10 Things We Learnt In January, 2025

Here at Gowing Life, we are keeping our fun record of everything we learn in 2025, be it longevity-related or something else entirely. Here is a selection of our newly acquired neural connections for the month of January!

1: These tower blocks are nearly 500 years old. Located in Eastern Yemen in the town of Shibam (also known as the Manhattan of the desert), these mud-brick buildings can be up to 11 stories tall. They were built like this to reduce the footprint of the town, maximising available agricultural land and allowing the settlement to be enclosed within a wall to protect against Bedouin attacks.

2: The word ‘arctic’ originates from the Greek ‘arktos’ meaning bear. In other words, the names for the Arctic and for Antarctica just mean ‘there are bears here’ and ‘there are no bears here’.

3: The Roman Empire’s air pollution was so bad at its height, it may have caused widespread neurological damage in Europe. Arctic ice records show that toxic lead in the atmosphere spiked during the peak of the Roman Empire’s mining and smelting industry, potentially lowering much of the European population’s IQ.

4: The first known steam engine was created by the ancient Greeks. First described in 20-30BC, the Aeolipile was a heated water-filled sphere that was spun by steam jets.

5: So, why did the Greeks or Romans not develop more advanced steam engines and start an industrial revolution? Firstly, they would not have been able to build strong pressure cylinders needed for powerful steam engines – such pressure cylinders were only available after centuries of developing them for use in cannons. Yet even if they had been able to build modern steam engines, they probably wouldn’t have had a good use for them. Steam engines were only adopted in England because the power they produced allowed water to be pumped out of even the very deepest coal mines, meaning that fuel efficiency wasn’t a factor (as the coal from the mines could be used to mine more coal). Later, they would be used to simultaneously power a large number of newly invented spinning machines, which were only necessary due to the huge cotton influx from British conquest. In other words, the industrial revolution might not have happened when it did were it not for a pretty specific set of circumstances.

6: Pigeons are known for ‘lazy’ nestbuilding, often pictured with hilariously poor nests. While it’s easy to make fun of the poor birds, there may actually be some good evolutionary reasons for this. Common pigeons typically nest on cliff faces and urban environments, so they don’t really need elaborate nests – just a few twigs to stop the eggs from rolling away. Aggressive pigeons may also steal materials from other nests – especially if there’s a large population competing for limited materials.

7: Tele-present Martian wind: In this installation by artist David Bowen, tilting devices with dried plant stalks replicate Martian wind using data from sensors on NASA’S Perseverance rover.

8: Myxosporeans: Microscopic aquatic parasites that spread by releasing spores from the affected animal. It has been hypothesised that myxosporeans may have evolved from cancer cells that became independent from their host.

9: Rogue waves: Exceptionally large ocean waves once thought to be impossible are now known to be real and have been both simulated and recorded multiple times. Below is a simulation of the largest rogue wave ever recorded. As if that wasn’t bad enough, it is thought that rogue holes – reverse rogue waves – may also be possible.

10: The planets of the Solar system fit almost perfectly between the Earth and the Moon. The total diameter of all the planets besides Earth is 380,008km, which is just 4,392km less than the average distance between the Earth and the Moon.