In this new review of the German-speaking scientific press, an archaeologist questions the origin of the Nebra disk, human cells on microchip could replace animal testing, a factory in Saxony will soon be transformed into an innovation campus to develop hydrogen research, and neuroscientist Stefan Kölsch defines the practice of music as uniquely human.
Archaeologist Rüdiger Krause questions the origin of the Nebra Disc due to the circumstances of its discovery.
Harald Meller, archaeologist from the Land of Saxony-Anhalt and director of the Halle museum, is a good communicator. Author of a best-seller on the Nebra record (cf. SEA, n° 709) and tireless distributor of his theses on the powerful kingdom of Aunjetitz, here he is publicly questioned in the popular history magazine P.M. History by another Bronze Age expert, Rüdiger Krause, professor at the University of Frankfurt am Main. Krause indeed deplores that the beautiful stories told by Meller are not the result of scientific investigation based on rigorous principles and applying a strictly professional method. Krause thus dismantles the main points on which Meller's speech, considered excessive, is based, and updates various breaches of archaeological ethics that make his remarks fall into scientific populism:the anachronism of terms when he speaks of 'kings' , the absence of indubitable proof because it uses correlation dating, and finally the absence of scientific publication subject to validation. Krause mainly calls into question the location and dating of the Nebra disk, the centerpiece of a whole astronomical argument linked to a dating located around 1800 BC. J. C. For Krause, nothing indicates the exact origin of the disc, even if he recognizes that it is undoubtedly authentic, and therefore of exceptional value. The context of the discovery by clandestine detectorists, incidentally looters of treasures, is par excellence unusable. Based on the iconographic motif of the Pleiades, which can be found on a number of Celtic objects, Krause rather envisages a dating between 600 and 300 BC. J. C., corresponding then to the period of the Iron Age.
A microchip to replace animal testing
The Tiss-Use company, a spin-off from the Institute of Biotechnology at the Technical University of Berlin, has been developing "Human-on-a Chip" technology since 2010. holds the patent and which speeds up the process of developing pharmaceutical, chemical or cosmetic products. The Austrian magazine Terra Mater visited this laboratory, where technicians are able to implant on a silicone and glass plate the size of a credit card cells from human tissue that reproduce the functioning of 2 , 3 or 4 organs. An artificial vascularization circuit connects these organs to each other, supplies them with a solution consisting of blood substitute, carbon dioxide and oxygen, and provides them with the active ingredients to be tested. What are the advantages of this method over in vitro cell culture? Simplicity, saving time, resources and costs, and gaining precision. The use of miniaturization also allows cells to be seen directly under the microscope without going through dissection, and could thus make a large part of animal testing obsolete. As it is a functional unit, the observable effects are also closer to human physiology. The latest generation of microchip, ideally planned for this year, will strive to reproduce the relationships and proportions between organs and circulatory flows as faithfully as possible, but the company does not yet know when it will actually be able to be marketed.
Saxony bets on hydrogen
On July 15, 2019, Siemens CEO Joe Kaeser, President of the Fraunhofer Society Research Institute for Applied Sciences, and Saxony State Premier Michael Kretschmer (CDU) signed a "future pact for Görlitz" with the aim of developing hydrogen research there. Görlitz is one of the largest steam turbine factories in the world, and one of the main employers in the Lusatia region, located in the easternmost part of Germany. While Siemens was considering closing the site two years ago, its extension has now been confirmed, in the form of an innovation campus including a start-up accelerator. For an investment of 30 million euros, the agreement provides for the creation of a hydrogen research laboratory to analyze and test the electrolysis system on a large scale and over the long term. Siemens is the third German group, with the steelmakers thyssenkrupp and Salzgitter, to bet on this promising "Power to X" technology, the transformation of electricity into another energy, the group thus hoping to be able to convert surplus wind energy into "green" hydrogen. Even if the high costs are still far from making the operation profitable, the ambition is first and foremost to keep the technical skills on site with the creation of 100 qualified positions, but also to ensure that Germany has a preponderant place in this market promises a bright future in the context of the energy shift. Saxony, once a land of coal, could thus continue to play an economically strategic role by producing a new form of energy.
Spotting:Music is human nature
Stefan Kölsch is a neuroscientist specializing in the neurocognition of music who speaks from experience. Interviewed by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung about his book entitled "Good Vibrations", devoted to the beneficial effects of music on the brain, he confides that he first studied the violin, the piano and composition before discovering science and d to be carried away by an inextinguishable thirst for knowledge. His book is thus the fruit of this dual training, reviewing both an immense corpus of scientific articles and imbued with a fiery desire to encourage the use and practice of music in order to help heal and live better. He demonstrates the therapeutic effects on patients with stroke, depression, Parkinson's or Alzheimer's disease. Practical advice, all derived from scientific experimentation and aimed at professionals as well as the general public, allows him to state theoretical principles that place music at the very heart of humanity. For Stefan Kölsch, in fact, the human species is the only one that can sing or play in a synchronized way:the practice of music in common and in rhythm is what distinguishes man from animals, such is his predicate. The experience then tells him that the chemistry, and therefore the anatomy of the brain, are modified by the regular practice of music. The effects on language, motor skills and longevity are thus demonstrated and substantiated. So much proof that the emotions and pleasure aroused by hearing and musical activity are essential to life, as they have been to the survival of the human species. So here is a book that commands us to return to our scores!
Teacher. Stefan Kölsch, Good Vibrations – Die heilende Kraft der Musik, Ullstein, 2019, 384 p.