Nature

Excavations at the Shum Laka rockshelter in Cameroon, where the ancient human remains were found.Credit: Pierre de Maret The ancient-genomics revolution is finally reaching the cradle of humanity: Africa. Researchers have sequenced the genomes of four children who lived in what is now Cameroon several thousand years ago. Their genomes — the first to be

China’s transport ministry suspends all transportation services going to and from the central city of Wuhan as the country takes a drastic step to contain a contagious disease that has killed at least 15 people, stricken hundreds, and reached other countries. The nation-owned People’s Daily newspaper posted in its official Twitter account that nobody would be allowed

On 1 January, the air in Canberra was the worst of any city in the world. With unprecedented bush fires raging nearby, a thick blanket of smoke smothered Australia’s capital for weeks, sending a surge of residents to the hospital with breathing problems. The toxic haze got so bad that Sophie Lewis, a climate scientist

It’s easy to think of all sorts of ways that replacing those aging windows will make your home more comfortable. You can also point to the ways that those windows will protect and possibly  increase the market value of the home. Have you given some thought to how those windows could be good for the

Researchers worry soot may have damaged rock art in the Blue Mountains, similar to these stencils in Red Hands Cave.Credit: Marc Anderson/Alamy Indigenous communities and archaeologists fear thousands of historic Aboriginal sites and artefacts have been damaged — or destroyed — by fires that have ravaged Australia. These places are essential for understanding the movement

1. Cachelin, A. B., de Peyer, J. E., Kokubun, S. & Reuter, H. Ca2+ channel modulation by 8-bromocyclic AMP in cultured heart cells. Nature 304, 462–464 (1983). 2. Reuter, H. & Scholz, H. The regulation of the calcium conductance of cardiac muscle by adrenaline. J. Physiol. 264, 49–62 (1977). 3. Hartzell, H. C., Méry, P.

Many businesses use a fleet of vehicles to carry out their day-to-day operations, whether to ferry employees or transport goods. However, managing a fleet is not as simple as it may sound. As a company, using a fleet tracker can give your business significant benefits by helping you derive insights and make cost-saving improvements.  Modern

Taal volcano spews ash and debris kilometres into the sky.Credit: Domcar C Lagto/PACIFIC P/SIPA/Shutterstock High risk of major eruption at Taal volcano Researchers in the Philippines are monitoring the Taal volcano closely for signs of a major eruption. The volcano’s activity has eased since it began spewing steam and ash more than a week ago,

In the event that you claim a pet, you are no uncertainty a pet sweetheart. What’s more, in the event that you are a pet darling, you will need to keep your pet safe. You can generally observe that they are decidedly ready, well-nourished and in the know regarding creature exams, however there are different

Taal volcano spews ash and debris kilometres into the sky.Credit: Domcar C Lagto/PACIFIC P/SIPA/Shutterstock Researchers in the Philippines are monitoring the Taal volcano closely for signs of a major eruption. The volcano’s activity has eased since it began spewing steam and ash more than a week ago, but the threat of a large-scale eruption remains,

Hello Nature readers, would you like to get this Briefing in your inbox free every day? Sign up here Taal volcano spews ash and debris kilometres into the sky.Credit: Domcar C Lagto/PACIFIC P/SIPA/Shutterstock The Taal volcano in the Philippines has become less active since it began spewing steam and ash more than a week ago,

If you have embarked upon a camping adventure before, you’d know camping is a holistic activity that revitalizes the mind and feeds the soul. Who wouldn’t love building a campfire and toasting marshmallows in it? Or sleep in the sound of crackling wood? I bet, everybody will. Camping is never complete without a campfire.  However,

The virus first surfaced at the end of 2019 in an animal and seafood market in Wuhan, central China.Credit: Noel Celis/AFP/Getty As hundreds of millions of people in China take to the roads, railway and skies to be with their families for the new year holidays, authorities in the country and around the world have

Damage to the ozone layer might also be liable for half of Arctic warming over 50 years, a new study claims. An international team of researchers says the findings highlight ozone-depleting substances (ODS) as an unrecognized source of twentieth-century Arctic climate change. ODS, a set of very harmful greenhouse gases, are halogen compounds that destroy

Hello Nature readers, would you like to get this Briefing in your inbox free every day? Sign up here Research with human embryos is fraught, so some researchers are creating synthetic embryos from stem cells.Credit: Juan Gartner/Science Photo Library/Getty US scientists say they are finding it increasingly difficult to obtain federal funding for research that

A lethal viral outbreak in China probably originated in a Wuhan animal market, which has since been closed.Credit: Noel Celis/AFP/Getty Scientists are increasingly concerned about a new virus that is spreading in Asia. The number of people known to have the respiratory illness, which originated in China, has more than doubled in the past few

One of the most important travel necessities is a good pair of shoes. This is especially important if you intend to do activities like hiking on your trip. With the wrong type of shoe, going across uneven terrain might increase the chances that you will strain your ankles. To prevent this from happening, let’s look

US Army nurses in 1947. Shifting social norms have driven the swift rise and demise of smoking in many places.Credit: Underwood Archives/UIG/Shutterstock Under the Influence: Putting Peer Pressure to Work Robert H. Frank Princeton Univ. Press (2020) In 1989, just 12% of US adults favoured legalization of same-sex marriage; by 2015, that figure was around

As the Philippines’ Taal Volcano unrest entered its 2nd week, government volcanologists reiterated that evacuees are strongly advised to remain out of the danger zone as Alert Level 4 remains raised. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) underscored on Monday, January 20, that scientific records showing a risky eruption remain possible “in hours to days.” Phivolcs Director Renato Solidum

Oil and fuel manufacturing has doubled in some areas of the United States in two years. The production, which leads to air pollution, was seen from space. In the new research published in the AGU journal Geophysical Research Letters, scientists used satellites to see the influences of the trend. Researchers noted a significant increase in the release of the

As preparations for the Chinese New Year get under way, fears mount for the jubilant crowds who could potentially be infected by a newly emerged virus.Credit: Wu Hong/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock I applaud Chinese colleagues’ prompt release of the genome sequence of the virus responsible for the mystery respiratory illness in Wuhan in central China (see Nature http://doi.org/djhc;

A local agency said that the coffee farms in the province of Batangas and Cavite would take more than a year to recover after the volcano erupted on Sunday. Rene Tongson, the director of the Philippine Coffee Board, said that the total damages caused by Taal’s wrath are around ₱600 million ($32 million), a way

Trilobites disappeared from the fossil record during the mass extinction at the end of the Permian period, 252 million years ago.Credit: Shutterstock Palaeontologists have a fuzzy view of Earth’s history. An incomplete fossil record and imprecise dating techniques make it hard to pinpoint events that happened within geological eras spanning millions of years. Now, a

Most satellites (artist’s impression of a GPS satellite, pictured) can’t be refuelled, but placing craft in optimal orbits could save large amounts of propellant. Credit: Alamy Engineering 16 January 2020 A four-satellite network takes advantage of forces that would hamper other spacecraft. Engineers have discovered orbits that allow satellites to harness forces that would disrupt

A shocking new study reveals that the amount of heat that has been put into the planet’s oceans from human activity over the past 70 years is the equivalent of more than 3 billion atomic bombs. In a journal published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, an international team of scientists determined that the average temperature of the world’s

Quantum entanglement is at the centre of a mathematical proof.Credit: Victor De Schwanberg/Science Photo Library Albert Einstein famously said that quantum mechanics should allow two objects to affect each other’s behaviour instantly across vast distances, something he dubbed “spooky action at a distance”1. Decades after his death, experiments confirmed this, but to this day, it

Going on a vacation is a good decision that one has to make after working for a long time. To come up with a nice decision, you will have to put some important factors into consideration because they will go a long way. Some of these factors include the choice of destination, season of the

Hello Nature readers, would you like to get this Briefing in your inbox free every day? Sign up here Quantum entanglement is at the centre of a mathematical proof.Credit: Victor De Schwanberg/Science Photo Library Quantum entanglement allows two objects to affect each other’s behaviour instantly across vast distances — what Albert Einstein called “spooky action

Research with human embryos is fraught, so some researchers are creating synthetic embryos from stem cells.Credit: Juan Gartner/Science Photo Library/Getty Scientists can now create clumps of cells that resemble human embryos, raising hopes that they could study the elusive first stages of human development while avoiding the ethical concerns that make it difficult to study

Two for the price of one is only a good deal if you needed one in the first place. All too often we fall for propositions that look advantageous, but in reality turn out to be a false economy. Let’s take a look at some of the ways being cheap can be more expensive in

Smoke hung thick in the air and shrubland was still smouldering when firefighters escorted a small team of biologists into Kosciusko National Park in southern New South Wales on 15 January. The expedition, granted a rare exemption from the park’s strict no-go policy during this record-breaking fire season, was to prevent one of Australia’s rarest

The legendary giant squid has reached school-bus size with eyes as big as dinner plates and tentacles that can snatch prey 10 yards away. The University of Copenhagen-led team that includes scientist Caroline Albertin of the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) found the full genome sequence of the mysterious giant squid (Architeuthis dux). According to study

