Science news this week: Ötzi the Iceman used to make sourdough, Italian teenagers discover Roman villa under school, Google plans to release 64 million mosquitos, and RIP to NASA's Maven probe

Surprise discoveries that were thousands of years in the making dominated this week's science news, with scientists discovering that Ötzi the Iceman's body was teeming with ancient yeasts, which scientists promptly used to make a sourdough.

First discovered in Italy's Ötztal Alps in September 1991, Ötzi was a prehistoric man who died, likely by murder, some 5,300 years ago before being mummified naturally inside glacier ice. But bad news for Ötzi was good news for four strains of cold-adapted glacier yeasts, which infiltrated his body shortly after his death and may still be active today. In fact, some of these yeasts are just right for baking bread — the scientists used it to make a sourdough they described as "very very good."

Some 1,000 years later in what is today Uzbekistan, a child underwent Asia's oldest recorded form of surgery in the form of a grisly cranial trepanation. Across the globe, another team of scientists rediscovered 17,000-year-old rock art that's the oldest recorded in the U.K., and another group reported finding the origins of the Euphrates river, which fed the "cradle of civilization." Elsewhere this week, reports emerged of the discovery of the first shipwrecks linked to the real pirates of the Caribbean, and Italian teenagers discovering a 1,800-year-old Roman house underneath their high school gym.

If none of that is archaic enough for you, take a look at how many generations of humans there have been, or check out the results from the first whole-genome sequence of the Greenland shark, the longest lived vertebrate on Earth, for clues into their long lifespans and cancer resistance. Or maybe take a trip through some outdated Medieval jurisprudence that saw many animals trialed in courtrooms and put in prison — except for cats, which emerged largely unscathed.

Google plans a multi-million mosquito release

Google wants to release 64 million bacteria-riddled mosquitoes across California and Florida. Here's why scientists are enthusiastic.

When is a tech company conspiring to release 64 million bacteria-riddled mosquitoes across the U.S. good news? This week, it turns out, with an application made by Google to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for an experimental mosquito release permit.

The mosquitoes in question are non-biting male southern house mosquitoes (Culex quinquefasciatus) — a species whose females transmit diseases like West Nile virus and St. Louis encephalitis in humans. Infected with a bacterium called Wolbachia pipientis, the released males will prevent any females they mate with from having offspring, thereby slashing mosquito populations and disease rates over time.

The EPA has deemed Google's request to be of potential regional and national significance. The agency will make a final decision whether to grant the permit following a public comment period that ended on June 5.

Discover more health stories

—Flesh-eating screwworm found in Texas cow. Are humans at risk?

—Heading a soccer ball just once is enough to raise levels of proteins associated with brain damage

—Scientists got mouse eyes to perform photosynthesis ‪—‬ and no, they didn't turn green

Life's Little Mysteries

Why can't we figure out how strong gravity is?

Of the four fundamental forces, gravity is the one we experience most immediately throughout our lives. Yet it also remains the most mysterious — being a major confounding factor for any successful theory of everything. In fact, we can't even figure out exactly how strong Earth's gravity is. But why is it so hard to measure?

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RIP to NASA's MAVEN spacecraft

'In an unrecoverable state': NASA confirms MAVEN spacecraft is officially dead after loss of signal behind Mars

NASA announced a final farewell for its Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft this week — the probe is officially dead after 11 years of studying the Red Planet from orbit.

NASA lost contact with the probe in December of last year when it swung behind Mars on a regular orbit, only to go dark at the time of its reemergence. After convening a review board in February, the agency has now shared its findings that the craft appears to be dead for good. The culprit remains, thus far, a mystery; but a fragment of telemetry data hints that the spacecraft's unusually rapid rotation depleted its battery power.

Discover more space news

—'Totally counterintuitive': Scientists accidentally discover magnetic fields around 7 distant planets, opening new window in the search for life

—Mysterious repeating radio signal traced to 'vampire' star that's slowly eating its companion

—James Webb telescope detects most distant dormant black hole, invisible in all wavelengths and weighing as much as 6 billion suns

Also in science news this week

—Coming El Niño could be the strongest ever recorded, new forecast predicts

—New Velociraptor cousin was a '4-winged' dragon that hunted prey from the trees of ancient China, fossil find hints

—Satellite images reveals mangroves rebounding worldwide — but here's why they could still 'drown'

—Daddy longlegs may be capturing and devouring frogs in the tropical forests of South America

—Physicists achieve 'perfect randomness' for the first time ever

—'The best solution is to murder him in his sleep': AI can learn violent tendencies from each other despite zero references to violence in training data

—NASA astronauts briefly shelter in 'safe haven' procedure following worsening leaks on International Space Station

Science long read

Some 'extinct' volcanoes may just be going through a growth spurt, before they 'wake up in this catastrophic stage,' emerging research suggests

When is a dead volcano just taking a nap? The disquieting answer may be more often than we thought, following the discovery by volcanologists that the extinct volcanoes surrounding us might actually just be going through a growth period before they roar back to life.

That's according to a new analysis of the formerly-extinct volcano Methana, near Athens, Greece, which has been found to have slept for 110,000 years before returning to activity. To figure out what this means for the other sleeping giants that surround us, Live Science contributor Chris Simms investigated.

Something for the weekend

If you're looking for things to keep you busy over the weekend, here are some of the best news analyses, crosswords, interviews and opinion pieces published this week.

—Microsoft's latest quantum chip is 1,000 times more reliable than its predecessor — but why is this new processor so controversial? [News analysis]

—Live Science crossword puzzle #46: Largest desert on Earth — 9 down [Crossword]

—'We were being bullied in our own home': How 'authoritarian' HOAs are contributing to the insect apocalypse [Interview]

—Are some people wired to see ghosts? A psychologist explains what makes paranormal experiences more likely [Opinion]

Science news in pictures

China launches new Long March 12B rocket, reportedly without any safety warning

An almighty roar and a vapor trail was about as much advance warning as the world got ahead of the maiden launch of China's Long March 12B rocket, which reportedly took off without any advance airspace notices on Monday (June 1).

The rocket is China's rival to SpaceX's Falcon 9 — a reusable, commercially-ran rocket that will be used to cost-effectively launch China's megaconstellation satellites into low Earth orbit.

The surprise launch came as China ramps up its rocket launches as part of a new space race with the U.S. But if you're able to tune out all the geopolitical posturing, the flight sure made for some cool photos.

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