News Desk

Roughly 10% of patients with cancer experience anxiety, while 20% report depression. However, current research suggests that available prescription antidepressants do not significantly decrease depressive symptoms in cancer patients compared with a placebo. See research here.

Hydrogen released during large impacts might have boosted Mars’s surface temperature above freezing for thousands or even millions of years, enabling liquid water to flow over the Red Planet. See research here.

What are the most successful organisms on the planet? Some people might think of apex predators like lions and great white sharks. For others, insects or bacteria might come to mind. But few would mention a family of plants that we see around us every day: grasses.

A study published in Frontiers in Psychiatry found that patients who received MDMA-assisted therapy (MDMA-AT) experienced significant reductions in PTSD symptoms severity and changes in brain activity after 2 months of treatment.

Historical records have long suggested that medieval Norse colonists on Greenland (AD 985–1450) relied on imported material such as iron and wood. Until now, it has not been fully recognized where these imports of wood came from. See the study here.

As wooly mammoths grazed frigid Siberian steppes for more than half a million years, they evolved increasingly fluffy fur, large fat deposits, and smaller ears, according to a new study.

A popular and easy method for validating whether or not a chunk of rock is a meteorite, and what kind of meteorite it is, has been inadvertently erasing invaluable information locked inside. See the research here.

Researchers at the University of Tartu in Estonia have developed a virtual reality (VR) experience that seeks to simulate the subjective effects of psychedelic drugs…Their latest findings, published in Frontiers in Psychiatry, provide preliminary evidence that such VR experiences might help to alleviate depression.

Pre-colonial African history is alive with tales of civilizations rising and falling and of different cultures intermingling across the continent. We have now shed more light on some of these societies using the science of genetics. See the study here.

European Space Agency probe due to arrive in 2031 to scan icy moons and study Great Red Spot

Research recently published in Death Studies sheds light on the relationship between increased subjective well-being after psychedelic use and potential reductions in death anxiety.

A study of lithic hunting heads found in the Solutrean levels was conducted using an infrared (IR) microscopy analysis, indicating that Palaeolithic hunters used a mixture of pine resin and beeswax as an adhesive to fasten the heads to arrow shafts.

Image from: Rogers Fund, 1925 (Wiki Commons)

Traces of the past remain hidden in rivers, lakes and seas. But we rarely look underwater and, as they say, out of sight is out of mind. In his inaugural lecture Martijn Manders will explain why underwater archaeology is so important to understanding our history.

A study of an ancient bone from Spain with a strange pattern of notches hints that it was used by early Homo sapiens in Europe as a punch board for making holes in leather

What do medieval monks and volcanic eruptions have in common? According to a team of researchers led by the University of Geneva, quite a bit because chronicles from the 12th and 13th century are helping volcanologists to precisely date ancient eruptions based on descriptions of lunar eclipses. See the research here.

Image from: .scopex (Wiki Commons)

In the depths of a network of underwater caves, Julien Louys has been on the trail of some rather unusual animals. Despite the sunken setting, these creatures weren’t forms of marine life — they were giant marsupials, and they became extinct tens of thousands of years ago.