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Categories: Anthropology: General, Physics: Optics
Published The colors on these ancient pots hint at the power of an empire


Comparing the colors on pieces of ancient Peruvian pottery revealed that potters across the Wari empire all used the same rich black pigment: a sign of the empire's influence.
Published Graphene quantum dots show promise as novel magnetic field sensors


Trapped electrons traveling in circular loops at extreme speeds inside graphene quantum dots are highly sensitive to external magnetic fields and could be used as novel magnetic field sensors with unique capabilities, according to a new study.
Published Two-dimensional quantum freeze


Researchers have succeeded in simultaneously cooling the motion of a tiny glass sphere in two dimensions to the quantum ground-state. This represents a crucial step towards a 3D ground-state cooling of a massive object and opens up new opportunities for the design of ultra-sensitive sensors.
Published Bending 2D nanomaterial could 'switch on' future technologies


Materials scientists have uncovered a property of ferroelectric 2D materials that could be exploited in future devices.
Published The positive outlooks of studying negatively-charged chiral molecules


The ability to distinguish two chiral enantiomers is an essential analytical capability for chemical industries including pharmaceutical companies, flavor/odor engineering and forensic science. A new wave of chiral optical methods have shown significant improvements in chiral sensitivity, compared to their predecessors, leading to potential analytical advantages for chiral discrimination.
Published The world's first horse riders


Researchers have discovered evidence of horse riding by studying the remains of human skeletons found in burial mounds called kurgans, which were between 4500-5000 years old. The earthen burial mounds belonged to the Yamnaya culture. The Yamnayans had migrated from the Pontic-Caspian steppes to find greener pastures in today's countries of Romania and Bulgaria up to Hungary and Serbia.
Published Archaeological study of 24 ancient Mexican cities reveals that collective forms of governance, infrastructural investments, and collaboration all help societies last longer


Some cities only last a century or two, while others last for a thousand years or more. Often, there aren't clear records left behind to explain why. Instead, archaeologists piece together clues from the cities' remains to search for patterns that help account for why certain places retained their importance longer than others.
Published Scholars unify color systems using prime numbers


Existing color systems, such as RGB and CYMK, are all text-based and require a large range of values to represent different colors, making them difficult to compute and time-consuming to convert. Recently, researchers made a breakthrough by inventing an innovative color system, called 'C235', based on prime numbers, enabling efficient encoding and effective color compression. It can unify existing color systems and has the potential to be applied in various applications, like designing an energy-saving LCD system and colorizing DNA codons.
Published Genomic study of indigenous Africans paints complex picture of human origins and local adaptation


An international team of researchers analyzed the genomes of 180 indigenous Africans from a dozen ethnically, culturally, linguistically, and geographically diverse populations. The results shed light on the origin of modern humans, historical migrations, linguistic evolution, and local adaptation, and lay the groundwork for more people to benefit from precision medicine.
Published Researchers propose a simple, inexpensive approach to fabricating carbon nanotube wiring on plastic films


Researchers have developed an inexpensive method for fabricating multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) on a plastic film. The proposed method is simple, can be applied under ambient conditions, reuses MWNTs, and produces flexible wires of tunable resistances without requiring additional steps. It eliminates several drawbacks of current fabrication methods, making it useful for large-scale manufacturing of carbon wiring for flexible all-carbon devices.
Published Waxing and waning of environment influences hominin dispersals across ancient Iran


A world-first model of paleoclimate and hydrology in Iran has highlighted favourable routes for Neanderthals and modern human expansions eastwards into Asia. The findings reveal that multiple humid periods in ancient Iran led to the expansions of human populations, opening dispersal route across the region, and the possible interactions of species such as Neanderthals and our own Homo sapiens.
Published Oldest human genome from southern Spain


A new study reports on genomic data from a 23,000-year-old individual who lived in what was probably the warmest place of Europe at the peak of the last Ice Age. The oldest human genome recovered from the southern tip of Spain adds an important piece of the puzzle to the genetic history of Europe.
Published Mysterious new behavior seen in whales may be recorded in ancient manuscripts


In 2011, scientists recorded a previously unknown feeding strategy in whales around the world. Now, researchers in Australia think they may have found evidence of this behaviour being described in ancient accounts of sea creatures, recorded more than 2,000 years ago. They believe that misunderstandings of these descriptions contributed to myths about medieval sea monsters. Whales are known lunge at their prey when feeding, but recently whales have been spotted at the surface of the water with their jaws open at right angles, waiting for shoals of fish to swim into their mouths. A clip of this strategy was captured in 2021 and went viral on Instagram. This strategy seems to work for the whales because the fish think they have found a place to shelter from predators, not realising they are swimming into danger. It's not known why this strategy has only recently been identified, but scientists speculate that it's a result of changing environmental conditions -- or that whales are being more closely monitored than ever before by drones and other modern technologies.
Published Jurassic shark: Shark from the Jurassic period was already highly evolved


Cartilaginous fish have changed much more in the course of their evolutionary history than previously believed. Evidence for this thesis has been provided by new fossils of a ray-like shark, Protospinax annectans, which demonstrate that sharks were already highly evolved in the Late Jurassic.
Published A motion freezer for many particles


From the way that particles scatter light, it is possible to calculate a special light field that can slow these particles down. This is a new and powerful method to cool particles down to extremely low temperatures.
Published Tiny new climbing robot was inspired by geckos and inchworms


A tiny robot that could one day help doctors perform surgery was inspired by the incredible gripping ability of geckos and the efficient locomotion of inchworms.
Published Ancient proteins offer new clues about origin of life on Earth



By simulating early Earth conditions in the lab, researchers have found that without specific amino acids, ancient proteins would not have known how to evolve into everything alive on the planet today -- including plants, animals, and humans.
Published Faster and sharper whole-body imaging of small animals with deep learning


A research team presents technology that enhances photoacoustic computed tomography using a deep-learning approach.
Published Fastest laser camera films combustion in real time


A research team has developed one of the world's fastest single-shot laser cameras, which is at least a thousand times faster than today's most modern equipment for combustion diagnostics. The discovery has enormous significance for studying the lightning-fast combustion of hydrocarbons.
Published Deadly waves: Researchers document evolution of plague over hundreds of years in medieval Denmark


Scientists who study the origins and evolution of the plague have examined hundreds of ancient human teeth from Denmark, seeking to address longstanding questions about its arrival, persistence and spread within Scandinavia.