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Scientists have found a couple of 1.9-million-year-old skeletons in a South African cave that may be “a Rosetta Stone for defining for the first time what the genus Homo is.”
The intestinal microbes of Japanese people have enzymes that may be particularly suited for digesting the kind of seaweed that is commonly used in sushi rolls.
Male friendships are qualitatively different from female friendships. Men may not be physically or emotionally expressive, but they provide a lot of support for each one another with their presence.
Is the financial crisis the best thing that ever happened to former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer? As Jan Hoffman writes in the New York Times today, two years after he resigned in scandal the Sheriff of Wall Street is back on his horse and charging again toward Wall Street reform. Will this focus on reform help the public forget about his fling with high-end call-girl Ashley Dupré?
Vice President Joe Biden writes that the country’s new nuclear stance “leaves Cold War thinking behind” and recognizes that nuclear terrorism and proliferation are the biggest dangers to global security.
“Otto Dix is a difficult artist to like,” writes Judith Dobrzynski of the Weimar artist known for his harsh, cruel depictions of social and moral decay. “But admiration is a different thing altogether.”
Economic prognosticators are increasingly looking for indicators in unconventional urban data. The newest offbeat predictors are finding information in obscure places — but can they be trusted in forecasts?
“Non-paternity” (when a child turns out to have a different father than they thought they did) is estimated to be somewhere around 10%. New over-the-counter tests make it easy to find out the truth.
Eli Kintisch suggests scientists may have to attempt some radical fixes to address the shift in global temperature. Should we build an umbrella in space? Reflective panels covering the polar ice?
A new technology called “Skinput” uses bio-acoustic sensors to allow people to use the skin on their fingers and forearms — or any part of their bodies — as touchpads to control mobile devices.
It can be shocking to hear stories about female terrorists like the Russian “black widows” and America’s “Jihad Jane” — particularly because women so rarely turn to violence.
“Those who think of themselves as great fans of progress, of technology’s inexorable march forward, will change their tune as soon as progress destroys something they care deeply about,” writes Nicholas Carr.
The director of the census bureau in charge of marine species, called the Global Marine Species Assessment, has issued a warning about the deterioration of earth’s coral reefs. It was […]
Insects have long been objects of fascination in classical literature, children’s nursery rhymes, and in the culture at large. Hugh Raffles’ interest in insects stemmed from his work in the Amazon, […]
Scientists in the Philippines say they have discovered a new species of giant lizards with bright yellow, blue, and green skin, that lives in the forests and survives on a fruit-only diet.
Researchers have found three new species that apparently spend their entire lives in the oxygen-starved sediment at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea.
Physicists have developed the smallest electrically pumped laser ever, with a beam that is 30 micrometers long, eight micrometers high, and has a wavelength of 200 micrometers.
“Contrary to expectations and lamentations, widespread piracy does not kill commercial filmmaking,” writes Kevin Kelly. “Existence proof: the largest movie industries on the planet.”