Newsdesk Archive

About one tenth of the world's ants are close relatives; they all belong to just one genus out of 323, called Pheidole. New research suggests that Pheidole evolved the same way twice, once to take over the New World, and then again to take over the Old World."If you go into any tropical forest and take a stroll, you will step on one of these ants," says Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University's Professor Evan Economo.

Efforts to connect the evolutionary transition from fish fins to wrist and fingers with the genetic machinery for this adaptation have fallen short because they focused on the wrong fish. Now, researchers describe the genetic machinery for autopod assembly in a non-model fish, the spotted gar.

A team of archaeologists from Brigham Young University in Utah have had their excavation license revoked by the Egyptian Antiquities Ministry after claiming to have discovered "one million mummies."Last week, BYU team leader Kerry Muhlestein announced the discovery of a mass grave containing the remains of many ordinary citizens located at the Fag el-Gamous cemetery southwest of Cairo. The team unearthed a densely populated cemetery in which 40 individual burials could be found within a 16.4 x 16.4 feet (5 x 5 meter) area and 6.5 feet (2 meters) deep.

Meteorologists first conceived of seeding clouds as a way to increase rainfall in 1946, working at General Electric's laboratories in Schenectady, New York. But in the nearly 60 years since then, it has remained unclear whether human attempts to make it snow actually work.Now, the results of the most scientific study of cloud seeding done yet are in. Researchers found that seeding clouds with droplets of silver iodide does slightly increase precipitation, boosting levels by 5 to 15 percent. However, experts disagree about whether this small increase means cloud-seeding efforts should expand.

Russian scientists from the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), together with their French and American colleagues, have created a 'map' of the distribution of water vapour in Mars' atmosphere. Their research includes observations of seasonal variations in atmospheric concentrations using data collected over ten years by the Russian-French SPICAM spectrometer aboard the Mars Express orbiter. This is the longest period of observation and provides the largest volume of data about water vapour on Mars.

A new analysis of a Martian rock that meteorite hunters plucked from an Antarctic ice field 30 years ago this month reveals a record of the planet's climate billions of years ago, back when water likely washed across its surface and any life that ever formed there might have emerged.Scientists from the University of California, San Diego, NASA and the Smithsonian Institution report detailed measurements of minerals within the meteorite in the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this week.

It may only take brushing your teeth to help you feel connected to the cosmos.New research suggests that fluorine, an element in toothpaste, may have been forged billions of years ago inside stars that are now long dead. Fluorine is commonly found in products like toothpaste, refrigerants and pharmaceuticals, and it's the 13th most abundant element on Earth.

No one is about to claim that quantum physics is now easy to understand, but maybe it's not quite as devilishly complicated as we thought.New research suggests that two of the quantum world's most mysterious features--the uncertainty principle and wave-particle duality--are simply two sides of a single coin.

Scientists have found the first direct evidence that a mysterious phase of matter known as the "pseudogap" competes with high-temperature superconductivity, robbing it of electrons that otherwise might pair up to carry current through a material with 100 percent efficiency."Now we have clear, smoking-gun evidence that the pseudogap phase competes with and suppresses superconductivity".

Inside the Boston Wine School, Jonathon Alsop places empty glasses and plate of figs and cheese before a small group of students. Alsop, who founded the school in 2000, is doing a test run of a new class that poses the question: What would Jesus drink?"This is ... a cheese that Jesus might have eaten," he tells students. "It's called Egyptian Roumy it was a cheese that was introduced to the Egyptians by the Romans. It's a sheep's milk cheese.".

"Turn off your mind, relax, and float down stream..."Maybe John Lennon was onto something when he wrote those words for the Beatles' song "Tomorrow Never Knows."It turns out that that reality and imagination flow in different directions in the brain, researchers say. The visual information from real events that the eyes see flows "up" from the brain's occipital lobe to the parietal lobe, but imagined images flow "down" from the parietal to the occipital.

We think of our brains as single, unified organs. But a new set of experiments with flies reveals that certain brain cells in these insects respond exclusively to crowd behavior. And that leads to an interesting question: Did cells in the animal brain evolve to think using something akin to the wisdom of fly swarms?

