Other Sciences News

Leang Bulu Bettue in the Maros-Pangkep karst area of South Sulawesi. Image credit: Burhan et al., doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0337993.

Enigmatic Hominins May Have Overlapped with Homo sapiens on Sulawesi

Jan 13, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

At Leang Bulu Bettue, a rock-shelter in the Maros-Pangkep karst region on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, paleoanthropologists have uncovered one of...

The 60,000-year-old backed microlith from Umhlatuzana Rock Shelter in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: (A) buphanidrine and (B) epibuphanisine detected in a sample from the microlith; (C) the microlith showing the reddish poisonous adhesive residue still adhering to the dorsal backed portion of the tool. Image credit: Isaksson et al., doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adz3281.

60,000-Year-Old Poisoned Arrowheads Found in South Africa

Jan 8, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Archaeologists have identified traces of two toxic plant alkaloids — buphandrine and epibuphanisine — on artifacts from Umhlatuzana Rock Shelter...

773,000-Year-Old Hominin Fossils from Morocco Offer New Clues to Roots of Homo sapiens

Jan 7, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

The hominin fossils discovered in the Grotte à Hominidés at Thomas Quarry I in Casablanca, Morocco, are providing new evidence about the deep origins...

Google’s quantum computer. Image credit: Google.

Breakthrough in Quantum Computing: First Secure Method to Back Up Quantum Information

Jan 7, 2026 by News Staff

Scientists at the University of Waterloo and Kyushu University have developed the first method to create redundant, encrypted copies of qubits —...

The Voynich manuscript, folio 67r. Image credit: Beinecke Library, Yale University.

Historically Plausible Cipher Recreates Statistical Signature of Voynich Manuscript

Jan 6, 2026 by Sergio Prostak

The Voynich manuscript — often called the most mysterious manuscript in the world — has eluded attempts to understand its origin, nature, and...

Reconstruction of Sahelanthropus tchadensis. Image credit: University of Silesia.

7-Million-Year-Old Sahelanthropus Fossils Bolster Case for Earliest Upright Walking

Jan 5, 2026 by Sergio Prostak

For more than two decades, Sahelanthropus tchadensis — a very early (6.7 to 7.2 million years old) hominin species discovered in Chad in 2001 —...

DeCasien et al. provide the first empirical data showing the direct role the gut microbiome plays in shaping differences in the way the brain functions across different primate species. Image credit: DeCasien et al., doi: 10.1073/pnas.2426232122.

Gut Microbes Played Role in Evolution of Human Brain, New Study Suggests

Jan 5, 2026 by News Staff

Compared to other primates, humans have remarkably large brains relative to their body sizes. The resultant high demands for glucose may have been supported...

An artist’s concept of a Penghu Denisovan walking under the bright Sun during the Pleistocene of Taiwan. Image credit: Cheng-Han Sun.

Researchers Sequence Genome of 200,000-Year-Old Denisovan

Jan 2, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

A research team led by Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology scientists has generated the high-quality genome assembly of a Denisovan using...

Ancient humans. Image credit: sjs.org / CC BY-SA 3.0.

European Homo sapiens May Have Been Hunting with Bow and Arrow Earlier than Previously Believed

Dec 30, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

In a new paper published this month in the journal iScience, researchers from the University of Tübingen and elsewhere present a multidisciplinary analysis...

Severity of Alzheimer’s disease correlates with NAD+ homeostasis dysregulation. Image credit: Chaubey et al., doi: 10.1016/j.xcrm.2025.102535.

New Research Reveals Potential Path to Alzheimer’s Recovery by Targeting Cellular Energy Deficits

Dec 30, 2025 by News Staff

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is traditionally considered irreversible. However, a team of scientists led by Case Western Reserve University, University Hospitals...

The facial depiction of the Beachy Head Woman. Image credit: Face Lab, Liverpool John Moores University.

‘Beachy Head Woman’ Originated from Southern England, Ancient DNA Study Shows

Dec 23, 2025 by News Staff

The skeletal remains of an individual colloquially referred to as Beachy Head Woman were re-discovered in the Eastbourne Town Hall collection in 2012,...

Example photographs of primary, mixed, and secondary halite inclusion assemblages. Image credit: Park et al., doi: 10.1073/pnas.2513030122.

Scientists Find Ancient Air Bubbles in 1.4 Billion-Year-Old Salt Crystals

Dec 22, 2025 by News Staff

Researchers have found ancient gases and fluids trapped in 1.4-billion-year-old halite crystals from northern Ontario, Canada. Their analyses directly...

This image shows a Neanderthal and a human kid. Image credit: Neanderthal Museum.

New Research Explores Paleolithic Transition from Neanderthals to Anatomically Modern Humans

Dec 22, 2025 by News Staff

The Middle to Upper Paleolithic Transition approximately 50,000 to 38,000 years ago is marked by the decline and extinction of Neanderthals, the emergence...

This is an artist's reconstruction of Homo erectus. Image credit: Yale University.

1.5-Million-Year-Old Fossil Reveals New Details about Homo erectus

Dec 16, 2025 by News Staff

Paleoanthropologists have examined and reconstructed DAN5, a 1.5-million-year-old fossilized skull of early Homo erectus found in Gona in the Afar region...

Forensic facial reconstruction of another Australopithecus species - A. afarensis. Image credit: Cicero Moraes / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Remarkable Fossil from South Africa May Be New Species of Australopithecus: Study

Dec 16, 2025 by News Staff

New research led by scientists from the University of Cambridge and Latrobe University challenges the classification of the Little Foot fossil as Australopithecus...

Saad et al. show that the reported beneficial links between theobromine intake on health and aging extend to the molecular epigenetic level in humans. Image credit: Sci.News.

Theobromine: Chemical Found in Dark Chocolate Could Have Anti-Aging Properties

Dec 15, 2025 by Natali Anderson

Scientists at King’s College London have identified strong links between theobromine, a common plant compound that comes from cocoa, and measures of...

An artist’s impression of fire at Barnham around 400,000 years ago. Image credit: Craig Williams / The Trustees of the British Museum.

Archaeologists Discover Earliest Evidence of Fire-Making

Dec 10, 2025 by News Staff

Archaeologists have unearthed 400,000-year-old heated sediments and fire-cracked flint handaxes alongside two fragments of pyrite — a mineral used...

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

Climate Change Played Key Role in Extinction of Homo floresiensis

Dec 9, 2025 by News Staff

Homo floresiensis abandoned Liang Bua — a cave this small-bodied human species had occupied for around 140,000 years — during severe drought...

Vitamin C (ascorbate) is found in all skin compartments. Pullar et al. carried out a comprehensive investigation to establish the relationship between plasma and skin ascorbate levels, with a focus on the major skin compartments. Image credit: Pullar et al., doi: 10.1016/j.jid.2025.10.587.

Collagen Production and Skin Renewal Directly Respond to Amount of Vitamin C We Consume: Study

Dec 8, 2025 by News Staff

Skin vitamin C levels are closely tied to levels of the vitamin in the blood (plasma) and can be boosted by increasing fruit intake, according to a new...