Newsdesk Archive
A newfound giant black hole nearly as massive as 7 billion suns is dozens of times larger than astronomers expected given its host galaxy's size, researchers say.This finding may call most current models of galaxy formation into question, scientists added.Related: Radio astronomers see black hole come to life
The Integral, Fermi and Swift space observatories have used the magnifying power of a cosmic lens to explore the inner regions of a supermassive black hole.Gamma rays are highly energetic radiation emitted by some of the most extreme objects in our Universe. Jets of gamma rays moving at close to the speed of light stream from the areas around black holes, for example. These jets are thought to be emitted by superheated material spinning wildly as it is devoured by the hungry black hole.
Observations have for the first time demonstrated a link between a very long-lasting burst of gamma rays and an unusually bright supernova explosion. The results show that the supernova was not driven by radioactive decay, as expected, but was instead powered by the decaying super-strong magnetic fields around an exotic object called a magnetar.
Astronauts will water a series of lettuce seeds and turn on special LED lights Wednesday to begin the next round of vegetable production on the International Space Station. Known as Veggie, the experiment is aimed at validating the plant growth chamber and equipment developed to grow plants in weightlessness.Related: Astronauts Plant Second Crop of Lettuce on Station
It may seem soft and squishy to the touch, but a new robot is tough on the inside and ready to pounce, researchers say.The 3D-printed bot has hard insides but a soft exterior, and this blend of materials makes it much better at explosion-powered jumps than droids that are either completely hard or completely soft, according to a new study.
Earlier this year the BBC announced that it planned to give one million students across the UK a programmable microcomputer, called the BBC Micro Bit, to help them learn the basics of coding. Now four months later, the design of the device has been finalized, ahead of its scheduled rollout date in October. The Micro Bit features two buttons, an array of programmable LED lights, and an in-built motion sensor. Users can connect their microcomputer to bigger devices by Bluetooth or USB, or to the similarly tiny Raspberry Pi through it's input-output rings.
No matter where you travel around the world, people share a few qualities. They cherish love for families and friends. They unite around good cooking. And they make music you can shake your booty to."Music is the universal language of mankind," Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote in first major work, Outre-Mer.
DNA analysis quashes claims that unknown race preceded indigenous people that live there todayThey are the oldest population of humans living outside Africa and now researchers have confirmed that Aborigines really were the first people to inhabit Australia.For decades anthropologists have debated whether the Australian continent was home to an earlier race of humans based on unusual rock paintings discovered in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.
Looks like it's plastic for lunch. For the first time, plankton have been caught on camera munching on tiny pieces of plastic.Verity White from Five Films and her team captured the video under a microscope at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory in the UK. They were inspired by Matthew Cole's research investigating the impact of tiny grains of plastic litter on marine zooplankton.
A team of international scientists has tracked the love lives of koalas, uncovering some curious behaviours and finding that male koalas make their distinct bellows to avoid confrontation with competitors."Unlike humans, who raise their voices in an argument, male koalas bellow their presence to avoid confrontation with other males in the breeding season," Dr Ellis saidy.Related: Wild beaver gives birth in England
Males are more likely to tolerate "unfair offers" from females if they are attractive, a study into the effects of beauty on our responses has claimed.In 'The undermining effect of facial attractiveness on brain responses to fairness in the Ultimatum Game', published in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience, researchers investigated "the time course of the neural processing of facial attractiveness and its influence on fairness consideration during social interactions".
Fixing up abandoned buildings in the inner city doesn't just eliminate eyesores, it can also significantly reduce crime and violence, including gun assaults, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and Penn's Perelman School of Medicine report in the first study to demonstrate the direct impact of building remediation efforts on crime. The findings were published this week in the journal PLOS ONE.
Can having a sense of purpose in life help people live longer?While this is an important part of emotional well-being at any point in our lives, a new research study published in the journal Development Psychology demonstrates that having a purpose in life is especially important in successful aging.Related: This Obvious Happiness Strategy Really Does Work, Study Finds
"Here's your prescription, walk in the forest five times a week for an hour."According to experts, it is not inconceivable that doctors will be giving health advice like this in the not too distant future.
The discovery of the Americas has for centuries been credited to the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus, but ancient markings carved into rocks around the US could require history to be rewritten.Researchers have discovered ancient scripts that suggest Chinese explorers may have discovered America long before Europeans arrived there.They have found pictograms etched into the rocks around the country that appear to belong of an ancient Chinese script.
