A population group inside modern-day Ukraine avoided outside influence for about 4,000 years during the latter days of the Stone Age and delayed the transition from hunting and gathering to farming, a new study says.Researchers from Uppsala University and elsewhere drew on genetic material of 56 people who lived at different times during the Stone Age, in central and eastern Europe. Experts were particularly interested in the introduction of farming to Europe, which occurred about 8,500 years ag ...read more

The sound of a crackling fire. The feel of a warm shower. The smell of bread baking in the oven. Many people take delight in these experiences. But for people with anhedonia, these little pleasures can feel meaningless.Experts typically describe anhedonia as the reduced ability to feel enjoyment in activities or experiences that once brought pleasure. It's a condition associated with several mental health disorders, and it's a primary symptom of major depressive disorder.Clinicians are still lea ...read more

The death of a lion in Kenya’s picturesque savannas rarely tugs at people’s hearts, even in a country where wildlife tourism is a key pillar of the nation’s economy. But when one of the most tracked male lions in Kenya’s famous Masaai Mara was killed on 24 July 2023 the world took notice. Known as Jesse, he was killed during a fight with a coalition of three male lions from a rival pride, drawing attention to the brutally risky and dangerous lives of male lions.Lions are organised in f ...read more

We’ve all heard that an apple a day keeps the doctor away, but how true is that?Apples are not high in vitamin A, nor are they beneficial for vision like carrots. They are not a great source of vitamin C and therefore don’t fight off colds as oranges do.However, apples contain various bioactive substances – natural chemicals that occur in small amounts in foods and that have biological effects in the body. These chemicals are not classified as nutrients like vitamins. Because apples cont ...read more

Wildfires, pushed by powerful winds, raced through Lahaina, Hawaii, on Aug. 8 and 9, 2023, leaving a charred and smoldering landscape across the tourist town of about 13,000 residents that was once the capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii. At least 36 people died, Maui County officials said. Others were rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard after going into the ocean to escape the flames.Fires were still burning on Aug. 10, both in Maui’s tourist-filled west coast and farther inland, as well as o ...read more

The April 1941 issue of Astounding Science Fiction included "Reason," a story by Isaac Asimov later published in the collection I, Robot. The story in Asimov's Robot series was set on a space station that beams power in the form of microwaves directly to planets.More than 30 years later, Peter Glaser, a NASA engineer who worked on, among other projects, the Apollo moon missions, took a big step in turning Asimov's plot device into reality. Glaser designed — and in 1973 was granted a pate ...read more

A 300,000-year-old skull recovered from an archaeological dig in China could prompt a new branch on the human family tree. The development comes after scientists have spent years studying the skull and puzzling over its combination of archaic and modern features.The new paper published in the Journal of Human Evolution joins an existing call to found a new human species closely related to our Homo Sapiens.The study is the first attempt to fully classify the skull and its features of a flat face ...read more

It’s not unusual to hear of people getting headaches due to stress, poor sleep or sinus problems. Most of us have experienced one at some point. However, headaches can also occur during or after sex — and this may be unusual for some.Around 1 percent of adults report having experienced sex-induced headaches, also known as sex headaches or orgasm headaches. But because many people feel uneasy mentioning it all, the condition tends to fly under the radar.What Is a Headache During Sex?Sex-induc ...read more

A massive new whale discovered in the Peruvian desert presents a caloric quandary: At somewhere between 170,000 and 680,000 pounds, it would have required an equally massive diet to survive. Yet, Perucetus colossus was a slow, ponderous sort of sea creature that kept to the shallows and coastal regions.So, what did it do?Like many modern whales, it may have relied on filter feeding, or it may have munched on sea grass like a manatee. Or it could have suctioned up demersal fishes, crustaceans, mo ...read more

In medical and engineering circles, it’s known by a few different names: cabinet respirator, tank respirator, negative pressure ventilator and others. But since its creation almost a century ago, this lifesaving device has been known almost universally by another name: the iron lung.What Is an Iron Lung?As intimidating as the name sounds — and as scary as the coffin-like device looked — the iron lung was a medical miracle for people suffering from something even scarier: poliomyelitis. Bef ...read more