Newsdesk Archive
Spanish archaeologists say they have discovered an exceptional set of Paleolithic-era cave drawings that could rank among the best in a country that already boasts some of the world’s most important cave art.
It’s the city that famously wasn’t built in a day—and, years after Rome’s 753 B.C. founding, it has begun to fall into ruins. Despite Rome's reputation as The Eternal City, many of its most famous landmarks, from the Colosseum to its famous Forum, are in desperate need of repair.
Data about the true risks of suicide and aggression for children and teens taking these drugs have been suppressed
Workaholism frequently co-occurs with ADHD, OCD, anxiety, and depression, a large national Norwegian study shows. The study showed that workaholics scored higher on all the psychiatric symptoms than non-workaholics.
Related: Autism Can Be An Asset In The Workplace, Employers And Workers Find
Federal scientists released partial findings Friday from a $25-million animal study that tested the possibility of links between cancer and chronic exposure to the type of radiation emitted from cell phones and wireless devices.
New research from scientists at the University of Copenhagen and Yale University may offer a simple, yet powerful way to pull back the curtain on the true status of patients in a coma.
The Dutch government has announced it wants to allow growing human embryos “under strict and limited conditions” for scientific research, thereby giving hope to parents struggling to conceive.
KATWIJK, the Netherlands — Its wings beating against a gathering breeze, the eagle moves gracefully through a cloudy sky, then swoops, talons outstretched, on its prey below.
Researchers have invented a DNA "tape recorder" that can trace the family history of every cell in an organism.
The technique is being hailed as a breakthrough in understanding how the trillions of complex cells in a body are descended from a single egg.
GPS-based navigation, communication systems, electrical power grids and financial networks all rely on the precise time kept by a network of around 500 atomic clocks located around the world.
A team of young Japanese engineers is developing a flying car with the goal of launching it in time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The futuristic vehicle – dubbed Skydrive – is fitted with three wheels, a motor and four rotors, enabling it to take off and land vertically from public roads without the need of a runway.
It is an idea that every small child has had at some point. Instead of sending up rockets into space, why not simply build a huge lift.
Now a Canadian firm has been granted a patent for a ‘space elevator’ which will shoot cargo 12.4 miles into the stratosphere from where it can be launched more easily.
Alt: Russia wants to use 'space taxis' to send humans to the moon: Firm reveals plans for shuttle between ISS and lunar surface
Had you searched the sky with a telescope just a few hundred thousand years ago, you would have struggled to find a red planet. Instead, you would have seen a gleaming-white ice ball where Mars should be.
Alt: The Time To Nuke Mars Is Now
For the first time, scientists have directly detected a crucial amino acid and a rich selection of organic molecules in the dusty atmosphere of a comet, further bolstering the hypothesis that these icy objects delivered some of life's ingredients to Earth.
Bubbling seas may create the mysterious "magic islands" of Titan, Saturn's largest moon.
New research has revealed that mixing the most common elements found on Titan produces nitrogen bubbles.
Supermassive black holes were probably born big, a new study reports.
These behemoths — which lie at the hearts of most if not all galaxies, and can contain billions of times more mass than the sun — probably form after the collapse of gigantic gas clouds, rather than the death of individual stars, as some astronomers had thought, the study suggests.
An international team of scientists has identified a common phenomenon in galaxies that could explain why huge numbers of them turn into cosmic graveyards.
Galaxies begin their existence as lively and colourful spiral galaxies, full of gas and dust, and actively forming bright new stars.
We all know that the universe is expanding, right? Well, if you weren't aware, now you are. We live in an expanding universe: Every galaxy is flying away from every other galaxy. This naturally leads to a common question: If the universe is expanding, what's it expanding into? More universe? Nothing? Something resembling a vague fog? Where's the edge of our cosmic soap bubble?
Bizarrely behaving light particles show that the famous Schrödinger's cat thought experiment, meant to reveal the strange nature of subatomic particles, can get even weirder than physicists thought.
