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Categories: Anthropology: Early Humans, Energy: Nuclear

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For over a century, one of the earliest human fossils ever discovered in Spain has been long considered a Neanderthal. However, new analysis from an international research team dismantles this century-long interpretation, demonstrating that this fossil is not a Neanderthal; rather, it may actually represent the earliest presence of Homo sapiens ever documented in Europe.

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Researchers have successfully extended the quantum phase difference estimation algorithm, a general quantum algorithm for the direct calculations of energy gaps, to enable the direct calculation of energy differences between two different molecular geometries. This allows for the computation, based on the finite difference method, of energy derivatives with respect to nuclear coordinates in a single calculation.

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Researchers have discovered and characterized a DNA sequence found in jawed vertebrates, such as sharks and humans, but absent in jawless vertebrates, such as lampreys. This DNA is important for the shaping of the joint surfaces during embryo development.

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A team of researchers has identified a group of human DNA sequences driving changes in brain development, digestion and immunity that seem to have evolved rapidly after our family line split from that of the chimpanzees, but before we split with the Neanderthals.

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Small modular nuclear reactors, which offer greater flexibility and lower upfront cost than large nuclear reactors, have both some advantages and disadvantages when it comes to nuclear waste generation.

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Researchers provide experimental data about how radiation travels through dense plasmas. Their data will improve plasma models, which allow scientists to better understand the evolution of stars and may aid in the realization of controlled nuclear fusion as an alternative energy source.

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The preserved footprints found in New Mexico's Lake Otero Basin would upend scientific understanding of how, and when, humans first arrived in North America, if they are accurately dated. A new study brings the age claim into question.

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A new study has measured how long it takes for several kinds of exotic nuclei to decay. The paper marks the first experimental result from the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams. It is just a small taste of what's to come at the facility, which will become 400 times more powerful over the coming years. Scientists used the facility to better understand nuclei, the collection of protons and neutrons found at the heart of atoms. Understanding these basic building blocks allows scientists to refine their best models and has applications in medicine, national security, and industry.

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The remains of a huge carp fish mark the earliest signs of cooking by prehistoric human to 780,000 years ago, predating the available data by some 600,000 years, according to researchers.

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A research group has made a material that can effectively separate heavy water from normal water at room temperature. Until now, this process has been very difficult and energy intensive. The findings have implications for industrial -- and even biological -- processes that involve using different forms of the same molecule.

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Using DNA from two ancient humans unearthed in two different archaeological sites in northeast Brazil, researchers have unraveled the deep demographic history of South America at the regional level with some surprising results. Not only do they provide new genetic evidence supporting existing archaeological data of the north-to-south migration toward South America, they also have discovered migrations in the opposite direction along the Atlantic coast -- for the first time. Among the key findings, they also have discovered evidence of Neanderthal ancestry within the genomes of ancient individuals from South America.

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The use of ancient DNA, including samples of human remains around 45,000 years old, has shed light on a previously unknown aspect of human evolution.

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The first genetic data from Palaeolithic human individuals in the UK -- the oldest human DNA obtained from the British Isles so far -- indicates the presence of two distinct groups that migrated to Britain at the end of the last ice age, according to new research. Published today in Nature Ecology and Evolution, the new study by UCL Institute of Archaeology, the Natural History Museum and the Francis Crick Institute researchers reveals for the first time that the recolonisation of Britain consisted of at least two groups with distinct origins and cultures.

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Researchers have managed to sequence multiple individuals from a remote Neanderthal community in Siberia. Among these thirteen individuals, the researchers identified multiple related individuals -- among these a father and his teenage daughter. The researchers were also able to use the thirteen genomes to provide a glimpse into the social organization of a Neanderthal community. They appear to have been a small group of close relatives, consisting of ten to twenty members, and communities were primarily connected through female migration.

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A new precision measurement of the proton's electric polarizability has confirmed an unexplained bump in the data. The proton's electric polarizability shows how susceptible the proton is to deformation, or stretching, in an electric field. Like size or charge, the electric polarizability is a fundamental property of proton structure. The data bump was widely thought to be a fluke when seen in earlier measurements, so this new, more precise measurement confirms the presence of the anomaly and signals that an unknown facet of the strong force may be at work.

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A team of scientists believe our brains could use quantum computation, after adapting an idea developed to prove the existence of quantum gravity to explore the human brain and its workings. The brain functions measured were also correlated to short-term memory performance and conscious awareness, suggesting quantum processes are also part of cognitive and conscious brain functions. Quantum brain processes could explain why we can still outperform supercomputers when it comes to unforeseen circumstances, decision making, or learning something new, while the discovery may also shed light on consciousness, the workings of which remain scientifically difficult to understand and explain.

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Scientists have shown that in one in every 4,000 births, some of the genetic code from our mitochondria -- the 'batteries' that power our cells -- inserts itself into our DNA, revealing a surprising new insight into how humans evolve. Researchers show that mitochondrial DNA also appears in some cancer DNA, suggesting that it acts as a sticking plaster to try and repair damage to our genetic code.

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Researchers have long studied the color-changing properties of the natural mineral hackmanite upon exposure to UV radiation or X-rays. Now, the research group studied the reactions of synthetic hackmanite to nuclear radiation. The researchers discovered a one-of-a-kind and novel intelligent quality, gamma exposure memory, which allows the use of hackmanite as e.g. radiation detector.

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A trove of fossils in China, unearthed in rock dating back some 436 million years, have revealed for the first time that the mysterious galeaspids, a jawless freshwater fish, possessed paired fins.

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An international team has reconstructed the genome organization of the earliest common ancestor of all mammals. The reconstructed ancestral genome could help in understanding the evolution of mammals and in conservation of modern animals. The earliest mammal ancestor likely looked like the fossil animal 'Morganucodon' which lived about 200 million years ago.