Science

It started with a finger bone found in a cave in the Altai mountains in Siberia in the late 2000s. Thanks to advances in DNA analysis, this was all that was required for scientists to be able to identify an entirely new group of hominins, meaning upright primates on the same evolutionary branch as humans.

Now known as the Denisovans (De-NEE-so-vans), after the Denisova cave in which the finger bone was found, the past few years have seen numerous other discoveries about these people. I’ve recently co-published a paper collating everything we know so far.

At the beginning of my third year at university studying mathematics, I spotted an announcement. A visiting professor from Canada would be giving a mini-course of ten lectures on a subject called complex dynamics.

It happened to be a difficult time for me. On paper, I was a very good student with an average of over 90%, but in reality I was feeling very uncertain. It was time for us to choose a branch of mathematics in which to specialize, but I hadn’t connected to any of the subjects so far; they all felt too technical and dry.

When you think of electric fields, you likely think of electricity – the stuff that makes modern life possible by powering everything from household appliances to cellphones. Researchers have been studying the principles of electricity since the 1600s. Benjamin Franklin, famous for his kite experiment, demonstrated that lightning was indeed electrical.

Electricity has also enabled major advances in biology. A technique called electrophoresis allows scientists to analyze the molecules of life – DNA and proteins – by separating them by their electrical charge. Electrophoresis is not only commonly taught in high school biology, but it’s also a workhorse of many clinical and research laboratories, including mine.

The United States Food and Drug Administration has just approved the first-ever clinical trial that uses CRISPR-Cas13 RNA editing. Its aim is to treat an eye disease called wet age-related macular degeneration that causes vision loss in millions of older people worldwide.

This trial marks a new frontier in gene therapy – the process of treating or curing medical conditions by changing a person’s genes.

by Anna KORKMAN

With a month to go until Christmas, Santa Claus is busy preparing, but the warming climate and lack of snow in his Arctic hometown have him worried.

Donald Trump's appointment of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has raised questions about the legalization of many alternative remedies scarcely being tested by researchers.

The Guardian reported Monday that the vaccine skeptic's distrust of pharmaceuticals prompted him to oppose the "suppression of psychedelics," meaning things like "magic mushrooms," which contain psilocybin or cannabis.

The opioid crisis remains a significant public health challenge in the United States. In 2022, over 2.5 million American adults had an opioid use disorder, and opioids accounted for nearly 76% of overdose deaths.

Some patients are fearful of using opioids after surgery due to concerns about dependence and potential side effects, even when appropriately prescribed by a doctor to manage pain. Surgery is often the first time patients receive an opioid prescription, and their widespread use raises concerns about patients becoming long-term users. Leftover pills from a patient’s prescriptions may also be misused.

by Julie JAMMOT

A scientist guides a long tube into the mouth and down to the stomach of Thing 1, a two-month-old calf that is part of a research project aiming to prevent cows from burping methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

"Planet of the Apes" may have been onto something.

Chimpanzees are steadily honing their tool-using skills -- a process unfolding over millennia, driven by the exchange of ideas through migrations between populations, according to a new study published Thursday in Science.

A group of chemical compounds used to disinfect water for one-third of the US population and millions of others globally produces a potentially toxic byproduct, according to new research published Thursday, sparking calls for an "immediate" investigation into possible health impacts.

Inorganic chloramines have been used for decades to remove pathogens from public water supplies.

Plastic pollution litters our seas, our air and even our bodies, but negotiators face an uphill battle next week to agree on the world's first treaty aimed at ending the problem.

Countries will have a week in South Korea's Busan from Monday to round off two years of negotiations.

Scientists said Thursday they have taken the first ever close-up image of a star outside of the Milky Way, capturing a blurry shot of a dying behemoth 2,000 times bigger than the Sun.

Roughly 160,000 light years from Earth, the star WOH G64 sits in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of our home Milky Way.

Physicists have long grappled with the question of why the universe was able to support the evolution of intelligent life. The values of the many forces and particles, represented by some 30 so-called fundamental constants, all seem to line up perfectly to enable it.

Take gravity. If it were much weaker, matter would struggle to clump together to form stars, planets and living beings. And if it were stronger, that would also create problems. Why are we so lucky?