Neanderthals were apparently no easier on their art supplies than modern kids. Two chunks of ocher unearthed at ancient rock shelters in Ukraine were actually Neanderthal crayons, according to a recent study. The pair of artifacts, unearthed from layers 47,000 and 46,000 years old, showed signs of being deliberately…
“This fossil doesn’t just settle the debate. It flips decades of T. rex research on its head.” For four decades, a frequently acrimonious debate has raged in paleontological circles about the correct taxonomy for a handful of rare fossil specimens. One faction insisted the fossils were juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex;…
The economic case for solar power is stronger than ever. To the south of the Monte Cristo mountain range and west of Paymaster Canyon, a vast stretch of the Nevada desert has attracted modern-day prospectors chasing one of 21st-century America’s greatest investment booms. Solar power developers want to cover…
Fans of kopi luwak claim the coffee has a unique aroma and taste. A new chemical analysis backs them up. In 2007’s The Bucket List, Jack Nicholson’s billionaire magnate is a fan of a luxury coffee called kopi luwak, only to be informed that the beans first pass through…
“I do think we’re rapidly approaching the point where it will be a significant impact.” It has been nearly one month since many parts of the federal government shut down after lawmakers missed a budget deadline at the end of September, but so far, NASA’s most critical operations have…
Details are remarkably sparse on what has been agreed to. On Tuesday, Westinghouse announced that it had reached an agreement with the Trump administration that would purportedly see $80 billion of new nuclear reactors built in the US. And the government indicated that it had finalized plans for a…
The storm was so strong a hurricane hunter had to end its mission early. Hurricane Melissa made landfall in southwestern Jamaica, near New Hope, on Tuesday at 1 pm ET with staggeringly powerful sustained winds of 185 mph. In the National Hurricane Center update noting the precise landfall time…
Many Turing mechanism models yield too-perfect patterns; varying cell sizes vastly improves the results. A mixture of two types of pigment-producing cells undergoes diffusiophoretic transport to self-assemble into a hexagonal pattern. Credit: Siamak Mirfendereski and Ankur Gupta/CU Boulder A mixture of two types of pigment-producing cells undergoes diffusiophoretic transport…
Storm reached sustained winds of 160 mph on Monday morning. Hurricane Melissa will make landfall in southern Jamaica less than 24 hours from now, and it is likely to be the most catastrophic storm in the Caribbean island’s history. As it crawled across the northern Caribbean Sea on Monday…
Marine mammals are being forced into new and more dangerous waters, scientists warn. For millennia, some of the world’s largest filter-feeding whales, including humpbacks, fin whales, and blue whales, have undertaken some of the longest migrations on earth to travel between their warm breeding grounds in the tropics to…
