Other Sciences News

Shift from Foraging to Farming Led to Fragile, Lightweight Human Skeletons

New research shows that, while human hunter-gatherers from around 7,000 years ago had bones comparable in strength to modern orangutans, farmers from the same area over 6,000 years later had significantly lighter and weaker bones that would have been more susceptible to breaking. Image credit: Alabama Cooperative Extension System / A&M University / Auburn University.
Dec 24, 2014 by News Staff

A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that modern human skeletons have become much lighter and more fragile since the invention of agriculture. New research shows that, while human hunter-gatherers from around 7,000 years ago had bones comparable in strength to modern orangutans, farmers from the same area over 6,000 years later had significantly lighter and weaker bones that would have been more susceptible...

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Colosseum in Rome, Italy. Image credit: Jerzy Strzelecki / CC BY 3.0.

Secrets of Roman Architectural Concrete Uncovered

Dec 18, 2014 by News Staff

A group of scientists led by Dr Anthony Ingraffea of Cornell University has revealed clues to the longevity and endurance of such Imperial Roman monuments...

Fifteen moais of Ahu Tongariki. Image credit: Bjørn Christian Tørrissen / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Early Inhabitants of Easter Island Thrived on Sweet Potato Diet

Dec 17, 2014 by News Staff

Ancient Easter Islanders had a diet of mostly sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) before European contact, according to researchers Dr John Dudgeon from Idaho...

This image shows the change in the surface elevation of the Greenland ice sheet between 2003 and 2012; thinning near coastal regions is shown in green, blue and purple; blue/white flows indicate the direction and speed of the ice movement. Image credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

Greenland Ice Sheet Yielding its Secrets

Dec 16, 2014 by News Staff

Since the late 1970’s, NASA has been monitoring changes in the Greenland Ice Sheet. An analysis of seven years of surface elevation readings from...

The study sheds new light on the link between sleep deprivation and obesity. Image credit: Sweet Briar College.

Late Evenings Linked to Repetitive Negative Thoughts in New Study

Dec 8, 2014 by News Staff

A new study published in the journal Cognitive Therapy and Research has found that people who sleep for shorter periods of time and go to bed very late...

An iceberg is seen out the window of a research aircraft as it flies above the Amundsen Sea in West Antarctica on October 21, 2009. Image credit: NASA / Jane Peterson.

West Antarctica Losing Mt. Everest of Ice Every Two Years – Study

Dec 3, 2014 by News Staff

According to a new NASA-led study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, the melt rate of glaciers in the Amundsen Sea Embayment, West...

The ocean currents and their speeds, in cm/s, derived from GOCE data. Image credit: ESA / CNES / CLS.

Scientists Produce New Map of Ocean Currents

Nov 27, 2014 by News Staff

An international group of scientists using data from ESA’s Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) has created the most accurate...

SeaBED seen under the sea ice. Image credit: Klaus Meiners / Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Scientists Produce First High-Resolution 3D Maps of Antarctic Sea Ice

Nov 25, 2014 by News Staff

Researchers from Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom using an autonomous underwater vehicle known as the SeaBED have created the first...

Intensification of agriculture is a driver of changes in the seasonal characteristics of the global carbon cycle.

Agricultural Production Affects Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Cycle

Nov 21, 2014 by News Staff

Crop production may generate up to a quarter of the increase in the seasonal cycle of atmospheric carbon dioxide, with corn playing a leading role, according...

Thunderstorms can produce an exotic kind of electrical breakdown that involves high-energy electrons and their anti-matter equivalent called positrons (University of Minnesota)

Sun’s Magnetic Field Triggers Lightning Strikes on Earth

Nov 20, 2014 by News Staff

The Sun plays a significant role in the generation of lightning strikes on Earth, according to a new study that found that over a 5-year period the United...

A model of a Neanderthal man in modern clothing. Image credit: H. Neumann / Neanderthal Museum.

Homo neanderthalensis: Neanderthals Represent Separate Human Species

Nov 19, 2014 by News Staff

According to a new study that analyzed different aspects of the nasal complex in Neanderthals and other later Pleistocene fossils from Europe and Africa,...

GEOS-5 has given researchers a stunning new look at how CO2 in the atmosphere travels around the globe. Image credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center / K. Sharghi.

GEOS-5 Computer Model Provides High-Resolution Look at Key Greenhouse Gas

Nov 19, 2014 by News Staff

A new computer model called GEOS-5 has provided a high-resolution look at how carbon dioxide (CO2) – the key driver of global warming – moves...

A ‘black blizzard’ dust storm in South Dakota, 1934. Image credit: National Archives FDR Library Public Domain Photographs.

1934 Drought was Driest, Most Widespread in Past Millennium, Scientists Find

Oct 17, 2014 by News Staff

Using a reconstruction of North American drought history over the past millennium, a team of researchers from NASA and the Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty...

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

Researchers Shed New Light on Earth’s Magnetic Field Reversal 786,000 Years Ago

Oct 16, 2014 by News Staff

A team of scientists led by Dr Leonardo Sagnotti of National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology in Rome, Italy, has found evidence that the most recent...

Curiosity helps learning and memory, scientists say. Anonymous painter, 15th century - Cahiers de Science et Vie no. 114.

New Study Provides Insight into How Piquing Curiosity Changes Our Brains

Oct 3, 2014 by News Staff

The more curious we are about a topic, the easier it is to learn information about that topic. A new study carried out by California University scientists...

North Atlantic; red dots are earthquakes. Image credit: David Sandwell / SIO.

New Map of World’s Seafloor Exposes Thousands of Previously Unseen Undersea Mountains

Oct 3, 2014 by News Staff

Using data from NASA’s and European Space Agency’s satellites that measure variations in gravitational field, a multinational team of researchers...

This image shows stone tools found at the site of Nor Geghi, Armenia: top - biface tool; bottom - a Levallois core. Image credit: © Dan Adler.

Stone Tool Discovery in Armenia Gives Insight into Human Innovation 325,000 Years Ago

Sep 27, 2014 by News Staff

An analysis of about 3,000 stone tools from a 325,000-year-old archaeological site near the village of Nor Geghi in the Kotayk Province of Armenia challenges...

Space-filling representation of the Star of David catenane. Image credit: David A. Leigh et al.

Star of David Molecule Created

Sep 26, 2014 by News Staff

Manchester University PhD student Alex Stephens and his colleagues have successfully synthesized a Star of David catenane – a star-shaped molecule...

Combinatorial and modular genetic strategy for engineering self-assembling underwater adhesives; abbreviations: Mfps - mussel foot proteins (Mfp3 and Mfp5 - major mussel adhesive foot proteins, have unstructured coil structures in solution and are critical to the underwater interfacial adhesion of mussels); CsgA - an amyloidogenic protein that is the major subunit of adhesive curli fiber in Escherichia coli (contains five stacked strand–loop–strand motifs mediated by conserved residues and can self-assemble into nanofibers via a rate-limiting nucleation step followed by fibril extension). Image credit: Chao Zhong et al.

Mussel-Inspired Waterproof Adhesives Could Help Heal Wounds, Repair Ships

Sep 23, 2014 by News Staff

Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology have designed new mussel-inspired waterproof adhesives that could be used to heal wounds or repair...

Camel caravan crosses the Sahara desert in Morocco. Image credit: Bachmont / CC BY 2.0.

Sahara Desert Formed 7 Million Years Ago, New Study Suggests

Sep 20, 2014 by News Staff

A series of climate simulations, co-led by Dr Camille Contoux of the Bjerknes Center for Climate Research in Bergen, Norway, suggests that the desertification...

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