Not only can the quantum cat be alive and dead at the same time — but it can also be in two places at once, new research shows.
For the first time a study led by researchers at Macquarie University has observed the presence of individual personality differences in Port Jackson sharks.
Every salmon farm features "drop outs," growth-stunted fish that float lifelessly at the surface of the pond. New research suggests these fish are severely depressed.
The dejected salmon are called "drop outs" because they appear to have given up. Based on the latest findings published in Royal Society Open Science, calling such fish suicidal doesn't seem like much of an exaggeration.
The fruit fly Drosophila bifurca is only a few millimeters in size but produces almost six centimeters long sperm. Researchers provide the first explanation for the evolution of such giant sperm. Larger sperm are able to displace their smaller competitors from the female reproductive tract -- a competitive advantage in fertilizing the eggs. Female promiscuity increases the fertilization success by larger males, which can produce more of the longer sperm.
Steeped in mystery, the elusive, deep-sea-dwelling giant squid, with eyes the size of basketballs, may be larger than it has gotten credit for. In fact, the monster cephalopod may grow to be longer than a school bus, researchers say.
250 million years ago an apocalyptic combination of climate change, volcanic eruptions and rising sea levels sent the Earth into a tail spin and caused the extinction of 96 percent of all marine species. And it’s been widely accepted that it took our oceans’ inhabitants a very long time to recover.
The effort to drill into the Chicxulub Crater off the coast of Mexico has been declared an outstanding success.
A UK/US-led team has spent the past seven weeks coring into the deep bowl cut out of the Earth's surface 66 million years ago by the asteroid that hastened the end of the dinosaurs.
A study of more than 6,000 marine fossils from the Antarctic shows that the mass extinction event that killed the dinosaurs was sudden and just as deadly to life in the polar regions. Previously, scientists had thought that creatures living in the southernmost regions of the planet would have been in a less perilous position during the mass extinction event than those elsewhere on Earth.
Archaeologists at the University of York have undertaken pioneering scans of the highest prehistoric paintings of animals in Europe.
Studying the rock paintings of Abri Faravel, a rock shelter in the Southern French Alps 2,133m above sea level, archaeologists used car batteries to power laser and white-light scanners in a logistically complex operation.
Deep in a dark cave in southwestern France lie half a dozen mysterious structures that scientists believe were built by Neanderthals 176,000 years ago -- about 140,000 years before the first modern humans arrived in Europe.
Alt: Neanderthals Built Mysterious Stone Circles
If a Neandertal were to sit down next to us on the underground, we would probably first notice his receding forehead, prominent brow ridges and projecting, chinless face.
Only on closer inspection would we notice his wider and thicker body.
Did you hear about the secret meeting earlier this month at Harvard Medical School? The one where scientists schemed to create a parentless human being from scratch? Maybe you read one of the skeptical news articles, or the stories illustrated with images from the dystopian sci-fi classic “Blade Runner” or of a robot Frankenstein. One blogger compared the meeting to a gathering of “Bond villains.”
Could it be that Alzheimer’s disease stems from the toxic remnants of the brain’s attempt to fight off infection?
Provocative new research by a team of investigators at Harvard leads to this startling hypothesis, which could explain the origins of plaque, the mysterious hard little balls that pockmark the brains of people with Alzheimer’s.
Related: Diet that mimics fasting may also reduce multiple sclerosis symptoms
A team of cancer researchers led by scientists at UC San Francisco and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center demonstrated in human cells and mouse models that a first-of-its-kind hybrid drug can outsmart drug-resistant cancers.
The cure for type 2 diabetes may be all in your head, a new study in rats and mice suggests.
With a single shot to the brain, researchers can rid rodents of all symptoms of the disease for months. The injection, a relatively low dose of a tissue growth factor protein called fibroblast growth factor 1 (FGF1), appears to reset powerful neural networks that can control the amount of sugar in the blood.
It’s twin power. Identical twins are less likely to die young from unexpected causes, perhaps because of the close social bond between them.
