Âé¶¹ÒùÔº - latest science and technology news stories / en-us Âé¶¹ÒùÔº internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Âé¶¹ÒùÔºics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Arctic region was permafrost-free when global temperatures were 4.5ËšC higher than today, study reveals Scientists have found evidence that the Asian continent was free of permafrost all the way to its northerly coast with the Arctic Ocean when Earth's average temperature was 4.5ËšC warmer than today, suggesting that the whole Northern Hemisphere would have also been free of permafrost at the time. /news/2025-07-arctic-region-permafrost-free-global.html Earth Sciences Environment Thu, 03 Jul 2025 13:18:04 EDT news670767482 World-first highly cave-adapted wasp discovered in Nullarbor Caves of Australia A team of researchers from the University of Adelaide, in collaboration with cavers, has uncovered a large number of eyeless, cave-adapted invertebrates—including spiders, cockroaches, centipedes, and, remarkably, a wasp. /news/2025-06-world-highly-cave-wasp-nullarbor.html Plants & Animals Evolution Wed, 25 Jun 2025 15:22:37 EDT news670083753 Study reveals 8 million years of 'Green Arabia' A new study reveals the modern arid desert between Africa and Saudi Arabia was once regularly lush and green with rivers and lakes over a period of 8 million years, allowing for the occupation and movements of both animals and hominins. The study "Recurrent humid phases in Arabia over the past 8 million years" has been published in Nature. /news/2025-04-reveals-million-years-green-arabia.html Earth Sciences Environment Wed, 09 Apr 2025 11:00:10 EDT news663410621 Tropical cyclones have become more frequent compared to the past 5,700 years, sediment core analysis shows Using a sediment core taken from the Great Blue Hole off the coast of the Central American state of Belize, researchers from the universities of Frankfurt, Cologne, Göttingen, Hamburg and Bern have analyzed the local climate history of the last 5,700 years. /news/2025-03-tropical-cyclones-frequent-years-sediment.html Earth Sciences Environment Tue, 18 Mar 2025 10:19:53 EDT news661511988 Roving the red planet: New paper documents first Mars mission soil samples A new paper released today documents the first soil, airfall dust, and rock fragment samples collected by NASA for return from Mars. The University of Nevada, Las Vegas astrobiologist leading the specimen selection team discusses what the samples so far reveal. /news/2025-02-roving-red-planet-paper-documents.html Astrobiology Planetary Sciences Thu, 06 Feb 2025 16:09:05 EST news658080539 Climate patterns from cave mineral deposits linked to Chinese dynasty collapses China's dynastic history spans 13 periods of rule from 2070 BC until the last emperor abdicated in 1912. While factors leading to the transitions between dynasties are a complex mixture of environmental, social and economic issues, the role of climate change has often been invoked as a significant factor in these geopolitical shifts. This is because China's reliance upon agriculture prior to the industrial era means the country was sensitive to abrupt changes in climate that could lead to a variety of social and economic impacts. /news/2024-12-climate-patterns-cave-mineral-deposits.html Earth Sciences Environment Sat, 07 Dec 2024 09:00:02 EST news652622686 Drought in the Brazil's Cerrado is the worst for at least seven centuries, study shows A study conducted by researchers at the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil and reported in an article published in Nature Communications shows that the Cerrado, Brazil's savanna biome, is experiencing the worst drought for at least 700 years. Here's why. /news/2024-05-drought-brazil-cerrado-worst-centuries.html Earth Sciences Environment Thu, 23 May 2024 14:24:04 EDT news635693041 Ice ages were not as dry as we thought, according to surprising new Australian cave study During ice ages, dry, frozen terrain extended over much of northern Europe, Asia and North America. Many plants and animals retreated from these desolate, harsh landscapes and sought refuge in pockets of more hospitable territory. /news/2024-02-ice-ages-dry-thought-australian.html Earth Sciences Environment Thu, 08 Feb 2024 11:39:28 EST news626614763 Underwater robot finds new circulation pattern in Antarctic ice shelf More than merely cracks in the ice, crevasses play an important role in circulating seawater beneath Antarctic ice shelves, potentially influencing their stability, finds Cornell University-led research based on a first-of-its-kind exploration by an underwater robot. /news/2023-10-underwater-robot-circulation-pattern-antarctic.html Earth Sciences Environment Fri, 27 Oct 2023 14:00:01 EDT news617617795 Scientists investigate Grand Canyon's ancient past to predict future climate impacts The Grand Canyon's valleys and millions of years of rock layers spanning Earth's history have earned it a designation as one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. But, according to a