16 Foods That’ll Re-Grow from Kitchen Scraps By Andy Whiteley Co-Founder of Wake Up World Looking for a healthy way to get more from your garden? Like to know your food is free of the pesticides and other nasties that are often sprayed on commercial crops? Re-growing food from your kitchen scraps is a good way to do it! There’s nothing like eating your own home- grown vegies, and there are heaps of different foods that will re- grow from the scrap pieces that you’d normally throw out or put into your compost bin. It’s fun. Just remember … the quality of the “parent” vegetable scrap will help to determine the quality of the re-growth. Leeks, Scallions, Spring Onions and Fennel You can either use the white root end of a vegetable that you have already cut, or buy a handful of new vegetables to use specifically for growing. Simply place the white root end in a glass jar with a little water, and leave it in a sunny position. Lemongrass Lemongrass grows just like any other grass. Within a week or so, new growth will start to appear. Ginger
ferns flowering plant flowers Tropical Rainforest Plants Tropical rainforest plants grow in more obvious layers than temperate rainforest plants. Like in all tropical rainforests, there are the tall trees, vines and epiphytes, shorter trees and tree ferns, and orchids and other smaller plants on the forest floor. Some more famous examples are the bird of paradise flower, the giant lilys, and the carnivorous pitcher plants. © Poster by AllPosters. Click on thumbnail to buy Africa and Madagascar IslandAfrican rainforests are the second largest in the world after Amazon. There are evergreen, semi-evergreen, deciduous and semi-deciduous forests. Asian Tropical Rainforest PlantsAsian rainforests are smaller than those of South America and Africa. Oceania Australasia Rainforest FloraIn Oceania, tropical rainforests are only found in New Guinea, northern Australia, and some Pacific Islands. Custom Search
Neanderthals died out earlier than previously thought, new evidence suggests Direct dating of a fossil of a Neanderthal infant suggests that Neanderthals probably died out earlier than previously thought. Researchers have dated a Neanderthal fossil discovered in a significant cave site in Russia in the northern Caucasus, and found it to be 10,000 years older than previous research had suggested. This new evidence throws into doubt the theory that Neanderthals and modern humans interacted for thousands of years. Instead, the researchers believe any co-existence between Neanderthals and modern humans is likely to have been much more restricted, perhaps a few hundred years. The research, directed by the University of Oxford and University College Cork in collaboration with the Laboratory of Prehistory at St Petersburg, Russia, and funded by Science Foundation Ireland was recently published in PNAS Online Early Edition. The new dating evidence throws new light on when the Neanderthals became extinct and why.
European Neanderthals were on the verge of extinction even before the arrival of modern humans New findings from an international team of researchers show that most Neanderthals in Europe died off around 50,000 years ago. The previously held view of a Europe populated by a stable Neanderthal population for hundreds of thousands of years up until modern humans arrived must therefore be revised. This new perspective on the Neanderthals comes from a study of ancient DNA published February 25 in Molecular Biology and Evolution. The results indicate that most Neanderthals in Europe died off as early as 50,000 years ago. After that, a small group of Neanderthals recolonised central and western Europe, where they survived for another 10,000 years before modern humans entered the picture. The study is the result of an international project led by Swedish and Spanish researchers in Uppsala, Stockholm and Madrid. The results presented in the study are based entirely on severely degraded DNA, and the analyses have therefore required both advanced laboratory and computational methods.
Bunnies implicated in the demise of Neanderthals - 27 February 2013 BLAME it on the bunnies. The debate over what Neanderthals ate, and how it may have led to their demise, has turned to rabbits. Which, it is now claimed, they did not feast on. Signs that our extinct cousins hunted dolphins and seals were presented in 2008 as evidence of their sophistication. Now, John Fa of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust in Trinity, Jersey, says the remains in caves around Europe became dominated by rabbits rather than large game around the time Neanderthals went extinct (Journal of Human Evolution, doi.org/kkn). It's not clear why they would have had more trouble changing prey, says Fa.
Handaxe design reveals distinct Neanderthal cultures -- ScienceDaily A study by a postgraduate researcher at the University of Southampton has found that Neanderthals were more culturally complex than previously acknowledged. Two cultural traditions existed among Neanderthals living in what is now northern Europe between 115,000 to 35,000 years ago. Dr Karen Ruebens from the Centre for the Archaeology of Human Origins (CAHO) and funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) examined the design of 1,300 stone tools originating from 80 Neanderthal sites in five European countries; France, Germany, Belgium, Britain and the Netherlands. Dr Ruebens' investigations uncovered new evidence that two separate handaxe traditions or designs existed -- one in a region now spanning south-western France and Britain -- the other in Germany and further to the East. In addition, she found an area covering modern day Belgium and the Netherlands that demonstrates a transition between the two. "Making stone tools was not merely an opportunistic task.
