Newsdesk Archive

Being too friendly can be costly. When a new alpha male takes over, female capuchin monkeys are more likely to lose their offspring to infanticide if they have an extensive network of social contacts than if they don’t. This new finding suggests sociable primates don’t necessarily fare better than non-sociable ones when it comes to raising offspring.

It was a gruesome scene. The body had severe wounds and was still bleeding despite having been lying for a few hours in the hot Senegalese savanna. The murder victim, a West African chimpanzee called Foudouko, had been beaten with rocks and sticks, stomped on and then cannibalised by his own community.

A Dutch zoo hopes to increase the breeding chances of a female orangutan by seeing if she will choose a preferred mate on a touchscreen before they are introduced.

Female beauty may have less to do with attracting the opposite sex than previously thought, at least in the animal world, researchers say. Results of a mathematical modeling study suggest that romantic attention, by itself, is not enough to give attractive females an evolutionary edge over their plainer counterparts—even when their good looks help them snag superior mates.

A herd of plains bison have been successfully reintroduced to Canada's oldest national park, more than 100 years after they were nearly hunted out of existence. Related: Endangered antelope 'may be wiped out' Related: Australia's 'fairy possum' faces uncertain future

Why do otherwise healthy sea creatures end up stranded along coastal areas around the world? NASA scientists are searching for the answer. Whales, dolphins and porpoises — known collectively as cetaceans — partially use magnetic-field sensing to navigate.

An international team led by researchers at Nagoya University, along with US and Swiss colleagues, has identified a new type of solar event and dated it to the year 5480 BC; they did this by measuring carbon-14 levels in tree rings, which reflect the effects of cosmic radiation on the atmosphere at the time. They have also proposed causes of this event, thereby extending knowledge of how the sun behaves. Alt: Sun's Powerful Outburst in 5480 BC --"Most Abrupt Ever"

King Arthur is one of, if not the, most legendary icons of medieval Britain. His popularity has lasted centuries, mostly thanks to the numerous incarnations of his story that pop up time and time again.

Discoveries in a richly appointed 2,600-year-old burial chamber point to surprisingly close ties between Central Europe’s earliest cities and Mediterranean societies. Dated to 583 B.C., this grave also helps pin down when people inhabited what may have been the first city north of the Alps.

The tomb of a general and his princess wife buried on March 18, in the year 564, has been discovered in China. The ancient tomb, which contained the couple's skeletons, was also filled with figurines, said the archaeologists who described the findings recently in the journal Chinese Cultural Relics.

Researchers have discovered a 5,000-year-old beer recipe by studying the residue on the inner walls of pottery vessels found in an excavated site in northeast China. It’s the earliest evidence of beer production in China so far.

A team of Cambodian and international scientists has uncovered the first Angkorian-era iron smelter ever to be found virtually intact.

This stone engraving of an aurochs, or wild cow, found in a French rock-shelter in 2012, provides glimpses of an ancient human culture’s spread across Central and Western Europe, researchers say. Rows of dots partly cover the aurochs.

Cahokia was bigger than Paris—then it was completely abandoned A thousand years ago, huge pyramids and earthen mounds stood where East St. Louis sprawls today in Southern Illinois. This majestic urban architecture towered over the swampy Mississippi River floodplains, blotting out the region's tiny villages. Beginning in the late 900s, word about the city spread throughout the southeast. Thousands of people visited for feasts and rituals, lured by the promise of a new kind of civilization. Many decided to stay.

A vibrant Native-American agrarian culture stretched from the Ohio River Valley to the Mississippi River Valley in the two centuries before Europeans settled in North America. Then it disappeared.

The sun is hoist with its own petard. Its outermost layer frustrates photons of light trying to escape. Now it seems that when light does eventually stream away, it may in turn slow down the sun’s rotation.

Britain may lose the magic of the Northern Lights by the middle of the century due to major shifts in solar activity, scientists have discovered. Space scientists at the University of Reading conclude that plummeting solar activity will shrink the overall size of the sun's 'atmosphere' by a third and weaken its protective influence on the Earth.

