The biggest jump in body size among our ancestors happened around 2–2.5 million years ago, with the appearance of Homo rudolfensis or Homo erectus/ergaster, rather than gradually across the whole human family tree.
Forest fires now burn 10 times more acreage annually than in 1985, while wildfire severity has gotten even worse. In California, 30 times more acreage burned from high-severity, forest-killing fires, according to new UCLA research.
Since the 1970s, the number of insects at Canada's Long Point Bird Observatory has dropped by more than 60%, according to a new study led by the University of Michigan. Because of this, today's birds are smaller and facing greater challenges to their breeding success than
Current plans for flagship telescopes in the 2040s are focused on answering a simple question: Are we alone? Our best telescopes to date, such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), have given us only tantalizing glimpses into the atmospheres of other worlds, but not enough
A new study led by Dr. Ariel Malinsky-Buller of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem challenges long-held assumptions about how prehistoric hunter-gatherers survived in the Southern Caucasus between 57,000 and 27,000 years ago. Rather than relying on environmental adaptation
At the icy, wind-swept tip of South America lies Inútil Bay, a remote marine environment in the Tierra del Fuego archipelago that has long guarded its underwater secrets because of severe logistical and meteorological challenges. A multi-institutional team of researchers has
When Jasmin Imran Alsous peered down her microscope lens, she expected to see chaos—a mishmash of tangled cells. She was viewing the inside of a male fruit fly's sperm storage organ, using a powerful microscope at the CCBScope Observatory, the experimental biology lab at the
Cats are the most popular companion animals worldwide, and many people have multiple cats at home. In these multicat households, not all the cats get along equally well. Until recently, it was thought that if a cat licks another cat (a behavior known as "allogrooming"), the two
A new genomic study by researchers from the HKU School of Biological Sciences (SBS) has found that Hong Kong's introduced population of yellow-crested cockatoos retains unexpectedly high genetic diversity and could serve as a genetic reservoir for this critically endangered
Astronomers have used the James Webb Space Telescope to catch an extraordinary glimpse of a massive galaxy taking shape in the early universe. They identified a compact group of at least six galaxies that are likely to merge into a single enormous system. At the heart of this
Physicists have long suspected that a peculiar quantum state lurks inside a class of materials known as kagome metals, but proving its existence has been elusive. Now, a team led by Yeongkwan Kim at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology has performed
Researchers at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) have uncovered how mutations in a specific gene can trigger a rare respiratory disease, shedding light on the critical role played by cellular structures known as cilia. Cilia are tiny hair-like
A team of researchers led by Professor Akitsu Hotta (Department of Clinical Application) developed a comprehensive framework that combines computational prediction, experimental validation and whole-genome analysis to evaluate intended and unintended mutations arising from
Drones and artificial intelligence could provide valuable information to guide efforts to slow the alarming extinction rate of birds across the globe, research from The University of Queensland has found.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a primary driver of climate change in Earth's atmosphere. At the State University of New York at Stony Brook (Stony Brook University), Ph.D. researcher Kuldeepsinh Raj, along with principal investigator Professor Nav Nidhi Rajput from the Department of
An estimated 25%–40% of homes in the U.S. have soil contaminated with lead, a toxic heavy metal that can harm children's development. Public health researchers know that the risk is higher in places with a legacy of industrial manufacturing, but drilling down into which parts
At least a dozen animals have been found with the flesh-eating maggots. It could take more than a year to eradicate the parasite again, experts warn.
The T-shirt is yellow, 100% cotton and meant for "everyday wear." Across the front, it declares in italic script, "I'm too pretty to do math."
Many languages recycle words, giving them different meanings. For example, in English, "run" can mean to move quickly but also to manage something, like "run a company." In Spanish, "lengua" is both the word for tongue and language, as in "la lengua española." This type of word
There is strong evidence that transitioning from animal to more plant-based diets could improve human and planetary health, but progress has been slow. This is partly due to a misunderstanding of what drives the behavior of individuals and organizations alike.
