An undergraduate student at Penn State University discovered a new approach to a century-old problem, and in doing so made it easier for engineers to develop more efficient wind turbines. The real world is frighteningly complex, and physicists like to start with this simplest approximation to the problem to make headway, and then add refinements as needed. In the case of wind turbines, the first attempt to determine their optimization was made by Hermann Glauert, a British aerodynamicist, in the ...read more

Espionage, sex, public humiliation, murder — these may sound like tropes straight out of Game of Thrones, but they’re actually all elements of a nearly 700-year-old cold case in England. After analyzing Medieval letters and records, a research team from the Cambridge University Institute of Criminology’s Medieval Murder Maps project may have found the killer of a priest. However, this priest may not have been so innocent. A new paper published in Criminal Law Forum takes a deeper look at ...read more

Turns out, early humans preferred smoked meat to cooked meat. Or they might have, according to a new theory from researchers at Tel Aviv University. Published in a paper in Frontiers in Nutrition, the theory suggests that early humans turned to fires not only to cook their meat but also to protect it from predators and scavengers, and to preserve it through smoking for longer periods of time.“In this study, we propose a new understanding of the factors that motivated early humans to begin usin ...read more

Viruses that originated in bats have overwhelmed humans in past pandemics, and more could be on the way if mutations end up allowing them to spread. An understudied group of coronaviruses known as merbecoviruses contains one viral type of particular concern: HKU5. A new study published in Nature Communications found that while most merbecoviruses don’t appear likely to impact humans, HKU5 may eventually pose a threat. Bat-borne HKU5 viruses haven't reached humans yet, but all it would take to ...read more

Cancer affects millions of people around the world every year. Oftentimes, the signs and symptoms of cancer present themselves once the disease has advanced into its later stages, leaving many wishing they could have known about it sooner. A new study, published in Cancer Discovery, suggests that this wish may soon become a reality.Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have discovered that specific blood tests can be used for the early detection of cancer. These tests can identify and diagnose ...read more

Black holes are the notorious loners of the universe since getting close to them usually means catastrophic destruction. The latest victim who attempted friendship with one of these hungry giants ended up causing the most energetic explosion to ever occur in the universe.In a new study, published in Science Advances, a team of astronomers from the University of Hawai’i describes what they are calling “extreme nuclear transients” (ENTs). ENTs occur when stars more than three times the weigh ...read more

Interesting things can hide in preserved dung. Besides offering clues about long-gone vegetation, almost anything that gets trapped in ancient feces and stands the test of time can give us a glimpse into prehistoric life. The latest example? A tiny treasure buried in 236-million-year-old poop.It might not be as glamorous as a bug in amber, but this dung fossil, likely left behind by a hippo-sized herbivore in what is now Argentina, contains the oldest physical evidence of butterflies or moths ev ...read more

Bacteria wouldn’t be so bad if we could tell them what to do. “Stop spreading! Stop sticking together! Stop fending off our antibiotics!” A new method is starting to allow scientists to do just that, letting them use light to control certain functions of bacteria. Introduced in a paper published in The European Physical Journal Plus, the preliminary approach could have several potential applications, including a possible avenue for combating antibiotic resistance.The Problem of Antibacteri ...read more

Nothing sends a shiver down the spine like finding a tick latched onto your skin after a hike. But beyond the nausea-inducing idea of being host to a blood-sucking parasite, the consequences of tick bites can be dire depending on the circumstances. This is because a few tick species carry diseases that can be passed on to humans — the most notable one is Lyme disease.An unlucky encounter with a deer tick (Ixodes scapularis) could leave you with Lyme disease. Fortunately, a study published in P ...read more

Before now, one of the few ways to date the Dead Sea Scrolls was through palaeography (the study of handwriting) and radiocarbon dating. These methods place the age of the scrolls somewhere between the 3rd century B.C.E. and the 2nd century C.E. But a new AI date-prediction model may provide a more accurate date for the famous Dead Sea Scrolls. After using this new model, called Enoch, researchers have determined that the Dead Sea Scrolls may actually be older than previously thought. The find ...read more