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Categories: Anthropology: Early Humans, Engineering: Nanotechnology
Published AI discovers new nanostructures
(via sciencedaily.com) Scientists have successfully demonstrated that autonomous methods can discover new materials. The artificial intelligence (AI)-driven technique led to the discovery of three new nanostructures, including a first-of-its-kind nanoscale 'ladder.'
Published The world in grains of interstellar dust
(via sciencedaily.com) Understanding how dust grains form in interstellar gas could offer significant insights to astronomers and help materials scientists develop useful nanoparticles.
Published Novel design helps develop powerful microbatteries
(via sciencedaily.com) Translating electrochemical performance of large format batteries to microscale power sources has been a long-standing technological challenge, limiting the ability of batteries to power microdevices, microrobots and implantable medical devices. Researchers have created a high-voltage microbattery (> 9 V), with high-energy and -power density, unparalleled by any existing battery design.
Published Optical coating approach prevents fogging and unwanted reflections
(via sciencedaily.com) Researchers combine a polymer coating with silicon dioxide nanostructures to create a coating to prevent fogging and unwanted reflections. The technique solves a common problem for sensors such as lidar used in autonomous cars.
Published Now on the molecular scale: Electric motors
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Electric vehicles, powered by macroscopic electric motors, are increasingly prevalent on our streets and highways. Now a multidisciplinary team has made an electric motor you can't see with the naked eye: an electric motor on the molecular scale. This early work -- a motor that can convert electrical energy into unidirectional motion at the molecular level -- has implications for materials science and particularly medicine, where the electric molecular motor could team up with biomolecular motors in the human body.
Published Researchers uncover mechanisms to easily dry, redisperse cellulose nanocrystals
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A team of chemical engineering researchers studied the mechanisms of drying the nanocrystals and proposed nanotechnology to render the nanocrystals highly redispersible in aqueous mediums, while retaining their full functionality, to make them easier to store and transport.
Published Discovery of a new form of carbon called Long-range Ordered Porous Carbon (LOPC)
(via sciencedaily.com) The most well-known forms of carbon include graphite and diamond, but there are other more exotic nanoscale allotropes of carbon as well. These include graphene and fullerenes, which are sp2 hybridized carbon with zero (flat-shaped) or positive (sphere-shaped) curvatures. Researchers now report the discovery of a new form of carbon formed by heating fullerenes with lithium nitride.
Published Ethical ancient DNA research must involve descendant communities, say researchers
(via sciencedaily.com) The analysis of ancient DNA allows scientists to trace human evolution and make important discoveries about modern populations. The data revealed by ancient DNA sampling can be valuable, but the human remains that carry this ancient DNA are often those of the ancestors of modern Indigenous groups, and some communities have expressed concerns about the ethics of sampling by outside parties. A group of scientists make the case for involvement of descendant communities in all aspects of the research process.
Published Smallpox has plagued humans since ancient Egyptian times, new evidence confirms
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Smallpox was once one of humanity's most devastating diseases, but its origin is shrouded in mystery. For years, scientific estimates of when the smallpox virus first emerged have been at odds with historical records. Now, a new study reveals that the virus dates back 2,000 years further than scientists have previously shown, verifying historical sources and confirming for the first time that the disease has plagued human societies since ancient times.
Published Study reveals average age at conception for men versus women over past 250,000 years
(via sciencedaily.com) Using a new method based upon comparing DNA mutation rates between parents and offspring, evolutionary biologists have revealed the average age of mothers versus fathers over the past 250,000 years, including the discovery that the age gap is shrinking, with women's average age at conception increasing from 23.2 years to 26.4 years, on average, in the past 5,000 years.
Published Archaeologists uncover oldest known projectile points in the Americas
(via sciencedaily.com) Archaeologists have uncovered projectile points in Idaho that are thousands of years older than any previously found in the Americas, helping to fill in the history of how early humans crafted and used stone weapons.
Published Early humans may have first walked upright in the trees
(via sciencedaily.com) Human bipedalism -- walking upright on two legs -- may have evolved in trees, and not on the ground as previously thought, according to a new study.
Published Immune system of modern Papuans shaped by DNA from ancient Denisovans, study finds
(via sciencedaily.com) Modern Papuans' immune system likely evolved with a little help from the Denisovans, a mysterious human ancestor who interbred with ancient humans, according to a new study.
Published How intensive agriculture turned a wild plant into a pervasive weed
(via sciencedaily.com) Agriculture is driving rapid evolutionary change, not just on farms but also in wild species in surrounding landscapes, new research has found.
Published Jawbone may represent earliest presence of humans in Europe
(via sciencedaily.com) 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.
Published DNA sequence enhances understanding origins of jaws
(via sciencedaily.com) 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.
Published Human evolution wasn't just the sheet music, but how it was played
(via sciencedaily.com) 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.
Published Footprints claimed as evidence of ice age humans in North America need better dating, new research shows
(via sciencedaily.com) 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.
Published Oldest evidence of the controlled use of fire to cook food, researchers report
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source 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.
Published Ancient DNA analysis sheds light on the early peopling of South America
(via sciencedaily.com) 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.