Denisovan DNA influences the immune systems of modern Oceanians — but researchers aren’t sure why
Genes inherited from the now-extinct Denisovans are actively playing a role in the immune system of some people from Oceania.
Category: Science
5,000-year-old ‘prototype’ Stonehenge aligning with solstices discovered near the famous Stone Age monument
The discovery of two ancient holes at Stonehenge suggests people placed posts there to help observe the summer and winter solstices around 5,000 years ago.
A 2011 earthquake bounced a seismic wave off Earth’s core, nudging Japan east
The wave’s round trip to Earth’s core set off a fault slip along Japan’s plate boundaries, revealing a seismic hazard scientists hadn’t recognized.
A textbook assumption about early land vertebrates may be wrong
Three species that lived about 308 million years ago challenge the idea that the first land vertebrates underwent amphibian-like metamorphosis.
Stages of Star Formation
This NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope Picture of the Month shows the giant molecular cloud Orion A, an area of the sky replete with star-forming
Why the Human Genome’s Tangled Physicality May Confound AI
Since its molecular structure was deduced in the 1950s, DNA has been hailed by many biologists as the secret of life. They’ve read and studied
Wildlife inside Chernobyl exclusion zone acted differently during Russia’s invasion, camera traps reveal
Camera footage in Ukraine’s Chernobyl exclusion zone revealed that mammals became less active — especially at night — during the Russian occupation, highlighting the war’s
‘Is it really necessary to generate another image?’: UN scientist explains how everyday people can limit AI’s environmental impact
Live Science spoke with Kaveh Madani, the lead investigator of a United Nations report examining AI’s environmental footprint, about this technology’s staggering energy use and
Rainforest quiz: Can you sort Earth’s largest rainforests from biggest to smallest?
From the sprawling Amazon to the lesser-known tropical forests, see if you can correctly rank these rainforests by their total area.
The truth about brain rot, according to science
Emerging research suggests overusing digital devices can be harmful, especially to mental health. But does being overly online truly rot our brains?
‘They reliably chose the statistically more favorable option’: A crow researcher explains how these winged geniuses process numbers, and what it could reveal about human math smarts
Live Science spoke with animal researcher Andreas Nieder about how animals process mathematical concepts like statistical reasoning and the idea of zero.
‘River in the Sky’: China’s doomed plan to create a ‘cloud seeding corridor’ tells us how far the country will go to solve its climate crisis
China’s willingness to invest billions in a quixotic, doomed plan to create a permanent river in the sky reveals the lengths it is willing to
The oldest known plague outbreak struck hunter-gatherers 5,500 years ago
Plague DNA in ancient graves near Siberia’s Lake Baikal suggests the disease threatened people long before farming and crowded settlements.
How real is the Cyclops in ‘The Odyssey’?
The iconic one-eyed monster coming to movie screens in July in The Odyssey might have more in common with tiny water critters than with humans.