New research suggests muscles respond to simple thoughts of exercise; simply imagining exercise can trick the muscles into delaying atrophy and even getting stronger. It's further proof that brain and body, which evolved together, are more intwined than separate.To demonstrate the power of the brain, researchers at Ohio University wrapped a single wrist of two sets of study participants in a cast -- immobilizing their muscles for four weeks.

Cells have finger-like projections that they use to feel their surroundings. They can detect the chemical environment and they can 'feel' their physical surroundings using ultrasensitive sensors. New research shows how the finger-like structures, called filopodia, can extend themselves, contract and bend in dynamic movements.

A pair of jeans containing material that blocks wireless signals is being developed in conjunction with anti-virus firm Norton.The trousers are intended to stop thieves hacking into radio frequency identification (RFID) tagged passports or contactless payment cards.

Google has updated its prototype self-driving vehicle to make it road worthy, adding headlights and manual steering and braking to comply with road rules in California."We're unwrapping the best holiday gift we could've imagined: the first real build of our self-driving vehicle prototype," said Google in a statement published via its own social network G+.

Nasa scientists are working on a city made out of huge balloons in the clouds above Venus, which will allow astronauts to explore the planet without venturing onto its hostile surface.The airship-like balloons would carry two astronauts each on a 30-day mission.Alt: NASA considers possibilities for manned mission to Venus

Mars is a very harsh and hostile environment for future human explorers and like any other known planet it has no breathable air. That could change someday, and it may be soon enough for our generation to witness it, as the student team from Germany has a bold vision to make a first step to terraform the Red Planet, turning it more Earth-like. The plan is to send cyanobacteria to Mars to generate oxygen out of carbon dioxide which is the main component of Martian atmosphere (nearly 96%). "Cyanobacteria do live in conditions on Earth where no life would be expected.

An earthquake nearly 3,000 years ago may be the culprit in the mysterious disappearance of one of China's ancient civilizations, new research suggests.The massive temblor may have caused catastrophic landslides, damming up the Sanxingdui culture's main water source and diverting it to a new location.

Scientists have discovered a fossilized fish so well preserved that the rods and cones in its 300-million-year-old eyeballs are still visible under a scanning electron microscope.It is the first time that fossilized photoreceptors from a vertebrate eye have ever been found, according to a paper published Tuesday in Nature Communications. The researchers say the discovery also suggests that fish have been seeing the world in color for at least 300 million years.

Many genetic mutations in visual pigments, spread over millions of years, were required for humans to evolve from a primitive mammal with a dim, shadowy view of the world into a greater ape able to see all the colors in a rainbow. Now, after more than two decades of painstaking research, scientists have finished a detailed and complete picture of the evolution of human color vision.

Do monkeys know how to give CPR? That's the question circulating on the Internet this week, after a video depicting one monkey apparently saving the life of another after an accident at an Indian train station went viral.The footage, posted this week by YouTube user gadhamasti, shows an unconscious monkey that was apparently shocked by wires at a busy train station in the industrial city of Kanpur in northern India. A male companion monkey is then seen apparently trying to revive his comrade.

Unlike Derek Zoolander, ants don't have any difficulty turning left. New research from the University of Bristol, UK published today in Biology Letters, has found that the majority of rock ants instinctively go left when entering unknown spaces.PhD student Edmund Hunt and colleagues studied how Temnothorax albipennis ants explore nest cavities and negotiate through branching mazes.

The nation's "rattiest city" is putting subway rodents on birth control.Egg loss and testicle problems await Chicago's rat population once the Chicago Transit Authority rolls out a rodent-specific birth control program next yearThe CTA's new pilot program will use a semi-liquid bait that eventually makes rats infertile when ingested multiple times.

If you're a woman who's ever been on birth control, you're probably familiar with the torture of trying to find the type that suits your body (and your budget), the nail-biting nights when you've forgotten your pills across town, the mood swings, the libido dips, and a whole host of other side effects. Isn't it about time men shoulder some of this burden?

The plethora of microbes living in the human gut not only affect people's physical health, they may also influence mental health, according to a growing body of research.Recent studies in animals show that changes in the gut bacteria community appear to make mice less anxious, and also affect levels of the stress hormone cortisol.

