Black Death plague pathogen thousands of years older than first thought

The microbe responsible for the Black Death plagues was infecting Bronze Age humans more than 3,000 years earlier than the pandemics it is most notorious for.  Early forms of the bacteria, Yersinia pestis, have been found in Bronze Age human teeth up to 5,000 years old.

Musicians' brain waves dance to the beat

Musicians get more out of music because their brain waves are better able to synchronise with musical rhythms.

New Hubble Space Telescope images reveal faint galaxies from the early cosmos

Spectacular new Hubble Space Telescope images reveal 250 previously unknown galaxies that formed just 600 million years after the Big Bang.  This amazing collection of ancient galaxies is fainter than anything previously seen by the Earth-orbiting space telescope.

Scientists levitate tiny objects using sound

A team of scientists have used sound waves to levitate tiny objects.  The breakthrough could lead to developments in areas as diverse as high-powered "tractor beams"; or manipulating drug delivery in the human body.

Dogs may have been first domesticated in Nepal and Mongolia

Dogs evolved from Eurasian grey wolves at least 15,000 years ago, but just where and how they made the historical leap from roving in packs to living with humans has been a matter of debate.  An international team has analysed more than 185,800 genetic markers in more than 4,600 purebred dogs of 165 breeds, along with more than 540 village dogs from 38 countries.  They found that dogs from East Asia, India and South-West Asia had high levels of genetic diversity.

Fossil eggs shed light on dinosaur body temperature

Scientists have chemically analysed the fossilised eggs of dinosaurs to estimate their body temperature.  The findings support recent work by other teams that dinosaurs were neither warm- nor cold-blooded, but somewhere in between.  But it also indicated that body temperature differed between dinosaur species.

Homo naledi handy with tools, walked like modern humans

Homo naledi may have been handy with tools and walked much like a person.  Its foot and hand anatomy shared many characteristics with our species but possessed some primitive traits useful for tree climbing.