Scientists believe individuals of the most recently discovered hominin group (the Denisovans) that interbred with modern day humans passed on some of their genes via multiple, distinct interbreeding events that helped shape early human history. In 2010, the first draft of the Neanderthal genome was published, and comparisons with modern human genomes revealed that Neanderthal […]
Supermassive black holes exist at the centre of most galaxies, and modern telescopes continue to observe them at surprisingly early times in the universe’s evolution. It’s difficult to understand how these black holes were able to grow so big so rapidly. But with the discovery of a low-mass supermassive black hole feasting on material at […]
A new study by Professor Ella Been from Ono Academic College and Dr. Omry Barzilai from the University of Haifa sheds new light on the burial practices of Homo sapiens and Neanderthals in the Levant region during the Middle Paleolithic (MP). The research, which examined a total of 17 Neanderthal and 15 Homo sapiens burials […]
Climate change is increasingly influencing fire behaviour worldwide and intensifying fire smoke, endangering public health from air pollution caused by fires. These are the results of two new climate change impact attribution studies, both published in Nature Climate Change, with the involvement of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research PIK. The first study finds […]
More than 6,500 volunteers have supported the accurate identification of approximately 1,000 prehistoric burial mounds in the Netherlands in just four months, proving the value of involving volunteers in archaeology. In 2018, the Heritage Quest project was launched to harness the power of citizen scientists, utilizing crowd-sourcing to identify archaeological features on lidar imagery of […]
A team of chemists at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology has succeeded in pulling an oxygen atom from a molecule and replacing it with a nitrogen atom. In their study, published in the journal Science, the group used photocatalysis to edit a furan in their lab. Ellie Plachinski and Tehshik Yoon with […]
Author: Rachel Gordon, Massachusetts Institute of Technology In 1994, Florida jewelry designer Diana Duyser discovered what she believed to be the Virgin Mary’s image in a grilled cheese sandwich, which she preserved and later auctioned for $28,000. But how much do we really understand about pareidolia, the phenomenon of seeing faces and patterns in objects […]
The protein “MIPS” changes its internal structure when it becomes active. Its disordered active centre becomes a defined structure with special functions. The protein plays a key role in the production of inositol, which is also known as vitamin B8, and fulfils important tasks in the body. A team of researchers has succeeded for the […]
Liquid crystals are all around us, from cell phone screens and video game consoles to car dashboards and medical devices. Run an electric current through liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and they generate colours, thanks to the unique properties of these fluids: rearrange their shape, and they reflect different wavelengths of light. As the lab of […]
Author: Leah Burrows, Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences The earliest blacksmiths in the Bronze and Iron Ages figured out that when they deformed metal through bending or hammering, it became stronger. This process, known as work or strain hardening, is still used widely in metallurgy and manufacturing today to increase […]