Other Sciences News

Climate Plays Role in Shaping Evolution of Human Languages, New Study Reveals

Global distribution of MSIs across 9,179 language varieties from the ASJP database. Color of dots represents the MSI of the language, with redder dots indicating higher and bluer dots indicating lower indices. The fill color of land areas represents the mean annual temperature. Image credit: Wang et al., doi: 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgad384.
Dec 5, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Sounds of human languages can be affected by various factors of the natural environment. One such factor is the mean annual temperature. In new research, scientists from Nankai University and Kiel University analyzed the average sonority (loudness of speech sounds) of basic words of nearly three-quarters of the world’s languages, and confirmed a positive correlation between sonority and local temperature. Their findings suggest that lower temperatures,...

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Equipped with a specialized event-based camera, ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen managed to capture this picture of a red sprite in October 2023. Image credit: ESA / DTU / A. Mogensen.

ESA Astronaut Captures Stunning Images of Rare Thunder Phenomenon

Dec 1, 2023 by News Staff

As part of the Thor-Davis experiment on the International Space Station (ISS), ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen has captured images of a phenomenon called...

Castor sp. from the Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America by John Woodhouse Audubon.

Hominins Hunted Beavers At Least 400,000 Years Ago, Ancient Bones Reveal

Nov 29, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Archaeologists from the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, the Leibniz Zentrum für Archäologie and Leiden University say they have found cut marks...

Bear skins have high insulating properties and might have played a role in the adaptations of Middle Pleistocene hominins, such as Homo heidelbergensis depicted here, to the cold and harsh winter conditions of Northwestern Europe. Image credit: Benoît Clarys.

Middle Paleolithic Human Diet was More Diverse than Previously Thought

Nov 28, 2023 by News Staff

Archaeologists from the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment at the University of Tübingen have analyzed the ancient animal remains...

Lovich et al. show that eye movement-related eardrum oscillations contain parametric information about horizontal and vertical eye displacement as well as initial/final eye position with respect to the head. Image credit: Lovich et al., doi: 10.1073/pnas.2303562120.

Eye Movements Can Be Decoded by Sounds They Generate in Ears, Study Shows

Nov 27, 2023 by News Staff

New research shows that the small sounds generated within the ear by the brain contain accurate information about contemporaneous eye movements in the...

Mendieta et al. used fMRI to measure brain activity in fans of rival soccer teams during match play. This image shows the contrast of winning and losing in the ‘good fanatic brain.’ It shows in warm colors the activity related to a significant victory. The blue scale represents the activation related to a significant loss; this pattern is congruent with the Mentalization Network, which suggests a rationalization process of the pain evoked by the losing scenario. Image credit: Mendieta et al.

Neuroscientists Use Brain Scans of Soccer Fans to Study Fanaticism

Nov 22, 2023 by News Staff

Soccer is an excellent social affiliation model, promoting inclusivity, teamwork, community spirit, social change, and personal achievement. Still, the...

The facial reconstruction of the La Chapelle-aux-Saints Neanderthal. Image credit: Moraes et al.

Scientists Reconstruct Face of La Chapelle-aux-Saints Neanderthal

Nov 21, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleoanthropologists have reconstructed the face of a Neanderthal man whose 56,000-year-old remains were found at La Chapelle-aux-Saints in south-central...

Spatial wavefront of a narrowband laser beam is shaped by a spatial light modulator and excites many modes in a multimode fiber. Image credit: Chen et al., doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-42806-1.

Physicists Find New Way to Increase Power of Fiber Lasers

Nov 21, 2023 by News Staff

An international team of physicists has demonstrated the potential use of multimode optical fiber to scale up power in fiber lasers by three-to-nine times...

Krikorian et al. showed that daily supplementation with 13 g whole fruit strawberry powder reduced interference in memory and depressive symptoms in overweight middle-aged individuals. Image credit: Robert Owen-Wahl.

Strawberry Consumption Reduces Risk of Dementia, New Study Suggests

Nov 20, 2023 by Natali Anderson

Late-life dementia is a growing public health concern lacking effective treatment. Neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease develop over...

Kim et al. suggest that chemical exchange between the core and mantle over gigayears of deep transport of water may have contributed to the formation of the putative E’ layer. Image credit: Yonsei University.

Surface Water Penetrates Deep into Earth, New Research Suggests

Nov 14, 2023 by News Staff

A few decades ago, seismologists identified a thin layer with a lower velocity in Earth’s metallic liquid core. The origin of this layer, known as the...

Fernandez-Velasco et al. show that left-handedness is not associated with either a benefit or a deficit in spatial ability. Image credit: Adrian.

