Newsdesk Archive
A paper published in the latest edition of the journal Science has revealed a key enzyme that acts as a control for overeating and obesity. Though the enzyme O-GlcNAc transferase (OGT) was known to be involved in both neuronal development and insulin signalling, the enzyme’s precise role in the mature brain was largely unknown.
White storks are addicted to junk food and make round-trips of almost 100km to get their fix - according to new research from the University of East Anglia.
In folklore, storks would carry babies to parents around the world. But since the mid 1980s, increasing numbers no longer migrate from Europe to Africa for the winter.
If you're ready to see blooming flowers and sunny skies, it may help to know that this year's spring equinox will be the earliest to arrive in 120 years, largely because of an old rule governing leap years, experts said.
There are two equinoxes (taken from the Latin words aequus for "equal" and nox for "night") each year, marking the start of spring and fall. On these days, there are nearly equal amounts of daylight and darkness.
At the peak of the last ice age, a vast ice sheet covered northern Europe, spanning from the British Isles, across Scandinavia and into Russia in the east and the Barents Sea in the north. A new reconstruction of this ice sheet shows the interaction between climate and glaciers—how the ice sheet grows and retreats
Like the lion which today lives in the African savannah, the saber-tooth “tiger,” Smilodon populator, inhabited the open, dry country found in South America during the ice age, according to Professor Hervé Bocherens of the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment at the University of Tübingen.
As dogs cross the finish line in the grueling 1,150-mile (1,850-kilometer) Iditarod this week, they’ll probably be feted with extra treats. But we owe sled dogs a really great tummy scratch, too, for their role in human history. Ancient dog bones uncovered in the Arctic are showing that humans have had a close and complex relationship with dogs for thousands of years, from eating them to burying them lovingly with ornaments—and, of course, using them to haul things around.
Fragments of an ancient Greek text telling of an invasion of Greece by the Goths during the third century A.D. have been discovered in the Austrian National Library. The text includes a battle fought at the pass of Thermopylae.
Archaeologists working at the Pocklington burial site in Yorkshire have discovered the 2,500-year-old skeletal remains of a high ranking warrior who was buried alongside his sword—and who had a half-dozen spears thrust into him in ritualistic fashion.
CAIRO — Scans of King Tut’s burial chamber have revealed two hidden rooms, Egypt’s antiquities minister said Thursday — a discovery that could intensify speculation that the chambers contain the remains of the famed Queen Nefertiti.
Genetic mutations from extinct human relatives called the Denisovans might have influenced modern human immune systems, as well as fat and blood sugar levels, researchers say.
Alt: Humans Interbred With Hominins on Multiple Occasions, Study Finds
Scientists have performed an autopsy on a frozen prehistoric puppy in hopes that its carcass will unlock secrets of canine evolution, The Siberian Times reported.
Researchers believe the dog is about 12,400 years old and may have been a prehistoric man’s pet before dying in a landslide near the Siberian village of Tumat. The animal was discovered mummified in permafrost last year.
In 1958, amateur fossil collector Francis Tully found a prehistoric creature so strange that even scientists called it a monster. The beast has perplexed researchers ever since, with some calling the so-called "Tully monster" a worm and others classifying it as a shell-less snail.
Related: Creature from the deep blue sea! Huge monstrous-looking beast washes up on popular tourist beach in Mexico leaving experts baffled
SCIENTISTS have found giant craters on the sea bed around the coast of Norway, marking spots where huge bubbles of methane have apparently exploded.
The craters are up to half a mile wide and 150ft deep and appear to have been caused by gas leaking from deposits of oil and gas buried deeper in the sea floor.
Alt: Has the secret of the Bermuda Triangle finally been discovered? Scientists find giant craters underwater which may explain how ships disappear without trace
In a rainforest in the heart of Amazonian Peru, scientists believe they have discovered the world’s largest thermal river, running hot for nearly four miles and reaching up to 80 feet at its widest point and 16 feet at its deepest.
When Earth's first organisms were formed, it may have been in an ice cold ocean. New research indicates that both land and ocean were much colder than previously believed.
When we talk about climate change today, we have to recognize the natural variations to be able to distinguish them from the human-induced changes. Researchers have analyzed the natural climate variations over the last 12,000 years, and they have looked back 5 million years to see the major features of the Earth's climate. The research shows that not only is the weather chaotic, but the Earth's climate is chaotic...
