M-Theory and the Higgs boson

The discovery of a potential Higgs boson particle plays a crucial role in super-symmetry - just one more of the ingredients needed to provide evidence of the M-Theory of strings.

Australopithecus sediba ate bark

Australopithecus sediba, a short, gangly South African species from two million years ago, targeted trees, bushes and fruits for its diet, chomping on harder foods than other known early hominids, or human ancestors. Virtually all others that have been tested from Africa—including Paranthropus boisei, dubbed “Nutcracker Man” thanks to its massive jaws and teeth—focused more on grasses and sedges.

Could Neanderthals have painted?

New estimates on the date of ancient European cave paintings raise the possibility that Neanderthal people might have made them.

Feathered dinosaur fossil found in Germany

German researchers say they have discovered a fossil of a feathered hatchling that may be the earliest evidence of a plumed, meat-eating dinosaur that was not closely related to birds.  The fossil is believed to belong to a young land-based dinosaur from the Late Jurassic period, some 170 million years ago.

Scientists find best hint of elusive Higgs particle

Scientists have discovered a sub-atomic particle they believe is crucial in the formation of the universe.  The Higgs boson, otherwise known as the God particle, is thought to give all other particles in the universe their mass.

Long-sought Higgs particle probably found

Scientists at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, CERN, near Geneva announced on Wednesday that a particle fitting the correct description had been found, though there remains the unlikely possibility it is a misidentification.

The Closest Of Planets

An odd pair of distant worlds - one rocky like Earth (Kepler-36b) and another gassy like Neptune (Kepler-36c) - have been found doing the closest dance of any planetary pair ever discovered.

Kepler-36c would appear three times larger than the Moon in our skies.

Ancient cave art could be Neanderthal

Researchers have found cave paintings in Spain that are up to 40,000 years old, suggesting they might have been created by Neanderthals.

Jupiter's family of moons grows by two

The largest planet in our solar system is home to two of the smallest moons.  The discovery pushes the number of Jovian moons to 67.  Named S/2010 J 1 and S/2010 J 2, the two moons are only three and two kilometres in size respectively.

S/2010 J 1 (circled) measures three kilometres in diameter and takes two years to orbit the planet Jupiter.

Mysterious cosmic burst captured in trees

In the late eighth century, Earth was hit by a mystery blast of cosmic rays. Analysis of two ancient trees found a surge in carbon-14 - a carbon isotope that derives from cosmic radiation - which occurred just in AD 774 and AD 775.

Crabs locate on the basis of soundscapes

Sounds given off by coastal reefs help crab larvae to settle into their ideal coastal home.

Magnetism said to help baby turtles through epic journey

It has been one of the more enduring mysteries of biology: how baby sea turtles, barely longer than a thumb, undertake one of the most spectacular migrations in the animal kingdom—alone.  Now, scientists say they may have a handle on how the loggerhead turtle hatchlings do it: an internal compass that responds to changing magnetic fields.

Hereditary inequality may date to Stone Age

Hereditary inequality began over 7,000 years ago in the Stone Age.  The signs of inequality that emerged in the new research are less obvious than evidence that has been uncovered from later times—when clear trappings of relative wealth appear in some graves more than others. But it shows the seeds of this process were sown earlier.

Life might have formed as early as 10-12 billion years ago

Physicists are reporting that conditions allowing life to form could have existed in some galaxies as early as 10 billion to 12 billion years ago—in the first quarter of the history of our universe.

Progenesis A Factor In Bird Speciation From Dinosaurs

Rather than take years to reach sexual maturity, as many dinosaurs did, birds sped up the clock allowing them to retain the physical characteristics of baby dinosaurs.

Skulls of three types of archosaur—alligator, primitive dinosaur, and early bird. The left column represents juveniles and the right column represents adults.

Burning planet leaves dust in its wake

Astronomers have for the first time, found a rocky planet that's slowly being vapourised by the blistering heat of the star it's orbiting.

Palæontologists discover new type of raptor

A new species of raptor dinosaur that was about the size of a coyote has been found near Utah's iconic Arches National Park. The raptor was among several discovered at or near Doelling's Bowl Bone Bed, about 370 kilometres southeast of Salt Lake City, which has yielded several new species in the last two decades and is thought to be the base of Utah's Cretaceous record. Fossils found at the bone bed are estimated at between 120 and 130 million years old.

The turtle is closer to crocodiles and birds than lizards and snakes

The ancestry of the turtle, which evolved between 200 and 300 million years ago, has caused much scientific squabbling - its physiology suggesting a different branch of the family tree than its genes do.

