Newsdesk Archive
Twenty-three years ago, a bonobo named Kanzi (above) aced a test in understanding human language. But a new study reveals he may not be as brainy as scientists thought—at least when it comes to grammar.
Fossils belonging to an ancient human relative that were discovered on the banks of a Kenyan river suggest that hominids lived farther east than previously thought.
Alt: Australopithecus fossils found east of the Great Rift Valley
They survived in the harsh Ice Age climate of Europe for well over 100,000 years before disappearing entirely 40,000 years ago.
While the extinction of the Neanderthals has been blamed on both our own modern ancestors and climate change, a new study claims they may have been the architects of their own downfall.
A bean stew, lamb, olives, bitter herbs, a fish sauce, unleavened bread, dates and aromatized wine likely were on the menu at the Last Supper, says recent research into Palestinian cuisine during Jesus's time.
Researchers have designed and synthesized a minimal bacterial genome, containing only the genes necessary for life, and consisting of just 473 genes. This advances the team's groundbreaking research published in 2010, in which they built and booted up the first self-replicating, synthetic bacterial cell, providing proof of principle that genomes can be designed in the computer, chemically made in the lab, and transplanted into a recipient cell to produce a new, self-replicating cell controlled only by the synthetic genome.
A drone has successfully delivered a package to a residential location in a small Nevada town in what its maker and the governor of the state said Friday was the first fully autonomous urban drone delivery in the U.S.
Flirtey CEO Matt Sweeney said the six-rotor drone flew about a half-mile along a pre-programmed delivery route on March 10 and lowered the package outside a vacant residence in an uninhabited area of Hawthorne, southeast of Reno.
It seems like every few weeks there's some new measurement of how successful solar power is in the United States. In early March, industry analysts found that solar is poised for its biggest year ever, with total installations growing 119 percent by the end of 2016.
Related: Why do sunbathers live longer than those who avoid the sun?
A new study, and some gorgeous simulations, may have revealed how order arises from disorder in the turbulent, chaotic body of the sun.
In the sun, change is the norm. The body of the sun is a swirling cauldron of fluid, constantly in motion. Every 11 years, the suns magnetic poles migrate across the star's surface, and switch positions.
Solar flares on the sun frequently shower Earth with high-energy particles causing the Aurora Borealis and, occasionally, less-welcome disruptions to power networks and communications. But researchers say that there is a chance—though small—that the sun could one day blast us with a solar flare thousands of times as powerful, potentially frying our atmosphere and obliterating life.
Some of the moons and icy objects orbiting Saturn may have formed less than 100 million years ago, while dinosaurs still roamed the Earth.
The idea that some of Saturn’s moons may be relatively modern stems from computer models that simulated the moons’ gravitational interactions and shifting orbital tilts over time.
Before the final collision of Eurasia and the Indian subcontinent, land bridges between the landmasses may have served as 'freeways' of biodiversity exchange that flowed in both directions, new information shows.
A stash of Roman jewellery, hastily buried in the earth to hide it from Queen Boudicca's army, has gone on display for the first time.
Known as the 'Fenwick treasure', the hoard of gold and silver valuables is believed to have been stashed in the ground by a Roman woman in Colchester as the Iceni hoards advanced in 61AD.
Part of the ceiling of the British Museum’s new exhibition space has had to be dismantled to allow the safe installation of three colossal Egyptian granite statues, which were recovered in 2001 from the water where they lay for more than 2,000 years since a wealthy harbour city was destroyed by earthquake and rising sea levels.
For thousands of years, the marshes at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in modern day Iraq were an oasis of green in a dry landscape, hosting a wealth of wildlife. The culture of the Marsh Arab, or Ma'dan, people who live there is tightly interwoven with the ecosystem of the marshes.
About 3200 years ago, two armies clashed at a river crossing near the Baltic Sea. The confrontation can’t be found in any history books—the written word didn’t become common in these parts for another 2000 years—but this was no skirmish between local clans. Thousands of warriors came together in a brutal struggle, perhaps fought on a single day, using weapons crafted from wood, flint, and bronze, a metal that was then the height of military technology.
