“They can spend 4-5 hours per day underwater”: how humans adapted to the most difficult environments
Our species, Homo sapiens, is the most geographically diverse of all primate species, permanently inhabiting every continent except Antarctica. We have achieved this through our unprecedented ability to develop adaptations that increase our chances of surviving and producing in a variety of environments. Herman Pontzer, a professor of evolutionary anthropology and global health at Duke […]
I went to Finland to hear about a new “sand battery” that converts stored renewable energy back into electricity for the grid.
PORNAINEN, Finland — Engineers will soon begin testing new “sand batteries” that can convert energy stored as heat into electricity and feed it into the power grid. But challenges lie ahead, they say, with investment costs potentially driving customers away. Polar Night Energy’s existing sand battery model stores renewable electricity by using electricity to heat […]
The hungriest black hole in the universe is running out of food, a study of 8,000 space monsters reveals
Astronomers have long wondered why the universe’s largest black hole has grown so much more slowly over the past 10 billion years. Now, new research offers a potential solution to this astrophysical puzzle. That means they’re hungry for gas. Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) have enormous gravitational appetites and were able to grow at an astonishing […]
Beaded Net Dress: A 4,500-year-old ancient Egyptian funerary “gown” popular during the Old Kingdom.
This ancient Egyptian beaded net dress was popular around the time the pyramids were built. (Image credit: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Public Domain)) simple facts Name: beaded net dress What is it: beaded funeral dress Birthplace: Giza, Egypt Creation date: ca. 2551 to ca. 2528 BC Archaeologists discovered this bead ensemble in Giza in […]
‘The moment of this generation’: How the Artemis mission will reshape humanity’s relationship with the moon
For most of human history, the moon was more than a distant object in the night sky. It has served as a clock, a guide, a god, and a focus for science. Now that NASA’s Artemis II mission has returned astronauts to the lunar system for the first time in more than 50 years, humanity’s […]
Diabetes rates are lower in high-altitude environments – scientists may have discovered the reason
Diabetes rates are lower at high altitudes, but researchers aren’t sure why. Now, a new study in mice has revealed a possible explanation. Red blood cells, which play a central role in transporting oxygen throughout the body, may lower blood sugar levels by converting glucose into compounds that help release oxygen to tissues. If the […]
Antarctica hides vast deposits of gold, silver, copper and iron. As the ice melts, countries may compete to harvest it.
Climate warming could expose Antarctica to ice-free land the size of Pennsylvania by 2300, potentially dramatically changing the geopolitics of Antarctica and its geography. The study, published in Nature Climate Change, is the first to incorporate glacier isostatic adjustment (how land beneath heavy ice sheets rises after ice retreats) into predictions of the emergence of […]
Shroud of Turin, believed to be Jesus’ burial cloth, contaminated with carrot and red coral DNA
The Shroud of Turin, which some claim is Jesus’ burial shroud, contains the DNA of multiple people, along with a vast number of other species, including carrots, melons, and red coral. Some DNA traces suggest an Indian influence, which could mean the cloth originated there, researchers claim in a new study. However, species traditionally associated […]
What happened to Minoan civilization?
From approximately 2000 to 1500 BC, the Minoan civilization flourished on Crete and nearby islands, building palaces decorated with frescoes, engaging in athletic activities such as bull-jumping, and creating a script that even experts could not decipher. One of the most important cities they built was Knossos on the north coast of Crete, which included […]
Fossil ruins in China reveal complex community of creatures that lived before the Cambrian explosion, including ‘dune’-like sandworms
A newly discovered fossil trove in southwestern China is changing the timeline of how complex animals evolved. Animal diversity and complexity are thought to have increased rapidly during an evolutionary explosion known as the Cambrian Explosion about 539 million years ago. But new fossil sites suggest that some of that complexity was already present at […]