https://phys.org/science-news/ en-us The latest science news on archaeology, fossils, mathematics, and science technology from Phys.org The 1 million-square-mile Tibetan Plateau—often called the "roof of the world"—is the highest landmass in the world, averaging 14,000 feet in altitude. Despite the extreme environment, humans have been permanent inhabitants there since prehistoric times. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-roots-longstanding-cultural-interactions-tibetan.html Archaeology Social Sciences Fri, 02 Feb 2024 05:00:01 EST news626025379 Children who hear a language other than English at home currently make up more than 25% of the school-aged population in the United States. A large majority of those children hear Spanish because that is the native language of their parents. When their parents came to the U.S., they brought not only their language, but also their culture with them. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-mom-immigrant-bilingual-latina-mothers.html Social Sciences Thu, 01 Feb 2024 14:17:01 EST news626019414 The springtime emergence of vast swarms of cicadas can be explained by a mathematical model of collective decision-making that has similarities to models describing stock market crashes. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-swarming-cicadas-stock-traders-wisdom.html Mathematics Thu, 01 Feb 2024 11:11:44 EST news626008299 A pair of historians at the University of Tübingen have found evidence that an ancient baton, thought to be a work of art created by early humans thousands of years ago, is actually a device to assist with making rope. In their study, published in the journal Science Advances, Nicholas Conard and Veerle Rots created a replica of the baton and found that it could easily be used to make rope. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-ancient-holed-ivory-baton-rope.html Archaeology Thu, 01 Feb 2024 09:37:40 EST news626002654 Evidence from teeth reveals that vitamin D deficiency during childhood was likely a major issue in industrialized England, according to a study published January 31, 2024 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Anne Marie Snoddy of the University of Otago, New Zealand and colleagues. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-archaeological-evidence-seasonal-vitamin-d.html Archaeology Wed, 31 Jan 2024 14:00:01 EST news625914950 Throughout the thousand-year reign of the Roman Empire, disparate populations began to connect in new ways—through trade routes, economic and political collaboration, and joint military endeavors. Now, an international team led by Stanford Medicine researchers has used genetic material from ancient skeletons to assemble a detailed picture of travel and migration patterns during the empire's height. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-ancient-dna-migration-roman-empire.html Archaeology Wed, 31 Jan 2024 11:23:04 EST news625922581 Have you ever wondered about the best way to pack a finite number of identical spheres into a shape-shifting flexible container, like a convex hull? https://phys.org/news/2024-01-simulations-tackle-finite-sphere-problem.html Mathematics Wed, 31 Jan 2024 11:09:54 EST news625921792 An international team of archaeologists has found and identified a trackway made by multiple humans approximately 90,000 years ago in what is now Morocco. In their paper published in the journal Scientific Reports, the group describes how they tested for its origins of the tracks. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-year-human-footprints-moroccan-beach.html Archaeology Wed, 31 Jan 2024 11:07:32 EST news625921646 A genetic analysis of bone fragments unearthed at an archaeological site in central Germany shows conclusively that modern humans—Homo sapiens—had already reached Northern Europe 45,000 years ago, overlapping with Neanderthals for several thousand years before the latter went extinct. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-neanderthals-humans-side-northern-europe.html Archaeology Wed, 31 Jan 2024 11:00:01 EST news625914301 A new study of the Turku PET Center in Finland has shown that music evokes similar emotions and bodily sensations around the world. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-music-similar-emotions-bodily-sensations.html Social Sciences Tue, 30 Jan 2024 12:43:25 EST news625841003 A team of anthropologists at Université Bordeaux has found evidence of nine distinct cultures living in what is now Europe during the Gravettian period. In their study, reported in the journal Nature Human Behavior, the group analyzed personal adornments worn by people living in the region between 24,000 and 34,000 years ago. Reuven Yeshurun, with the University of Haifa, has published a News & Views piece in the same journal issue, outlining the work done by the team. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-ancient-adornments-distinct-cultures-europe.html Archaeology Tue, 30 Jan 2024 09:53:07 EST news625830782 Last summer, archaeologists from Gothenburg University and Kiel University excavated a dolmen, a stone burial chamber, in Tiarp near Falköping in Sweden. The archaeologists judge that the grave has remained untouched since the Stone Age. First analysis results now confirm that the grave in Tiarp is one of the oldest stone burial chambers in Sweden. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-excavated-dolmen-sweden-oldest-scandinavia.html Archaeology Mon, 29 Jan 2024 12:24:33 EST news625753468 An enormous tsunami with gigantic waves reaching 20 meters submerged large parts of northern Europe and may have wiped out populations of people in Stone Age Britain, a new University of York study has discovered. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-huge-tsunami-meter-stone-age.html Archaeology Mon, 29 Jan 2024 10:37:36 EST news625747051 Statisticians from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have introduced a new technique that accurately describes high-dimensional data using lower-dimensional smooth structures. This innovation marks a significant step forward in addressing the challenges of complex nonlinear dimension reduction. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-manifold-approach-high-dimensional-reduction.html Mathematics Mon, 29 Jan 2024 09:52:03 EST news625744321 Poignant prehistoric burials containing the remains of an adult and child laid in a grave as though embracing in death have long fascinated archaeologists. