Analysis amends human-Neanderthal genetic exchange Human genes may have been replacing Neanderthal genes as long ago as 250,000 years, accounting for the disappearance of the Neanderthal Y chromosome, according to a paper in Science that closely analyzes the gene flow from humans to Neanderthals instead of the reverse, as past research has done. The study […]
As the world’s largest unfrozen freshwater resource, groundwater is crucial for life on Earth. Now, a team of researchers has investigated how global warming is affecting groundwater temperatures and what that means for humanity and the environment . The study indicates that by 2100, more than 75 million people are likely to be living in […]
Denisovans, humans may have shared Tibetan Plateau A 40,000-year-old rib bone from a cave on the Tibetan Plateau adds to limited fossil evidence of Denisovans and suggests modern humans coexisted with these close cousins in the region at the time. The fossil is the youngest Denisovan bone found to date, and researchers say modern Tibetans […]
Made famous in 1995 by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, the Pillars of Creation in the heart of the Eagle Nebula have captured imaginations worldwide with their arresting, ethereal beauty. Now, NASA has released a new 3D visualization of these towering celestial structures using data from NASA’s Hubble and James Webb space telescopes. This is the […]
Black holes account for only small fraction of dark matter Contradicting earlier theories, massive black holes are made of a small percentage of dark matter. A team used gravitational microlensing to monitor nearly 80 million stars over 20 years, finding only 13 microlensing events, which indicates that other factors could explain the gravitational waves found […]
Chemical engineering • Food processing • Materials • Mechanical Engineering • Nanotechnology
Imagine a close basketball game that comes down to the final shot. The probability of the ball going through the hoop might be fairly low, but it would dramatically increase if the player were afforded the opportunity to shoot it over and over. A similar idea is at play in the scientific field of membrane […]
Newfound ancient reptile suggests complex ecosystems Paleontologists have uncovered a previously unknown species of small land reptiles, Parvosuchus aurelioi, that lived about 237 million years ago, walked on four legs and used bladelike teeth to tear flesh. “The presence of this small predator among fossils of much larger predators suggests that these ecosystems, where Brazil […]
Author: Ambuj Tewari, Professor of Statistics, University of Michigan Over 100 years ago, Alexander Graham Bell asked the readers of National Geographic to do something bold and fresh – “to found a new science.” He pointed out that sciences based on the measurements of sound and light already existed. But there was no science of […]
About 2.5 billion years ago, free oxygen, or O2, first started to accumulate to meaningful levels in Earth’s atmosphere, setting the stage for the rise of complex life on our evolving planet. Scientists refers to this phenomenon as the Great Oxidation Event, or GOE for short. But the initial accumulation of O2 on Earth was […]
Earth’s inner core may have started slowing spin in 2010 Seismograms confirm Earth’s inner core has slowed its rotation for the first time in decades, possibly beginning in 2010 because of gravitational pull or the liquid iron outer core’s constant motion, which generates the planet’s magnetic field. The slowdown could change the length of a […]