Numlock News: October 3, 2025 • Vultures, Fungi, Facebook

Oct 03, 2025

Walking On Eggshells

The bearded vulture is a threatened species that builds nests in caves, rock shelters and cornices. It is also rather willing to build upon the abandoned nest of an earlier vulture in the process. Like many birds, it also has a keen eye for neat little treasures and likes to collect them to build nests. Researchers in Spain have had the opportunity to examine some of these nests, including 12 nests found in a region of Spain where the species went extinct 70 to 130 years ago, layer by layer. What they found is centuries worth of stuff: 2,117 bones, 86 hooves, 74 leather remains, 11 hair remains, 43 eggshells. This is not to mention the tons of human-made stuff that is of interest, including a shoe dated 675 years old and decorated leather from 650 years ago. All told, they found 226 items that had been made or altered by humans, ranging from a slingshot to a crossbow bolt to a wooden lance.

Krystal Kasal, Phys.org

Dalí

The Carabinieri TPC, a special unit of the Italian police that works on art crime, has seized 21 suspected forgeries that were purported to be by Salvador Dalí from a show in Parma. These forgeries were a large portion of the 80 drawings, tapestries and engravings on display at Palazzo Tarasconi as part of the show. If proven to be fakes, the organizers of the exhibition will be in a good deal of hot water. The Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation, after being contacted by the cops in February, confirmed that it was not consulted for the show and expressed “strong perplexity” about the works, which is as close as the art world gets to “book ’em, Danno.”

James Imam, The Art Newspaper

Bioluminescent

Fungi have been a relatively understudied kingdom when it comes to bioluminescence, and it’s thought that mushrooms that emit their own light might be more common than currently held. Less than one percent of the 14,000 identified mushroom species — some 125 species — are known to luminesce, but that’s probably an undercount since many mushrooms only luminesce under certain conditions, such as at night. At least 40 new species of bioluminescent fungi have been found in the past decade, and given that some mushrooms only grow underground, it’s also possible we just haven’t seen others do it yet.

Krista Langlois, bioGraphic

K-Ball

Earlier this year, the NFL owners adopted resolution proposal G-2, which allowed teams to prepare kicking footballs before game day. This means that coaches and teams have a little bit more time to work and break in the balls designated for their kicker, making them softer and fatter so as to make kicks easier. It’s a bit of a throwback to the 1990s, when tales of teams steaming balls in saunas and throwing them in dryers prompted the time limit on manipulating k-balls before games in the first place. From 1999 to 2024, a kicker's field goal range differed from practice to game day because of inconsistent footballs. Now, the change has provoked some ire from teams on the wrong side of a long field goal, but the evidence isn’t strong that we’re in a juiced k-ball era quite yet. In the first four weeks, kickers made 73.7 percent of 50-plus-yard attempts, which is, in fact, down from last year’s first four games (75.3 percent accuracy).

Kalyn Kahler, ESPN

Drug Resistance

In 2021, antimicrobial resistance was the direct cause of 1.14 million deaths worldwide, a 2024 report in The Lancet estimated. The study estimates that in the next 25 years, 39.1 million deaths will be attributed to antimicrobial resistance. Some of the worst strains don’t respond to the most powerful available antibiotics, and that’s become a particular issue in Ukraine as hospitals treat wounded soldiers and civilians. Overwhelmed casualty wards have sometimes led to breakdowns in the infection controls that are commonly implemented in hospitals, and mis-dosed antibiotics have meant that antibiotic-resistant bacteria have become a serious threat in the Russia-Ukraine war.

Richard Stone, Knowable Magazine

Humans

The question “how many humans have ever lived?” is an interesting one that has drawn lots of estimates. The commonly cited stat of 117 billion (put forward by demographers Carl Haub and Toshiko Kaneda in a 2022 paper) is less definitive than you might think. Even hammering down a crucial bit of data needed to infer the overall balance of humanity — for instance, what was the world population in 1 C.E. — can provoke a wide range of estimates ranging from 170 million to 300 million. The question isn’t just one of population but also of lifespan and birth rate, which complicates things further. Expressed as a range, you’re talking between 93 billion and 140 billion people who have ever lived. Looking at people aged 65 and older is interesting too; somewhere between 5.5 percent and 9.5 percent of all people 65 and older who have ever been alive are alive right now.

Manon Bischoff, Spektrum der Wissenschaft

Meta

Back in August, a federal jury found that Meta was liable for violating user privacy with the app Flo, which tracked fertility and menstruation. The Flo app itself gave up mid-trial and coughed up $8 million to settle its bit of the class action. Google, which was a co-defendant, made a deal in July to settle the claim for $48 million. But Meta persevered and may have to pay handsomely for the trouble; the 1967 California privacy law that underscores the suit carries a statutory penalty of $5,000 per violation. The lawyers for Flo said that the damages would top a quadrillion dollars if a “violation” were incurred every time a piece of data was intercepted, an amount of money that is not at all possible. That said, signals from the judge indicated that Meta could be on the hook for up to $8 billion if plaintiffs get what they want and the verdict endures an appeal.

Jenna Greene, Reuters

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