Related: This woman is the only person left born in the 1800s
BAR HARBOR, MAINE -- Sea urchins are remarkable organisms. They can quickly regrow damaged spines and feet. Some species also live to extraordinary old ages and -- even more remarkably -- do so with no signs of poor health, such as a decline in regenerative capacity or an increase in age-related mortality. These ocean Methuselahs even reproduce as if they were still youngsters.
Nearly half of the world's population of the saiga - a species of antelope older than the mammoth - were wiped out by a freak pathogen last year, in an event scientists are blaming on rapid temperature fluctuations caused by climate change.
Our planet’s pre-industrial climate may have been cloudier than presently thought, shows CERN’s CLOUD experiment in two papers published today in Nature.
CLOUD shows that organic vapours emitted by trees produce lots of aerosol particles in the atmosphere when there’s no sulphuric acid – a main product of burning fossil fuels.
Related: Can Trees Make Clouds Form?
Fire practices of Indigenous peoples could combat the increasing frequency of devastating fires in tropical forests and savannas, according to research by Royal Holloway geographer Jay Mistry.
Eight masks made from human skulls were found at a temple in Tenochtitlán, Mexico, over three decades ago. Their purpose and origins have always been somewhat mysterious. But a new archaeological analysis suggests that these morbid masks may have been made from slain warriors and other elite members of ancient Aztec society.
Greek archaeologists at Ancient Stagira, Central Macedonia, say they have found Aristotle’s tomb. Addressing the Aristotle 2400 Years World Congress, they point to the 2,400-year-old tomb as the most important finding from the 20-year excavation.
UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO—A research team co-led by a scientist at New Zealand's University of Otago has sequenced the first complete mitochondrial genome of a 2500-year-old Phoenician dubbed the "Young Man of Byrsa" or "Ariche".
It has mystified historians ever since. After a string of major victories, the Mongol army suddenly retreated from central Europe in 1242.
Some scholars claim Mongolian politics forced the withdrawal, while others credit the strength of fortified towns in present-day Hungary and Croatia. But Europe could have been rescued by its own bad weather, an analysis of tree rings and historical documents concludes.
A 5,000-year-old brewery has been unearthed in China.
Archaeologists uncovered ancient "beer-making tool kits" in underground rooms built between 3400 and 2900 B.C. Discovered at a dig site in the Central Plain of China, the kits included funnels, pots and specialized jugs. The shapes of the objects suggest they could be used for brewing, filtration and storage.
Spanish archaeologists have discovered the 3,800-year-old mummy of Lady Sattjeni, a leading figure from the Middle Kingdom, authorities at the Ministry of Antiquities announced on Tuesday.
Sattjeni’s family was just below pharaoh Amenemhat III (1800-1775 B.C.) in the hierarchy of Elephantine, an island in the center of the Nile at Aswan. Her sons Heqaib III and Ameny-Seneb ruled there at the end of the Twelfth Dynasty.
A museum here reported that more than 30 sword guards in its possession were likely used by “hidden Christians” during the feudal era.
The Sawada Miki Kinenkan museum said they were believed to be used by Christians who practiced their faith in secrecy even after anti-Christian measures were instituted in Japan.
By scouring the remains of early loos and sewers, archaeologists are finding clues to what life was like in the Roman world and in other civilizations
A study* suggests that Neanderthal infants were born with many skeletal features of adult Neanderthals. While it is known that many differences between Neanderthal and modern human skulls are present at birth, it is not clear if the same is true of differences in the rest of the body.
Besides their owners finding them cute, short-nosed dogs are more affectionate and make better guard dogs than long-nosed dogs, a new study suggests.
The research, published recently in the journal PLOS ONE may help explain the growing obsession in some countries, including Australia, with short-nosed dogs.
It’s a tear-jerker worthy of Hollywood – and one of the first examples of compassionate care and grief in a wild monkey. The alpha male of a group of snub-nosed monkeys and his dying partner spent a final, tender hour together beneath the tree from which she had fallen minutes earlier, cracking her head on a rock.
