Findings from a new study suggest that Europeans were not the first people to ever set foot on the Falkland Islands. Most of the evidence from the investigation indicates that Indigenous South Americans likely traveled to the Falkland Islands between 1275 C.E. and 1420 C.E., although earlier dates cannot be...
Living descendant of Sitting Bull confirmed by analysis of DNA from the legendary leader’s hair.
A man's claim to be the great-grandson of legendary Native American leader Sitting Bull has been confirmed using DNA extracted from Sitting Bull's scalp lock. This is the first time ancient DNA has been used to confirm a familial relationship between living and historical individuals.
Tiny pterosaurs dominated Cretaceous skies
The newly hatched juveniles of large and gigantic pterosaurs likely out-competed other smaller adult pterosaur species to dominate the Late Cretaceous period around 100 million years ago, a new study has found.
A lab in the sky: Physics experiment in Earth’s atmosphere could help improve GPS performance
The Earth's atmosphere has been used as a 'laboratory' to carry out a physics experiment which could help to improve the performance of GPS.
A novel solution to a combinatorial optimization problem in bicycle sharing systems
Bicycle sharing systems have become an attractive option to alleviate traffic in congested cities. However, rebalancing the number of bikes at each port as time passes is essential, and finding the optimal routing paths for the vehicles in charge of rebalancing constitutes a combinatorial optimization problem. Now, scientists propose an...
How do plants act fast to fight off infections?
New work reveals a new mechanism by which plants are able to rapidly activate defenses against bacterial infections. These findings could inspire efforts to improve crop yields and combat global hunger.
The nutritional value of giant kelp decreases as sea temperatures increase
As a foundational species, giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) is vital to the ecosystem of the temperate, shallow, nearshore waters where it grows. When the kelp flourishes, so do the communities that rely on the fast-growing species for food and shelter.
Advancing agriculture threatens the livelihoods of forest-dependent people
Forest-dependent people living across the Gran Chaco have been put on the map for the first time. As agribusiness expands into the dry forest on which they rely, the impact of that expansion on them has been difficult to document because their homesteads are dotted over 1 million km2. But...
The ripple factor: Economic losses from weather extremes can amplify each other across the world
Weather extremes can cause economic ripples along our supply chains. If they occur at roughly the same time the ripples start interacting and can amplify even if they occur at completely different places around the world, a new study shows. The resulting economic losses are greater than the sum of...
Scientists reveal genetic secrets of stress-tolerant mangrove trees
Researchers have decoded the genome of the mangrove tree, Bruguiera gymnorhiza, and revealed how this species regulates its genes in order to cope with stress. Their findings could one day be used to help other plants be more tolerant to stress.