Western Europeans crafted hunting weapons out of bones from whales stranded on the Atlantic shoreline between 20,000 and 14,000 years ago, researchers report May 27 in Nature Communications. Previously excavated finds at Stone Age cave and rock–shelter sites running from northwestern Spain to southwestern France, some located as far as about 300 kilometers inland, represent…
An artist’s impression of a Starlink satellite in orbit La Nacion/ZUMA Press/Alamy Eruptions from the sun are shortening the lives of satellites in Earth orbit, particularly large constellations like SpaceX’s Starlink – which could be both beneficial and a cause for concern. The sun goes through an 11-year cycle of activity, peaking with a period…
The oldest known fossil of a singing cicada reveals that these insects were making music during the Eocene epoch — long before humans existed. The fossil represents a new cicada species, Eoplatypleura messelensis, which lived about 47.2 million years ago. The discovery pushes back the timeline for when cicadas started to sing by about 17…
It can be difficult to gauge how much milk a breastfed baby is getting lebedinskaia natalia/Getty Images Parents could one day track how much breast milk their baby is drinking, thanks to a device that sends alerts to their smartphones in real time. “A common anxiety around breastfeeding is the uncertainty surrounding the amounts of…
Health Using human cells, researchers were able to create a novel cervix-on-a-chip model to study how the vaginal microbiome affects pregnancy By Grace Wade A section of the cervix OVERSEAS/COLLECTION CNRI/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY Scientists have coaxed human cells to form a miniature replica of the cervix during pregnancy. This so-called cervix-on-a-chip reveals how inflammation and…
I am not normally a fan of lotions and potions, but right now, four small vials sit on my bedside table. Every morning and every night, I open and sniff each one in turn, savouring the scents as they hit my nostrils. First, the sharp tang of lemon, followed by the abrasive chill of…
Rising seas will threaten many coastal cities Hugh R Hastings/Getty Images Limiting global warming to 1.5°C above the pre-industrial baseline won’t be enough to stop sea levels from rising by several metres over the coming centuries, according to a review of all the latest evidence. “I think sometimes there’s a misunderstanding that 1.5°C will mean…
An artist’s impression of the exoplanet K2-18b NASA Astronomers are still arguing about whether we have recently seen the “strongest evidence” for alien life yet, or simply nothing at all. Now, the researchers behind the original bold claim have reanalysed the data and say they have yet more evidence for molecules with no origin outside…
Tornadoes Expected to Strike Multiple States This Weekend in One of the Worst Seasons This Decade Tornadoes are predicted across swaths of the U.S. in the coming days, likely adding to this year’s already high tally of such storms By Meghan Bartels edited by Dean Visser Thomas Trott/Getty Images Tornadoes threaten huge swaths of the…
Is it time to say goodbye to the multiverse? SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Getty Images An advanced version of the famous double-slit experiment has directly measured a single photon in two places at once – or at least, that’s the claim made by a team of physicists who say these results could destroy the concept of a…
