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
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine