Other Sciences News

Li Zhu et al. created a chameleon-like artificial ‘skin’ that shifts color on demand.

Researchers Create Chameleon-Like Material

Mar 13, 2015 by News Staff

Scientists at the University of California Berkeley have developed a novel material that can change color simply by flexing it. The material offers intriguing...

Mountain forest in Sri Lanka. Image credit: Faslan / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Early Foragers Thrived on ‘Rainforest Diet’ 20,000 Years Ago

Mar 13, 2015 by News Staff

According to a new study led by Patrick Roberts of the University of Oxford, UK, early human foragers relied primarily on rainforest resources from at...

This synthesizer assembles complex small molecules out of simple chemical building blocks, like a 3D printer on the molecular level. Image credit: L. Brian Stauffer.

Scientists Develop Revolutionary ‘3D Printer’ for Small Molecules

Mar 13, 2015 by News Staff

A group of researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has designed an automated ‘3D printer’ for small molecules that could open...

Beer bottles from a 170-year-old shipwreck. Image credit: John Londesborough et al.

Chemists Analyze Beer from 1840s’ Shipwreck

Mar 5, 2015 by News Staff

Two bottles of beer from an about 170 year old shipwreck near the Åland Islands in the Baltic Sea have been analyzed by a team of scientists from Finland...

LD 350-1, a partial mandible of early Homo. Image credit: Arizona State University.

LD 350-1: Oldest Known Fossil of Genus Homo Found

Mar 5, 2015 by News Staff

In two papers published in the journal Science, an international team of anthropologists reported the discovery of a partial hominin jaw with teeth from...

The new study has shown that men, on average, are more narcissistic than women. Narcissus by Caravaggio. Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica, Rome.

Men are More Narcissistic than Women, Psychologists Say

Mar 4, 2015 by News Staff

With 31 years of data from more than 475,000 participants, a new study published in the journal Psychological Bulletin supports the widely held belief...

Earth. Image credit: Kelvin Song / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Planetary Scientists Shed New Light on Earth’s Core Formation

Mar 3, 2015 by News Staff

Violent collisions between the infant Earth and other objects in our Solar System generated significant amounts of iron vapor, says a group of researchers...

Fly Geyser, a man-made small geothermal geyser located in Washoe County, Nevada. Image credit: Jeremy C. Munns.

Study Provides New Understanding of Geyser Mechanics

Feb 26, 2015 by News Staff

Geysers erupt periodically because of loops or side-chambers in their underground plumbing, says a team of volcanologists from the United States and Japan. Fly...

These graphs show carbon dioxide’s increasing greenhouse effect at two locations on the Earth’s surface, in Oklahoma and on the North Slope of Alaska; as the atmospheric concentration of CO2 (blue) increased from 2000 to the end of 2010, so did surface radiative forcing due to CO2 (orange), and both quantities have upward trends; this means the Earth absorbed more energy from solar radiation than it emitted as heat back to space. Image credit: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Researchers Observe CO2’s Increasing Greenhouse Effect

Feb 26, 2015 by News Staff

Using spectroscopic instruments operated by the U.S. DoE’s Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Climate Research Facility, scientists have directly observed...

NASA’s CALIPSO satellite has quantified in three dimensions how much dust makes the trans-Atlantic journey from the Sahara desert to the Amazon rain forest; among this dust is phosphorus, an essential nutrient that acts like a fertilizer, which the Amazon depends on in order to flourish. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Phosphorus-Rich Dust from Sahara Desert Keeps Amazon Soils Fertile

Feb 24, 2015 by News Staff

Every year, millions of tons of dust from the Sahara desert cross the Atlantic Ocean, bringing vital phosphorus and other fertilizers to depleted Amazon...

The Maya city of Palenque in modern-day Mexico. Image credit: Peter Andersen / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Ancient Human Settlements Grew Same Way as Modern Cities Do, Scientists Say

Feb 21, 2015 by News Staff

A new study published in the journal Science Advances strengthens the view that human settlements of all times and places function in the same way by manifesting...

Windbeeches on the Schauinsland in Germany. Image credit: Richard Fabi.

Feeling Cold is Contagious, New Research Finds

Feb 21, 2015 by News Staff

According to a new study led by Dr Neil Harrison of the University of Sussex, UK, humans are susceptible to the so-called temperature contagion. Windbeeches...

Proto-Indo-European was spoken around 4,500 BC in the Pontic-Caspian steppe – the steppeland stretching from Moldova and western Ukraine across the Southern Federal District and the Volga Federal District of Russia to western Kazakhstan. This image shows a 4,000 BC site of the Trypillian culture near modern-day Nebelivka, Kirovograd region, Ukraine. Image credit: Nataliia Burdo / Mykhailo Videiko.

Indo-European Languages Originated in Pontic-Caspian Steppe, Research Suggests

Feb 19, 2015 by News Staff

A new study led by Dr Andrew Garrett from the University of California, Berkeley, provides evidence that a common ancestor of the Indo-European languages...

Temperature and salinity measurements (averaged between 2010 and 2014) from several satellites, including ESA’s SMOS mission, have been used to map ocean alkalinity, the ability of a solution to neutralize acids and thus resist to changes in pH. Image credit: Ifremer / ESA / CNES.

New Satellite Maps Reveal Global Ocean Alkalinity

Feb 18, 2015 by News Staff

Innovative techniques that use satellites to monitor ocean acidification are set to revolutionize the way that scientists study the Earth’s oceans....

Scanning electron microscope image of limpet teeth. Image credit: Asa H. Barber et al / University of Portsmouth.

Limpet Teeth are Strongest Known Biological Material, Scientists Say

Feb 18, 2015 by News Staff

According to a group of researchers headed by Prof Asa Barber of the University of Portsmouth, UK, the teeth of limpets – small aquatic snails – are...

Scientists calculated that 275 million metric tons of plastic waste was generated in 192 coastal countries in 2010, with 4.8 to 12.7 million metric tons entering the ocean. This map shows the estimated mass of mismanaged plastic waste from each coastal country; the darker the color, the larger the amount; countries shaded in white were not included. Image credit: University of California, Santa Barbara.

Study Estimates Amount of Plastic Waste Entering Ocean from Land

Feb 13, 2015 by News Staff

A new study, reported in the journal Science, has found that more than 4.8 million metric tons of plastic waste enters the oceans from land each year,...

North American drought projections: soil moisture 30 cm below ground projected through 2090-2100 for high emissions scenario RCP 8.5. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Global Warming Could Increase Risk of U.S. Megadroughts

Feb 13, 2015 by News Staff

Droughts in the U.S. Southwest and Central Plains during the second half of the XXI century, could be drier and longer than drought conditions seen in...

Scientists Recommend More Research on Geoengineering

Feb 11, 2015 by News Staff

There is no substitute for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions to mitigate the negative consequences of climate change, the National Research Council’s...

New Study Finds Positive Bias in Human Languages

Feb 10, 2015 by News Staff

According to a new study carried out by a group of scientists including Dr Peter Dodds from the University of Vermont, all human languages skew toward...