Other Sciences News

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...

Dr Yan Li and co-authors followed the journey of water through the Tarim Basin from the rivers at the edge of the valley to the desert aquifers under the basin. They found that as water moved through irrigated fields, the water gathered dissolved carbon and moved it deep underground. Image credit: Yan Li.

Desert Aquifers Could Hold More Carbon Dioxide than All Earth’s Plants

Jul 29, 2015 by News Staff

According to a new study published online in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, massive aquifers underneath deserts contain approximately one trillion...

Schematic illustration of Earth's magnetic field. Image credit: Peter Reid / University of Edinburgh.

Earth’s Core Region beneath Southern Africa May Be Trigger for Magnetic Pole Reversals

Jul 29, 2015 by News Staff

A group of scientists – led by Dr John Tarduno from the University of Rochester, NY – has recovered a magnetic field record from minerals for Iron...

Unwrapped texture image of the Ein Gedi scroll, showing letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Image credit: Seth Parker / University of Kentucky.

Scientists Decipher 1,500-Year-Old Hebrew Scroll

Jul 22, 2015 by News Staff

A burned 1,500-year-old scroll found at Ein Gedi, on the western shore of the Dead Sea, has been read using advanced digital imaging. Unwrapped texture...

Native South Americans in Brazil by Giulio Ferrario, 1823-1838.

Amazonian Native Americans Share Genetic Link with Australasians, Study Shows

Jul 22, 2015 by News Staff

A new study, published in the journal Nature, shows that some Amazonian Native Americans descend partly from a Native American population that carried...

The new study shows that ancestors of Native Americans migrated to the Americas from Siberia and not directly from Europe. Painting by G. Mülzel.

Single Migration from Siberia Peopled the Americas, Scientists Say

Jul 21, 2015 by News Staff

Using ancient and modern genome-wide data, a team of researchers has found that the ancestors of all present-day Native Americans, including Athabascans...

The Southern Ocean’s clouds can cool the Earth by reflecting sunlight that would otherwise be absorbed by the darker ocean below, and phytoplankton help with that. Image credit: NASA.

Phytoplankton Play Significant Role in Generating Brighter Clouds over Southern Ocean

Jul 20, 2015 by News Staff

A study of clouds over the Southern Ocean reveals how tiny natural particles given off by marine phytoplankton nearly double cloud droplet numbers in the...

A 3D structure of hexagonal boron nitride sheets and boron nitride nanotubes could be a tunable material to control heat in gadgets. Image credit: Rouzbeh Shahsavari / Navid Sakhavand / Rice University.

3D Boron Nitride Could Help Keep Gadgets Cool

Jul 16, 2015 by News Staff

A team of researchers at Rice University has completed the first analysis of how 3D boron nitride might be used as a tunable material to control heat flow...