Left-Handedness is Not Linked to Better Spatial Skills: Study

Nov 10, 2023 by News Staff

There is an active debate concerning the association of handedness and spatial ability. Past studies used small sample sizes. Determining the effect of...

Lauren Scott & Brittany Florkiewicz show that cat facial signals correspond to different social functions, which have likely been influenced by domestication. Image credit: Sci.News / Makieni777 / Rise-a-mui / Alexas_Fotos / Dorothe / Vaclav Zavada / Artem Makarov / Daga Roszkowska / Birgit / Pasi Mammela.

Study: Domestic Cats Have 276 Distinct Facial Expressions

Nov 6, 2023 by Natali Anderson

In a new study published in the journal Behavioural Processes, researchers from the University of Kansas Medical Center and Lyon College documented the...

Lai et al. developed a novel system combining virtual reality and a brain-machine interface to probe the rat’s inner thoughts.

Rats Have Imagination, New Study Reveals

Nov 6, 2023 by News Staff

The hippocampus holds a model of the environment that can be mentally traversed during recall or simulation. It is unknown whether animals can intentionally...

The synthetic melanin is being applied to inflamed skin; just under the surface of the skin are green free radicals, also known as reactive oxygen species (ROS). Image credit: Yu Chen, Northwestern University.

Synthetic Melanin Cream Improves Skin Healing after Chemical and UV-Induced Injuries

Nov 2, 2023 by News Staff

In a new study, scientists at Northwestern University show that their synthetic melanin, mimicking the natural melanin in human skin, can be applied topically...

Coventry et al. show that speakers of all tested languages use spatial demonstratives as a function of being able to reach or act on an object being referred to. Image credit: Coventry et al., doi: 10.1038/s41562-023-01697-4.

Study: All Languages around the World Have Words for ‘This’ and ‘That’

Nov 2, 2023 by News Staff

In new research, scientists from the University of East Anglia and elsewhere studied 874 speakers of 29 different languages, including English, Spanish,...

Yuan et al. suggest that LLVPs are remnants of the ancient protoplanet Theia that violently collided with Earth billions of years ago in the same giant impact that created our Moon. Image credit: Hernán Cañellas.

Two Fragments of Protoplanet Theia Lie Deep within Earth, Geoscientists Say

Nov 1, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

A giant collision between the ancient protoplanet Theia and the proto-Earth about 4.5 billion years ago may have formed Earth’s Moon as well as two continent-sized...

Ramsey problems, such as r(4,5) are simple to state, but as shown in this graph, the possible solutions are nearly endless, making them very difficult to solve. Image credit: Jacques Verstraete / University of California, San Diego.

Mathematicians Solve Long-Standing Ramsey Problem

Nov 1, 2023 by News Staff

A duo of mathematicians at the University of California, San Diego, has found the answer to r(4,t), a long-standing Ramsey problem that has perplexed the...

This painting depicts an asteroid slamming into tropical, shallow seas of the sulfur-rich Yucatan Peninsula in what is today southeast Mexico. The aftermath of this immense asteroid collision, which occurred approximately 65 million years ago, is believed to have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs and many other species on Earth. Shown in this painting are pterodactyls, flying reptiles with wingspans of up to 50 feet, gliding above low tropical clouds. Image credit: Donald E. Davis / NASA.

Study: Asteroid Impact-Generated Dust Played Key Role in Dinosaur-Killing Mass Extinction

Oct 31, 2023 by News Staff

About 66 million years ago, a massive asteroid crashed into Earth near the site of the small town of Chicxulub in what is now Mexico. The impact eradicated...

Overview of the bioinformatic workflow for the recovery of metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) from fruits and vegetables and the detection of their presence in the gut. Image credit: Wicaksono et al., doi: 10.1080/19490976.2023.2258565.

Fruit- and Vegetable-Derived Microbes Contribute to Gut Microbiome Diversity, Study Shows

Oct 31, 2023 by Natali Anderson

Diversity of the gut microbiota is crucial for human health. A new study provides the first evidence of the interconnection between the plant and the gut...

Jamieson et al. discover an extensive relic pre-glacial landscape preserved beneath the central East Antarctic Ice Sheet despite millions of years of ice cover. Image credit: Jamieson et al., doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-42152-2.

Geoscientists Discover Ancient River-Carved Landscape beneath East Antarctic Ice Sheet

Oct 25, 2023 by News Staff

Geoscientists from Durham University and elsewhere have discovered a landscape that appears to have been formed by rivers at least 14 million years ago...

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