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-evidence-patrilineal-descent-western-eurasian.html Archaeology Mon, 29 Jan 2024 09:50:04 EST news625744202 Allegations of research fakery at a leading cancer center have turned a spotlight on scientific integrity and the amateur sleuths uncovering image manipulation in published research. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-science-sleuths-technology-fakery-plagiarism.html Other Sun, 28 Jan 2024 12:32:41 EST news625667544 People who were more skeptical of human-caused climate change or the Black Lives Matter movement and who took part in conversation with a popular AI chatbot were disappointed with the experience, but left the conversation more supportive of the scientific consensus on climate change or BLM. This is according to researchers studying how these chatbots handle interactions from people with different cultural backgrounds. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-chats-ai-shift-attitudes-climate.html Social Sciences Political science Thu, 25 Jan 2024 16:23:04 EST news625422181 The oft-used description of early humans as "hunter-gatherers" should be changed to "gatherer-hunters," at least in the Andes of South America, according to groundbreaking research led by a University of Wyoming archaeologist. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-hunter-narrative.html Archaeology Wed, 24 Jan 2024 14:00:01 EST news625310030 DNA from ancient feces can offer archaeologists new clues about the life and health of Japanese people who lived thousands of years ago, according to a study published in PLOS ONE by Luca Nishimura and Ituro Inoue from the National Institute of Genetics, Japan, Hiroki Oota from The University of Tokyo, Mayumi Ajimoto from Wakasa History Museum, and colleagues. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-dna-feces-reveals-ancient-japanese.html Archaeology Wed, 24 Jan 2024 14:00:01 EST news625310062 Researchers at the Universities of Basel and Zurich have discovered the genetic material of the pathogen Treponema pallidum in the bones of people who died in Brazil 2,000 years ago. This is the oldest verified discovery of this pathogen thus far, and it proves that humans were suffering from diseases akin to syphilis—known as treponematoses—long before Columbus's discovery of America. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-syphilis-diseases-widespread-america-columbus.html Archaeology Wed, 24 Jan 2024 12:09:40 EST news625320577 Archaeologists have combined DNA analysis with the study of pottery to examine the spread of broomcorn millet across Eurasia, revealing how regional culinary traditions persisted even as new crops were introduced. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-prehistoric-chefs-retained-strong-cooking.html Archaeology Wed, 24 Jan 2024 11:20:01 EST news625315037 Excavation at the dried-out lake site of Papowo Biskupie in north-central Poland has revealed more than 550 bronze artifacts, providing the most telling evidence of ritual deposition of metal by the occupants of the region from 1200–450 BC, known as the Chełmno group. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-bronze-jewelry-prehistoric-ritual.html Archaeology Wed, 24 Jan 2024 10:36:56 EST news625315013 It's no secret that the ancient Romans were lovers of wine. So gripped by the grape were they, that they even worshiped a god—Bacchus—devoted to wine and merriment. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-spicy-wine-reveals-ancient-romans.html Archaeology Wed, 24 Jan 2024 06:59:59 EST news625301995 Tucked away in rock shelters in the secluded northern mountains of Luzon in the Philippines, the Kabayan "fire" mummies lie at rest. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-ancestral-kabayan-mummies.html Archaeology Tue, 23 Jan 2024 12:00:05 EST news625233599 Psychologists from Edith Cowan University (ECU) have used virtual reality (VR) technology in a new study that aims to better understand criminals and how they respond when questioned. The results are published in the journal Scientific Reports. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-virtual-reality-criminal-mind.html Social Sciences Tue, 23 Jan 2024 11:05:26 EST news625230324 Motion capture technology has applications in a wide range of fields, including entertainment, medicine, and sports, to name a few. But what if the measurements these systems were based on were rooted in social practices and biased assumptions, leading to errors that become ingrained over time? https://phys.org/news/2024-01-assumptions-affect-motion-capture-technology.html Social Sciences Mon, 22 Jan 2024 15:36:30 EST news625160187 Organizational leaders may benefit from operating more like a jazz ensemble during crises in order to utilize their resources in unconventional ways, according to new research from Rice University. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-crises-benefit-jazz-ensemble.html Social Sciences Economics & Business Mon, 22 Jan 2024 14:08:03 EST news625154881 Researchers from the Collaborative Research Center (CRC) 1266 at Kiel University (CAU) have been able to prove, in the first archaeobotanical study of burnt food residues on the surface of ceramic vessels, how varied the meals prepared in Eastern Holstein 5,000 years ago were. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-peek-cooking-pot-burnt-food.html Archaeology Mon, 22 Jan 2024 10:24:21 EST news625141457 There are fields of scientific research that involve neither vast cosmic phenomena nor extremely cute animals, but those are topics of high salience in Saturday Citations, and this week is no exception. And we'll probably play the odds and say next week won't be either. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-saturday-citations-cutest-conservationists-weird.html Other Sat, 20 Jan 2024 07:50:01 EST news624887136 In studying social mobility in today's industrialized nations, researchers typically rely on data from the World Economic Forum or, in the United States, the General Social Survey. But examining the same phenomena from past centuries is a more daunting task because relevant statistics are harder to come by. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-china-medieval-tang-dynasty-social.html Archaeology Social Sciences Fri, 19 Jan 2024 10:31:03 EST news624882661