Vikings brought animals to England as early as the year 873
Vikings brought horses and dogs to the British Isles from Scandinavia, a new study suggests. A chemical analysis of bone fragments from a cemetery in…
Category: Humans
Chemical residue reveals ancient Egyptians’ mummy-making mixtures
Scientists have unwrapped long-sought details of embalming practices that ancient Egyptians used to preserve dead bodies. Clues came from analyses of chemical residue inside vessels…
The deadly VEXAS syndrome is more common than doctors thought
A mysterious new disease may be to blame for severe, unexplained inflammation in older men. Now, researchers have their first good look at who the…
Muon scanning hints at mysteries within an ancient Chinese wall
For nearly 650 years, the fortress walls in the Chinese city of Xi’an have served as a formidable barrier around the central city. At 12…
Mysterious marks on Ice Age cave art may have been a form of record keeping
As far back as roughly 25,000 years ago, Ice Age hunter-gatherers may have jotted down markings to communicate information about the behavior of their prey,…
Procrastination may harm your health. Here’s what you can do
The worst procrastinators probably won’t be able to read this story. It’ll remind them of what they’re trying to avoid, psychologist Piers Steel says. Maybe…
Too much of this bacteria in the nose may worsen allergy symptoms
A type of bacteria that’s overabundant in the nasal passages of people with hay fever may worsen symptoms. Targeting that bacteria may provide a way…
These chemists cracked the code to long-lasting Roman concrete
MIT chemist Admir Masic really hoped his experiment wouldn’t explode. Masic and his colleagues were trying to re-create an ancient Roman technique for making concrete,…
Here’s what you need to know about COVID’s XBB.1.5 ‘Kraken’ variant
The omicron variant’s family tree has grown substantially over the last year. The brood now encompasses a subvariant soup with alphanumeric names such as BA.2,…
HDL ‘good’ cholesterol isn’t always good for heart health
“Good” and “bad” cholesterol: These well-known characters have long starred in the saga of heart health. But in a major plot twist, “good” cholesterol, it…
Why it’s easier to catch a cold, the flu or COVID in the winter
When bitter winds blew and temperatures dropped, my grandmother would urge me to come inside. “You’ll catch your death of cold out there,” she’d say.…
4 key things to know about lung infections caused by fungi
Some fungi that can cause serious lung infections have spread to many parts of the United States. A Science News story on the expanded range…
50 years ago, scientists sequenced a gene for the first time
Molecular biology’s flower child — Science News, January 6, 1973 During the past several years, some artificial genes have been synthesized…. But no one had unraveled…
Complex supply chains may have appeared more than 3,000 years ago
Long-distance supply chains, vulnerable to disruptions from wars and disease outbreaks, may have formed millennia before anyone today gasped at gas prices or gawked at…
Lasers reveal sites used as the Americas’ oldest known star calendars
Olmec and Maya people living along Mexico’s Gulf Coast as early as 3,100 years ago built star-aligned ceremonial centers to track important days of a…
Indigenous people may have created the Amazon’s ‘dark earth’ on purpose
CHICAGO — Indigenous people in the Amazon may have been deliberately creating fertile soil for farming for thousands of years. At archaeological sites across the…
Fungi that cause serious lung infections are now found throughout the U.S
Three types of fungi that cause serious lung infections and were once thought to be confined to certain regions of the United States are now…
Brain scans suggest the pandemic prematurely aged teens’ brains
Living through the COVID-19 pandemic may have matured teens’ brains beyond their years. From online schooling and social isolation to economic hardship and a mounting…
These 5 biomedical advances gave 2022 a sci-fi feel
COVID-19 may continue to dominate headlines, but this year’s biomedical advances weren’t all about “the Rona.” 2022 saw fruitful and seemingly fantastical research that could…
Some common medical terms may be more confusing than doctors think
Medical language can sometimes stump patients. And some common sayings are straight-up head-scratchers. Calling a patient’s neurological exam “grossly intact,” for example, might not sound…
How 4 major coronavirus tools impacted the pandemic in 2022
The third year of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States introduced vaccines for very young children and an updated booster, plus wider availability of…
Viruses other than the coronavirus made headlines in 2022
This year delivered many sobering reminders that the coronavirus isn’t the only viral threat out there. Mpox went global The mpox virus, a relative of…
How much water should you drink a day? It depends on several factors
Are you drinking enough water? The question seems like it should have a straightforward answer — a specific amount of water you need to drink…
Homo naledi may have lit fires in underground caves at least 236,000 years ago
An ancient hominid dubbed Homo naledi may have lit controlled fires in the pitch-dark chambers of an underground cave system, new discoveries hint. Researchers have…
50 years ago, a ‘cure’ for intoxication showed promise
A get-sober pill? — Science News, November 18, 1972 Researchers at the Tucson Veterans Administration Hospital have been able to reduce intoxication time in rats…