A 1,900-year-old building that would have served as an apartment within the estate of Roman Emperor Hadrian has been discovered in Tivoli, Italy. The building is full of lavish artwork, archaeologists said.
Researchers are a step closer to unravelling one of the great prehistoric puzzles of South East Asia, after discovering an ancient burial ground, including human remains, at the Plain of Jars in central Laos.
International team led by researchers from the University of Leicester report 12 giant eruptions around the Snake River Plain in the United States between 8 and 12 million years ago
Poland on Friday gave the go ahead for large-scale logging in the Bialowieza forest intended to combat a spruce bark beetle infestation, despite scientists, ecologists and the EU protesting the move in Europe's last primeval woodland.
European bison went extinct in the wild in 1919, but now a few thousand are back, grazing in forests and on plains in a handful of countries. The first four of a group of 11 animals—Europe's largest living land animal—were reintroduced into state forest land in the Netherlands earlier this month.
Ants are also aggressive toward each other, fighting to the death over their tree territories. The consequences for losing colonies are stark: loss of territory or colony death. After a fight, victorious colonies have to defend their newly gained territory with a workforce heavily depleted by fighting. In a new study, researchers found that victorious colonies might offset this challenge by recruiting members of the losing colonies to help.
Had Teresa Dzieweczynski chosen to publish her recent findings as an updated children’s classic, rather than as a research paper, she could have titled it If You Give a Fish an Antidepressant. The book would probably be less charming than If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. But it would also be, unfortunately, more realistic.
Individuals with a psychiatric disorder involving recurrent bouts of extreme, impulsive anger--road rage, for example--are more than twice as likely to have been exposed to a common parasite than healthy individuals with no psychiatric diagnosis.
The 22 men took the same pill for four weeks. When interviewed, they said they felt less daily stress and their memories were sharper. The brain benefits were subtle, but the results, reported at last year’s annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, got attention. That’s because the pills were not a precise chemical formula synthesized by the pharmaceutical industry.
The capsules were brimming with bacteria.
Virgin Group founder Richard Branson is teaming up with aerospace startup Boom to help build a new fleet of supersonic commercial jets that can travel at more than twice the speed of sound. The startup claims its vehicles will be able to travel from from New York to London in just 3.5 hours, with tickets costing an "affordable" price of $5,000 per seat — "the same price as business class."
Related: Military 'invisibility cloaks' could breach Geneva conventions
In a world-first, researchers have created a quantum chip that contains four entangled particles of light, known as photons, and is capable of performing actions over hundreds of channels simultaneously.
A digital design student in New Jersey went viral over the weekend after 3D-printing his very own set of clear, orthodontic aligners - just like the ones that sell for thousands of dollars - all for less than US$60.
Related: The ultimate in laziness? A self-parking chair
The Toyota Prius may have started the era of modern hybrid cars when it debuted in Japan in 1997, but it was far from the first hybrid vehicle.
Ferdinand Porsche actually designed a handful of hybrid and electric cars with Vienna-based carriage builder Jacob Lohner and Company, starting in 1898.
A recent discovery could radically change our views of one of the world’s most famous archaeological sites, Tutankhamun’s tomb.
Scans of the complex in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings revealed it may still include undiscovered chambers – perhaps even the resting place of Queen Nefertiti – even though we have been studying the tomb for almost 100 years.
The New Kingdom Pharaoh Ramesses III was assassinated by multiple assailants — and given postmortem cosmetic surgery to improve his mummy's appearance.
Those are some of the new tidbits on ancient Egyptian royalty detailed in a new book by Egyptologist Zahi Hawass and Cairo University radiologist Sahar Saleem, "Scanning the Pharaohs: CT Imaging of the New Kingdom Royal Mummies" (American University in Cairo Press, 2016).
Excavations of a tomb in northern Lazio dating to around the 8th century BC have uncovered treasures including an amber necklace, a golden Egyptian scarab amulet and rare pottery that archaeologists say likely belonged to an Etruscan princess.
A legendary castle dating back to the 12th century has been relocated after being lost for more than a century. The building was uncovered during work by Scottish Water in the area of the medieval village of Partick, now Glasgow, in Scotland. The ruins of the castle were swept away by the building of a Victorian railway station.
