Some, but not all, ancient humans reacted to a cooling event by migrating HENNING DALHOFF/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY Roughly 4000 years after the last glacial period, hunter-gatherers faced another bout of sudden climate change that forced them to rapidly adapt to a much colder world. While not as frigid or long-lasting as the final stages of…
Sprinklings of life appear key to the recipe for rain. Lofted flecks of organic material like bacteria, pollen and fungal spores play a profound role in regulating rainfall patterns, a new study suggests. These bioparticles can make up a major portion of all the particles that can seed rain in the sky, and their levels…
Convergent ‘Cuteness’ Is Making Dogs and Cats Look Alike Pugs, Persian cats, and other smushed-face cats and dogs are more similar to one another than they are to the wild animals they evolved from By Rachel Nuwer edited by Allison Parshall Anna Koldunova/Alamy Stock Photo What do Persian cats, Pekingese dogs and pugs have in…
An artist’s impression of Earth in the Archaean Eon, 3.8 billion to 2.5 billion years ago CHRISTIAN JEGOU/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY Mysterious microbes living in wetlands in China have helped to narrow down when the ancestor of all animals and plants lived – and the oxygenation of Earth’s atmosphere may have played a key role in…
In 1785 English philosopher Jeremy Bentham designed the perfect prison: Cells circle a tower from which an unseen guard can observe any inmate at will. As far as a prisoner knows, at any given time, the guard may be watching—or may not be. Inmates have to assume they’re constantly observed and behave accordingly. Welcome to…
Given a choice between two sea snail shells, hermit crabs know which will make a better home. That is, unless their thinking has been muddled by ingesting microplastics. Then, they struggle with a decision that could be crucial for survival. They aren’t alone: across the animal kingdom, it appears, tiny bits of plastic change behaviours…
Rachel Feltman: For Scientific American’s Science Quickly, I’m Rachel Feltman. Just to give you a heads-up, we’ll be talking about physical fitness today. We’ll touch on topics such as disordered eating and intentional weight loss. Social media is full of fitness influencers promising “bikini bodies” and hawking fat-burning cardio routines, especially for women and femme-presenting…
The “milpa” system Matilde Gattoni For millennia, the Maya people of Guatemala have been practising a unique agricultural system that fuses sustainability, climate resilience and environmental preservation. Based on the interconnections between plants and the surrounding elements, the “milpa” system combines nature with various managed crops such as corn, squash and beans (pictured above). Rather…
As spring warms the eastern U.S. and green shoots peek from the ground, other forms of life stir in the soil. Periodical 17-year cicadas in Brood XIV—one of 15 broods found only in North America—begin to creep from their underground burrows. Last seen in 2008, they will emerge in the billions across a dozen states…
Le Corbusier used Fibonacci sequences in his building designs, like this one in Marseille, France Chris Hellier/Alamy BlueprintsMarcus du Sautoy (Fourth Estate (UK, out now); Basic Books (US, 16 September)) Marcus Du Sautoy wants us to see mathematics and art as inextricably connected. “Both are creating ways to interpret, understand, and navigate our place in…
