Other Sciences News

Neanderthal family. Image credit: Field Museum.

New Research Sheds Light on Childhood Stress in Neanderthals and Paleolithic Humans

May 29, 2024 by News Staff

Neanderthals’ lives were historically portrayed as highly stressful, shaped by constant pressures to survive in harsh ecological conditions, thus potentially...

Chronic caffeine intake prompts compensatory and cumulative dopamine transporter downregulation, consistent with caffeine’s reported risk reduction in Parkinson’s disease. Image credit: Clinical Neurosciences, University of Turku.

Regular Caffeine Consumption Affects Brain Dopamine Function in Parkinson’s Patients, Study Says

May 28, 2024 by News Staff

In a new cross-sectional and longitudinal study, researchers from the University of Turku and Turku University Hospital investigated the effects of dietary...

Senavirathna et al. are investigating the effects ellagic acid -- an antioxidant found in some pomegranates, raspberries, strawberries, and grapes, and nuts -- could have on halting and potentially reversing the damage caused by fatty liver disease. Image credit: Engin Akyurt.

Ellagic Acid May Represent Potential Food Intervention for Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: Study

May 27, 2024 by News Staff

Ellagic acid is a polyphenolic, non-flavonoid compound naturally found in a variety of fruits, such as pomegranates, raspberries, strawberries, and grapes,...

Conceptual art shows the rare earth element promethium in a vial surrounded by an organic ligand. Image credit: Jacqueline DeMink / Thomas Dyke / ORNL.

Scientists Determine Properties of Extremely Rare Element: Promethium

May 22, 2024 by News Staff

Promethium is extremely rare, with only about 0.5 kg naturally occurring in Earth’s crust at any given time. Conceptual art shows the rare earth element...

The water course of the ancient Ahramat Branch of the Nile. Image credit: Ghoneim et al., doi: 10.1038/s43247-024-01379-7.

Majority of Egyptian Pyramids Was Built along Long-Lost Branch of Nile, Archaeologists Say

May 21, 2024 by News Staff

Archaeologists in Egypt have identified segments of a 64-km-long extinct branch of the river Nile, which they name the Ahramat Branch, running at the foothills...

Mediterranean diet is inversely associated with the severity of symptoms related to anxiety and stress.

Mediterranean Diet Reduces Anxiety and Lessens Stress, Study Suggests

May 21, 2024 by Natali Anderson

In new research, scientists from the University of the Sunshine Coast and the University of South Australia found that adherence to a Mediterranean diet...

The Hitra man was around 169 cm tall, fair-haired and blue-eyed. Image credit: Thomas Foldberg / Åge Hojem / NTNU University Museum.

Norwegian Archaeologists Unveil Face of Stone Age Hitra Man

May 20, 2024 by News Staff

The 4,000-year-old skeletal remains of a Scandinavian man were found in 1916 on the island of Hitra, Norway. The Hitra man was around 169 cm tall, fair-haired...

Using the latest archaeological data, hindcasted climate projections, and age-structured demographic models, Bradshaw et al. demonstrate evidence for early arrival (14,257 to 13,182 years ago) to Cyprus and predicted that large groups of people (1,000 to 1,375) arrived in 2 to 3 main events occurring within less than 100 years to ensure low extinction risk. Image credit: Bradshaw et al., doi: 10.1073/pnas.2318293121.

Hunter-Gatherers Settled in Cyprus Thousands of Years Earlier than Previously Thought

May 20, 2024 by News Staff

Because of persisting narratives of isolation, inaccessibility, and unattractiveness, the initial peopling of one of the eastern Mediterranean islands...

Casati et al. demonstrated experimentally the solar-trapping effect at temperatures as high as 1,050 degrees Celsius; by using quartz as the volumetric absorption medium, they performed stagnation experiments under concentrated thermal radiation and achieved steady-state temperature differences between the absorber and the outer surface of about 600 degrees Celsius. Image credit: Casati et al., doi: 10.1016/j.device.2024.100399.