Deep in the jungles of southeast Asia, archaeologists have rediscovered the remains of an invisible kingdom that may have been the template for Angkor Wat
Is the orthodox view of the rise of civilisation wrong? For many years, a number of 'alternative' historians have put forward the view that there is enough evidence to suggest that an advanced civilisation existed in prehistory, but through some cataclysm disappeared in the mists of time. And, in recent years, archaeological discoveries such as the truly ancient megalithic site of Göbekli Tepe have continued to add substance to that view.
The late Early Pleistocene site near Untermassfeld, in Germany, is now well known for a rich array of fauna dating back to about 1.07 years ago, including simple 'Mode 1' (or Oldowan-type) stone tools evidencing early human occupation.
Long-hidden annotations in a Henry VIII-era Bible reveal the messy, gradual process of the Protestant Reformation.
The handwritten notes were just discovered in a Latin Bible published in 1535 by Henry VIII's printer.
The oldest known Arabic writing found in Saudi Arabia, from ca. 470 AD belong to a Christian context and predates the advent of Islam with 150 years.
A sixth-century church with a rare collection of early Christian art is reopening to the public in Rome after a restoration that took more than 30 years.
Nestling at the foot of the hill where Rome’s emperors once lived, the Basilica di Santa Maria Antiqua was buried under rubble by an earthquake in 847 and only uncovered in 1900.
A new study reveals how two ancient species of this legume were combined 10,000 years ago, in Andean valleys, to create the modern peanut
Heatwaves from Europe to China are likely to be more intense and result in maximum temperatures that are 3°C to 5°C warmer than previously estimated by the middle of the century - all because of the way plants on the ground respond to carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Related: Could Sea Level Rise Swamp Cities within a Century?
Ice deposits that formed in craters on opposite sides of the Moon three billion years ago indicate it may have once spun on a different axis.
Volcanic activity in the Moon's interior billions of years ago may have moved the lunar poles to their present position, according to a team of scientists from the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona.
Returning to the Moon has been the fevered dream of many scientists and astronauts. Ever since the Apollo Program culminated with the first astronauts setting foot on the Moon on July 20th, 1969, we have been looking for ways to go back to the Moon… and to stay there. In that time, multiple proposals have been drafted and considered. But in every case, these plans failed, despite the brave words and bold pledges made.
Related: Permanent Mars Colony Is 'Long Way Down the Road,' NASA Says
The New Horizons probe revealed the surface features of Pluto in rich detail when it reached the dwarf planet in July 2015. Some of the features look like snapshots of rivers and lakes that are locked firmly in place by Pluto’s frigid temperatures. But now scientists studying the data coming back from New Horizons think that those frozen lakes and rivers could once have been liquid nitrogen.
A new map of Mars' gravity made with three NASA spacecraft is the most detailed to date, providing a revealing glimpse into the hidden interior of the Red Planet.
"Gravity maps allow us to see inside a planet, just as a doctor uses an X-ray to see inside a patient," said Antonio Genova of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, Massachusetts.
One of the most provocative questions about Mars today is what is causing periodic spikes in the amount of methane in the planet's atmosphere.
On Earth, methane is strongly tied to biological activities, raising the prospect that colonies of methane-emitting microbes might be living on Mars.
The Earthly Northern Lights are beautiful and astounding, but when it comes to planetary light shows, what happened at Jupiter in 2011 might take the cake. In 2011, a coronal mass ejection (CME) struck Jupiter, producing x-ray auroras 8 times brighter than normal, and hundreds of times more energetic than Earth’s auroras.
Researchers have found the fastest winds ever seen at ultraviolet wavelengths near a supermassive black hole. Some are reaching as fast as 200 million kilometers, equivalent to a category 77 hurricane. And there may be even faster quasar winds. As matter spirals toward a black hole, some is blown away. These are the winds that we are detecting, says an astronomer.
Physicists have developed a new protocol to detect entanglement of many-particle quantum states using a much easier approach. The new protocol is particularly interesting for characterizing entanglement in systems involving many particles. These systems could help us not only to improve our understanding of matter but to develop measurement techniques beyond current existing technologies.