Earliest wall art features female genitalia

A massive block of limestone in France contains what scientists believe are the earliest known engravings of wall art dating back some 37,000 years.

Light from “super-Earth” reported

NASA’s Spitzer Space Tel­e­scope has de­tected light from a “su­per-Earth” plan­et be­yond our so­lar sys­tem for the first time.

Instead of “dark matter,” rogue planets?

Weeks after two stud­ies cast doubt on a the­o­ry that a strange “dark mat­ter” ac­counts for vast amounts of material in the uni­verse that’s mis­sing, an­oth­er study pro­poses a rad­i­cal new solution: Planets.

No single “God spot” in brain

Multiple parts of the human brain contribute to spirituality, so there is no single “God spot” in that organ of the mind as scientists have speculated, a study indicates.  University of Missouri scientists sought to replicate a previous study finding linking a sense of spiritual “transcendence” with lowered activity in a brain region called the right parietal lobe. That finding held up, but the researchers also determined that other aspects of spiritual functioning are related to increased activity in another part of the brain.

Mystery of cosmic rays deepens

Mysterious particles routinely pummeling Earth’s atmosphere from space don’t seem to come from cosmic explosions as many scientists have theorised.

Art appreciation, self-reflection may go together in the brain

A network of brain structures activated during intense aesthetic experiences overlaps with another that’s associated with inward contemplation and self-assessment.

Wall of stars found to extend through our galaxy

A wall of mini-galaxies and star clus­ters sur­rounds our gal­axy, as­tro­no­mers say—and poses a new problem for the theory of “dark mat­ter,” an in­vis­i­ble sub­stance that permeates galaxies.

Unexpected allies aid ants at war with “zombifying” parasite

Tropical ants plagued by a par­a­site that turns them in­to “zom­bies” have un­ex­pected al­lies in their strug­gle: oth­er par­a­sites, sci­en­tists say.

Hot Jupiters

Astronomers searching for Earth-like planets can strike off stars that have a 'hot Jupiter' orbiting around them.

After anæsthesia, “primitive” consciousness awakens first

Our con­fused first wak­ing mo­ments af­ter gen­er­al an­æs­the­sia rep­re­sent a ru­di­men­ta­ry form of consciousness that arises from an­cient brain struc­tures, new re­search con­cludes.  The sci­en­tists in­volved de­scribed this mud­dled men­tal state as a “prim­i­tive” con­scious­ness based on deep brain struc­tures that hu­mans pos­sess in com­mon with many an­i­mals.

Where’s the dark matter?

Dark mat­ter is not here, a new study has con­clud­ed. It might be somewhere else, but not in, or even anywhere near, our so­lar sys­tem. And that’s a big prob­lem, be­cause it should be all over the gal­axy. To make mat­ter worse, dark mat­ter is still sadly very much needed to plug oth­er gaps in as­tro­nom­i­cal theories.

Asteroid impact pushes life underground

Scientists studying life deep below an asteroid impact crater in the United States have found tiny organisms thriving kilometres under the surface.

Polar bears speciated far earlier than previously thought

The Arctic's top predators split off from brown bears, their closest relatives, around 600,000 years ago - five times earlier than scientists had generally assumed.

Nomad Plan­ets

New re­search sug­gests that bil­lions of stars in our gal­axy have cap­tured rogue plan­ets that once roamed the voids be­tween stars.  The no­mad worlds, which were kicked out of the star sys­tems in which they formed, could oc­ca­sion­ally find a new home with a dif­fer­ent sun, as­tro­no­mers pro­pose. This could explain the ex­ist­ence of some plan­ets that or­bit sur­pris­ingly far from their stars, and even the ex­ist­ence of a double-plan­et sys­tem.

Egg size was dinosaurs ultimate undoing?

Researchers claim a mathematical model has shown that infant size was the clincher.

Nothing helps create pure randomness

Quantum fluctuations within a vacuum are helping Australian researchers create billions of random numbers.

Baboons can learn to differentiate between real and nonsense words

Baboons can recognise scores of written words, a feat that raises intriguing questions about how we learn to read.

Baboons Can Identify Specific Combinations of Letters in Words

New results show that monkeys identify specific combinations of letters in words and detect anomalies -- a capacity that certainly existed before speech.

T-rex had a giant feathered ancestor

Palæontologists in China have uncovered the biggest feathered dinosaur ever found.

