Other Sciences News

New Fossil Finds Push Back Origins of Homo sapiens by 115,000 Years

Jun 8, 2017 by News Staff

The fossilized remains of at least five individuals discovered at the archaeological site of Jebel Irhoud in Morocco have been dated at 315,000 years,...

The Dead Sea, Israel. Image credit: David Shankbone / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Oldest Evidence of Humans’ Impact on Geological Processes Found in Israel

Jun 5, 2017 by News Staff

What is being reported as the earliest indication of humans’ impact on the Earth’s geology and ecosystems has been found in the Dead Sea, Israel —...

Schematic illustration depicting synthesis of the 3D-hm LSMO catalysts. Image credit: Wang et al.

Step Forward in Engineering High-Efficiency Nanohybrid Catalysts

Jun 1, 2017 by News Staff

Versatile superstructures composed of nanoparticles have recently been prepared using various disassembly methods. However, little information is known...

Apatite crystal showing electron density around atoms. Image credit: Arun Nair.

Mechanism That Controls Bone Formation, Function Discovered

Jun 1, 2017 by News Staff

Researchers have discovered a mechanism that controls the formation and function of plate-like nanocrystals that play a critical role in bone composition....

According to Siu et al, vision keeps maturing until mid-life. Image credit: Pexels.

Vision Keeps Maturing until 30s – Early 40s, Study Finds

May 30, 2017 by News Staff

The human primary visual cortex — the brain’s vision-processing center that was previously thought to mature within the first few years of life...

Santorio’s marginal note to col. 406C-D, in Santorio Santorio, Commentaria in Primam Fen Primi Libri Canonis Avicennae (Venice, 1625). Image credit: British Library.

Venetian Doctor Santorio Santorio Had Key Role in Shaping Early Modern Science

May 29, 2017 by News Staff

Newly discovered handwritten notes show for the first time the Venetian physician Santorio Santorio (1561–1636), who invented the thermometer and helped...

Quasi[1]catenane. Image credit: Steemers et al, doi: 10.1038/ncomms15392.

Chemists Synthesize Pretzel-Like Molecules

May 26, 2017 by News Staff

A team of chemists at the Van ‘t Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences of the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, has designed and synthesized...

Graecopithecus freybergi lived 7.2 million years ago in the dust-laden savannah of the Athens Basin. This view from Graecopithecus freybergi’ 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 freybergi: Oldest Hominin Lived in Europe, not Africa

May 24, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of paleoanthropologists, led by Professor Madelaine Böhme of the University of Tübingen, Germany, has analyzed 7.2 million-year-old...

Sonny & Cher performing the song ‘The Beat Goes On’ on Dutch TV program ‘Fanclub,’ February 4, 1967. Image credit: A. Vente / Beeld & Geluid Wiki / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Male Artists Sing about Romantic Love and Sex More Often than Female Performers

May 23, 2017 by News Staff

An analysis of song lyrics from 1960 through 2008 reveals that male artists sing about both romantic love and sex more often than female artists. However,...

Light and color would look different on a planet orbiting a tiny red star, like this artist’s impression of Proxima b. The Earth-sized planet in the habitable zone is the nearest exoplanet to our Sun. Image credit: ESO / M. Kornmesser.

Proxima b: Researchers Take First Steps to Explore Climate of Nearby Exoplanet

May 17, 2017 by News Staff

A team of astrophysicists and meteorology experts from the University of Exeter and the UK’s Met Office have embarked on the first, tentative steps to...

Cars, trucks and buses worldwide emit 4.6 million tons more harmful NOx than standards allow, according to the new study. Image credit: Arsi Warrior.

Study: Diesel Vehicles Produce 50% More Nitrogen Oxide than Originally Thought

May 16, 2017 by News Staff

Lab tests of harmful nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions from diesel vehicles underestimate the real-world emissions by as much as 50%, a new study led by researchers...

German Shepherd puppy. Image credit: Marilyn Peddle / CC BY 2.0.

Study: Pet Dogs Help Children Feel Less Stressed

May 12, 2017 by News Staff

According to a new study published in the journal Social Development, pet dogs provide valuable social support for children when they’re stressed. German...

Experiencing beauty requires thought, New York University neuroscientists find.

Immanuel Kant was Right: Beauty Requires Thought

May 11, 2017 by News Staff

Experiencing beauty requires thought, neuroscientists have found in a study that confirms a claim by the German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804),...

A reconstruction of Homo naledi’s head by paleoartist John Gurche, who spent some 700 hours recreating the head from bone scans. The find was announced by the University of the Witwatersrand, the National Geographic Society and the South African National Research Foundation and published in the journal eLife. Image credit: John Gurche / Mark Thiessen / National Geographic.

Homo naledi Walked Earth More Recently than Thought

May 9, 2017 by News Staff

Dating of Homo naledi fossils from the Dinaledi Chamber of the Rising Star cave system, South Africa, shows that they were deposited between about 335,000...

A Homo naledi skull, ‘Neo.’ Image credit: Hawks et al, doi: 10.7554/eLife.24232.

South African Cave System Yields Yet More Fossils of Homo naledi

May 9, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of paleoanthropologists announced today in the journal eLife the discovery of a second chamber in the Rising Star cave system, located...

Artist’s conception of early Earth. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / Francis Reddy.

Early Earth was Barren, Smooth and Almost Entirely under Water, Research Suggests

May 8, 2017 by News Staff

About 4 billion years ago (Hadean eon), our planet was entirely different than it is now. It was barren, smooth and almost entirely under water with a...

Bathymetric map of recent Hawaiian volcanism, highlighting the Loa and Kea tracks. Solid lines represent the geochemically distinct Loa (blue) and Kea (red) volcanic trends. The dashed lines are an estimate of the future projection of these trends based on the team’s hypothesis. Before the emergence of the Loa and Kea tracks, Kea-type lavas were overlain by Loa-type lavas at Ko’olau and Kaua’i. The encircled number indicates the approximate age at which Loa trend lavas first appeared at Ko’olau. Image credit: Jones et al, doi: 10.1038/nature22054.

Geoscientists Finally Solve Mystery of Hawaiian Volcanoes

May 6, 2017 by News Staff

New research has solved a long-standing mystery of how the world’s biggest and most active volcanoes formed in Hawaii. Bathymetric map of recent Hawaiian...

A light-activatable 4 x 4 droplet array. Image credit: Restrepo Schild et al, doi: 10.1038/srep46585.

Researchers Create Synthetic, Soft Tissue Retina

May 5, 2017 by News Staff

A synthetic, soft tissue retina developed by researchers at the University of Oxford, UK, could offer fresh hope to visually impaired people. Until now,...

According to Leitao-Goncalves et al, gut bacteria control food choice and egg laying in Drosophila melanogaster. Image credit: Leitao-Goncalves et al, doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.2000862.

Gut Bacteria ‘Speak’ to Brain to Control Food Choices in Animals

May 2, 2017 by News Staff

In a study published recently in the journal PLOS Biology, neuroscientists identified three gut bacteria species — Acetobacter pomorum, Lactobacillus...