News Desk

Exclusive: astronomers surprised at size of 13bn-year-old object, which raises new questions about where black holes came from.

To understand the true otherness of Neanderthals, researchers must rethink the meaning they give to their archaeological finds, argues a new book —The Naked Neanderthal

About 2.1 million years ago, the first humans—Homo erectus—migrated from Africa…For a long time, researchers have speculated on how Homo erectus could cross the dry and merciless desert, where there was neither food, water, nor shade. New research from Aarhus University now suggests that Homo erectus may not have walked through the desert when they left Africa…

Hunter-gatherers in southernmost South America integrated horses with Spanish pedigrees into their societies around 400 years ago, long before Europeans occupied that region, a new study suggests.

In some parts of the brain, the team saw a reduction in dopamine neurons in the brains of the mice; in other regions, there was an increase in these neurons. If we’re to continue to use ketamine as a treatment, these effects need to be better understood. The research has been published in Cell Reports.

A new study published… in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews presents an unprecedentedly extensive set of archaeological and environmental data revealing connectivities between climate changes, population dynamics and cultural changes in present-day Northern Germany and Scandinavia during the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age.

Five axes found in Poland date to 3,500 years ago, and may have been used as either tools to chop wood or for sacrificial purposes.

One of the biggest and brightest stars in the night sky will momentarily vanish as an asteroid passes in front of it to produce a one-of-a-kind eclipse. The rare and fleeting spectacle, late on Monday into early Tuesday, should be visible to millions of people…

A groundbreaking archaeological discovery… has uncovered fortified prehistoric settlements in a remote region of Siberia. The results of their research reveal that hunter–gatherers in Siberia constructed complex defense structures around their settlements 8,000 years ago. See the study here.

The Tiwanaku civilisation, which precedes the Inca civilisation and has a lifespan of 25 centuries, is known as the ‘mother culture’ of South America. The civilisation mysteriously vanished without a trace. There are numerous theories, but recent findings have shed light on the truth of what may have happened and the significance of this cultural mystery.

Image from Wiki Commons.

Hunting the now extinct straight-tusked elephant (Palaeoloxodon antiquus) was widespread among Neanderthals, concludes a research team… The study has recently been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

An early trial hints that psilocybin could be a safe and effective treatment for depressive episodes in bipolar II disorder and should be studied further. That’s according to a small clinical trial whose results were published Wednesday (Dec. 6) in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.

New research published in Nature Communications suggests that the first cell-like structures on Earth contained radiation-resistant manganese antioxidants, protecting the first cells to evolve.

Similar patterns develop on the surface of Earth’s polar regions when icy sediments cool and contract. A comparable process long ago may have created the shapes on Mars, found near the planet’s dry equator, researchers reported recently in Nature Astronomy.

A team of archaeologists, geologists and historians affiliated with several institutions in Spain has found that the Menga dolmen represents one of the greatest engineering feats of the Neolithic. Their study was published in Scientific Reports.