Chemists, biologists, archaeologists: Who will unearth the recipes of our ancestors?
Using a new multidisciplinary approach, a team from UNIGE and CNRS has retraced the food practices of a Senegalese village. This method will be useful for other archaeological research......»»
New technology offers a better look at tardigrade fossils embedded in amber
A trio of evolutionary biologists at Harvard University's Museum of Comparative Zoology has learned more about the evolutionary history of tardigrades by studying two fossils embedded in amber. In their study, published in Communications Biology, Mar.....»»
Chemists synthesize plant-derived molecules that hold potential as pharmaceuticals
MIT chemists have developed a new way to synthesize complex molecules that were originally isolated from plants and could hold potential as antibiotics, analgesics, or cancer drugs......»»
Archaeologists conduct first "space excavation" on ISS and discover surprising quirks of zero-G life
New results from the first archaeological fieldwork conducted in space show the International Space Station is a rich cultural landscape where crew create their own "gravity" to replace Earth's, and adapt module spaces to suit their needs......»»
PhAI—an AI system that figures out the phase of x-rays that crystals have diffracted
A trio of chemists at the University of Copenhagen has developed an AI application that can be used to figure out the phase of x-rays that crystals have diffracted as part of efforts to predict the structure of small molecules......»»
Quantum computing: Finding solutions by the people for the people
PEARC24 launched its first Workshop on Broadly Accessible Quantum Computing (QC) as the full conference began, July 22, in Providence, RI. Led by NCSA's Bruno Abreu and QuEra's Tomasso Macri, 30+ participants included quantum chemists, system adminis.....»»
Chemists develop new sustainable reaction for creating unique molecular building blocks
Polymers can be thought of like trains: Just as a train is composed of multiple cars, polymers are made up of multiple monomers, and the couplings between the train cars are similar to the chemical bonds that link monomers together. While polymers ha.....»»
Indonesia’s tiny hobbits descended from even smaller ancestors
A 700,000-year-old humerus suggests small hominins have a long history on Flores. Enlarge / Half of the upper arm bone of this species can fit comfortably in the palm of a modern human hand. (credit: Yousuke Kaifu) The d.....»»
Researchers unearth MotW bypass technique used by threat actors for years
Threat actors have been abusing a bug in how Windows handles LNK files with non-standard target paths and internal structures to prevent in-built protections from stopping malicious payloads and trick users into running them. “We identified mul.....»»
Plant biologists discover an ancient gene family is responsible for plant prickles across species
According to Greek mythology, red roses first appeared when Aphrodite pricked her foot on a thorn, spilling blood on a white rose. Since then, roses' thorns have captured the imaginations of countless poets and forlorn lovers......»»
Sea level changes shaped early life on Earth, fossils show
A newly developed timeline of early animal fossils reveals a link between sea levels, changes in marine oxygen, and the appearance of the earliest ancestors of present-day animals......»»
Medieval French diets discovered through isotope analysis reveal social and religious influences
Archaeologists working in the Languedoc region in southern France have used stable isotopes to reveal new insights into medieval dietary practices. The research, published in Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences by lead author Dr. Jane Holmstr.....»»
Mass extinction 66 million years ago triggered rapid evolution of bird genomes, study finds
Shortly after an asteroid slammed into Earth 66 million years ago, life for non-avian dinosaurs ended, but the evolutionary story for the early ancestors of birds began......»»
3D models provide unprecedented look at corals" response to bleaching events
In a study, published July 31 in the journal PLOS ONE, marine biologists from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego and Arizona State University provide a first-of-its-kind glimpse into coral "bleaching" responses to stress, using imagi.....»»
Study suggests cloud-to-ground lightning strikes may have generated building blocks for life on Earth
A large team of chemists at Harvard University has found evidence suggesting that cloud-to-ground lightning strikes may have helped generate some of the building blocks needed for life on Earth to arise......»»
What did Bronze Age people do with all that bronze? New research revives old arguments about the nature of money
We have no written evidence about how people lived in Europe during the Bronze Age (2300–800 BCE), so archaeologists piece together their world from the artifacts and materials they left behind. Unlike perishable materials such as wool or wood, it'.....»»
Scientists now know when an ancient lake supported human life in the Namib Sand Sea
Desert regions in northern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula have been well studied by archaeologists as the home of early humans and as routes of migration along "green corridors.".....»»
From tree holes to trash—the breeding behavior of a frog endemic to the Andman Islands of India
A team of biologists from the University of Delhi and Zoological Survey of India, Harvard University, and the University of Minnesota has discovered a unique breeding behavior in a species of frog endemic to the Andaman Islands of India. In a new stu.....»»
Invasive, blood-sucking fish "may hold the key to understanding where we came from," say biologists
One of just two vertebrates without a jaw, sea lampreys that are wreaking havoc in Midwestern fisheries are simultaneously helping scientists understand the origins of two important stem cells that drove the evolution of vertebrates......»»
Rock art and archaeological record reveal man"s complex relationship with Amazonian animals
Rock art explored by archaeologists in the Colombian Amazon has provided an insight into the complex relationship between the earliest settlers on the continent and the animals they encountered......»»
Chemists reveal how Rembrandt combined special pigments for golden details of "The Night Watch"
Chemists at the Rijksmuseum and the University of Amsterdam (UvA) have for the first time established how Rembrandt applied special arsenic sulfide pigments to create a "golden" paint......»»