An international team of researchers has published a new study examining a 430,000-year-old cranium of a human ancestor that was previously described as deaf, representing the oldest case of deafness in human prehistory.
Tungsten diselenide emits light with very special properties. Nobody could tell why -- but now, scientists have solved the riddle: a combination of atomic defects in the material and microscopic distortion is responsible for the remarkable effect.
Babies seek to understand the world around them and learn many new things every day. Unexpected events -- for example when a ball falls through a table -- provide researchers with the unique opportunity to understand infants' learning processes. What happens in their brains as they learn and integrate new information?
Forests help protect the climate. Reforestation can decisively contribute to mitigating global warming according to the Paris Agreement. Based on simulations, researchers have studied the conditions that should be fulfilled in Europe for this. According to the study, sufficient increase in forest areas requires a transformation of the food system and in particular, the reduction of meat consumption.
Astronomers have completed the largest survey to date of the faint outskirts of nearby galaxies, successfully testing a low-cost system for exploring these local stellar systems. The team find that the diameters of the galactic outskirts -- the haloes -- appear to correlate with the brightness and type of galaxy.
What does the presence of 1,000 year old water mean for the future of water supplies under the desert regions of Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan, Oman, Yemen and the United Arab Emirates? New research has sought to identify how much good water is available in the Arabian Peninsula, where water is stored in what are known as 'fossil aquifers.'
An interdisciplinary collaborative team has identified how a large community can communicate with each other almost simultaneously even with very short distance signaling.
At the center of a galaxy called NGC 1068, a supermassive black hole hides within a thick doughnut-shaped cloud of dust and gas. When astronomers used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to study this cloud in more detail, they made an unexpected discovery that could explain why supermassive black holes grew so rapidly in the early Universe.
A new study has identified markers of maternal stress -- both physical and psychological -- that may influence a baby's sex and the likelihood of preterm birth.
Two new symbiotic porcelain crab species have been described. One of them, from the South China Sea of Vietnam, inhabits the compact tube-like shelters built by the polychaete worm with other organisms. The other inhabits the intertidal vermetid snail formations in the Colombian Caribbean.
The new function of unused cortical regions is not necessarily determined by the function of nearby cortical regions, according to new research in adults born without one hand.
much attention has been given to the growth of the 'Blue Economy' -- a term which refers to the sustainable use of ocean and marine resources for economic growth, jobs, and improved livelihoods. Ocean resources are viewed as lucrative areas for increased investment, including in fisheries, aquaculture, bio-prospecting, renewable energy, oil and gas, and other businesses. Ensuring that socially equitable and sustainable development occurs should be the mandate of governments and industry, maintain an international group of researchers, led by UBC.
Hydrogen-containing substances are important for many industries, but scientists have struggled to obtain detailed images to understand the element's behavior. Researchers now demonstrate the quantification of hydrogen for different states of water -- i.e., liquid, frozen and supercooled -- for applications to eco-friendly fuel cells.
Synthetic biologists design transcriptional circuits that allow single-cell microbes to form networks that spur collective action, even in large communities. The work could lead to engineered microbes that treat conditions in gut microbiomes or communicate with bioelectronics.
A psychologist is reporting that hope increases in therapy and is a trait that predicts resilience and recovery from anxiety disorders, an important mechanism for therapists to restore in patients to move them forward toward recovery.
When it comes to being willing to explore more efficient options to solving a problem, monkeys exhibit more cognitive flexibility than humans, according to a new study.
An international team of scientists sent high-frequency sound waves across a modified semiconductor device to direct the behavior of a single electron, with efficiency above 99%. A quantum computer would be able to solve previously unsolvable computational problems by taking advantage of the strange behavior of particles at the subatomic scale, and quantum phenomena such [...]