Mars scientists are wrestling with a problem. Ample evidence says ancient Mars was sometimes wet, with water flowing and pooling on the planet's surface. Yet, the ancient sun was about one-third less warm and climate modelers struggle to produce scenarios that get the surface of Mars warm enough for keeping water unfrozen. Alt: Mars Mystery: How Was Ancient Red Planet Warm Enough for Liquid Water? Related: Swirling spirals at the north pole of Mars

The mystery of the dwarf planet Ceres' lonely ice volcano may have just been solved. NASA's Dawn probe discovered the 2.5-mile-high (4 kilometers) cryovolcano, named Ahuna Mons, in 2015. There's nothing else remotely like it on the 590-mile-wide (950 km) Ceres — a fact that has had scientists scratching their heads.

Earth's water may have originally been formed by chemical reactions deep within the planet's mantle, according to research led by University College Dublin. The new theory offers an alternative explanation as to how the life-giving liquid may have originated on Earth. Previously, scientists have suggested that comets that collided with the planet could have deposited large amounts of ice on the Earth which later melted, forming water.

On three occasions, NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has detected gamma rays from solar storms on the far side of the sun, emission the Earth-orbiting satellite shouldn't be able to detect. Particles accelerated by these eruptions somehow reach around to produce a gamma-ray glow on the side of the sun facing Earth.

Scientists have recorded the events that unfolded after the Earth's magnetic shield was breached. Openings in the planet's magnetic field are not uncommon, but it is rarer to get the opportunity to gather data while such an event is in progress.

Our universe has been ruled by weirdness for at least six centuries. If the quantum effects in a new experiment aren’t genuine, but are somehow caused by past meddling, then that is how long ago it must have happened – a finding that makes would-be alternatives to quantum theory even more unlikely. Alt: Physicists address loophole in tests of Bell's inequality using 600-year-old starlight Alt: Cosmic test backs 'quantum spookiness'

Prepare for a big wave – a wave of gravitational waves. A mass of predictions from the latest meeting of the American Physical Society in Washington DC is shedding light on what’s next for the massive LIGO collaboration.

An experimental space junk "collector" has glitched during its first orbital test. The system, designed by the Japanese space agency (JAXA) and a fishing net company, should have unfurled a 700-meter (2,300 ft) tether from a space station resupply vehicle that was returning to Earth

Researchers have discovered a way to make soybean oil into the super-strong material graphene. The material has a wide variety of potential uses and can revolutionize electronics. The material could be used to make cell phone batteries last 25 percent longer, make more effective solar cells, and even filter fuel out of air.

The human immune system is powerful and complex. It can identify and destroy invaders of nearly infinite variety, yet spare the more than 30 trillion cells of the healthy body.

One of the most mysterious drinks in the history of tipple is Soma – a drink of ritual importance to the ancient Indians. Drinking Soma was supposed to confer immortality, with the two leading gods Indra and Agni portrayed as consuming it in copious quantities. Related: Was Rama Based on a Real Historical Figure?

Life after death for the Ancient Egyptian elite included lots, and lots, of food In Ancient Egypt, inanimate objects—particularly images created for tombs or temples—were believed to contain latent magical powers. What was drawn or etched on stone could later come into being in another cosmos. That is why so many pharaonic works of art show tables piled high with food.

For Jiro Kondo and his team from Waseda University, it began as just another day of excavating at Luxor, an Egyptian city famous for its temples and other ancient monuments. The researchers were taking care of mundane tasks at an area to the east of the forecourt of the known tomb of Userhat, who was a royal scribe. Alt: Were ancient Egyptian scribes inspired by baboons? 3,000-year-old tomb of 'renowned' Royal artist was decorated with carvings of apes

One of the most common questions you will hear within art history’s circles is “Why are the noses missing from so many ancient Egyptian statues?” Is it just a coincidence, or could it possibly be a conspiracy?

The origins and secrets of the 17th Century 'Selden Map of China' – the world's oldest surviving merchant map – have been revealed by scientists using state-of-the-art imaging techniques.