Just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang, the universe was a dark and simple place. There were no galaxies like the Milky Way, no planets, and no heavy elements such as carbon or oxygen. Instead, vast clouds of primordial hydrogen and helium drifted through space,
A spider living in the rainforests of Queensland, Australia, builds a snare trap reminiscent of a Roman-era ballista weapon that it uses to catapult green tree ants into a web 30 centimetres above
The brain undergoes a full renovation during menopause. Although these changes are profound, we’re learning that the long-term impact needn’t be all bad
Researchers are constantly sifting through new spectral data gathered by powerful telescopes, like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Most of the time, when they identify spectral features—specific absorption or emission lines from different types of light gathered from a
Images of families displaced by floods, prolonged droughts or extreme storms have become a distressingly regular feature of the daily news. As the impact of climate change intensifies, so does concern over its effects on human mobility. Ongoing changes to the world's climate
Researchers say a surgery that let pigs with completely severed spinal cords walk again may lead to human trials, and then perhaps even full head or brain transplants. Columnist Helen Thomson is intrigued but sceptical of whether the technique can be successful in humans
Ask a child to draw some poo, and the shape will invariably be the same: a coil, broad at the base and pointy at the top, similar to a spiral swirl of soft-serve ice cream. In fact, the often-used poo emoji has this exact shape, as do most actual mounds of feces found in
An interstellar comet that blazed past the sun last year could be nearly three times older than our solar system and is unlike anything ever seen before in our cosmic backyard, astronomers said Monday.
Destructive fishing practices and inadequate management allowed industrial fisheries operating in the waters of Saint Pierre and Miquelon to dump about 80,000 metric tons of fish back into the ocean from 1950 to 2022, with authorities failing to track the wasteful practice.
The number of people exposed to dangerous heat stress worldwide has risen sharply over the past half-century, propelled by climate change, according to a study released Monday as Europe sweltered through a punishing heat wave.
Several start-ups have tried to grow seaweed to remove atmospheric CO2, but this could affect the levels of nutrients in the ocean and hamper other CO2-sucking processes
The Caspian Sea, the largest inland body of water on Earth, is shrinking. Not fluctuating, not entering another natural cycle, but shrinking.
"What goes on in Antarctica doesn't stay in Antarctica—it has global implications," Geology tauira Natalie-Jane Reid says. Reid is one of two Otago Ph.D. candidates who contributed to an Antarctic sediment core workshop at the Otago Repository for Core Analysis (ORCA) held
An international team of researchers has discovered a remarkable new spider species in the rainforest of North Queensland that spins an ingenious and powerful spring-actuated snare to catch a single species of ant—one ant at a time—in what they describe as "the ultimate
Researchers at the Agricultural University of Athens (AUA), a partner in the ANIPH project, published a study that helps predict how quickly biodegradable bioplastics break down in the environment.
How large, fully folded proteins can pass through cell membranes without destroying them has long been one of the open questions in cell biology. Using cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), Leonid Sazanov and Ziyu Zhao at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA)
Detached tissues from the sea cucumber's tube feet and feeding tentacles survived for more than three years, a find that could shape the study of aging.
The evidence is mounting: this interstellar visitor is even older and weirder than anyone thought
Recent observations suggest that dark energy is changing over time. Theorists wonder if dark matter is, too. The post A Dark Dimension Could Link Two of the Universe’s Great Unknowns first appeared on Quanta Magazine
The main reason for sealing wine bottles with a cork is to protect the liquid from oxygen. However, it is not an impermeable barrier, and a small amount of air leaks in, which is not always entirely bad news. The gas helps the wine mature and develop a more complex flavor.
The European Commission has presented a new legislative package. It is intended to reform key provisions that have hitherto governed the approval of pesticides. The "Food and Feed Safety simplification package" is part of a comprehensive strategy through which the Commission
Two people were the first to receive the therapy for a condition that damages the spinal cord and optic nerve
Astronomers have discovered a "remarkable" bow-and-arrow-shaped radio galaxy with an enormous arc-like structure extending nearly 1.8 million light-years across. The newly identified system, detailed in a new paper published today in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical
Can newly identified antiviral compounds help stop some of the most dangerous mosquito-borne viruses that attack the brain? A research team led by scientists at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), a part of The University of Alabama System, has generated a new class
When does your brain reach adulthood? We're now understanding the many ways the organ continues to mature decades after society first deems you an adult
Our body contains an intricate system of tiny vessels through which blood, water and other molecules flow. When the size of the pipes shrinks to the nanoscale, where only a few molecules can fit side by side, the classical laws of physics governing the behavior of water are
Thirteen people died by drowning in searing temperatures in France over the weekend, with the heat wave set to intensify from Monday across much of Europe, forcing warnings and special measures.
Many animal species that live in groups are known to adjust their behavior to strengthen their social bonds or increase their coordination with others around them. For instance, humans and some other animals exhibit vocal plasticity, meaning they tend to modify the sounds they
When a fire broke out a few miles from his Altadena, California, home the evening of Jan. 7, 2025, Matt Blea and his family needed to make a crucial decision: Should they stay home, or evacuate?
Trees planted to protect farmland from wind may not be the biodiversity boost many assume. In Japan’s wetland farming landscapes, shelterbelts benefited some birds but sharply reduced grassland and wetland species that need open space. Researchers found grassland bird abundance