Nearly four billion years ago, life arose on Earth. Life appeared because our planet had a rocky surface, liquid water, and a blanketing atmosphere. But life thrived thanks to another necessary ingredient: the presence of a protective magnetic field. A new study of the young, Sun-like star Kappa Ceti shows that a magnetic field plays a key role in making a planet conducive to life.
Supermassive black holes are the most extreme objects in the known universe, with masses millions or even billions of times the mass of our sun. Now astronomers have been able to study one of these behemoths inside a strange, distant quasar and they've made an astonishing discovery — it's spinning one-third the speed of light.
Microscopic dust grains extracted from meteorites that landed on Earth had ancient and explosive origins, scientists have discovered.
The dust grains — also known as presolar grains, since they're older than Earth's sun — were likely spewed out by stars that blew up hundreds of millions of years before Earth's solar system formed.
Despite being so far from the sun, tiny Pluto, which is smaller than Earth’s moon, has had an active geologic life from the start, one that continues to present day, research published on Thursday shows.
A bright meteor has been sighted over Britain in the early hours.
Witnesses have described the object as a green flash moving south to north for a few seconds, leaving a magnesium-white trail.
In 2015, NASA's Dawn space probe sent back the first images that directly revealed the presence of mysterious, bright spots on the surface of Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Both scientists and the general public became fascinated with these planetoid freckles.
Alt: Unexpected changes of bright spots on dwarf planet Ceres
A robot has built a prototype launch-and-landing pad in Hawaii, potentially helping pave the way for automated construction projects on the moon and Mars.
The robotic rover, named Helelani, assembled the pad on Hawaii's Big Island late last year, putting together 100 pavers made of locally available material in an effort to prove out technology that could do similar work in space.
Dark matter could be made of particles that each weigh almost as much as a human cell and are nearly dense enough to become miniature black holes, new research suggests.
While dark matter is thought to make up five-sixths of all matter in the universe, scientists don't know what this strange stuff is made of.
Hints of a mysterious new particle at the world's largest particle accelerator just got a little stronger. The excess of photons produced by particle collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has kept physicists abuzz since it was discovered three months ago: it is now slightly more statistically significant but still falls well short of the certainty needed to claim a discovery.
Google's DeepMind artificial intelligence has secured its fourth win over a master player, in the final of a five match challenge.
Related: Human Go champ scores surprise victory over supercomputer
It is a finding that could lead to the procrastinators of the world to rejoice – if they ever get round to it.
Putting things off can lead us to be more creative, according to research published in a new book.
A readability analysis of presidential candidate speeches finds most candidates using words and grammar typical of students in grades 6-8, though Donald Trump tends to lag behind the others. A historical review of their word and grammar use suggests all five candidates in the analysis have been using simpler language as their campaigns have progressed.
Scientists have used light to stimulate brain cells in mice with Alzheimer's-like symptoms, and in doing so, have managed to recover memories that were otherwise lost to the disease.
In a cutting-edge treatment for Alzheimer's disease, scientists have developed an implantable capsule that can turn the patient's immune system against the disease.
Supplementation with the molecule pyruvate increases the energy reserves in the brain of aging mice, and makes them more energetic and keener to explore their surroundings.
Related: Different kinds of physical activity shown to improve brain volume, cut Alzheimer's risk in half
Imagine telling a patient suffering from age-related (type-II) osteoporosis that a single injection of stem cells could restore their normal bone structure. New research suggests that this scenario may not be too far away.
The 17th century manuscript, which was handwritten by Isaac Newton, describes a procedure for making mercury—a substance that alchemists thought could turn lead into gold.
Related: Inside a forgotten 16th Century Alchemy Laboratory
3D reconstructions of some of Syria's most spectacular archaeological sites go online Tuesday after a big push to digitalise the war-torn country's threatened heritage.
French digital surveyors have been working with Syrian archaeologists to map some of the country's most famous monuments after Islamic State jihadists sparked international outrage by blowing up two temples in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Palmyra last year.
A warrior king buried almost 2,500 years ago has been discovered in an iron-age settlement unearthed at the foot of the Yorkshire Wolds. The remains of the burial ground is being hailed as one of the largest and most significant iron age finds of recent times.