Most people have heard of the lost continent of Atlantis. Some know about the legendary lost continent of Lemuria and the semi-mythical land of Kumari Kandam as well. But have you heard of the continent of Mauritia? This landmass formed a part of Madagascar and India and scientists say the rest of the continent is now lying at the bottom of the Indian Ocean.

Hundreds of ancient earthworks resembling those at Stonehenge were built in the Amazon rainforest, scientists have discovered after flying drones over the area. Alt: Hundreds of ancient earthworks built in the Amazon Alt: Amazonian rainforest was managed by ancient geoglyph builders

Climate change has brought erratic rainfall and poor harvests to Mexico's Yucatán peninsula, forcing local Mayan farmers to modernize their centuries-old farming practices.

China is taking green living to new heights, with the construction of two ‘vertical forest’ towers. They will be built in Nanjing and contain hundreds of trees, plants and shrubs along the facades that will help tackle increasing carbon dioxide levels.

IBM understands the unique nature of its artificial intelligence (AI) software assistant Watson, and so they are not taking the direct consumer approach of Siri, Cortana, Alexa, or Google’s Assistant. In partnership with H&R Block, Watson is being trained “on the language of taxes,” according to IBM’s press release announcing Watson’s new role as the world’s first AI tax preparation assistant.

The Monday commute will not feel quite so bad this morning for millions of commuters on the stricken Southern network. On Friday the Aslef rail union paved the way for the end of the strikes that have caused such misery. At the heart of the dispute has been the potential for new technology to make public services more efficient

The robots are rolling forward with a full-frontal assault to capture Wall Street’s vast investment fees and commissions. More investors are warming to the cold, steely embrace of the increasingly sophisticated, low-cost automated robo-advisers. The primary reason is to save money on those fees and charges.

Putting solar panels on rooftops and arrays is a labor-intensive process. You need people to design and manufacture the panels. Then people to market the panels to homes, businesses, and utilities. Then people to come and install them.

Not only is it the world’s most populous country, it’s now also the world’s biggest producer of solar energy. Related: Fiscal incentives may help in fight to reduce gas emissions in developing countries Related: A Colossal Wind Turbine Just Broke World Energy Records

Kenya has been named the world’s least toxic country, topping a list that takes account of air pollution, energy consumption and renewable energy production.

Getting out into the wild is restorative. Fresh air, natural sounds and settings, a spot of exercise: It tends to free our mind, bring down our stress levels, and, with any luck, give us a break from work. The converse is also true. Excessive urban noise, for example, stresses us out and can wreak havoc on our psyches. These are things we know just based on everyday experience.

Those who stay mentally healthy from childhood to middle age are exceptions to the rule. Most people have at least one bout of depression, anxiety or other disorder, study suggests

In the 1950s and 60s, psychedelic drugs including LSD and MDMA were considered promising treatments for psychiatric conditions. But scientists involved in the U.S.-approved studies at the time said that as millions of young people experimented with the drugs, the federal government yanked permission to study psychedelics and imposed a ban on the substances. Related: The Netherlands Keeps Closing Prisons Because It Doesn't Have Enough Prisoners

It sounds like torment for the smoker attempting to quit: handling packets of cigarettes and watching footage of people smoking, without being allowed to light up. However, scientists believe that lengthy exposure to environmental triggers for cravings could be precisely what smokers need to help them quit.

Medical marijuana could help those struggling with addiction to heroin and other opioids to turn their lives around, says Yasmin Hurd of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in a new review published in Trends in Neurosciences. Prior research has found that cannabinoids could reduce cravings and ease opioid withdrawal symptoms. Related: Ohio coroner's office running out of room because of overdose deaths Related: A drug company hiked the price of a lifesaving opioid overdose antidote by 500 percent

Research has shown virtually no support for the enduring assumption that increases in immigration are associated with increases in crime. Immigration-crime research over the past 20 years has widely corroborated the conclusions of a number of early 20th-century presidential commissions that found no backing for the immigration-crime connection.

