Stay informed about scientific discoveries, research developments and new findings from around the world.
In a shallow cave high on a cliff in Chalcatzingo, Mexico, scientists documented three red glyphs in the 1980s, but the paintings received relatively little attention. Fast forward to the present day, and researchers have returned to the cave to take a closer look at what the ancient painted symbols mean.
In 2001, I had an epiphany while making my first trip to Australia. Walking across a remote sheep station in the dusty west, my ears were suddenly filled with the rich, spirited song of three pied butcherbirds.
The world needs more wind energy. But anyone designing new wind turbines or trying to squeeze more power out of existing ones faces a stiff challenge testing new approaches. That’s because the atmosphere is a tough place for a controlled experiment.Some researchers use wind tunnels to conduct tests, but scaled-down wind turbines in traditional wind tunnels can differ widely from conditions in the field. (Wind turbines are the largest rotating machines ever made.) The problem hampers not only development of better wind turbines, but also our understanding of basic questions like how much power to expect from a turbine when winds change direction.In a new open access paper published in PNAS Ne...
Ancient meteorites reveal a powerful magnetic field that may have helped feed the growing sun.
Physicists at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider on Long Island have seen hints of a phase transition from the early universe
People with diabetes reported better quality of life after days when their glucose stayed largely within a healthy range, even when levels fluctuated more than usual. The unexpected finding suggests that pursuing extremely tight glucose control may sometimes come with a hidden lifestyle burden.
A new study suggests coffee may influence mood and brain function by changing the activity of microbes in the gut. Both caffeinated and decaf coffee were linked to lower stress, depression, and impulsivity, while also producing measurable changes in gut bacteria and metabolites. Decaf was associated with better learning and memory, while caffeinated coffee appeared to reduce anxiety and improve attention.
Avian flu, overfishing, and a super El Niño have decimated Peru’s largest colony of Humboldt penguins. Scientists are holding out hope that their numbers will bounce back.
A new analysis of a decades-old photo is revealing new details about a powerful woman who ruled Egypt 5,000 years ago, a new study finds.The woman, named Meretneith (also spelled Merneith or Meret-Neith), reigned during the first dynasty, a time not long after Egypt was united under a single ruler, according to the new research. The study, published in the September issue of the journal Prague Egyptological Studies, enhanced an old photo of a now lost artifact revealing that Meretneith's name was written in a way reserved for a ruler for Egypt. The finding was more than 70 years in the making. In the 1940s, archaeologist William B. Emery found 13 mud stoppers, or seals that identify an objec...
Spaceflight may dramatically change the gut within weeks, causing bacteria to break down more protein as food moves more slowly through the intestines. The shift could help explain astronaut constipation and may have wider effects on health, making it an important concern for future missions to Mars.
The world’s largest rocket successfully entered orbit for the first time—a milestone for SpaceX and a relief for future NASA moon missions
A beautifully preserved fossil from Mongolia’s Gobi Desert has solved a mystery that puzzled paleontologists for nearly 40 years. Tamirkhan balcarceli shows that zhelestids were not early relatives of modern placental mammals, despite having teeth that seemed to suggest they were. Instead, the rabbit-like animal belonged to a separate lineage of small Cretaceous mammals.
JWST has revealed that young planetary systems lose their planet-building gas through a changing mix of powerful jets, molecular winds, and radiation-driven outflows. As the disks age and their gas disappears, giant planets face a shrinking window to build massive atmospheres.
Millions of Americans are diagnosed with common conditions like cancer and diabetes — but some 10% of the population live with rare diseases that doctors often struggle to diagnose. On average, those with rare diseases will spend five to seven years searching for answers and see 12 specialists before they arrive at a diagnosis.In the process, they may be subject to incorrect, ineffective or even harmful treatments."Any medicine that you prescribe has a one-third chance of working, a one-third chance of doing nothing, and a one-third chance of hurting you," said Dr. Ada Hamosh, a geneticist and the center director for the Johns Hopkins Medicine-Kennedy Krieger Institute National Organization ...
Bones from extinct elephant-like creatures discovered along the shore of Lake Tagua Tagua in central Chile bear human-made cut marks and were found alongside stone tools, revealing that some of the first humans to live there were killing and eating these animals 13,000 years ago, new research shows. Archaeological excavations carried out over the past two years in the basin of the ancient lake revealed a large concentration of megafauna remains and stone tools, according to a Sept. 24 statement from the Catalan Institute for Human Palaeoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES-CERCA). Several bones from gomphotheres, an extinct group of tusked mammals related to modern elephants, displayed clear ...
A compound the body can make after eating pomegranates, walnuts, and some berries improved measures of heart function by up to 80% in animal models of a difficult-to-treat form of heart failure. Urolithin A helped stiff heart tissue relax and reduced scarring and abnormal enlargement. It also improved relaxation in engineered human heart tissue.
The Battersea Shield was pulled out of the River Thames in 1857. (Image credit: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)QUICK FACTSName: Battersea ShieldWhat it is: Bronze facing of a shieldWhere it is from: River Thames, LondonWhen it was made: Between 350 and 50 B.C.This masterpiece of ancient Celtic weaponry was discovered by a laborer who was working on a bridge over the River Thames in 1857. Named the Battersea Shield after the London neighborhood near where it was found, the bronze artifact shows no signs of use, leaving archaeologists wondering how it ended up at the bottom of the river.According to the British Museum, which acquired the shield directly from ...
After transplant, young hearts in both mice and humans showed signs of accelerated aging in older bodies, while older hearts in younger bodies seemed rejuvenated
From the smallest building blocks of life to prehistoric vomit and a newly discovered amoeba that can really take the heat.
Scientists resurrected antimicrobial peptides from mammals that lived millions of years ago and found that some were more potent against drug-resistant bacteria than modern human versions. These evolutionary relics could provide new clues for designing treatments as antibiotic resistance becomes an increasingly serious threat.
From the 13th to the 16th century, herring from the Sound—the strait in the Baltic Sea between Denmark and Sweden—was one of northern Europe's most important trade goods. Salted herring from the so-called Skanör-Falsterbo fishery fed large parts of Europe. Around 1570, however, the fishery collapsed rapidly, with far-reaching consequences for trade, politics and society. It took almost 400 years, until the 1950s, for catches to reach comparable levels again.
When light or sound bounces around inside an oddly shaped room, its reflections can quickly become difficult to predict. But new research led by scientists at the Advanced Science Research Center at the CUNY Graduate Center (CUNY ASRC) shows that waves can behave very differently when they travel through a special class of materials.
RNA vaccines, which have proved effective against COVID-19, are now being developed for many other diseases, including cancer. One drawback is that they require ultracold storage, but MIT researchers have found a promising way to overcome that limitation.
RNA vaccines, which have been proven effective against Covid-19, are now being developed for many other diseases, including cancer. One of the drawbacks to these vaccines is that they require ultracold storage, but researchers from MIT have found a promising way to overcome that limitation.With help from an AI algorithm, the researchers tweaked the formulation surrounding the lipid nanoparticles that are typically used to deliver mRNA vaccines, making the vaccines more heat-resistant. Using this approach, they formulated vaccines that could remain stable even when stored at room temperature for up to a year, or at nearly 100 degrees Fahrenheit for two months.When Covid-19 vaccines carried by...