Humans

The amount of close and comforting contact that young infants get doesn’t just keep them warm, snug, and loved. A 2017 study says it can actually affect babies at the molecular level, and the effects can last for years. Based on the study, babies who get less physical contact and are more distressed at a

Unlike some creatures, humans can’t regenerate their limbs – but a new study suggests we do have a hidden ‘salamander-like’ ability to regrow cartilage in the body, a finding which could help treatment for joint injuries and even arthritis. Using mass spectrometry techniques on 18 specimens, researchers were able to identify a mechanism by which

The Nobel Prize in chemistry was awarded Wednesday to John B. Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino for the development of lithium-ion batteries. “We have gained access to a technical revolution,” said Sara Snogerup Linse, a chemistry professor and member of the award committee, sweeping her finger at the reporters gathered at the Royal

Blind people who use echoes to map their surroundings, akin to how bats or dolphins navigate, have an adapted brain region that allows them to ‘see’ with sound, a new study suggests. The primary visual cortex is where the human brain normally interprets signals from the eyes, but that doesn’t mean it can only process

Research suggests there could be a good scientific reason why some of us struggle to look someone in the eye and hold a conversation with them. It turns out we’re not just awkward, our brains actually can’t handle the tasks of thinking of the right words and focussing on a face at the same time.

Twinship has become a cultural phenomenon in the United States over the past three decades, with a higher proportion of twins living among us than at any other time in known history. There are twin conventions, twin parenting books, twin Halloween costumes, and debates on local school boards over whether to separate — or keep

A new study comparing human skulls with those of other animals claims that the dimensions of our heads appear to follow the golden ratio – that special number with a controversial reputation for being the “formula for beauty”. Usually symbolised by the irrational number phi, or roughly 1.618, the golden ratio is amongst the most

It’s hard to imagine how a thin papyrus scroll could survive a volcanic eruption. Even harder is imagining how such an artefact can be read some 2,000 years later without unrolling it at all. An international team of researchers now claims we are closer than ever before to ‘virtually’ unravelling and reading the only intact

Archaeologists have recovered a rare and tantalising treasure off the coast of Mallorca in Spain. Not gold or jewels, but 93 jug-like terracotta vessels called amphorae from a Roman ship that sank 1,700 years ago. Most of these beautiful jugs are still intact and sealed, which means there’s a very good chance their contents were

What’s the ultimate exit strategy if the worst happens? Like a sudden global pandemic, or some other kind of existential crisis that threatens humanity with extinction? The sad truth is, if an apocalyptic outbreak comes, there may be no escape. But if you’re in the right place when the catastrophe hits – like an island

When ancient burials are discovered in the sands of Egypt, the stories we hear are usually similar. High-ranking officials and nobles buried with rich grave goods, elaborate coffins, and often cartouches naming the deceased, so we know who they were. But a recent discovery paints a rather different picture. Archaeologists have found dozens of 2,000-year-old burials

Cormac McCarthy knows a thing or two about good writing. He’s the visionary who gave us The Road, No Country for Old Men, and a list of other acclaimed novels. He’s won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and just about every other literature award; film adaptations of his works have been seen by

Former Blink-182 singer Tom DeLonge has pulled off an astonishing career change. In 2017, after quitting the band, he co-founded a group called To the Stars Academy of Arts & Sciences, an organization committed to researching aliens. And he apparently now has something to show for it. In a recent Q&A with The New York

As beautiful as Machu Picchu is, it’s not the easiest place to get to, high up in the Andes with steep drops to the Urubamba River on three sides. Now researchers think they might know why the site was chosen. The secret may lie deep below this iconic Incan city, in the faults where tectonic

After months of debate, the Australian Capital Territory has become the very first jurisdiction in the nation to pass a law allowing the recreational use of marijuana. Starting sometime in the new year, adults living in Australia’s capital city Canberra and its surrounding territory will be allowed to personally possess and grow small amounts of

You don’t belong here. They’re onto you. Everybody is going to find out the truth. It’s only a matter of time. Dark thoughts like these are symptoms of something called impostor syndrome: a strange psychological phenomenon that makes ordinary people – even brilliant ones – feel like they’re frauds, fakes, inadequate, and undeserving. It doesn’t have

