Water is made of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom, hence its H2O formula. In typical water molecules, though, those hydrogen atoms have just one proton at their core. In cometary water, a high ratio of its water molecules contain deuterium (D), a form of hydrogen with the standard issue proton plus a neutron. With more than 30 times deuterated water or semi-heavy water (HDO) seen in solar system...

NASA’s Curiosity rover has detected more than 20 carbon-containing compounds — including seven never before seen on Mars — in a sample collected from 3.5-billion-year-old clay-bearing sandstones in Gale Crater. A close-up of three holes Curiosity drilled into Martian rock at a location nicknamed Mary Anning in October 2020. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS. Nicknamed Mary Anning...

Hominins at the Acheulian site of Gesher Benot Ya’aqov in Israel relied on driftwood gathered along a lakeshore to fuel their hearths, according to new research led by archaeologists from the Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social and Bar-Ilan University; 780,000-year-old charcoal fragments from the site show that survival wasn’t about finding the perfect wood — it...

A new genus and species of titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur related to South American forms has been described by a team of paleontologist led by University of Bath’s Dr. Nick Longrich. An artist’s reconstruction of Phosphatotitan khouribgaensis. Image credit: Connor Ashbridge. Phosphatotitan khouribgaensis lived in what is now Morocco during the ‘late, but not latest,’ Maastrichtian age of...

A new analysis of honeybee vision suggests their ability to distinguish quantities is not a trick of visual patterns, but evidence of genuine numerical cognition shaped by how their brains see the world. Understanding the mechanisms underlying animal cognition requires experimental designs and analyses that respect the biological and perceptual constraints of the species being studied. Zanon et al....

New research suggests that infrasound — very low-frequency sound below 20 Hz — can increase cortisol levels and irritability, offering a scientific explanation for why some ‘haunted’ places feel unsettling. Scatterty et al. used a combination of self-report and biological measures to demonstrate that infrasound can have irritant, and aversive properties on humans. Similarly, infrasound...

In a large clinical trial, Tufts University researcher Bess Dawson-Hughes and colleagues found that vitamin D supplements reduced diabetes risk only in people with certain genetic variants, pointing toward a more personalized approach to prevention. Dawson-Hughes et al. found prediabetic adults with certain variations in the vitamin D receptor gene had a 19% lower risk of developing diabetes when...

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from eight fossils found in Stajnia Cave in Poland reveals a tight-knit group of Neanderthals who lived about 100,000 years ago, offering one of the clearest genetic snapshots yet of a single community in prehistoric Europe. At least seven Neanderthals lived in Stajnia Cave in what is now Poland around 100,000 years ago. Image credit: Tyler B. Tretsven. Stajnia Cave is situated...

If you’ve ever wondered how geologists know so much about ancient beaches and shallow oceans — from the paleoenvironment to the animals roaming around, the seasonality of the weather, and even the time of day when the ancient scene was preserved — they owe it all to the sand particles bound together by microbes, forming structures known as microbial mats. A planar microbial mat with...

New research suggests that infrasound — very low-frequency sound below 20 Hz — can increase cortisol levels and irritability, offering a scientific explanation for why some ‘haunted’ places feel unsettling. Scatterty et al. used a combination of self-report and biological measures to demonstrate that infrasound can have irritant, and aversive properties on humans. Similarly, infrasound...