Replica of one of the Peking Man fossils. Image: Yan Li, via Wikimedia Commons In the 1930s archaeologists working at the site of Zhoukoudian near Beijing recovered an incredible trove of partial skulls and other bones representing some 40 individuals that would eventually be assigned to the early human species Homo erectus . The bones, which recent estimates put at around 770,000 years old , constitute the largest collection of H
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Feed SubscriptionYou’re not like the rest, and that is okay – Letter to My Young self
Most of my life, I’ve always felt like I don’t quite fit in. Not at home, not with any of my families, not at school. I sometimes joke that I was hatched from an egg
Read More »The Ballooning Brain: Defective Genes May Explain Uncontrolled Brain Growth in Autism
As a baby grows inside the womb, its brain does not simply expand like a dehydrated sponge dropped in water. Early brain development is an elaborate procession. Every minute some 250,000 neurons bloom, squirming past one another like so many schoolchildren rushing to their seats at the sound of the bell
Read More »YouTube Space Lab Winners’ Experiments to Fly on ISS
Winner, 17-18 category, Amr Mohamed; NASA astronaut Sunita Williams; winners, 14-16 category, Dorothy Chen and Sara Ma. Two future experiments set to take flight aboard the International Space Station have some unusual creators: teenagers who won the first YouTube Space Lab video competition today, sponsored by YouTube, Lenovo and Space Adventures. Students around the globe entered two-minute videos describing their idea for tests to conduct in low-Earth orbit.
Read More »Earthquake Tests 25 Years of Mexican Engineering
By Erik Vance of Nature magazine The earthquake that hit southern Mexico on March 20 rattled buildings and nerves in the capital, Mexico City, but thankfully caused little damage and no deaths.
Read More »‘Antimagnet’ Renders Magnets Invisible
By Jon Cartwright of Nature magazine Physicists have already unveiled invisibility cloaks that can hide objects from light, sound, seismic and even water waves. [More]
Read More »Big Kill, Not Big Chill, Finished Off Giant Kangaroos
Around 40,000 years ago, the giant kangaroo disappeared from Australia. So did Diprotodon ( rhinoceros-size wombats ) and Palorchestes ( tapirlike marsupials ) as well as supersize birds, reptiles and some 50 other so-called megafauna--big animals
Read More »Power Plants: Could a Rechargeable Battery Be Made from Paper and Pulp By-Products?
Despite decades of predictions that a fully electronic, paperless society is almost upon us, we still live in a world populated with printed documents. This insatiable demand for plant cellulose –based writing and packaging materials may end up having a silver lining: a component for a new type of low-cost, Earth-friendly rechargeable battery
Read More »Edison’s Revenge: Will Direct Current Make a Comeback in the U.S.?
A new front in an old feud is being opened in the push for greater energy efficiency. [More]
Read More »Getting to Know Your Water
That sound you do not hear is a half-million people not sighing in relief as the reservoir that slakes the thirst of the population of Raleigh, NC, and many surrounding smaller towns nears capacity for the first time in nearly a year. And on this World Water Day, when many turn their attention to the billions in the world who lack access to clean water, it s worth reminding ourselves that those of us who do have access to water take it for granted shamefully. Which makes it nice that Raleigh has joined dozens of cities in signing an open letter created by Corporate Accountability International to President Obama requesting better funding for the nation s water infrastructure
Read More »U.S. Intelligence Sees Global Water Conflict Risks Rising
By Andrew Quinn WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Fresh water supplies are unlikely to keep up with global demand by 2040, increasing political instability, hobbling economic growth and endangering world food markets, according to a U.S. [More]
Read More »Your Interns Could Save Your Business
You may be surprised by the value that an intern can provide to your business's growth strategy. We’ve probably all had the experience of stepping into a retail store and receiving too little, or worse, too much attention from the staff
Read More »Animals Exposed to Virtual Reality Hold an Emergency Meeting [Video]
On the evening of Wednesday, March 21, a mouse scurried into a storm drain near the southeast corner of Central Park in New York City. If anyone noticed the mouse at all, whatever shallow impression the sight of a Manhattan rodent made on their minds likely vanished within seconds, rinsed away by a new wave of sensory experience an approaching car, a ringing cell phone. But the mouse, whose name is Gerald, is worth remembering
Read More »What Is the Difference between Infusing and Dissolving?
Key concepts [More]
Read More »How the Dive Reflex Extends Breath-Holding
Floating motionless atop a tank of water in 2009, French diver St
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