Human language is a fundamentally cooperative enterprise, embodying fast-paced interactions. It has been suggested that it evolved as part of a larger adaptation of humans' unique forms of cooperation. In a cross-species comparison of bonobos and chimpanzees, scientists from the Humboldt Research Group of the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Seewiesen now showed that communicative exchanges of our closest living relatives, the great apes resemble cooperative turn-taking sequences in human conversation.
If you rage with frustration during a marital spat, watch your blood pressure. If you keep a stiff upper lip, watch your back. New research based on how couples behave during conflicts, suggests outbursts of anger predict cardiovascular problems. Conversely, shutting down emotionally or "stonewalling" during conflict raises the risk of musculoskeletal ailments such as a bad back or stiff muscles.
Related: The power of saying thank you
Our romantic choices are not just based on feelings and emotions, but how rich we feel compared to others, a new study published in Frontiers in Psychology has found.
Children from impoverished families are more prone to mental illness, and alterations in DNA structure could be to blame, according to a study published on 24 May in Molecular Psychiatry.
A survey of more than 216,000 adolescents from all 50 states indicates the number of teens with marijuana-related problems is declining. Similarly, the rates of marijuana use by young people are falling despite the fact more US states are legalizing or decriminalizing marijuana use and the number of adults using the drug has increased.
The goal of antiaddiction vaccines is to prevent addictive molecules from reaching the brain, where they produce their effects and can create chemical dependencies. Vaccines can accomplish this task, in theory, by generating antibodies—proteins produced by the immune system—that bind to addictive particles and essentially stop them in their tracks. But challenges remain.
Robin Hanson thinks the robot takeover, when it comes, will be in the form of emulations. In his new book, The Age of Em, the economist explains: you take the best and brightest 200 human beings on the planet, you scan their brains and you get robots that to all intents and purposes are indivisible from the humans on which they are based, except a thousand times faster and better.
A family of compounds known as perovskites, which can be made into thin films with many promising electronic and optical properties, has been a hot research topic in recent years. But although these materials could potentially be highly useful in applications such as solar cells, some limitations still hamper their efficiency and consistency.
It took nearly a half trillion tries before researchers at The University of Texas at Austin witnessed a rare event and perhaps solved an evolutionary puzzle about how introns, non-coding sequences of DNA located within genes, multiply in a genome.
A laboratory experiment in Hungary has spotted an anomaly in radioactive decay that could be the signature of a previously unknown fifth fundamental force of nature, physicists say – if the finding holds up.
At a distant star called Kepler-223, four gas giant planets orbit close in to their sun. It couldn’t be more different from our own solar system today, where all the big planets hang out far away. But could Kepler-223 be how our solar system was long ago?
Finding more'invisible' dwarf galaxies could help astronomers solve one of the biggest questions: what is the Universe made of?
Knowing whether these dwarf galaxies exist – and if so, how many there are – is crucial for solving one of the biggest cosmic conundrums around: what is the stuff that makes up the Universe?
An EPFL team is working on a smart visor that, combined with a thermal imaging camera, will help firefighters see what's around them in real time, even at night and in smoke.
It’s time to shell-ebrate!
A tortoise that lost most of its shell in a forest fire got a 3D-printed prosthetic replacement, thanks to a team of specialists in Brazil, according to a press release translated by The Huffington Post.
A 195-year-old discovery is behind a new system that will save vehicles hundreds of litres of fuel and reduce their carbon emissions by as much as 1,000 tonnes per year.
A drone start-up is going to counter industrial scale deforestation using industrial scale reforestation.
BioCarbon Engineering wants to use drones for good, using the technology to seed up to one billion trees a year, all without having to set foot on the ground.
EPFL spin-off Gamaya has just raised 3.2 million francs for its agricultural drone system. The system combines a miniature hyperspectral camera and artificial intelligence to give farmers very precise information on the health of their crops. It can also be used to ensure fertilizer, pesticides and other treatments are used sparingly.
