News
- Anthropology
Mummified llamas yield new insights into Inca ritual sacrifices
Bound and decorated llamas, found at an Inca site in southern Peru, may have been buried alive as part of events in annexed territories.
- Physics
A photon’s journey through a hydrogen molecule is the shortest event ever timed
The shortest duration ever measured is 247 zeptoseconds, or trillionths of a billionth of a second.
- Space
Water exists on sunny parts of the moon, scientists confirm
New observations of the moon, made by a telescope flying onboard a Boeing 747-SP jet, have confirmed the presence of water on sunlit areas of the moon.
- Microbes
How malaria parasites hide from the human immune system
By turning genes on or off, the parasite keeps blood levels low but persistent, so infection doesn’t set off alarm bells for the immune system.
- Humans
The longest trail of fossilized human footprints hints at a risky Ice Age trek
Researchers have discovered the world's longest trail of fossilized human footprints at White Sands National Park, New Mexico.
- Health & Medicine
The arthritis drug tocilizumab doesn’t appear to help fight COVID-19
The best available evidence so far hasn’t found that the anti-inflammatory drug benefited patients hospitalized with COVID-19.
- Paleontology
Bat-winged dinosaurs were clumsy fliers
The two known species of bat-winged dinosaurs were a dead end when it comes to the evolution of bird flight, a new study finds.
- Anthropology
Homo erectus, not humans, may have invented the barbed bone point
Carved artifacts excavated from Tanzania’s Olduvai Gorge suggest now-extinct hominids made barbed bone points long before humans did, researchers say.
- Anthropology
How environmental changes may have helped make ancient humans more adaptable
An East African sediment core unveils ecological changes underlying a key Stone Age transition.
- Space
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx survived its risky mission to grab a piece of an asteroid
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft just tried to grab a piece of asteroid Bennu. If successful, the spacecraft will return the sample to Earth in 2023.
- Animals
The diabolical ironclad beetle can survive getting run over by a car. Here’s how
The diabolical ironclad beetle is an incredibly tough little creature. A peek inside its exoskeleton reveals what makes it virtually uncrushable.
- Animals
Naked mole-rats invade neighboring colonies and steal babies
Naked mole-rats invade neighboring colonies, steal pups and evict any others left behind. The show of force may be central to their underground lifestyle.
