Other Sciences News

Simulation of electrical activity in a virtual brain slice formed from seven unitary digital reconstructions of neocortical microcircuits. Image credit: BBP / EPFL.

Scientists Digitally Reconstruct Section of Rat Brain

Oct 12, 2015 by News Staff

A large international team of researchers from the Blue Brain Project has digitally reconstructed and simulated a slice of a juvenile rat’s neocortex,...

The inner core of our planet has an inner core of its own, with crystals aligned in a different direction. Image credit: Lachina Publishing Services.

Earth’s Inner Core ‘Only’ 1 – 1.5 Billion Year Old, New Study Says

Oct 8, 2015 by News Staff

The Earth’s deepest layer – the inner core – was formed between a billion and 1.5 billion years ago as it ‘froze’ from the surrounding molten...

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.

Studies Suggest Homo naledi Walked Upright and Climbed Trees

Oct 7, 2015 by News Staff

Homo naledi – an extinct species of hominin whose fossil skeletons were discovered in a South African cave and introduced to the world last month...

Members of the Kalkadoon Aboriginal tribe, circa 1900. Image credit: Vintage Queensland.

Australian Aboriginal Stories of Ancient Sea-Level Rise Preserved for 13,000 Years

Sep 24, 2015 by News Staff

According to a duo of Australian scientists, Aboriginal society has preserved memories of Australia’s coastline dating back to 11,000 – 5,300 BC. Members...

The Cosgrove hotspot track. Image credit: Drew Whitehouse / NCI National Facility VizLab.

Cosgrove Track: Scientists Discover World’s Longest Chain of Continental Volcanoes

Sep 14, 2015 by News Staff

An international team of researchers has discovered the world’s longest known continental volcanic hotspot track — a 1,245 mile (2,000 km) long...

Homo naledi: New Species of Human Ancestor Discovered

Sep 10, 2015 by News Staff

A large, multinational team of scientists has discovered a previously-unknown species of extinct hominin in the Rising Star cave, Cradle of Humankind,...

Paranthropus boisei. Image credit: © Roman Yevseyev.

Study: Last Common Ancestor of Humans and Apes Looked Like Gorilla or Chimpanzee

Sep 9, 2015 by News Staff

Humans split from our closest African ape relatives in the genus Pan around six to seven million years ago. We have features that clearly link us with...

Illustration of every day life in the El Portalon cave during the Neolithic and Copper Age. Image credit: Maria de la Fuente.

Ancient DNA Links Early Farmers to Basques

Sep 8, 2015 by News Staff

The Basques are not direct descendants from hunter-gatherers of 10,000 years ago; instead, they have more recent genetic links to early Iberian farmers,...

Sima de los Huesos hominins lived in what is now Spain about 400,000 years ago. Image credit: © Kennis & Kennis / Madrid Scientific Films.

Human Body Has Gone through Four Main Stages of Evolution, Scientists Say

Sep 1, 2015 by News Staff

The evolution of the human body’s size and shape has gone through four stages, says an international group of anthropologists from the United States,...

Jakobshavn glacier, also known as Sermeq Kujalleq and the Jakobshavn Isbræ, is a large glacier in West Greenland and is among the world’s most dynamic glaciers. Radar images from ESA’s Sentinel-1A captured the glacier before and after a massive calving event, which took place between 14 and 16 August 2015. The image composite includes different Sentinel-1A images from 27 July, and 13 and 19 August. The red, green and blue indicate the position of the calving front and other dynamic features on each respective date. Image credit: Copernicus Sentinel data /ESA.

Sentinel-1A Satellite Catches Jakobshavn Glacier Shedding Ice

Aug 24, 2015 by News Staff

Images from European Space Agency’s Sentinel-1A satellite show that Greenland’s Jakobshavn glacier, the fastest moving glacier in the world, shed a...

This false-color image shows carbon nanofibers. Image credit: Stuart Licht.

Scientists Turn Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide into Nanofibers

Aug 20, 2015 by News Staff

A group of researchers led by Dr Stuart Licht of George Washington University has developed a novel method to economically convert atmospheric carbon dioxide...

This is an artist's reconstruction of female Homo from Dmanisi, Georgia. Image credit: Elisabeth Daynes, via tabula.ge.

1.8-Million-Year-Old Modern Human-Like Hand Bone Found in Tanzania

Aug 19, 2015 by News Staff

A fossil specimen unearthed at the Philip Tobias Korongo site, Olduvai Gorge, could be the oldest ‘anatomically modern’ human hand bone, says an international...

Formation of nucleobases in meteorite impact reactions. Image credit: Yoshihiro Furukawa.

Meteorite Impacts on Early Oceans May Have Created DNA Building Blocks

Aug 18, 2015 by News Staff

Meteorite impact reactions may have generated building blocks for life in the oceans of the prebiotic Earth, says a team of scientists led by Dr Yoshihiro...

The King of Brobdingnag and Gulliver by James Gillray, 1803. Image credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Scientist Deciphers Mystery Words from Gulliver’s Travels

Aug 16, 2015 by News Staff

According to Prof Irving Rothman from the University of Houston, mystery words in Jonathan Swift’s famous novel, Gulliver’s Travels, are, in fact,...

Key molecular process in brain is different in males and females, according to a new study.

Female and Male Brains Operate Differently at Molecular Level, New Study Reveals

Aug 12, 2015 by News Staff

A new study published in the Journal of Neuroscience has revealed an intrinsic biological difference between males and females in the molecular regulation...

The Airy meridian marked as the ‘Prime Meridian of the World’ (dotted line), and the modern reference meridian indicating zero longitude using GPS (solid line). Image credit: Google Maps / Infoterra Ltd. / Bluesky.

Scientists Explain Why Greenwich Prime Meridian Moved

Aug 12, 2015 by News Staff

The ‘Prime Meridian’ that’s been running through the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, UK, since 1884 is now located 335 feet (102 meters) east of...

Earth as seen on July 6, 2015 from a distance of one million miles by NASA’s EPIC camera on the DSCOVR satellite. Image credit: NOAA / NASA / U.S. Air Force.

Earth’s Population Will Reach 11 Billion by 2100, United Nations Experts Say

Aug 11, 2015 by News Staff

The world’s population, now 7.3 billion, is expected to reach the 11 billion mark by 2100, according to revised population projections released yesterday...

Scientists say the human color perception changes between seasons. Image credit: BenHur / Nova / Jongleur100 / SpaceJ / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Research Sheds New Light on How We Process Color

Aug 7, 2015 by News Staff

A new study led by Lauren Welbourne from the University of York, UK, has revealed that humans see things differently in summer compared with winter. Scientists...

An artist’s depiction of Earth’s magnetic field deflecting high-energy protons from the Sun around 4 billion years ago. Image credit: Michael Osadciw / University of Rochester.

Earth’s Magnetic Field Older than Thought, Says New Study

Jul 31, 2015 by News Staff

American and Canadian scientists have reported in the latest issue of Science that the magnetic field of our planet is at least 4 billion years old, up...