Some 2,500 years ago, in what is today southern Germany, a small child’s body was laid to rest. A bronze bracelet adorned their wrist and a tiny ceramic jug was placed at their feet. We can easily imagine them sipping from the child-sized cup, but exactly what it held has never been certain. Now, an

Many think of dogs as loyal, love-filled companions, and cats as cute beasts that tolerate us – but we might have to rethink that a little. According to new research, cats can get just as bonded to their human friends as dogs do. This may not come as a huge surprise to those who live

For decades, an ancient circle of stones has lain just out of sight beneath the waters of Spain’s Valdecañas Reservoir, its tallest pillars occasionally breaking the surface like the fingers of a drowning swimmer. Months of intense drought have now caused the reservoir’s waters to fall – enough to reveal the structure in its entirety.

More than 10 years after it was released, watching Pixar’s film WALL-E today is a chilling experience. The backdrop of WALL-E and EVE’s robot love story is a dystopian society where humans have abandoned Earth to their trash and left robots to clean up while they cruise space. When the much-loved animation came out in

Between news of devastating natural disasters, horrifying scientific predictions, and the infuriating lack of political will to do anything about it all, it seems we can’t catch a collective breath at the moment. Some days, news about the climate crisis feels like a heavy weight on my chest. And I’m not alone. Some of us

This September, as the world takes a stand on climate change like never before, let’s spare a thought for those who helped set the stage. The history of climate science stretches back nearly two hundred years, and in all that time, few women have been memorialised in the discipline. Just ten years ago, Eunice Foote

It’s springtime Down Under, and along with overexuberant local football fans, that means another annual menace on Australian streets: angry birds. September is peak magpie breeding season. And like much of Australia’s native wildlife — think deadly snakes, spiders and jellyfish — the country’s magpies are meaner than those found elsewhere. Male birds defending their

This Friday in the lead-up to the United Nations climate summit, children and adults worldwide will go on strike for stronger action on climate change. However, you may ask, is striking effective? What can it really hope to achieve? Our research, recently published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology, suggests striking can promote the psychological

A 16-year-old Swedish climate activist demanded Wednesday that Congress “listen to the scientists” who were sounding the alarm on the threat of global warming. Rather than offer prepared remarks to the House Climate Crisis Committee and a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee, Greta Thunberg said she was attaching as testimony a landmark 2018 United Nations report

The US Navy has for the first time confirmed that a set of eerie, grainy videos that appear to show UFOs flying through the sky are indeed real – and contain phenomena the military still cannot identify. The sensational footage in question – which began appearing in media outlets including The New York Times from

In what might constitute the year’s strangest salvo against the scourge of “fake news”, anthropologists have experimentally tested whether you can really make a knife out of frozen excrement. They conclude that you cannot. Back in 1998, University of British Columbia anthropologist and popular writer Wade Davis recounted in his book Shadows in the Sun

In a coastal town in Washington state, climate change has a high school junior worried about the floods that keep deluging his school. A 17-year-old from Texas says global warming scares him so much he can’t even think about it. But across the country, teens are channeling their anxieties into activism. “Fear,” said Maryland 16-year-old

Arguments happen in every marriage – if you know differently, please tell us – but a new study of 121 couples suggests that those in happy relationships argue about specific sorts of issues. These couples all described themselves as being in happy marriages, and their arguments tended to focus on issues that can be practically

According to new research, the dead may not always rest in peace… quite literally. For more than a year after death, corpses move around “significantly”, and this finding could be important for forensic investigations. Researchers at an Australia-based decomposition research facility – colloquially known as a “body farm”, a term some scientists find disrespectful –

In late July 1997, William Earl Moldt left a nightclub and was never seen again. Until last month, that is. After 22 years on missing persons lists, his last resting place was finally spotted – from space. By random chance, somebody noticed the vehicle Moldt was driving the night he disappeared – a white 1994

More than 350 years after its first publication, you might think John Milton’s epic Paradise Lost poem had given up all the secrets it had to give – but it turns out there are still discoveries to be made, concealed inside these thousands of lines of verse. Undergraduate Miranda Phaal from Tufts University in Massachusetts

