A nearly million-year-old tooth is giving scientists new insights into the murky history of human origins. Researchers have analyzed dental enamel from the tooth of a mysterious human ancestor known as Homo antecessor, and their findings help provide some clarity regarding the longstanding mystery of where our species came from. Actually, who our species came […]

We’ve all heard about the wonders that CBD can bring to not only ourselves, but our pets too. As dogs share the same system for receiving CBD, many pet owners have lauded it’s effects. Many suggest that it’s helped their dog with everything from anxiety during thunderstorms to aches and pains for the older furry […]

Three astronauts are scheduled to launch to the International Space Station (ISS) on April 9. They won’t return to our world for six months. Instead, they’ll watch from the safety of outer space as a pandemic plays out some 250 miles beneath their feet.  Escaping Earth for six months might sound like a dream to […]

In decades past, dinosaurs were distinguished from other reptiles of their time by the fact that they lived on land. There weren’t any dinosaurs that swam in the oceans like the fish-like ichthyosaurs, and there were no dinosaurs that flew like the leathery-winged pterosaurs. But discoveries over the past few decades have complicated the picture […]

A chimp would smoke you in a tree-climbing contest. It’s not your fault — their bodies are built for it, with longer arms that move them through branches efficiently.  Though a human body looks different than a chimp’s, the line between the two species blurs in the archaeological record. Fossilized bones have inspired scientific debate […]

What makes a swear word? Why are some words more profane than others? Temple University researcher Jamie Reilly et al. examine this question in a new paper called “Building the perfect curse word: A psycholinguistic investigation of the form and meaning of taboo words.” Reilly et al. started out by getting MTurk participants to rate […]

Astronomers have discovered 139 new minor planets orbiting the sun beyond Neptune by searching through data from the Dark Energy Survey. The new method for spotting small worlds is expected to reveal many thousands of distant objects in coming years — meaning these first hundred or so are likely just the tip of the iceberg. […]

Across America, people are suffering from symptoms similar to COVID-19, yet they can’t get an official diagnosis because of the lingering shortage of test kits. The experience is frustrating for patients. It’s also dangerous for public health officials.  “You cannot fight a fire blindfolded,” World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press […]

Everyone reacts differently in times of crisis. For many people, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused stress levels to spike. Some may have difficulty sleeping. And many of us are struggling with feelings of isolation and loneliness as the necessity of social distancing keeps us physically apart. And, paradoxically, some research suggests that these factors — […]

At least once in its past, Earth existed as a roiling ball of molten rock that might have had the consistency of room-temperature oil, but would been untouchable at some 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. As magma oceans ebbed and flowed, the tumult might have launched elements conducive for life out of the rock and into our […]

The novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 has quickly taken over our lives. As the global pandemic worsens, lockdowns across states and nations have gone into effect while hospitals in hard-hit areas remain in a state of constant crisis. As of March 27, over half a million people have been infected worldwide and deaths have topped […]

The COVID-19 outbreak has brought much of the world to a standstill and hammered the world economy. But it strikes me that most people’s emotional reactions to the virus have been remarkably muted. While panic buying has certainly been a problem, popular panic over the disease itself seems rare. So why isn’t COVID-19 scarier? I’d […]

Dinosaurs made other dinosaurs. The duration of their presence makes that clear enough. But how did dinosaurs go about courting and mating with each other? No one has found two dinosaurs lovingly intertwined just yet. Nor has anyone found dinosaur tracks or traces that record the act. But the fossil record has provided the bookends […]

For years, paleontologists and dinosaur aficionados alike have debated what is the largest land-dwelling carnivore of all time. In the one corner, there’s Tyrannosaurus rex, the terror of prehistoric North America. In the other, Giganotosaurus — an equally large dinosaur that stalked ancient Patagonia, and one of the last of an impressive lineage that ruled […]

In the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, our best weapon is proper hand-washing. The novel coronavirus (known more formally as SARS-CoV-2) that is responsible for COVID-19 spreads two ways: directly, through droplets launched by coughs; and indirectly, through transfer from infected surfaces — where the coronavirus can last for up to three days. Because they’re […]