George Dvorsky
Self-spreading immunity? The potential dark side to preventing future pandemics with vaccines that spread like viruses
Imagine a future scenario in which a dangerous new virus is detected in chimpanzees. To prevent this virus from spreading ...
Too smart for our own good: How artificial superintelligence could lead to humanity’s demise
Imagine systems, whether biological or artificial, with levels of intelligence equal to or far greater than human intelligence. Radically enhanced ...
60 years monitoring 60 million stars and no trace of alien life
[R]adio signals continue to be the most popular SETI target, as focused radio emissions could signal the presence of an ...
Hobbit-sized humans appear to have lived as recently as 50,000 years ago
Fossil evidence of [Homo floresiensis and Homo luzonensis found in Southeast Asia], described in 2004 and 2019 respectively, suggests these ...
Viewpoint: It’s time to extend the limit on human embryo research from 14 to 28 days
[The 14-day limit for human embryo research was originally] chosen because it’s only after this stage that the central nervous ...
Black biologist Charles Henry Turner’s groundbreaking research on animal cognition remains largely unacknowledged
A new Perspectives essay published in Science describes the contributions of biologist Charles H. Turner (1867-1923), an American zoologist whose “early discoveries ...
Now mostly desert, what was Arabia like when humans migrated out of Africa?
Prior to the last ice age, somewhere between 112,000 and 122,000 years ago, two humans, possibly three, walked south along the shore ...
Magic tricks can help us better understand animal intelligence
[A]s a new Science: Perspectives article points out, it’s not just humans who get fooled by magic tricks. Many species of animals ...
Wooly rhinos driven to extinction by climate change not human hunters
The reign of woolly rhinos, which lasted for millions of years, came to an abrupt end some 14,000 years ago, ...
Medieval medicine resurrected: Could a 1,000 year old potion help fight bacterial infections?
Garlic, onion, wine, and a dash of bovine bile. It’s a veritable witch’s brew, but as a new Scientific Reports paper shows, this ...
Space Station science: Fungus found at Chernobyl could protect astronauts from galactic cosmic radiation
Galactic cosmic radiation remains a troubling impediment to a sustained human presence in space. This unresolved problem is starting to ...
Extraterrestrial alert: 737 places where aliens might be hiding
The Exotica Catalog was put together by researchers from Breakthrough Listen, a decade-long program seeking to find signs of intelligent ...
DNA from 14,000-year-old tooth offers oldest known link between Native Americans and southern Siberia
A 14,000-year-old genome scraped from a prehistoric tooth found in southern Siberia is now the oldest known connection linking living ...
Colonizing other planets could be the key to humanity’s long-term survival
Our species will face no shortage of existential risks in the coming decades, whether it be from nuclear war, climate ...
Anxious dog? Here are some things that may be stressing your furry friend
Nearly three out of four dogs exhibit some kind of serious behavioral problem related to anxiety, according to a survey involving nearly ...
Ancient tool technology passed down for thousands of generations by extinct human species, study says
When it comes to extinct human species, Neanderthals tend to hog the spotlight. But another group of early humans, Homo erectus, is ...
‘Disaster for public trust in vaccines’: African malaria study conducted without patient consent
A scathing opinion piece in the BMJ is accusing the World Health Organization of conducting a pilot program in Africa ...
Extinct human ancestor Homo erectus evolved in Africa—not Asia—new fossil study suggests
Homo erectus reached the Indonesian island of Java at some point between 1.3 million to 1.5 million years ago, according ...
Rapid-diagnosing AI makes brain cancer operations ‘safer and more effective than ever before’
Expert human pathologists typically require around 30 minutes to diagnose brain tumors from tissue samples extracted during surgery. A new ...
Prehistoric ‘chewing gum’ contains Neolithic girl’s DNA, allowing scientists to reconstruct her face
Scientists in Denmark have squeaked out an entire human genome from a prehistoric piece of “chewing gum.” Made from birch ...
First chimeric part-monkey piglets born in China
Scientists in China created piglets whose organs contained some monkey cells. The piglets all died within a week, illustrating the challenges ...
9 significant archaeological discoveries of the past decade, including a Neanderthal-Denisovan hybrid
Here’s a look back at some of the most significant archaeological and anthropological discoveries of the past decade that fundamentally ...
Humans originated in Botswana? New research challenged for using ‘weak and inconclusive genetic analysis’
A new paper claiming that modern humans originated in northern Botswana some 200,000 years ago is being criticized by experts, ...
Humans ‘are not so special after all’: Neanderthals also knew how to start fires, evidence suggests
At some point, our ancestors harnessed the power of the flame to keep warm, cook food, produce new materials, shoo ...
Inherited Neanderthal, Denisovan DNA may help with our metabolism, immunity and diet
Neanderthals and Denisovans went extinct some 35,000 to 40,000 years ago, but not before these closely related hominins interbred with ...
‘Unexpected’ marriage practices, slavery, social inequality revealed in analysis of Bronze Age remains
A fascinating new study chronicles the family histories of European Bronze Age households, revealing the presence of surprising marital practices, ...
Channeling our ‘inner salamander’: Research suggests humans have ability to repair overworked cartilage
Our bodies have retained the capacity to repair injured or overworked cartilage in our joints, says new research published [October 9] in ...
Would the discovery of life on Mars be ‘world-shaking’?
In a recent interview with the Telegraph, NASA chief scientist Jim Green said it’s possible we’ll soon find evidence of life on ...