Newsdesk Archive
Despite decades of study, this Ice Age mystery remains unsolved. Researchers simply don't have sufficient evidence at this point to rule out one scenario or the other—or indeed other explanations that have been proposed (e.g. disease, an impact event from a comet, or a combination of factors)... A new work published in Frontiers in Mammal Science set out to address this information deficit.
A new study from Tel Aviv University identified the earliest appearance worldwide of special stone tools, used 400,000 years ago to process fallow deer. The paper was published in Archaeologies.
The rich human occupation of Mediterranean island Cyprus has been pushed back thousands of years by new research led by Cypriot and Australian archaeologists. A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA shows the first human occupation on Cyprus between 14,257 and 13,182 years ago.
A new study of stick insects suggests that evolution may sometimes repeat itself in a predictable manner, which could help our understanding of how organisms may change in response to selection pressures. The study has been published in Science Advances.
French archaeologists have uncovered nine large graves containing the remains of horses from up to 2,000 years ago, in a find described as “extraordinary”.
The ancient Egyptians were remarkably sophisticated and advanced in the field of medicine – so noted for their skills and knowledge that we're still learning from them thousands of years later. The findings have been published in Frontiers in Medicine.
In the face of a deepening mental health crisis, more police officers and public servants are turning to psychedelics for relief and healing from work-related trauma.
At some point hundreds of millions of years ago, dinosaur scales evolved into feathers. New research published in Nature Communications might help explain how and when that transition occurred.
Mars' moon Phobos may actually be a comet — or at least part of one — that was gravitationally captured by the Red Planet long ago, a new preprint study based on previously unpublished photos suggests.
Neanderthal children (who lived between 400,000 and 40,000 years ago) and modern human children living during the Upper Paleolithic era (between 50,000 and 12,000 years ago) may have faced similar levels of childhood stress but at different developmental stages, according to a study published in Scientific Reports. The authors suggest that these findings could reflect differences in childcare and other behavioral strategies between the two species.
Six of the planets of the Solar System are about to line up for a rare sight in Earth's sky. In the wee small hours of 3 and 4 June 2024, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus will appear in a straight line in an alignment known as a planet parade. Only Venus will be absent – even Earth's waning crescent moon is going to put in an appearance.
A 7,000-year-old Neolithic settlement in modern-day Greece has, for the first time, been accurately dated down to the precise years it was built. The findings could provide a reference point in time to help date other archaeological sites in southeastern Europe. Their research is published in the journal Nature Communications.
Thousands of years ago, early hunter-gatherers returned regularly to Tagua Tagua Lake in Chile to hunt ancient elephants and take advantage of other local resources, according to a study published May 22 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Rafael Labarca of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and colleagues.
These traces of ancient viruses are the oldest remnants of human viruses ever discovered, New Scientist reported. They are around 20,000 years older than the previous record-holder for the most ancient human virus ever found: a common-cold virus uncovered inside a pair of 31,000-year-old baby teeth in Siberia.
Most people alive today carry traces of genes inherited from Neanderthals—the enduring legacy of prehistoric hookups with our extinct cousins. But researchers have long debated when and where that mingling happened and whether these were one-off romps or commonplace trysts. Now, an analysis of ancient and modern genomes suggests contemporary people’s Neanderthal DNA came from a single, prolonged period of mixing some 47,000 years ago.
The discovery of thousands of stone artifacts and animal bones in a deep cave in Timor Island has led archaeologists to reassess the route that early humans took to reach Australia. See the study here.
According to a study published in Current Biology on May 22, the genetic components of the ancient populations in the western Tibetan Plateau are closest to ancient populations in the southern Tibetan Plateau, and their major genetic components have been maintained over the past 3,500 years.
If you search "shrimp Jesus" on Facebook, you might encounter dozens of images of artificial intelligence (AI) generated crustaceans meshed in various forms with a stereotypical image of Jesus Christ. Some of these hyper-realistic images have garnered more than 20,000 likes and comments. So what exactly is going on here?
For nearly a century, scientists have known that the universe is expanding. But in recent decades, physicists have found that different types of measurements of the expansion rate — called the Hubble parameter — produce puzzling inconsistencies. To resolve this paradox, a new study suggests incorporating quantum effects into one prominent theory used to determine the expansion rate.
The findings contribute to the growing body of research around Traditional Ecological Knowledge and practices, demonstrating the care and specificity with which Indigenous groups have been stewarding and cultivating natural resources for millennia. The work is published in The Holocene journal.
