Both sides of the discovered arrowhead – credit, Marlize Lombard / SWNS Scientists identified traces of a poison from the South African plant gifbol on Stone Age arrowheads dating back 60,000 years, making it the oldest known arrow poison discovered anywhere in the world. The researchers say the find shows that people in southern Africa … Read more
– credit, Elle Baumgartel / SWNS Clever canines that have a talent for learning vocabulary can pick up new words by simply overhearing their handlers’ conversations, say scientists. Parents and dog owners know that some words should not be spoken, but only spelled, to prevent small ears from eavesdropping on the conversation, and previous research … Read more
credit – JP Raynal released from the Programme Préhistoire de Casablanca Remains of an early human ancestor from a critically important period in our evolutionary history have been found in Morocco. Dated back 700,000 years using precise geo-magnetic methods, the assemblage of jawbones and teeth may come from the epoch during which African and Eurasian … Read more
credit – Rene Martin / American Museum of Natural History Birds-of-paradise have long dazzled us with their incredibly vibrant and varied plumage, but researchers studying the group have recently made an even more incredible discovery. Plumage on 37 of 45 birds-of-paradise species emit biofluorescence meaning molecules inside the feathers absorb UV light and release it … Read more
The knee joint of a young mouse (right), aged mouse (middle) and treated aged mouse (left) with red indicating cartilage – credit, Nidhi Bhutani, released An injection that blocks the activity of a protein involved in aging reverses naturally occurring cartilage loss in the knee joints of old mice, a Stanford Medicine-led study has found. … Read more
credit – Field Museum of Chicago Tiny plants, like moss, are easy to overlook. They’re often as small as an eyelash, and they tend to grow on the ground in dark, wet places. But these small plants sometimes turn out to be big clues in forensic cases. A team of scientists learned that firsthand in … Read more
Kicking off the new calendar this month is a tasty opportunity to see Jupiter and its four largest moons with the naked eye. On January 10th, generally across the US time zones, Jupiter will crest the eastern horizon at sundown and continue to climb until midnight when it reaches the highest point in the sky. … Read more
The CHIEF1300, the previous centrifuge which the 1900 will replace – credit, Gov.cn What can you do if you want to test a dam, railway line, submersible, or a space capsule’s resistance to gravitational force without risking the destruction of it in the process? Well now, you can take a scale model to Zhejiang University … Read more
An illustraion of the lemon world – credit, NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI) An exoplanet located 2,000 light years from Earth is so unusual it’s given astronomers the idea that it could be a totally new type of object. That’s because it’s shaped like a lemon, with a small tip just like the fruit … Read more
– credit, Lazaro Viñola López via SWNS Burrowing bees generally prefer to make their nests in the open, but some 20,000 years ago their ancestors lived in a cave where they used the bones of prey animals rather than soft soil. The groundbreaking discovery was made in a Caribbean cave that narrowly escaped being turned … Read more