SoT 332: Muddy, Liefie and Lixy
Channel: Science on Top
Date: 2019-06-02

SoT 332: Muddy, Liefie and Lixy
https://scienceontop.com/332

Penny gives us a trip report on her recent trip to Lake Mungo - a dry lake in remote Australia that's known for the discovery of 20,000-60,000 year old human remains.
All we know about Denisovans - a species of hominid that split off from the human lineage alongside the Neanderthals - comes from a little finger bone, three teeth and a sliver of bone. But now the discovery of a jawbone, found two and a half thousand kilometers away suggests they might have been quite widespread throughout Asia.
Scientists at University College London accidentally invented a material that could revolutionise a wide range of technologies, such as batteries.
As the antibiotic resistance crisis deepens, scientists are turning to genetically modified viruses as a treatment for bacterial infections.
Millions of species of fungi and bacteria work together to form a vast, interconnected web of organisms throughout the world's forests. Now scientists have mapped this “wood wide web” using a database of more than 28,000 tree species in more than 70 countries.

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This episode contains traces of Megan Dice from News12 reporting on the declaration of New Jersey's official state microbe.

https://scienceontop.com/332

Chapters:
00:01:00 Penny's visit to Lake Mungo http://www.visitmungo.com.au/
00:10:24 A Revealing Piece of Ancient Human History, Discovered in a Tibetan Cave https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/05/denisovan-jawbone-roof-world/588442/
00:16:16 We accidentally created a new wonder material that could revolutionise batteries and electronics https://theconversation.com/we-accidentally-created-a-new-wonder-material-that-could-revolutionise-batteries-and-electronics-115347
00:28:07 Teenager recovers from near death in world-first GM virus treatment https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/may/08/teenager-recovers-from-near-death-in-world-first-gm-virus-treatment
00:50:23 Wood wide web: Trees' social networks are mapped https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-48257315