Weekly: The origins of writing revealed; world’s largest (and oldest?) tree

每周:揭示写作的起源; 世界上最大(也是最古老?)的树

New Scientist Podcasts

科学

2024-11-08

34 分钟
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Episode 275 The origins of the world’s oldest known writing system are being uncovered. Cuneiform was invented around 3200 BC in ancient Mesopotamia, but before it came a much simpler form of writing called proto-cuneiform. Researchers are now shedding light on how writing began along with the cultural factors that spurred on its invention. Just as the rather disappointing COP16 biodiversity conference comes to a close, another COP is nearly upon us. The famous climate conference is in its 29th year and is taking place in Azerbaijan. It’s fair to say the stakes are extremely high. With global emissions cuts still not happening fast enough, the existence of some countries hanging in the balance and Donald Trump returning to the White House, can COP29 move the needle? Pando, a quaking aspen in Utah, is the world’s largest tree – and it’s very, very old. Until now its exact age has been hard to pinpoint, but researchers have now found it is among the oldest organisms on the planet, alive during the time of the woolly mammoth. But just how old is it? Did you know vampire bats can… run? And they’re pretty fast too. Researchers stuck some of these bats on treadmills to learn about their unusual diets. How exactly do they survive only eating fresh blood? Hosts Penny Sarchet and Timothy Revell discuss with guests Michael Marshall, Madeleine Cuff, Rowan Hooper, James Woodford and Matthew Sparkes. To read more about these stories, visit https://www.newscientist.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  • Hello.

  • Welcome back to the latest dose of science news from New Scientist.

  • I'm Penny Sarchet and I'm joined by Timothy Revell.

  • Hi, Tim.

  • Hi, Penny.

  • Pleased to be back, even though it is a bit of a bummer week in some ways.

  • Well, yes, but this is also a week where we're uncovering the origins of writing.

  • We're looking at bats on a treadmill, we're checking in with the world's largest tree and we're following up on global climate negotiations.

  • Yes, they roll on, science rolls on and there is plenty to talk about, that is for sure.

  • So how about we begin this week with that first story that you mentioned, a finding that is rewriting our understanding of the origins of writing.

  • Yeah, that's right.

  • So this discovery concerns cuneiform, which you may or may not know is the world's oldest writing system.

  • For decades, researchers have been trying to work out how cuneiform began.

  • And now new clues are giving us a picture of how the invention of writing was a sort of decentralized process, one that wasn't issued from of some big hierarchy, but one that actually many people across a wide area probably contributed to.