News

  1. Astronomy

    SOHO craft gets the lowdown on sunspots

    Using sound waves to obtain the first clear picture of the structure beneath the surface of a sunspot, scientists say they now have an explanation for why these dark blemishes-sites of intense magnetic activity-can persist for days.

    By Ron Cowen
  2. Archaeology

    Farmers took fast track in settling Europe

    A review of radiocarbon evidence indicates that farming groups colonized southern Europe over no more than 100 to 200 years, beginning around 7,400 years ago.

    By Bruce Bower
  3. Paleontology

    New fossils threaten an extinction theory

    Recent discoveries of long-dead marine invertebrates call into question the occurrence of a catastrophic global extinction during the Late Devonian period, between 385 and 375 million years ago.