new UNLV study, its marvels extend to vast cave systems that lie beneath the surface, which just might hold clues to better understand the future of climate change—by studying nature's past. /news/2023-10-scientists-grand-canyon-ancient-future.html Earth Sciences Environment Mon, 02 Oct 2023 16:23:05 EDT news615482581 New research finds Late Pleistocene glaciations terminated by Earth's axis tilt rather than orbital eccentricity Glacial cyclicity of the Earth has often been considered on 100,000 year timescales, particularly for the Late Pleistocene (~11,700 to 129,000 years ago) swapping between periods of extensive polar and mountain glacier ice sheets, to warmer interglacial periods when ice sheets and glaciers retreated, with subsequent sea level rise. This is thought to be related to three key drivers affecting the amount of solar radiation reaching Earth from the sun. /news/2023-08-late-pleistocene-glaciations-terminated-earth.html Earth Sciences Environment Mon, 28 Aug 2023 10:14:10 EDT news612436447 A rare glimpse of our first ancestors in mainland Southeast Asia What connects a fossil found in a cave in northern Laos with stone tools made in north Australia? The answer is, we do. When our early Homo sapiens ancestors first arrived in Southeast Asia on their way from Africa to Australia, they left evidence of their presence in the form of human fossils that accumulated over thousands of years deep in a cave. /news/2023-06-rare-glimpse-ancestors-mainland-southeast.html Archaeology Tue, 13 Jun 2023 11:00:03 EDT news605868673 Wisconsin cave holds tantalizing clues to ancient climate changes, future shifts Even in their dark isolation from the atmosphere above, caves can hold a rich archive of local climate conditions and how they've shifted over the eons. Formed over tens of thousands of years, speleothems—rock formations unique to caves better known as stalagmites and stalactites—hold secrets to the ancient environments from which they formed. /news/2023-03-wisconsin-cave-tantalizing-clues-ancient.html Earth Sciences Environment Thu, 02 Mar 2023 12:04:46 EST news596981082 Study finds Australian caves are up to 500,000 years older than we thought, and it could explain a megafauna mystery South Australia's Naracoorte Caves is one of the world's best fossil sites, containing a record spanning more than half a million years. Among the remains preserved in layers of sand are the bones of many iconic Australian megafauna species that became extinct between 48,000 and 37,000 years ago. /news/2022-09-australian-caves-years-older-thought.html Paleontology & Fossils Tue, 27 Sep 2022 12:20:03 EDT news583499993 Electron microscopy reveals the reason for the purple stains on Alhambra ceilings A pair of researchers at the University of Granada has solved the mystery of the purple stains on the ceilings of the famous Alhambra palace in Spain. In their paper published in the journal Science Advances, Carolina Cardell and Isabel Guerra describe their study of the ceiling of the famous medieval fortress and what they learned about its mysterious purple stains. /news/2022-09-electron-microscopy-reveals-purple-alhambra.html Analytical Chemistry Materials Science Mon, 12 Sep 2022 09:27:24 EDT news582193637 Root-farming gophers might be our closest agricultural relatives Although you'll probably never see them, you can spot them by the tell-tale mounds of sandy soil dotting a field: pocket gophers. Beneath your feet, the gophers continuously create and remold a labyrinth of winding tunnels hundreds of feet long. /news/2022-07-root-farming-gophers-closest-agricultural-relatives.html Plants & Animals Mon, 11 Jul 2022 11:00:04 EDT news576734797 More intense and frequent thunderstorms linked to global climate variability Large thunderstorms in the Southern Great Plains of the U.S. are some of the strongest on Earth. In recent years, these storms have increased in frequency and intensity, and new research shows that these shifts are linked to climate variability. /news/2021-06-intense-frequent-thunderstorms-linked-global.html Earth Sciences Environment Tue, 22 Jun 2021 16:29:04 EDT news543598133 Cave deposits show surprising shift in permafrost over the last 400,000 years Nearly one quarter of the land in the Northern Hemisphere, amounting to some 9 million square miles, is layered with permafrost—soil, sediment, and rocks that are frozen solid for years at a time. Vast stretches of permafrost can be found in Alaska, Siberia, and the Canadian Arctic, where persistently freezing temperatures have kept carbon, in the form of decayed bits of plants and animals, locked in the ground. /news/2021-04-cave-deposits-shift-permafrost-years.html Earth Sciences Wed, 28 Apr 2021 14:00:05 EDT news538819194 'Like a metronome': Stalagmite growth found to be surprisingly constant To look inside a stalagmite is to look back in time tens of thousands of years to see how the Earth's climate patterns have shaped the world we live in today. /news/2021-04-metronome-stalagmite-growth-surprisingly-constant.html Earth