Hello Nature readers, would you like to get this Briefing in your inbox free every day? Sign up here An existing 64-dish array in South Africa is set to become part of the Square Kilometre Array.Credit: Mujahid Safodien/AFP/Getty An independent panel of reviewers has approved the design of what will be the world’s largest telescope

A retina scarred by infection with the parasite Toxoplasma gondii, which goes quiet when triggered by a gene called BFD1. Credit: Paul Whitten/SPL Microbiology 16 January 2020 The toxoplasmosis parasite can hide in a person’s organs after infection and re-emerge years later. About one-quarter of the world’s population is chronically infected with an inactive form

As we approach the end of the year and head into a new decade, a lot of New Year’s resolutions tend to be centered around getting healthier or losing weight. And even though most aren’t often stuck to beyond January, it’s still good to try and have a healthier attitude to your body and how

Owen Guo, chief executive of Ispect Technology in Taiwan.Credit: Matthew Szekely Owen Guo, chief executive of Ispect Technology, explains how his company’s devices help manufacturers to regulate the quality of food products. Where did the idea for your company come from? I met the co-founders of Ispect Technology, Ted Wang and Chloe Lee, in 2017

(Photo: Reuters)It is not just the water in the crater but also the lake that surrounds the volcano is drying up. The lake at the crater of Taal Volcano, which is a popular tourist destination, is drying up, according to the local geohazard agency. Antonia Bornas from the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs)

1. Siegel, R. W. & Thomas, G. J. Grain boundaries in nanophase materials. Ultramicroscopy 40, 376–384 (1992). Article Google Scholar 2. Ovid’ko, I. A. Deformation of nanostructures. Science 295, 2386 (2002). Article Google Scholar 3. Read, W. T. & Shockley, W. Dislocation models of crystal grain boundaries. Phys. Rev. 78, 275–289 (1950). 4. Liu, H.

1. Schödel, R. et al. A star in a 15.2-year orbit around the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way. Nature 419, 694–696 (2002). 2. Ghez, A. M. et al. Stellar orbits around the Galactic center black hole. Astrophys. J. 620, 744–757 (2005). ADS Google Scholar 3. Eckart, A. & Genzel, R.

If your family loves the idea of saving energy, there are several things you can do. Going green in your home helps create a healthier world in which we live, and it saves your family money in the process. Here are five easy ways to save energy as a family. Find The Best Energy Plan

At the beginning of the year, Dominic Cummings, a senior adviser to the UK government, posted an unusual advert on his blog, calling for data scientists, mathematicians and physicists to join him at the heart of government. As outgoing director of the Royal Statistical Society in London and soon-to-be chief executive of the British Academy,

It is quite common for a woman to have sudden breakouts from time to time; especially during that time of the month. However, some adult acne will overstay their welcome which sucks! So, what causes breakouts? Dermatologists say that the overproduction of oil and hormones are the main culprits. When the hair follicles are clogged

Hello Nature readers, would you like to get this Briefing in your inbox free every day? Sign up here Li Ning’s team team engineered goats to produce a protein found in human milk.Credit: Getty A Chinese court has sentenced leading animal-cloning researcher Li Ning to 12 years in prison for embezzling millions in research funding.

Surya Prakash, who researches Sanskrit texts at Jawaharlal Nehru University and is visually impaired, was among those attacked on 5 January.Credit: Vipin Kumar/Hindustan Times/Getty For several weeks the world has watched as India’s citizens — including academics and students — have taken to the streets. Tens of thousands have been gathering to read out the

Migrating animals that stay in Earth’s oceans might have a better relationship with the sun than we thought. But researchers suggest that healthy gray whales are almost five times much more likely to stay on their paths while there’s an extreme prevalence of sunspots and, therefore, excessive tiers of radio waves emitted from solar storms.  The scientists presented their findings at the Society for

Dark Data David J. Hand Princeton Univ. Press (2020) We are deluged with billions of bytes of data, yet much crucial information goes unseen and unreported. So reveals statistician David Hand in this penetrating study of missing (‘dark’) data and its impacts on decisions — skewing stats, enabling fraud, embedding inequity and triggering preventable catastrophes.

If you’re planning to sell your house, it’s important to know what buyers are looking for so that the sale can be both quick and cost-effective. No one likes to sell property for less than what they think it’s worth. However, if your home isn’t properly optimized with the right tech upgrades, it is time

China encourages its scientists to study abroad and then return home.Credit: Sigrid Gombert/Cultura/SPL Does working in a foreign country enhance the careers of Chinese scientists? For years, China has been encouraging scientists to study abroad and then bring their expertise home. But contrary to the common perception that such experience furthers careers, a study finds