News Desk

Nasa’s Curiosity rover has detected organic molecules on Mars, including chemicals widely considered building blocks for the origin of life on Earth.

This snapshot is just a small part of one of the most comprehensive and spectacular views yet of the universe — a web-like structure formed by millions of galaxies, stretching back to near the dawn of time.

Members of the Atapuerca Research Team from the Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES), the Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), the University of Burgos, and the Center Européen de Recherche et d’Enseignement des Géosciences de l’Environnement (CEREGE) are involved in a study published in Quaternary Science Reviews reporting the earliest known evidence of the classic Acheulean in the Iberian Peninsula.

In our research, published today in Current Biology, we show that when some animals spot a predator, they issue a warning cry that is picked up by others and spread through the rainforest canopy. For a time, different species are linked into a shared information network, and parts of the forest briefly fall silent.

An international study published in Current Biology presents the results of the analysis of ancient mitochondrial DNA obtained from eight Neanderthal teeth discovered in Stajnia Cave, Poland. For the first time, the research reconstructs the genetic profile of a small group of Neanderthals from the same site, north of the Carpathians, who lived during the same ancient chronological phase.

The recent discovery of 12,000-year-old dice, published in American Antiquity, sheds new light on the playfulness of human societies in the deep past…The recognition of these artifacts as dice pushes back the material evidence for human play by thousands of years, which Madden interprets as evidence of games of chance and gambling. He believes that his study shows that Native Americans were gambling with dice 6,000 years earlier than anyone else.

The growth of the human population has not always been a smooth ride, but has been punctuated by some strange fluctuations. At multiple points in our history, populations have dramatically imploded. One such period occurred during the Neolithic, around 5,000 years ago, when communities collapsed across parts of Europe. The research has been published in Nature Ecology & Evolution.

Nearly 780,000-year-old charcoal fragments found at the Gesher Bnot Ya’akov archaeological site in northern Israel show that early humans had a higher level of intelligence than previously thought, according to a new study published in Quaternary Science Reviews.

Archaeologists working at the ancient settlement of Stăuceni-“Holm” in northeastern Romania have uncovered a mega-structure measuring 350 square meters dating back about 6,000 years. Their paper was published in PLOS One.

The staccato clicks of sperm whales may sound like meaningless background noise to human ears, but a new analysis suggests they may be part of a communication system with a level of complexity approaching that of our own. The research has been published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

Amid growing evidence of fungi’s key role in ecosystems and storing carbon, African scientists are championing the need to preserve ‘funga’ as much as flora and fauna

Homo erectus may have deliberately selected rocks embedded with fossils and crystals to craft their hand axes — possibly to serve as mediators between humans and the cosmos. The discovery was reported on March 17 in the journal Tel Aviv.

A monumental archaeological excavation in Africa has uncovered the lives of the humans who lived there 100,000 years ago. The findings have been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A new study suggests that low doses of the psychedelic drug lysergic acid diethylamide, better known as LSD, can enhance how the human brain processes emotional rewards. The research, published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, points to specific shifts in electrical brain activity following the administration of a small dose in patients experiencing mild depression. These neural changes corresponded with an improved mood that lasted for days after the initial exposure.

Scientists found echoes of human presence dating back to around 14,500 years ago, including footprints, wooden tools, foundations for a building and the remains of an ancient fire pit. They dated sediments and artifacts from the site to this time frame. A new study challenges the age of this important site, suggesting Monte Verde might be much younger than scientists thought. But not everyone agrees with the findings.

The identity of a mysterious artifact found in Devon almost 160 years ago has finally been revealed. New research has identified it as a pendant made from the tooth of a gray seal, which would have been worn by an ancient human more than 15,000 years ago. The findings of the study are published in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews.