Newsdesk Archive
Climate change has not been strongly influenced by variations in heat from the sun, a new scientific study shows.The findings overturn a widely held scientific view that lengthy periods of warm and cold weather in the past might have been caused by periodic fluctuations in solar activity.
Smooth" or grainy? Is space-time continuous or is it made up of very fine (10-35 metres on the "Planck scale") but discrete grains, if we look at it very close up ? If the latter were true, scientists think, this would lead to deviations from the theory of special relativity formulated by Albert Einstein more than 100 years ago.
Age may only be a number, but when it comes to the age of the universe, it's a pretty important one. According to research, the universe is approximately 13.8 billion years old. How did scientists determine how many candles to put on the universe's birthday cake? They can determine the age of the universe using two different methods: by studying the oldest objects within the universe and measuring how fast it is expanding.
A team of researchers studying plants has assembled the largest dated evolutionary tree, using it to show the order in which flowering plants evolved specific strategies, such as the seasonal shedding of leaves, to move into areas with cold winters. The researchers, including University of Minnesota professor Peter Reich, will publish their findings Sunday, Dec. 22 in the journal Nature.
Chaser the border collie has swapped sheep and shepherds for syntax and semantics. The black and white sheepdog has not only learnt and remembered more than 1,000 proper nouns but she has also grasped some of the finer points of English grammar, according to researchers in the United States who have studied her.
While residents of wealthy nations tend to have greater life satisfaction, new research shows that those living in poorer nations report having greater meaning in life.These findings, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, suggest that meaning in life may be higher in poorer nations as a result of greater religiosity.
In the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, unhappy lovers undergo an experimental brain treatment to erase all memories of each other from their minds. No such fix exists for real-life couples, but researchers report today in Nature Neuroscience that a targeted medical intervention helps to reduce specific negative memories in patients who are depressed.
Scientists are arguing for the archaeological excavation of a shipwreck lying buried in sand in the Kaipara Harbour after a discovery that could rewrite the history of New Zealand's early European settlement.
Scientists are arguing for the archaeological excavation of a shipwreck lying buried in sand in the Kaipara Harbour after a discovery that could rewrite the history of New Zealand's early European settlement.
This weekend marks the beginning of the end. Of winter's darkness, that is. Today (Dec. 21), the Northern Hemisphere celebrates the mark of increasingly longer days, while the Southern Hemisphere will transition to shorter days, and those at the equator won't notice much of a difference at all.The global discrepancy in seasonal sunlight results from Earth's 23.5-degree tilt on its axis: During the Northern Hemisphere winter, the Earth is tilted directly away from the sun, and during the summer, it is tilted directly toward the sun. The equator does not experience much of a change during the year since it sits in the middle of the axis.
A mystery that has intrigued archaeologists and historians for centuries may be on the cusp of being solved thanks to the discovery of a ruin deep in the Amazonian jungle.The site, discovered by a multinational team of explorers, could be the tomb of Atahualpa, the last emperor of the Incas, who was executed by the Spanish after their conquest of South America.
Once again, the Homo erectus site of Lehberg near Haidershofen in the Lower Austrian part of the Enns (a southern tributary of the Danube River), is in the spotlight for Lower Palaeolithic research.After the recent discovery of several well-preserved hand axes of Acheulean age dating to approximately 500,000 years ago, as well as a phallus shaped object coated with traces of ocre (see Fundsache Homo erectus, Archaeology Online 2012) a number of hammerstones were also recovered.
Archaeologists have discovered a panel containing the only known example of spider rock art in Egypt and, it appears, the entire Old World.The rock panel, now in two pieces, was found on the west wall of a shallow sandstone wadi, or valley, in the Kharga Oasis, located in Egypt's western desert about 108 miles (175 kilometers) west of Luxor.
Though plants have no brains, scientists have uncovered evidence that they do release chemicals that allow them to "communicate" with each other and animals. There is even evidence that plants can spread their messages over a vast region.Over at Quanta magazine, Kat McGowan has a fascinating article on the growing field of plant communication studies.
