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What happens next isn’t quite clear. We know the molecules bind to some of the 400 different receptors on the surface of the olfactory neurons; we don’t know exactly how that contact creates our sense of smell. Why is smell such a difficult sense to understand? “In part, it’s the difficulty of setting up experiments to probe what’s going on inside the olfactory receptors of the nose,” says Andrew Horsfield, a materials scientist at Imperial College London. The ...read more

Researchers examined collagen from the man’s right femur and a rib, according to a study published in 2015 in Radiocarbon. The femur, which stops replacing collagen usually in early adulthood, suggested a diet primarily of fish, typical of Iron Gates foragers. The rib, however, indicated a farmer’s grain and meat-heavy diet. Collagen in a rib is continually replaced, so it suggests a person’s diet in their final years, says Clive Bonsall, lead author and an archaeologist at the ...read more

An artistic illustration showing how the magnetic fields would corral the torus and “feed” the black hole. (Credit: NASA/SOFIA/Lynette Cook) For the first time ever, astronomers have observed a magnetic field surrounding and feeding a supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy. The researchers’ observations might shed light on the relationship between black holes and magnetic fields and why some black holes are more active and “hungry” than others. Whereas ...read more

(Credit: Anton_Ivanov/shutterstock) As the largest land mammal on the planet, elephants eat a lot of food. On average, the giants consume more than 440 pounds of vegetation per day, or the equivalent of about two corncobs per minute. And now, scientists have figured out how the beasts are able to eat so much so fast. Elephants make joints with their trunks to press down on and scoop up food. Researchers say the discovery could even help engineers build better robots. Elephants are massive ...read more

Aboriginal paintings adorn the walls of a cave in Kimberley, Western Australia. (Credit: paulmichaelNZ/shutterstock) Nothing stirred in the relentless midday heat. The gum trees appeared exhausted, nearly drained of life. The hunters crouched in the foliage, their long, sharp spears poised to unleash at a moment’s notice. The giant birds that were the objects of their attention strode slowly, elegantly, unsuspecting. Most of these creatures were about 7 feet tall. The meat from even one ...read more

Powerful superflares from young red dwarf stars, like the one shown in this artist’s concept, can strip the atmospheres from fledgling planets, spelling disaster for any potential life. (Credit: NASA/ESA/D. Player (STScI)) Red dwarfs are small, slowly burning stars that can live for trillions of years before they run out of fuel. And thanks to their generous lifespans, the planets around them (at least those close enough to stay warm) are often considered prime locations for the developm ...read more

Black holes in binary systems can suck matter off their companion star, forming an accretion disk that shines brightly. Studying the light from this disk using simple techniques could allow astronomers to more easily find these black hole systems. (Credit: ESO/L. Calçada) Black holes are fascinating and cosmically important objects, but because light cannot escape them, they must instead be detected indirectly, such as through their gravitational effects. Discovering black holes this wa ...read more

A Japanese white-eye clings to a flower on Kauai. Though not native to Hawaii, these birds may help spread the seeds of threatened Hawaiian plants. (Credit: Mike’s Birds via flickr) (Inside Science) — Ecologists call them the living dead: trees that stand across the tropics and beyond, in the midst of transformed landscapes where they can no longer reproduce. They may appear healthy for centuries, but eventually they will fall — and then their lineage will vanish. One reason ...read more