Brilliantly blue beads from Europe unearthed by archaeologists in Arctic Alaska may predate Christopher Columbus‘ arrival in the New World, a new controversial study finds. These blueberry-size beads were likely created in Venice during the 15th century and then traded eastward, enduring a 10,500-mile (17,000 kilometer) land-based journey east across Eurasia and then boated across the
After more than 17,000 years of silence and decades forgotten in a French museum, a shell fashioned into a horn by our prehistoric ancestors has been played again as a result of new research published Wednesday. Scientists believe the ancient conch, from a species of large sea snail still present in the Atlantic and
In 2018, archaeologists made a staggering discovery in Swaga Swaga Game Reserve in central Tanzania: 52 previously undocumented rock shelters, deliberately painted with rock art. Weathering had mostly destroyed all but a handful; but of those that were preserved, one was an absolute enigma. The site, named Amak’hee 4, was elaborately painted with a
Trapped within the Arctic permafrost, there’s a whole lot of carbon – potentially up to four times more carbon than the combined amount of CO2 modern humans have emitted. It’s one of the reasons scientists are so worried about the Arctic melting – as the ice goes, this carbon will be released. But now a new
A glacial burst that triggered a deadly flash flood in the Indian Himalayas at the weekend was a disaster waiting to happen, and one likely to be repeated in a region transformed by climate change and unchecked infrastructure development, experts warn. Asia is home to some of the world’s biggest waterways, from the Ganges
Archaeological work ahead of the construction of a controversial road tunnel beside Stonehenge has led to the discovery of ancient graves, including one with the remains of a baby dating back more than 4,500 years; a strange earth enclosure; and prehistoric pottery, among other buried treasures. Some of the finds may have been used by people
Even as a hollow ball of embryonic cells, developing fish and mammals are not entirely defenceless. The very first tissue, formed on the surface of a vertebrate blastula, has been shown to possess an innate immune response. Incredible new research has shown that long before the development of organs or specialized immune cells, this
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Mothers who showed the most academic promise in high school have the same leadership opportunities as fathers who performed the worst, according to our new peer-reviewed study. That is, in their early-to-mid careers, mothers who got straight A’s end up overseeing a similar number of employees as men who got F’s. To reach these
In 1938, a living relic, thought 65 million years long extinct, was accidentally captured in a trawl net off the coast of South Africa. The 2-metre (6.5-foot) long coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae) turned out to be one of our closest fish relatives – looking largely unchanged since its most recent appearance in the fossil record back
Now that the bin-fire that was 2020 is in our rear view mirror, social media is making a return to serious discussions that truly matter. Like how many colors a thing has. Again. Earlier this month, a classic optical illusion was posted on Twitter with the question “How many colors do you see?” The
Fossil fuel pollution caused more than eight million premature deaths in 2018, accounting for nearly 20 percent of adult mortality worldwide, researchers reported Tuesday. Half of that grim tally was split across China and India, with another million deaths equally distributed among Bangladesh, Indonesia, Japan and the United States, they reported in the journal Environmental
From childhood, we are taught that the world exists in three physical dimensions. That’s true, for the most part, but it skips over something quite fascinating: the strange two-dimensional world of nanoscale materials, like the ‘wonder material’ graphene. Graphene and its engineered, single-layer counterparts do in fact exist in three dimensions, albeit just barely
A new technique involving entangled photons has just led to a world first. Physicists have overcome a significant limitation of traditional holography by using quantum mechanics to successfully encode information within a hologram. This could result in a significant upgrade to holography, from entertainment purposes to more serious applications such as medical imaging. “Classical
The tectonic plates that cover Earth like a jigsaw puzzle move about as fast as our fingernails grow, but over the course of a billion years that’s enough to travel across the entire planet – as a fascinating new video shows. In one of the most complete models of tectonic plate movements ever put
In a significant move, Facebook has announced it will remove any misleading claims and misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccines from both Facebook and Instagram. It’s part of a broader move to help combat fake news about the pandemic. Since December, the platform has been removing claims about the coronavirus that have been debunked by health