Morocco's vast, rocky deserts were once covered with oceans teeming with life during the Ordovician period, about 485 million to 444 million years ago, a new study finds. But these stunning animals, now fossilized in mineralized splotches of violet, yellow and orange in the desert rock, would be unknown were it not for the tenacious work of a Moroccan fossil collector and a broke graduate student.
Scientists are one step closer to bringing a woolly mammoth back to life.A new analysis of the woolly mammoth genome has revealed several adaptations that allowed the furry beasts to thrive in the subzero temperatures of the last ice age, including a metabolism that allowed them to pack on insulating fat, smaller ears that lost less heat and a reduced sensitivity to cold.
A little-known mass extinction may have killed up to about 80 percent of all vertebrates on land about 260 million years ago, researchers say.This catastrophic die-off coincided with the onset of volcanism in what is now southern China, which suggests a cause for this calamity, the scientists added.
The Earth's magnetic field experiences reversals such that north becomes south. The age of the latest reversal is unclear. Researchers have dated volcanic ash that was formed immediately before the last reversal. This result and chronology of the associated sedimentary rock identifies the age of the reversal as 780,000 years ago. This new age will contribute calibrating the geological time scale.
New Horizons has acquired yet another stunning view of Pluto.The US space agency probe captured the latest image on Tuesday when it was just under eight million km from the dwarf world.Alt: A 'heart' from Pluto as flyby begins
Eruptions of vapor and ice that stretch for miles above the surface of Saturn's icy moon Enceladus experience a mysterious delay that could be due to a weak interior, new research suggests.The geysers that burst from the surface of Enceladus indicate that this Saturnian satellite is more than just a ball of ice. Scientists believe a liquid-water ocean exists beneath the solid surface, and that life could potentially survive there. A better understanding of the geysers could provide clues as to what is going on in that subterranean environment, the study scientists said.
Scientists have discovered for the first time direct physical evidence of the existence of opals on Mars.The traces of the precious stone, which were found in a Martian meteorite, could help future exploration missions decide where to look for evidence of life on the red planet.University of Glasgow researchers discovered the opal in a 1.7-gram fraction of the Martian meteorite known as Nakhla, which was supplied by the Natural History Museum in London.
Can life survive for billions of years longer than the expected timeline on Earth?As scientists discover older and older solar systems, it's likely that before long we'll find an ancient planet in the habitable zone. Knowing if life is possible on this exoplanet would have immense implications for habitability and the development of ancient life, one researcher says.
Researchers have taken another step toward reversing deafness using gene therapy.The latest success involves mice with an inherited form of deafness, a team reports Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine. And a similar approach is already being tried in people with hearing loss caused by damage to cells in the inner ear.
Two heads are better than one, and three monkey brains can control an avatar better than any single monkey. For the first time, a team has networked the brains of multiple animals to form a living computer that can perform tasks and solve problems.If human brains could be similarly connected, it might give us superhuman problem-solving abilities, and allow us to communicate abstract thoughts and experiences.
The insect assassins have been launched. Millions of genetically modified mosquitoes have descended on the Brazilian city of Piracicaba in the battle against dengue and a test in Florida is also in prospect.The GM mosquitoes are all male, and when they mate with native females, they pass on a gene to offspring that causes the larvae to die before they mature.
New research sheds light on how and when the modern day continents began to form. Researchers from the University of Bristol analyzed radio isotope abundances in 13,000 samples of continental crust of varying age and found that the continents began to form around 3 billion years ago. This date may coincide with when plate tectonics began. Their research appears in Nature Geoscience.One of the difficulties with determining the age of the Earth's crust is that the crust itself is constantly undergoing melting and re-deposition due to subduction.
By 2030, electric-powered, self-driving taxis could produce one-20th the greenhouse-gas emissions (per mile) of the average car on the road today, according to a new scientific analysis.Depending on how widely automated taxis are deployed, the shift could make a noticeable dent in total greenhouse-gas emissions, since transportation accounts for 13 percent of emissions worldwide today.
A new computer prototype called a "memcomputer" works by mimicking the human brain, and could one day perform notoriously complex tasks like breaking codes, scientists say.These new, brain-inspired computing devices also could help neuroscientists better understand the workings of the human brain, researchers say.
Have you ever wondered why the human brain evolved the way it did?A new study by Northeastern physicist Dmitri Krioukov and his colleagues suggests an answer: to expedite the transfer of information from one brain region to another, enabling us to operate at peak capacity.
