A remarkable 4,000-year-old defensive structure discovered in Morocco is rewriting what scientists thought they knew about ancient North African civilizations. The massive fortifications reveal unexpectedly sophisticated prehistoric societies and suggest that the region played a much greater role in Mediterranean history than previously recognized.
A mile beneath the Black Hills, scientists are building giant detectors to analyse neutrino particles – and possibly find the answer to existence For more than a century, the mining town of Lead, in the Black Hills of South Dakota, attracted workers with a taste for gold. Now, a flagship experiment being built in the old mine is drawing scientists in search of more intriguing riches: answers to the deepest mysteries of the universe. Construction of the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (Dune) in the former Homestake mine is due to start on Monday. Engineers will begin assembling four giant detectors inside caverns blasted from rock a mile underground. Continue reading...
Some of Britain's rarest and most threatened bats have been recorded in the south-west of England.
Iceberg A-81 escaping the Weddell Sea and drifting near the edge of South Georgia's underwater shelf.
Scientists have uncovered a surprising connection between Earth's opposite poles that may help explain how the planet plunged into past ice ages. New research suggests that as massive ice sheets expanded across the Northern Hemisphere, they cooled Atlantic Ocean waters that eventually traveled south toward Antarctica. This cooling may have disrupted Southern Ocean circulation, allowing the ocean to absorb and store more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, further cooling the planet.
Randomised trials of omega-6s do not show an increase in inflammation caused by the fatty acid Read more in the Antiviral series If you’ve been online lately, you’ve probably been bombarded with the discourse about seed oils. Once a completely innocuous food that no one really talked about, they have become the enemy of the moment. Robert F Kennedy Jr, the secretary of health and human services in the US, has called them “toxic” and vowed to act against them. There are countless activewear-clad influencers online saying that nothing harms your health more than these products. Which is odd, because the Australian dietary guidelines say seed oils are basically fine. You should limit them because they’re high in calories but otherwise there’s no major reason – according to the guidelines and most experts – why you should avoid them. As Prof Lauren Ball, director of the University of Queensland’s Centre for Community Health and Wellbeing, says: “There’s no convincing evidence that eating seed oils like canola or sunflower oil in normal dietary amounts harms our health. In fact, these oils contain unsaturated fats, which are generally beneficial for cardiovascular health.” Dr Jason Wu, a professor at the University of New South Wales, agrees: “The evidence base consistently points to health benefits of eating seed oils.” Continue reading...
New evidence suggests that early humans reached the Jordan Valley at least 1.9 million years ago, hundreds of thousands of years earlier than scientists previously thought. Advanced dating methods revealed that the ‘Ubeidiya site is roughly as old as the famous Dmanisi site in Georgia, placing both among the earliest known human settlements outside Africa.