Black truffles sniffed out of the ground by pigs and dogs due to their attractive earthy and cocoa-like aroma contain a "bliss molecule" similar to THC found in cannabis, scientists have found.A compound called anandamide, which triggers the release of feel-good chemicals in the brain, is produced by the fungi also known as Tuber melanosporum, research from an Italian university has revealed.

In a study called 'the largest investigation of the association between playing a musical instrument and brain development,' a child psychiatry team has found that musical training might also help kids focus their attention, control their emotions and diminish their anxiety.

Scientists have discovered the oldest recorded stone tool ever to be found in Turkey, revealing that humans passed through the gateway from Asia to Europe much earlier than previously thought, approximately 1.2 million years ago.According to research published in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews, the chance find of a humanly-worked quartzite flake, in ancient deposits of the river Gediz, in western Turkey, provides a major new insight into when and how early humans dispersed out of Africa and Asia.

When the Legions of Christ bought a piece of land on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, little did it know what it would find.Some would call it luck, others coincidence. Father Eamon Kelly calls it "providence."Alt: Archaeologists Are Excavating A Synagogue Where Jesus Likely Preached.

On a September afternoon in 2013, Gilles Tosello sat sipping a cup of American-style coffee in his Toulouse studio, pondering the talents of cave painters who lived in France 36,000 years ago.Tosello enjoyed a personal connection with those painters because he was the man the French Ministry of Culture and Communication had engaged to re-create their most famous works, some of the oldest, most beautiful, and best preserved cave art on Earth: the images in the Cave of Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc. Its legendary Panel of Horses includes exquisite charcoal horse heads, snarling lions, and battling wooly rhinoceroses drawn across 475 square feet of undulating rock.

In an unprecedented decision, an Argentine court has ruled that the Sumatran orangutan 'Sandra', who has spent 20 years at the zoo in Argentina's capital Buenos Aires, should be recognized as a person with a right to freedom.The ruling, signed by the judges unanimously, would see Sandra freed from captivity and transferred to a nature sanctuary in Brazil after a court recognized the primate as a "non-human person" which has some basic human rights. The Buenos Aires zoo has 10 working days to seek an appeal.

The amount of fast food children eat may be linked to how well they do in school, a new America-wide study suggests. This study can't say why fast-food consumption is linked to lower grades, but other studies have shown that fast food lacks certain nutrients, especially iron, that help cognitive development. In addition, diets high in fat and sugar -- similar to fast-food meals -- have been shown to hurt immediate memory and learning processes.

Children who pay attention in their music class show greater gains in language development and reading, according to a recent study.Researchers from Northwestern University found that children who regularly attended music classes and actively participated showed larger improvements in how the brain processes speech and reading scores than their less-involved peers after two years.

A substance found in red wine may protect the body against age-related diseases by stimulating an ancient evolutionary defence mechanism that guards human cells against genetic damage, scientists said.Resveratrol, an organic compound found in grapes, nuts and a variety of other edible plants, has already been linked with extending the healthy life of laboratory animals as well as decreasing the incidence of heart disease and other illnesses in humans.

Using a new technique known as 4D printing, researchers can print out dynamic 3D structures capable of changing their shapes over time.Such 4D-printed items could one day be used in everything from medical implants to home appliances, scientists added.

The sun fired off a massive solar flare late Friday (Dec. 19), after days of intense storms from our nearest star.The huge solar flare registered as an X1.8-class event, one of the most powerful types of flares possible, and was captured on camera by NASA's powerful Solar Dynamics Observatory. The flare triggered a strong radio blackout for parts of Earth as it peaked Friday at 7:28 p.m. EST (0028 Dec. 20 GMT), according to an alert from the U.S. Space Weather Prediction Center overseen by NOAA.

NASA and an international team of planetary scientists have found evidence in meteorites on Earth that indicates Mars has a distinct and global reservoir of water or ice near its surface.Though controversy still surrounds the origin, abundance and history of water on Mars, this discovery helps resolve the question of where the "missing Martian water" may have gone. Scientists continue to study the planet's historical record, trying to understand the apparent shift from an early wet and warm climate to today's dry and cool surface conditions.

