Deep beneath the streets of Rome near the Vatican, overlooking the banks of the Tiber River, Italian archaeologists have uncovered a hidden gem of Roman history — Caligula’s secret garden. This 2,000-year-old marvel, buried for centuries, offers a rare glimpse into one of Rome's most infamous rulers. Known for his excesses and controversial reign, the discovery of Caligula’s Garden not only illuminates his world but also sheds light on the opulence of ancient Roman life.Read More: 5 of the ...read more

Earthquakes, tornadoes, air strikes — all around the world, countless lives are lost not just to the direct impacts of disasters, but those that are trapped in the resulting wreckage. Search and rescue efforts, both professional and amateur, are dangerous in themselves, as digging through rubble creates risk for secondary collapse and exposure to hazardous materials. Meanwhile time is short, and the larger the affected area, the harder it is to search efficiently and effectively. Dogs can snif ...read more

The ancestors of modern waterfowl weren’t all that odd. Diving for fish and other prey in the waters of Antarctica, they looked like today’s birds, but were they truly modern?A new paper published today in Nature tells us all about these ancestors of modern-day ducks. Assessing a newly found fossil of Vegavis iaai from the Late Cretaceous around 69 million years ago, the paper confirms the classification of the species as a truly modern bird, not wholly unlike the ducks and geese of today.†...read more

A medley of elements make life on Earth possible, yet the ways in which our planet has gained them — and lost some in the process — have been on scientists’ minds for years. The major building blocks of life, like water, carbon, and nitrogen, often take center stage, but scientists have recently made sense of another foundational component in Earth’s framework — moderately volatile elements (MVEs). MVEs, containing such elements as zinc and copper, work in tandem with life-essential e ...read more

The conventional wisdom on why some antibiotics don’t work rests on the concept of persistence. A small subset of bacteria sometimes hides out and escapes the effects of the drugs meant to kill them. These persisters can then come back with a vengeance and may no longer respond to the same antibiotic, the theory goes.For example, antibiotics are only partially effective against infections caused by the Salmonella bacteria. The persistence of that infection can lead to other conditions, such as ...read more

The Grand Canyon on Earth versus the ones on the Moon are a study in contrasts. The terrestrial version was slowly carved over millions of years by wind and water. The lunar equivalents appear to have been ripped open within minutes, by the geological version of two massive fingernails, according to a study in Nature Communications.Although the Moon’s canyons are well hidden on the dark side of the satellite, they are as impressive as the one in Arizona. They measure about 16 miles wide, over ...read more

The human-canine bond began more than 30,000 years ago, leading to the extensive domestication of dogs to serve human needs in hunting, protection, and herding. Over time, intentional breeding practices have created hundreds of dog breeds with a wide variety of appearances and behaviors. The prevailing belief has been that selective breeding enhances a dog’s ability to perform specific tasks, but new research challenges this assumption, at least when it comes to skills associated with the shap ...read more

Ancient DNA analysis has allowed us to make some groundbreaking discoveries, and it’s time to add a new one to the list.Ron Pinhasi and his team in the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology at the University of Vienna have uncovered new details about our linguistic roots. In collaboration with Harvard University’s ancient DNA lab, the team has filled a gap in the Indo-European linguistic record that has puzzled scientists and historians for centuries in a new study published in Nature.What ...read more

We tend to think of connectivity as a good thing. For instance, the more connections one has on LinkedIn, the better one’s job prospects would appear. But in people who appear to have lost interest in things they once found pleasurable, too much brain connectivity may actually fuel the condition, according to a study in the Journal of Affective Disorders.Knowing that this condition — which doctors call anhedonia — is associated with mental illnesses could improve diagnosis, by providing ph ...read more

In an increasingly digitizing world, on the tail-ends of a public health crisis which has strained the public’s mental health, remote therapy may be here to stay. But is it an adequate substitute for in-person therapy? The research says it is certainly a great option to have — but not the only one.Virtual Therapy EffectivenessHow useful therapy can be is subjective from person-to-person, and virtual therapy is no exception. “For pure effectiveness, I would say it’s something we call ‘n ...read more