‘Forever chemicals’ may pose a bigger risk to our health than scientists thought
For decades, chemicals that make life easier — your eggs slide out of the frying pan, stains don’t stick to your sofa, rain bounces off…
How researchers are working to fill the gaps in long COVID data
It’s been more than two years since the first long COVID patients called attention to their condition. But researchers are still unable to answer basic…
A spider monkey’s remains tell a story of ancient diplomacy in the Americas
A sacrificed spider monkey is shedding new light on an ancient Mesoamerican relationship. The remains of a 1,700-year-old monkey found in the ancient city of…
Pollution mucks up the lungs’ immune defenses over time
The lungs’ immune defenses can wane with age, leaving older adults more susceptible to lung damage and severe bouts of respiratory infections. New research reveals…
Got a weird COVID-19 symptom? You’re not alone
As we head into our third pandemic winter, most people are all too familiar with the signs of COVID-19. The disease wears many different faces…
Carvings on Australia’s boab trees reveal a generation’s lost history
Brenda Garstone is on the hunt for her heritage. Parts of her cultural inheritance are scattered across the Tanami desert in northwestern Australia, where dozens…
Some Maya rulers may have taken generations to attract subjects
Commoners may have played an unappreciated part in the rise of an ancient Maya royal dynasty. Self-described “divine lords” at a Maya site called Tamarindito…
At a long COVID clinic, here’s how doctors are trying to help one woman who is struggling
Listen to this story about long COVID realities Click here for a full audio version of this story, read by Science News staff writer Meghan…
The world population has now reached 8 billion
Eight billion. That’s the number of humans estimated to be alive on Earth. On November 15, the global population reached this landmark, according to a…
A hit of dopamine sends mice into dreamland
A quick surge of dopamine shifts mice into a dreamy stage of sleep. In the rodents’ brains, the chemical messenger triggers rapid-eye-movement sleep, or REM,…
How to interpret the CDC’s new mask guidelines
One moment, Campbell County in Wyoming’s northeastern corner was an area of high levels of transmission of the coronavirus, a scenario in which the U.S.…
Fecal transplant pills helped some peanut allergy sufferers in a small trial
PHOENIX — Pills loaded with bacteria from other people’s poop might help adults who are highly allergic to peanuts safely eat the nuts in small…
How omicron’s mutations make it the most infectious coronavirus variant yet
In November, a new coronavirus variant took the world by storm. Omicron has since caused an unprecedented wave of infections, striking about 90 million people…
One forensic scientist is scraping bones for clues to time of death
In a quiet laboratory beyond the decomposing remains on a body farm in Huntsville, Texas, Noemi Procopio works carefully with her drill. With each cut…
50 years ago, freezing sperm faced scientific skepticism
The uncertainty of banking sperm – Science News, February 26, 1972 Many men contemplating vasectomies have been depositing a quantity of their semen with sperm…
A chain mail–like armor may shield C. difficile from some antibiotics
Chain mail–like armor may help keep one superbug safe from bacteria-killing medicines. Clostridioides difficile bacteria are notorious for taking over the guts of people who…
More than 5 million children have lost a parent or caregiver to COVID-19
An estimated 5.2 million children worldwide have lost a parent or caregiver to COVID-19. The tally covers the beginning of the pandemic through October 2021,…
The COVID-19 pandemic is not an on-off switch
During the winter surge of COVID-19, it felt like the coronavirus was everywhere. Colder weather pushed people inside where the virus can linger in the…
Africa’s oldest human DNA helps unveil an ancient population shift
Ancient Africans in search of mates traded long-distance travels for regional connections starting about 20,000 years ago, an analysis of ancient and modern DNA suggests.…
The world’s oldest pants stitched together cultures from across Asia
What little rain that falls on a gravelly desert located in western China’s Tarim Basin evaporates as it hits the blistering turf. Here, in this…
Gene therapies for sickle cell disease come with hope and challenges
Today, it’s clear that our genes not only cause many diseases, but also hold potential cures. But that wasn’t always the case. It wasn’t until…
Omicron crushed delta in the U.S. These numbers show just how fast it happened
If it felt like omicron exploded with mind-boggling speed, a new look at the numbers backs that up. The highly contagious coronavirus variant achieved dominance…
Homo sapiens may have reached Europe 10,000 years earlier than previously thought
Stone Age Homo sapiens began migrating into Europe much longer ago than has typically been assumed. Discoveries at a rock-shelter in southern France put H.…
How one scientist aims to boost Black people’s representation in genetic datasets
Nearly two decades after researchers assembled the first genetic blueprint for human life, our understanding of our instruction manual has a dramatic and problematic bias:…
Why being pregnant and unvaccinated against COVID-19 is a risky combo
Snow covered the storied field of Fenway Park in Boston when Kate Yohay, in the second trimester of her pregnancy, arrived. The ballpark had become…