May 2016 – Page 63 – news.buyenne.com

Turns out fire-hardened spears aren’t as badass as we thought

Scientists find that we still have a lot to learn about pointed sticks.

You'd better have a big stick if you're naked with a glyptodont. (credit: Heinrich Harder)

One of the iconic weapons of the Paleolithic is the fire-hardened spear, its wooden tip carbonized by fire to a wicked point. Unfortunately, it turns out that our hunter ancestors were wrong about fire-hardening. Yes, the charring can make wood slightly harder, but it becomes so much more brittle and weak that there's little overall improvement of the weapon. After experimenting with their own fire-hardened spears, a group of British biomechanics researchers now believe our ancestors used fire not so much to make a more deadly weapon but to speed up the process of cutting wood into a point.

The Clacton Spear is the tip of a 450,000-year-old fire-hardened spear discovered in England. (credit: The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London.)

The oldest spear ever discovered, the Clacton spear (named after the region in England where it was discovered), dates back 450,000 years. Made by some unidentified ancestors of modern humans, its sharp wooden point was snapped off and buried in soil. There it was sealed away from the elements and preserved far longer than wood ordinarily can be. When the Clacton spear was discovered in the early twentieth century, archaeologists noticed that its tip had been fire-hardened, using a technique that some hunter gatherer groups still use. It has long been believed that the practice of heating a pointed spear tip in the fire was a way of making it sharper and harder. But a new paper published in Royal Society Biology Letters suggests otherwise.

Two bioscientists at the University of Hull, Roland Ennos and Tak Lok Chan, decided to find out for themselves whether fire really makes spears harder. So they harvested 20 rods from local hazel trees and spent weeks abusing them inside machines of very precise, codified destruction. First, each rod was divided in half. One half dried naturally over two weeks in the laboratory, and the other half were given a simulated fire-hardening treatment with an experimental rig known technically as a "disposable barbecue."

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Fraunhofer-Institut: Rekord mit Multi-Gigabit-Funk über 37 Kilometer

Mehrere deutsche Forschungsinstitute haben einen Rekord per Richtfunk aufgestellt. Die Technik könnte für schnelles Satelliteninternet und als terrestrische Funkübertragung im E-Band als Ersatz für das Verlegen von Glasfaser genutzt werden. (Technologie, DSL)

Nokia Android phones and tablets are coming… but won’t be built by Nokia

Nokia-branded smartphones and tablets are coming. The company has announced that it will license its name and intellectual property to a new company called HMD global Oy, which will have the rights to build and sell products using the Nokia name for the next 10 years.

HMD plans to produce Android smartphones and tablets, and the company also plans to acquire the rights to use the Nokia name on feature phones from Microsoft… which, incidentally, has announced that it’s getting out of the feature phone space altogether and selling that portion of its business to Foxconn subsidiary FIH Mobile.

Continue reading Nokia Android phones and tablets are coming… but won’t be built by Nokia at Liliputing.

Statcounter: Firefox hat erstmals mehr Nutzer als Microsoft-Browser

Weltweit haben laut Statcounter die Nutzerzahlen des Firefox erstmals diejenigen der Microsoft-Browser Internet Explorer und Edge überholt. Je nach Land sehen die Statistiken aber völlig anders aus. (Browser, Firefox)

Doom im Test: Die beste blöde Ballerorgie

Die Handlung ist doof – aber wen interessiert die schon: Mit seiner ebenso schnellen wie schlicht gestrickten Action macht das neue Doom vieles richtig. Ein paar Elemente hätten sogar noch einfacher sein dürfen. (Doom, Spieletest)

Die Handlung ist doof - aber wen interessiert die schon: Mit seiner ebenso schnellen wie schlicht gestrickten Action macht das neue Doom vieles richtig. Ein paar Elemente hätten sogar noch einfacher sein dürfen. (Doom, Spieletest)

Elektromobilität: Kabinett verabschiedet Kaufprämie für Elektroautos

Ob der Boom von Elektroautos nun endlich kommt? Während die Regierung die Kaufprämie für E-Autos verteidigt, halten Wissenschaftler und Umweltschützer diese für zu teuer und umständlich. (Elektroauto, GreenIT)

Phase Change Memory: IBM Research zeigt PCM mit drei Bit pro Zelle

Höhere Informationsdichte für Phasenwechselspeicher: IBM hat einen experimentellen Chip gefertigt, der drei Bit pro Zelle sichert. Der nicht flüchtige Speicher könnte bald zum Standard werden. (Speichermedien, IBM)

Medical mystery: How tainted drugs “froze” young people—but kickstarted Parkinson’s research

Decades later, trials of stem cell treatments are about to begin.

In 1982, a tainted drug caused a handful of young Californians to become mysteriously frozen, unable to move. Their doctor’s ensuing investigation helped catalyze the start of modern Parkinson’s disease research, which is on the verge of its first clinical stem cell trials.

“There was this big argument that broke out on the ward,” remembers William Langston, chief scientific officer and founder of the Parkinson’s Institute, a clinic and research center in Sunnyvale, California.

The argument he’s recalling took place in 1982 at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, California. It was over a newly admitted patient named George Carillo who, curiously, couldn’t move or speak—he appeared completely frozen. “The psychiatrists thought it was neurologic and the neurologists thought it was psychiatric,” says Langston. The center soon asked Langston to weigh in on what it thought might be catatonic schizophrenia.

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Linux-Entwicklung: Imagination sponsert Debian für Mips-Entwicklung

Um die Entwicklung der 64-Bit-Mips-Architektur zu beschleunigen, unterstützt der Hersteller Imagination nun die Debian-Community. Das zuständige Team der Linux-Distribution bekommt dafür potente Netzwerkhardware. (Imagination, Prozessor)

Automatische Aktivierung: Verbraucherschützer mahnen Unitymedia wegen Hotspots ab

Verbraucherschützer wollen die automatische Aktivierung von WLAN-Hotspots “nach Gutsherrenart” bei allen Unitymedia-Kunden nicht hinnehmen. Der Kabelnetzbetreiber beharrt jedoch darauf, dass die Nutzer dem nicht zustimmen müssten. (Unitymedia, WLAN)

Verbraucherschützer wollen die automatische Aktivierung von WLAN-Hotspots "nach Gutsherrenart" bei allen Unitymedia-Kunden nicht hinnehmen. Der Kabelnetzbetreiber beharrt jedoch darauf, dass die Nutzer dem nicht zustimmen müssten. (Unitymedia, WLAN)