Researchers led by Stephen Wroe, from the University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia, examined the Neanderthal hyoid bone found in 1989. This fossil was very similar to modern human's and scientists said it is "highly suggestive" of complex speech in Neanderthals. The hyoid bone is a horseshoe-shaped structure in the neck that supports the root of the tongue.Mechanical modelling and 3D x-ray imaging of a Neanderthal throat bone performed by a group of international researchers showed that the hyoid bone of the species behaved with the other surrounding bones.
The team operating NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has completed a software upgrade on the vehicle and is next planning a check of wear and tear on the rover's wheels."Curiosity is now operating on version 11 of its flight software," said Jim Erickson of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, project manager for the NASA Mars Science Laboratory Project, which operates Curiosity.This is the third upgrade version since Curiosity's landing on Mars16 months ago. Completing the switch from version 10 took about a week. An earlier switch to version 11 prompted an unintended reboot...
Today (Dec. 21), those living in the Northern Hemisphere celebrate the mark of increasingly longer days, those in the Southern Hemisphere will transition to shorter days, and those at the equator won't notice much of a difference at all.The global discrepancy in seasonal sunlight results from Earth's 23.5-degree tilt on its axis: During the Northern Hemisphere winter, the Earth is tilted directly away from the sun, and during the summer, it is tilted directly toward the sun.
Celebrating Egyptian-German ties in the field of archaeology, Cairo's German Archaeological Institute honours Christiana Köhler, Maged Negm and Hisham El-Leithy...Friday evening, the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo celebrated pioneer German archaeologist Karl Lepsius, one of the founders of the modern scientific discipline of Egyptology. Lepsius led several expeditions to Egypt and the Sudan, studying the Pyramids of Giza, the Valley of the Kings, and other important archaeological sites.
Two statues of Egyptian dignitaries; one a scribe and physician to a Pharaoh from the mid-18th Dynasty and the other a high priest and contemporary of Ramses II, were unearthed in November at the site of Armant in the region of Thebes (Upper Egypt). A fragment of limestone wall from a temple dating to the Middle Kingdom (2000 BC) was also discovered.The finds were made by a team of archaeologists led by Christophe Thiers, Director of the Centre Franco-Egyptian study of Karnak temples and are in an excellent state of preservation.The second statue is of Ramose, the first high priest of Montu Ermant and a contemporary of Ramses II.
Researchers from Murcia and Valencia (Spain) have recreated the palace that belonged to Ambassador Vich, a Gothic-Renaissance jewel that was demolished in the 19th Century. The technique, which uses historical and archaeological data of the building, can be utilised to learn more about other architectural monuments that have been destroyed.The ambassador to the Vatican during the reign of Ferdinand the Catholic and Charles I was Jerónimo Vich y Valterra. The Renaissance styles that this noble discovered in Rome were introduced by him in around 1527...
Scientists have extracted the entire genome of a 130,000-year-old Neanderthal from a single toe bone in a Siberian cave, an accomplishment that far outstrips any previous work on Neanderthal genes.The accuracy of the new genome is of similar quality to what scientists would achieve if they were sequencing the DNA of a living person.
Tomb raiders sadly look nothing like Angelina JolieTwo German students have infuriated Egyptian authorities by vandalising a Pharaoh's tomb. Of course, there is a conspiracy theory involved...WE know they're there: King Thutmose. Rameses VIII. A handful of queens. Now, archaeologists have a good idea where they are.
A small band of particle-seeking scientists at Yale and Harvard has established a new benchmark for the electron's almost perfect roundness, raising doubts about certain theories that predict what lies beyond physics' reigning model of fundamental forces and particles, the Standard Model.Related: Electron 'antenna' tunes in to physics beyond Higgs.
Everything around you is made of elements that scientists have studied in quite some detail over the last 200 years. But all that understanding breaks down when these elements are subjected to high pressure and temperature. Now, using an advanced theoretical understanding and extreme conditions, researchers have converted table salt into exotic chemicals.
What do you need to map a billion stars? A billion-pixel camera certainly helps.Scientists hope to glean more clues about the origin and evolution of the universe, and in particular our own galaxy, after a camera of this incredible scale -- fitted to the Gaia space telescope -- was launched Thursday.
