Bird poop powered this pre-Hispanic kingdom - Popular Science

Somewhere in the world, surely, a Monkey's Paw is cackling maniacally to itself. Scattered across the Pacific and Indian Oceans, a humble sea cucumber named Holothuria (Microthele) whitmaei makes its home. This unassuming animal somewhat resembles poop, has been saddled with the lamentable common name "black teatfish", and is highly prized as a delicacy in some cultures – even though it has been listed as endangered for more than a decade. And yet, a new study has found, H. whitmaei may live for more than 120 years. In a genetic study spanning more than two decades, a team led by biologist Sven Uthicke of the Australian Institute of Marine Science has discovered that this species barely grows at all – and can live for an astonishingly long time. "Although individuals of some sea urchin species can live to over 100 years, deriving at a similar conclusion for the black teatfish was surprising," they write in a paper published in iScience. "This species is the first sea cucumber species known to surpass a longevity of a century.

The plumage may help explain why only some birds survived dino doomsday Feathers like this one (shown at 200x magnification) preserved in fossilized dung from a meat-eating dinosaur such as a juvenile T. rex or Nanotyrannus could help explain why only some birds went extinct at the end of the Cretaceous Period.

Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:Cement is responsible for 88 percent of the concrete industry’s total greenhouse gas emissions, which account for a staggering 8 percent of overall emissions worldwide. A new study focuses on a way to incorporate biochar, derived from human feces, to not only lower cement’s emissions but also improve its compression and strength. The study found that introducing between 5 to 10 percent of this porous, poop-based biochar created tiny reservoirs that provided the necessary water to form stable calcium silicates. Today’s world is built with concrete. Every year, the world produces roughly four billion tonnes of the moldable, durable slurry of sand, gravel, water, and cement. While concrete is necessary for the homes, office buildings, roads, and bridges to make life possible, its creation takes an environmental toll in more ways than one. A study earlier this year, for example, warned that countries are exceeding the rates at which Earth can naturally replenish river sand, the go-to aggregate for most concrete. But the most worrisome item on concrete’s ingredient list is cement.

This Week in Science: The secrets of a sneaky snake, cholesterol gene therapy, nature plugs a methane leak, and more! First up: An arthritis drug regrows lost hair in a clinical trial, potentially providing a new treatment for alopecia. Also this week: A strange new form of ice that may exist on Neptune

Could the concrete of the future contain a little bit of poop? (Lighthouse Films/Getty Images) Concrete is, quite literally, the foundation of the modern world. Almost every construction project in the world uses the material in some form. There's just one problem, and that's a big one: Making one of its central ingredients – cement – is horrendously bad for the environment. The act of heating and processing limestone to make cement is one of the world's foremost sources of carbon dioxide emissions – so, understandably, scientists have been looking for ways to mitigate this problem. And researchers led by civil engineer Raghuvesh Tiwari of Manipal University Jaipur in India may have just hit upon an ingenious solution that takes care of two environmental birds with one stone. By mixing in biochar made from the human poop slurry processed at fecal sludge treatment plants, their concrete "yields significant improvements in concrete properties," they write in a paper accepted for publication in Scientific Reports. Fecal-sludge biochar before (left) and after grinding and sieving for use in concrete. (Tiwari et al., Sci.