. In these images, cloud brightness indi- UNIV. OF LEICESTER, M. WONG/UCB, J. DEPASQUALE/STSCI
an altitude never imaged before. cates altitude, and the reddish arcs at the poles are auroras.
Researchers have known about jet streams on Jupiter for It’s not clear what causes the speedy jet. “If you have very
more than four decades. The relatively stable winds occur intense motions, you need energy to produce those motions,”
near the planet’s main cloud decks, in the troposphere. The says Hueso, of the University of the Basque Country in Bilbao,
newly spotted jet lies 20 to 40 kilometers above, in the strato- Spain. The energy could come from storms below, or the jet
sphere, and moves at about 500 kilometers per hour, or might be linked to a band higher in the stratosphere where
roughly twice as fast as the jets below, astrophysicist Ricardo temperature and wind intensity oscillate over four years or so.
Hueso and colleagues report October 19 in Nature Astronomy. Future observations could help untangle the tricky physics
In specially filtered JWST images taken about 10 hours apart occurring in the atmospheres at planets’ equators, Hueso says.
(one shown above in false color), the researchers noticed bright “We don’t understand it on the Earth at the level that we would
specks in the white band of clouds around the planet’s middle. like, and we don’t understand it on Jupiter.” — Carolyn Wilke
»»
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