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Treasure trove of stone tools found in Puget Sound

Is there anything you can't buy in today's shopping malls? The list must be pretty short already, but now we can cut artifacts off it. Archaeologists in Redmond US., working on a routine survey to get the green light for a construction site near a mall in the area, found thousands of stone tools estimated to be at least 10,000 years old, "The Seattle Times" reported.

Science-backed tips on making the most out of your breaks at work

Two researchers at Baylor University looked into how breaks during the workday improve employee health and efficiency, and found that yes - there are a few constants that seem to make a break great. Their findings offer some surprising suggestions on when, where and how to plan the best moments of relaxation, while also debunking some common break-time myths.

Legal, but not safe: small distractions make driving drunk lethal

Even though driving after drinking small amounts is legal, it's most definitely not safe, research from the University of Kentucky (UK) in the U.S. finds. Nicholas van Dyke and Mark Fillmore at UK reported that for intoxicated drivers, even those driving under the legally accepted alcohol limit, small distractions such as a text message or dashboard controls are just too much to handle safely. The study provides the first scientific evidence on the impact such distractions have on the ability of liquored drivers to safely control vehicles.

Kabuno Bay microbes shed light on how iron deposits are formed

An isolated bay in the heart of East Africa offers scientists a glimpse into early Earth's iron-rich marine environment, and lends weight to the theory that microbial activity created some of the largest iron ore deposits billions of years ago.

Wild oats might be the first cereal consumed by humans, as early as the Stone Ages

While analysing starch grains on ancient stone grinding tools from southern Italy, Marta Mariotti Lippi at the University of Florence in Italy and her colleagues were able to date the earliest known human consumption of oats as far back as 32,000 years ago – way before farming took root.

Ancient giant virus will be revived by scientists

French scientists announced the discovery of Mollivirus sibericum in the US National Academy of Sciences journal this week. The "Siberian soft virus" is the fourth pre-historic virus found since 2003, and the second one claimed by the team. They plan on reanimating the 30,000 year old giant virus unearthed from the frozen soil of Siberia for study, after verifying that it cannot cause human or animal disease.

Ballantine creates whiskey glass to be used in zero G, spill free

Scottish manufacturer Ballantines comes to the aid of space-dwellers the world round (and beyond) with a new, high-tech glass that promises to make getting hammered with style in space a reality.

Termites know more about ventilation that human architects

The humble termite only has its body, saliva and some soil to work with, and the only blueprints it has are instinctual, based on variations in wind speeds and fluctuations in temperature as the sun rises and sets. Working with such limited resources, they still erect monumental mounds that, a new study reveals, rely on a surprisingly well-tuned mechanism for efficient ventilation, something architects today still struggle with.

Your cat doesn't see you as a source of security and safety

Adult domestic cats do not view owners as the main provider of security and safety.

Kids everywhere, rejoyce - science says you should get those "5 more minutes, mom!"

A recent study performed by researchers working at the University of Oxford, Harvard Medical School and the University of Nevada suggests that the current school and university start times have a damaging effect on the learning and health of students.

Why don't they just eat all of them - predator-prey study reveals new law governing ecosystems

The results of a new study offer insight into the workings of predator-prey mechanisms, more specifically how the number of herbivores and other animals that are preyed upon affect the number of carnivores.

Massive die-off threaten endangered antelope species' future

One of the planet's most endangered antelope, the saiga, suffered from a die-off of unprecedented scope. The massive loss of life from just a few weeks ago has conservationist groups worried about what future may hold for the species. But clues as to exactly what wiped out half of Kazakhstan's saiga are starting to emerge, and scientists are looking at bacteria that normally co-exist with the antelope host, harmlessly living in their bodies as the main culprit.

The star(fish) destroying robot is yellow and deadly

Picture this: A city under siege. Many of the outlying buildings are old, dry, lifeless shells of their former beauty as nearly 50 percent of the population is wiped out, consumed by ravenous invaders. And the only hope of lifting the siege lies with a poison injecting, yellow robot.

