After discovering fossilized facial bones in Spain, researchers now say they’ve found the oldest face of Western Europe.In 2022, researchers with the Atapuerca Project uncovered facial bones from an early human ancestor at the Sima del Elefante site (Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos) in northern Spain. The fossil date ranges from 1.1 million years to 1.4 million years old. After detailed study, researchers announced that the facial bones were not that of Homo antecessor, but of a different hominin. ...read more

When Lior Shamir, a scientist at Kansas State University, examined images from the James Webb Space Telescope Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES), he saw something quite unexpected. The majority of the 263 galaxies he observed rotated in the same direction — with two thirds spinning clockwise, Shamir reported in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Why is this significant? In a random universe, galaxy rotations should be roughly split in two directions. The fact that t ...read more

Back in the 1940s, a Dutch physician called John Poel invented a device that changed the nature of heart monitoring. His device is based on the idea that the color of skin changes according to the amount of blood it contains. That’s easy to see in the way people quickly become red faced when exerting themselves,But it turns out more subtle color changes occur at rest as the heart pumps blood around the body. The ebb and flow of blood through capillary vessels changes the amount of light reflec ...read more

Perspectives on aging vary greatly by culture, with Western societies often associating youthfulness with health and success. While aging is a natural process, it is linked to numerous health issues, driving scientific efforts to better understand its mechanisms. At the molecular level, aging results from the accumulation of cellular damage, leading to physical and cognitive decline, increased disease risk, and ultimately, death.Researchers have long known that telomeres — the protective caps ...read more

It seems appropriate that research started at one university and finished at another describes the rare interactions of twin stars.A graduate student, tantalized by mysterious radio pulses from the Milky Way, set her sights — and several telescopes — on finding the source of the strange signals. The bursts of sound were especially unusual because they would last from tens of minutes to hours. Radio pulsars, by comparison, produce much shorter signals — often mere seconds.Multiple kinds of ...read more

The venom of the male blue-lined octopus is made for its predators, its prey, and, apparently, its mating partners. That’s what researchers from the University of Queensland in Australia found after observing the males of the species sedating the females with venom prior to mating. “Injecting the females renders them immobile,” the researchers wrote in a March Current Biology report, “allowing the males to mate successfully.” Read More: The Tiny Blue-Ringed Octopus Is Iridescent and De ...read more

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the sixth leading cause of death in the U.S. Beyond the high economic and healthcare demands, it places a significant physical, emotional, and financial burden on family caregivers.Patients with AD experience memory loss, confusion, mood and personality changes, and difficulty with language, often leading to social withdrawal. The biological cause of AD is linked to the accumulation of amyloid plaques, tau tangles, and synaptic loss in brain regions such as the hipp ...read more

If you’ve been feeling a little down as the “Doomsday Clock” ticks ever closer to midnight, you’re not alone.A new study in The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists (BAS) links the clock’s progress to negative shifts in mortality and mental health. The study, the first of its kind to connect the timepiece metaphor for global catastrophe to mental and physical health, indicates higher rates of death related to Alzheimer’s disease, suicide, unintentional injuries, and alcohol and drug abuse a ...read more

Even during one of Earth’s largest mass extinction events, where heat waves kill of a majority of Earth’s species, at least one oasis of survival existed.The findings suggest that there may have been pockets of protection throughout Earth — challenging the notion that the heat affected life on the planet uniformly, according to a paper in Science Advances.Living Through "The Great Dying"About 250 million years ago, a series of massive volcanic eruptions warmed Earth. This period, sometimes ...read more

Uncertainty is just what it sounds like: not knowing. It’s that state of limbo when you’re waiting to find out if you got the job, if the biopsy is negative, if you’re pregnant or not. It’s not knowing who’s the best candidate or which brand of car is likely to last the longest. It’s also not knowing the answers to those existential questions: Why am I here? How is everything going to turn out?  Most research on uncertainty has focused on its negative aspects, primarily anxiety. Ho ...read more