Showing 20 articles starting at article 261

< Previous 20 articles        Next 20 articles >

Categories: Anthropology: Early Humans, Mathematics: General

Return to the site home page

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers have identified and reconstructed the first ancient genome of E. coli, using fragments extracted from the gallstone of a 16th century mummy.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Mathematicians have found that they can design a range of composite materials from moiré patterns created by rotating and stretching one lattice relative to another. Their electrical and other physical properties can change --s ometimes quite abruptly, depending on whether the resulting moiré patterns are regularly repeating or non-repeating.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

A new study combining archaeological, historical and bioarchaeological data provides new insights into the early Islamic period in modern-day Syria. The research team was planning to focus on a much older time period but came across what they believe to be remains of early Muslims in the Syrian countryside.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers now reveal that nature's storage solution first evolved in ancient microbes living on Earth between one and two billion years ago.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

A tortoise from a Galápagos species long believed extinct has been found alive. Fernanda, named after her Fernandina Island home, is the first of her species identified in more than a century. Geneticist successfully extracted DNA from a specimen collected from the same island more than a century ago and confirmed that Fernanda and the museum specimen are members of the same species and genetically distinct from all other Galápagos tortoises.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

A new study is providing an enhanced look at the intertwined evolutionary histories of polar bears and brown bears. Becoming separate species did not completely stop these animals from mating with each other. Scientists have known this for some time, but the new research draws on an expanded dataset -- including DNA from an ancient polar bear tooth -- to tease out more detail.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

A new study examines mathematical models designed to draw inferences about how evolution operates at the level of populations of organisms. The study concludes that such models must be constructed with the greatest care, avoiding unwarranted initial assumptions, weighing the quality of existing knowledge and remaining open to alternate explanations.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Modern humans are characterized by their prosociality, a broad term that encompasses intraspecies empathy, social tolerance, cooperation and altruism. These facets of social cognition have been associated with variations in the oxytocin and vasotocin genes (OT and VT) and their receptors (OTR and VTR).To shed light on the genetic basis of this behavior, scientists carried out a new study comparing the available genomic sequences of these genes between modern humans, non-human primate species (e.g., chimpanzees, bonobos, and macaques) and archaic humans, using all the available genomes of Neanderthals and Denisovans.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Wide-ranging use of smart technologies is raising global agricultural production but international researchers warn this digital-age phenomenon could reap a crop of another kind -- cybersecurity attacks. Complex IT and math modelling has highlighted the risks.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

The astronomers' goal: find an artificial intelligence algorithm to interpret microlensing events captured by the upcoming Roman Space Telescope and speed detection of exoplanets around other stars. They achieved that, but the AI told them something unexpected and deep: the theory used to infer stellar and exoplanetary masses and orbits from observations was incomplete. Digging into the mathematics, they uncovered a theory that explains all types of microlensing events and possible ambiguities in interpreting them.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Scientists have explored the importance of sea travel in prehistory by examining the genomes of ancient Maltese humans and comparing these with the genomes of this period from across Europe. Previous findings from the archaeological team had suggested that towards the end of the third millennium BC the use of the Maltese temples declined. Now, using genetic data from ancient Maltese individuals the current interdisciplinary research team has suggested a potential contributing cause. Researchers found that these ancient humans lacked some of the signatures of genetic changes that swept across Europe in this period, because of their island separation. Scientists concluded that physical topography, in particular seascapes played a central role as barriers to genetic exchange.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

What links a finger bone and some fossil teeth found in a cave in the remote Altai Mountains of Siberia to a single tooth found in a cave in the limestone landscapes of tropical Laos? The answer to this question has been established by an international team of researchers from Laos, Europe, the US and Australia. The human tooth was chanced upon during an archaeological survey in a remote area of Laos. The scientists have shown it originated from the same ancient human population first recognised in Denisova Cave (dubbed the Denisovans), in the Altai Mountains of Siberia (Russia).

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Australia has suffered a significant drop in teenage maths proficiency in the past 20 years -- sliding from 11th in the OECD rankings to 29th place out of 38 countries, prompting widespread debate over potential curriculum changes. One researcher says hand gestures could stop the slide.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

How does a cell balance risk and speed when dividing? Scientists have developed and experimentally tested the first mathematical theory that describes the cell's best strategy for dividing safely and efficiently.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Scientists identified the most relevant predictive variables for anticipating hospital demand and proposed using an ensemble model based on the average of the predictions of several individual models.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers have developed a technique that enables a robot to learn a new pick-and-place task with only a handful of human demonstrations. This could allow a human to reprogram a robot to grasp never-before-seen objects, presented in random poses, in about 15 minutes.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Studying how brain cells respond to signals from their neighbors can aid the understanding of cognition and development. However, experimentally measuring the brain's activity is complicated. Neuron models provide a non-invasive way to investigate the brain, but most existing models are either computationally intensive or cannot model complex neuronal responses. Recently, a team has used a computationally simple neuron model to simulate some of the complex responses of neurons.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Scientists explore the mathematics of combing and explain why the brushing technique used by so many is the most effective method to detangle a bundle of fibers.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Math is the language of the physical world, and some see mathematical patterns everywhere: in weather, in the way soundwaves move, and even in the spots or stripes zebra fish develop in embryos.

     (via sciencedaily.com) 

Physicists know about the huge chasm between quantum physics and the theory of gravity. However, in recent decades, theoretical physics has provided some plausible conjecture to bridge this gap and to describe the behavior of complex quantum many-body systems -- for example, black holes and wormholes in the universe. Now, researchers have proven a mathematical conjecture about the behavior of complexity in such systems, increasing the viability of this bridge.