His name was Srinivasa Ramanujan, and he had a unique gift for dreaming up mathematics of a kind few, if any, had ever contemplated. Attributing his skills to a divine goddess, the Indian mathematician introduced thousands of mathematical ideas and equations to the world, and was especially known for devising conjectures: mathematical propositions not yet
People who are fundamentally entitled, self-confident, manipulative, and callous do really well in the modern workplace. Now, a new study in Italy suggests those who show five narcissistic personality traits climb the corporate ladder much faster than their peers. In a survey of 172 Italian CEOs, those who scored higher in extraversion, overconfidence, self-esteem,
A review of millions of blood tests has shown a whole host of human hormones that fall into clear seasonal patterns, although these changes are small in magnitude. Hormones from the pituitary gland, which help control reproduction, metabolism, stress and lactation, were mostly found to peak in late summer. Peripheral organs under the control
An investigation in Poland has found people who show certain antisocial personality traits are more likely to support radical group actions and violence. Among 877 students, psychologists found those who ranked highly for ‘disinhibition’ or ‘meanness’ also displayed greater political radicalisation in a survey. Meanness, which refers to cold-heartedness or callousness, was found to
Like humans, marmosets – tiny monkeys with Einstein-like ear tufts native to Brazil – eavesdrop on conversations between others, and prefer to approach individuals they view positively, a study in the journal Science Advances showed Wednesday. While behavioral research has built up knowledge around the social lives of primates, it has tended to lack
Scientists are finally figuring out how much dark matter – the almost imperceptible material said to tug on everything, yet emit no light – really weighs. The new estimate helps pin down how heavy its particles could be – with implications for what the mysterious stuff actually is. The research sharply narrows the potential mass
US cities are significantly undercounting their greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new study published this week in Nature Communications. The researchers compared self-reported emissions data from 48 US cities to independent estimates based on federal data about factories, power plants, and roads, among other sources. They found cities are under-reporting by nearly 20
When sperm race, it’s for keeps. So it comes as little surprise that in some species, the competition over who reaches the egg first can get a little dirty. A variant in mice genes has been found to give sperm that possess it a clear advantage by poisoning its peers while they’re still in development,
In a fascinating discovery, a widespread virus that usually harms plants from the cabbage family, such as broccoli and cauliflower, has been seen actually benefiting its hosts in times of crisis. During periods of drought, researchers have found the turnip mosaic virus can switch from a hindrance to a help, altering its host’s circadian
Up to 1,000 shipping vessels storm through blue whale feeding grounds in northern Patagonia every day, according to a new study from researchers who say the findings should support an urgent conversation about the regulation of marine traffic in Chile. The research, which used satellite tracking data to identify where blue whales – the
A 38-foot-long (11.5 meters) whale that washed ashore in the Florida Everglades in January 2019 turns out to be a completely new species. And it’s already considered endangered, scientists say. When the corpse of the behemoth washed up along Sandy Key – underweight with a hard piece of plastic in its gut – scientists
Tangle-web spiders are little creatures with big appetites. New research has found some species of this family can tweak their silk traps to lift extremely large prey – sometimes up to 50 times heavier than themselves – suspending their meal many centimetres off the ground. Considering the size of these hunters, many of which
Some types of human food might be easier for your dog to digest than dry pellets of dog kibble, according to a new study. Whether or not that more natural ancestral diet results in a healthier dog is another matter, but at the very least, it could get your pet to poop much less (up to
When a black hole is active, we tend to focus on the effect it has on the material it’s slurping up. It makes sense to do so; black holes themselves are difficult to probe. But the interaction between the black hole and the material should have an effect on the black hole, too – as
In the awful wake of an oil spill, it’s typically the smallest of organisms who do most of the cleaning up. Surprisingly, scientists know very little about the tools these tiny clean-up crews have at their disposal. But now, thanks to a new study, researchers have uncovered a whole new cycle of natural hydrocarbon
The pitter-patter of little feet in a child’s bedroom is a joyous sound – except perhaps when those feet belong to hundreds of baby huntsman spiders. “Gaaaahhhhhhhh, a friend of mine in Sydney just walked into her daughter’s room and found this,” Hobart, Australia resident Peta Rogers tweeted on Jan. 27. Rogers’ Sydney friend, who asked not