Alaskan shore overrun by thousands of walruses - here's why

Thousands upon thousands of Pacific walrus were captured by photographer Gary Braasch as they came ashore on the northwest coast of Alaska last week, in an event believed to be triggered by global warming.

Plastic debris in 90% of seabirds' guts

Researchers studying the plastic problem our ocean is facing predict that by 2050 nearly every single maritime bird species will have plastic pieces inside their digestive systems. The grim prediction is based on a new study showing that about 90 percent of seabirds today have plastic in their bodies.

NASA research put together into a video showing how the ocean's garbage patches formed over the last 35 years

Aaah, the ocean. The true final frontier. Full of wonderful and exciting things, such as strange fish, stranger crustaceans, beautiful hydrothermal vents, and lovely, ever-growing garbage patches.

Take a peek into the lives of a California condor family

Big Sur, California will see the newest installment of the Big Brother franchise, but with a twist. A team of wildlife conservationists have installed live-streaming web cameras on condor nests in the area, allowing scientists and enthusiastic bird watchers the world over to take a peek into the lives of Gymnogyps californianus.

Eating food rich in protein can boost cardiovascular health as much as exercise or quitting smoking

The results of a new UEA study reveal that people who eat high levels of certain amino acids found in meat and plant-based protein have lower blood pressure and show less arterial stiffness, directly translating to higher levels of cardiovascular health. The magnitude of the association is similar to those previously reported for lifestyle risk factors including salt intake, physical activity, alcohol consumption and smoking.

The Iron Snail lives on volcanic vents, two miles under the sea, all thanks to its spectacular armor

It's hard to believe anything can be alive thousands of feet below the Indian Ocean where thermal vents effectively boil the water. Yet even in the most inhospitable conditions, life has a way of creeping in. Such is the case of chrysomallon squamiferum, a snail-like creature which may very well sport the best armor in the animal kingdom.

RoboHow: the Wikipedia that teaches robots how to cook

An European initiative founded in 2012, dubbed RoboHow, comes to take up the challenge of improving the way robots work and interact with humans by creating a database that should help robots learn and share information with each other (even by using actual language), mimicking human learning processes.

Virginia Wildlife Center will release two bald eagles back to the wild

North America boasted about half a million eagles before Europeans colonized the territory. They took the influx of Old World-ers quite harshly: the loss of habitat, the strains put on them by hunting activities and the spreading of pesticides among many others resulted in a steep decline of their population in the US. In 1997, the state of Virginia reported to have only about 50 bald eagle nests occupied by the avian predators. Thankfully, their numbers are slowly increasing at present, with more than 1,000 sightings of active nests throughout the Commonwealth.

University of California 3D printed fish are the most advanced microbots we built to date

Nanoengineers from the San Diego University of California used innovative, self-developed 3D printing methods to create multipurpose, fish-shaped microbots - that they call microfish - which can swim around efficiently through liquids, powered by hydrogen peroxide and are magnetically controlled.

A massive 3,600-year-old palace was found near Sparta

Ongoing excavations at a site in the southern Peloponnese are offering rare insight into the ancient past of Laconia, about which very little physical evidence exists. The Greek Ministry of Culture released several photographs yesterday showing the newly unearthed ruins of an ancient palace likely built during the 17th-16th century BC.

Bacterial infections turns amoebae into the world's tiniest farmers

In 2011 the Queller-Strassmann lab, then at Rice University, made a surprising announcement in Nature Letters. They had been collecting single-celled amoebae of the species Dictyostelium discoideum from the soil in Virginia and Minnesota. While laboratory grown strain of Dicty happily fed on the bacteria provided for it by its keepers, roughly one third of the wild strains showed a green (or maybe bacterial) thumb. When food was short, they gathered up bacteria, carried them to new sites and seeded the soil with them.

Research moves closer to a universal flu vaccine

Scientists from the Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) and Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson (Janssen) have discovered a way to give antibodies the ability to fight a wide range of influenza subtypes. Their work has great potential to one day eliminate the need for repeated seasonal flu shots.

Raise'em right! Only we're not - modern parenting may hinder brain development

Several cultural beliefs and modern social practices may hinder children's mental, moral and emotional development, finds a study by an interdisciplinary body of research presented recently at a symposium at the University of Notre Dame.

How humans turned "safari" to "safe" - what large mammals diversity worldwide would look without us

The fact that the greatest biodiversity of large mammals we know of today is recorded in Africa is a legacy of past human activity, not climate or environmental phenomena, new study reveals. The paper theorizes at how the world today would look if Homo sapiens had never existed. In a previous analysis, the researchers from Aarhus Univeristy, Denmark, they showed how the mass extinction of large mammals during the last Ice Age and the subsequent millennia, most notably the late-Quaternary megafauna extinction, is largely explainable by the expansion of modern humans across the world.

Warp speed possible, predicted by the theory of relativity, astrophysics professor says

Hailing from the University of Sydney, professor Lewis is set to deliver a talk at the National Science Week in the city today, and said the futuristic concept was actually embedded in Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity.

Ge-Force powered Augmented Reality Sandbox

Show of hands, who here doesn't sometimes long for the good old days when you would play in the sandbox or at the beach, building mighty castles, sculpting awesome cities and raising mounds that would make the Misty Mountains look like mellow hills? Powered by Ge-Force GTX 750 Ti and OpenGL, the Augmented Reality Sandbox comes to bring back that supreme childhood fantasy only better - because it has technology.

New solar fuel generator makes hydrogen fuel out of water with unprecedented efficiency

Scientists working at Monash University in Melbourne have developed the most energy-efficient ‘artificial photosynthesis’ method to date. The process relies on running an electrical current through water to separate it into oxygen and hydrogen, and the team behind it say it could be used to power our home on the cheap in just a few years.

The UK plans to build the world's largest wood-burning power plant

Investment in the renewable project is estimated to reach £650m ($1bn), which will be partly funded through aids from the European Commission, and construction works would create around 1,100 jobs. Environmental technology firm Abengoa, based in Spain, along with Japanese industry giant Toshiba will be leading the project for their client, MGT Teesside, subsidiary to the British utility MGT Power.

Ecuador declares state of national emergency as Cotopaxi volcano wakes

A state of emergency has been declared this Saturday by Ecuador's president, Rafael Correa. The measure was taken as a precaution given the recent increase in volcanic activity of the Cotopaxi stratovolcano, allowing the government greater freedom to allocate financial resources and critical personnel in the event of an eruption.

Ever-growing population and climate instability will lead to severe food shortages by 2050

The food industry has become much more efficient in the last few decades as a result of globalization, but also a lot more vulnerable to shocks. Climate change will lead not only to increased temperatures, but the extreme weather it causes in North, South America and Asia are likely to also lead to global food shortages.

Fighting with addiction? Play tetris, new study finds

The results of a new study show the benefits of playing tetris when fighting with an addiction or craving - a minimum of three minutes at a time can reduce cravings for drugs, food and other activities like sex and sleeping by almost 20%.

We've gone into resource overdraft for the 45th year in a row

This is the day that humanity's consumption exceeds the amount of resources than our planet can supply in that year. Overshoot day comes sooner each year; we hit that day on August 19 in 2014. This year it was August 13, a full six days earlier.

Robots learn to self-replicate and evolve

A robotics team lead by Cambridge University engineer Fumiya Iida have designed a robot that archeologists of the future (they will all be robots) will recognize as the moment the machines started to take over. They built a "mother" device that can create smaller, "baby" robots, and programed it (her?) so that experience obtained building them would be used to improve upon further generations.

MIT tackling more serious science: they program beer-delivering robots

Massachusetts Institute of Technology 's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory is on the brink of revolutionizing relaxation with their recent breakthrough: they have programmed two robots that can deliver beverages.

Drought and low aquifer levels made the Guadalupe river vanish

Vidal Mendoza, a U.S. Geological Survey hydrologic technician, has been spending his past Tuesday scanning the upper Guadalupe River, looking for the right spot to measure the flow of the water. Perhaps more accurately, Mendoza has been spending his past Tuesday on a hot, mostly dry riverbed searching where the river should have been.

