Drug use in the ancient world, and what will happen to plants as carbon dioxide levels increase
Armed with new data, archaeologists are revealing that mind-altering drugs were present at the dawn of the first complex societies some 5000 years ago in the ancient Middle East. Contributing writer A...
19 Apr 201824min
How DNA is revealing Latin America’s lost histories, and how to make a molecule from just two atoms
Geneticists and anthropologists studying historical records and modern-day genomes are finding traces of previously unknown migrants to Latin America in the 16th and 17th centuries, when Asians, Afric...
12 Apr 201822min
Legendary Viking crystals, and how to put an octopus to sleep
A millennium ago, Viking navigators may have used crystals known as “sunstones” to navigate between Norway and Greenland. Sarah Crespi talks with Online News Editor David Grimm about how one might use...
5 Apr 201821min
Chimpanzee retirement gains momentum, and x-ray ‘ghost images’ could cut radiation doses
Two of the world’s most famous research chimpanzees have finally retired. Hercules and Leo arrived at a chimp sanctuary in Georgia last week. Sarah Crespi checks in with Online News Editor David Grimm...
29 Mar 201831min
A possible cause for severe morning sickness, and linking mouse moms’ caretaking to brain changes in baby mice
Researchers are converging on which genes are linked to morning sickness—the nausea and vomiting associated with pregnancy—and the more severe form: hyperemesis gravidarum (HG). And once we know what ...
22 Mar 201821min
How humans survived an ancient volcanic winter and how disgust shapes ecosystems
When Indonesia’s Mount Toba blew its top some 74,000 years ago, an apocalyptic scenario ensued: Tons of ash and debris entered the atmosphere, coating the planet in ash for 2 weeks straight and sendin...
15 Mar 201821min
Animals that don’t need people to be domesticated; the astonishing spread of false news; and links between gender, sexual orientation, and speech
Did people domesticate animals? Or did they domesticate themselves? Online News Editor David Grimm talks with Sarah Crespi about a recent study that looked at self-domesticating mice. If they could go...
8 Mar 201841min
A new dark matter signal from the early universe, massive family trees, and how we might respond to alien contact
For some time after the big bang there were no stars. Researchers are now looking at cosmic dawn—the time when stars first popped into being—and are seeing hints of dark matter’s influence on supercol...
1 Mar 201835min
