Microbes revived after 100 million years

Scientists have managed to wake up microbes that have been buried deep beneath the sea floor — apparently in a dormant state — since dinosaurs walked on Earth. The bacteria were discovered in 100-million-year-old clay samples drilled from beneath the South Pacific. When incubated and given nutrients, the microbes began to feed and multiply.

Neanderthal gene linked to increased pain sensitivity

Neanderthals had a biological predisposition to a heightened sense of pain. A first-of-its kind genome study found that the ancient human relatives carried three mutations in a gene encoding the protein NaV1.7, which conveys painful sensations to the spinal cord and brain. They also showed that in a sample of British people, those who had inherited the Neanderthal version of NaV1.7 tend to experience more pain than others.

Astronomers capture first images of multi-planet system around sunlike star

This is the first star like our Sun to be directly imaged with multiple planets orbiting it. Astronomers have directly observed two systems with multiple planets before, but both have stars that are very different from our Sun. This star, TYC 8998-760-1, is just 17 million years old — much earlier in its life cycle than the Sun. The exoplanets are huge: the inner planet is 14 times as massive as Jupiter and the outer one is 6 times as massive. And both planets orbit many times farther away from their star than Pluto does from the Sun.

Controversial cave discoveries suggest humans reached Americas much earlier than thought

A massive haul of stone tools discovered in a cave in Mexico is evidence that people occupied the area more than 30,000 years ago. The finding suggests that humans arrived in North America at least 15,000 years earlier than had been thought. The discovery is backed up by a separate statistical analysis incorporating data from sites in North America and Siberia. But some researchers are unconvinced. They question the age of the tools, and whether the artefacts are tools at all, rather than objects created by natural processes.

Scientists identify 37 recently active volcanic structures on Venus from radar images

Compelling evidence contradicts what scientists had long thought about Venus — that it was geologically dormant for the past half billion years because it lacked plate tectonics similar to Earth.

Cosmic map only deepens expansion mystery

A map of the early Universe has reinforced a long-running conundrum in astronomy over how fast the cosmos is expanding. The data support previous estimates of the Universe’s age, geometry and evolution. But the findings clash with measurements of how fast galaxies are flying apart from each other. They predict that the Universe should be expanding at a significantly slower pace than is currently observed.

Polynesians and South Americans made contact around AD 1200

Traces of Native American ancestry have been found in the genomes of modern inhabitants of some Polynesian islands, suggesting that ancient islanders met and mixed with people from South America hundreds of years ago. Researchers analysed the genomes of more than 800 people from 17 Pacific islands and 15 Native American groups on the Pacific coast. The team looked at the length of shared DNA segments — which shorten in successive generations — to determine that people from Polynesia and South America mingled around 800 years ago. Whether Polynesians voyaged to the coast of the Americas, or people from South America made the trip to the islands, is still up for debate.

‘Quasiparticles’ show up in the lab

Physicists have reported what could be the first incontrovertible evidence of the existence of particle-like objects called anyons, first proposed more than 40 years ago. Anyons are the latest addition to a growing family of phenomena called quasiparticles, which are not elementary particles but collective excitations of many electrons in solid devices. Their discovery — made using a 2D electronic device — could represent the first steps towards making anyons the basis of future quantum computers.