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Top Stories: Making Weather From Corn, A Dying Oasis, and The Roman Gates of Hell
Top Stories: Making Weather From Corn, A Dying Oasis, and The Roman Gates of Hell
This Roman ‘gate to hell’ killed its victims with a cloud of deadly
carbon dioxide
Is it possible to walk through the gates of hell and live? The Romans
thought so, and they staged elaborate sacrifices at what they believed
were entrances to the underworld scattered across the ancient
Mediterranean. The sacrifices—healthy bulls led down to the gates of
hell—died quickly without human intervention, but the castrated
priests who accompanied them returned unharmed. Now, a new study
of one ancient site suggests that these “miracles” may have a simple
geological explanation.
The Great Plains of the central United States—the Corn Belt—is one of
the most fertile regions on Earth, producing more than 10 billion
bushels of corn each year. It’s also home to some mysterious weather:
Whereas the rest of the world has warmed, the region’s summer
temperatures have dropped as much as a full degree Celsius, and
rainfall has increased up to 35%, the largest spike anywhere in the
world. The culprit, according to a new study, isn’t greenhouse gas
emissions or sea surface temperature—it’s the corn itself.
Can Iran and Afghanistan cooperate to bring an oasis back from the
dead?
Scientific Community
doi:10.1126/science.aat4148
Komunitas ilmiah
doi: 10.1126 / science.aat4148