The fact we can confidently balance on top of a pair of meat-sticks without toppling over is the very symbol of human evolution. Yet just how we came to stand upright in the first place remains a hotly debated topic. Now we have a new piece in the puzzle. Recently discovered fossils left by a relative who lived during the Miocene some 11.6 million years ago has provided compelling new evidence that our journey onto open ground could be compared to a toddler learning to walk, rather than a baby rising from a crawl. Thanks to an assortment of well-preserved hominid bones uncovered from a...…The fact we can confidently balance on top of a pair of meat-sticks without toppling over is the very symbol of human evolution. Yet just how we came to stand upright in the first place remains a hotly debated topic. Now we have a new piece in the puzzle. Recently discovered fossils left by a relative who lived during the Miocene some 11.6 million years ago has provided compelling new evidence that our journey onto open ground could be compared to a toddler learning to walk, rather than a baby rising from a crawl. Thanks to an assortment of well-preserved hominid bones uncovered from a...WW…

Last year, scientists took a big step towards creating the next generation of computers.For the first time ever, they stored light-based information as sound waves on a computer chip - something the researchers compared to capturing lightning as thunder. While that might sound a little strange, this conversion is critical if we ever want to shift from our current, inefficient electronic computers, to that move data at the speed of light. Light-based or photonic computers have the potential to run at least than your laptop, not to mention the fact that they won't produce heat or suck up...…Last year, scientists took a big step towards creating the next generation of computers.For the first time ever, they stored light-based information as sound waves on a computer chip - something the researchers compared to capturing lightning as thunder. While that might sound a little strange, this conversion is critical if we ever want to shift from our current, inefficient electronic computers, to that move data at the speed of light. Light-based or photonic computers have the potential to run at least than your laptop, not to mention the fact that they won't produce heat or suck up...WW…

Researchers have been able to coax human breast cancer cells to turn into fat cells in a new proof-of-concept study in mice.To achieve this feat, the team exploited a weird pathway that metastasising cancer cells have; their results are just a first step, but it's a truly promising approach. When you cut your finger, or when a foetus grows organs, the  cells begin to look less like themselves, and more 'fluid' – changing into a type of  called a mesenchyme and then reforming into whatever cells the body needs.This process is called epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and that cancer can...…Researchers have been able to coax human breast cancer cells to turn into fat cells in a new proof-of-concept study in mice.To achieve this feat, the team exploited a weird pathway that metastasising cancer cells have; their results are just a first step, but it's a truly promising approach. When you cut your finger, or when a foetus grows organs, the  cells begin to look less like themselves, and more 'fluid' – changing into a type of  called a mesenchyme and then reforming into whatever cells the body needs.This process is called epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and that cancer can...WW…

To understand how atoms unite to turn into molecules, we need to catch them in action. But to do that, physicists must force atoms to pause long enough for their exchanges to be recorded. That's no easy task, and one physicists from the University of Otago have only just recently achieved.Until now, the best physicists could do to understand the finer points of various atomic interactions was to calculate correlations based on averages among a crowd that's been chilled down to the point that they all share an identity.This crowd-sourced version of atomics provides plenty of useful insights,...…To understand how atoms unite to turn into molecules, we need to catch them in action. But to do that, physicists must force atoms to pause long enough for their exchanges to be recorded. That's no easy task, and one physicists from the University of Otago have only just recently achieved.Until now, the best physicists could do to understand the finer points of various atomic interactions was to calculate correlations based on averages among a crowd that's been chilled down to the point that they all share an identity.This crowd-sourced version of atomics provides plenty of useful insights,...WW…

For the swamp wallaby, mothering is a full-time business. While every other mammal on Earth gets a break between pregnancies, this particular species of Australian marsupial (Wallabia bicolor) is the only one to continuously have a bun in the oven. Sometimes, they even have two. Before an expectant wallaby gives birth, her body is already preparing for another joey. Just a few days before the due date, these remarkable creatures will copulate again, a new study reveals. The new embryo is conceived in another, separate uterus, while still carrying a full-term foetus in the first."Conceiving...…For the swamp wallaby, mothering is a full-time business. While every other mammal on Earth gets a break between pregnancies, this particular species of Australian marsupial (Wallabia bicolor) is the only one to continuously have a bun in the oven. Sometimes, they even have two. Before an expectant wallaby gives birth, her body is already preparing for another joey. Just a few days before the due date, these remarkable creatures will copulate again, a new study reveals. The new embryo is conceived in another, separate uterus, while still carrying a full-term foetus in the first."Conceiving...WW…