Recent trends in social primatology and human ethology

From Grooming to Speaking

Planets from long ago puzzle astronomers

As­tro­no­mers have iden­ti­fied a plan­e­tary sys­tem that they de­scribe as a likely sur­vi­vor from one of the earliest cos­mic times, 13 bil­lion years ago. The sys­tem, they say, con­sists of a star dubbed HIP 11952, and two plan­ets that or­bit it eve­ry 290 and sev­en Earth days, re­spec­tive­ly.

Earth-like planets could number “billions” in our galaxy

The first di­rect es­ti­mate of the num­ber of small plan­ets around red dwarf stars sug­gests that bil­lions of those worlds, po­ten­tially with liq­uid wa­ter, ex­ist in our gal­axy alone.

Coupled stars seen as chief diet for hungry black holes

Gi­ant black holes in the cen­ters of ga­lax­ies may grow to their enor­mous sizes by swal­low­ing sin­gle stars from pairs of stars that wan­der too close.

Japanese bees cook enemy in 'bee ball'

When confronted with their arch-enemy, the aggressive giant Asian hornet, the honeybees will attack it by swarming en masse around the hornet and forming what scientists call a "hot defensive bee ball" - a move unique to their species. With up to 500 bees all vibrating their flight muscles at once, the bee ball cooks the hornet to death.

Cave holds earliest sign of fire-use

Evidence of campfires made by human ancestors has been uncovered in a cave in South Africa, suggesting that the practice may have started one million years ago.

The Impact Of Megafauna Extinctions

The extinction of Australia's megafauna led to major ecological changes and helped create the vegetation of today.

New ev­i­dence for the ex­ist­ence of the Higgs bos­on

We see a dis­tinct Higgs-like sig­na­ture that can­not be easily ex­plained with­out the pres­ence of some­thing new. If what we’re see­ing really is the Higgs bos­on, it will be a ma­jor mile­stone for the world phys­ics com­mun­ity and will place the key­stone in the most suc­cess­ful par­t­i­cle phys­ics the­o­ry in histo­ry.

A pan­o­ram­ic im­age of the uni­verse

Un­til re­cently our view back to the first ep­och of gal­axy forma­t­ion has been lim­it­ed to ti­ny, ‘pencil-beam’ im­ages made with the Hub­ble Space Tele­scope. Now VIS­TA, with its pan­o­ram­ic im­ag­ing ca­pa­bil­ity, is pro­vid­ing us with the first view of truly rep­re­sent­a­tive re­gions of the young Uni­verse.

Why the Moon is locked in a synchronous orbit

The reason why the near side of the Moon always faces the Earth may be the result of it being a 'loaded dice'.

The New Science of the Birth and Death of Words

Physicists claim to have identified universal laws governing the birth, life course and death of words.

Weaver ants use corporate memory to defend nests

Weaver ant colonies use shared memory to sniff out rivals, similar to sports fans recognising each other by their team colours.

Bluffing crayfish

Crayfish can often make opponents back off from a fight by pretending they are stronger than they really are.

Desert dunes created by erosion not wind

Some linear sand dunes may have formed through a process called wind-rift erosion, rather than simple deposits of windblown sand.

Traces of oxygen found around tiny moon

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has detected faints wisps of oxygen in the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Dione.

Did life start in a pond, not the ocean?

Modern life is more chemically compatible with conditions in venting geothermal fields, such as Yellowstone National Park, than in the ocean, even a primitive ocean, new analysis shows. The finding challenges a widely accepted theory that modern life began in a marine environment.

Many years of life left in Y chromosome

Suggestions that the Y chromosome will become extinct within a million years are greatly exaggerated.

Plant grown from 30,000 year-old seeds

The seeds of the herbaceous Silene stenophylla are by far the oldest plant tissue to have been brought back to life.

Team designs world's smallest transistor

While single-atom devices have been developed before, these had an error of about 10 nanometres in positioning of the atoms, which is large enough to affect functionality.

Metaphorically feeling: Comprehending textural metaphors activates somatosensory cortex

Researchers have found that textural metaphors—phrases such as "soft-hearted"—turn on a part of the brain that's important to the sense of touch. The result may help resolve a long-standing controversy over how the brain understands metaphors and may offer scientists a new way to study how different brain regions communicate.

Frog found to describe its home through song

When woo­ing fe­ma­les, a type of frog in Chi­na de­scribes its home through song—con­vey­ing the depth and en­trance size of the mud­dy bur­row with some ac­cu­ra­cy.

Using computer modelling to reconstruct words from patterns of brain activity

There is some evidence if you imagine speech it activates similar brain messages. If you can understand the relationship well enough between the brain recordings and sound, you could either synthesise the sound a person is thinking or write it out with a type of interface device.