Evidence that the universe is made of strings has been elusive for 30 years, but the theory's mathematical insights continue to have an alluring pull.Related: World record for compact particle accelerator: Researchers ramp up energy of laser-plasma 'tabletop' acceleratorRelated: Interstellar mystery solved by supercomputer simulations

A UFO enthusiast has found what they believe to be definitive proof that a UFO was monitoring the Apollo missions, in particular Apollo 15.Searching through the archive footage and photos from the mission, they found one particular image that suggested there might have been something watching the astronauts.Related: Another alleged UFO sighting near volcano in Mexico

A biologist in the U.K. was surprised to come upon strange-looking ice formations the size of dinner plates floating on the River Dee in Scotland.River Dee Trust biologist Jamie Urquhart came across the "ice pancakes" and photographed them at Lummels Pool at Birse, in Aberdeenshire.Related: Did Google Earth Spot A Sea Monster In New Zealand?Related: Strange Contrails Appear Over Russian Town

AncestryDNA genetic scientists have pushed the boundaries of human genome reconstruction methods by using the DNA of many living people to reassemble an unprecedented proportion of the human genome attributed to a 19th Century American and his two successive spouses. This scientific feat is a step forward in the use of consumer genetics in family history, providing a glimpse into what a long ago ancestor may have looked like or which traits they may have passed down to descendants.Related: The Echoes of Hearts Long Silenced

Scientists should "re-wild" food crops by inserting lost genetic properties of ancient, edible plants in order to boost agricultural output for a growing population, a new study said.Important properties of wild plants, including varieties of wheat and rice, have been unintentionally lost during thousands of years of breeding.

Whether it's making snow angels or building a snow man, most of us love playing in a winter wonderland - and it turns out some birds do too.It usually starts with one bird that burrows in the snow, creating tunnels. Another joins in, then a few more, until the entire group is doing it, leaving behind a maze of burrows and furrows.

During the winter solstice, the sun is filtered into the Monastery at Petra, Jordan, illuminating the podium of a deity. Just at this moment, the silhouette of the mountain opposite draws the head of a lion, a sacred animal. These are examples from a study where researchers from Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias and CSIC (Spain) showed how celestial events influenced the orientation of the great constructions of the Nabataeans.

Baalbek, Lebanon, is the site of one of the most mysterious ruins of the Roman Empire, a monumental two-thousand-year-old temple to Jupiter that sits atop three thousand-ton stone blocks. (The pillars of Stonehenge weigh about a fortieth of that.) The blocks originated in a nearby limestone quarry, where a team from the German Archaeological Institute, in partnership with Jeanine Abdul Massih, of Lebanese University, recently discovered what they are calling the largest stone block from antiquity, weighing one thousand six hundred and fifty tons and matching those that support the temple. Its provenance is more shadowy than one might expect of a three-million-pound megalith. Nobody seems to know on whose orders it was cut, or why, or how it came to be abandoned.

Six official clay seals found by a Mississippi State University archaeological team at a small site in Israel offer evidence that supports the existence of biblical kings David and Solomon.Alt: Do these clay seals prove that biblical accounts of King David and Solomon are correct? Bullae found in Israel hint at political activity in 10th century BC

Archaeologists have uncovered the network of a medieval city in England that dates back to the late 11th century.The settlement, which includes a cathedral and a castle, is located at the historic site of Old Sarum, near Salisbury. In its heyday, the city thrived for about 300 years, but eventually declined in the 13th century, with the Roman conquest and the rise of New Sarum, the researchers said. Archaeologists have long known that the medieval city existed in Old Sarum, but this is the first detailed layout of the city ever created.

It was the sword of choice for the discerning Viking - superstrong, and almost unbeatable in battle.Yet mystery surrounds a small number of Viking swords researchers have uncovered.They are all inscribed with a single word - 'Ulfberht', which experts believe may reveal their maker.

The Paleolithic diet, or caveman diet, a weight-loss craze in which people emulate the diet of plants and animals eaten by early humans during the Stone Age, gives modern calorie-counters great freedom because those ancestral diets likely differed substantially over time and space, according to researchers at Georgia State University and Kent State University."Based on evidence that's been gathered over many decades, there's very little evidence that any early hominids had very specialized diets or there were specific food categories that seemed particularly important.

Ancient people pressed olive oil as far back as 8,000 years ago in Israel, a new study finds.Researchers found residues of the Mediterranean-diet staple on ancient clay pots dating back to the 6th millennium B.C."This is the earliest evidence of the use of olive oil in the country, and perhaps the entire Mediterranean basin.

A new study predicts that large-scale power plants based on thermoelectric effects, such as small temperature differences in ocean water, could generate electricity at a lower cost than photovoltaic power plants.Related: Switching to vehicles powered by electricity from renewables could save livesRelated: The Scoop on the Poop Bus: How Human and Animal Waste Might Fuel Our Future

After a decade of research, scientists from Murdoch University are excited by a perennial legume that has the potential to turn poor soils into profitable areas suitable for farming.Professor John Howieson from the Centre of Rhizobium Studies at Murdoch University said scientists had been searching for a something to treat deep sandy soils for 20 years and that Lebeckia, a shrub legume, has had the most exciting results to date.

Carnivorous plants catch and digest tiny animals in order and derive benefits for their nutrition. Interestingly the trend towards vegetarianism seems to overcome carnivorous plants as well. The aquatic carnivorous bladderwort, which can be found in many lakes and ponds worldwide, does not only gain profit from eating little animals but also by consuming algae and pollen grains.

A ghostly never-before-seen fish with wing-like fins has set a new depth record for fish. During a recent trip to the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean, the deepest place on Earth, the previously-unknown snailfish was filmed several times floating along the dark sea floor, reaching a record low of 8143 metres below the surface.

Newly published research provides the first demonstration of how a genetic mutation associated with a common form of albinism leads to the lack of melanin pigments that characterizes the condition.About 1 in 40,000 people worldwide have type 2 oculocutaneous albinism, which has symptoms of unsually light hair and skin coloration, vision problems, and reduced protection from sunlight-related skin or eye cancers. Scientists have known for about 20 years that the condition is linked to mutations in the gene that produces the OCA2 protein, but they hadn't yet understood how the mutations lead to a melanin deficit.

Internet addiction is an impulse-control problem marked by an inability to inhibit Internet use, which can adversely affect a person's life, including their health and interpersonal relationships. The prevalence of Internet addiction varies among regions around the world, as shown by data from more than 89,000 individuals in 31 countries.

Developmental neuroscientists have found specific brain markers that predict generosity in children. Those neural markers appear to be linked to both social and moral evaluation processes. Although young children are natural helpers, their perspective on sharing resources tends to be selfish.

When International Space Station Commander Barry Wilmore needed a wrench, NASA knew just what to do. They "e-mailed" him one. This is the first time an object has been designed on Earth and then transmitted to space for manufacture.Made In Space, the California company that designed the 3D printer aboard the ISS, overheard Wilmore mentioning the need for a ratcheting socket wrench and decided to create one. Previously, if an astronaut needed a specific tool it would have to be flown up on the next mission to the ISS, which could take months.

A team of physicists has provided some of the clearest evidence yet that our Universe could be just one big projection.In 1997, theoretical physicist Juan Maldacena proposed1 that an audacious model of the Universe in which gravity arises from infinitesimally thin, vibrating strings could be reinterpreted in terms of well-established physics. The mathematically intricate world of strings, which exist in nine dimensions of space plus one of time, would be merely a hologram: the real action would play out in a simpler, flatter cosmos where there is no gravity.

A pair of astrophysicists studying gamma ray bursts has found that such events might play a much larger role in the existence of life on Earth and other planets than has been thought. In their paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, Tsvi Piran with the Hebrew University in Israel and Raul Jimenez from the University of Barcelona in Spain, suggest that gamma ray bursts might be responsible for past extinctions on Earth, and for limiting the possibility of life on planets near the center of galaxies.

A bizarre prehistoric platypus-like species of marine reptile with a short neck and duck-like beak has been discovered by palaeontologists in China.The 248-million-year-old fossil, which has been named Eohupehsuchus brevicollis, belongs to a group of mysterious early Triassic marine reptiles called hupehsuchians, which have so far only been unearthed in two counties in Hubei Province.

