Showing 20 articles starting at article 181

< Previous 20 articles        Next 20 articles >

Categories: Anthropology: General, Offbeat: Earth and Climate

Return to the site home page

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A new study has challenged previously held views that brain preservation in the archaeological record is extremely rare. The team compiled a new archive of preserved human brains, which highlighted that nervous tissues actually persist in much greater abundances than traditionally thought, assisted by conditions that prevent decay.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers have uncovered intriguing details about the origins and spread of the bottle gourd, one of the oldest domesticated crops. Their work unveils the genetic diversification and population history of this hard-shelled plant that was used to make bottles, instruments, and containers for over 10,000 years by ancient civilizations.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Namibia's legendary fairy circles are mysterious, circular, bald patches in the dry grasslands on the edge of the Namib Desert. Their formation has been researched for decades and has recently been the subject of much debate. With extensive fieldwork, researchers investigated how freshly germinated grass dies inside the fairy circle. Their results show that the grass withers due to a lack of water inside the fairy circle. The topsoil, comprised of the top 10 to 12 centimeters of the soil, acts as a kind of 'death zone' in which fresh grass cannot survive for long.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A new visitor was reported on the coast of Cyprus, thanks to the growing power of citizen science. Researchers collected information and specimens through personal communication with amateur naturalists, but also through the internet, in order to compose the mosaic of repeated appearances of a giant water bug on the eastern shoreline of the island.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Perfectly adapted microorganisms live in extreme environments from deep-sea trenches to mountaintops. Learning more about how these extremophiles survive in hostile conditions could inform scientists about life on Earth and potential life on other planets.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Scientists are exploring how tuning the genomes of mushrooms and molds can transform these food sources into gourmet, nutrient-packed meals made with minimal processing and a light environmental footprint.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Seattle may have experienced its own Swift Quake last July, but at an August 2023 concert Taylor Swift's fans in Los Angeles gave scientists a lot of shaking to ponder. After some debate, a research team concluded that it was likely the dancing and jumping motions of the audience at SoFi Stadium -- not the musical beats or reverberations of the sound system -- that generated the concert's distinct harmonic tremors.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Healthy coral reefs have rich soundscapes, full of the croaks, purrs, and grunts of various fishes and the crackling of snapping shrimp. Larval coral uses these sounds as cues to identify the best places to settle and grow. The authors found that sound could potentially be a vital tool in the effort to restore coral reefs. Broadcasting the sounds of a healthy reef to a reef that is degraded encourages coral larvae to settle there. This indicates that it's possible that 'acoustic enrichment' can be a key intervention to support imperiled reefs.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Sand ripples are symmetrical. Yet wind -- which causes them -- is very much not. Furthermore, sand ripples can be found on Mars and on Earth. They would be even more fascinating if the same effect found on Mars could be found here on Earth as well. What if one unified theory could explain their formation on both planets?

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A new study has answered a long-held question about why medium-sized land animals like cheetahs tend to be fastest.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Sound waves thought to be from a 2014 meteor fireball north of Papua New Guinea were almost certainly vibrations from a truck rumbling along a nearby road, new research shows. The findings raise doubts that materials pulled last year from the ocean are alien materials from that meteor, as was widely reported.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Marine biologists have discovered a new species of deep-sea worm living near a methane seep some 50 kilometers (30 miles) off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

It would be a game-changer if all members of a basketball team could see out of each other's eyes in addition to their own. Biologists have found evidence that this kind of collective sensing occurs in close-knit groups of African weakly electric fish, also known as elephantnose fish. This instantaneous sharing of sensory intelligence could help the fish locate food, friends and foes.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A new study finds that exposure to chronic radiation from Chornobyl has not damaged the genomes of microscopic worms living there today -- which doesn't mean that the region is safe, the scientists caution, but suggests that these worms are exceptionally resilient.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Scientists provide fresh insights on the origins of life, presenting compelling evidence supporting the 'RNA World' hypothesis. The study unveils an RNA enzyme that can make accurate copies of other functional RNA strands, while also allowing new variants of the molecule to emerge over time. These remarkable capabilities suggest the earliest forms of evolution may have occurred on a molecular scale in RNA, and also bring scientists one step closer to re-creating autonomous RNA-based life in the laboratory.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Plant biologists have uncovered an evolutionary mystery over 100 million years in the making. It turns out that sometime during the last 125 million years, tomatoes and Arabidopsis thaliana plants experienced an extreme genetic makeover. Just what happened remains unclear. But the mystery surrounds CLV3, a gene key to healthy plant growth and development.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Dung beetles share the load when it comes to showing their affection for each-other, when transporting a 'brood ball'.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A technique originally devised to extract DNA from woolly mammoths and other ancient archaeological specimens can be used to potentially identify badly burned human remains, according to research.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers show how biohybrid robots based on jellyfish could be used to gather climate science data from deep in the Earth's oceans.

     (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Thousands of historic and archaeological sites in Georgia are at risk from tropical storm surges, and that number will increase with climate change, according to a new study.