In May 2009 euphoria swept through Spain as FC Barcelona won the UEFA Champions League.Following this event, reports predicted the win would spark a baby boom in Spain and now scientists have confirmed that the number of births in February 2010 did indeed rise, by 16 per cent.Study here: Barcelona baby boom: does sporting success affect birth rate?
The fountain of youth may have been discovered after scientists found they could reverse the aging process in mammals.Harvard researchers managed to turn the clock back for mice by helping their cellular DNA communicate more efficiently.
It may not look anything like Avatar's Pandora or Jedi's Endor, but if verified, it could be the first moon ever discovered outside our solar system. Located 1,800 light years away, it's a large moon orbiting a planet four times the size of Jupiter. But strangely, the duo isn't even remotely close to a star.
Using a computational model of addiction, a literature review and an in silico experiment, theoretical computer scientist Yariv Levy and colleagues suggest in a new paper this week that rehabilitation strategies coupling meditation-like practices with drug and behavior therapies are more helpful than drug-plus-talk therapy alone when helping people overcome addiction.
Spoiler alert: This article contains information suggesting Santa Claus may not be real.Generally, lying to kids is a bad thing. But for many children, believing in Santa is a normal and healthy part of development, psychologists say.
New research has solved a mystery as to why some birds choose not to reproduce, and instead help to guard the nests of their close relatives. This occurs in about nine percent of all bird species.
It's been a big year for the University of Alberta's Phil Currie, even by his standards as one of the world's top dinosaur hunters. He's lead instructor on Dino 101. This summer, he had a museum named after him. Just last month, his discovery of a pristine baby dinosaur fossil made headlines worldwide.
Cranial surgery is tricky business, even under 21st-century conditions (think aseptic environment, specialized surgical instruments and copious amounts of pain medication both during and afterward).
The British Museum's 2013 show of artefacts from the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, buried in ash during an explosive eruption of Mount Vesuvius, was a sell-out. But could even greater treasures - including lost works of classical literature - still lie underground?
The story of Santa and his flying reindeer can be traced to an unlikely source: hallucinogenic or "magic" mushrooms, according to one theory."Santa is a modern counterpart of a shaman, who consumed mind-altering plants and fungi to commune with the spirit world," said John Rush, an anthropologist and instructor at Sierra College in Rocklin, Calif.
As I'm reflecting on the making of my Rick Steves' European Christmas television special, CD, and companion book, I wanted to share this book excerpt, which outlines how much of our contemporary notion of celebrating Christmas actually has prehistoric and pagan roots.
A 900-year-old medieval crypt, containing seven naturally mummified bodies and walls covered with inscriptions, has been excavated in a monastery at Old Dongola, the capital of a lost medieval kingdom that flourished in the Nile Valley.Old Dongola is located in modern-day Sudan, and 900 years ago, it was the capital of Makuria, a Christian kingdom that lived in peace with its Islamic neighbor to the north.
Although tiny, this Neanderthal toe bone from a female who lived 50,000 years ago has yielded the most complete sequence of the Neanderthal genome. The analysis, published this week in Nature, reveals two interesting facts.
It's a busy time in our attempts to study our species' pre-modern history. Just two weeks ago, researchers reported the sequence of the oldest bones to yield human DNA. Now, the same research group is back with an entire genome, obtained from a bone found in Siberia's Denisova cave.
A hunk of rock found in a private collection is a rare meteorite, researchers have announced.The brown-black rock, which is small enough to fit in the palm of a hand, plummeted to Earth with a flash of light and a hissing sound on Oct. 27, 1873. It landed in a field near the Dutch village of Diepenveen.
Europe on Thursday will place a billion-dollar bet on a space telescope designed to provide the biggest and most detailed 3-D map of the Milky Way.If all goes well, a Soyuz-STB-Fregat rocket will lift off from Kourou, French Guiana, hoisting the observatory Gaia on a five-year exploration that may sweep away notions of our place in the galaxy.