Fool's gold helps explain why many fossils of soft-bodied animals that lived more than 540 million years ago still survive, a new study finds.The bacterial breakdown of ancient, wormlike animals after their deaths led to the formation of pyrite, the shiny, yellow mineral sometimes mistaken for gold. This pyrite helped preserve the fossils in three dimensions, according to research published Wednesday (Dec. 17) in the journal Nature Communications.

The fearsome reputation of the Vikings has made them the subject of countless exhibitions, books and films - however, surprisingly little is known about their more southerly exploits in Spain.No comprehensive archaeological study of Viking sites in Spain has ever been carried out and now a University of Aberdeen researcher plans to dig up the 'Spanish Vikings' for the first time.

An Amazonian chick has evolved a crafty way to keep from being eaten: pretend you're a poisonous caterpillar by looking and moving just like one.In a paper published recently in the journal American Naturalist, scientists report finding, in 2012 observations, an example of mimicry in birds so effective it went unnoticed until now.The chick in question is the cinereous mourner (Laniocera hypopyrra).

A clever fish has figured out that if it produces sounds in an oyster shell, the noises will carry over long distances, according to new research.The study, published in The Journal of Experimental Biology, is just the latest to show that fish are far from being silent. Many can produce sounds by vibrating their swimbladders and, like a fishy form of Morse Code, they can create different meanings based on the sounds.

It's time they came out of their shells. It seems the world's largest molluscs, the giant clams of the Indo-Pacific coral reefs, have been doing a huge amount of good work we knew little about.These sea creatures turn out to be multitasking ecosystem engineers. They are reef builders and shapers, food factories, shelters, reservoirs of algae, and water filters, all rolled in one.

British Trust for Ornithology finds 99% of birds avoid wind turbines, easing fears over the impact of blades but caution still neededResearch by the British Trust for Ornithology and the University of the Highlands and Islands in Scotland, published this week, found most gannets would avoid even entering a wind farm area, while gulls do enter the area but then avoid flying near the spinning blades.

As excitement grows for the the second 3-year run of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), physicists are frantically planning the experiments that will be carried out when the particle accelerator starts slamming particles together at record energies in 2015.One of those experiments, as discussed by a collaboration of particle physicists in a new paper published in the journal Physical Review D, could focus on why the universe is dominated by matter and not antimatter, one of the most enduring mysteries in modern physics.

People who smoke marijuana may have lower levels of inflammation compared with people who have never smoked it, according to new research on one marker of inflammation.In the study, researchers examined data from more than 9,000 people on their history of marijuana use and their levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), one marker of inflammation that is frequently linked with people's risk of heart disease.

Cannabis oil, which requires an extra stage of preparation once the plant has been harvested, is basically made up of cannabinoids such as CBD and the psychoactive THC, the active chemicals found in the plant that cause the "high" sought by recreational users. Already forming the basic make-up of the pharmaceutical cannabis-based drug Sativex, which is used to treat MS, growing scientific research now suggests that cannabis oil may also possess anti-cancer properties that help stem the growth of malignant tumours.

An adorable Husky named Derby was born with malformed front limbs. With short forelimbs and no paws, Derby maneuvered the world by scooching around on his front elbows. He was limited to crawling around on soft surfaces as rougher areas, such as sidewalks, caused abrasions.Luckily he came into the foster care of Tara Anderson, an employee of 3D Systems based in Rock Hill, S.C. The company specializes in design-to-manufacturing solutions for 3D printing and they decided to come up with a solution for Derby.

For the first time ever, a quadriplegic woman has used her thoughts to move a robotic hand across 10 degrees of freedom. The remarkable system allowed her to pick up a variety of objects, including skinny tubes and oddly shaped rocks.Related: Watch a man control two robotic prosthetic arms with his mind

A robot that looks like a giant insect is taking its first steps, advancing cautiously on its crutch-like limbs. The six-legged bot, known as Hector, can move each of its legs independently, which allows it to tackle a wider range of surfaces than other similar-bodied robots that typically walk by moving three legs at a time.

