Other Sciences News

Homo erectus Were Technologically Conservative, Used Least-Effort Strategies, Researchers Say

This is an artist's reconstruction of Homo erectus. Image credit: Yale University.
Aug 13, 2018 by News Staff

Archaeological excavations at the Acheulean site of Saffaqah near Dawadmi in central Saudi Arabia have found that Homo erectus, an extinct hominid species that lived between 1.9 million and 143,000 years ago, used ‘least-effort strategies’ for tool making and collecting resources. This is an artist’s reconstruction of Homo erectus. Image credit: Yale University. “This ‘laziness’ paired with an inability to adapt to a changing climate...

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O’Malley et al find quakes can systematically trigger other ones on opposite side of the globe. This image shows a high school running track in Taiwan crossed by the Chelungpu fault in an earthquake in September 1999. Image credit: Bob Yeats, Oregon State University.

Powerful Earthquakes Can Trigger Other Ones on Opposite Side of Earth, New Research Shows

Aug 9, 2018 by News Staff

A big earthquake can not only cause other quakes, but large ones, and on the opposite side of our planet, according to new research from Oregon State University. O’Malley...

Billari et al found that individuals with DSL access sleep 25 minutes less. Image credit: Tookapic.

Study: Access to High-Speed Internet Reduces Sleep Duration

Aug 9, 2018 by Enrico de Lazaro

A study led by Bocconi University’s Professor Francesco Billari has found that high-speed Internet access causally reduces sleep duration and satisfaction. Billari...

El Castillo (pyramid of Kukulcán) in the ancient Maya city of Chichen Itza. Image credit: Daniel Schwen / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Enormous Drought Played Significant Role in Maya Civilization’s Collapse

Aug 8, 2018 by News Staff

There are multiple theories as to what caused the collapse of the Classic Maya civilization, such as invasion, war, environmental degradation, etc. In...

In an experiment examining how monkeys respond to sound, Caruso et al found that a single neuron can encode information from two different sounds by switching between the signal associated with one sound and the signal associated with the other sound. Image credit: Irfan Ullah.

Individual Neurons Can Carry Multiple Signals at a Time, Neuroscientists Find

Aug 7, 2018 by News Staff

A team of researchers from Duke and Rockefeller Universities has found that individual neurons can encode information about multiple stimuli simultaneously,...

Reconstruction of Homo floresiensis. Image credit: Kinez Riza / Atelier Elisabeth Daynes, Sangiran Museum.

Flores Pygmies Show No Genetic Link to Mysterious Homo floresiensis

Aug 3, 2018 by News Staff

Modern pygmies living in a village near the Liang Bua cave on the Indonesian island of Flores, where fossils of the dwarfed human species Homo floresiensis...

This study suggests caffeine has weak, transient effects on energy intake and doesn’t support it as an effective appetite suppressant. Image credit: Rita E.

Caffeine Doesn’t Suppress Your Appetite: Study

Aug 2, 2018 by News Staff

A new study led by SUNY University at Buffalo researcher Leah Panek-Shirley found that after drinking a small amount of caffeine, participants consumed...

Antarctica. Image credit: Robyn M.

Carbon Dioxide ‘Leak’ in Southern Ocean May Have Warmed Earth for 11,000 Years

Aug 1, 2018 by News Staff

The Earth’s oceans lock away atmospheric carbon dioxide, but a ‘leak’ in the Southern Ocean, which surrounds Antarctica, brings the greenhouse gas...

An artist’s impression of a potentially habitable exoplanet. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Planets Don’t Need Plate Tectonics to Be Habitable

Aug 1, 2018 by News Staff

There may be more habitable exoplanets than we previously thought, according to Pennsylvania State University researchers Bradford Foley and Andrew Smye,...

This study is the first to show that omega-3 supplementation in children can reduce inter-partner psychological aggression among adult caregivers not receiving supplements. Image credit: Steve Buissinne.

Study: Omega-3 Supplementation in Children Could Reduce Psychological Aggression among Adults

Jul 31, 2018 by Enrico de Lazaro

New research by scientists from the University of Massachusetts Lowell and elsewhere shows how omega 3-rich diet can prevent disruptive, even abusive behavior. This...