Long before today’s anxiety about terror attacks, Spain and England feared that enslaved Africans would be more susceptible to revolt if they were Muslim

What caused the rapid disappearance of a vibrant Native American agrarian culture that lived in urban settlements from the Ohio River Valley to the Mississippi River Valley in the two centuries preceding the European settlement of North America? In a new study, researchers from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis reconstructed and analyzed 2,100 years of temperature and precipitation data—and point the finger at climate change.

Researchers working on ancient DNA extracted from human remains interred almost 8,000 years ago in a cave in the Russian Far East have found that the genetic makeup of certain modern East Asian populations closely resemble that of their hunter-gatherer ancestors. Alt: Today’s East Asians are very genetically similar to their ancient ancestors

The ancient DNA of two 7700-year-old women from a mountainous cave in far east Russia suggests they were closely related to the people who live in this remote and frigid corner of Asia today. The new discovery also suggests that in this region, farming spread through gradual cultural changes, rather than by an influx of farming people.

New research indicates that Baltic hunter-gatherers were not swamped by migrations of early agriculturalists from the Middle East, as was the case for the rest of central and western Europe. Instead, these people probably acquired knowledge of farming and ceramics by sharing cultures and ideas—rather than genes—with outside communities.

As an antidote to one of the ills of modern life, it may leave some quite cold. When the lure of the TV or fiddling on the phone keep you up late at night, it is time to grab the tent and go camping.

Over the years, scientists have come up with a lot of ideas about why we sleep. Some have argued that it’s a way to save energy. Others have suggested that slumber provides an opportunity to clear away the brain’s cellular waste. Still others have proposed that sleep simply forces animals to lie still, letting them hide from predators.

Delaying school start times could help Canadian teenagers sleep better – giving them a better chance for success, according to McGill University researchers. In a study published in the Journal of Sleep Research, the researchers found that students from schools that started earlier slept less, were less likely to meet the national sleep recommendations for their age, and were more often tired in the morning

How to control the subjective experience of time. Studies have revealed a link between time perception and motion. A circle or triangle that moves quickly across your computer monitor will seem to last longer on screen than a stationary object does; the faster the shapes move, the bigger the distortion. Related: Why the lights don’t dim when we blink

An archaeologist has launched a citizen science project that invites anyone with an Internet connection to help look for evidence of archaeological site looting. Related: Space Archaeology Is a Thing, And You Can Do It From Your Computer Right Now

Antarctica should be the perfect place to find meteorites - the dark rocks are easy to spot against the ice-covered landscape, and upward-flowing ice regularly dumps buried meteorites onto the surface.

Space rocks appear to be taking aim at Earth. The fourth asteroid this year buzzed the Earth about midday Thursday, passing between the Earth and moon. It wasn’t quite as close as the one in September that missed us by just 24,000 miles, nearly as close as some geosynchronous satellites Related: A newly discovered asteroid is zipping between Earth and the Moon tomorrow

“These results show ancient Venus may have been a very different place than it is today,” siad Michael Way, a researcher at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York. Venus today is a hellish world.

A FARAWAY world is steaming. Astronomers have found water vapour in the atmosphere of an exoplanet called 51 Pegasi b — and achieved the feat using a brand new technique. Detected over 20 years ago, 51 Pegasi b was the first known “hot Jupiter” – a Jupiter-like world orbiting close to its star. It isn’t the first such planet to have water spotted in its atmosphere, but it is the first non-transiting one.

Using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), astronomers have spotted an atomic hydrogen corona around Jupiter's icy moon Europa. The discovery which could improve our understanding of Europa's tenuous atmosphere was published Jan. 13 in the Astronomical Journal.

Nasa has released spectacular images of Saturn’s rings, revealing that the rings may be home to millions of orbiting “moonlets”. The images from the Cassini spacecraft resolve details on a scale of 550 metres – around the size of the tallest buildings on Earth.

Volcanoes erupted on Mars for nearly half of the planet's history, a new study suggests. A team of scientists determined that a Mars meteorite known as Northwest Africa (NWA) 7635 cooled and solidified 2.4 billion years ago — about 2 billion years earlier than other, similar Red Planet rocks from the same "volcanic center."

A small but distinctive signal in X-rays from the Milky Way could be key to proving the existence of dark matter. That is the claim of US scientists who analysed the energy spectrum of X-rays gathered by Nasa's Chandra satellite.

