A researcher working alone – apart from the world and the rest of the wider scientific community – is a classic yet misguided image. Research is, in reality, built on continuous exchange within the scientific community: First you understand the work of others, and then you share your findings.Reading and writing articles published in academic journals and presented at conferences is a central part of being a researcher. When researchers write a scholarly article, they must cite the work of p ...read more

Dingoes and dogs look similar — until you compare their genomes. A study in PNAS examines this seemingly counter-intuitive outcome and explains the genetic divergence between the two species.“The genetic difference might seem counter-intuitive because dingoes and domestic dogs share a common ancestor,” says Sally Wasef, a geneticist from Queensland University of Technology and a co-author of the paper. “However, the key factor is the period of isolation. Dingoes have been isolated from o ...read more

DNA extracted from a woolly mammoth excavated in 2018 was so well preserved that scientists have, for the first time, constructed a three-dimensional genome from ancient genetic material. That information, from an animal that died in Siberia about 52,000 years ago, allows better comparisons between extinct mammoths and contemporary elephants, according to a report in Cell.Freeze-Dried Woolly MammothA team of 56 scientists from four organizations collaborated to find the fossil, excavate it, then ...read more

Montezuma was one of the most influential figures in Aztec history, yet there’s a lot we don’t know about him. We know that he reigned from 1502 until 1520 and that he famously expanded the Aztec Empire, but the personality and details of this larger-than-life figure come mostly from the invading Spaniards — their accounts shrouded in prejudice, says Matthew Restall, a historian, and author, of When Montezuma Met Cortés.Montezuma, the Man“The Spaniards in Mexico constructed an extremely ...read more

Take a moment to imagine the moon, conjuring its speckled surface inside your mind. Think of its imperfections, its spots and splotches, carved out and cratered from the impacts of asteroids, meteorites, and comets. Chances are that your imagination conjured something surprisingly similar to mine, and to the imaginations of countless others.The reason for this similarity is simple: We almost always see the same surface when we stare at the moon, the same patterns of craters and cavities, thanks ...read more

Why did the lion swim across crocodile-infested waters? It was his only remaining option to find a mate, according to a study in Ecology and Evolution. That report was based on observations of lion behaviors driven by skewed sex ratios in a Uganda national park. The swim — across a channel over half a mile wide — may be the longest recorded by a lion.The swim’s length, as well as its obstacles (the waters contained plenty of hippos as well as crocs) shows the lengths that lions will go to ...read more

One of the great fears of modern times is that generative AI systems are giving malicious actors unprecedented power to lie, manipulate and steal on a scale previously unimaginable and that this will undermine our systems of trust, democracy and society. Examples abound of from election interference to the mass-production of fake reviews. Indeed, it’s easy to imagine that these are just a small fraction of the insidious endeavor currently undermining our way of life. The truth is more nuanced ...read more

Tardigrades are the undisputed masters of survival. Bake them at 300 degrees Fahrenheit, freeze them to within a degree of absolute zero, deprive them of water and oxygen, subject them to the vacuum of space — they will still survive. And now scientists have begun to show how we can harness their legendary resilience to advance human medicine. Inspired by the feats of these near-microscopic animals (also known as water bears), researchers at the University of Wyoming wanted to see what would h ...read more

To fully understand how ancient plastic surgery is one need only look to the root of its meaning.The term plastic surgery has nothing to do with plastic. In fact, it comes from the Greek word plastikos, which means to mold. And plastic surgery is just that: the molding of human tissue.The word came along long before the plastic industry, says Darrick Antell, an assistant clinical professor of plastic surgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York and the only plastic surgeon ...read more

Beyond our planet’s atmosphere, the system of timekeeping that gives structure to life falls apart. The words “day” and “night” mean something radically different when you’re completing an orbit of Earth every 90 minutes, as astronauts do aboard the International Space Station (that’s 16 sunrises and sunsets in each 24-hour period).Since the human body and its circadian rhythms — patterns of sleep and wakefulness regulated by our internal clock — evolved here on Earth, we’re ...read more