Time, as far as we know, moves only in one direction. But in 2018, researchers found events in some gamma-ray burst pulses that seemed to repeat themselves . Now, recent research suggests a potential answer for what might be causing this effect. If waves within the relativistic jets that produce gamma-ray bursts travel faster than light - at 'superluminal' speeds - one of the effects could be time reversibility.Such speeding waves could actually be possible. We know that when light is travelling through a medium (such as gas or plasma), its is slightly slower than c - the speed of light in...…Time, as far as we know, moves only in one direction. But in 2018, researchers found events in some gamma-ray burst pulses that seemed to repeat themselves . Now, recent research suggests a potential answer for what might be causing this effect. If waves within the relativistic jets that produce gamma-ray bursts travel faster than light - at 'superluminal' speeds - one of the effects could be time reversibility.Such speeding waves could actually be possible. We know that when light is travelling through a medium (such as gas or plasma), its is slightly slower than c - the speed of light in...WW…

A new discovery could be a clue for us to see if life could emerge elsewhere in the Solar System. Using a new analysis technique, scientists think they have found an extraterrestrial protein, tucked inside a meteorite that fell to Earth 30 years ago. If their results can be replicated, it will be the first protein ever identified that didn't originate here on Earth."This paper characterises the first protein to be discovered in a meteorite," the researchers wrote in a paper . Their work is yet to be peer reviewed, but the implications of this finding are noteworthy.Over the last few years,...…A new discovery could be a clue for us to see if life could emerge elsewhere in the Solar System. Using a new analysis technique, scientists think they have found an extraterrestrial protein, tucked inside a meteorite that fell to Earth 30 years ago. If their results can be replicated, it will be the first protein ever identified that didn't originate here on Earth."This paper characterises the first protein to be discovered in a meteorite," the researchers wrote in a paper . Their work is yet to be peer reviewed, but the implications of this finding are noteworthy.Over the last few years,...WW…

Hundreds of firefighters on Monday battled a forest blaze in Ukraine's Chernobyl exclusion zone while officials insisted there was no risk to the ruined reactor and nearby storage facilities for nuclear waste. "There is no threat to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and the storage facilities," Volodymyr Demchuk, a senior official from Ukraine's emergency service, said in a video statement late Monday.The fire broke out 10 days ago at the scene of in 1986.Kiev has mobilised helicopters and more than 400 firefighters, with planes dropping tonnes of water on the fire.Demchuk said firefighters...…Hundreds of firefighters on Monday battled a forest blaze in Ukraine's Chernobyl exclusion zone while officials insisted there was no risk to the ruined reactor and nearby storage facilities for nuclear waste. "There is no threat to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and the storage facilities," Volodymyr Demchuk, a senior official from Ukraine's emergency service, said in a video statement late Monday.The fire broke out 10 days ago at the scene of in 1986.Kiev has mobilised helicopters and more than 400 firefighters, with planes dropping tonnes of water on the fire.Demchuk said firefighters...WW…

On Saturday the , hydroxychloroquine and a related medication, chloroquine, for emergency use to treat COVID-19. The drugs were touted by for COVID-19. However, in a French medical journal provides new evidence that hydroxychloroquine does not appear to help the immune system clear the coronavirus from the body.The study comes on the heels of two others - one in France and - that reported some benefits in the combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin for COVID-19 patients who didn't have severe symptoms of the virus. who has specialized in discovery and development of antiviral...…On Saturday the , hydroxychloroquine and a related medication, chloroquine, for emergency use to treat COVID-19. The drugs were touted by for COVID-19. However, in a French medical journal provides new evidence that hydroxychloroquine does not appear to help the immune system clear the coronavirus from the body.The study comes on the heels of two others - one in France and - that reported some benefits in the combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin for COVID-19 patients who didn't have severe symptoms of the virus. who has specialized in discovery and development of antiviral...WW…

Broadly speaking, animals tend to be sexually dimorphic. You have males, with small gametes, and females, with large gametes, both of which are required for sexual reproduction. Every now and again, though, nature throws a curveball - producing an organism that's a combination of both sexes, divided straight down the middle.This condition is known as gynandromorphism, and scientists have just found the first known gynandromorphic individual of its species in a nocturnal bee native to Central and South America, Megalopta amoenae.On its left side, the bee is physiologically male. It has a...…Broadly speaking, animals tend to be sexually dimorphic. You have males, with small gametes, and females, with large gametes, both of which are required for sexual reproduction. Every now and again, though, nature throws a curveball - producing an organism that's a combination of both sexes, divided straight down the middle.This condition is known as gynandromorphism, and scientists have just found the first known gynandromorphic individual of its species in a nocturnal bee native to Central and South America, Megalopta amoenae.On its left side, the bee is physiologically male. It has a...WW…