Other Sciences News

Heavy smoking has a damaging effect on facial aging. Image credit: Jui Magicman.

Moderate Cannabis Use Has Adverse Effects on Cognitive Functioning, Study Suggests

Sep 7, 2020 by News Staff

Moderate adolescent cannabis use may have adverse effects on cognitive functioning, specifically verbal memory, that cannot be explained by familial factors,...

The ENGAGE device. Image credit: Northwestern University.

Researchers Create Battery-Free, Energy-Harvesting Gaming Device

Sep 4, 2020 by News Staff

A team of scientists from Northwestern University and the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) has developed the first-ever battery-free, personal...

An artistic rendering of the Horse Butchery Site and the Boxgrove people; it shows how the site was situated in front of towering chalk cliffs on the edge of an intertidal lagoon; the cliffs to the north provided all the flint used in tool making at the site and, within a few hours, the tide would have begun to cover the site in fine silt, preserving evidence of the day’s activity. Image credit: Lauren Gibson / Institute of Archaeology, University College London.

Homo heidelbergensis was Extremely Resourceful, New Research Shows

Sep 3, 2020 by News Staff

New research pieces together the activities and movements of a group of Homo heidelbergensis, a poorly understood species of archaic humans that lived...

A stone plaquette engraved with abstract designs from the Magdalenian site of Les Varines, Jersey, Channel Islands. Image credit: Bello et al, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0236875.

15,000-Year-Old Abstract Art Found in Channel Islands

Sep 2, 2020 by News Staff

A team of archaeologists from the United Kingdom has uncovered 15,000-year-old stone plaquettes extensively engraved with abstract designs at the Magdalenian...

Miskin et al built microsopic robots that consist of a simple circuit made from silicon photovoltaics and four electrochemical actuators; when laser light is shined on the photovoltaics, the robots walk. Image credit: Miskin et al, doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2626-9.

Researchers Create Laser-Activated Walking Microrobots

Aug 27, 2020 by News Staff

A team of scientists from Cornell University and the University of Pennsylvania has developed a new class of microscopic robots that incorporate semiconductor...

Earth’s internal structure: dense solid metallic core, viscous metallic outer core, mantle and silicate based crust. Image credit: NASA.

Earth’s Inner Core is Around 1.15 Billion Years Old, Study Shows

Aug 26, 2020 by News Staff

The inner core of our planet is between 1 and 1.3 billion years old, according to new research led by the University of Texas at Austin and Carnegie Institution...

NASA’s Viking 1 orbiter photographed the Cydonia region in the northern latitudes of Mars on July 25, 1976 while searching for a landing site for the Viking 2 lander. The speckled appearance of the image is due to missing data, called bit errors, caused by problems in transmission of the photographic data from Mars to Earth. Bit errors comprise part of one of the ‘eyes’ and ‘nostrils’ on the eroded rock that resembles a human face near the center of the image. Shadows in the rock formation give the illusion of a nose and mouth. Planetary geologists attribute the origin of the formation to purely natural processes. The feature is 1.5 km across, with the Sun angle at approximately 20 degrees. The picture was taken from a range of 1,873 km. Image credit: NASA / JPL.

Study: Face Pareidolia Reflects Activation of Same Visual Mechanisms that Process Real Human Faces

Aug 17, 2020 by News Staff

Face pareidolia is the phenomenon of seeing face-like structures in everyday objects. It is a very human condition that relates to how our brains are wired....

An American grasshopper with an improved brain sensor implant. Image credit: Raman Lab / Washington University in St. Louis.

Grasshoppers Can Discriminate Between Different Explosives’ Smells, Study Finds

Aug 14, 2020 by News Staff

In a new study published this month in the journal Biosensors and Bioelectronics: X, a team of scientists at Washington University in St. Louis showed...

Stable blue whirl observed in an experiment. Image credit: H. Xiao, University of Science and Technology of China.

Structure of Mysterious Blue Whirl Revealed

Aug 14, 2020 by News Staff

The blue whirl consists of three different flame structures that swirl together into one otherworldly blue ring, according to new research. Stable blue...

