Live Science
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With treatments for COVID still elusive, CRISPR offers promise in preliminary tests
Scientists have harnessed CRISPR gene-editing technology to block the replication of the novel coronavirus in human cells — an approach ...
Deadly COVID mutation wild card: Frightening lessons from the 1918 Spanish flu recovery
The influenza virus that caused the 1918 pandemic mutated into variants, much like the novel coronavirus has done in the ...
Homo sapiens reevaluated: Why the definition of ‘modern human’ is undergoing a revamp
One definition of a species is: "Groups of interbreeding natural populations that are reproductively isolated from other such groups," according ...
Hairy oddballs: Why are humans the only animal to grow hair on our heads but almost none on our bodies?
Fur keeps animals warm when it's cold at night and protects them from the sun during the day. Human ancestors ...
‘Great ape-like brains’: Early humans who first ventured out of Africa 1.5 million years ago had ‘monkey brains’
Early humans still had great ape-like brains, according to a new study that found modern humans evolved to have our ...
Lunar DNA ark? Scientists want to cryogenically store the genes of 6.7 million species on the moon, just in case
[A “lunar ark” gene bank, could] be safely hidden in [the moon's] hollowed-out tunnels and caves sculpted by lava more ...
Survival of the brainiacs: Controversial new thesis says humans evolved smarter to capture smaller prey
As the largest animals on the landscape disappeared, the scientists propose, human brains had to grow to enable the hunting ...
More than 50 environmental chemicals found in pregnant women and their newborns
Researchers have detected more than 50 new environmental chemicals lurking in people's bodies, the vast majority of which are little ...
What did Lucy and the Taung child look like? Early human ancestors get reconstructed faces
For the reconstructions of Lucy (Australopithecus afarensis), the oldest and most complete human ancestor when researchers discovered her 3.2 million-year-old ...
Dreamers can ‘talk’ to scientists and solve problems while asleep
People dream every night, but scientists don't fully understand why we dream. Studying dreams is difficult because people often forget ...
Hundreds of novel coronaviruses likely lurking in animal species around the world
[New research] identifies hundreds of animal species that may become infected with known coronaviruses, although many of these infections haven't ...
Womb temperature determines the sex of the offspring in many reptiles. Why not in humans?
Temperature controls sex determination, in all crocodilians, most turtles, many fish, and some lizards, according to organismal biologist Karla Moeller ...
We were never alone: How many human species have existed?
When it comes to figuring out exactly how many distinct species of humans existed, it gets complicated pretty quickly, especially ...
A vaccine for melanoma? It might soon be possible
Unlike vaccines that prevent infections, such as measles and influenza, cancer vaccines are a form of immunotherapy that take down ...
How long do most mammal species survive before going extinct?
How long do species usually last before they go extinct? It turns out the answer we find now could be ...
COVID immunity could last years, even decades, study suggests — but we can’t know for sure
[W]e won't know exactly how long immunity lasts without continuing to study those who have recovered from COVID-19. However, [a] new study, ...
How the brain bends our sense of time
Time in the brain doesn't follow the steady ticking of the world's most precise clocks. Instead, it seems to fly by ...
‘From plate to poop’: Why corn survives digestion and what it means for your health
Corn has a way of staying intact from plate to poop. The bright yellow kernels found in our favorite summer ...
Can you change your personality as you age?
Personality is the pattern of thoughts, feelings and behaviors unique to a person. People tend to think of personality as fixed. But ...
What would life on Earth be like if humans were wiped out?
What would happen to our planet — to our cities, to our industries, to nature — if humans disappeared? There ...
DNA shows Neanderthals mated with humans in two waves, not just once
[A]ncient humans mated with Neanderthals between 200,000 and 300,000 years ago, well before the more recent, and better-known mixing of the two ...
Discovery of fire lit up human evolution. When did it occur?
Scientists suspect that without a control over fire, humans probably would never have developed large brains and the benefits that ...
Are we any closer to understanding what consciousness is?
Thinkers have spent an immense amount of time and ink trying to unravel mysteries, such as how consciousness works and ...
How humans might play a role in our own extinction
[W]hat if human extinction was less a cinematic scenario, and instead, a looming reality? That might seem like a sensational ...
To this man, numbers look like scrambled “spaghetti” but his brain works fine. What’s going on?
RFS is the first patient with an inability to see numbers. "He sees something … a scramble of lines and ...
Zealandia revealed: Maps and interactive tools uncover backstory of Earth’s ‘lost’ eighth continent
Earth's eighth continent is 94% underwater.... ... Zealandia — or Te Riu-a-Māui, as it's referred to in the indigenous Māori ...
Century-old lung helps scientists trace measles back to now-eradicated cattle virus
For years, the lung sat in the basement of the Berlin Museum of Medical History along with hundreds of other ...
Why were these 1,000-year-old skulls shaped like ‘sci-fi aliens’?
Tight wrapping in childhood produced deliberately deformed skulls ...
