Latest science news in Paleontology & Archaeology
Traces of early Native Americans -- in sunflower genes
New information about early Native Americans' horticultural practices comes not from hieroglyphs or other artifacts, but from a suite of four gene duplicates found in wild and domesticated sunflowers.
To Scientists, Laughter Is No Joke
Funny How? Scientists Study What's Behind Guffaws And Find Laughter Links Us In Primal Ways
Asian wheat could strengthen U.S. wheat
MANHATTAN, Kan., April 2 (UPI) -- Wheat species from Asia could aid in the U.S. fight against a blight that causes wheat to shrivel and turn chalky white, scientists...
Inca cemetery holds brutal glimpses of Spanish violence
Skeletons provide first material evidence of conquest-related fatalities
Ecologists receive mixed news from fossil record
Paleontologists can't always get what they want, to paraphrase the Rolling Stones, but sometimes they can get what they need, according to a study that will appear in the May...
Stone Age Scandinavians lactose intolerant
STOCKHOLM, Sweden, April 2 (UPI) -- Stone Age hunter-gatherers who lived along the southern coast of Scandinavia 4,000 years ago were unable to digest milk, researchers said.
How's the Easter Bunny connected to Easter?
There's no story in the Bible about a long-eared, cotton-tailed creature known as the Easter Bunny. Neither is there a passage about young children painting eggs or hunting for baskets...
Doubt shed on fast rise of Andes
Oxygen-isotope ratios used to track ancient elevation skewed by rainfall changes.
April Fools' Day Mystery: How Did It Originate?
Plumb the murky origins of April Fools' Day—and find out how straight-faced scientific research can be sillier than the wackiest pranks.
Teabonics: the language of the Tea Party movement | Richard Adams
Exploring 'Teabonics', the exciting new variations on English spawned by the US Tea Party movement's sign languageAlong with the Tea Party has risen not only an incoherent political movement but exciting and refreshing...
Diplodocus Skull Changed During Growth, Recovered Fossil Shows
A team of paleontologists said this week that some sauropod species went through drastic changes in skull shape during normal growth. Researchers came to the conclusion after examining the The...
Was a giant comet responsible for a North American catastrophe in 11000 BC?
(PhysOrg.com) -- 13,000 years ago the Earth was struck by thousands of Tunguska-sized cometary fragments over the course of an hour, leading to a dramatic cooling of the planet, according...
Hall of Fame Honors Post-It Note Inventor
Pioneers of GPS, Aqua-Lung, Early Video Game Also Inducted into U.S. National Inventors Hall of Fame
BP doles out drilling contracts in Iraq
BAGHDAD, April 1 (UPI) -- British supermajor BP announced that it awarded contracts worth around $500 million to rehabilitate the giant Rumaila oil field in the south of Iraq.
Gallery: Landmine clearance in Sri Lanka
Teams of women carry out painstaking fingertip searches for anti-personnel landmines, clearing the land so that people can restart their lives
Facing the future -- science in the Muslim world
Scientists in Islamic countries are often thought by those in the West to be languishing behind the rest of the world. Jim Al-Khalili tells Physics World readers what has been...
Argentina and Peru: partners in science
Three agreements on research and scientific exchange were signed during the Argentinian president Cristina Fernández’ visit to Peru.
English super hospital moves forward
Quebec's premier will break ground on the new English super-hospital site in Montreal on Thursday afternoon.
European bishops urge victims to go to the police
VATICAN CITY (AP) -- Swiss bishops urge victims of clerical abuse to file criminal complaints and are considering creating a national registry for pedophile priests. Danish...
Information-age math finds code in ancient Scottish symbols
In the northern British Isles, the Celtic tribes known as the Picts coexisted for centuries alongside literate cultures such as the Romans, the Irish and the Anglo-Saxons.
‘Rock art’ reveals language of ancient Scotland
Once thought to be rock art, carved depictions of soldiers, horses and other figures are in fact part of a written language dating back to the Iron Age. ...
Competing Catastrophes: What's the Bigger Menace, an Asteroid Impact or Climate Change?
If you ask the average person whether in the long run it is climate change or an asteroid/comet impact that's expected to kill more people annually, you'll undoubtedly get some...
Rule poses threat to museum bones
Law change will allow Native American tribes to reclaim ancient bones found close to their lands.
Pakistan spars with militants in gun fight
PESHAWAR, Pakistan, March 31 (UPI) -- Five Pakistani security officials were killed in a lengthy gun battle Wednesday with militants in the volatile tribal region along the border with...
Cuckoo wins arms race
New research has found an unusual one-sided arms race between a cuckoo and the bird species it preys on.
Researchers harness the power of plants to fight haemophilia
Haemophilia, a disease linked with legends of European monarchs, frail heirs and one flamboyant charlatan called Rasputin, still afflicts many people today...
DNA found in fossil eggs
Scientists have uncovered various species of ancient bird DNA in fossilised egg-shells.
Ocean plateaus lifted Rockies
Geologists have solved a long standing riddle about how the Canadian Rocky Mountains were formed.