Sciences Environment Fri, 23 Apr 2021 10:11:38 EDT news538391494 Greenland caves: Time travel to a warm Arctic An international team of scientists led by Gina Moseley from the Department of Geology at the University of Innsbruck presents the very first analysis of sediments from a cave in northeast Greenland, that cover a time period between about 588,000 to 549,000 years ago. This interval was warmer and wetter than today, the cave deposits provide an outlook in a possible future warmer world due to climate change. The study has now been published in the journal Science Advances. /news/2021-03-greenland-caves-arctic.html Earth Sciences Wed, 31 Mar 2021 15:30:01 EDT news535818102 Metal whispering: Finding a better way to recover precious metals from electronic waste Inspired by nature's work to build spiky structures in caves, engineers at Iowa State University have developed technology capable of recovering pure and precious metals from the alloys in our old phones and other electrical waste. /news/2021-03-metal-recover-precious-metals-electronic.html Materials Science Mon, 01 Mar 2021 12:21:24 EST news533823678 Evidence suggests climate whiplash may have more extremes in store for California Vanderbilt paleoclimatologists using pioneering research have uncovered evidence of ancient climate "whiplash" in California that exceeded even the extremes the state has weathered in the past decade. Their findings present a long-term picture of what regional climate change may look like in the state that supplies the U.S. with more than a third of its vegetables and two-thirds of its fruits and nuts. /news/2021-02-evidence-climate-whiplash-extremes-california.html Earth Sciences Environment Thu, 25 Feb 2021 08:26:42 EST news533463998 Palaeontologists describe a preservation process unique to resins A team of paleontologists described two amber pieces found in sites in Teruel (Spain) with remains from vertebrates corresponding to the Early Cretaceous. Both pieces have their origins in the same conservation process of resins, described for the first time by the researchers. One of these remains corresponds to the finding of the oldest mammalian hair in amber worldwide, and the remains found in the other piece correspond to dinosaur feathers. /news/2020-11-palaeontologists-unique-resins.html Archaeology Thu, 19 Nov 2020 10:53:55 EST news525005633 Caves indicate that Australia's mountains are still growing Australia has often been unfairly portrayed as an old and idle continent with little geological activity, but new research suggests that we remain geologically active and that some of our mountains are still growing. /news/2020-05-caves-australia-mountains.html Earth Sciences Wed, 20 May 2020 09:13:44 EDT news509184820 Caves face new unknown after unprecedented bushfires Caves are easily forgotten when fire rips through the bush, but despite their robustness the long-term impact of frequent, unprecedented fire seasons presents a new challenge for subsurface geology. /news/2020-02-caves-unknown-unprecedented-bushfires.html Environment Wed, 26 Feb 2020 07:46:34 EST news501925589 Ocean temperatures impact Central American climate more than once thought Tourists today spend thousands of dollars to explore and enjoy the lush and thriving rainforests of Guatemala. /news/2020-02-ocean-temperatures-impact-central-american.html Earth Sciences Wed, 05 Feb 2020 12:51:34 EST news500129490 Sea-ice-free Arctic makes permafrost vulnerable to thawing Permafrost is ground that remains frozen throughout the year; it covers nearly a quarter of Northern Hemisphere land. The frozen state of permafrost enables it to store large amounts of carbon; about twice as much as in the atmosphere. The rate and extent of future thawing of permafrost, and consequent release of its carbon, is hard to predict from modern observations alone. /news/2020-01-sea-ice-free-arctic-permafrost-vulnerable.html Earth Sciences Environment Wed, 08 Jan 2020 13:00:03 EST news497681680 Human migration out of Africa may have followed monsoons in the Middle East Last year, scientists announced that a human jawbone and prehistoric tools found in 2002 in Misliya Cave, on the western edge of Israel, were between 177,000 and 194,000 years old. /news/2019-11-human-migration-africa-monsoons-middle.html Archaeology Tue, 26 Nov 2019 08:58:08 EST news493981080 Cave secrets unlocked to show past drought and rainfall patterns A first-ever global analysis of cave drip waters has shown where stalagmites can provide vital clues towards understanding past rainfall patterns. /news/2019-07-cave-secrets-drought-rainfall-patterns.html Earth Sciences Environment Mon, 08 Jul 2019 09:24:24 EDT news481796658 Israeli researchers say Sodom salt cave is world's longest Israeli researchers said Thursday they have surveyed what they now believe to be the world's longest salt cave, a network of twisting passageways at the southern tip of the Dead Sea. /news/2019-03-israelis-unveil-world-longest-salt.html Earth Sciences Thu, 28 Mar 2019 03:02:13 EDT news472960902