Other Sciences News

Pasig River, Manila, Philippines. Image credit: Bar Fabella / CC BY 2.0

New Low-Cost Method Can Detect Sewage Pollution in Streams, Rivers

Mar 31, 2015 by News Staff

A team of scientists at the University of Sheffield, UK, has developed and tested a promising novel method that uses inexpensive samplers (cotton tampons)...

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

Early Members of Genus Homo Varied Widely in Body Size

Mar 30, 2015 by News Staff

A new study published online March 26 in the Journal of Human Evolution suggests that the genus Homo has come in different sizes since its origins over...

A figure from the original report by Enrico Fermi et al.

Mathematicians Partially Solve Fermi-Pasta-Ulam Problem

Mar 23, 2015 by News Staff

The Fermi-Pasta-Ulam problem – first introduced in 1955 by the famed physicist Enrico Fermi and his colleagues – has now been partially solved...

Molecular representations of the NU-1000 node and linker (left), MOF topology (two views, center), and the dehydration of the NU-1000 node (right). Zr – blue, O – red, C - black, H - white. Image credit: Joseph E. Mondloch et al.

Novel Material Destroys Chemical Warfare Agents Soman, VX in Minutes

Mar 18, 2015 by News Staff

A group of chemists co-led by Dr Joseph Hupp and Dr Omar Farha, both from Northwestern University, has developed a new material that is very effective...

The Totten Glacier catchment, outlined in blue, is a collection basin for ice and snow that flows through the glacier. It’s estimated to contain enough material to raise sea levels by at least 3.5 m. Image credit: Jamin Greenbaum / Australian Antarctic Division.

Totten Glacier: Scientists Identify New Threat to East Antarctic Ice

Mar 17, 2015 by News Staff

A team of researchers led by Jamin Greenbaum of the University of Texas at Austin has discovered two seafloor troughs that could allow warm ocean water...

Scientists say that planetary warming will increase snowfall in Antarctica. Image credit: Eli Duke / CC BY-SA 2.0.

Antarctic Snow Linked to Global Warming

Mar 16, 2015 by News Staff

A new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change has confirmed a long-standing prediction that snowfall in Antarctica will increase significantly...

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...