Early Cause Of Increase In Mammalian Brain Size

Selection for better olfactory abilities may have resulted in larger brain sizes in early mammals.

Aboriginal DNA dates Australian arrival

Sequencing of a West Australian Aboriginal man's hair shows he was directly descended from a migration out of Africa into Asia that took place about 70,000 years ago.

8.7 Million Species On Earth

Scientists have come up with the first precise, accurate and verifiable estimate of the number of species on Earth.

All Modern Life On Earth Derived From Common Ancestor

A single, primordial event likely yielded the array of organisms living today.

Humans came out of Africa via Arabia

An ancient toolkit unearthed in the United Arab Emirates suggests modern humans may have left Africa more than 100,000 years ago, much earlier than typically thought, say researchers.

Magpie Semiosis

Magpies use pointing to communicate danger.

Finch Semiosis

Scientists have discovered that songbirds are using their own form of grammar.

Elephant Semiosis

Scientists now believe elephants are in league with chimpanzees and dolphins as being among the world's most cognitively advanced animals.

Early Human Interbreeding

Interbreeding between ancestors of modern humans and our extinct evolutionary relatives happened much earlier — and more extensively — than previously thought.

Homo habilis

Sapiens-Neanderthalensis coupling rare

Modern humans may have some traces of genes from Neanderthals, but a new study suggests any breeding between the two was most likely a rare event. 

Facial "Expressions" Develop Before Birth

Fœtuses develop a range of facial movements in which one can identify facial ex­pressions such as laughter and crying.

First Planet Orbiting Two Suns Found

NASA’s Kepler mission has made the first clear detection of a “circumbinary” planet, a planet orbiting two stars.

Oldest flying insect fossil find

The oldest known full-body impression of a flying insect has been found preserved in 300 million-year-old sandstone.

Gigantotherms

Sauropod dinosaurs, the enormous plant-eating dinosaurs with long tails and necks, had body temperatures ranging from 36 to 38 degrees Celsius.

Gravity Waves

The race to discover gravity waves may be getting closer to the finish line with scientists successfully squeezing light using quantum mechanics.

Experiment shows time travel impossible

Physicists say they have proved that a single photon obeys Einstein's theory that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, demonstrating that time travel is impossible.

The Cosmological Expansion

Scientists have gone back to the drawing board and come up with the most accurate measurement of how fast the universe is expanding.

Some black holes may be older than time

An intriguing new hypothesis suggests some black holes could have formed before the formation of our universe.

Moon Origins

A new hypothesis claims the Earth may once have had two moons, which eventually crashed together.

Antimatter

Scientists say they have trapped and stored atoms of antihydrogen for a record 16 minutes, a feat that promises deeper insights into the mysteries of antimatter.

Earth's Gold: Origins

A massive meteor bombardment 3.9 billion years ago provided most of the gold and other precious metals found near the Earth's surface today, according to a new study.

Robot Pidgin

Two 'Lingodroids' have picked up their shared language by playing location games that led them to construct a shared vocabulary for places, distances and directions.

Scientists teleport Schrödinger's cat

Researchers have successfully teleported wave packets of light, potentially revolutionising quantum communications and computing.

All Non-Africans Are Part Neanderthal

Some of the human X chromosome originates from Neanderthals and is found only in non-Africans.

Australopithecus

A single bone discovered in Ethiopia has led scientists to the conclusion that Australopithecus walked on two legs and had abandoned tree-climbing for good.

The Evolutionary Explosion In The Cambrian Period

The best-preserved eyes yet found from the Cambrian period show advanced vision had evolved in animals more than half a billion years ago.

Crow Semiosis

A five-year study of crows living near Seattle in Washington State show the birds can remember a "dangerous human" and are able to share their knowledge of the learned danger with their offspring and other crows.

Star that shouldn't exist found

It has about 80 per cent the mass of the Sun and is composed almost entirely of hydrogen and helium, something previously thought impossible.