~cosmos-magazine | Bookmarks (523)

A 700-year-old fresco found in an Italian church has provided more evidence of the presence of Islamic art in medieval European Christianity. The fresco, which depicts a tent used to cover the high altar, is thought to be the only surviving picture of its kind. “At first, it seemed unbelievable and just too exciting that […]

A new genetic study has mapped out the 11,000-year history of the close relationship between humans and sheep. The earliest sheep-herding practices were discovered Aşıklı Höyük in central Turkey, detailed in a 2014 study. It showed that these ancient people of the northwestern part of the “Fertile Crescent” had penned wild sheep in about 9000 […]

Archaeologists have found more than 850 artefacts on the surface of a dried lake bed in Iraq’s Western Desert including hand axes dating to 1.5 million years ago. The discoveries were made by a team led by Ella Egberts from the Free University of Brussels in Belgium. “The fieldwork was a huge success,” Egberts says […]

Ultrathin lightsails using lasers to propel probes to the nearest star systems at high speeds are a step closer. The idea of lightsails is something out of science fiction. As early as the 1950s and ‘60s, science fiction writers John Campbell, Arthur C. Clarke and others were toying with the idea of “solar sails” for […]

While some humans have the hilarious ability to wiggle their ears, most cannot move their auricular muscles at will. But new research suggests we unconsciously engage these muscles when listening very intently. Some species, such as cats and dogs, can change the shape of the pinna – the shell of the ear – to help […]

Global planetary defence procedures have been triggered after NASA scientists’ prediction that an asteroid has a 1.3% chance of hitting Earth in 2032. The rock, dubbed 2024 YR4, was first spotted on 27 December last year. It is 40–100m wide and about 220 million kg. 2024 YR4 isn’t big enough to wipe out humanity. For […]

Chinese startup DeepSeek made waves this week, releasing its new open source chatbot DeepSeek-R1 instantly disrupting the field of artificial intelligence. DeepSeek claims it was able to achieve similar or equivalence performance as OpenAI’s latest model – OpenAI-o1-1217 – but took a fraction of the cost to develop. “…$5.6 million compared to the undisclosed billions […]

As the highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 virus continues to devastate populations of birds and mammals around the world, new research on antibody immune therapy is helping to bridge the gap from animal studies to humans. Researchers have now discovered that one antibody known to be broadly protective against influenza A viruses in mice and […]

Scientists have designed a small drone with a “bird-like” ability to fly quickly and safely through unfamiliar environments. The Hong Kong University team say their new micro air vehicle, dubbed SUPER, could assist first responders during disaster relief efforts or search and rescue missions into unknown areas. “Unfamiliar environments can present many dangers to a […]

Scientists studying asteroid grains scooped from asteroid Bennu and returned to Earth by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, have found so many precursors to life that they have a new question: why didn’t life form on Bennu billions of years ago, when conditions seemed ripe for it? “What did Bennu not have that Earth did have?” asked […]

The first samples returned from an asteroid to Earth have revealed that one – Bennu – had an ancient brine with minerals crucial to life. Research published today in Nature shows that water evaporated on Bennu leaving behind a briny broth which would have allowed the ingredients for life to mix and create more complex […]

The tallest living tree in Australia is a Tasmanian giant ash hundreds of years old named Centurion, according to a survey decades in the making. The tree was 99.6m tall when researchers and citizen scientists first measured it, but it has since lost a branch and a few metres of height – now rearing 96.5m […]

The longest Greek papyrus ever found in the Judaean Desert has been published, revealing forgery and tax fraud in from the Roman empire. The nearly 2,000-year-old papyrus has 133 lines of text. It was initially misclassified as Nabataean – the language of an ancient Arab people that lived in the southern Levant and northern Arabia. […]

In research that might one day lead to solutions to some rare genetic abnormalities, scientists in China have successfully raised offspring from 2 male mice. The stem cell scientists introduced mutations in a particular set of genetic locations to overcome the hurdles preventing unisexual reproduction in mammals. They created offspring from 2 male mice by […]

A team at the University of Barcelona in Spain has designed experimental equipment to help undergraduate students familiarise themselves with complex quantum physics. The researchers say the project, described in a paper published in the journal EPJ Quantum Technology, will help students who want to pursue research into quantum technologies as the field enters a […]

Dwarf planet Ceres has a smattering of organic material on its surface. New research suggests these organic compounds came from impacting asteroids from the outer asteroid belt. Ceres was the first asteroid to be discovered in 1801. It is the largest object in the asteroid belt which sits between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. […]

New Australian-developed technology will aid astronomers search for the source of cosmic signals known as “fast radio bursts” – a mystery which has persisted since their discovery almost 20 years ago. The Commensal Realtime ASKAP Fast Transient COherent (CRACO) upgrade is a new addition to CSIRO’s Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope. “Once […]

International researchers who are monitoring climate change say persistent multiyear drought events – sometimes called megadroughts – pose a growing threat to nature and humans. A team of researchers from the Institute of Science and Technology Austria produced a 40-year global quantitative inventory to inform policy about the environmental impact of human-induced climate change. It […]

A new report from Oxford Net Zero and Carbon Balance Initiative has presented a possible solution to a critical challenge facing the UK’s climate policy: how to develop carbon storage infrastructure while protecting public finances. It presents a carbon storage mandate, referred to as the “Carbon Takeback Obligation” (CTBO), which would require fossil fuel suppliers […]

Astrocytes — named for their star-like shape — are a type of brain cell as abundant as neurons in the central nervous system, but little is known about their role in brain health and disease. Many neurological diseases are caused by or result in the loss of cells in the central nervous system. Some diseases […]

An American bear manager has identified the “magic tool” for scaring grizzly bears away from people and property. It’s not a shotgun, truck or pack of dogs – it’s a drone fitted with a thermal camera. Scaring bears, also known as ‘hazing’, aims to reduce human-bear conflict by teaching bears to avoid areas near people. […]

Footprints measuring 92cm in width found in Mongolia have raised the prospect of an as yet undiscovered skeleton of the largest bipedal dinosaur ever. When it comes to giant dinosaurs, people tend to think of the massive meat-eaters like Tyrannosaurus rex or the even bigger long-necked sauropods like Brachiosaurus and Diplodocus. A group which rarely […]

Despite appearances, not all corals stay put. The mushroom coral, Cycloseris cyclolites, can pack up and “walk” to new habitats and new research has shown that it does so in pursuit of blue light. A team of scientists used high-resolution time-lapse imaging to discover that C. cyclolites moves using a mechanism known as “pulsed inflation”, […]

Many people who menstruate do not have access to sufficient and affordable period products. Those experiencing “period poverty” may feel shame, miss opportunities at school or work, and resort to using makeshift solutions such as old clothes or towels. A growing number of initiatives around the world are providing free menstrual products to address this […]