Overuse of antibiotics in livestock can spread drug-resistant microbes — via farm workers or even breezy weather. But there’s more than one reason stay upwind of drugged cattle.
In hunting down delicious fish, Flipper may have a secret weapon: snot.
Dolphins emit a series of quick, high-frequency sounds — probably by forcing air over tissues in the nasal passage — to find and track potential prey.
Related: Nile Crocodiles Found Really Far Out of Africa. In Florida.
A surprising 60-year boom in global octopus, squid and cuttlefish numbers points to long-term changes taking place in the world's oceans, scientists say.
Research published in Current Biology today shows a steady increase in the world cephalopod population — the class of molluscs comprising octopus, squid and cuttlefish — since the 1950s, at a time of increased fishing, growing pollution and ocean warming.
A relationship that has lasted for 100 million years is at serious risk of ending, due to the effects of environmental and climate change. A species of spiny crayfish native to Australia and the tiny flatworms that depend on them are both at risk of extinction, according to researchers from the UK and Australia.
Recently discovered evidence of carbonates beneath the surface of Mars points to a warmer and wetter environment in that planet's past. The presence of liquid water could have fostered the emergence of life.
The hunt for signs of alien life in the solar system may be much tougher than researchers had thought, thanks to the damaging effects of radiation.
Two separate studies suggest that galactic radiation would quickly degrade biological material on the surface of Mars and Jupiter's ocean-harboring moon Europa, two of the prime targets in the search for past or present extraterrestrial life.
Mysterious high-rise clouds seen appearing suddenly in the martian atmosphere on a handful of occasions may be linked to space weather, say Mars Express scientists.
Amateur astronomers using telescopes on Earth were the first to report an unusual cloud-like plume in 2012 that topped-out high above the surface of Mars at an altitude around 250 km. The feature developed in less than 10 hours, covered an area of up to 1000 x 500 km, and remained visible for around 10 days.
When a powerful "superflare" from the sun scoured the solar system more than 1,200 years ago, it apparently had little effect on Earth's inhabitants — but today's astronauts wouldn't be so lucky, scientists said. New research suggests that an event of that magnitude would greatly endanger current plans for space travel, with astronauts standing a good chance of receiving lethal doses of radiation.
Giant flare-ups from the young sun might have kept early Earth warm – and any life nicely fertilised. By splitting inert nitrogen molecules in the atmosphere, charged particles from the sun could have sparked chemical reactions that heated the planet and could be the precursor for life.
The fall of Tenochtitlan is an important event in the history of the Americas as it marks the end of the Aztec Empire. This event took place on August 13, 1521 and was the result of a three-month long siege. However, it may be said that the Spanish were not really the masters of Mexico yet, and they would only achieve this status some decades later.
Related: A Secret Tunnel Found in Mexico May Finally Solve the Mysteries of Teotihuacán
However ‘civilised’ we may now consider ourselves to be, biologically we remain much as we were before we began farming and moved into cities. Can we create a healthier future by returning to our paleolithic past?
Swarms of insects breeding in a polluted river near the Taj Mahal are threatening the intricate marble inlay work at the 17th century monument to love by leaving green and black patches of waste on its walls, archaeological experts said Monday.
It is an archaeological conundrum that has baffled generations of experts.
Just how did prehistoric Britons manage to transport the huge bluestones of Stonehenge some 140 miles from the Presili Mountains in Wales to their final home on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire.
Gravity hills are a type of slope where things seem to move against gravity on their own accord. For instance, if water is poured onto the surface of the hill, it would seem to move upwards, instead of in the opposite direction, as one might expect it to.
After years of delay, Brazil has approved the creation of a sprawling reserve that would protect a highly vulnerable tribe of isolated nomads along one of the most volatile frontier regions in the Amazon rain forest.
A biomass recovered from common plant could help purify water from contamination of copper and zinc. A new article reports on the possible use of biosorbents derived from Jatropha curcas waste, to remove heavy metal ions from water.
