Genetic information from an 800,000-year-old human fossil has been retrieved for the first time. The results from the University of Copenhagen shed light on one of the branching points in the human family tree, reaching much further back in time than previously possible.
Coronavirus may have inadvertently caused Earth to vibrate less, with lockdown measures leading to a huge drop in the use of industrial machinery and transportation around the world.
Antarctica was covered in rainforest in the time of the dinosaurs, according to a new study.
In 2015, astronomers found something weird. It was a white dwarf star, 570 light-years from Earth, with a peculiar dimming pattern. It dimmed several times to varying depths, each depth repeating on a 4.5 to 5-hour timeframe; and its atmosphere was polluted with elements usually found in rocky exoplanets.
Scientists have solved a longstanding mystery over the age of a landmark skull found in 1921 in Zambia – the first fossil of an extinct human species discovered in Africa – in research with big implications for deciphering the origin of our own species.
Up to now, studies have focused on determining when the first modern human arrived in China, but there has been hardly any research into the dynamics of this settlement. A joint paper by institutions from China, Spain and the United Kingdom proposes that, given its size and biogeographical diversity, China would have received migrations by Homo sapiens from both north and south, with hardly any overlap between them.
Mars. Water. You’d never find two more unlikely companions, even in a buddy cop movie. But once upon a time, the dry, red dustbowl of Mars was lush and soggy.
Archaeologists are hoping to establish the age of an ancient naked figure sculpted into a chalk hillside.
It will launch aboard the Perseverance rover.
Mars is a pretty wild and wonderful place, and an image posted to the NASA science blog and Astronomy Photo of the Day this week is a brilliant example. It shows what appears to be a mountain… but completely hollowed out.