In December, the ATLAS and CMS experiments reported what could be the first hint of a new massive particle that spits out two photons as it decays. Now, physicists are presenting their latest analyses, including a full investigation of this mysterious bump. After carefully checking, cross-checking and rechecking the data, both experiments have come to the same conclusion -- the bump is still there.
Sometimes our memories are just made up.
Our brains play tricks on us all the time, and these tricks can mislead us into believing we can accurately reconstruct our personal past. In reality, false memories are everywhere.
More prisons will close in the next few years as the government looks to cut the cost of hundreds of empty cells, justice minister Ard van der Steur has told parliament.
Related: The FBI has a new plan to spy on high school kids across the country
Marijuana is rapidly becoming a big, semi-legal business across the country, with $5.7 billion in sales last year and tens of thousands of people working and paying taxes as they cultivate, package and sell cannabis.
Countless parents have asked their kids, "If your friends jumped off a bridge, would you do it, too?"
And although it's unclear exactly when in human history the first child might have rolled her eyes in response to this query, it does turn out that moms and dads are right to worry: The influence of those around us can affect decisions we make about risk-taking, according to a new study.
Birds living in urban environments are smarter than birds from rural environments.
But, why do city birds have the edge over their country friends?
For most of us, commuting is a task to be endured. Busy, noisy and often cramped, the world’s underground transport systems are places that we humans tolerate as a matter of necessity. But not so for Moscow’s “metro dogs”. A number of strays have taken to riding the city’s underground railway – and remarkably, they seem to know where they’re going.
Very few animals are capable of recognizing themselves in the mirror. New research suggests that manta rays are capable of this unique cognitive feat—a possible sign that these fish are self-aware.
Sometimes the most unlikely friends can be the best allies, especially in the animal world. A recent study published in Zoology in the Middle East finds that grey wolves and striped hyenas in Israel’s Negev desert work together to survive.
Out of the cage, they speak their own language, make tools, and wreak havoc on plants and researchers’ efforts alike.
Parrot partisans say the birds easily rival the great apes and dolphins in all-around braininess and resourcefulness, and may be the only animals apart from humans capable of dancing to the beat.
Scientists struggle to compare the magnitude of Earth's ongoing sixth mass-extinction event with the five great die-offs of prehistory. A new study by three paleontologists shows that the species now perishing may vanish without a permanent trace -- and earlier extinctions may be underestimated as well.
With a huge horn rising several feet from the top of their skulls, it is easy to see how their fossilised remains could have been mistaken for the skeletons of the now mythical unicorns.
But it seems a giant species of rhinoceros, thought to have died out in Siberia 350,000 years ago may have actually clung on long enough to really enter into human legend.
The earliest-known example of Chinese writing – written more than 3,000 years ago on the bones of an ox – has become the world's first Chinese oracle bone to be scanned and printed in 3D.
Cambridge University Library, which is celebrating its 600th anniversary this year, holds 614 Chinese inscribed oracle bones in its collection.
A collection of 13,000 occult and witchcraft books has been found recently in the National Library of the Czech Republic in Prague. It belonged to Heinrich Himmler, a SS Nazi chief. The collection was forgotten in the library since at least the 1950s. According to the Daily Mail, the Norwegian Masonic researcher, Bjørn Helge Horrisland said that the books had been mostly stolen and collected during World War II.
Bows, arrows, daggers and battle-axes made of bronze found in Arabia may have been offerings to a deity of war, researchers said.
These artifacts are the first miniature, imitation weapons that archaeologists have found in prehistoric Arabia, and might shed light on the practices of the mysterious peoples who created the artifacts, scientists added.
Think your DNA is all human? Think again. And a new discovery suggests it's even less human than scientists previously thought.
Nineteen new pieces of non-human DNA—left by viruses that first infected our ancestors hundreds of thousands of years ago—have just been found, lurking between our own genes.
A specialized gene editing system designed by scientists at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University is paving the way to an eventual cure for patients infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. In a study published online this month in the Nature journal, Scientific Reports, the researchers show that they can both effectively and safely eliminate the virus from the DNA of human cells grown in culture.
