New evidence: Neandertals buried their dead
Was burial of the dead practiced by Neandertals or is it an innovation specific to our species? There are indications in favor of the...
Manmade mass now outweighs life on Earth: study
For the first time in history manmade materials now likely outweigh all life on Earth, scientists said Wednesday in research detailing the "crossover point"...
Tomatoes offer affordable source of Parkinson’s disease drug
Scientists have produced a tomato enriched in the Parkinson's disease drug L-DOPA in what could become a new, affordable source of one of the...
A simple rule drives the evolution of useless complexity
A new study at the University of Chicago has shown that elaborate protein structures accumulate over deep time even when they serve no purpose,...
Fatty residues on ancient pottery reveal meat-heavy diets of Indus Civilization
New lipid residue analyses have revealed a dominance of animal products, such as the meat of animals like pigs, cattle, buffalo, sheep and goat...
Beavers may help amphibians threatened by climate change
The recovery of beavers may have beneficial consequences for amphibians because beaver dams can create the unique habitats that amphibians need.
That finding was reported...
Hidden symmetry could be key to more robust quantum systems, researchers find
Researchers have found a way to protect highly fragile quantum systems from noise, which could aid in the design and development of new quantum...
Paleontologists find pterosaur precursors that fill a gap in early evolutionary history
Here's the original story of flight. Sorry, Wright Brothers, but this story began way before your time—during the Age of the Dinosaurs.
Pterosaurs were the...
Science of building sandcastles finally understood
Water vapor from ambient air will spontaneously condense inside porous materials or between touching surfaces. But with the liquid layer being only a few...
Space weather discovery puts ‘habitable planets’ at risk
A discovery that links stellar flares with radio-burst signatures will make it easier for astronomers to detect space weather around nearby stars outside the...
Error-prone quantum bits could correct themselves, physicists show
One of the chief obstacles facing quantum computer designers—correcting the errors that creep into a processor's calculations—could be overcome with a new approach by...
