Other Sciences News

You et al. studied supercooled water at timescales before ice formation by heating high- and low-density amorphous ices using infrared ultrafast laser pulses, followed by X-ray scattering; they observed a rapid increase in the heat capacity indicating a critical divergence at 210 K coincident with enhanced density fluctuations. Image credit: POSTECH University.

Physicists Find First Experimental Evidence of Elusive Critical Point in Supercooled Water

Mar 30, 2026 by News Staff

By probing supercooled water with ultrafast lasers before it crystallizes, physicists at Stockholm University observed telltale signs of a long-theorized...

Gubatan et al. demonstrate that vitamin D promotes immune tolerance to gut microbiota in patients with inflammatory bowel disease. Image credit: Gubatan et al., doi: 10.1016/j.xcrm.2026.102703.

Vitamin D Shows Promise in Resetting Immune System in Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Mar 26, 2026 by News Staff

New research suggests that vitamin D supplements can reshape how the immune system responds to gut bacteria in patients with inflammatory bowel disease,...

Canadian Eskimo dogs. Illustration by John James Audubon and John Bachman (1845-1848).

Ancient DNA Study Rewrites Origins of Europe’s First Dogs

Mar 26, 2026 by News Staff

Scientists have extracted and analyzed DNA from 216 canid remains, including 181 from Paleolithic and Mesolithic Europe. The oldest data that they recovered...

Hadean Earth. Image credit: Alec Brenner.

Earth’s Lithosphere was Already Segmented and Mobile 3.5 Billion Years Ago

Mar 22, 2026 by News Staff

By tracing magnetic signals preserved in 3.5-billion-year-old rocks in Western Australia, geoscientists have found the oldest direct evidence yet that...

The Acropolis at Athens by Leo von Klenze.

Democracy’s Roots Run Far Deeper than Ancient Greece, New Study Says

Mar 19, 2026 by News Staff

Examining 31 ancient societies across Europe, Asia, and the Americas, researchers found that democratic systems were more widespread than once believed...

A butterfly clay bead from the Final Natufian period in Eynan-Mallaha, the Upper Jordan Valley, colored red with ochre and marked with the fingerprints of the child (around 10 years old) who modeled it 12,000 years ago. Image credit: Laurent Davin.

Long Before Pottery, Children Shaped Clay to Tell Stories

Mar 19, 2026 by News Staff

A cache of 142 beads and pendants from five Natufian (15,000 to 11,650 years before the present) sites in Israel reveals that clay was first used not for...

Mortierellomycetes and Umbelopsidomycetes fungi from freshwater ecosystems in Korea. Image credit: Goh et al., doi: 10.4489/kjm.20230018.

Fungi Found to Trigger Ice Formation

Mar 19, 2026 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the United States and Germany has identified fungal proteins that can freeze water at relatively warm subzero temperatures,...

The occasional use of stone tools as ‘strike-a-lights’ was a technocultural feature shared among Neanderthals in France.

Neanderthals May Have Used Birch Tar as Natural Antibiotic

Mar 18, 2026 by News Staff

New experiments show that tar made from birch bark — long known as a tool adhesive — can inhibit harmful bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus,...

Straight-tusked elephants (Palaeoloxodon antiquus) were the largest land mammals of the European Pleistocene. Image credit: Hodari Nundu, CC-BY-4.0.

Neanderthals May Have Hunted Giant Elephants that Roamed across Prehistoric Europe

Mar 16, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Chemical clues preserved in the teeth of straight-tusked elephants (Palaeoloxodon antiquus) from the 125,000-year-old site of Neumark-Nord in Germany suggest...

Li et al. evaluated the two-year effect of daily multivitamin-multimineral supplements and cocoa extract (500 mg cocoa flavanols per day, including 80 mg epicatechin) on five DNA methylation measures of biological aging among 958 participants (482 women and 476 men) in the COSMOS study. Image credit: Ri Butov.

New Research Links Daily Multivitamins to Slower Biological Aging

Mar 11, 2026 by News Staff

In a randomized clinical trial of older adults, researchers found that taking multivitamins for two years modestly slowed epigenetic markers of aging —...

Graecopithecus freybergi lived 7.2 million years ago in the dust-laden savannah of the Athens Basin. This view from Graecopithecus freybergi’s place of discovery, Pyrgos Vassilissis, to the southeast over the plain of Athens and under a reddish cloud of Sahara dust; in the background: Mount Hymettos and Mount Lykabettos. Image credit: Velizar Simeonovski.

Graecopithecus May Have Been Partially Bipedal, New Fossil Suggests

Mar 5, 2026 by Sergio Prostak

A 7.2-million-year-old thigh bone unearthed at the fossil site of Azmaka in southern Bulgaria displays a mosaic of features suggesting a unique combination...

Neolithic Europeans Had Surprisingly Complex Cuisine, Archaeologists Say

Mar 5, 2026 by News Staff

An international team of archaeologists has examined a total of 85 pottery sherds with substantial amounts of foodcrusts from 13 archaeological sites across...

Reconstruction of the face of StW 573. Image credit: A. Beaudet.

Scientists Digitally Reconstruct Face of ‘Little Foot’

Mar 3, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Beyond their value for classification and evolutionary relationships, changes in the size and shape of the hominin face through time can reflect important...

Study: Ancient Mating Preferences Helped Shape Human Genome

Mar 2, 2026 by News Staff

Prehistoric humans and Neanderthals didn’t just interbreed, they did so with a consistent sex bias, as male Neanderthals and female modern humans mated...

The arrival of Homo erectus in Southeast Asia 1.8 million years ago triggered the evolution of major human malaria vectors.

Arrival of Homo erectus in Southeast Asia Changed Mosquito Menu, New Study Suggests

Feb 26, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

The ancestors of today’s malaria-spreading mosquitoes in the Anopheles leucosphyrus (Leucosphyrus) group may have shifted to feeding on humans around...

Coronae glow on the tips of spruce needles, induced by charged metal plates in a laboratory. Image credit: William Brune.

Scientists Observe Electrical Discharges on Trees under Thunderstorms

Feb 26, 2026 by Sergio Prostak

Most people know about lightning and the havoc it wreaks on forests. They do not know about the weak electrical glow, called a corona, that is thought...

Plaquette with hybrid creature (so-called ‘Adorant’), ivory, from the Swabian Aurignacian. Image credit: Christian Bentz & Ewa Dutkiewicz, doi: 10.1073/pnas.2520385123.

Early Humans May Have Invented System of Symbols Long Before Writing

Feb 25, 2026 by Sergio Prostak

Early humans living in Europe some 40,000 years ago developed a conventional system of geometric signs — deliberate, repeatable markings that went...

In adults with prediabetes, daily inclusion of avocado and mango increases fruit consumption, diversifies nutrient composition, and improves vascular function associated with cardiovascular health. Image credit: Tomek Walecki.

Avocado and Mango Daily Might Boost Vascular Health in Adults with Prediabetes

Feb 25, 2026 by Natali Anderson

Adding one avocado and a cup of mango each day improves vascular health indices and reduces key cardiometabolic risk factors in people with elevated blood...

Extra-virgin olive oil, a major component of the Mediterranean diet, protects against cognitive decline. Image credit: Steve Buissinne.

Virgin Olive Oil Tied to Slower Cognitive Decline through Gut Microbiome Changes

Feb 24, 2026 by Natali Anderson

A large prospective cohort study finds that older adults who eat more virgin olive oil — a key component of the Mediterranean diet — have slower...