Contemporary snow leopards are rare — and fossils of their ancient ancestors are even more scarce. Researchers have now identified and examined million-year-old bones of the big cat and have come to some surprising conclusions about how it adapted to the Ice Age and survived as a species since then. Their analysis has been published in the journal Science Advances.Learning About Snow Leopard SurvivalThe skull of the leopard of Algar da Manga Larga, deposited at the Geological Museum of Lisbon. ...read more

New findings published in the journal Nature suggest that women were at the top of British Iron Age societies. After examining ancient genomes uncovered in a cemetery in Dorset, an international research team determined that this community had a strong female-line descent, which may be a first for early Europe. Uncovering Ancient GenomesDurotrigian burial of a young woman from Langton Herring sampled for DNA (c) Bournemouth University. She was buried with a mirror (right panels) and jewellery, ...read more

Years of experiments at rock art sites in Finland have revealed that the echoes produced by smooth cliff faces may have influenced the neolithic people in that area. The artists behind the rock art and the people that later came to admire the figures would have experienced an spiritual sound, according to a recent study published in Sound Studies.“We almost know nothing about sound in prehistoric times,” says Riitta Rainio, an archaeologist at the University of Helsinki.Stone Age Rock Art in ...read more

When Homo neanderthalensis first came in contact with Homo sapiens around 50,000 years ago, in what’s now the Middle East, they encountered a host of diseases for which humans had no immunity for because they had never experienced them before. But, interbreeding would change the human genome, which likely continued until Neanderthals went extinct around 40,000 years ago. And even today humans are left with some Neanderthal genes, many of which pertain to the immune system.Interbreeding and Hu ...read more

In their battle against antibiotics, bacteria are gaining an edge, becoming more and more resistant to antibiotic attacks. But a new paper published in PLOS Biology suggests that computer models could contribute to making more targeted antibiotics, with a reduced risk of increasing bacteria’s antibiotic resistance.According to the authors of the paper, these laser-like antibiotics could attack specific bacteria in specific areas of our bodies once created, reducing our overall contact with ant ...read more

After studying the genomes in dogs living close to and around the Chornobyl disaster site, researchers from North Carolina State University and Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health concluded that radiation-induced mutation likely did not cause genetic differences in dog populations living in Chornobyl City and the nearby Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant (NPP). With these findings in the new study published in PLOS ONE, the research team hopes to better understand how a nuclear disast ...read more

If you’ve ever had a bad experience with a particular place and, in the future, physically feel anxious as you approach it again, there’s a good reason: our brains may record and physically map that experience for future reference, a new study in PLOS Biology suggests.This has implications for mental health, because it helps us understand how worry works.“The more that we understand how the mechanisms by which cognition works, the better we can help people who have problems with their cogn ...read more

In February 2025, the seven planets joining Earth in our solar system will be visible all at once in the night sky as they get arranged in an extraordinary pattern called a “great planetary alignment," or in a more celebratory expression, a "planet parade." Eager astronomers will have their telescopes ready around the evening of February 28, when Saturn, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Mars, Uranus, and Neptune will all begin to show up in the sky. This event has piqued the interest of people across ...read more

In the summer of 1925, journalists, lawyers, and gawkers alike descended upon Dayton, Tennessee, population 1,800, to witness the unfolding of what was to become one of the most famous episodes in the ongoing conflict between science and religion. It was oppressively hot and muggy, but that didn’t hamper the carnival atmosphere. Street vendors hawked lemonade, iced tea, and cheap souvenirs. Christian groups held open-air prayer meetings while a circus chimpanzee strolled the streets wearing a ...read more

When your dog perks up at the sight of their leash or the rustle of their treat bag, it’s easy to wonder — what’s going on in their mind? Do they store memories of those sights and sounds, or are their reactions purely instinctive? While much of a dog’s behavior is undoubtedly shaped by instinct and training, recent research reveals that some special dogs can recall the names of specific objects for years, adding yet another layer to our understanding of canine cognition.How Dogs Remembe ...read more