Astronomers, including Carnegie's Yuri Beletsky, took precise measurements of the closest pair of failed stars to the Sun, which suggest that the system harbors a third, planetary-mass object.The research is published as a letter to the editor in Astronomy & Astrophysics available online.
Some of the youngest lava flows on the Moon are within reach of China's Jade Rabbit rover, says a leading US lunar scientist.The Chang'e-3 mission touched down on Saturday at the eastern edge of its designated landing box.
A global ice age that lasted more than 50 million years may have been triggered by volcanic rocks trapping carbon dioxide that would otherwise warm the planet, researchers say in a new study detailed in the Dec. 16 journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.Although ice is now found mostly in Earth's polar regions, analysis of ancient rocks suggests it could at times cover the entire globe. The causes of these "snowball Earth" periods remain mysterious, with the cause of one episode 2.3 billion years ago perhaps being the widespread emergence of oxygen in the atmosphere, which destroyed greenhouse gases keeping Earth warm.
People living around fracking sites should now practice extra caution as the chemicals involved in the process can cause hormone imbalance, according to a University of Missouri study. Past studies on the process of hydraulic fracturing have been linked to infertility, cancer and birth defects.
In 2008, Rob Knight fell ill while vacationing in Peru. Camping along the Inca Trail, he found himself with the usual traveler's symptoms, scrambling for the latrine in the middle of the night. He took antibiotics for five days and got better but then relapsed. A second five-day course of the drugs finally knocked out the infection.
Idaho farmer Robert Blair isn't waiting around for federal aviation officials to work out rules for drones. He and a friend built their own, outfitting it with cameras and using it to monitor his 1,500 acres (600 hectares).Under 10 pounds (4.5 kilograms) and 5 feet (1.5 meters) long nose to tail, the aircraft is the size of a turkey. Blair uses it to get a birds-eye view of his cows and fields of wheat, peas, barley and alfalfa.
DNA analysis of early human remains from a Siberian cave has revealed the existence of a mystery human species.A team of researchers speculates that this could have been Homo erectus, which lived in Europe and Asia a million years ago or more.
The head of UNESCO sounded an alarm about widespread illegal archaeological excavations across war-ravaged Syria on Friday, saying the U.N. cultural, education and science arm has warned auction houses, museums and collections about the problem.More than 100,000 people have died in Syria's 2 1/2-year civil war, which has forced millions to flee their homes and created a massive humanitarian crisis.In addition to the loss of life and destruction of property, UNESCO says Syria's cultural heritage - and reporters trying to the cover the war - are increasingly under threat.
The recent storms that hit the Scottish coastline could reveal important new archaeological sites, according to Fife scientists.St Andrews University archaeologists are appealing to the public to help find sites that have been uncovered by the storms. They also hoping people contact them to record local sites that have been damaged by the recent bad weather.Scotland has been badly damaged by wind and rain over the last two weeks.
Inspired by natural biological "motors" made of protein, researchers at Purdue University have developed a DNA-based molecule that can "walk" across the surface of nanotubes, potentially carrying nanomeds with them for the purpose of drug delivery.In living cells, protein-based motors transport cargo by inching along tubes within the cell, according to the team's abstract in the journal Nature Nanotechnology. By changing its shape and binding to consecutive parts of the tube's surface, these natural molecules are able to travel as far as a micrometer (1,000 nanometers)...
SAN JOSE -- The future of astronomical research at the iconic Lick Observatory is in peril, as the University of California threatens to cut funding and perhaps even convert most of its once-cutting-edge Mount Hamilton telescopes into museum relics.Now, alongside the search for new celestial frontiers, scientists must hunt for a new source of outside funding to keep the 125-year-old observatory from going dark."It's heartbreaking. We're collapsing like a house of cards," said Steve Vogt, who leads a team of planet-hunting astronomers at UC-Santa Cruz.
Three Cornell University researchers have hit another 3D-printing milestone by creating a working loudspeaker that's ready to use almost as soon as the printer stops.Most products larger than a teacup must be printed in pieces, and then assembled by hand before they can be used. But Hod Lipson, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, took a new approach. Alongside graduate students Apoorva Kiran and Robert MacCurdy, the team is paving the way for on-demand, fully functioning products that can be fabricated in one go...
