Tag: science

Scientists develop mathematical model to optimise elite athletes’ performance

March 5, 2024 admin

Lieke Klaver of Team Netherlands runs ahead of Lavial Nielsen of Team Great Britain in the first leg of the women’s 4 X 400 meters relay during the World Athletics Indoor Championships at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow, Scotland, Sunday, March 3, 2024. | Photo Credit: AP Scientists have developed a mathematical model that promises…

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New study finds one of the oldest animal mummies is a forged fossil

February 20, 2024 admin

Fake fossils are among us, passing almost undetected under the eye of experts all over the world. This is a serious problem – counterfeited specimens can mislead palaeontologists into studying an ancient past that never existed. In a new study, my colleagues and I reveal a surprising truth about a fossil celebrated for decades as one…

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Venture capitalists back ‘steroid Olympics’ where drug-testing is legal

February 16, 2024 admin

Eve Thomas of New Zealand, left, and Simona Quadarella of Italy, right, compete in the women’s 800-meter freestyle heat at the World Aquatics Championships in Doha, Qatar, Friday, Feb. 16, 2024. | Photo Credit: AP For many, elite sport is the quintessential human endeavour. It drives ferocious competition, captures unconditional tribal loyalty, and rewards the…

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Dinosaur-killing asteroid impact fouled Earth’s atmosphere with dust

October 31, 2023 admin

This artist’s reconstruction depicts North Dakota in the first months following the impact of an asteroid off Mexico’s coast 66 million years ago, showing a dark, dusty and cold world in which the last non-avian dinosaurs, illustrated by the species Dakotaraptor steini, were on the edge of extinction in this undated handout. | Photo Credit:…

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How a Bronze Age rock became a ‘treasure map’ for researchers

October 17, 2023 admin

An archaeology student excavates a burial mound in Leuhan, western France, on October 11, 2023. This burial mound dating from ancient Bronze age was discovered in 1900 by French archeologist Paul du Chatellier. On this site du Chatellier also found a carved granite slab that could be the oldest map in Europe. The actual searchs…

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Scientists propose sweeping new law of nature, expanding on evolution

October 17, 2023 admin

In this undated image made from video provided by the BBC, hatchling marine iguanas. British naturalist Charles Darwin sketched out his theory of evolution in the 1859 book On the Origin of Species – proposing that biological species change over time through the acquisition of traits that favour survival and reproduction. Now 164 years later,…

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Morocco fossils reveal astounding diversity of marine life just before the asteroid hit

October 9, 2023 admin

Sixty-six million years ago, the Cretaceous period ended. Dinosaurs disappeared, along with around 90% of all species on Earth. The patterns and causes of this extinction have been debated since palaeontology began. Was it a slow, inevitable decline, or did the end come quickly, driven by a sudden, unpredictable disaster? Georges Cuvier, working in the early 19th…

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Why India’s Green Revolution isn’t a blueprint to feed a hungry planet

October 7, 2023 admin

Feeding a growing world population has been a serious concern for decades, but today there are new causes for alarm. Floods, heat waves and other weather extremes are making agriculture increasingly precarious, especially in the Global South. The war in Ukraine is also a factor. Russia is blockading Ukrainian grain exports, and fertilizer prices have surged because of trade…

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Scientists untangle mystery about the universe’s earliest galaxies

October 7, 2023 admin

Since beginning operations last year, the James Webb Space Telescope has provided an astonishing glimpse of the early history of our universe, spotting a collection of galaxies dating to the enigmatic epoch called cosmic dawn. Image for Representation. | Photo Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Martel Since beginning operations last year, the James Webb…

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First fossilised snake traces discovered in South Africa

October 6, 2023 admin

Snakes have been around for a long time: body fossils found in the UK, Portugal and the US stretch all the way back to the late Jurassic period, about 150 million years ago. Representative Image. | Photo Credit: K.R. Deepak/The Hindu Snakes are familiar, distinctive – and often feared – reptiles. And they’ve been around for…

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