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This week in sci-tech
This week in sci-tech
Society built on
sacrifice
The ritual killing of fellow humans played a key
role in the origins of our modern, stratified society,
according to new Kiwi research.
Human Sacrifice
The Marsden-funded study has uncovered a link between
cultures' levels of social stratification - how unequal or
hierarchical a culture was – and human
sacrifice.
Categorising 93 different historical Austronesian cultures into three main groups of high, moderate or low social stratification, the researchers found cultures with the highest level of stratification were most likely to have practised human sacrifice. Further analysis tracking the evolution of the examined societies indicated that presence human sacrifice substantially increased the chances of high social stratification arising. Human sacrifice also prevented the loss of social stratification once it was established in a given society.
In their research article, published in Nature this week, the authors lay out a gruesome catalogue of the different sacrifice methods uncovered, including, "burning, drowning, strangulation, bludgeoning, burial, being crushed under a newly built canoe, being cut to pieces, as well as being rolled off the roof of a house and then decapitated."
Professor Russell Gray, a co-author of the study and director of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, in Germany says that “human sacrifice provided a particularly effective means of social control because it provided a supernatural justification for punishment.
"Rulers, such as priests and chiefs, were often believed to be descended from gods and ritual human sacrifice was the ultimate demonstration of their power.”
You can find out more about the research on Scimex.org and read a round up of national and international coverage on the Science Media Centre website.
Quoted: Paul Henry Show
"I'm a scientist but I'm also a human being and I think without hope there's not much left.
"We are a smart species and we will find smart solutions."
University of Bristol glaciologist Prof Jonathan Bamber on mitigating climate change and sea level rise
R&D
spending up 15 per cent
New Zealand businesses are
spending more on research and development, according to a
survey from Statistics New Zealand.
Business R&D expenditure rose 15 per cent over the last year, going from $1.25 billion in 2014 to $1.44 billion in 2015, as reported in the latest latest Business Operations Survey.
“These are very encouraging numbers,” said Science and Innovation Minister Steven Joyce in a media release. “They show that the work the government is doing through Callaghan Innovation and the R&D Grants programme is helping have the desired effect of growing New Zealand’s Business R&D activity.”
Experts contacted by the SMC agreed that the increase was good news for New Zealand innovation and credited Callaghan Innovation grants with playing a part in the spending boost.
Prof Shaun Hendy, Director of Te Punaha Matatini, said that Minister Joyce will be relieved, "as he has had his chequebook out for the last few years, and has dramatically increased subsidies for business R&D.”
He added that while this year’s increase in business R&D is large, we will need to sustain this for several more years to just reach the OECD average.
Dr Trinh Le, a Fellow at Motu Economic and Public Policy Research, warned that R&D spending is "only an input in the innovation process; it’s innovation output that matters to economic growth".
"We’ll need to wait and see if the increases in R&D spending will translate into increases in innovation output.”
You can read further expert commentary on the Science Media Centre website.
NZ
spider's super speedy jaw
A New Zealand spider is the
fastest in the world at snapping up prey with its jaws,
according to a new study by US scientists.
The new research, published in Current Biology, explores the biting mechanism of trap jaw spiders (Mecysmaucheniidae), which are only found in New Zealand and South America. The diminutive spiders are only millimetres in size - which is just as well, as they have one heck of a bite.
Trap jaws which 'snap' closed on prey or enemies have been documented in ants and preying mantises but never before in spiders. The biting speeds achieved by some of the spiders were beyond that possible with mere muscles, said the authors, and must rely on storing up kinetic energy to produce ballistic movements - akin to a mouse trap.
One particular species of the Zearchaea genus in the trap-jaw spider family, only found in New Zealand, was so fast the researchers had trouble recording it's strike with a high-speed camera on its highest setting. The species was has not yet been formally described and is currently dubbed 'species 4'.
The speedy spider was able to snap its jaws shut in just a tenth of a millisecond, a hundred times faster than some other trap jaw spiders.
Dr Cor Vink, Curator of
Natural History, Canterbury Museum, told the SMC the fact
that fastest recorded jaw movements were found in an
undescribed species "shows that there is so much more to
learn about our unique and unusual spider fauna".
Of an estimated 2000 species of spiders in New Zealand, he said, over 700 species remain undescribed.
Dr Greg Holwell from the University of Auckland suggested that the "tiny and cryptic" spiders might use their "lightning strike" to dispatch of their prey efficiently, or possibly tackle larger prey than other spiders their size can manage.
"I look forward to seeing where this exciting research develops in the future," he said.
You can read further expert commentary on the Science Media Centre website. Images and video of trap jaw spiders can be found accompanying the open access paper on Current Biology.
Brought to you by the Otago Daily Times and New Zealand International Science Festival, these new awards are a celebration of those in the Otago community that are passionate about science and focus on making a difference through what they do in the science field.
ends
Science Media Centre NZ
Our aim is to promote accurate, evidence-based reporting on science and technology by helping the media work more closely with the scientific community.
The Science Media Centre is New Zealand's only trusted, independent source of information for the media on all issues related to science. Thousands of news stories providing context from and quoting New Zealand researchers have been published as a direct result of our work.
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