Toxoplasma gondii has a unique cytoskeletal apparatus that is probably used for invading host cells and for parasite replication. Shown here are images of Toxoplasma gondii constructing daughter scaffolds within the mother cell. Image credit: Ke Hu & John M. Murray / CC BY 4.0.

Toxoplasmosis May Increase Person’s Likelihood of Pursuing Entrepreneurial Activities

Jul 30, 2018 by News Staff

Toxoplasmosis, caused by the globally prevalent parasite Toxoplasma gondii, is one of the most common parasitic infections of man and other warm-blooded...

Micrograph of aspirin polymorphs. Image credit: Chunhua Tony Hu.

New Polymorph of Aspirin Promises More Efficient Pain Relief

Jul 25, 2018 by Enrico de Lazaro

Every compound has different crystal forms with distinct structures and properties called polymorphs. New York University scientist Chunhua Tony Hu and...

The occasional use of stone tools as ‘strike-a-lights’ was a technocultural feature shared among Neanderthals in France.

Neanderthals Could Start Fires with Mineral Pyrite and Stone Tools

Jul 23, 2018 by News Staff

New research published in the journal Scientific Reports provides clear evidence that Neanderthals made fire by striking a piece of pyrite, the yellow...

The fruit fly brain contains roughly 100,000 neurons, which can now be traced in detail using a dataset that includes roughly 21 million images Zheng et al traced the paths of neurons (colored threads) that reach out to the mushroom body, a region involved in memory and learning. Image credit: Zheng et al, doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2018.06.019.

Fruit Fly Brain Imaged at Synaptic Resolution

Jul 23, 2018 by News Staff

A team of neuroscientists at Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Research Campus has taken detailed pictures of the whole brain of an adult female...

Mantantzis et al found that increasing blood sugar levels not only improves memory and performance, but makes older adults feel happier during a task. Image credit: Gabriela Sanda.

Glucose Improves Memory in Older Adults: Study

Jul 20, 2018 by News Staff

A small dose of glucose can improve memory in older adults, motivate them to work harder and puts them in a good mood when performing difficult tasks,...

In the large-scale survey by Akhtar et al, 6,641 respondents provided descriptions of their first memory and their age when they encoded that memory, and they completed various memory judgments and ratings. The established view is that the distribution around mean age at encoding is truncated, with very few or no memories dating to the preverbal period, that is, below about two years of age. However, Akhtar et al found that 2,487 first memories (nearly 40% of the entire sample) dated to an age at encoding of two years and younger, with 893 dating to one year and younger. Image credit: Myriam.

Study: Nearly 40% of People Have Fictional First Memory

Jul 19, 2018 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the University of Bradford, Nottingham Trent University and City, University of London, UK, has conducted a large-scale survey...

Earth-Moon system. Image credit: Comfreak.

Meghalayan: Collapse of Ancient Agricultural Civilizations Defines Holocene’s Youngest Stage

Jul 18, 2018 by News Staff

The Meghalayan, the youngest stage of the current Holocene epoch, began at the time when ancient agricultural societies experienced an abrupt and critical...

Abnormal accumulations of a protein called tau can collect inside neurons, forming tangled threads and eventually harming the synaptic connection between neurons. Image credit: National Institute on Aging / National Institutes of Health.

Neuroscientists Find Alzheimer’s ‘Big Bang’

Jul 18, 2018 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, the University of Delaware and Washington University in St. Louis has discovered...

Three scans (from the front, side and above) of two different brains (pictured on the left and on the right) belonging to twins; the furrows and ridges are different in each person. Image credit: Lutz Jäncke, University of Zurich.

Our Brains are as Unique as Our Fingerprints, Neuroscientists Say

Jul 13, 2018 by News Staff

Every individual has a unique brain anatomy, according to new research from the University of Zurich in Switzerland; and this uniqueness is the result...

Prehistoric Central European women’s manual labor was tougher than rowing in today’s boat crews.

Southeast Asians Derive Ancestry from Four Ancient Populations

Jul 13, 2018 by News Staff

Modern-day Southeast Asian populations are the result of mixing among four ancient populations, including multiple waves of genetic material from more...

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