The remains of a medieval 'mummy' wrapped in a cocoon of birch bark has been discovered at the site of a village that belonged to a mysterious arctic civilisation.Archaeologists discovered the remains, which they believe may be a child or teenager from the 12th or 13th century, while excavating near the town of Salekhard in Tyumen Oblast, Russia.The site, which is 18 miles south of the Arctic Circle, is thought to be a medieval necropolis where several bodies have been buried in ways unlike anything else found in the region.
Archaeologists have discovered about 2,000 little gold spirals from the Bronze Age in a field near Boeslunde in Zealand.The longest of the many spirals are around 3 cm in length and are all produced from thin and flat golden thread dating from 700-900 BC.Related: Ancient Jomon clay ear ornaments discovered in western Japan
The closer we get to Ceres, the more perplexing the dwarf planet grows. NASA's Dawn spacecraft has found several more bright spots as well as a pyramid-like peak jutting out of the frigid world's surface.The discovery is painting an increasingly complex portrait of one of the biggest "fossils" from the early solar system.
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity faces ongoing wheel wear and tear as it continues its trek across the rock-strewn Red Planet.The car-size Curiosity rover has been on duty since landing on Mars in August 2012. Curiosity has six aluminum wheels, each with its own individual motor. The rover has a top speed on flat, hard ground of a little over 1.5 inches (4 centimeters) per second.
We're honing in on the blobs from outer space.In the past three decades astronomers have seen dips in the radio signals from quasars and pulsars, seemingly caused by a dark object passing by. These events don't all look the same, so it isn't clear if they share a cause. Sometimes different radio frequencies are delayed by different amounts, while other times the radio signal twinkles.
Light plays a vital role in our everyday lives and technologies based on light are all around us. So we might expect that our understanding of light is pretty settled. But scientists have just uncovered a new fundamental property of light that gives new insight into the 150-year-old classical theory of electromagnetism and which could lead to applications manipulating light at the nanoscale.
If the school reunion was not proof enough, scientists have confirmed that people grow old at radically different rates, with some ageing much faster than their fresh-faced former classmates.A study of nearly one thousand 38-year-olds found that while most had biological ages close to the number of birthdays they had notched up, others were far younger or older.
There might be a way to stave off the memory loss people experience as they get older. As people age, a protein that disrupts brain cell repair gradually builds up in the blood and cerebrospinal fluid. The offending protein, called beta2-microglobulin (B2M), has now been shown to affect how mice perform in memory tests.Alt: 'Old-age protein' may cause memory loss
It may be possible to diagnose autism by giving children a sniff test, a new study suggests.Most people instinctively take a big whiff when they encounter a pleasant smell and limit their breathing when they encounter a foul smell.
A group of scientists led by Dr Kara Hoover of the University of Alaska Fairbanks and including Professor Matthew Cobb of The University of Manchester, has studied how our sense of smell has evolved, and has even reconstructed how a long-extinct human relative would have been able to smell.
Weather is frequently portrayed in popular music, with a new scientific study finding over 750 popular music songs referring to weather, the most common being sun and rain, and blizzards being the least common. The study also found many song writers were inspired by weather events.The study, led by the University of Southampton, together with the Universities of Oxford, Manchester, Newcastle (all part of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research) and the University of Reading analysed the weather through lyrics, musical genre, keys and links to specific weather events.
Bonobos can be just as handy as chimpanzees. In fact, bonobos' tool-using abilities look a lot like those of early humans, suggesting that observing them could teach anthropologists about how our own ancestors evolved such skills.Until now, bonobos have been more renowned for their free and easy sex lives than their abilities with tools. They have never been seen to forage using tools in the wild, although only a handful of wild populations have been studied because of political instability in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where they live.
A new anthropological study has suggested democracy may not have originated in ancient Greece but much earlier, when human ancestors started living in communities, soon after the invention of stone tools. The reason the authors give is that the availability of stone tools made possible the foundation of more egalitarian societies than the strict social hierarchies dominant in hominin communities until then, which favoured the most physically strong individuals.
