Scientists have developed a new method for detecting traces of primordial life in ancient rock formations using potassium. The method relies on searching for high concentrations of potassium in ancient sedimentary rocks, rather than traditional methods that look for carbon, sulfur, or nitrogen—which can appear in ancient rocks through processes unrelated to ancient life. University ...
A scientific approach has been used to re-identify huge birds etched into the desert plains of southern Peru around 2,000 years ago. The birds appear to be exotic to the region and further studies could help explain their significance. The study is published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. The lines and geoglyphs of Nasca ...
Magnetic disturbances caused by phenomena like the northern lights can be tracked by a “social network” of ground-based instruments, according to a new study from the University of Warwick. The researchers, led by Professor Sandra Chapman, have for the first time characterized the observations from over 100 ground-based magnetometers in terms of a time-varying directed ...
In a new survey of the sub-seafloor off the U.S. Northeast coast, scientists have made a surprising discovery: a gigantic aquifer of relatively fresh water trapped in porous sediments lying below the salty ocean. It appears to be the largest such formation yet found in the world. The aquifer stretches from the shore at least from Massachusetts to New Jersey, extending ...
The huge magnetic field that surrounds the Earth, protecting it from radiation and charged particles from space — which many animals even use for orientation purposes — is changing all the time, which is why geoscientists constantly keep it under surveillance. The old well-known sources of the Earth’s magnetic field are the Earth’s core — ...
Scientists believe they have discovered the site of the biggest meteorite impact ever to hit the British Isles. Evidence for the ancient, 1.2 billion-year-old meteorite strike was first discovered in 2008 near Ullapool, N.W. Scotland, by scientists from Oxford and Aberdeen Universities. The thickness and extent of the debris deposit they found suggested the impact ...
The diamond on your finger is most likely made of recycled seabed cooked deep in the Earth. Traces of salt trapped in many diamonds show the stones are formed from ancient seabeds that became buried deep beneath the Earth’s crust, according to new research led by Macquarie University geoscientists. Most diamonds found at the Earth’s ...
Researchers have found evidence that an unremarkable prehistoric burial mound near Bordeaux, in southwest France, was re-used by locals for around 2,000 years. The researchers say what drew people to the burial mound for 2 millennia remains a mystery. The Le Tumulus des Sables site was discovered by chance in 2006 when school children stumbled ...
Earth is bombarded every year by rocky debris, but the rate of incoming meteorites can change over time. Finding a collection scattered on the planet’s surface can be challenging, especially if you are interested in reconstructing how frequently they land. Now, researchers have uncovered a wealth of well-preserved meteorites that allowed them to reconstruct the ...
The opener to Matthew Walker’s TED Talk is not exactly what you’d expect to hear in a lecture about sleep. “Men who sleep five hours a night have significantly smaller testicles than those who sleep seven hours or more,” Walker, a UC Berkeley professor of psychology and neuroscience, told the audience at the popular media ...
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