Recent research published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry has provided new insights into the potential therapeutic effects of psilocybin, a psychedelic compound, on cognitive flexibility and weight maintenance in a rat model of anorexia.
Neanderthals and humans mated millennia ago, and their legacy lives on in us today. Here's how.
Slowly but surely, the ground is regurgitating its secrets. The history that lies buried beneath the swirling sands of time yields, piece by piece, to technology. But one such piece, in a well-explored region, has archaeologists a little baffled. The team's findings have been published in Archaeological Prospection.
The iconic, "upside-down" baobab tree first emerged on the island of Madagascar, new research into its tangled evolutionary history reveals. It's still not clear, however, how it jumped from Madagascar to Australia. See the new study, which was published Wednesday (May 15) in the journal Nature.
Scientists have discovered a long-buried branch of the Nile river that once flowed alongside more than 30 pyramids in Egypt, potentially solving the mystery of how ancient Egyptians transported the massive stone blocks to build the famous monuments...according to a study revealing the find on Thursday.
Scientists have discovered that individuals who are particularly good at learning patterns and sequences tend to struggle more with tasks requiring active thinking and decision-making. See the new research, published in npj Science of Learning.
The first dinosaurs to have a warm-blooded metabolism might have emerged 180 million years ago during the early Jurassic period, according to a new study. New research published in the journal Current Biology might have answered that question.
A nearly 130,000-year-old bear bone was deliberately marked with cuts and might be one of the oldest art pieces in Eurasia crafted by the Neanderthals, researchers say. In the new study, the researchers examined the bone with a 3D microscope and computed tomography (CT) scans, which enabled them to make a digital model of the bone.
Researchers at the Salk Institute discovered that not only does CBN protect brain cells from age-related damage, but its chemically modified versions could be even more effective. These findings, detailed in the journal Redox Biology, suggest a new frontier in the treatment of traumatic brain injuries and other neurodegenerative diseases.
MIT researchers, including several undergraduate students, have discovered three of the oldest stars in the universe, and they happen to live in our own galactic neighborhood. They have published their findings (May 14) in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
For many decades, archaeologists were convinced that the first people to arrive in the Americas came some 13,000 years ago, after the Ice Age glaciers melted. The White Sands footprints, whose age scholars estimated again, in a paper published this past October, by analyzing tree pollen and quartz grains in the sedimentary layers, provide the most conclusive evidence to date that humans were actually here much earlier, toward the end of the last ice age. It’s possible that they reached North America more than 32,000 years ago.
An enigmatic L-shaped structure found underground near the pyramids at Giza may be an entrance to a mysterious deeper feature below it. The team found an anomaly roughly 6.5 feet (2 meters) beneath the surface. It appears to be an L-shaped structure measuring at least 33 feet (10 m) in length, the team wrote in their paper, published May 5 in the journal Archaeological Prospection.
New research suggests it might be more correct to call the Stone Age the “Wood Age"... a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that “Stone Age” might be a misnomer. Unlike stone, wood doesn’t age well. Wooden objects perish over thousands of years. Recently, however, thousands of wooden artefacts from the distant human past have been uncovered.
A recent pilot study published in the Journal of Psychedelic Studies has found preliminary evidence that psilocybin, when administered in a group retreat setting, can enhance psychological flexibility. The findings suggest that changes in psychological flexibility may play a crucial role in the therapeutic benefits of psilocybin experiences.
A pair of archaeologists have uncovered a strange series of rock art carvings that show boats and cattle – both vitally in need of water to work properly – in the middle of one of the driest parts of the African desert. The pair have published their findings in The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology.
The old saying may be true: What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. At least that's the case for human civilizations across 30,000 years of history, according to a new analysis published May 1 in the journal Nature.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency announced in late April 2024 that it plans to ease federal restrictions on cannabis, reclassifying it from a Schedule I drug to the less restricted Schedule III, which includes drugs such as Tylenol with codeine, testosterone and other anabolic steroids.
After one final dig, world heritage site Ness of Brodgar is to be covered up to protect it for future generations
In the new study, published April 30 in the journal Nature Communications, scientists analyzed the genomes of 54 highlanders from Mount Wilhelm who lived between 7,500 and 8,900 feet (2,300 and 2,700 meters) above sea level, and 74 lowlanders from Daru Island, who lived less than 330 feet (100 m) above sea level.
A colossal structure in the distant Universe is defying our understanding of how the Universe evolved. In light that has traveled for 6.9 billion years to reach us, astronomers have found a giant, almost perfect ring of galaxies, some 1.3 billion light-years in diameter. It doesn't match any known structure or formation mechanism.
A study published in the journal BioMed Central has shown how the psychedelic N, N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) could be used as a medicine to prevent the onset of the neurodegenerative condition Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
Image from: US National Institute on Aging (Wiki Commons)
The Church of Eagle and Condor becomes the third organization in the United States to obtain religious exemption from the Controlled Substances Act to legally use ayahuasca.
A recent analysis of a sperm whale's vocalizations suggests variations in 'clicks' represent a kind of alphabet that forms the basis of a complex communication system. This research was published in Nature Communications.
Researchers this week claimed to have found the final resting place of the Greek philosopher, a patch in the garden of his Athens Academy, after scanning an ancient papyrus scroll recovered from the library of a Herculaneum villa that was buried when Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD79.
A team of palaeo-archaeologists is featured in a new documentary in which the experts have reconstructed the face of a Neanderthal woman who lived 75,000 years ago...The cave is possibly a Neanderthal burial site.
Researchers have observed a male orangutan treat a wound on his face with a plant that’s also used in human medicine. It’s the first time any wild animal has been seen caring for a wound using a natural substance with known medicinal properties, researchers report May 2 in Scientific Reports.
Is Stonehenge aligned with the moon? Scientists hope to find out during a rare 'major lunar standstill, which happens once every 18.6 years.
In a series of lab experiments, bumblebees (Bombus sp.) that trained together on tasks to retrieve a sugary reward were more likely to wait for their partner before returning to the task than bees that trained alone.
For the first time in nearly a century, physicists have identified a brand new type of magnetic material. Physicists have reported a new class of magnetic materials called altermagnets, which could lead to new technologies such as faster, more efficient computer hard drives.
Around 6,200 BCE, the climate changed. Previously, archaeologists believed that this abrupt shift in global climate, called the 8.2ka event, may have led to the widespread abandonment of coastal settlements in the southern Levant. In a recent study published in the journal Antiquity, researchers...share new evidence suggesting at least one village formerly thought abandoned not only remained occupied, but thrived throughout this period.
A team of Brown University researchers are launching a study to test the combined use of the drug MDMA and talk therapy as a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and alcohol use disorder in military veterans. The study is the first at Brown on MDMA-assisted therapy and the first anywhere to test the treatment’s effectiveness for dual disorders.
Image from Photo the U.S. Marine Corps, Wiki Commons
A new study published in the Journal of Psychedelic Studies raises important concerns. It suggests that while there may be benefits, there are also significant risks. The study focuses on the negative effects reported by therapists who facilitate such treatments, highlighting that the impacts of psilocybin are not universally beneficial and can vary widely from one individual to another.
Archaeologists have uncovered the oldest evidence of ceremonial offerings on sportsgrounds by the ancient Maya in Mexico. Environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis shows that the courts built by the Mayans for their ballgames were blessed. In research published in PLOS ONE, the researchers identified a collection of plants used in ceremonial rituals.
The teeth and bones of pre-agricultural human hunter-gatherers who lived some 15,000 years ago in what is now Morocco reveal that their diet – long thought to have been significantly loaded with animal protein – was actually weighted much further in the direction of plant-based food. It seems plants may have even been used to wean infants, the study found.
The great planetary instability, which saw Jupiter and the other gas giants wander chaotically through the solar system, coincides with the collision that formed Earth's moon. Could the two events be linked?
Stoners are not as lazy and unmotivated as stereotypes suggest, according to new U of T Scarborough research. The study, published by the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, surveyed chronic cannabis users to see what effect getting high has on their everyday lives.
The hunt for the elusive Planet Nine goes on, and new research claims to have the "strongest statistical evidence yet" that there is such a planet orbiting somewhere around the far edges of the Solar System.
Archaeologists used lidar to detect a cluster of rare Neolithic monuments hidden in farmland in Ireland. See the study published Thursday (April 25) in the journal Antiquity.
Researchers used AI to decipher an ancient papyrus that includes details about where Greek philosopher is buried.
Recent research published in the journal Drug Science, Policy and Law challenges the common belief that childhood trauma affects the experience of ayahuasca, a plant-based psychedelic. Surprisingly, the study finds no connection between prior childhood trauma and the intensity of challenges faced when under the influence of ayahuasca.
Scientists have identified one of the oldest known stars outside the Milky Way. The discovery, reported in March in the journal Nature Astronomy, has uncovered a relic from the early days of the universe in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way — and it's revealing the conditions from a time before the sun even existed.
A new study, led by the University of Oxford and MIT, has recovered a 3.7-billion-year-old record of Earth's magnetic field and found that it appears remarkably similar to the field surrounding Earth today. The findings have been published in the Journal of Geophysical Research. Without its magnetic field, life on Earth would not be possible...
In the darkest corners of the planet, where the light of the Sun never touches, eerie glows can yet be found, illuminating the shadows. This is bioluminescence, a remarkable ability that has evolved separately at least 94 times throughout the history of life on Earth. See the study here.
A few years ago, a set of 20,000-year-old human footprints in a dry lakebed in New Mexico set scientists reeling. Those fossilized footprints, originally discovered in 2009, called into question what we thought we knew about when people first showed up in North America. Archaeologists thousands of miles away in Alaska felt the scientific impact especially strongly.
A small international team of planetary scientists has found evidence supporting the theory that the near-Earth asteroid Kamo'oalewa is ejecta from the moon. In their paper published in the journal Nature Astronomy, the group describes their data-driven models and what they revealed.
Since the first Earth Day in 1970, the world has experienced profound ecological changes. Wildlife populations have decreased by 69 percent, the result of habitat loss caused by rapid industrialization and changing temperatures. 2023 was the hottest year on record.
Legislative restrictions have made it difficult to obtain government funding for psychedelic research, but now corporations are stepping up to fund clinical trials. Although this support may help accelerate researchers’ understanding of psychedelics, it also sparks concern as a conflict of interest.
The period in which humans arrived in South America, in particular, north-western Patagonia, has been the subject of an ongoing debate by academics for many years. Previous archaeological evidence and palaeogenetic studies have suggested human presence between 16 600 and 15 100 cal BP. However, a new study published in the journal Antiquity is providing new evidence of pre-Holocene human activity during the late Pleistocene–early Holocene transition
From house plants and gardens to fields and forests, green is the color we most associate with surface life on Earth...But an Earth-like planet orbiting another star might look very different, potentially covered by bacteria that receive little or no visible light or oxygen...Instead of green, many such bacteria on Earth contain purple pigments...Cornell scientists report in new research.
Bees play by rolling wooden balls — apparently for fun. The cleaner wrasse fish appears to recognize its own visage in an underwater mirror. Octopuses seem to react to anesthetic drugs and will avoid settings where they likely experienced past pain. Nearly 40 researchers signed “The New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness,” which marks a pivotal moment, as a flood of research on animal cognition collides with debates over how various species ought to be treated.
Fossil vertebrae unearthed in a mine in western India are the remains of one of the largest snakes that ever lived, a monster estimated at up to 15 metres in length – longer than a T rex. See the study here.
A major archaeological investigation has, for the first time, excavated a lava tube in Saudi Arabia that was inhabited by humans up to 10,000 years ago.
When it comes to its connection to the sky, Stonehenge is best known for its solar alignments...But a hypothesis has been around for 60 years that part of Stonehenge also aligns with moonrise and moonset at what is called a major lunar standstill...
New research published in Nature Ecology & Evolution examines the rate at which new species of hominin emerged over 5 million years. This speciation in our lineage, they found, is unlike almost anything else.
Ceres, the largest asteroid in our solar system, harbors a dark secret: extremely young ice deposits in permanently shadowed craters near its poles. If that sounds vaguely familiar, it's because our moon and planet Mercury also have such polar ice deposits, which have been studied for decades. See the study here.
The phenomenon of “cancel culture” has become a prominent feature of online discourse, where individuals or brands are publicly called out and boycotted for perceived transgressions. A recent study published in the journal Acta Psychologica explored the psychological underpinnings of why some people are more inclined to engage in canceling behaviors than others
Astronomers have discovered an enormous black hole which formed in the aftermath of an exploding star a mere 2,000 light years from Earth. BH3 is the most massive stellar black hole yet found in the Milky Way and revealed itself to researchers through the powerful tug it exerts on a companion star that orbits the object in the constellation of Aquila, the Eagle.
For millions of years, giant animals or megafauna roamed the lands that are now Australia and New Guinea. Many were like much larger versions of modern animals. There was a four-metre goanna called Megalania (Varanus priscus), for example, which likely ambushed its prey. This beast disappeared by around 40,000 years ago along with almost all the other megafauna aside from remnants such as the red kangaroo and the saltwater crocodile.
In a new study published April 3 in the journal Science Advances, a team of researchers led by three members of the Blackfoot Confederacy investigated the genetic history of their tribes, and results suggest that they share a lineage with people from the last ice age.
Modern Eurasian sheep predominantly belong to only two so-called genetic matrilineages inherited through the ewes, so previous research has assumed that genetic diversity must already have decreased rapidly in the early stages of domestication of wild sheep. A study of a series of complete mitogenomes from the early domestication site As?kl? Höyük in central Anatolia, which was inhabited between 10,300 and 9,300 years ago, disproves this assumption.
The rising and setting of the sun at Stonehenge, especially during the summer and winter solstices, continues to evoke joy, fascination and religious devotion. Now a project has been launched to delve into the lesser understood links that may exist between the monument and the moon during a rare lunar event.
Researchers don't yet know the exact set of circumstances that drove Europe's hunter-gatherers to disappear, but their decline broadly coincided with the spread of farming in the region. Neolithic farmers arrived in Europe around 8,000 years ago and ultimately replaced hunter-gatherers after a period of sharing the continent with them.
In new research published in Quaternary Science Reviews, we report the oldest securely dated ceramics found in Australia from archaeological excavations on Jiigurru (in the Lizard Island group) on the northern Great Barrier Reef located 600km south of Torres Strait. Our analysis shows the pottery was made locally more than 1,800 years ago.
In a recent study, researchers at Imperial College London investigated the complex relationship between psychedelics and mental health, highlighting the potential risks for people with personality disorders.
A study on mice has revealed that ayahuasca acts as a potent analgesic without causing any detectable toxic effects. This analgesic property is partly due to harmine, a significant component of ayahuasca. The findings were published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology.
The founder of a rich data base of Indigenous Australian “message sticks” believes it showcases historic communication techniques of first nations people. You can access the beta version of the database here.
The elongated, cone-shaped skulls of Viking Age women buried on the Baltic island of Gotland may be evidence of trading contacts with the Black Sea region, a new study finds.
Hunter-gatherers in what is now Patagonia, Argentina, kept foxes as pets before the arrival of European dogs about 500 years ago, a new study suggests. In some cases, the ancient people were so closely bonded with their pet foxes that they were even buried with them.
Dozens of broken pieces of pottery dating between 2,000 and 3,000 years old have been unearthed on a windswept island on the Great Barrier Reef – the oldest pottery ever discovered in Australia. The research has been published in Quaternary Science Reviews.
A new study by a University of Portsmouth astrophysicist sheds light on the relationship between the Milky Way and the Egyptian sky-goddess Nut.
Social media buzz and advertising claims have painted the cannabis derivative THC-O-acetate (THC-Oac) as a substance capable of delivering psychedelic experiences akin to LSD or psilocybin mushrooms. However, a recent study led by researchers at the University at Buffalo and published in the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs presents a different narrative, debunking these claims through scientific inquiry.
The moment the sun went behind the moon, the snapping turtles all simultaneously slipped into the waters of Lake Tawakoni. Twilight painted the world. Clouds raced across the sky. Just beside the moon-covered sun sat bright Jupiter, shining in the middle of the day. Most birds and insects had grown hushed or gone completely silent.
Military personnel recently unearthed the remains of a prehistoric campsite on an air base in New Mexico, which early Americans may have occupied 8,200 years ago.
In a study published in the Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, archaeologists from Université de Montréal and the University of Genoa reveal that far from being more primitive, Neanderthals did much the same as their Homo sapiens successors: made themselves at home.
The Moon is a great whackin' oddball in the sky, and scientists may have just figured out part of the reason why. Its surface is chemically asymmetrical, and new evidence suggests that's because the Moon's mantle flipped topsy-turvy upside-down when the Moon was only young. What was on top of Earth's satellite went underneath; what was below came out into the light.
Archaeologists from Newcastle University have unearthed evidence for an evolving sacred landscape spanning centuries in Crowland, Lincolnshire. The study is published in the Journal of Field Archaeology.
Fossils of two strange creatures found in northeastern China show the earliest dental diversification among ancestors of mammals. One of the species, Feredocodon chowi, was found in the Daohugou Formation in Inner Mongolia. The rocks in which they were found date to the Middle Jurassic (174–163 million years ago). Two specimens assigned F. chowi were examined in a paper published in Nature.
Early humans used sophisticated crafting techniques such as "wood splitting" to hunt and to clean animal hides, a new study has revealed.
A recent study has shown that even very low doses of LSD can enhance the complexity of brain activity, a finding that might have significant implications for our understanding of consciousness and possibly for therapeutic applications.
New research into the dying brain suggests the line between life and death may be less distinct than previously thought.