Israeli authorities said Wednesday they have identified a rare, well-preserved 2,000-year-old Jewish ritual bath hidden under the floorboards of a home in Jerusalem.Archaeologists said the discovery in Jerusalem's Ein Kerem neighborhood shines new light on ancient Jewish and early Christian communities in the area.Related: Step back in time: Roman footprints discovered in Israel reveal details of 1st century soldiers' hobnail boots
On July 3, the World Heritage Committee unanimously approved the addition of China's stunning Tusi sites during its annual meeting in Bonn, Germany.The sites boast the remains of an ancient political system adopted by Chinese emperors to govern ethnic minority regions in south-central and southwest China, with Tusi literally referring to the hereditary tribal headmen appointed to oversee the often unruly areas.
Fish gills evolved to balance pH, not breathe, suggests a new study.This goes against the traditional assumption that gills first evolved so fish could get more oxygen as they became bigger and more active, say researchers in a recent issue of Scientific Reports."When we think of the gill we automatically associate it with a human lung," says co-author Dr Jodie Rummer, a fish physiologist at James Cook University in Townsville.
These ethereal images could be computer-generated Hollywood space movie scenes but are actually nature at its most awesome.Glow worms living in New Zealand caves were captured on film by photographer Joseph Michael in a series called the Luminosity project.
Nanjing city in East China's Jiangsu province has built seven new observation sites from which to make general earthquake predictions, using animals like chickens, pigs and fish to help forecast possible risks.Breeders here create daily reports regarding animal behavior for Nanjing's seismological departments using popular instant messaging software QQ.
Even the king of the jungle can't escape getting his picture taken these days. In June the Kenya-based Lion Guardians launched the Lion Identification Network of Collaborators (LINC). The database of lion profiles was built with the first facial-recognition software specifically designed to analyze the mugs of these big cats and distinguish them from one another. With LINC, the conservation organization and other wildlife researchers will have an easier way to monitor the beasts' whereabouts.
A solar-powered airplane currently soaring over the Pacific Ocean, from Japan to Hawaii, has set a slew of new world records, logging the farthest and longest flights made so far in a solar-powered aircraft.The Solar Impulse 2 plane set the new distance and duration records when it flew 3,519 miles (5,663 kilometers) in 80 hours. The solar-powered aircraft is currently partway through a planned journey around the world.
The fear of powerful artificial intelligence and technology is a popular theme, as seen in films such as Ex Machina, Chappie, and the Terminator series.And we may soon find ourselves addressing fully autonomous technology with the capacity to cause damage. While this may be some form of military wardroid or law enforcement robot, it could equally be something not created to cause harm, but which could nevertheless do so by accident or error. What then? Who is culpable and liable when a robot or artificial intelligence goes haywire?.
Can an algorithm pass for an author? Can a robot rock the house? A series of contests at Dartmouth College is about to find out.Dartmouth is seeking artificial intelligence algorithms that create "human-quality" short stories, sonnets and dance music sets that will be pitted against human-produced literature, poetry and music selections. The judges won't know which is which.Related: Can computers be creative?
Do not underestimate the power of a walk in the woods: A new study suggests that even a 90- minute stroll in a natural environment can lead to measurable changes in the brain, and may help combat depression.Previous research has shown that just a 50-minute walk in nature can improve your mood, decrease your anxiety and even improve your memory. But for the new study, published this week in PNAS, the research team wanted to see if they could understand what the mechanisms for these positive effects might be.
The hormones testosterone and cortisol may destabilise financial markets by making traders take more risks, according to a study.Researchers simulated the trading floor in the lab by having volunteers buy and sell assets among themselves. They measured the volunteers' natural hormone levels in one experiment and artificially raised them in another.
It is said that the secret to happiness is remembering to stop and smell the roses.But that heady scent, once synonymous with an English country garden, has dulled in recent decades as breeders favour longevity and colour over the fragrance of the blooms.
The comet landed on by the spacecraft Philae could well be home to an abundance of alien microbial life, according to leading astronomers.Features of the comet, named 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, such as its organic-rich black crust, are most likely explained by the presence of living organisms beneath an icy surface, the scientists have said.
When the first two human colonists land on Mars, they could step into their ready-made living quarters, remove their space helmets and inhale deliciously breathable air.The quarters would have an optimal mixture of gases for human respiration, and be perfectly pressurized, air-conditioned and thoroughly filtered, if a design paper by a space life-support company becomes reality.Alt: How to build a house on the red planet: Mars One claims to have solved how humans will survive in a space colony
The closer we get to Ceres, the more intriguing the distant dwarf planet becomes. New images of Ceres from NASA's Dawn spacecraft provide more clues about its mysterious bright spots, and also reveal a pyramid-shaped peak towering over a relatively flat landscape.Alt: White Spots, Lone Mountains, and Other Funny Business on Ceres
Recent images taken by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft reveal four mysterious dark spots that appear to be evenly spaced along Pluto's equator.Each of the spots is about 300 miles in diameter and has a surface area similar in size to the state of Mississippi, NASA scientists report.
