The Magdalenian peoples of the European Ice Age left little of themselves behind. Today, their bones are few and far between, found typically in isolation and in fragments. But the remains from one 18,000-year-old assemblage tell us one thing: The Ice Age was a tough time to have enemies. Assessing the markings on Magdalenian remains from Maszycka Cave in southern Poland, a team of researchers has determined that the Magdalenian peoples dissected and cannibalized their dead around 18,000 years a ...read more

A recent study revealed that Earth’s inner core is slowing down, prompting scientists to investigate further. Their research led to an unexpected discovery: that inner core is not entirely solid.Scientists from the University of Southern California (USC) analyzed data from earthquakes and identified unexpected changes in the core's composition, offering insights into why these shifts are occurring.A Slowing Core and Its EffectsIn June 2024, USC scientists published a study showing that Earth� ...read more

The human body is, on average, 60 percent water. So it makes sense that water is doing something important in there. And indeed, water is necessary for almost all physiological processes. In the past few years, research on hydration has shifted from studying the role of hydration in athletic performance to water’s role in overall health. And scientists are finding some interesting connections.Water Is Essential to the BodyThere is evidence that insufficient hydration can cause inflammation, s ...read more

We process our world differently when we’re stressed out, and so, too, do mice. According to a new paper in PLOS Biology, mice perceive sounds in a different way when they’ve been subjected to repeated stressors, responding to some louder sounds as if they were softer. “We found that repetitive stress alters sound processing,” the study authors stated in their paper. “These alterations in auditory processing culminated in perceptual shifts, particularly a reduction in loudness percepti ...read more

After noticing a fish with striking red stripes under its eyes, Chinese scientists knew they’d identified a new species. The fish — a species of tilefish — appears to be wearing red face paint and thus has been named after San, a character from Princess Mononoke, a Studio Ghibli film. With this rare find, researchers are hoping to learn more about this genus and further investigate the species genetic diversity. The findings were recently published in ZooKeys.“Finding a new species in ...read more

Until recently, civilization (as a whole) had never endured severe climate change at global scale. Individual cultures, on the other hand, have confronted regional climate shifts time and again, and for the people involved, they’ve been no less devastating. In fact, many of those cultures collapsed in the turmoil of fluctuating temperatures and dwindling precipitation (and, surely, other political and economic factors). From the deserts of the Middle East to the rainforest of Central America, ...read more

Back in 1971, a couple of British astronomers predicted the existence of a black hole at the center of our galaxy. And in 1974, other astronomers found it, naming it Sagittarius A*. Since then, astronomers have discovered that a similar “supermassive black hole” sits at the center of almost every other large galaxy. In 2019, they took the first image of a supermassive black hole. Today, these exotic objects are a fundamental part of our understanding of how galaxies form and evolve. But what ...read more

A molecule that is currently being used to treat cancerous soft-tissue sarcomas may be the key for developing a cure for HIV.This molecule, known as EBC-46, works by temporarily activating the HIV virus in the affected cells as they hide so that the body’s immune system can remove the virus, according to a study published recently in Science Advances.“It’s pretty amazing,” says Paul Wender, a chemist at Stanford University. “In this new agent, we were seeing things that get up to 90 pe ...read more

In the cave of El Mirón in northern Spain, intrigue surrounds a woman who was laid to rest there 19,000 years ago. Her bones, coated in an earthy shade of red derived from the natural pigment ochre, led archaeologists to give her the name the "Red Lady of El Mirón;" new research, however, has taken a closer look not at her red-hued bones, but at the soil within the cave. In a study recently published in Nature Communications, researchers analyzed sedimentary ancient DNA, or sedaDNA, refining ...read more

Dating can be full of surprises. In the social kind, one can learn about all sorts of unexpected things about a potential partner. In the scientific type, sometimes strange, unexplained phenomena comes to light.The latter was the case for a group of scientists, who found twice as much Beryllium-10 in the Pacific seabed then expected. This anomaly could shift our understanding of cosmic phenomenon that affect the Earth and also help recalibrate scientific dating techniques, they report in Nature ...read more