Neanderthals’ Tool Kits

Archaeologists in Spain just found some old tools- 90,000 years old! The wooden tools were used for digging by Neanderthals in the Middle Paleolithic period. Wood usually decomposes, but the tools were preserved in waterlogged sediments on the Iberian Peninsula. The charred and worn tips suggest the tools were used for digging roots, clams, and fire pits.

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Don’t Try This at Home

Diamonds are beautiful, but mining them can be dangerous and occur in war zones. But it takes scientists only 10 weeks to grow diamonds in a microwave! They start with a tiny piece of diamond, called a carbon seed. A plasma ball forms when the seed is heated with methane gas in a microwave, and a diamond grows!

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Commercial Space Travel is Coming

There’s a great new hotel opening in 2022. For less than $10,000,000 you can take a 12 day trip to the Aurora Station space hotel! Orion Span will launch you after a 3-month training course. You’ll experience zero-gravity flying, see your hometown from space, participate in scientific research, and make everyone jealous by posting photos from space!

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Fighting for the Amazon

Kids in Colombia got tired of waiting for adults to protect the Amazon. Children worked with the human rights group Dejusticia in Bogota to sue the government for failing to protect the rainforest. The Supreme Court agreed, and told the Columbian government they must create laws to stop deforestation within 5 months. Kids made a difference!

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How to Navigate Like a Viking

Ancient Vikings didn’t have magnetic compasses to navigate the seas. They used the sun’s shadows on a sun compass, similar to a sun dial. But what did they do on cloudy days? Researchers think they used sunstones, mentioned in Viking legends. The sun’s rays are polarized; calcite crystals glow brighter when the light is aligned.

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It Might Take Bugs to Feed Billions

Space 10 is a “future living lab” set up to work with IKEA, the Danish furniture store, to test what sustainable living might look like in the future. They’ve developed recipes for meatballs that use mealworms and burgers that use beetles. People all over the world already eat insects, but IKEA’s not changing their menu anytime soon!

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