Copper clusters could revolutionize CO2 capture and turn it into fuel to boot

The chemical reactions used to make methanol from carbon dioxide rely on a catalyst to speed up the conversion, and scientists identified a new material that could fill this role. With its unique structure, this catalyst can capture and convert carbon dioxide in a way that ultimately saves energy.

Kickstarter project plans to put you virtually on the ISS

SpaceVR started a Kickstarter campaign today with the goal of sending a 3D, 360-degree camera to the ISS. This camera will collect footage that you can then view in virtual reality goggles. Space-views from the comfort of your home? Yes please!

Advances in magnet technology could bring cheaper, modular fusion reactors from sci-fi to sci-reality in less than a decade

Advances in magnet technology have allowed MIT scientists to design a cheaper, more compact, modular and highly efficient fusion reactor that is efficient enough to use commercially. The era of clean, practically inexhaustible energy may be upon us in as little as a decade, scientists report.

Take out your phones: sexting could improve your relationship, study finds

Sexting has been taking a lot of flak recently, the debate focusing mostly on its negative aspects, such as the vulnerability of young people sending sexually explicit communications or how peer pressure can determine them to engage in the activity. A recent study, presented at the American Psychological Association’s 2015 convention reveals how wide-spread sexting actually is amongst adults, and looks at the benefits it brings to a relationship.

Fifteen ton Monolith found under the Mediterranean Sea, estimates put its carving at 9350 years ago

Zvi Ben-Avraham of Tel Aviv University and Emanuele Lodolo of the National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics in Trieste, have discovered a monolith in deep water, resting on a spot that was once an island off the coast of Sicily. Their study has been published in the Journal of Archeological Science.

How long does food stay fresh? Learn what expiration dates really mean

Experts did the math and they estimate that $165 billion worth of perfectly edible food gets tossed each year, due to it passing it's expiration date. But most of these dates are largely made up.

Weapons shouldn't be able to decide themselves to end a life - Hawking, Musk, Wozniak sign letter requesting the ban of autonomous weapons and military AI

A very large number of scientific and technological luminaries have signed an open letter calling for the world's governments to ban the development of "offensive autonomous weapons" to prevent a "military AI arms race."

Less burns for more sunshine: renewable and fossil fuel technology integration sounds like a beach-goer's dream

Solar-aided power plants could mean less CO2 for a fraction of the costs of solar-only, paving the way for a full-renewable power supply.

The Dead Sea is draining, sinkholes pop up all along its shores - the two are connected, researchers say

The sea, which is actually a lake, is well known for being 10 times as salty as the ocean and for boasting the lowest exposed strip of land on Earth. The climate and unique water and swimming conditions made the Dead Sea a popular tourism spot. In the last few decades, however, it's shores have become better known for their sinkholes rather than tanning spots.

Japan will send whiskey to the ISS - all in the name of science

Distillers have long been interested in the particularities of the aging process, and how to mature the drink to bring out that specific, mellow flavor we search for in a glass of quality whiskey. Japanese based distillers Suntory set their hopes high for what they feel is the next big thing for whiskey aging - as high as the ISS, to be specific. They announced earlier this week that several samples of their beverage will be sent to the ISS with the intent to study the "development of mellowness in alcoholic beverage through the use of a microgravity environment."

New vaccine against Ebola is 100% effective in Guinea trial

“Having seen the devastating effects of Ebola on communities and even whole countries with my own eyes, I am very encouraged by today’s news,” said Børge Brende, the foreign minister of Norway, which helped fund the trial.

We have new data from the Philae lander - it identifies several new organic molecules on Comet 67P, charts internal structure

Two different Philae instruments, known as Ptolemy and COSAC (Cometary Sampling and Composition), hunted for organic compounds— the building blocks of life as we know it — on and around Comet 67P. While the initial data burst received from the lander did hint at the existence of organics on its surface, the data was limited and its meaning not very clear. The new data is much more interesting.
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