Just a few months ago, astronomers revealed that there is an Earth-size world orbiting Proxima Centauri, the next star over. Now, a team of astrophysicists thinks there’s a way to pay that planet a nice long visit sometime in the not-so-distant future.

Physicists have drawn up construction plans for a large-scale quantum computer. These super-fast machines promise to revolutionise computing, harnessing the world of quantum mechanics to solve problems that are beyond reach for even the most advanced "classical" ones.

Patient Number Two was born to first-time parents, late 20s, white. The pregnancy was normal and the birth uncomplicated. But after a few months, it became clear something was wrong.

Fancy flight tricks are a breeze for a new flying robot. Call it an acrobat. Bat Bot, a lightweight flier with thin silicone wings stretched over a carbon fiber skeleton, can cruise, dive and bank turn just like its namesake

Made from hydrogel, robots may one day assist in surgical operations, evade underwater detection Engineers at MIT have fabricated transparent, gel-based robots that move when water is pumped in and out of them. The bots can perform a number of fast, forceful tasks, including kicking a ball underwater, and grabbing and releasing a live fish.

One of China’s first unmanned factories in the city of Dongguan recently replaced 590 of its workers with robots and the results were astounding. While the factory used to be run by 650 employees, only 60 of those people still work at the factory and their primary job is to make sure the machines are running properly, not working on manufacturing.

Just about every analyst agrees that the electric vehicle market is poised for rapid growth. But how rapid? Related: Battery with inbuilt 'fire extinguisher' developed Related: Faster recharging batteries possible after new insights

Banning cars on Saturdays in Mexico city hasn't reduced air pollutants according to a new study. Scientists had expected that limiting driving at the weekend would reduce vehicle emissions by 15%.

In a barbed wire–enclosed parking lot 100 meters downwind of the Route 110 freeway, an aluminum hose sticks out of a white trailer, its nozzle aimed at an overpass. Every minute, the hose sucks up hundreds of liters of air mixed with exhaust from the roughly 300,000 cars and diesel-burning freight trucks that rumble by each day.

In addition to improving the ambiance in buildings, plants also purify the air. But how does this work, and which conditions are best for this filtering? Three scientists from Wageningen University & Research discuss the potential of plants as air purifiers.

A low level of atmospheric oxygen in Earth's middle ages held back evolution for 2 billion years, raising fresh questions about the origins of life on this planet. New research by the University of Exeter explains how oxygen was trapped at such low levels.

When the ancestors of Darwin’s finches arrived on the Galápagos two million years ago, they gained access to a world of new morsels, untapped by other animals. In a relatively short period, 14 species of finches evolved, specializing in different diets through different beak shapes: short for crushing seeds, sharp for catching insects, long for probing cactus flowers and so on.

The most common birds nests found today had their birthplace in Australia, and these nests may be key to many of our birds' success, according to new research from Macquarie University, released today.

During the dinosaur era, pterosaurs would swoop down and snap up wriggly fish and buzzing insects with their spiky teeth, with the exception of one odd group — pterosaurs that ate their meals like modern-day flamingos do: by filter feeding.

Below the shimmering turquoise waters of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula lies the scene of a prehistoric mass murder. In a geologic instant, most animal and plant species perished. Drilling through hundreds of meters of rock, investigators have finally reached the footprint left by the accused: Earth’s most notorious space rock impact, Chicxulub. The dinosaur killer.

Researchers have discovered the earliest known ancestor of humans - along with a vast range of other species. They say that fossilised traces of the 540-million-year-old creature are "exquisitely well preserved". Alt: Bag-like sea creature was humans' oldest known ancestor

Ancient proteins dating back 195 million years have been found inside a dinosaur bone. The discovery pushes back the oldest evidence for preserved proteins by 100 million years.

A new species of fossil has been discovered that will shed light on early animal ecosystems. Investigators discovered the new species while conducting a survey of microfossils in mudstones from western Canada. To their surprise, the samples yielded miniscule loriciferans: a type of animal so small it has been considered “unfossilizable”.

