From BoingBoing: Ege University’s Haluk Sağlamtimur presented a remarkable find of 5,000-year-old gaming tokens found in a Bronze Age burial mound at Başur Höyük in Turkey. They take a variety of forms (“Some depict pigs, dogs and pyramids, others feature round and bullet shapes. We also found dice as well as three circular tokens made of white shell and topped with a black round stone”) and suggest a game based in some way on the number four.   

From Science Daily: The 160 million-year-old fossil of an extinct rodent-like creature from China is helping to explain how multituberculates — the most evolutionarily successful and long-lived mammalian lineage in the fossil record — achieved their dominance.

The Atlantic: New evidence suggests Neanderthals made sophisticated leather-working tools like ones we use today. It might mean that they were smarter than we thought….  

Wired: Junk science is everywhere, and today’s research is often discredited tomorrow. This mix of academics, writers, and thinkers will help guide you through the day-to-day discoveries about the world we live in. These are the core nutrients of a good data diet.

Nature Magazine’s Summer Reading List

From Yahoo ESCONI Group – via Dave A new study suggests that phosphorus, an element that is key to life as we know it, was brought to Earth by a meteorite bombardment during the Archean eon, 3.5 billion years ago. Summary at: http://www.scienced aily.com/ releases/ 2013/06/13060415 3520.htm Journal abstract at: http://www.pnas. org/content/ early/2013/ 05/30/1303904110

From ESCONI Yahoo News Group via Dave – From the Karoo Basin of South Africa. The authors used non-destructive X-ray synchrotron computed microtomography to probe fossilized burrows. Summary at: http://www.scienced aily.com/ releases/ 2013/06/13062215 4602.htm Full on-line article at: http://www.plosone. org/article/ info%3Adoi% 2F10.1371% 2Fjournal. pone.0064978

Via Scientific American: …There’d be no fireworks without geology. Geologist High Maintenance Mom provides a great overview of the science of fireworks, explaining in kid-friendly ways how physics, chemistry and geology combine to create pyrotechnic magic. She’s a great resource to start with if you want to make your trip to see the fireworks show a fun teachable moment for your kids….

Via BigThink Paradoxically, few areas of human endeavor are as wedded to dogma as science. Time to crash the wedding.Devil in the Data deconstructs the latest findings in fields as diverse as neuroscience and sociobiology to arrive at a data-first view of emerging knowledge, the assumption being that competently done science produces first-rate questions, not answers.

Via the Christian Science Monitor: … geological forces are slowly tugging Europe toward the Americas, with an estimated time of arrival of about 220 million years from now. In a study published in the current issue of the journal Geology, a team led by researchers at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, say that they have discovered the first signs of the eventual closing of the Atlantic Ocean, in the form of an “embryonic” subduction zone off the coast of Portugal. ..

From KOAT.com via Geology.com: Jetter is talking about a 306 carat, black opal from Australia, buried in the earth for the last 400 million years. An Australian miner named Bobby discovered the stone and is now ready to share it with the world. He selected Jetter to create a one-of-a-kind piece of jewelry to sell, and then share the profits. Thirteen years ago, Bobby retired from a long and hard career in the mining industry. He sold his tools and was about to call it quits, when someone handed him one last bucket of dirt. To his incredible surprise, Bobby…

From ESCONI Yahoo Groups via Dan Carlson: Another case of soft-tissue preservation. A placoderm fish from the Devonian of Australia with muscle tissue preserved is described in this article. Summary at: http://www.scienced aily.com/ releases/ 2013/06/13061314 2825.htm Journal abstract at: http://www.sciencem ag.org/content/ early/2013/ 06/12/science. 1237275