News
- Archaeology
Homo sapiens may have reached Europe 10,000 years earlier than previously thought
Archaeological finds in an ancient French rock-shelter suggest migrations to the continent started long before Neandertals died out.
- Earth
Weird ‘superionic’ matter could make up Earth’s inner core
Computer simulations suggest that matter that behaves like a mash-up of solid and liquid could explain oddities of Earth’s center.
- Paleontology
Fossils reveal that pterosaurs puked pellets
Fish scale–filled pellets found by two pterosaurs are the first fossil evidence the flying reptiles regurgitated undigestible food, like some modern birds.
- Animals
Deep-sea Arctic sponges feed on fossilized organisms to survive
Slow-moving sponges, living deep in the Arctic Ocean where no currents deliver food, scavenge a carpet of long-dead critters.
- Quantum Physics
The quantum ‘boomerang’ effect has been seen for the first time
Jostled particles return to their starting points in certain materials, an experiment reveals, confirming theoretical predictions.
- Plants
Earth may have 9,200 more tree species than previously thought
Estimating how many tree species are on Earth is an important step for forest conservation and protecting biodiversity.
- Health & Medicine
Why being pregnant and unvaccinated against COVID-19 is a risky combo
Being pregnant puts an individual at higher risk for severe illness and death from COVID-19, but vaccination has lagged among pregnant people.
- Animals
Male elephant seals aim to get huge or die trying
Males will risk death to eat and grow as large as possible, since only the biggest males mate. But females aim for long-term survival.
- Health & Medicine
Medical crowdfunding rarely helps those who need it most
People in the U.S. with high medical debt and low insurance coverage are more likely to raise money but less likely to meet goals, a new study finds.
- Climate
Satellites have located the world’s methane ‘ultra-emitters’
Plugging leaks from methane ultra-emitters would make a dent in greenhouse gas emissions — and be cost-effective for those countries, scientists say.
- Space
The heart of the Milky Way looks like contemporary art in this new radio image
The MeerKAT telescope array in South Africa provided this image of radio emissions from the center of our galaxy using data taken over three years.
- Animals
Gory footage confirms orca pods can kill adult blue whales
For the first time, three recorded events show that orcas do hunt and eat blue whales using coordinated attacks that have worked on other large whales.
