An analysis of a 2,300-year-old text and coins has helped researchers decipher ancient recipes for bronze, including two linguistically elusive ingredients.

The Kao Gong Ji, the oldest known technical encyclopedia, was written around 300 BC and is part of a larger text called The Rites of Zhou. The ancient text includes six chemistry formulas for mixing bronze and lists items like swords, bells, axes, knives and mirrors, as well as how to make them.

For the past 100 years, researchers have struggled to translate two of the main ingredients, which are listed as "jin"and "xi." Experts believed these words translated to copper and tin, which are key components in the bronze-making process. When researchers tried to re-create the recipes, however, the resulting metal didn't match up with the composition of ancient Chinese artifacts.

Now, two researchers believe they have accurately identified the true meaning behind the mystery ingredients. The journal Antiquity published their findings on Tuesday.

The revelation allows for a better understanding of ancient bronze production — and opens up new questions about when this process began, given that large-scale bronze production happened long before the six recipes were shared in the Kao Gong Ji, said study coauthor Ruiliang Liu, curator of the Early China Collection at the British Museum in London.

In modern Chinese, jin means gold. But the ancient meaning of the word could be copper, copper alloy or even just metal, which is why it has been difficult to determine the specific ingredients.

"These recipes were used in the largest bronze industry in Eurasia during this period," said Liu in a statement. "Attempts to reconstruct these processes have been made for more than a hundred years, but have failed."

Chemical analysis

Liu and lead study author Mark Pollard analyzed the chemical composition of Chinese coins minted close to when the Kao Gong Ji was written. Pollard is the Edward Hall Professor of Archaeological Science at Oxford University and director of the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art.

Previously, researchers had thought the coins were made by diluting copper with tin and lead.

The analysis showed that the chemical composition of the coins was a result of mixing two pre-prepared metal alloys, one made of copper, tin and lead, and the other copper and lead.

The two researchers concluded jin and xi were likely premixed metal alloys.

"For the first time in more than 100 years of scholarship, we have produced a viable explanation of how to interpret the recipes for making bronze objects in early China given in the (Kao Gong Ji)," Pollard said in a statement.

The findings have shown that ancient Chinese bronze-making relied on combining alloys instead of pure metals and that metalsmithing was more complex than previously thought.

"It indicates an additional step — the production of pre-prepared alloys — in the manufacturing process of copper-alloy objects in early China," Liu said. "This represents an additional but previously unknown layer in the web of metal production and supply in China."

Archaeologically, this additional step would have remained invisible if not for chemical analysis, the researchers said.

"Understanding the alloying practice is crucial for us to understand the exquisite bronze ritual vessels as well as the underlying mass production in Shang and Zhou societies," Liu said.

Using this type of analysis could help researchers decipher other texts about ancient metallurgy from different cultures and regions in the future, the researchers said.

Scientists are still piecing together how the coronavirus spread from animals to humans.

So far, we know the virus likely originated from a bat and somehow jumped to a pangolin before it made its way to humans.

Now, researchers at Ohio State University are taking a closer look at coronavirus transmission, and how it's possible for the virus to jump from humans back to animals.

“So, we're looking in environments like wastewater and storm water. We're also looking at animals around Ohio, from domestic animals to wildlife,” said Dr. Vanessa Hale at The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine.

We've already seen it happen. Mink in Denmark got infected with coronavirus after coming into contact with humans.

The mink got very sick and developed variations that can jump back to humans.

The virus does not need to jump to another species to evolve, but it is more likely to happen.

“The evolutionary pressures may be different in different hosts, so if you have a different body temperature, a different physiology, there may be various pressures that cause various types of mutations in the virus,” said Hale.

Researchers at Ohio State are trying to get ahead and find out more about these types of mutations.

It can help them understand whether a mutation is more infectious, whether there could be future infections, and whether the existing vaccines can fight against them.

Researchers say right now, only mink are playing a significant role in human infection.

It is possible for regular household pets to infect humans and vice versa, but so far, we've seen very low rates of that happening.

Scientists believe they've developed a way to treat skin cancer more efficiently and without surgery.

Researchers at Yale School of Medicine developed an injection of nanoparticles and a chemotherapy agent that goes directly into the cancerous cells.

Dr. Michael Girardi says the breakthrough would allow doctors to treat multiple skin cancers at once.

An injection treatment could benefit health care systems and lower costs for patients.

Girardi says one of the most important parts in this possible treatment is how it targets the skin cancer.

“We load the anti-cancer agent within and that will slowly release over time. It keeps a lot of the anti-cancer drug right there within the skin cancer, so it can work long after the injection,” said Girardi.

Work on the treatment started more than three years ago. Researchers wanted to develop a method that concentrated on its intended target, but is also compatible with treatments that stimulate the immune system.

So far, they say the nanoparticles combined with the chemotherapy agent have been successful in clinical models.

“We have a special coating on these particles that allows it to be very sticky. So, when we put it into the tumor, it binds to proteins that lets it stay within the tumor matrix, which is a complex of proteins around the cancer,” said Girardi.

Girardi says the hope is each skin cancer would need just one injection, but it could take more than one depending on the severity and the patient. That is something that will be determined in human trials.

human trials are still a few years away, because they need to secure funding and partnerships.

One remarkable up-shot of the coronavirus outbreak is that it is triggering extraordinary innovation and problem-solving. A team of engineers and scientists got together to produce a prototype of an emergency ventilator in just one week.

It was like a scene out of the 1995 real-life space thriller Apollo 13. A group of scientists sprang into action to address the looming crisis.

"Our team focused on a simple design of the emergency ventilator," says Bill King, a professor of engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. "It's something that could be very scaled into production quickly to meet the needs that may come here in the next weeks and months."

More than 40 engineers, doctors, medical professionals, and designers worked around the clock for a week to produce the "Illinois RapidVent."

"It's a simple device it's a small smaller than a loaf of bread," says King.

Rashid Bashir, the dean of the Grainger college of engineering at the university and a professor of bioengineering, says the compactness of the device means it can be used almost anywhere.

"This is a portable device; it's handheld, and it runs off of the oxygen from an ICU room," explains Bashir. "It does not need electricity."

The prototype for the emergency ventilator has run for more than 75 hours and 175,000 breathing cycles.

"This design and the engineering knowledge we've created are available for free," says ???

Researchers say they hope it can serve as a stop-gap measure as manufacturers ramp up production of full-scale hospital-grade ventilators.

"Physicians, nurses, they're doing an amazing job," says Bashir. "Being at the frontline, I think we need to do all we can to support them, and that's what we're trying to do as engineers and scientists. We want to get the technologies in their hands so that they can help the patients."

The next step says researchers is to find partners and resources to seek FDA approval and produce the "Illinois RapidVent" for mass manufacturing.