News

  1. Anthropology

    Wari skulls create trophy-head mystery

    A 1,000-year-old Peruvian site has yielded the remains of decapitated human heads that were used as ritual trophies but, to the researchers surprise, did not come from enemy warriors.

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  2. Anthropology

    Jaw-dropping find emerges from Stone Age cave

    A nearly complete lower jaw discovered in a Romanian cave last year and dating to around 35,000 years ago may represent the oldest known example of anatomically modern Homo sapiens in Europe.

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  3. Paleontology

    First Family’s last stand

    New evidence indicates that about 3.2 million years ago, at least 17 Australopithecus afarensis individuals were killed at the same time by large predators at an eastern African site.

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  4. Astronomy

    Fast-track planet

    Astronomers have found a planet that's the closest yet known to its parent star, whipping around the star every 28.5 hours.

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  5. Second cold-sensing protein found

    Researchers have found a second mammalian cell-surface protein that enables nerve cells to recognize cold temperatures.

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  6. Animals

    Ballistic defecation: Hiding, not hygiene

    Evading predators may be the big factor driving certain caterpillars to shoot their waste pellets great distances.

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  7. Health & Medicine

    Upsetting a Delicate Balance: One gene may underlie various immune diseases

    One form of an immune-system gene shows up more frequently in people with diabetes or certain thyroid diseases than in people free of those illnesses.

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  8. Astronomy

    Chemistry of the Cosmos: Quasars illuminate the young universe

    Measuring the composition of some of the earliest structures in the universe, two teams of astronomers have unveiled new findings about star formation in the young cosmos.

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  9. Chemistry

    Nanoscale Networks: Superlong nanotubes can form a grid

    Researchers have made extraordinarily long carbon nanotubes and aligned them to create tiny transistors and sensors for detecting chemical and biological agents.

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  10. Paddle Power: Surprising shape of key cellular pore unveiled

    A molecular pore that controls the flow of ions into cells has an unexpected shape and mechanism.

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  11. Earth

    Sensing a vibe

    A sprawling network of seismometers that covers the Los Angeles area could be adapted to provide warning of damaging ground motions from earthquakes in the seconds before those seismic vibes arrive.

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  12. Physics

    Crystal Bash: Shocking changes to light’s properties

    Prized, light-manipulating microstructures known as photonic crystals may transform light in new and technologically tantalizing ways when jolted by shock waves.

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