CONFIDENTIAL government reports into Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) sightings - dubbed the "British X-Files" - could be made publicly available within EIGHT months.The major boost for alien hunters can be exclusively revealed by Express.co.uk on World UFO Day, which campaigners are using to call for the release of all such records globally.Related: Russian Official Proposes International Investigation Into U.S. Moon Landings
Dark matter is keeping to the shadows. A potential sign of the mysterious stuff may actually be due to the husks of dead stars.For decades astronomers have suspected the existence of a form of matter, called dark matter, that doesn't emit or absorb visible light and is five times more abundant in the cosmos than normal matter.
The Solar Team Eindhoven (STE) student team from Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e, The Netherlands) today presents its new solar-powered car. Stella Lux is an intelligent, solar-powered family car that generates more power than it uses.The car has a range of at least 1,000 km in the Netherlands, with enough space for four people, and is fitted with a specially designed navigation system.
In the human body, small wounds are easily treated by the body itself, requiring no further care. For bigger wounds to be healed, the body may need outside assistance. Concrete is like a living body, in that it can self-heal its own small wounds (cracks) as an intrinsic characteristic. However, cracks do not heal easily in conventional concrete due to its rather brittle nature, which calls into question the effectiveness of self-healing in conventional concrete materials with no control over crack formation.
Living with Type 1 diabetes requires constant monitoring of blood sugar levels and injecting insulin daily. Now scientists are reporting in the ACS journal Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research the development of an implantable "artificial pancreas" that continuously measures a person's blood sugar, or glucose, level and can automatically release insulin as needed.
With only a handful of babies born with HIV or syphilis in 2013, Cuba has become the first country to earn certification from the World Health Organization (WHO) that it has eliminated mother-to-child transmission of the diseases. WHO and United Nations officials announced the achievement on Tuesday (June 30).
The expected but as yet unopened human remains are wrapped in birch bark and it is likely that this 'cocoon' contains copper which - combined with the permafrost - produced an accidental mummification.Archeologists working at the site, near Salekhard, say they suspect the remains are of a child or teenager from the 12th or 13th centuries AD.The new find matches others discovered at Zeleny Yar, belonging to a mystery medieval civilization with links to Persia despite its position on the edge of the Siberian Arctic.
About 2000 years ago in what is today western Illinois, a group of Native Americans buried something unusual in a sacred place. In the outer edge of a funeral mound typically reserved for humans, villagers interred a bobcat, just a few months old and wearing a necklace of bear teeth and marine shells. The discovery represents the only known ceremonial burial of an animal in such mounds and the only individual burial of a wild cat in the entire archaeological record, researchers claim in a new study6.
A 5,000-year-old archaeological site in Afghanistan is under threat of demolition as a Chinese mining company, eager to access the world's largest untapped copper deposits, closes in.China Metallurgical Group Corp (MCC) wants to extract the $100bn worth of copper lying beneath the ruins of the ancient Buddhist city of Mes Aynak.
MATSUURA, Nagasaki Prefecture--A shipwreck found here is the second confirmed vessel from a 13th century Mongolian fleet that foundered in a typhoon in a failed attempt to invade Japan.Alt: Mongol ship sent by Genghis Khan's grandson to invade Japan before it was destroyed by 'kamikaze' typhoon is discovered underwater after 700 YEARS
Spiders are able to travel across water like ships, using their legs as sails and silk as an anchor.The arachnids were already known to take to the air on "ballooning" flights, using their silk to catch the wind and carry them up to 30 kilometres (18.6 miles) a day, scientists have discovered.
Cheer up, lazy bones, you are not alone, even hard-working ant societies have workers that don't quite pull their weight."It's just the sort of a thing that anyone who's ever worked on social insects has noticed: 'Oh look, half of them are standing around doing nothing'," says Daniel Charbonneau from the University of Arizona.
Cat v mouse: it is probably the most famous predator-prey pairing, enshrined in idioms and a well-known cartoon.And cats, it turns out, even have chemical warfare in their anti-mouse arsenal - contained in their urine.
