# behav: the self-medication poultice by orang-utans (Pongo pygmaeus)

<< Animals self-medicate using a variety of plant and arthropod secondary metabolites by either ingesting them or anointing them to their fur or skin apparently to repel ectoparasites and treat skin diseases >>

AA << document self-medication in the only Asian great ape, orang-utans (Pongo pygmaeus), and for the first time, to our knowledge, the external application of an anti-inflammatory agent in animals. The use of leaf extracts from Dracaena cantleyi by orang-utan has been observed on several occasions; rubbing a foamy mixture of saliva and leaf onto specific parts of the body. Interestingly, the local indigenous human population also use a poultice of these leaves for the relief of body pains >>

Morrogh-Bernard HC, Foitova I, et al. Self-medication by orang-utans (Pongo pygmaeus) using bioactive properties of Dracaena cantleyi. Scientific Reports. 2017; 7: 16653.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-16621-w.
Nov 30, 2017.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-16621-w

Borneo Nature Foundation. Orangutans, like people, use medicinal plants to treat joint and muscle inflammation. Jan 10, 2018.

https://m.phys.org/news/2018-01-orangutans-people-medicinal-joint-muscle.html

# age: lifespan in the elderly throughout history

<< People sometimes think that in those days if you lived to 40 that was about as good as it got. But that's not true. For people living traditional lives without modern medicine or markets the most common age of death is about 70, and that is remarkably similar across all different cultures >> Christine Cave.

Redefining knowledge of elderly people throughout history. Jan 4, 2018.

https://m.phys.org/news/2018-01-redefining-knowledge-elderly-people-history.html

Christine M.Cave, Marc F.Oxenham. Sex and the elderly: Attitudes to long-lived women and men in early Anglo-Saxon England. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology. 2017; 48: 207-16.  doi: 10.1016/j.jaa.2017.08.003. Sept 4, 2017.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278416517300648

# acad: new research must be better reported

<< Yet all too often research-led stories start with "researchers have found", with little mention of their names, institution and who funded their work. And the problem is that by reporting new research in this way, it fails to break down the stereotypical image of an ivory tower >>

Andy Tattersall. New research must be better reported, the future of society depends on it. Jan 8, 2018.

https://theconversation.com/new-research-must-be-better-reported-the-future-of-society-depends-on-it-87407

# sec: sometimes the repair is crippling ...

<< Microsoft has temporarily stopped fixing a serious security flaw on personal computers powered by certain chips from Advanced Micro Devices because the repair is crippling the affected machines >>

Microsoft stops fixing security flaw on PCs with AMD chips. Jan 9, 2018.

https://m.phys.org/news/2018-01-microsoft-flaw-pcs-amd-chips.html

Windows operating system security update block for some AMD based devices. Jan 10, 2018.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4073707/windows-os-security-update-block-for-some-amd-based-devices

# brain: rhythm-regulation and plasticity through oscillations

<< During inattentive wakefulness and non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, the neocortex and thalamus cooperatively engage in rhythmic activities >>

<< thalamic oscillations of low-vigilance states have a plasticity function that (..) can shape ongoing oscillations during inattention and NREM sleep and may potentially reconfigure thalamic networks for faithful information processing during attentive wakefulness >>

Vincenzo Crunelli, Magor L. Lorincz, et al. Dual function of thalamic low-vigilance state oscillations: rhythm-regulation and plasticity. Nature Reviews Neurosci doi: 10.1038/nrn.2017.151. Jan 11, 2018

https://www.nature.com/articles/nrn.2017.151

# chem: oddities under pressure

<< When [AA] placed the material inside a gas chamber and cranked up the air pressure from one bar (about the atmospheric pressure at sea level) to five bars, the cube’s volume increased by about 3 percent >>

Maria Temming. This material does weird things under pressure. Microcube is designed so that pressure makes it expand instead of compress. Science News. 2017; 192 (11): 12. Dec 23, 2017.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/material-does-weird-things-under-pressure 

Jingyuan Qu, Alexander Gerber, et al. Experiments on Metamaterials with Negative Effective Static Compressibility. Phys. Rev. 2017; X7, 041060. Dec 8, 2017

https://journals.aps.org/prx/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevX.7.041060

# behav: some birds discovered fire before humans did

<< There are many anecdotes about Australian birds of prey using fire, according to ornithologist Bob Gosford at the Central Land Council in Alice Springs, Northern Territory >>

<< The three species mentioned are black kites (Milvus migrans), whistling kites (Haliastur sphenurus) and brown falcons (Falco berigora) >>

Andy Coghlan. Arsonist falcons suggest birds discovered fire before humans did. Jan 5, 2018.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2157887-arsonist-falcons-suggest-birds-discovered-fire-before-humans-did