Patients in a vegetative state are awake, breathe on their own, and seem to go in and out of sleep. But they do not respond to what is happening around them and exhibit no signs of conscious awareness. With communication impossible, friends and family are left wondering if the patients even know they are there.
Scientists have found organics from Earth's swamp trapped inside of glass created by a meteor impact almost a million years ago. The tiny pockets, only micrometers across, contain material such as cellulose and proteins. Though the impact glass was found on Earth, scientists say that similar samples could have been thrown into space by this or other blasts, allowing organics to be transported from one planet to another.
The discovery of an ancient bone at a burial site in Kenya puts the origin of human hand dexterity more than half a million years earlier than previously thought.Related: Discovery of 1.4 million-year-old fossil closes human evolution gap
The ancestor of snakes and lizards likely gave birth to live young, rather than laid eggs, and over time species have switched back and forth in their preferred reproductive mode, according to research published in print in Ecology Letters Dec. 17.
The first real attempt to see chimps legally recognized as persons may have failed, but it's an historic case that undoubtedly represents the first of many to come. It'll only be a matter of time before chimps and other animals are no longer seen as mere property, but rather as subjects worthy of legal protections. Here's what we can expect once that happens.
Zebras' bold stripes protect the animals by masking their movements, according to a study.The conspicuous colours do not blend in to the background and scientists have theorised they developed to dazzle predators.Using computer models, researchers confirmed the markings create optical illusions when the animals move.
Crows are among the planet's most intelligent animals, teaching their young to use tools for foraging and banding together to fight off intruders. Now, the first study of how abstract reasoning works in these birds' brains could shed light on how intelligence works in a truly alien, non-mammal brain.
Mother's milk may be the first food, but it is not created equal. In humans and other mammals, researchers have found that milk composition changes depending on the infant's gender and on whether conditions are good or bad. Understanding those differences can give scientists insights into human evolution.
Vitamin supplements contain no health benefits; they are a complete waste of money and could be harmful to the body, according to a study by the University of Warwick and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore.Researchers said that the companies are promoting worries among people about basic mineral deficiencies in the body due to bad lifestyle and diet choices.
Arctic sea ice last month was around 50 percent higher in volume compared with a year earlier, following a recovery in area this summer, the European Space Agency (ESA) said Monday.This is some good news for the Arctic, but does not reverse a longer trend of decline, it said.
The natural increase in solar luminosity-a very slow process unrelated to current climate warming-will cause the Earth's temperatures to rise over the next few hundred million years. This will result in the complete evaporation of the oceans.
The moon, long thought to be bone dry, actually contains a surprising amount of water. In the latest twist, these stores turn out to be just like those on Earth, and probably filled by the same source: ancient asteroids.
The magma chamber of the supervolcano below Yellowstone National Park in America is around two and half times bigger than previously thought, a team of researchers has claimed.A team of seismologists from the University of Utah presented their findings at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in San Francisco on Monday.
Archaeologists have just completed the most detailed study ever carried out of the life story of a prehistoric Briton.What they have discovered sheds remarkable new light on the people who, some 5500 years ago, were building the great ritual monuments of what would become the sacred landscape of Stonehenge.
A Newport engineer says his discovery about how the Egyptian pyramids were built threatens to shake up the world of archaeology. Peter James revealed to Sarah Dickins how he thinks the accepted theories about pyramid building are wrong.
Five-thousand three hundred years ago cats were living alongside farmers in the ancient Chinese village of Quanhucun. The evidence for this study is derived from research in China led by Yaowu Hu and colleagues at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Hu and his team analysed eight bones from at least two cats excavated from the site.
Despite the fact that chimpanzees and bonobos share similar starting conditions at birth, they develop different behavioral patterns later in life. These differences might be caused by different hormone levels. Researchers of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and the Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp in Belgium have analyzed thyroid hormones from urine samples of zoo-living chimpanzees and bonobos.
