Uncategorized
- Anthropology
Ancestral split in Africa, China
Environmental conditions may have encouraged Homo erectus to develop a level of social and tool-making complexity in Africa that the same species did not achieve in China.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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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19241
I’m doing an elk-calf mortality study in Yellowstone National Park. We can differentiate between scavenging and predation only by such evidence as signs of struggle at the scene, a trail of blood, evidence of a chase, and the pattern of flesh wounds. We cannot make the determination based on bone-consumption pattern alone. Therefore, I question […]
- 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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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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19318
In regard to natural causes of coal fires, another cause not mentioned in the article involves the oxidation of pyrite, an iron sulfide that commonly occurs in coal beds. When oxygenated groundwater percolates through fractures in the coal, the sulfide in pyrite will be oxidized to sulfate. This reaction is exothermic and may produce enough […]
- Earth
The Fires Below
Underground coal fires help shape the landscape on many scales and in many ways, some transient and some long-lasting.
- Health & Medicine
Unproven Elixir
For aging men with low testosterone, hormone replacement may stall or counteract some common declines that come with age, but it'll take years to determine whether the treatment is doing most men more good than harm.
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19240
I was diagnosed 12 years ago with Klinefelter’s syndrome, which has as a symptom low testosterone. After starting bimonthly injections of testosterone, I experienced some mild body changes but nothing excessive. I’m nearly 65 but feel like I’m 55. Testosterone may kill me some day by causing prostate cancer, but I’ll gladly take the risk […]
- Humans
From the May 6, 1933, issue
AMERICAS FALCON POSES AGAINST PERFECT BACKGROUND Rarely is a perfect bird photographed against so perfect a background as the duck hawk, or American falcon, shown on the front cover of this issue of the Science News Letter. The photograph is by Dr. A.A. Allen of Cornell University, and the magnificent cataract plunging in the background […]
