This week’s biggest science news took us on a journey through human prehistory, with the discovery that a mysterious 3.4-million-year-old ‘Bartele foot’ in Ethiopia may belong to a mysterious human relative who lived at the same time as our ancestor ‘Lucy’.
This study is important for many reasons, not only because it shows differences in how descendants of the human family tree walked (bartele feet are adapted for arboreal life), but also because it could rewrite assumptions about who our ancestors actually were.
Humanity’s journey back in time and across the ocean to the U.S.-Mexico border also brought us news of astonishing rock art depicting the Native American cosmology, which began 6,000 years ago and spanned approximately 175 generations. The story of creation, an intricate calendar, and a human-like doll that grows to the length of a giant dachshund are on display.
Will dark matter finally be discovered?
Dark matter is one of the most mysterious components of the universe. It makes up 27% of the universe, and ordinary matter makes up only 5%, but it cannot be directly detected because it does not interact with light.
But this week, new research claims to have discovered distinctive gamma-ray flashes that could be the smoking gun for this mysterious substance. A potential origin comes from hypothetical weakly interacting giant particles (WIMPs). WIMPs are 500 times heavier than protons and are prime candidates for dark matter.
Astronomers are responding to this claim with particular caution, as more research is needed to rule out other explanations. But if they can finally unmask the disguise, it would be a huge boost to our best theories of the universe.
More space news
–How dangerous are interstellar objects like 3I/ATLAS?
— Never be left behind again! Stranded Chinese astronaut finally returns home after launching unmanned “lifeboat”
—Rest in Peace, “Other ATLAS”: Watch the doomed comet explode into pieces in incredible new images.
life’s little mysteries
We know some details about the mysterious life of Neanderthals. They buried their dead, preserved animal skulls, created rock art, and carved pictures into bear bones. But do these tendencies toward ritual practices that hint at spiritual aspects mean that our ancient relatives had religious beliefs?
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Did China support the world’s first AI cyber attack?
Artificial intelligence research institute Anthropic is known for its dramatic claims about the capabilities of its chatbot, Claude. So when company representatives announced this month that their software had been hijacked by a Chinese state-sponsored spy group that planned and executed a 90% autonomous cyberespionage attack against 30 organizations around the world, we were a little skeptical.
Live Science followed up on this claim with experts in a report and found that even if talk of automation is exaggerated, they are now very concerned about the ability of AI models to accelerate widespread hacking attempts.
Discover more technology news
—Popular AI chatbot has alarming encryption flaws, meaning hackers could easily intercept messages
—With breakthrough in superconductivity, new semiconductors could enable classical and quantum computing on the same chip
— Turning off AI’s ability to lie makes it easier for AI to claim it’s conscious, a creepy study finds
Also featured in this week’s science news
— Scientists pull first wealth from ‘Holy Grail of shipwrecks’ that sank off the coast of Colombia in 1708
—China’s particle detector test “Gateway to physics beyond the Standard Model”—Produces excellent results
—Two stars spiral toward catastrophe, testing Einstein’s gravity
— ‘Like a sudden bomb’: See photos from space of Ethiopia’s volcano erupting for the first time in 12,000 years
Beyond the headlines
More than 70 years ago, before humans launched their first artificial satellites, astronomers captured several strange star-like flashes that appeared in the sky and disappeared within an hour.
Now, as new researchers are revisiting the photographic plates that captured these mysterious images, Live Science contributor Sharmila Kutnoor has written an interesting article about the correlation with Cold War-era nuclear weapons tests and UFO reports. Are the three phenomena related? Researchers are trying to find out:
something for the weekend
If you’re looking for something a little longer to read over the weekend, here are some of the best interviews, opinion pieces, and science history published this week.
– Evolution of life on Earth led to human intelligence ‘almost predictably’, says neuroscientist [Interview]
-Climate change is real. It’s happening. And it’s time to make it personal. [Opinion]
—Astronomy graduate student Jocelyn Bell Burnell discovers “little green people” signals, but her advisor wins Nobel Prize—November 28, 1967 [Science history]
science is in motion
A green fireball that exploded over Michigan’s Great Lakes, possibly a piece of comet debris, can be seen descending through the atmosphere at 100,000 mph (160,000 km/h) in eerie new footage captured by Michigan Storm Chasers.
The origin of the comet from which this debris may have broken up is still being understood, but its one-time occurrence suggests it was not part of a broader shower.
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