Caveman Couture: Neandertals Rocked Dark Feathers Artist's conception of a Neandertal's feather decorations. Image: Antonio Monclova GIBRALTAR—Jordi Rosell removes a thumbnail-size piece of reddish-tan bone from a sealed plastic bag, carefully places it under the stereomicroscope and invites me to have a look. Peering through the eyepieces I see two parallel lines etched in the specimen’s weathered surface. Tens of thousands of years ago, in one of the seaside caves located here on the southernmost tip of the Iberian Peninsula, a Neandertal nicked the bone—a bit of shoulder blade from a bird known as the red kite–with a sharp stone tool in those two spots. Experts agree that Neandertals hunted large game, controlled fire, wore animal furs and made stone tools. Cutmarks made by a Neandertal on a wing bone from a griffon vulture. Over the past couple decades hints that Neandertals were savvier than previously thought have surfaced, however. The Neandertals seem unlikely to have hunted these birds for food.
Neanderthals Cooked Their Veggies: Dental Plaque Reveals Eating Habits According to a recent article at Nature.com, Neanderthals, a branch of early humans that went extinct, may not have been the carnivores scientists once thought. Analysis of the plaque on their teeth shows they roasted vegetables and may have used medicinal plants. The article explains: Neanderthals have long been viewed as meat-eaters. The vision of them as inflexible carnivores has even been used to suggest that they went extinct around 25,000 years ago as a result of food scarcity, whereas omnivorous humans were able to survive. But evidence is mounting that plants were important to Neanderthal diets — and now a study reveals that those plants were roasted, and may have been used medicinally.” The teeth on skeletal remains of at least 13 Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) found in a cave in northern Spain were analyzed to look for organic compounds that could reveal clues to their diet. Hardy believes that Neanderthals may have used the bitter plants as.
Who Didn't Have Sex with Neanderthals? Very few populations of modern humans do NOT carry genetic traces of Neanderthals, say researchers. The only modern humans whose ancestors did not interbreed with Neanderthals are apparently sub-Saharan Africans, researchers say. New findings suggest modern North Africans carry genetic traces from Neanderthals, modern humanity's closest known extinct relatives. Although modern humans are the only surviving members of the human lineage, others once roamed the Earth, including the Neanderthals. PHOTOS: Faces of Our Ancestors The Neanderthal genome revealed that people outside Africa share more genetic mutations with Neanderthalsthan Africans do. To shed light on why Neanderthals appear most closely related to people outside Africa, scientists analyzed North Africans. The researchers focused on 780,000 genetic variants in 125 people representing seven different North African locations. PHOTOS: Humans Vs. The scientists detailed their findings Oct. 17 in the journal PLoS ONE.
First Love Child of Human, Neanderthal Found The skeletal remains of an individual living in northern Italy 40,000-30,000 years ago are believed to be that of a human/Neanderthal hybrid, according to a paper in PLoS ONE. If further analysis proves the theory correct, the remains belonged to the first known such hybrid, providing direct evidence that humans and Neanderthals interbred. Prior genetic research determined the DNA of people with European and Asian ancestry is 1 to 4 percent Neanderthal. The present study focuses on the individual’s jaw, which was unearthed at a rock-shelter called Riparo di Mezzena in the Monti Lessini region of Italy. PHOTOS: Faces of Our Ancestors “From the morphology of the lower jaw, the face of the Mezzena individual would have looked somehow intermediate between classic Neanderthals, who had a rather receding lower jaw (no chin), and the modern humans, who present a projecting lower jaw with a strongly developed chin,” co-author Silvana Condemi, an anthropologist, told Discovery News.
Gene breakthrough shows Neanderthals in new light - opinion - 18 July 2013 WHEN Neanderthal bones were discovered in the 19th century, their robust build and heavy brows led palaeontologists to characterise them as brutish, and their name is still pejorative today. Since then, we have found ample circumstantial evidence to suggest this stereotype is far from fair. Tools, jewellery and even cosmetics discovered among Neanderthal bones suggest that they were uncannily like us – a view strengthened when their genome was sequenced, showing a remarkable genetic overlap. Now the Neanderthal epigenome – the system of on/off switches that modify gene activity – has been deciphered (see "First look into workings of the Neanderthal brain"), allowing us to directly assess the mental life of our extinct cousins for the first time. This work is just beginning. Whether it clears the Neanderthal name remains to be seen. This article appeared in print under the headline "Extinct cousins out of rehab" New Scientist Not just a website! More From New Scientist More from the web