The mystery of the strange sea 'monster' washed ashore on Sakhalin Island in the Russian Far East - and highlighted this week by The Siberian Times - may never be solved after it was swept out to sea once more during a storm.'The body was about two metres long though it was difficult to judge, and went into a tail of about three to five metres. The creature was hairy, with some paws or feet, and no fins. We were very confused that everything was covered with hairs.'.
Coastal seabirds can fly over large swaths of ocean for days on end, not stopping until they reach their favorite feeding spot. Scientists have long wondered how these birds manage to find their way home.Turns out, for seabirds, the nose knows.By assessing bird flight patterns, a team of scientists has found evidence supporting the idea that seabirds navigate using smell.
Seahorse tails are peculiar appendages. Unlike those of most animals, the cross-section of a seahorse tail is shaped like a square prism rather than the usual cylinder. Further increasing their mystique, seahorses do not use their tails for swimming, as other fish do, but rather as giant fingers used for anchoring on coral or snatching up tasty shrimp that stray too near.Alt: Seahorse tails could inspire new generation of robots
The brain hidden inside the oldest known Old World monkey skull has been visualized for the first time. The creature's tiny but remarkably wrinkled brain supports the idea that brain complexity can evolve before brain size in the primate family tree.The ancient monkey, known scientifically as Victoriapithecus, first made headlines in 1997 when its fossilized skull was discovered on an island in Kenya's Lake Victoria, where it lived 15 million years ago.
Hermaphroditic animals (those with both male and female reproductive organs) have often been known to self-inseminate when sexual partners are rare. But so far, the flatworm, Macrostomum hystrix is the only animal known to inseminate itself in the head using a needle-like penis structure, according to a study published today (July 1) in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
A new study from Indiana University provides evidence in mice that males may play a positive role in the development of offspring's brains starting before pregnancy.The research, reported July 30 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences, found that female mice exposed to male pheromones gave birth to infants with greater mental ability.
The children of genetically-unrelated parents are more likely than those with similar genes to be taller and more intelligent according to the biggest study yet of human genetic diversity in an age when more people than ever are marrying people from different parts of the world.Scientists found that height and general intelligence were two traits that appear to be increasing as a result of the mixing of DNA between genetically-diverse parents.
Social events, sleep training and even meditation may offer ways for people to erase biases they probably didn't know they heldLast week's Supreme Court decisions offered many reasons for liberal-leaning people to celebrate: the justices upheld the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (better known as "Obamacare"), same-sex marriage and the Fair Housing Act.
Research from Eric Kandel's lab at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) has uncovered further evidence of a system in the brain that persistently maintains memories for long periods of time. And paradoxically, it works in the same way as mechanisms that cause mad cow disease, kuru, and other degenerative brain diseases.
WHAT is a vast grassland doing in the middle of the world's largest rainforest? Conservationists say that fires started by the indigenous Pemón people have destroyed the forests that should naturally blanket the area, and that fires should be banned. Others argue that the savannah has existed for millennia and that the fires conserve this natural landscape. Both could be wrong.
Brazilian and US presidents Dilma Rousseff and Barack Obama have agreed to work more closely on curbing deforestation of the Amazon and boosting renewable energy. The announcement was made yesterday, during a visit by Rousseff to the US."We have the commitment to come to a zero deforestation, or a zero illegal deforestation, rate between now and 2030,".
Scientists are one step closer to bringing a woolly mammoth back to life.A new analysis of the woolly mammoth genome has revealed several adaptations that allowed the furry beasts to thrive in the subzero temperatures of the last ice age, including a metabolism that allowed them to pack on insulating fat, smaller ears that lost less heat and a reduced sensitivity to cold.
Archaeologists discovered 14 pre-Inca tombs and a Mochica temple dating back to around 4,000 years ago in the region of Lambayeque.Related: What It's Like to Travel the Inca Road Today
Millions of silver coins may have been stored in the attic of the Parthenon,one of the most famous structures from the ancient world, a research team says.The attic of the Parthenon is now destroyed and the coins would have been spent in ancient times. The researchers made the discovery by reconstructing the size of the attic, analyzing ancient records to extrapolate how large the reserves may have been and re-examining archaeological work carried out decades ago.
New research shows that the fearsome teeth of the saber-toothed cat Smilodon fatalis fully emerged at a later age than those of modern big cats, but grew at a rate about double that of their living relatives.The findings, published today in the journal PLOS ONE and based on a new technique that combines isotopic analysis and x-ray imaging, for the first time provide specific ages for developmental events in Smilodon, notably in their teeth.
