Ancient humans had same sense of smell, but different sensitivities
If you had the grooming habits of a Neanderthal, perhaps it's a good thing your nose wasn't as sensitive to urine and sweat as a modern human's......»»
Scientists uncover a critical component that helps killifish regenerate their fins
Spontaneous injuries like the loss of a limb or damage to the spinal cord are impossible for humans to repair. Yet, some animals have an extraordinary capacity to regenerate after injury, a response that requires a precise sequence of cellular events.....»»
How old is beer?
Humans are no strangers to kicking back with a cool pint of beer. The Ancient Egyptians, for example, had a hankering for beer that was a little bit tart, almost like a modern-day gose, a lemony beer from Germany. Homer, the Ancient Greek poet, spoke.....»»
NIST proposes barring some of the most nonsensical password rules
Proposed guidelines aim to inject badly needed common sense into password hygiene. Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the federal body that sets technology standards.....»»
Frozen in time: Rock fossils hint at Mars"s ancient climate
Long ago, flowing wind and water shaped Mars's malleable sand and sediment into dunes, ripples and other landscape patterns, called bedforms. Over billions of years, some of these landforms hardened into rock—scientists then call them paleo-bedform.....»»
Study shows that ancient reef-building stromatoporoids dodged extinction—at least temporarily
Will modern coral reefs go extinct? The answer is uncertain, but some of their ancient counterparts managed to dodge a bullet—for a while, at least......»»
Can the "hard steps" in the evolutionary history of human intelligence be recast with geological thresholds?
What took so long for humans to appear on Earth? The Earth is 4.6 billion years old, and life began about 4 billion years ago, yet humans—the only intelligent, technological species we know of in the universe—have existed only for the last 200,0.....»»
Medicinal tree successfully grown from 1,000-year-old seed found in cave
An international team of botanists, agriculturists and historians has successfully grown a mature tree from an ancient seed found in a cave in Israel. In their paper, published in the journal Communications Biology, the group describes where the seed.....»»
Afar mantle plume study offers new insight into deep Earth processes
Sophisticated analysis of tiny bubbles of ancient gas trapped in volcanic rocks, combined with new geophysical modeling, has cast new light on long-held assumptions about the deep Earth......»»
Ancient DNA helps uncover the Iberian lynx"s potential secret weapon against extinction
Many large mammals have lost genetic diversity, often thanks to the actions of people shrinking their populations. The implications can be severe because without genetic diversity, a population does not have a "genetic database" to fall back on to ad.....»»
1,000-year-old textiles reveal cultural resilience in the ancient Andes
Archaeologists have analyzed textiles from the ancient city of Huacas de Moche, Peru, showing how the population's cultural traditions survived in the face of external influence......»»
New study shows that word-initial consonants are systematically lengthened across diverse languages
Speech consists of a continuous stream of acoustic signals, yet humans can segment words from each other with astonishing precision and speed. To find out how this is possible, a team of linguists has analyzed durations of consonants at different pos.....»»
Businesses trying to come clean about their impact on nature can end up concealing more than they reveal
Humans have overfished the ocean, cleared forests, polluted water and created a climate crisis by burning fossil fuels. These actions are affecting biodiversity around the world, from remote islands to our own backyards......»»
A proposed McDonald’s ‘smell’ causes a stink for South Meridian neighbors and City Hall
A proposed McDonald’s ‘smell’ causes a stink for South Meridian neighbors and City Hall.....»»
Evolved in the lab, found in nature: Uncovering hidden pH sensing abilities in microbial cultures
In a study led by Sarah Worthan, Ph.D., a postdoctoral researcher in the Behringer Lab at Vanderbilt University, scientists have successfully evolved microbial cultures that possess the ability to sense pH changes, enabling rapid responses to environ.....»»
This Elegant Math Problem Could Help You Make the Best Choice in House-Hunting and Even Love
Math’s “best-choice problem” could help humans become better decision-makers, at everything from choosing the best job candidate to finding a romantic partner.....»»
We Finally Know Where Humans and Neanderthals Interbred
We Finally Know Where Humans and Neanderthals Interbred.....»»
How humans are affecting the Northern Hemisphere"s wind patterns
The summer of 2024 was the hottest on record and, unfortunately, this came as no surprise. Summers have been getting hotter and drier around the world, including in the Northern Hemisphere, leading to intense droughts and heat waves in North America.....»»
The relationship between emotions and economic decision-making differs across countries, multi-national analysis finds
When making economic decisions, humans can be driven by various factors, including their goals and emotions. Past studies have hypothesized that emotions play a crucial role in economic decisions, particularly those that involve risk or trade-offs be.....»»
Norway reports first cases of bluetongue disease in livestock since 2009
Norway reported Thursday dozens of confirmed and suspected cases of bluetongue, an insect-borne virus that is harmless to humans but can be fatal to sheep and other livestock, for the first time in the country since 2009......»»
Ancient sword from the era of Moses, Book of Exodus uncovered in Egypt
Ancient sword from the era of Moses, Book of Exodus uncovered in Egypt.....»»