Caveman STDs and Space Tech, Revisiting some cool stories
Well they weren't cavemen so much as people whose remains we found in caves. It's so confusing!
The world is full of wheels and cycles. It is also full of lazy writers who haven't done their homework. That's a subtle way of saying I still haven't finished the research for the column I was planning on writing a few days ago. So I'm gonna do something very different today. How about some updates on recent topics? Because those wheels keep on rollin'!
Here’s one: In a column not long ago1 (last week maybe?) I talked about how the Boeing Starliner docked with the International Space Station, accomplishing an important mission, even though it had (at the time) 5 helium leaks. That's engineering! Whattaya mean it's broken? It's fine!
But now it has another problem. As of this writing, the date for the Starliner to return to Earth has been delayed twice. Right now they're looking at a date early next week. Why? It seems that before docking, there was a problem with some of the thrusters not functioning correctly. The ground crew was able to do some magic to make them work and the docking was successful2.
Before we go on with this story, let me explain why the thrusters matter. Rockets fly. A thruster gives a push in a particular direction. It's not like the wheels on a car where you turn them and the car goes that way. In the Starliner, you have to have that push in whatever direction you want to go. Sometimes, you do two pushes at the same time and go to an angle between them3. If some of your thrusters are offline or (worse) malfunctioning, you're going to find it very hard to get where you want to go. You'll go somewhere. But who knows where?
Anyway, they say the delay was so they could run some tests (which they did over the weekend) and analyze some data and try to make sure the Starliner astronauts can make the trip home safely. If this feels to you like a cover story, like maybe they've encountered aliens and don't know how to tell us that all the astronauts up there are now dead and replaced by shape shifting monsters, well forget it. It's just you. None of the rest of us would ever think of something so crazy. Ever.
Anyway, the point I made in my previous article about resilient technology might have been a tad optimistic. We'll see if they come home - safely! - next week. Either way the thought was good. Resilient tech is important. It's just the execution that might not be what I thought.
Okay. On to update number 2!
Remember not too long ago4 we talked about the problems Voyager 1 was having sending info back to Earth? It's fixed! All 4 sensors are returning data now5. Actually, the original problem, which was apparently a bad chip, isn't fixed. Can’t doo it from here. Instead, they spent a few months reprogramming the system to not use the bad hardware anymore.
This is another kind of resilience. You might think I would criticize it on the grounds that they should have had self-healing hardware or self-moving software or something. Those things would be really nice but the real source of this problem is that when they launched voyager, nobody expected it would still be in operation almost a half century later. If it had just died on schedule, no one would have even thought about fixing it!
Funny, huh?
And now, if you'll excuse me dropping the space theme for something more earth bound, last May I did an article proposing that Neanderthals were wiped out by STDs that they caught from humans. It turns out that I'm not the first person to think of this idea. Too bad. Maybe they could have named an ancient STD after me! Never mind. With my luck, they probably would.
Here's the key line in an article about a paper that came out just a couple weeks ago: "Researchers studying ancient Neanderthal DNA found traces of three viruses that cause colds, cold sores, genital warts, and cancer."6.
The paper is highly technical, meaning I only understood some of it. The samples they studied for this were extracted from the bones of an adult male Neanderthal and a younger male, both from a cave in Siberia called Chagyrskaya Cave. They lived there a bit over 50,000 years ago. That's recent enough for them to have come in contact with our ancestors. Actually, it's recent enough for them to be some of our ancestors.
The cool thing about this research is that it wasn't necessary to go out to the cave, dig up the bones, extract the DNA and all that. That part has already been done. The researchers just downloaded the decoded Neanderthal DNA data and started comparing it to things they thought they might find. And they found them!
The specific viruses they were looking for were of a type that persists in the body for a long time. So it wasn't because they were the most likely viruses for someone to catch but because they were the ones most likely to leave traces that could be identified in the DNA. Most diseases won't leave those kinds of traces. They're much sneakier!
As I see it, there are two possible flaws in this research. Or at least two. Or maybe I should say possibly two? But it's definitely two! First, is that the techniques we have available have a pretty large possibility for error. Forensic analysis of 50,000 year old DNA is complicated. It's not like they show on TV, where you have one nice neat, colorful graph, and another one and you just overlay the one over the other and Bingo! They're the same. It's more like you run some math and get a 22% probability of a match in one region and a 72% probability in some other region and, well, 72% is pretty good, right?
I'm not saying I doubt the results. Just that they could be off a bit.
The other flaw in this research is easier to explain. You see, it doesn't prove that we gave the Neanderthals these diseases. For all we know, maybe they gave them to us. Or maybe both species got them from the Denisovans. Never forget the Denisovans. They interbred with Neanderthals even more than we did! (I think. Maybe it's the other way around. After 50k+ years, the details get a bit hazy.)
I said at the top I was doing updates this time as a lazy way to avoid doing something else. That's partly true. But also, sometimes I run across these things and think, "My column on that is obsolete now." And I hate that! But I guess it's just part of discussing science and tech. It's always changing.
Have a nice weekend!
Here's that prompt: "A bus stop scene where Neanderthals are waiting to board a spaceship. The setting is a mundane cityscape with buildings and streetlights, but instead of a bus, there is a sleek, futuristic spaceship at the bus stop. The sky features constellations that resemble DNA strands. The Neanderthals, depicted with robust features and primitive clothing, are standing and waiting in line. The spaceship stands out with its advanced design, contrasting with the Neanderthals and the mundane city background."
Remember in high school physics where they taught about vectors? You drew an arrow and each one had a length and a direction? It's THAT, only in 3-dimensions. They're doing vector math to determine the amount and direction of thrust to get them where they need to be. It's important to get the right answers.
I mean that computer chip is nearly 50 years old at this point. Not surprised it finally stopped working.