Automatonophobia is the technical term for fear of robots. Fear of sharks is selachophobia. Psychiatrists will have to come up with a new term now that the U.S. Navy has deployed, yes, robot sharks.The Navy's GhostSwimmer unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) -- a five-foot-long, 100-pound robotic shark -- has completed testing and will now join the fleet, according to naval researchers.

Scientists have shed light on a mysterious phenomenon that occurs in thunderstorms.They have discovered that gamma-ray bursts - the most powerful explosions of energy in the Universe - are far more common on Earth than was thought.

A group of songbirds may have avoided a devastating storm by fleeing their US breeding grounds after detecting telltale infrasound waves.Researchers noticed the behaviour after analysing trackers attached to the birds to study their migration patterns. They believe it is the first documented case of birds making detours to avoid destructive weather systems on the basis of infrasound.Alt: Birds 'heard tornadoes coming' and fled one day ahead

Crows have long been heralded for their high intelligence - they can remember faces, use tools and communicate in sophisticated ways.But a newly published study finds crows also have the brain power to solve higher-order, relational-matching tasks, and they can do so spontaneously. That means crows join humans, apes and monkeys in exhibiting advanced relational thinking, according to the research.

Being able to mentally consider quantities makes sense for any social species. This skill is important during the search for food, for example, or to determine whether an opponent group outnumbers one's own. Scientists from the Messerli Research Institute at the Vetmeduni Vienna studied how well dogs can discriminate between different quantities and discovered that wolves perform better than dogs at such tasks. Possibly dogs lost this skill, or a predisposition for it, during domestication.

The ancient Maya city of Tikal may have used intensive agricultural practices to maintain its large population, according to a study by David Lentz of the University of Cincinnati and colleagues. While these practices enabled sustainable population growth for some time, they may eventually have exacerbated a drought that caused the abandonment of the city. The study appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Recent scientific research has revealed that the blue irises in Van Gogh's Field with Irises near Arles were once purple. That is because the red is slowly disappearing from Van Gogh's paintings. The discolouration has arisen because the red pigment that Van Gogh used in his paint is strongly deteriorating, conclude the scientists who have investigated Van Gogh's work.

If you've ever wondered why the ancient structures of Rome have endured for millennia, when our own modern concrete is susceptible to cracks and crumbles, well, now you have your answer. Researchers recreated the Roman recipe and discovered that the formation of a certain kind of crystal in the concrete is the reason for the durability.Alt: Why the Colosseum hasn't collapsed: Roman concrete used 'secret' ingredient to stand the test of time - and now engineers want to copy it

Here's the perfect Christmas gift for the person who has everything: A red and green rock, ornament-sized, stuffed with 30,000 teeny-tiny diamonds.The sparkly chunk was pulled from Russia's huge Udachnaya diamond mine and donated to science (the diamonds' tiny size means they're worthless as gems). It was a lucky break for researchers, because the diamond-rich rock is a rare find in many ways, scientists reported Monday (Dec. 15) at the American Geophysical Union's annual meeting.

A team of scientists has mapped the location of hydrogen-rich waters found trapped kilometers beneath Earth's surface in rock fractures in Canada, South Africa and Scandinavia. Common in Precambrian Shield rocks -- the oldest rocks on Earth -- the ancient waters have a chemistry similar to that found near deep sea vents, suggesting these waters can support microbes living in isolation from the surface.Alt: Earth's deep crust could support widespread life

Signs of acid-rock interactions in Valles Marineris, the Grand Canyon of Mars, suggest that glaciers in the planet's past may have been responsible for carving at least some of the extensive network when the planet was more severely tipped.While other deposits of the mineral, known as jarosite, have been found on Mars, the new signature is the first to suggest formation by ice, rather than by ponds or puddles of water.