An amateur treasure hunter has made a 'sensational' discovery that could change our understanding of Christianity in Denmark.
Dennis Fabricius Holm was using his metal detector on an afternoon off from work when he uncovered a Birka crucifix pendant in Aunslev, Østfyn.
The annotations were discovered in England's first printed Bible, published in 1535 by Henry VIII's printer. It is one of just seven surviving copies, and is housed in Lambeth Palace Library, London. The secrets hidden in the Lambeth Library copy were revealed during research by Dr Eyal Poleg, a historian from Queen Mary University of London.
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?
The mummified remains of an ancient puppy could be used to bring its species back from the dead after being frozen in time for almost 12,500 years.
Experts have thawed the animal, ahead of a full and official post mortem, to discover its brain is still surprisingly 'well preserved.'
Are you interested in learning how kids were educated 350 years ago? All you have to do is visit the library at Keele University in North Staffordshire.
The leather book is called A Guide For The Childe And Youth and was published in 1667. It’s not actually a book full of stories, but an educational guide for children.
A British-led archaeological expedition has uncovered the 500-year-old wreck site of what it claims is the earliest ship ever found from Europe’s “Age of Discovery”, a Portuguese vessel that was captained by an uncle of the legendary explorer Vasco da Gama.
Chinese archeologists said they have discovered a large water project dating back about 5,000 years in east China's Zhejiang Province.
The finding, which includes 11 dikes, is located on the outskirts of the provincial capital Hangzhou, and is the oldest large water system ever found in China. It is believed to have combined functions of flood control, transportation and irrigation.
A nuisance to dentists is now a boon for archaeologists. Researchers have successfully sequenced DNA from fossilized plaque on 700-year-old teeth.
Solidified plaque—called calculus, tartar, or that chalky stuff the dentist scrapes off—contains a whopping 25 times more DNA than ancient tooth or bone.
Researchers have presented one of the first computerised tomography (CT) scans of a mummified individual from southern Africa, and also completed the first successful aDNA (ancient DNA) extraction from such remains. The mummy is estimated to have been about 300 years old
A small team of researchers in The Netherlands has found that Bonobos, unlike humans and chimpanzees, tend to focus more on feel-good images than on images featuring danger or aggression. In their paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team describes experiments they conducted with several captive bonobos and what they learned about both the bonobos and us humans.
First impressions are not final: a new study suggests that people appear more attractive when you pay attention to their faces.
In the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, patients are often unable to remember recent experiences. However, a new study from MIT suggests that those memories are still stored in the brain -- they just can't be easily accessed.
Related: Herpes May Cause Alzheimer's Disease, Researchers Say
Of the 4,000 Americans waiting for heart transplants, only 2,500 will receive new hearts in the next year. Even for those lucky enough to get a transplant, the biggest risk is the their bodies will reject the new heart and launch a massive immune reaction against the foreign cells. To combat the problems of organ shortage and decrease the chance that a patient’s body will reject it, researchers have been working to create synthetic organs from patients’ own cells.
Scientists from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) and The New York Stem Cell Foundation Research Institute (NYSCF) have succeeded in generating a new type of embryonic stem cell that carries a single copy of the human genome, instead of the two copies typically found in normal stem cells. The scientists reported their findings today in the journal Nature.
Australian scientists have developed a new method for harvesting stem cells, which is less invasive and reduces side effects for donors.
For bone marrow transplantation, stem cells are routinely harvested from healthy donors and used to treat patients with cancers including leukaemia.
Athletes, the elderly and others who suffer from injuries and arthritis can lose cartilage and experience a lot of pain. Researchers are now reporting, however, that they have found a way to produce cartilage tissue by 3-D bioprinting an ink containing human cells, and they have successfully tested it in an in vivo mouse model. The development could one day lead to precisely printed implants to heal damaged noses, ears and knees.
A new kind of fuel cell that can turn urine into electricity could revolutionize the way we produce bioenergy, particularly in developing countries. The research describes a new design of microbial fuel cell that's smaller, cheaper and more powerful than traditional ones.
Even though technically, it is still winter, temperatures are rising, and summer is coming. That means that in addition to beaches and pools, we can all look forward to the attack of the ripe, wonderful tomatoes.