One species of Australian lizard switches sex when temperatures rise in the outback, a new study has found.Central bearded dragons (Pogona vitticeps) with male chromosomes become females that are capable of producing twice as many eggs as standard females, report researchers in today's issue of the journal Nature.
A single-celled marine plankton evolved a miniature version of a multi-cellular eye, possibly to help see its prey better, according to University of British Columbia (UBC) research published today in Nature.In fact, the 'ocelloid' within the planktonic predator looks so much like a complex eye that it was originally mistaken for the eye of an animal that the plankton had eaten.
New research suggests that performing acts of kindness could help socially anxious people to not shy away from others.People who suffer from social anxiety are more than just a little shy. They usually feel so threatened or anxious about interacting with others that they often actively avoid socializing.Alt: Anxious? Try doing a good deed: Acts of kindness makes us feel more comfortable meeting others
Here's how it used to work: DNA found at a crime scene would be collected and then compared to a database. It was really only helpful if it happened to match an existing criminal profile.But now a new technology could help solve cases that have been "cold" for decades.In December, a company in Virginia called Parabon began offering a new way to use DNA from crime scenes to generate a composite sketch and give police another tool in their hunt for suspects.
With fur on its tail and twice the size of a human being, no one yet knows what the animal is.The remains of an unidentified sea animal with fur on its tail have been washed ashore in the Far East. Found near the airport at Shakhtersk, on Sakhalin Island, its appearance is unlike anything ever found in Russia.'I can confidently say that this is some kind of a dolphin. However, it has fur. It's unusual. Dolphins do not have any fur.'Related: Mystery Of Loch Ness UFO Photo Deepens
This beautiful golden jewel of tightly packed stars near the centre of our galaxy is normally hidden by dust.But powerful technology has enabled astronomers to penetrate the dense fog surrounding Liller 1 to reveal an unprecedented ultra-sharp view of this vast stellar city.
Most sustainability efforts focus on fixing problems. Whether the solution involves installing air filtration systems on cruise ships, lobbying for safer meat production or restricting microbead usage, it usually comes after a problem has become a crisis.But what if we could head off the problem at the beginning of the process, instead of at the end? What if, instead of trying to reduce the emissions from fossil fuels, we could skip the fossil fuels entirely? What if, instead of dealing with the environmental and health problems created by meat production, we could take cattle out of the process?
A group of University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers and a collaborator from China have developed a nanogenerator that harvests energy from a car's rolling tire friction.An innovative method of reusing energy, the nanogenerator ultimately could provide automobile manufacturers a new way to squeeze greater efficiency out of their vehicles.The researchers reported their development, which is the first of its kind, in a paper published May 6, 2015, in the journal Nano Energy.
A study in mice suggests that antiobiotics could harm children's gut bacteria leaving them prone to obesity and diabetesGiving children common antibiotics may cause obesity by altering bacteria in their gut, according to new research.Alt: Repeated courses of antibiotics may profoundly alter children's development
New research in the fields of psychology, education and neuroscience shows teaching meditation in schools is having positive effects on students' well-being, social skills and academic skills.A recent meta-review of the impact of meditation in schools combined the results from 15 studies and almost 1800 students from Australia, Canada, India, the UK, the US and Taiwan. The research showed meditation is beneficial in most cases and led to three broad outcomes for students: higher well-being, better social skills and greater academic skills.
People with blue eyes might have a greater chance of becoming alcoholics, according to a unique new study by genetic researchers at the University of Vermont.The work, led by Arvis Sulovari, a doctoral student in cellular, molecular and biological sciences, and Assistant Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics Dawei Li, Ph.D., is the first to make a direct connection between a person's eye color and alcohol dependence.
Evening picnics in a park, sunset beers by a lake and warm nights with the windows open are just some of the delights of midsummer. But as dusk falls, one of the most infuriating creatures on the planet stirs: the mosquito. Outdoor activities are abandoned in an ankle-scratching frenzy and sleep is disturbed as we haplessly swat at the whining source of our torment.
The next time you dab wasabi on your sushi or spread mustard on your hot dog, take a moment to thank a caterpillar. It may sound unlikely, but the critters play a critical role in creating the sharp, pungent flavors that give those condiments a savory kick.Turns out, the flavors of these condiments are the result of millions of years of plants and caterpillars duking it out to survive.