University of Nottingham archaeologists dated the restart of Peak District lead mining to the mid-seventh century from lead in childhood tooth enamel. Centuries of re-smelting had erased the usual industrial traces, so the evidence is teeth from three cemeteries.
Perspective Coverage
3 publishers
- Builder
- Builder 10%
- Operator
- Operator 53%
- Investor
- Investor 37%
Reality
- Evidence62
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+15
- Incentives
- Not scored
- Confidence60
Plankton off Japan hosts an archaeon with the smallest archaeal genome yet recorded
Researchers report in Current Biology that the archaeon Sukunaarchaeum mirabile has a 238-kilobase-pair genome, the smallest ever seen in its domain. The sequence shows nearly no metabolism but intact copying machinery, so its status as a cell rests on inference.
Reality
- Evidence55
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+10
- Incentives
- Not scored
- Confidence50
Birmingham-led chemists fit 16 metals into a single metal-organic framework crystal
University of Birmingham-led chemists built a metal-organic framework that holds 16 different metals in one crystal, the most yet reported for a MOF. The case for choosing such a material's properties in advance rests so far on varying just two of them, dysprosium and lanthanum.
Reality
- Evidence50
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+30
- Incentives40
- Confidence55
Sukunaarchaeum keeps the genes to copy its own DNA in the smallest genome yet found
Sukunaarchaeum, a marine archaeon with 189 protein-coding genes, carries genes for copying its DNA and making proteins but almost none for food or energy. That puts it nearer an independent cell than an organelle, though so far the only evidence is its genome.
Reality
- Evidence62
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+10
- Incentives
- Not scored
- Confidence58
Young adults who recall warm, playful childhoods report more trust and well-being in three countries
University of Nottingham researchers tie remembered responsive care, free play and a warm home to adult well-being in the UK, US and Japan. Both ends of the link come from participants' own reports, so the study cannot yet separate how people were raised from how they remember it.
Reality
- Evidence40
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+25
- Incentives
- Not scored
- Confidence45
Magnetic shielding moved fly lifespans in opposite directions depending on genotype
A study in the journal Aging shielded two lines of fruit flies from Earth's magnetic field. The Pink1 mutants lived about 20 percent longer and the healthy flies died sooner, with climbing scores moving the other way in both.
Reality
- Evidence45
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+22
- Incentives55
- Confidence40
Nottingham study finds root's cellular complexity sets how far it can remodel itself in response to microbes
A Nature Communications paper from the University of Nottingham reports that microbial colonization reprograms a root's metabolism while the root rebuilds its anatomy, and that the root's structural complexity sets how much rebuilding is available.
Reality
- Evidence40
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+26
- Incentives58
- Confidence55
Pulling simulated boulder pairs apart puts grain shape into the asteroid strength law
Paul Sanchez's group at Colorado Boulder pulled pairs of simulated boulders apart until the fine grains cementing them gave way, and found that grain angularity belongs in the strength law alongside grain size.
Reality
- Evidence63
- Adoption22
- Hype gap+14
- Incentives52
- Confidence58