Ever noticed how a youngest child is often babied? Well, don't blame the parents, they could be under the "baby illusion", where the youngest child is perceived as shorter than they really are.Jordy Kaufman and colleagues from Swinburne University in Melbourne, Australia, asked 77 mothers to mark on a wall how tall their children were. The mums underestimated the height of their youngest child by 7.5 centimetres on average, but were almost spot on for the height of any older children.
Senescent cells, which are metabolically active but no longer capable of dividing, contribute to aging, and senescence is a key mechanism for preventing the spread of cancer cells. A study in The Journal of Cell Biology identifies a common, early marker of senescent cells that could have important implications for tumor suppression and aging-related diseases like Progeria.
In a 21st century world we are increasingly surrounded by Wi-Fi, yet there is no clear scientific consensus about its effects on our bodies.However, a new experiment has shown these invisible signals - generated from mobile phones and laptops - could be causing serious damage to plants.
One of the intriguing threads in the never-ending Roswell affair of July 1947 is that which posits a link between the craft and bodies that came down on the Foster Ranch, Lincoln County, New Mexico and the activities of the Japanese military.
The peel: future compost that gets between you and your fruit. But one scientist is set on transforming this annoyance into a valuable resource. Ramakrishna Mallampati, a research associate at the National University of Singapore, combined rubbing alcohol with some tomato and apple peels and came up with a new way to purify water.
M. Sanjayan remembers debating grad school biology classmates about the fate of the California condor back in the 1990s, when the bird was on the brink of extinction.Should the condor, which had almost been wiped out by habitat loss, hunting, and eating carcasses that were poisoned by lead bullets, be left to die in the wild?.
Noah's Ark is often depicted as a pointy-prowed traditional ship. But new research suggests it was very different from popular imagining, and was actually a circular craft made out of reeds.Dr Irving Finkel reveals his ground-breaking discovery into the ancient myth in his new book called In The Ark Before Noah: Decoding The Story Of The Flood.
Polynesian islanders spoke the language of computers centuries before the first programmer was born. It seems that inhabitants of Mangareva island in French Polynesia created their own particular hybrid of decimal and binary number systems to do mental arithmetic.The binary system can represent any number using a string of 1s and 0s. Though it is used by computers today, it was first described by the 17th century mathematician Gottfried Leibniz.
A Neanderthal skeleton first unearthed in a cave in southwestern France over a century ago was intentionally buried, according to a new 13-year reanalysis of the site.Confirming that careful burials existed among early humans at least 50,000 years ago, the companions of the Neanderthal took great care to dig him a grave and protect his body from scavengers, report the study authors in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Antiquities Minister Mohamed Ibrahim formed a committee of experts to investigate illegal excavations inside the Great Pyramid, also known as the Pyramid of Cheops, after discovering that parts of the cartouche of King Khufu had been stolen.Sources told Al-Masry Al-Youm that the committee was formed last Thursday, headed by Dr. Yusuf Khalifa and two others, to inspect the stones that had been damaged inside the pyramid and to uncover the motivation behind these secret excavations. The committee is expected to start its mission this week.
Would you believe that a broad range of human struggles can be understood by using a mathematical formula? From child-parent struggles to cyber-attacks and civil unrest, they can all be explained with a simple mathematical expression called a "power-law."
South Pole Telescope scientists have detected for the first time a subtle distortion in the oldest light in the universe, which may help reveal secrets about the earliest moments in the universe's formation.
Living to the ripe old age of 500 might be a possibility if the science shown to extend worms' lives can be applied to humans, scientists have said.U.S. researchers tweaked two genetic pathways in the tiny lab worm Caenorhabditis elegans and boosted the creature's lifespan by a factor of five.
Walking past Shamees Aden's exhibit, the object on display looks like a spare bit of rubber that washed up on the beach after a shipping accident. If you turn your head the right way, it almost looks like an insole or maybe a water shoe. The mind-blowing reality is that it's a self-healing shoe printed to fit your foot from the building blocks of life itself.
New research at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim could have an effect on how math is taught.If you want to be really good at all types of math, you need to practice them all. You can't trust your innate natural talent to do most of the job for you.