The discovery of a rare “mud mummy” from ancient Egypt has surprised archaeologists, who weren’t expecting to find the deceased encased in a hardened mud shell. The “mud carapace” is an unparalleled find; it reveals “a mortuary treatment not previously documented in the Egyptian archaeological record,” the researchers wrote in the study, published online Wednesday (Feb. 3)
Dragons lurk at the edges of the map of known elements – atomic giants so delicate, and so scarce, they defy easy study. One such behemoth has finally given up at least some of its secrets, with chemists managing to gather just enough einsteinium to flesh out important details on the mysterious element’s chemistry and
There are hidden signs of an impending break-up up to three months before it occurs, a new study has found – you just need to pay attention to the language people are using. And not just when partners are talking about their relationship, either. New research analysed more than 1 million posts on Reddit and
The Antarctic ice sheet is not melting in the linear way our climate models predicted it would. Instead, a more detailed model shows that while the rate of ice loss in the South Pole is rapidly accelerating, there are bumps of snowfall and brief reprieves from melt along the way. “The ice sheet is
Anyone who has lived with a dog will know their capacity for learning the meaning of words, even ones you don’t want them to know. How many times have you had to spell the words “walk” or “dinner” in the hope of avoiding an explosion of excitement? Previous studies have investigated how non-human animals,
To be a scorpion mama is to have a heavy weight on your shoulders… the weight of up to 100 of your kiddos getting a free ride. We first discovered this quirk of parenting after seeing an Instagram post about about the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum’s baby bark scorpions (Centriroides exilicauda) on our favourite baby animal
Everybody loves a good optical illusion – and this trippy perception trick has us questioning how we see the world around us. Take a look at those lines in the image above (or you can see the full picture below if you scroll down a bit). What kind of lines do you see? Are they straight,
Scientists have developed a new kind of cryogenic computer chip capable of functioning at temperatures so cold, it approaches the theoretical limit of absolute zero. This cryogenic system, called Gooseberry, lays the groundwork for what could be a revolution in quantum computing – enabling a new generation of machines to perform calculations with thousands of
Archaeologists have found a 2,000-year-old mummy with a gold tongue at an ancient Egyptian site called Taposiris Magna. Embalmers perhaps placed the golden tongue on the mummy to ensure that the deceased would be able to speak in the afterlife, the Egyptian antiquities ministry said in a statement released Jan 29. For instance, if
Facts are the cornerstones of reality. At least, they used to be. In today’s ultra-polarised environment, however – marked by deep political divisions, heightened social tensions, and a deluge of misinformation and fake news – facts are rather less certain in people’s minds than they once were. Because of this strange ambiguity in how
The world’s smallest male reptile can fit right on your fingertip – if its massive genitals don’t get in its way. Meet Brookesia nana, an extremely tiny species of chameleon from the rainforests of northern Madagascar. Researchers recently described one male and one female of the species in a study published January 28 in the journal Scientific Reports,
A four-year-old girl stunned paleontologists after she found a perfectly-preserved dinosaur footprint that dates back 220 million years. Lily Wilder made the discovery on January 23 while walking along a beach in South Wales with her father and dog. The family was on their way to the supermarket when Wilder saw the footprint imprinted on
An international team of scientists in South China accidentally discovered the oldest terrestrial fossil ever found, about three times more ancient than the oldest known dinosaur. Investigations are still ongoing and observations will need to be independently verified, but the international team argues the long thread-like fingers of this ancient organism look a lot
Biologists are accustomed to hearing stories of microbes manipulating their host – a fungus that turns ants into suicidal zombies, a protozoan that makes rats seek out cat urine – but there are few examples of hosts turning the tables on their microbes. My colleagues and I just published a paper that demonstrated that
The Atacama Desert has a fearsome reputation. The world’s driest non-polar desert, located along the Pacific coast of northern Chile, constitutes a hyperarid, Mars-like environment – one so extreme that when it rains in this parched place, it can bring death instead of life. Yet life, even in the Atacama Desert, finds a way.
Modern-day aircraft already make use of jet streams to save time and fuel, but a new study shows that by being a bit smarter about how they ride these winds, transatlantic flights could be using up to 16 percent less fuel – and pumping out much less CO2 as a result. The key is
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