Owing to the extreme conditions on the Venusian surface, it's going to be quite some time before a human ever steps foot on that planet. That's why NASA is developing a plan to deploy human-occupied airships in Venus's upper atmosphere. And yes, permanent occupation is the ultimate goal.Related: Out of Fuel, Venus Express Is Falling Gently to Its Death in Planet's Skies

Scientists have identified the most energy-efficient way to make clouds more reflective to the sun in a bid to combat climate change. Marine Cloud Brightening is a reversible geoengineering method proposed to mitigate rising global temperatures. It relies on propelling a fine mist of salt particles high into the atmosphere to increase the albedo of clouds.Related: Warmer Pacific Ocean could release millions of tons of seafloor methane

THE worst tsunami on record hit South-East Asia on 26 December 10 years ago, killing more than 227,000 people in total. I recently toured villages on the west coast of Aceh, the Indonesian province that bore the brunt of the impact, where 167,000 lost their lives when a 20-metre wave crashed ashore that morning. I also saw the results of heavy mangrove reforestation since the tsunami.Can replanting mangrove forests on tropical coastlines really protect communities from the immense destruction of a tsunami such as the Indian Ocean killer wave that struck 10 years ago?

A link between autism and air pollution exposure during pregnancy has been suggested by scientists.The Harvard School of Public Health team said high levels of pollution had been linked to a doubling of autism in their study of 1,767 children.

A natural desire to be part of the 'in crowd' could damage our ability to make the right decisions, a new study has shown.Research led by the University of Exeter has shown that individuals have evolved to be overly influenced by their neighbours, rather than rely on their own instinct. As a result, groups become less responsive to changes in their natural environment.

Teen alcohol and drug use -- including marijuana use -- was down across the board in 2014.That's the big take-home from the 2014 Monitoring the Future study by the University of Michigan and the National Institutes on Drug Abuse, which was released Tuesday morning. The MTF is an annual survey of 40,000 8th-graders, 10th-graders and 12th-graders. It's notable both for its size and for the fact that it was conducted this past spring.

Checking into a hospital can boost your chances of infection. That's a disturbing paradox of modern medical care.And it doesn't matter where in the world you're hospitalized. From the finest to the most rudimentary medical facilities, patients are vulnerable to new infections that have nothing to do with their original medical problem. These are referred to as healthcare-acquired infections, healthcare-associated infections or hospital-acquired infections.

Recent revelations about government-backed surveillance have prompted millions of people to do more to keep their data private, suggests a survey.Related: Rights groups release anti-surveillance software

The Netherlands launched its first-ever intelligent bicycle, fitted with an array of electronic devices to help bring down the high accident rate among elderly cyclists in the bicycle-mad country.Developed for the government by the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), the intelligent bicycle prototype runs on electricity, and sports a forward-looking radar mounted below the handlebars and a camera in the rear mudguard.

Scientists in Canada have created a hybrid sodium ion capacitor (NIC) from peanut shells in a pioneering study bridging the gap between conventional ion batteries and supercapacitors.A hybrid ion capacitor is capable of storing charge both electrostatically and electrochemically, providing an intermediate in terms of energy and power between traditional batteries and supercapacitors.

Last week, Greenpeace activists provoked international outrage when they undertook a publicity stunt, trespassing on the Nazca Lines World Heritage Site. Newly released done footage shows how much damage they left behind.

Would you like to taste the health-giving grain found in the tomb of King Tutankhamun? Or feast on the unprocessed kernels said to have been stored on the ark by Noah? Or how about a vodka made from traditionally farmed Bolivian quinoa? If any of this whets your appetite, you are not alone.In the past five years there has been an explosion in popularity of so-called "ancient grains" in the American food market.

New research has uncovered the earliest known practical piece of polyphonic music, an example of the principles that laid the foundations of European musical tradition.The earliest known practical example of polyphonic music - a piece of choral music written for more than one part - has been found in a British Library manuscript in London.

The remains of a child, laid to rest more than 1,500 years ago when the Roman Empire controlled Egypt, was found in an ancient cemetery that contains more than 1 million mummies, according to a team of archaeologists from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.The cemetery is now called Fag el-Gamous, which means "Way of the Water Buffalo," a title that comes from the name of a nearby road.

Residents of a small village in Kazakhstan are falling asleep at random, sometimes for days at a time, and no one knows why. Since the spring of 2013, the village of Kalachi in the Akmolinsk district (whose name derives from aqmola, a Kazakh term that ominously translates to the white tomb), 150 miles south of the Russian border, has suffered from at least four outbreaks of the disorder. As of the latest wave, from late August to early September, over 60 people, or 10 percent of the town's population of 680 had been affected.