People the world over gesture when they talk, and they tend to gesture in certain ways depending on the language they speak. Findings from a new study including blind and sighted participants suggest that these gestural variations do not emerge from watching other speakers make the gestures, but from learning the language itself.
The season a person is born in influences a wide range of things: from risk of allergic disease, to height and lifespan. Yet little is known about how a one-time exposure like the season of birth has such lasting effects. Researchers have now discovered specific markers on DNA that link the season of birth to risk of allergy in later life.
Archaeologists at the University of York, leading a large international team, have revealed surprising new insights into why pottery production increased significantly at the end of the last Ice Age - with culture playing a bigger role than expected.
Investigating the use and expansion of hunter-gatherer pottery in Japan, home to some of the earliest pottery in the world, researchers analysed 143 ceramic vessels from Torihama, an ancient site in western Japan.
The murder of Pharaoh Ramesses III was a gruesome affair.
New research on the royal mummy reveals the pharaoh was assassinated by multiple assailants at once, coming at him from all sides with different weapons.
A group of monumental megalithic tombs has been discovered in Western Pomerania in Poland. Because of the enormous character of the structures, they are often called the ‘Polish pyramids.’
Alt: Ancient pyramids older than Egypt's found…in POLAND
Jesus’s crucifixion is probably one of the most familiar images to emerge from Christianity. Good Friday, one of the holiest days in the Christian calendar, marks the event. But what was crucifixion? And why was Jesus killed that way?
Metallic ink was used to inscribe scrolls regarded as an archaeological wonder, according to scientists.
The discovery pushes back the date for the first use of metallic ink by several centuries.
Around 150 skeletons buried in 75 graves have been discovered in an Iron Age cemetery near the town of Pocklington in East Riding, Yorkshire, in what is undoubtedly one of the most significant recent finds in Britain.
It is a battlefield made famous by the Spartans of hit film 300 - but a newly discovered fragment of parchment has revealed another massive battle in the famous pass of Thermopylae.
Pieces of an ancient Greek text that lay undiscovered in an Austrian museum have revealed a previously unknown Roman battle against invading goths.
Shaggy, heavy-shouldered bison have grazed the wide open spaces of the American Southwest for thousands of years. They made a tempting target for the hunters who walked the empty landscape between 9,000 and 13,000 years ago.
Europe's cities, most of which were established centuries ago, have seen periods of boom and bust and developed under unique geographic constraints and economic pressures. Do these unique pressures result in unique growth and development patterns? Or do the general relations of urban scaling apply to ancient European cities just as they do to younger urban areas in other parts of the world.
Researchers look at changes of Earth's temperature and atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) since the end of the age of the dinosaurs. Their findings suggest humans are releasing carbon about 10 times faster than during any event in the past 66 million years.
By eating less meat and more fruit and vegetables, the world could avoid several million deaths per year by 2050, cut planet-warming emissions substantially, and save billions of dollars annually in healthcare costs and climate damage, researchers said.
Alt: Eat less meat to avoid dangerous global warming, scientists say
New light has been shed on the genetic relationship between autistic spectrum disorders and ASD-related traits in the wider population. Autism spectrum disorders are a class of neurodevelopmental conditions affecting about 1 in 100 children. They are characteriszd by social interaction difficulties, communication and language impairments, as well as stereotyped and repetitive behavior.
A proposal by a British government agency to let the Internet suggest a name for a $287 million polar research ship probably seemed like a good idea at the time.
Now, the agency is the latest group to see what happens when web users are asked to unleash their creative energy: R.R.S. Boaty McBoatface is a clear front-runner.
The US theme park operator SeaWorld says it is ending its controversial orca breeding programme.
The decision means the orcas currently at the parks will be "the last generation", the company said.
Males animals, especially birds, often employ brighter colors and other anatomical eccentricities to attract mates. But why do females tend to adopt a duller ensemble?
New research suggests females employ a drab appearance to limit sexual harassment.
It was as plain as the beak on a bird's face. Cornell ornithologist and crow expert Kevin McGowan recalls the day in the late 1990s when he first saw stuffed specimens of the New Caledonian crow.