The 2016 7.1 earthquake on the Romanche Fracture Zone in the equatorial Atlantic. The map location is given by the red rectangle on the inset globe. Image credit: Hicks et al, doi: 10.1038/s41561-020-0619-9.

Geoscientists Record ‘Boomerang’ Earthquake in Atlantic Ocean

Aug 12, 2020 by News Staff

Earthquakes occur when rocks suddenly break on a fault — a boundary between two blocks or plates. During large earthquakes, the breaking of rock...

Various types of fluted points and preforms from Manayzah, Yemen: (1) double-fluted preform on a plano-convex elongated bifacial piece; (2) broken fluted preform on a bifacial elongated piece with symmetrical section; (3) base-fluted projectile point; (4 and 5) tip-fluted projectile points. Image credit: Crassard et al, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0236314.

Neolithic People in Arabia Used Same Fluting Technology as Ancient Native Americans

Aug 11, 2020 by News Staff

An international team of archaeologists has excavated and examined 8,000-year-old projectile points (spear- and arrowheads) at two sites in Yemen and Oman....

Coronal section of the human brain; amygdala is colored in purple; from Anatomy of the Human Body by Henry Gray.

Depression in Association with Anxiety Makes Amygdala Bigger

Aug 10, 2020 by News Staff

According to a new review of previous studies, published July 29 in the Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, depression is linked to areas of the brain...

Denisovans Interbred with Mysterious Archaic Hominin: Study

Aug 7, 2020 by News Staff

In a new study published in the journal PLoS Genetics, researchers analyzed the genomes of two Neanderthals, a Denisovan, and two African humans; and found...

Tetragonula carbonaria worker bees are observed to spend time clustered at the growing edges of terraces. Image credit: Tim Heard.

Chemists Find Biologically Active Sugar in Honey of Stingless Bees

Aug 3, 2020 by Sergio Prostak

An unusual bioactive disaccharide called trehalulose is a major component of stingless bee honeys from Malaysia, Australia and Brazil, according to a new...

The International Bathymetric Chart of the Arctic Ocean Version 4.0. Image credit: Jakobsson et al, doi: 10.1038/s41597-020-0520-9.

Researchers Create New Bathymetric Map of Arctic Ocean

Jul 29, 2020 by News Staff

A team of scientists from Europe, the United States, Canada, South Korea, Greenland and China has produced the most detailed depth map of the Arctic Ocean...

Krittanawong et al found that chocolate consumption (>1 time per week or >3.5 times per month) is associated with a reduced risk of coronary artery disease. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Chocolate Helps Keep Heart’s Blood Vessels Healthy, Review Suggests

Jul 28, 2020 by Sergio Prostak

A new systematic review and meta-analysis of previous studies suggests that the consumption of chocolates at least once a week is associated with a reduction...

Neanderthals are commonly thought to have relied on dangerous close range hunting techniques, using non-projectile weapons like the thrusting spears depicted here; this hunting approach is thought to have brought them into violent contact with large mammals, resulting in high levels of injury especially to the head and neck when compared to modern humans; Beier et al found similar head injury levels in both Neanderthals and Upper Paleolithic humans, casting doubt on this hypothesis. Image credit: Gleiver Prieto.

Neanderthals May Have Had Heightened Sensitivity to Pain

Jul 27, 2020 by News Staff

Neanderthals may have experienced more pain than average modern humans do, according to new research led by scientists from the Max Planck Institute for...

Conceptual illustrations of drawing on-skin electronics on paper using a 9B sketching pencil. Image credit: Xu et al, doi: 10.1073/pnas.2008422117.

Researchers Use Pencil to Draw Bioelectronic Devices on Human Skin

Jul 26, 2020 by News Staff

Scientists from the University of Missouri, the University of Illinois and Yale University have demonstrated that a combination of pencils and paper could...

The Cinder Cones seep, the Ross Sea, Antarctica: the white microbial mats are telltale signs of areas where methane may be released from underground methane deposits. Image credit: Andrew Thurber, Oregon State University.

Scientists Discover Antarctica’s First Active Methane Seep

Jul 24, 2020 by News Staff

A team of marine ecologists from Oregon State University has described the formation and development of a new methane seep — a location where methane...