While you do the dishes or drive to work, your mind is likely not on the task at hand; perhaps you’re composing a grocery list or daydreaming about retiring in Italy. But research published in the Journal of Neuroscience suggests you might be taking in more than you think. During a simple task that requires…
Tutankhamun’s death mask, fashioned from gold and semi-precious stones Rosemary Calvert/Getty Images A century ago this October, Egyptologist Howard Carter and his colleagues opened the innermost coffin of the pharaoh Tutankhamun’s sarcophagus for the first time in almost 3250 years. Inside they discovered the boy king’s mummy wearing an incredible mask fashioned from gold and…
For the first time since the COVID vaccines became available in pharmacies in 2021, the average person in the U.S. can’t count on getting a free annual shot against a disease that has been the main or a contributing cause of death for more than 1.2 million people around the country, including nearly 12,000 to…
A colder climate than we have now let ancient people cross the Bering land bridge and enter the Americas Getty Images/iStockphoto This is an extract from Our Human Story, our newsletter about the revolution in archaeology. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every month. A central plot point in the human story is our…
CLIMATEWIRE | The Trump administration is working on a new effort to both weaken Congress’ grip on the federal budget and freeze billions of dollars in spending at several government agencies. The architect behind the move is Russ Vought, who leads the Office of Management and Budget at the White House. Vought has long lamented…
In April, book authors and publishers protested Meta’s use of copyrighted books to train AI Vuk Valcic/Alamy Live News Billions of dollars are at stake as courts in the US and UK decide whether tech companies can legally train their artificial intelligence models on copyrighted books. Authors and publishers have filed multiple lawsuits over this…
Gorilla Gourmets Really Dig Their Truffles, Study Finds Researchers followed gorillas for years to uncover truffle-hunting behavior—and it may be socially transmitted By Rachel Nuwer edited by Sarah Lewin Frasier Soil-scratching gorillas. Gaston Abea remembers his grandfather telling him that the gorillas living near their village in the northern Republic of the Congo were digging…
Kidney disease can lead to high blood pressure and infections Mohammed Haneefa Nizamudeen/Getty Images The damage to the body caused by the most common type of inherited kidney disease was thought to be irreversible. But now, animal studies suggest that correcting the responsible mutations via CRISPR gene editing can reverse at least some of it….
In a rugged landscape in central Spain, archaeologists have discovered a unique granite cobblestone marked with a red ochre dot that preserves the mark of a Neandertal fingerprint. Dating back approximately 43,000 years, it could be the oldest and most complete Neandertal fingerprint ever identified. Roughly 20 centimeters long, the rock bears a resemblance to…
By affecting cows’ diets, climate change can affect cheese’s nutritional value and sensory traits such as taste, color and texture. This is true at least for Cantal — a firm, unpasteurized cheese from the Auvergne region in central France, researchers report February 20 in the Journal of Dairy Science. Cows in this region typically graze…