It's a win-win situation for the environment and the economy when it comes to introducing legumes into agricultural systems, says new research published in Frontiers in Plant Science, carried out by an international team of scientists as part of the European Union project, Legume Futures.
Because plants can’t move, they depend on partnerships with microbes to help them get nutrients. But science has only recently delved into the importance of the microbiome of plants.
Out in some parts of the ocean, tiny microbes called Pyrocystis fusiformis congregate and illuminate the water as waves build and crash. When Satbir Multani and Mathura Govindarajan, two students at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, heard that these dinoflagellates did this in response to vibration, they wondered what would happen if they played music around them.
Using gene editing technology, researchers have, for the first time, successfully excised a segment of HIV-1 DNA -- the virus responsible for AIDS -- from the genomes of living animals. The breakthrough is a critical step in the development of a potentially curative strategy for HIV infection.
Antibiotics can save lives, but sometimes they can work too well.
Most antibiotics can't tell the difference between good and bad bacteria. That means the medicines kill helpful bacteria in your gut while they're obliterating the bacteria making you sick.
Related: Inventing A Machine That Spits Out Drugs In A Whole New Way
More than 14,000 known asteroids zip through Earth’s neighborhood. They will all miss Earth in the coming decades.
But hundreds of thousands more have not yet been discovered, and whether any of those are on course to slam into our planet, no one knows.
Scientists have detected and confirmed the faintest early-universe galaxy ever, using the W. M. Keck Observatory on the summit on Mauna Kea in Hawaii. The team detected the galaxy as it was 13 billion years ago.
Related: Hubble spies a spiral snowflake
As NASA's New Horizons probe speeds toward a possible encounter with an object beyond the orbit of Pluto, the spacecraft has made observations of another icy object located in the same outer region of the solar system.
A new NASA study modeling conditions in the ocean of Jupiter’s moon Europa suggests that the necessary balance of chemical energy for life could exist there, even if the moon lacks volcanic hydrothermal activity.
Tsunamis waves tall enough to swallow the Statue of Liberty washed away the shorelines of Mars’s ancient ocean, according to a study published Thursday.
In the wake of their destructive force, a Martian mystery was born.
Why has the sea ice cover surrounding Antarctica been increasing slightly, in sharp contrast to the drastic loss of sea ice occurring in the Arctic Ocean? A new NASA-led study finds the geology of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean are responsible.
Scientists have used sunlight to turn seawater (H2O) into hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), which can then be used in fuel cells to generate electricity. It is the first photocatalytic method of H2O2 production that achieves a high enough efficiency so that the H2O2 can be used in a fuel cell.
At Germany’s aerospace agency, the next frontier is capturing the sun here on Earth and keeping it on tap.
In a 4-year-old glass and steel building near the Cologne-Bonn Airport, researchers at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Germany’s equivalent of NASA, are working on new ways to produce more heat than light in order to smooth over intermittency, one of the biggest drawbacks of solar power on the grid.
A Japanese company is looking to combine atmospheric study and entertainment with its Sky Canvas Project, which it hopes can generate a satellite-based artificial meteor shower for the 2020 Summer Olympics, held in Tokyo.
With an advance that one cryptography expert called a "masterpiece," University of Texas at Austin computer scientists have developed a new method for producing truly random numbers, a breakthrough that could be used to encrypt data, make electronic voting more secure, conduct statistically significant polls and more accurately simulate complex systems such as Earth's climate.
Related: This Turing machine should run forever unless maths is wrong
Scientists have designed flying, insect-sized robots that can perch and launch from ceilings.
The robots use something called electrostatic adhesion, the same process by which statically-charged balloons stick to walls.
There’s a new sheriff in town at the Stanford shopping center, and he has high-definition infra-red cameras and can process 300 license plates a minute
Four sister robots built by NASA could be pioneers in the colonization of Mars, part of an advance construction team that sets up a habitat for more fragile human explorers. But first they're finding new homes on Earth and engineers to hone their skills.