Viable ecosystems found in subglacial lake deep beneath West Antarctic Ice Sheet
Analysis of water samples taken from subglacial Lake Whillans – hidden beneath 2,600 feet of ice in Antarctica – has…
Largest ever self-organizing swarm of robots created
Harvard computer scientists have demonstrated how a self-organizing swarm of 1,024 small robots can collaborate to enact complex behaviors. According…
Japanese scientists hijack neural signaling to bypass spinal injuries
Spinal cord injuries that result in paraplegia may one day be treatable using a technique that bypasses the damaged neural…
Could tainted cookware be poisoning an entire continent?
Despite the ban on lead in gasoline, blood lead levels in African nations have remained stubbornly high. Now, researchers from…
Stunning photos of comet 67P at the end of Rosetta’s decade-long journey
After a 10 year journey, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Rosetta spacecraft has rendezvoused with the 2.5 mile-wide comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko…
Flores’ “hobbit” not a new human species, say detractors
Back in 2004, the excavation of unusual skeletal remains in Liang Bua cave on the island of Flores yielded what…
Did feminization create modern humans?
Duke University anthropologists have been measuring more than 1,400 ancient and modern skulls, leading them to theorize that modern humans…
Physicists map quantum to classical collapse
Extracting information from a system as it collapses from a quantum state to a classical state was never considered possible…
Compelling new evidence for artificial lighting’s role in breast cancer
Scientists have found that for laboratory rats with human breast tumors, exposure to dim light at night made the tumors…
Locate alien civilizations by their pollution, suggest astrophysicists
Harvard-Smithsonian scientists speculate that little green men may not be “green” at all, and finding them might be a simple…
Prehistoric token “bookkeeping” persisted long into age of written language
An archaeological dig in Turkey has uncovered a large number of clay tokens that were used as records of trade…
New fossil interpretation challenges notion that birds are descended from dinosaurs
Re-examination of a sparrow-sized fossil from China has led researchers to challengethe commonly held belief that birds evolved from ground-dwelling…
Scientists uncover biggest-ever flying bird
The fossilized remains of an extinct giant bird with a wingspan of 24 feet place the creature above theoretical upper…
Biological basis for magic mushrooms’ mind-expansion revealed
For the first time, researchers have measured the level of entropy for different networks in the brain under the influence…
Antihistamines may be next blockbuster anti-cancer drug
Scientists have established a connection between two diseases that aren’t commonly linked: allergy and cancer. The new research, published in…
African music preferred by chimps
Chimpanzees like to listen to the different rhythms of music from Africa and India, but prefer silence to music from…
Software scans family photos to diagnose rare disorders
Software that scans and analyzes family snapshots could help doctors diagnose which rare genetic disorder a child is suffering from,…
UV light can be addictive, say scientists
Why do people still spend extended periods in the sun when the dangers of skin cancer are so well recognized?…
Animals conceal sickness in mating situations
In research that has implications for our understanding of how diseases spread in human populations, researchers from the University of…
Algae turn quantum coherence on and off
A team of researchers has discovered how algae that survive in very low levels of light are able to switch…
Feminization of men causing obesity epidemic, say Aussie researchers
An imbalance of female sex hormones among men in Western nations may be contributing to high levels of male obesity,…
Singing primates and tweeting birds: Uncovering human language’s deep origins
By re-examining contemporary human language, MIT researchers believe they can uncover how human communication could have evolved from the systems…
Could “free will” arise from random brain noise?
Free will, the ability that we believe we have to make choices – and mistakes – might arise from simple…
Human face evolved to be punched
A controversial new paper from the University of Utah contends that human faces have evolved over time to minimize injury…
Laser sensor busts drunk drivers from outside car
Most health and law enforcement agencies would agree that the effective early detection of drivers under the influence of alcohol…
Domestication of dogs may explain success of early humans
A new analysis of European archaeological sites suggests that early modern humans working with the earliest domestic dogs were extremely…
Could heat from a Martian volcano create a habitable environment?
The slopes of a giant Martian volcano, once covered in glacial ice, may have been home to one of the…
Scientists map mental illness’ effects on life expectancy
A new study by researchers at the University of Oxford shows that mental illnesses reduce life expectancy by 10-20 years,…
Vitamin E in canola linked to asthma, lung inflammation
A new study from Northwestern University shows the drastically different health effects of vitamin E depending on its form. The…
Windshield washer water a “significant” source of Legionnaire’s
Outbreaks of Legionnaire’s disease are most often linked to large-scale air conditioning systems, but new research shows that automobile windshield…