The coin, minted by the emperor Trajan in Rome in 107 CE, is extremely rare on a global level. It is the identical twin brother” of an ancient gold coin in the British Museum – the second such coin of its kind now known to exist.
A team of archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) has discovered a large winery dating to the Byzantine period in Jerusalem.
A team of archaeologists from the University of York is playing a pivotal role in a major project to give a new lease of life to the ruins of the capital of Ancient Egypt.
In Berlin's Neues Museum, there sits a 3,000-year-old bust of Queen Nefertiti. The priceless artifact is under glass, kept safe by alarms, and watched by security guards. Last year, it was stolen.
Ancient clusters of rock that preserve some of the oldest microbes on Earth occasionally possess mysterious branch-like formations. Now, scientists think they know what might have caused this enigmatic branching — changes in microbial activity in the shallow lakes and seas where life first evolved.
Chicken embryos that have legs nearly identical to those of prehistoric extinct dinosaurs were created recently by inhibiting the activity of a single gene.
The success of the project, outlined in the journal Evolution, brings scientists a step closer to creating “Dino-Chicken,” a chicken fully reverted to one of its dinosaur ancestors. That isn’t what this research team is after, though.
A pregnant Tyrannosaurus rex has been found, shedding light on the evolution of egg-laying as well as on gender differences in the dinosaur.
The remains also could contain the holy grail of all dinosaur fossils: DNA.
A newly discovered species of Tyrannosaur - the group of meat-eating dinosaurs to which the infamous T. rex belongs - could hold the key to how these creatures grew so huge.
Matthias Meyer has just published the results of what may be the world’s most wasteful genome-sequencing project. In decoding just 0.1% of the genome of the oldest DNA ever recovered from an ancient human, the molecular biologist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, threw out enough raw data to map the modern human genome dozens of times over.
The first analysis of nuclear DNA from Sima de los Huesos hominins, conducted by Dr. Matthias Meyer of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and co-authors, provides evidence of their relationship to Neanderthals.
Most modern bacteria descended from ancestors who could convert the Sun's energy to fuel more than 3.5 billion years ago.
Photosynthesis is the process by which plants, algae and cyanobacteria use the energy from the Sun to make sugar from water and carbon dioxide, releasing oxygen as a waste product. But a few groups of bacteria carry out a simpler form of photosynthesis that does not produce oxygen, which evolved first.
Just rip off the bandage; dive into the freezing water; close your eyes and take it. For cigarette smokers who waver at the edge of a decision to quit and consider strategies to ease the transition, a new study finds that the all-in approach is more likely to work than wading in slowly.
Related: Marijuana economy may hit $44 billion by 2020
A psychedelic drink called ayahuasca, traditionally used for medicinal purposes among indigenous groups in the Amazon, may act as a fast-working and long-lasting anti-depressant, according to a preliminary study published in the journal Revista Brasileira de Psiquiatria (Brazilian Review of Psychiatry).
Even though the search for the Fountain of Youth dates back to the ancient Greeks, the quest to live forever continues today. Indeed, it has been said that the ability to slow the aging process would be the most important medical discovery in the modern era.
As night closes in across Kentucky a small chubby spider makes a silk line between two plants. She then moves along her “trapeze wire” and waits. After a while a moth approaches within range, and the spider unleashes a swinging sticky ball, ensnaring the moth and pulling him in to be eaten. The attacker is a bolas spider, and she hunts by releasing an odour that precisely matches the chemical composition of female moth mating pheromones. The male moth is lured in, but instead of getting a mate, he gets eaten.
When a hungry fungus anchors itself to an unsuspecting rock, it has a plan of attack. First, it unleashes acid, dissolving surface minerals to get to its food. Then, it releases chemicals that extract that food—in this case, iron. Finally, its fast-growing fungal filaments cut into the remaining rock like a knife, carving deep channels that break up iron-depleted surfaces and expose fresh layers for consumption.
Analysis of individual amino acids in collagen from an array of bones found at two sites in Belgium suggests that the Neanderthals' diet differed from that of other predators. “Previously, it was assumed that the Neanderthals utilized the same food sources as their animal neighbors.
