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Categories: Offbeat: General, Offbeat: Space
Published Some Pre-Roman humans were buried with dogs, horses and other animals



Some people from an ancient community in what is now northern Italy were interred with animals and animal parts from species such as dogs, horses and pigs. The reasons remain mysterious, but might indicate an enduring companion relationship between these humans and animals, or religious sacrificial practices, according to a new study.
Published A new optical metamaterial makes true one-way glass possible



Researchers have discovered how to make an optical metamaterial that would underpin a variety of new technologies.
Published By growing animal cells in rice grains, scientists dish up hybrid food



From lab-grown chicken to cricket-derived protein, these innovative alternatives offer hope for a planet struggling with the environmental and ethical impacts of industrial agriculture. Now, scientists add a new recipe to the list -- cultured beef rice -- by growing animal muscle and fat cells inside rice grains. The method results in a nutritious and flavorful hybrid food that, once commercialized, could offer a more affordable protein alternative with a smaller carbon footprint.
Published A 'quantum leap' at room temperature



Scientists have achieved a milestone by controlling quantum phenomena at room temperature.
Published Great apes playfully tease each other



Babies playfully tease others as young as eight months of age. Since language is not required for this behavior, similar kinds of playful teasing might be present in non-human animals. Now cognitive biologists and primatologists have documented playful teasing in four species of great apes. Like joking behavior in humans, ape teasing is provocative, persistent, and includes elements of surprise and play. Because all four great ape species used playful teasing, it is likely that the prerequisites for humor evolved in the human lineage at least 13 million years ago.
Published Desert ants: The magnetic field calibrates the navigation system



Desert ants find their way during an early learning phase with the help of the Earth's magnetic field. The associated learning process leaves clear traces in their nervous system.
Published Greetings from the island of enhanced stability: The quest for the limit of the periodic table



Since the turn of the century, six new chemical elements have been discovered and subsequently added to the periodic table of elements, the very icon of chemistry. These new elements have high atomic numbers up to 118 and are significantly heavier than uranium, the element with the highest atomic number (92) found in larger quantities on Earth. This raises questions such as how many more of these superheavy species are waiting to be discovered, where -- if at all -- is a fundamental limit in the creation of these elements, and what are the characteristics of the so-called island of enhanced stability. In a recent review, experts in theoretical and experimental chemistry and physics of the heaviest elements and their nuclei summarize the major challenges and offer a fresh view on new superheavy elements and the limit of the periodic table.
Published Archaeologists discover oldest known bead in the Americas



The bead found at the La Prele Mammoth site in Wyoming's Converse County is about 12,940 years old and made of bone from a hare.
Published How ancient sea creatures can inform soft robotics



Fossils of a marine animal that lived 500 million years ago, combined with computer simulations, informed the design of a new soft robot.
Published The hidden rule for flight feathers -- and how it could reveal which dinosaurs could fly



Scientists examined hundreds of birds in museum collections and discovered a suite of feather characteristics that all flying birds have in common. These 'rules' provide clues as to how the dinosaur ancestors of modern birds first evolved the ability to fly, and which dinosaurs were capable of flight.
Published Five dazzling new species of eyelash vipers discovered in Colombia and Ecuador



Scientists have discovered five dazzling new species of eyelash vipers in the jungles and cloud forests of Colombia and Ecuador.
Published Surprisingly vibrant color of 12-million-year-old snail shells



Snail shells are often colorful and strikingly patterned. This is due to pigments that are produced in special cells of the snail and stored in the shell in varying concentrations. Fossil shells, on the other hand, are usually pale and inconspicuous because the pigments are very sensitive and have already decomposed. Residues of ancient color patterns are therefore very rare. This makes a new discovery all the more astonishing: researchers found pigments in twelve-million-year-old fossilized snail shells.
Published Surprising behavior in one of the least studied mammals in the world



Beaked whales are among the least studied mammals in the world. Now, a new study reveals surprising information about the Baird's beaked whale species.
Published Researchers show classical computers can keep up with, and surpass, their quantum counterparts



A team of scientists has devised means for classical computing to mimic a quantum computing with far fewer resources than previously thought. The scientists' results show that classical computing can be reconfigured to perform faster and more accurate calculations than state-of-the-art quantum computers.
Published Mysterious gap in size distribution of super-earths explained



Astronomers have uncovered evidence of how the enigmatic gap in the size distribution of exoplanets at around two Earth radii emerges. Their computer simulations demonstrate that the migration of icy, so-called sub-Neptunes into the inner regions of their planetary systems could account for this phenomenon. As they draw closer to the central star, evaporating water ice forms an atmosphere that makes the planets appear larger than in their frozen state. Simultaneously, smaller rocky planets gradually lose a portion of their original gaseous envelope, causing their measured radius to shrink over time.
Published Scandinavia's first farmers slaughtered the hunter-gatherer population, study finds



Following the arrival of the first farmers in Scandinavia 5,900 years ago, the hunter-gatherer population was wiped out within a few generations, according to a new study. The results, which are contrary to prevailing opinion, are based on DNA analysis of skeletons and teeth found in what is now Denmark.
Published Smart earrings can monitor a person's temperature



Researchers introduced the Thermal Earring, a wireless wearable that continuously monitors a user's earlobe temperature. Potential applications include tracking signs of ovulation, stress, eating and exercise. The smart earring prototype is about the size and weight of a small paperclip and has a 28-day battery life.
Published Mimas' surprise: Tiny moon of Saturn holds young ocean beneath icy shell



Saturn's moon Mimas harbors a global ocean beneath its icy shell, discovered through analysis of its orbit by Cassini spacecraft data. This ocean formed just 5-15 million years ago, making Mimas a prime candidate for studying early ocean formation and potential for life. This discovery suggests life-essential conditions might exist on seemingly inactive moons, expanding our search for life beyond Earth.
Published How teachers make ethical judgments when using AI in the classroom



A teacher's gender and comfort with technology factor into whether artificial intelligence is adopted in the classroom, as shown in a new report.
Published Astrophysicists crack the case of 'disappearing' Sulphur in planetary nebulae



Two astrophysicists have finally solved a 20-year-old astrophysical puzzle concerning the lower-than-expected amounts of the element sulphur found in Planetary Nebulae (PNe) in comparison to expectations and measurements of other elements and other types of astrophysical objects. The expected levels of sulphur have long appeared to be 'missing in action'. However, they have now finally reported for duty after hiding in plain sight, as a result of leveraging highly accurate and reliable data.