"I remember saying to a student, 'I don't know what this bird does, but it does something different from any other corvid on Earth because its bill is so weird,'" said McGowan, project manager for distance learning in bird biology at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Two great joys of my spring so far: Watching the world green up and the birds get frisky as I sit on my back porch, and visiting the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, where I got to go behind the scenes and see the vast and astonishing collection of dinosaur bones.
Our species, Homo sapiens, has a more adventurous sexual history than previously realized, and all that bed-hopping long ago has left an indelible mark on the human genome.
With a Merlin sculpture and plans for a spectacular bridge, English Heritage is accused of marring a wild, wonderful spot
Analysis of a bear bone found in an Irish cave has provided evidence of human existence in Ireland 2,500 years earlier than previously thought, academics have announced.
For decades, the earliest evidence of human life in Ireland dated from 8,000 BC.
One of the world's oldest libraries is offering a rare glimpse of key artifacts that have helped define human history.
The exhibition is entitled "Lines of Thought: Discoveries that Changed the World" allows visitors to peruse parts of Cambridge University Library's 600-year-old collection.
Nothing could be more exciting to fans of legendary horror author H.P. Lovecraft than the discovery of a rare manuscript in a defunct magic shop's collection.
But it gets better. "The Cancer of Superstition," written by Lovecraft in 1926, was commissioned by magician Harry Houdini. A Houdini memorabilia collector found the book and is selling it to the public.
Twice each year, as the sun marches across the sky, its center crosses Earth’s equator.
This celestial alignment results in the equinox—a day with light and dark of (nearly) equal length, with the sun rising precisely in the east and setting precisely in the west. This year, the two equinoxes will occur on March 20 and September 22.
Two comets are headed for a historic flyby of Earth this week, and you don't want to miss them.
The bigger of the two bodies, known as 252P/LINEAR, is about 750 feet in size and surrounded by an emerald green cloud of gas. It is expected to make its closest approach to our planet on March 21 at 5:14 a.m. PDT.
A team of astronomers has spotted an extrasolar planet that boasts the most eccentric orbit ever seen. The planet moves in a flattened ellipse, traveling a long path far from its star and then making a fast slingshot around the star at its closest approach. Researchers detected a 'flash' of starlight bouncing off the planet's atmosphere as it made its closest orbital approach to its star.
When hundreds of physicists gathered this week in La Thuile, an old mining town in the heart of the Italian alps, one short and simple question hung in the cool, crisp air: is it real?
The source of their fascination, and no little excitement, was light.
While the world is looking at renewable energy as a solution to its energy woes, nuclear fusion has always been considered an alternate. A nuclear fusion experiment conducted by the Hefei Institute of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Science has seen a breakthrough in this field.
A few years ago, the artist Concetta Antico discovered that she was carrying a genetic mutation that gave her astonishingly sensitive perception of colour – seeing a spectrum of distinct shades where we only see one.
As she told BBC Future in 2014, even the dullest pebble on the road shimmered like a kaleidoscope.
By temporarily inactivating a part of the brain involved in impulse-control, neuroscientists have discovered compelling evidence that we're hardwired for altruism. The discovery suggests possible avenues for treating the empathically challenged.
The happiest country in the world is famous for its butter cookies, Lego bricks and fairy-tale writer Hans Christian Andersen — it's Denmark, according to the 2016 World Happiness Report.
Exposure to common air pollutants during pregnancy may predispose children to problems regulating their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors later on, according to a new study.
Related: Oestrogen in birth control pills has a negative impact on fish
It’s easy to see why motor cars are such a popular form of transport: they’re private, comfortable and convenient. But the popularity of cars can also be one of their biggest drawbacks. When there are too many of them and not enough road space, streets become congested and as a result, journey times become unpredictable, air pollution increases and we lose out on some of the economic benefits of city living.
Goodyear thinks that if we're going to reinvent the car, we might as well reinvent the tires too.
The tire maker has revealed a new concept: spherical rubber tires that can move in any direction. For a self-driving car without a steering wheel, why not try something radically different?