Last week, behavioural scientist Magnus Söderlund posed a controversial question at a seminar in Sweden: Can you imagine eating human flesh? As global temperatures continue to rise, Söderlund said in a talk at the Gastro Summit in Stockholm, the consequences for agriculture could cause food to become more scarce, which might force humans to consider

Neuroscientists think they have found a key area in our brains that helps us assess and respond to what we find beautiful, also known as aesthetic appeal. And that appeal could be more linked to our sense of self than you might expect. When something pleases us visually – whether it’s a fine piece of

In the story of our species, Africa is known as the cradle of humanity. Somewhere on this vast continent, hundreds of thousands of years ago, a group of early humans is thought to have diverged from the others, ultimately spreading across Africa and the rest of the world. These were the first ancestors of modern

In a finding that demonstrates just how amazingly flexible the human brain can be, a new study of two foot painters has revealed that their brains are now mapping their feet almost as if they were hands.  Researchers studied fMRI scans of the two professional UK foot painters born without hands – who also use

A Tokyo-based cashier allegedly stole credit card information from 1,300 customers. According to police, he used only his brain to take the information. Yusuke Taniguchi, 34, was arrested Thursday when police said they discovered he used the stolen information to purchase bags worth an estimated US$2,600 in March, according to CNN. The police intercepted that

Almost a third of American adults don’t have the math skills necessary to make effective decisions about their health and finances. These 73 million people can count, sort and do simple arithmetic. But they likely cannot select the health plan with the lowest cost based on annual premiums and deductibles, or figure out that they

New research on one of the most fascinating Dead Sea Scrolls suggests there’s something highly unusual about where and how it was made. Estimated to be close to 2,000 years old, the remarkably well-preserved Dead Sea Scrolls contain ancient texts of great historical importance. Since the initial discovery in 1947 by Bedouin shepherds, scholars have

Mathematicians have finally figured out the three cubed numbers that add up to 42. This has settled a problem that has been pondered for 65 years: namely, can each of the natural numbers below 100 be expressed as the sum of three cubes? The problem, set in 1954, is exactly what it sounds like: x3+y3+z3=k.

When the Boknis Eck Observatory – an environmental monitoring station on the floor of the Baltic Sea off the coast of Germany – stopped sending data on 21 August, scientists thought there was a problem with the data transmission. But when they sent divers down to check, the whole 740-kilogram (1,630-pound) car-sized kit and kaboodle

In 2015, a psychologist in Italy figured out how to induce a drug-free altered state of consciousness by asking 20 volunteers to sit and stare into each other’s eyes for 10 minutes straight. Not only did the deceptively simple task bring on strange ‘out of body’ experiences for the volunteers, it also caused them to

For the first time, researchers have been able to highlight specific gene regions that appear to have some influence over left-handedness – and they’ve also found links to differences in brain structure in those who have these genetic variations, too. It’s already been established that whether we’re right- or left-handed depends to some extent –

Long before climate change drove them to abandon their thriving cities, a group of hunter-gatherers settled in the Indus River Valley as farmers, leading to the creation of one of the world’s first large-scale urban societies, complete with booming economies and long-distance trade.  The Harappan civilisation, which peaked around 2,600 to 1,900 BCE, boasted pioneering

A compelling new study has found no link between testosterone in men and reduced cognitive empathy, a trait that is characteristically impaired in autism spectrum disorders. Ever since the very first clinical account of autism, almost eighty years ago, far more male children and adults have been placed on the spectrum than females. In all

How do we name and categorise colours? Scientists aren’t certain how these processes work in the brain, but a new case study of a stroke patient suggests that the neural processes of naming colours and categorising colours aren’t as interlinked as previously thought. The patient – for privacy reasons named only by his initials, RDS

The social media team over at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) is having a bit of a moment. People have discovered just how awesome CERN’s Instagram is, and who can really blame them – the Large Hadron Collider is really pretty. But why should CERN get all the fun? If you want to science up

Back in 2017, neuroscientists used a classic branch of maths in a totally new way to peer into the structure of our brains. What they discovered is that the brain is full of multi-dimensional geometrical structures operating in as many as 11 dimensions. We’re used to thinking of the world from a 3-D perspective, so