Science

Honey is more effective and less harmful than usual care for improving symptoms of upper respiratory tract infections, particularly cough frequency and cough severity, according to a systematic review and meta-analysis of previous studies, published in the journal BMJ Evidence Based Medicine. Honey is more effective than usual care alternatives …

Planetary researchers from the University of Texas at Austin and NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center have used dry paleolakes and riverbeds to determine how much precipitation was present on Mars 3.5-4 billion years ago. Open and closed lakes on early Mars. Image credit: University of Texas at Austin. The climate …

Multiple supernova explosions about 65 light-years away may have contributed to the ozone depletion and several subsequent extinction events at the Devonian-Carboniferous boundary, approximately 359 million years ago, according to a new paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. An artist’s rendition of a supernova explosion. …

A new species of crested penguin that lived 3.2 million years ago (Pliocene period) has been identified from multiple exceptionally well-preserved specimens found in New Zealand. Holotype specimen of Eudyptes atatu: (a) right lateral view of skull and block with (c) mandible and (d) postcranial elements; (b) right lateral view …

An international team of physicists has studied the controlled interaction of two spatially separated time crystals. Experimental set-up. Quartz-glass sample container cylinder is filled partially with superfluid 3He-B, leaving a free surface of the superfluid approximately 3 mm above the centre of the surrounding coil system. The space above the …

Opioid receptors in the inner ear can cause partial or full hearing loss, according to new research from Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and New Jersey Poison Information and Education System. Inner ear anatomy. Image credit: Medical Gallery of Blausen Medical 2014, doi: 10.15347/wjm/2014.010. “Ototoxicity, or ‘ear poisoning,’ is a …

Genetic Researchers Reconstruct Evolutionary In a new study, an international team of scientists used 22 newly-sequenced genomes from 18 extant species of penguins to reconstruct the history of their diversification and adaptation. The authors found that ancient penguins diverged in the early Miocene epoch in Australia and New Zealand and …

An international team of archaeologists reports the discovery of grass bedding used to create comfortable areas for sleeping and working by Paleolithic humans who lived in South Africa’s Border Cave at least 200,000 years ago. Vertical field section of 43,000-year-old bedding grass from Border Cave, South Africa. Scale bar – …

Had Modern Type of Compound Eye Paleontologists have found that Aulacopleura koninckii, a species of trilobite that lived around 429 million years ago (Silurian period), was equipped with a fully modern type of visual system — an apposition compound eye comparable to that of living bees, dragonflies and many diurnal …

An international team of researchers led by the Swedish Centre for Palaeogenetics has analyzed 31 mitochondrial genome sequences from the cave lion (Panthera spelaea) and found that this extinct mega-carnivore existed as at least two subspecies during the Pleistocene. The scientists have also confirmed that the cave lion and the …