LongStanding

An artist’s impression of a group of G. blacki within a forest in southern China. Credit: Garcia/Joannes-Boyau (Southern Cross University)In the karst landscapes of southern China, giant apes, known as Gigantopithecus blacki, once traversed the terrain. These massive creatures, standing three meters tall and weighing about 250 kilograms, are considered distant relatives of humans. Although they vanished before humans settled in the area, the reasons for their extinction remain largely a mystery. The only evidence of their…

Simulated "mobility highways" of farmer-herder interactions overlaid with the geolocated archaeological sites dated between ca. 3600 and 2200 before present. Credit: Xinzhou Chen The 1 million-square-mile Tibetan Plateau—often called the "roof of the world"—is the highest landmass in the world, averaging 14,000 feet in altitude. Despite the extreme environment, humans have been permanent inhabitants there since prehistoric…

A new study challenges the long-held view that the neuronal soma is the key computational unit of the brain. By demonstrating that dendrites play a crucial role in neuronal plasticity and other dynamics, this research could redefine our understanding of brain functionality and disease origins.Recent research suggests that a number of neuronal characteristics, traditionally believed to stem from the cell body or soma, may actually originate from processes in the dendrites. This discovery has significant implications for…

A team at the University of Cologne has successfully observed the elusive Kondo effect in an artificial atom, employing a novel approach with a scanning tunneling microscope. This significant advancement in condensed matter physics, validating theoretical predictions, opens new avenues for exploring exotic states of matter.A team of physicists at the University of Cologne has solved a long-standing problem of condensed matter physics: they have directly observed the Kondo effect (the re-grouping of electrons in a metal…

Harvard Medical School researchers have discovered that Staphylococcus aureus directly causes itch by activating nerve cells. This finding, based on mouse and human cell studies, challenges the traditional view that itch in skin conditions arises from inflammation. It opens new possibilities for treating chronic itch and understanding its evolutionary significance.Researchers discover that a common microbe is an unrecognized cause of itching.Researchers at Harvard Medical School have discovered that the bacterium…

Researchers from Brown University and collaborators have found a way to directly observe electron spin in 2D materials like graphene, a property previously hard to measure in such materials. The team used a novel technique of detecting small changes in electronic resistance, paving the way for advances in quantum computing and communication technologies. Credit: Jia Li/Brown UniversityA group of scientists, headed by researchers from Brown University, have discovered a solution to a longstanding obstacle in the realm of…

New research challenges the belief that “hot Jupiters” are typically isolated, proposing they can coexist with nearby planetary companions. The new findings, based on NASA’s Kepler Mission data, suggest that the presence of gas giants influences the formation and migration of these planets, offering new insights into the evolution of exoplanets and our solar system.A study spearheaded by an astronomer from Indiana University presents a challenge to the established ideas about the solitary nature of “hot Jupiters,”…

Advanced computing has helped researchers solve a decades-old mystery about light localization in 3D structures. The study found that light can be trapped or “localized” in random packings of metallic spheres, paving the way for potential developments in lasers and photocatalysts. Credit: Yale UniversityA team of researchers has harnessed a remarkable increase in computing capability to solve a decades-long mystery regarding the potential for optical waves to be trapped in three-dimensional structures of randomly packed…

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain The persistent gender gap in voting for Democrats versus Republicans is, in part, because a higher proportion of women than men voters are Black and because Black voters have historically voted overwhelmingly Democratic, according to a new study by a team of sociologists. "We've long known about…

This image shows the huge galaxy cluster MACS J1149.5+223, whose light took over 5 billion years to reach us. The huge mass of the cluster is bending the light from more distant objects. The light from these objects has been magnified and distorted due to gravitational lensing. The same effect is creating multiple images of the same distant objects. Credit: NASA, ESA, S. Rodney (John Hopkins University, USA) and the FrontierSN team; T. Treu (University of California Los Angeles, USA), P. Kelly (University of California…