Researchers Demonstrate Thermal Trapping of Solar Radiation at 1,922 Degrees Fahrenheit

May 15, 2024 by News Staff

With the world focusing on decarbonizing electricity and transportation, abating emissions from industrial process heat remain the elephant in the room....

Schneiders et al. suggest it takes more than a carefully designed robot to care for your cat, the environment in which they operate is also vital, as well as human interaction. Image credit: Schneiders et al., doi: 10.1145/3613904.3642115.

Would You Trust Robot to Look After Your Cat?

May 14, 2024 by News Staff

Scientists from the University of Nottingham and artists from Blast Theory have created Cat Royale, a multispecies world centered around a bespoke enclosure...

Large language models and other AI systems have already learned, from their training, the ability to deceive via techniques such as manipulation, sycophancy, and cheating the safety test.

Large Language Models and Other AI Systems are Already Capable of Deceiving Humans, Scientists Say

May 14, 2024 by News Staff

In a new review paper published in the journal Patterns, researchers argue that a range of current AI systems have learned how to deceive humans. They...

Kharintsev et al. found that photons can obtain substantial momentum, similar to that of electrons in solid materials, when confined to nanometer-scale spaces in silicon. Image credit: Kharintsev et al.

Scientists Discover New Property of Light

May 7, 2024 by News Staff

A team of physicists and chemists has discovered a previously unknown way in which light interacts with matter, a finding that could lead to improved solar...

Collins et al. estimated flow through 3 million river segments, identifying locations around the world marked by intense human water use, including parts of the Colorado, Amazon, Orange, and Murray-Darling river basins, shown as gray here. Image credit: NASA.

New Study Provides Estimates of How Much Water Courses through Earth’s Rivers

Apr 30, 2024 by News Staff

Accurate assessment of global river flows and stores is critical for informing water management practices, but current estimates of global river flows...

Earth’s magnetic field lines. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Earliest Evidence of Earth’s Magnetic Field Found in Greenland

Apr 25, 2024 by News Staff

Recovering ancient records of Earth’s magnetic field is challenging because the magnetization in rocks is often reset by heating during tectonic burial...

Preparation of goldene. Image credit: Kashiwaya et al., doi: 10.1038/s44160-024-00518-4.

Scientists Create Single-Atom-Thick Gold: Goldene

Apr 23, 2024 by News Staff

Goldene in the form of gold monolayer sheets has been prepared by etching away titanium carbide (Ti3C2) slabs from titanium gold carbide (Ti3AuC2). Preparation...

A Homo heidelbergensis, a Neanderthal and a Cro-Magnon. Image credit: SINC / José Antonio Peñas.

Interspecific Competition Played Key Role in Rise and Fall of Hominins, Study Suggests

Apr 17, 2024 by News Staff

Conventionally, climate is held responsible for the emergence and extinction of hominin species. In most vertebrates, however, interspecies competition...

Toffoli et al. report direct observations of surface waves from a stereo camera system along with concurrent measurements of wind speed during an expedition across the Southern Ocean in the austral winter aboard the South African icebreaker S.A. Agulhas II. Image credit: Alessandro Toffoli.

Strong Winds Drive Formation of Colossal Rogue Waves, Scientists Say

Apr 16, 2024 by News Staff

A rogue wave is a single swell that is much higher than nearby waves, which can damage ships or coastal infrastructure. Ocean waves are among the most...

The great kiskadee (Pitangus sulphuratus) in Beeville, Texas, the United States, in July 2011. Image credit: Tess Thornton / CC BY-SA 3.0 Deed.

Scientists Translate Vocal Muscle Activity of Birds during Sleep into Synthetic Songs

Apr 15, 2024 by News Staff

During sleep, sporadically, it is possible to find neural patterns of activity in areas of the avian brain that are activated during the generation of...

A group of Neanderthals in a cave. Image credit: Tyler B. Tretsven.

Study: Just Like Homo sapiens, Neanderthals Organized Their Living Space in Structured Way

Apr 11, 2024 by News Staff

Because it is often assumed that fundamental behavioral differences distinguish Neanderthals and Homo sapiens, the ability to structure space within the...