Rock art found in South Africa, and painted two centuries ago, represents how the San people imagined extinct animals that they found in fossil form.This early rendering of these fossils could relate to the lost cultural belief of rain ceremonies and the realm of the dead.“It’s a combination of what they could see in reality and what they imagined,” says Julien Benoit, a paleontologist at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa as he relates in a study published recently in PLOS ON ...read more

What came first, farming or our ability to digest its carbohydrate-rich harvest?A study of a gene key to breaking down carbohydrates started duplicating itself in humans over 800,000 years ago— well before the dawn of agriculture. A team of researchers report in Science that the gene, called AMY1, started creating variations of itself long before humans split from neanderthal. It plays an essential role in producing starch-digesting saliva.Ancient Dietary NeedsIn general, when genes make “co ...read more

On Oct. 14, 2024, NASA launched a robotic spacecraft named Europa Clipperto Jupiter’s moons. Clipper will reach the ice-covered Jovian moon Europa in 2030 and spend several years collecting and sending valuable data on the moon’s potential habitability back to Earth.Clipper isn’t the only mission highlighting researchers’ interest in Jupiter and its moons.On April 13, 2023, the European Space Agency launched a rocket carrying a spacecraft destined for Jupiter. The Jupiter Icy Moons Explo ...read more

The human mind may find it difficult to conceptualize a cosmic cloud so colossal it surrounds the Sun and eight planets as it extends trillions of miles into deep space.The spherical shell known as the Oort Cloud is, for all practical purposes, invisible. Its constituent particles are spread so thinly and so far from the light of any star, including the Sun, that astronomers simply cannot see the cloud, even though it envelops us like a blanket.It is also theoretical. Astronomers infer the Oort ...read more

Imagine waking up with sharp pain in your abdomen that just won’t go away. For many, this is how diverticulitis makes its presence known. It’s a condition that can strike suddenly, turning seemingly harmless pockets in your colon into the source of serious discomfort. While diverticulitis may sound like an obscure illness, it’s actually quite common, especially as we age. But what exactly causes diverticulitis, and how can you manage or prevent it from disrupting your life? Let’s dive in ...read more

Billions of years of evolution have made modern cells incredibly complex. Inside cells are small compartments called organelles that perform specific functions essential for the cell’s survival and operation. For instance, the nucleus stores genetic material, and mitochondria produce energy.Another essential part of a cell is the membrane that encloses it. Proteins embedded on the surface of the membrane control the movement of substances in and out of the cell. This sophisticated membrane str ...read more

For thousands of years, people have been using fungi to bake bread and brew beer (yeasts), as nutritious foods (mushrooms and truffles), and, more recently, as a source of life-saving antibiotics (penicillin, neomycin and many more). And yet, an estimated 95% of all fungus species remain undiscovered. Fortunately, thousands of energetic citizen scientists like you can help explore this diverse and fascinating kingdom of organisms, thanks to projects like FUNDIS, Mushroom Observer and others feat ...read more

In my research focused on early farmers of Europe, I have often wondered about a curious pattern through time: Farmers lived in large, dense villages, then dispersed for centuries, then later formed cities again, only to abandon those as well. Why?Archaeologists often explain what we call urban collapse in terms of climate change, overpopulation, social pressures, or some combination of these. Each likely has been true at different points in time.But scientists have added a new hypothesis to the ...read more

A pair of recently uncovered brown dwarf twins, named Gliese 229ba and Gliese 229bb. Gliese 229b, discovered in 1995, was the first-ever confirmed brown dwarf, but until now astronomers thought they were observing a single body not two. New observations from the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile revealed that the orb is two brown dwarfs tightly orbiting around each other every 12 days (as indicated by the orange and blue orbital lines), with a separation only 16 times ...read more

We’re told that we should eat the rainbow, choosing a diet filled with a colorful variety of fruits and vegetables. These nutrient-dense foods contain a range of vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals. But while we understand that phytochemicals keep us healthy, we might not understand why. Phytochemicals, also called phytonutrients, are substances found in fruits, vegetables, and grains that are part of a plant’s immune system, meant to keep it healthy and free of disease. And by keeping t ...read more