In the first study of its kind, two researchers have used popular music to help severely brain-injured patients recall personal memories. Amee Baird and Séverine Samson outline the results and conclusions of their pioneering research in the recent issue of the journal Neuropsychological Rehabilitation.
Oklahoma has never been known as earthquake country, with a yearly average of about 50 tremors, almost all of them minor. But in the past three years, the state has had thousands of quakes. This year has been the most active, with more than 2,600 so far, including 87 last week.
China's moon rover will survey for minerals on a dusty, barren crater named the Bay of Rainbows, but experts say there may be no pot of gold on the Earth's natural satellite.The potential to extract the moon's resources has been touted as a key reason behind China's space programme, which made its latest breakthrough on Saturday with the landing of its first lunar rover.
Iran says it has successfully sent a monkey into space for the second time this year as part of a programme aimed at manned space flight.President Hassan Rouhani said the monkey - named Fargam, or Auspicious - returned from space in perfect health.
Over half a century ago, deep in the jungles of Guatemala, a gigantic stone head was uncovered. The face had fine features, thin lips and large nose and its face was directed up at the sky. Unusually, the face demonstrated Caucasian features which were not consistent with any of the pre-Hispanic races of America. The discovery rapidly attracted attention, but just as quickly it slipped away into the pages of forgotten history.
The long-simmering debate over whether organically grown food packs more nutritional punch than conventional has a new data point. In a new study published in the peer-reviewed PLOS-One, a research team led by Washington State University's Charles Benbrook found that organic milk delivers significantly healthier fats than its non-organic counterpart.
For many years, humans have believed we are the most intelligent beings on the planet. However, evolutionary biologists are now claiming that some members of the animal kingdom may in fact have superior brains - we just don't recognise their intelligence.
Scientists have discovered a second code hiding within DNA. This second code contains information that changes how scientists read the instructions contained in DNA and interpret mutations to make sense of health and disease.Related: Scientists discover second, secret DNA code
A network of GPS receivers, some outfitted with $8 accelerometers, is part of a prototype system being tested in Southern California to monitor for earthquakes and other natural hazards.The technology is not new. Receivers that pick up signals from the constellation of Global Positioning System satellites circling Earth and calculate timing and distance have reshaped dozens of industries including farming, construction, mining and package delivery, in addition to providing air, sea, and land navigation data.
If you are visiting this page the chances are that you are not a human, at least according to research.A study by Incapsula suggests 61.5% of all website traffic is now generated by bots. The security firm said that was a 21% rise on last year's figure of 51%.
A variant of a fungus that rots and kills the main variety of export banana has been found in plantations in Mozambique and Jordan, raising fears that it could spread to major producers and decimate supplies. The pathogen, which was until now limited to parts of Asia and a region of Australia, has a particularly devastating effect on the popular Cavendish cultivar, which accounts for almost all of the multibillion-dollar banana export trade. Expansion of the disease worldwide could be disastrous, say researchers.
An abandoned mine in California is providing scientists with important data that could lead to a possible new weapon to fight global warming.Massive amounts of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide vacuumed from smokestacks or the air could be permanently locked up in a type of tight, magnesium-rich rock found in the mine, according to scientists. One tricky part is to break up the rock to make room for the greenhouse gas. And that may require violence.
Jupiter's moon Europa is covered in a thick layer of ice, but it has a turbulent ocean that lies beneath. Today astronomers announced that new observations show this water is erupting in massive plumes like water volcanoes. It's a discovery that could have serious implications for Europa's potential to harbor life.
China says it has successfully landed a craft carrying a robotic rover on the surface of the Moon, a major step in its programme of space exploration.On Saturday afternoon (GMT), a landing module underwent a powered descent, using thrusters to perform the first soft landing on the Moon in 37 years.
It's official: Reptiles can use tools to help them hunt.New research shows that alligators and crocodiles can use small sticks to attract birds looking for nesting materials. If the birds get too close, they become a meal. The behavior has so far been observed among American alligators in Louisiana, as well as mugger crocodiles (also known as marsh crocodiles) in India.