💡 Deforesting the Amazon Is Uprooting the Ancient Practices That Preserved It

The latest from Nautilus, and this week’s Facts So Romantic. [View in browser](| [Join Nautilus]( Together with Did a friend forward this? [Subscribe here.]( This Thursday, read the latest stories from Nautilus and this week’s Facts So Romantic—plus today’s free story below [ENVIRONMENT]( [Deforesting the Amazon Is Uprooting the Ancient Practices That Preserved It]( A buried irony. BY SHOMA ABHYANKAR The Amazon, our planet’s largest rainforest, continues to disappear at an alarming rate, sacrificed to mining, agriculture, ranching, and modern settlement. [Continue reading→]( The latest from Nautilus [EVOLUTION]( [These Eyes Shine Light on the Path of Evolution]( The visual systems of a group of mollusks reveal how future evolution depends on the past. BY VIVIANE CALLIER [Continue reading→]( [ZOOLOGY]( [Why Bats Are Flying Machines]( Nearly everything about this tiny mammal is shaped by its powers of flight. BY RACHEL A. PAGE, DINA K.N. DECHMANN, M. TEAGUE O’MARA, MARCO TSCHAPKA & THE SMITHSONIAN TROPICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE[Continue reading→]( Finally, a Massage Gun for Everyone Scientists once made a tiny massage gun for mice to find out if massage therapy helped them heal muscle injuries faster. It did, as [this Nautilus article]( explains, but why should mice have all the fun? The [Renpho Power Massage Gun]( gives you a deep, penetrating muscle massage that’s powerful enough for athletes and just as relaxing for everyone else. With its 6 custom massage heads and 6 speed settings, you’re sure to find a combination that works for you. Best of all, it’s human-sized and [33% off for a limited time](. [BUY ON AMAZON]( WE'RE CURIOUS TO KNOW... Could falling birth rates be a bigger problem than overpopulation? Let us know! Reply to this newsletter with your response, briefly explaining your choice, and we’ll reveal the top answers. (This question was inspired by “[Global fertility in 204 countries and territories, 1950–2021, with forecasts to 2100.](”) Top Answers to Our Previous Question(On the One Mystery You Would Most Wish to Solve) - Who really built the Sphinx? – Victoria L. - Will humans make contact with alien life that we regard as intelligent? – Jeff P. - Do we have thoughts, or do thoughts have us? – Beth B. The Backpack That Fits in Your Pocket The [Sunhiker Daypack]( is a full-sized water-resistant, tear-resistant backpack that folds up in an ultra-compact package you can stow anywhere. [BUY ON AMAZON]( FACTS SO ROMANTIC The 5 Best Things We Learned Today Bat morphology has remained almost unchanged for over 50 million years. [Nautilus→]( The chiton, a small mollusk, has a body plan—one resembling a little tank protected by eight shell plates—that’s remained relatively stable for some 300 million years. [Nautilus→]( The Amazon forest hides between 10,000 and 24,000 ancient rings, ditches, ponds, wells, and geoglyphs made by moving and stacking soil by societies inhabiting the region going back as far as 500 A.D. [Nautilus→]( One moss plant in Antarctica was found to be 1,530 years old; trapped in ice, it resurrected itself after thawing out. [The Guardian→]( One in every dozen stars might have absorbed a planet. [Nature→]( Your free story this Thursday! [TECHNOLOGY]( [Ideology Is the Original Augmented Reality]( How we fill gaps in our everyday experiences. BY SLAVOJ ŽIŽEK Released in July 2016, Pokémon Go is a location-based, augmented-reality game for mobile devices, typically played on mobile phones. [Continue reading for free→]( Digital Note-Taking With an Old-School Feel The [Rocketbook Pro 2.0]( is a reusable notebook with a vegan leather cover. Just write on the specialized pages then digitize by snapping a pic to upload it wherever you want. Simple as that. If you love to draw but hate fussing with technology, the [Iskn Repaper Graphic Tablet]( is perfect for you. Just slip the Iskn’s ring around your favorite pencil or pen and use the tablet to bring your creations to life. The [M1+ Neo Smartpen]( ditches the tablet altogether to give you a way to digitize your notes in a single pen that records everything you write. It even transcribes languages. P.S. The Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek was born on this day in 1949. He has an interesting way of illustrating what it’s like to see the world through an ideological lens: Consider the smartphone-based game Pokémon Go. “We look at reality and interact with it through the fantasy frame of the digital screen, and this intermediary frame supplements reality with virtual elements which sustain our desire to participate in the game, push us to look for them in a reality which, without this frame, would leave us indifferent,” he wrote. “Sound familiar? Of course it does. What the technology of Pokémon Go externalizes is simply the basic mechanism of ideology—at its most basic, [ideology is the primordial version of ‘augmented reality](.’” Today’s newsletter was written by Brian Gallagher Thanks for reading. [Tell us](mailto:brian.gallagher@nautil.us?subject=&body=) your thoughts on today’s note. Plus, if you find our content valuable, consider [becoming a member]( to support our work, and inspire a friend to sign up for [the Nautilus newsletter](. [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( Copyright © 2024 NautilusNext, All rights reserved. You were subscribed to the newsletter from [nautil.us](. Our mailing address is: NautilusNext 360 W 36th Street, 7S, New York, NY 10018 Don't want to hear from us anymore? [Unsubscribe](