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science

Mystery of the Stone Balls Solved

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stone balls

For nearly 2 million years, ancient humans crafted stones into hand-size balls, but archaeologists were unsure why. Now they know: Ancient people used them as tools to get at the tasty marrow within animal bones, a new study finds. In other words, if a bone were a can of soup, these ancient stone balls were like ancient can openers. The finding is a remarkable one; archaeologists have wondered for decades exactly how ancient humans used these stone balls. “Our study provided evidence, for the first time, regarding the function of these enigmatic-shaped stone balls that were produced by humans for … Read more

SCIENCE: Cats Have a “Mind Control Parasite” in Hawaii

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evil cat - pixabay

Toxoplasma gondii, a “mind-controlling” parasite that causes the disease toxoplasmosis, has been found in public lands in Oahu, Hawaii for the first time, researchers have discovered. This parasite was previously unknown across Hawaii’s island landscapes, so how did it get to Oahu? It hitchhiked there in free-ranging cats, which are a non-native species and are known hosts of the parasite. Thanks, cats. Though, to be fair, cats aren’t really to blame; people are the ones who first brought cats to the island and then allowed them to roam free. Felines that were abandoned then bred in the wild and formed … Read more

Rare Bee is Half Male, Half Female (Split Down the Middle)

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gynandromorphy bee

In an un-bee-lievable discovery, scientists identified a bee that’s male on its left side and female on its right side. The rare condition is known as gynandromorphy. Researchers found the bee inside a nest collected in Panama, in a forest on Barro Colorado Island, describing it in a study published on Feb. 27 in the Journal of Hymenoptera Research. When the nest was collected, the bee was a larva enclosed in a brood cell, a chamber in the honeycomb where young bees grow, and the scientists noticed that it was a gynandromorph when it emerged as an adult. Full Story … Read more

Remains of Tropical Rainforest Discovered i Antarctica

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About 90 million years ago, West Antarctica was home to a thriving temperate rainforest, according to fossil roots, pollen and spores recently discovered there, a new study finds. The world was a different place back then. During the middle of the Cretaceous period (145 million to 65 million years ago), dinosaurs roamed Earth and sea levels were 558 feet (170 meters) higher than they are today. Sea-surface temperatures in the tropics were as hot as 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 degrees Celsius). This scorching climate allowed a rainforest — similar to those seen in New Zealand today — to take root … Read more

Is There Dark Matter Inside the Earth?

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super collider

Dark matter is a hypothetical component to our universe, used to explain many strange behaviors of stars and galaxies. Despite the almost overwhelming evidence that dark matter does indeed exist, we still don’t know what it’s made of. Detectors scattered around the world have been operating for decades, trying to catch the faint trace of a passing dark matter particle, but to no avail. A new paper offers an alternative approach: dig deep. We know that dark matter exists through a variety of astronomical observations. Stars are orbiting the centers of their galaxies too fast. Galaxies are whizzing around inside … Read more

SCIENCE: New Insect Species Named After Gaga

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Kaikaia gaga

Lady Gaga has a new little monster after a small insect from Nicaragua was named in her honor. Kaikaia gaga is a type of treehopper. The bugs are known for their bright coloring and individuality in appearance. They “sing” to each other by vibrating plant stems. “If there is going to be a Lady Gaga bug, it’s going to be a treehopper, because they’ve got these crazy horns, they have this wacky fashion sense about them,” Brendan Morris, a graduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said. “They’re unlike anything you’ve ever seen before.” Morris discovered the differences … Read more

Scientists Discover “Engine of Consciousness” – In Monkeys

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macaque - pixabay

A team of researchers has found an “engine of consciousness” in the brain — a region where, in monkeys at least, even a little jump start will make them wake up from anesthesia. Consciousness is a mystery. We don’t know for certain why creatures are sometimes awake and sometimes asleep, or which mechanisms in the brain are most important for a conscious state. In this new paper, though, researchers turned up some important clues. Using electrodes across the brains of awake and sleeping macaques, as well as macaques under different forms of anesthesia, the team found two key pathways in … Read more

SCIENCE: Yaravirus Is Unlike Anything We Have Ever Seen

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Yaravirus

Our planet is teeming with mysterious microbes. Now, in the waters of an artificial lake, scientists may have discovered one of the most mysterious of all: a brand-new virus with genes that have never been seen before. A couple of years ago, the group collected water samples from the creeks of Lake Pampulha, an artificial lagoon in the city of Belo Horizonte in Brazil, in search of giant viruses — or those with massive genomes — that infect single-celled organisms called amoebas. But when the team went back to the lab and added these samples to amoeba cells to try … Read more

SCIENCE: Could Quantum Cognition Explain Human Behavior?

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artificial intelligence - pixabay

The same fundamental platform that allows Schrödinger’s cat to be both alive and dead, and also means two particles can “speak to each other” even across a galaxy’s distance, could help to explain perhaps the most mysterious phenomena: human behavior. Quantum physics and human psychology may seem completely unrelated, but some scientists think the two fields overlap in interesting ways. Both disciplines attempt to predict how unruly systems might behave in the future. The difference is that one field aims to understand the fundamental nature of physical particles, while the other attempts to explain human nature — along with its … Read more

SCIENCE: There Are (At Least) Four Distinct Patterns of Aging

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Some people’s hearts stay strong well into their 60s, but their kidneys begin to fail. Others may have the kidneys of a 30-year-old but fall victim to constant infection. Now, scientists may be one step closer to understanding why the aging process varies so drastically between people. Even within a single person, aging unfolds at different rates in different tissues, sometimes striking the liver before the heart or kidney, for example. People fall into distinct categories depending on which of their biological systems ages fastest, and someday, doctors could use this information to recommend specific lifestyle changes and design personalized … Read more