Alt: Neanderthals diet: 80% meat, 20% vegetables
Spiders are known to be the classic example of insectivorous predators. Zoologists from the University of Basel, the US and UK have now been able to show that their diet is more diverse than expected. Their findings show that spiders like to spice up their menu with the occasional vegetarian meal. The Journal of Arachnology has published the results.
Scientists have shown that diet-induced obesity and diabetes can be epigenetically inherited by the offspring via both the oocytes and the sperm.
Scientists believe they have taken a step closer to making a safe contraceptive pill for men, according to a report.
Fifty years after the female pill, researchers have yet to find a way to render men temporarily infertile without significant side-effects.
Related: Scientists identify cause of multiple miscarriages for first time
Related: Sex Tied to Better Brain Power in Older Age
From superbug to… bug. Newly discovered chemical compounds can make MRSA bacteria vulnerable to the antibiotics they normally resist, restoring the old drug’s former powers.
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureaus, commonly known as MRSA, is a major cause of hospital-acquired infections, and the second biggest cause of death by drug-resistant bacteria in the US. These bacteria are resistant to the most widely used class of antibiotics, called beta-lactams, which include penicillin, methicillin and carbapenems.
For most cancer patients, it’s not the original tumor that poses the greatest risk. It’s the metastases that invade the lung, liver, and other tissues. Now, researchers have come up with an approach that tricks these spinoff tumors into swallowing poison. So far the strategy has only been tested in mice, where it proved highly effective. But the results are promising enough that the researchers are planning to launch clinical trials in cancer patients within a year.
Engineers have recently published research on a method for using electric fields to help tiny bio-robots propelled by flagellated bacteria navigate around obstacles in a fluid environment. These microrobots could one day be used for building microscopic devices or even delivering medication at the cellular level.
These micro-robots have high hopes. Six of them, weighing just 3.5 ounces each, were able to team up and pull a 3,900-lb car.
Micro-Tug robots from the Biomimetics and Dexterous Manipulation Laboratory at Stanford University demonstrate not only what tiny robots are capable of doing, but also act as a mechanical model for ant behavior.
A previously unnoticed property of prime numbers seems to violate a longstanding assumption about how they behave
Two mathematicians have uncovered a simple, previously unnoticed property of prime numbers — those numbers that are divisible only by 1 and themselves. Prime numbers, it seems, have decided preferences about the final digits of the primes that immediately follow them.
In certain spots, the Namibian plain looks like a scene from a Dr. Seuss book—large, regularly spaced circles dot an otherwise grassy landscape, the red dirt glaring like a beacon against the pale tufts of grass. Guesses about how these bizarre formations came to be range from the practical to the fanciful: underground gas, termites, radiation, dragons and giants.
A group of techies have turned to crowdsourcing in order to fund their idea of a UFO-hunting mini-satellite. After an unsuccessful run on the crowdsourcing website Indiegogo, their second campaign, via Kickstarter, has proven successful, and they have received the funding needed to build and launch their mini-UFO hunting device.
Related: Merseyside revealed as a 'UFO hotspot'
A wandering baby Jupiter could help explain why there are no planets closer to the sun than Mercury and why the innermost planet is so tiny, a new study suggests.
Jupiter’s core might have formed close to the sun and then meandered through the rocky planet construction zone.
It is one of the many mysteries of Ceres - a gigantic pyramid in among the vast craters and 'alien spots'.
Now, Nasa has revealed stunning new close up images of the three mile high mountain Ahuna Mons.
They reveal the 'pyramid' is in fact a dome with smooth, steep walls - one of which appears to glow.
Pluto has proven itself to be a diverse, dynamic and fascinating world packed with strange phenomena that planetary scientists are having problems fully explaining. And now they've found an icy oddity that highlights one of the key processes that is believed to shape this dwarf planet's surprisingly young surface.
Europe and Russia are about to launch a joint mission to the Red Planet.
A Proton rocket is going hurl a satellite to Mars to investigate whether the methane in its atmosphere is coming from a geological source or is being produced by microbes.
Alt: ExoMars: 'giant nose' to sniff out life on Mars prepares for launch
From cow farts to factory emissions, there are a lot of ways to add methane to the atmosphere. Since the Industrial Revolution, the concentration of this potent greenhouse gas has risen rapidly and steadily, climbing from 700 parts per billion (ppb) in 1750 to more than 1800 ppb in 2015. But from 1999 to 2006, that increase temporarily leveled out, mystifying scientists. Now, a new study identifies the likeliest culprit behind the plateau—and singles out what may have kick-started the latest methane jump.
Two decades ago, a section of the Amazon rainforest was flooded for a dam that currently produces little electricity. Engineers now see that artificial lake as an ideal surface for floating solar panels.
Critics have blasted the Balbina dam, located near the equator line some 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of the Amazonian city of Manaus, as an environmental crime.
Earlier this month, a spate of headlines proclaimed that February 2016 was the warmest such month on record for the globe. At that time, I wrote that we should wait until official, reliable analyses were in before drawing any final conclusions.
Farm-grown fish are an important source of food with significant and worldwide societal and economic benefits, but the fish that come from these recirculating systems can have unpleasant tastes and odors. To clean contaminated water for farmed fish, drinking and other uses, scientists are now turning to an unlikely source—the mucilage or inner "guts" of cacti.
Scientists in Chile have figured out a way to resurrect the prehistoric traits of dinosaurs.
In a ‘reverse evolution’ experiment, a researcher has manipulated the genes of modern chickens to induce the legs of a dinosaur.
The documentary Blood Lions exposes South Africa’s controversial “canned” lion hunting industry. In canned hunts, captive-bred, often hand-reared lions are confined in enclosed spaces on private hunting reserves, guaranteeing marksmen easy trophy heads in exchange for fees of up to $50,000. With approximately 8,000 “ranch” lions to draw on, South Africa’s hunt operators can make a fortune.
About a decade ago, biologists set out to count river dolphins along a murky, meandering stretch of the upper Amazon River between Colombia and Peru. Although these distant freshwater cousins of seagoing whales face growing threats from pollution, dams, and hunting, the results seemed to suggest they were doing well.
Up to six in ten grieving people have “seen” or “heard” their dead loved one, but many never mention it out of fear people will think they’re mentally ill.
Among widowed people, 30 to 60 per cent have experienced things like seeing their dead spouse sitting in their old chair or hearing them call out their name, according to scientists.
Religion in the United States is declining and mirroring patterns found across the western world, according to new research from UCL and Duke University in the United States.
The study published in the American Journal of Sociology shows a drop in the number of Americans who claim religious affiliations, attend church regularly and believe in God. It also finds that these drops are driven by generational differences.
Tesco has agreed a deal to donate all the unsold food from its stores to charity.
The supermarket giant announced plans to work with 5,000 local charities across the UK in an initiative that aims to eradicate all its food waste by the end of 2017.
Ensuring good dental hygiene isn't quite as simple as nuking all the bad bacteria in your mouth with products like anti-bacterial mouthwash, as doing so can end up harming the good bacteria that also live in our mouths.
Some of the world’s most valuable books and manuscripts – texts which have altered the very fabric of our understanding – will go on display in Cambridge this week as Cambridge University Library celebrates its 600th birthday with a once-in-a-lifetime exhibition of its greatest treasures.
Researchers in the Indian state Mizoram recently made an exciting discovery – the remains of what may be a lost civilization. According to The Times of India , the general director of the Archaeological Survey of India (“ASI”) visited the city of Vangchhia, located in the Champai district of Mizoram, India in November 2015. His visit led to an excavation of the area, which revealed an important archeological find.
A significant early bronze age burial site, believed to date from 2500BC, has been discovered near Morecambe Bay.
Grave goods could include objects ranging from daggers and ceramic vessels to jewellery, textiles and material such as amber, jet and gold.
The last meals of men and women buried centuries ago in the ancient city of Casas Grandes were dominated by corn, new research has found — from ground maize, to corn smut, to what archaeologists say is the first conclusive evidence of corn beer in the Greater Southwest.
And these clues were found in a long-overlooked source: the fossilized plaque on the teeth of the dead.
Buddhist monks who prayed in India’s Ellora Caves were surrounded by hemp, as plaster covering the shrines’ painted walls and ceilings was made of a mixture of cannabis, clay and lime, a new study has revealed.
The earthen mix turned out to be a blessing, since the cannabis played a key role in preserving the World Heritage site.