New research shows there may have been more nitrogen in the ocean between one and two billion years ago than previously thought, allowing marine organisms to proliferate at a time when multi-cellularity and eukaryotic life first emerged.

Around 3,500 BCE, the ancient Egyptians began to practice a ritual that has long perplexed archaeologists. They buried their dead in recycled ceramic food jars similar to Greek amphorae.

The benefits of eating vegetables is one of the first lessons we try to teach our often reluctant children. Six million years ago, they wouldn't have had a choice. Our early ancestors ate nothing but greens, and relied on raw plants for all their dietary needs. But we have now discovered the earliest evidence of humans cooking up nutritious pots of plants – 10,000 years ago.

Biologists have identified a brain hormone that appears to trigger fat burning in the gut. Their findings in animal models could have implications for future pharmaceutical development.

Ever felt hungry and angry at the same time? There’s evidence that “hanger” is a real phenomenon, one that can affect your work and relationships. The main reason we become more irritable when hungry is because our blood glucose level drops. This can make it difficult for us to concentrate, and more likely to snap at those around us.

Seafood eaters ingest up to 11,000 tiny pieces of plastic every year with dozens of particles becoming embedded in tissues, scientists have warned, in findings described as 'sobering' by the Prince of Wales.

Animals, like humans, communicate in lots of different ways. One of those ways, in animals as in humans, involves urinating on one another. Well, not right on one another, since the fish are in the water. Scientists at the Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the University of Bern wondered whether cichlids were peeing simply because they had to, or as a means of communicating aggression.

A team of researchers with the University of Rostock in Germany has found that seals are able to use their whiskers to find fish hiding in the sand on the ocean floor. Related: To Catch Prey, Frogs Turn To Sticky Spit

A crack in an ice shelf in Antarctica grew by six miles in the past few weeks, British scientists say, and now measures more than 100 miles long. Once the crack is complete, a giant iceberg larger than Rhode Island will break or "calve" off of Antarctica. The iceberg would be one of the biggest on record. Related: British Antarctic station to shut down for winter due to crack in ice

A new JRC report looks at flood risk and economic damages under different global warming scenarios with 1.5?C, 2?C, and 4?C temperature increases. It concludes that, if global temperatures rise by 4°C, the flood risk in countries representing more than 70% of the global population and of the global GDP will increase by more than 500%.

At Hotel Star Sapphire in Dawei, Myanmar, guests sip from coconuts in cool, air-conditioned comfort as the steamy tropical night rolls on. Seven thousand kilometers to the west, in dry Khartoum, Sudan, patients rest in a United Nations Hospital, cocooned from the baking desert heat.

You've seen Bear Grylls turn foul water into drinking water with little more than sunlight and plastic. Now, academics have added a third element—carbon-dipped paper—that may turn this survival tactic into a highly efficient and inexpensive way to turn saltwater and contaminated water into potable water for personal use.

The newest and most dangerous island in the world is about to get a robotic sentinel. Since bursting to life 1,000 kilometers south of Tokyo in 2013, a massive marine volcano called Nishinoshima has erupted dozens of times, spewing red-hot lava that engulfed a neighboring island.

Your life really does flash before your eyes when you die, a study suggests - with the parts of the brain that store memories last to be affected as other functions fail. Research on those who have had "near death" experiences suggests that the phenomenon rarely involves flashbacks in chronological order, as happens in Hollywood films.

The psychedelic drug ibogaine is known for two things: its reputation in some circles as a panacea for addiction and the visceral hallucinations it induces. Positive anecdotes abound from people who have sought out the illegal drug at underground clinics. Just one dose, they say, brings near-instant relief from cravings and withdrawal symptoms, a veritable miracle for seemingly intractable addictions. But the side effects of this plant-derived substance can be dangerous or even deadly. Related: German parliament legalizes cannabis for medical consumption Related: Delaying pot smoking to age 17 is better for teens' brains, a new study suggests Related: The war on drugs causes massive human rights violations

A project aims to investigate the social case for gardens and what impact they have on health and well-being. There is growing evidence for the environmental and health benefits of gardens and gardening.