This week’s science news was full of discoveries that were thought to have been lost to time. In particular, the world’s oldest known rock art was discovered in Indonesia.
A nearly 70,000-year-old human handprint discovered in a Sulawesi cave fills a major gap in scientists’ understanding of human migration across the islands of Southeast Asia and into Australia, likely left behind by the ancestors of Australia’s indigenous people.
Huge freshwater reservoir under the sea off the east coast
This week, an expedition off the coast of Massachusetts confirmed the existence of a massive underwater reservoir that could supply a city the size of New York City with fresh water for about 800 years.
This freshwater reservoir, which stretches from the coast of New Jersey to as far north as Maine, was probably formed during the last ice age 20,000 years ago, when rainwater was trapped underground before sea levels rose.
More definitive results on when and how the reservoir formed, along with its bacterial and mineral content, are expected soon. The scientists who discovered this information say it could prove extremely important to people who want to use it in the future.
Discover more of Earth’s stories
— An arctic blast probably won’t cause trees to explode in the cold — but here’s what would happen if they did.
– Californians continue to use far less water than their suppliers estimate, but what does this mean for the state?
–‘The scientific cost will be severe’: President Trump’s takeover of Greenland will jeopardize climate research
life’s little mysteries
It’s a truism that we often miss what’s under our noses, but what about our noses themselves? Why do we ignore the fleshy prow atop our faces and go through life consciously just looking at them? The answer is not because they are out of our sight, but because of a clever neuro-visual sleight of hand that may be the key to our survival.
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The biggest solar radiation storm in decades
The most powerful solar radiation storm on Earth in more than two decades struck on Monday (January 19), spreading a curtain of aurora borealis across the night sky from Southern California to Arizona to New Mexico.
Some publications reported that this storm was the largest geomagnetic storm since 2003, but that was a bit of an exaggeration. The 2024 Mother’s Day Storm was even more powerful. But this storm was one of the most powerful solar radiation storms on record, meaning the amount of radiation dumped on Earth was unusual.
Discover more stories of the universe
— ‘It’s like watching a cosmic volcano erupt’: Scientists witness monster black hole ‘reborn’ after 100 million years
– New images suggest an ocean the size of the North Pole once covered half of Mars
—’Dawn Goddess’: James Webb Telescope Spies One of the Oldest Supernovae in the Early Universe
Also featured in this week’s science news
—If dark matter and “ghost particles” can interact, scientists may be close to “fundamental breakthroughs in cosmology and particle physics.”
—Coyote makes emergency landing on Alcatraz Island after unprecedentedly dangerous swim
—Diagnostic Dilemma: A woman experienced delusions of communicating with her dead brother after a late-night chatbot session.
–Research confirms that humans, not glaciers, brought stones to Stonehenge
science spotlight
Not so long ago, astronomers thought they knew the story of how giant supermassive black holes form. They believed that this happens in the same way that regular black holes are born, by collapsing from large stars and slowly merging until they grow to billions of times the mass of the Sun.
But the James Webb Space Telescope appears to have upended that story by discovering a massive black hole in the early days of our universe that would not have had time to grow by merging and devouring matter.
So how did these behemoths get so big? Live Science explored all of the explanations and their revolutionary potential in this fascinating Science Spotlight.
something for the weekend
If you’re looking for something a little longer to read over the weekend, here are some of the analyzes, crosswords, and opinion pieces published this week.
—Lab mice that “touch grass” have less anxiety — highlighting a big problem in rodent research [Analysis]
— Live Science Crossword Puzzle #26: Nothing can travel faster than this — Horizontal 12 [Crossword]
— Indigenous TikTok star ‘Bush Legend’ is actually generated by AI, leading to accusations of ‘digital blackface’ [Opinion]
science is in motion
This week, amazing time-lapse footage of the Sun was released that may help solve one of the most enduring mysteries about our home star.
The footage, taken by the European Space Agency’s Proba-3 mission, shows three major plumes of plasma erupting from the sun’s surface. By studying it further, astronomers hope to learn why the sun’s faint atmosphere, or corona, is hundreds of times hotter than its surface.
A deeper understanding of the warp and weft of the Sun’s magnetic field lines could help researchers more accurately predict when magnetic field lines will break and cause solar flares, some of which can have devastating effects on Earth.
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