News Desk

Recent research suggests that giving mice a compound found in magic mushrooms before chemotherapy can prevent the debilitating nerve damage that often accompanies cancer treatment. The findings indicate that psilocybin protects nerve fibers by keeping their cellular powerhouses moving and functioning properly. The study was published in Science.

Seven ancient human fossils and a cache of tools and animal remains found in a cave in southwestern China are illuminating the looks and lifeways of the mysterious Denisovans, who were close cousins of the Neanderthals and coexisted—and interbred—with modern humans, as well. The findings from the approximately 150,000-year-old fossils were reported in a pair of papers in Nature, here and here. (9th September).

A team of Griffith University archaeologists has uncovered evidence that humans were using mind-altering substances much earlier than previously supposed. The new study was published in Science Advances. 

Excavations at Prado Vargas Cave in northern Spain have recovered more than 1,500 animal remains and stone tools from a Neanderthal occupation dated to about 46,000 years ago.

Even after all this time, however, the rover can still roll up to a new way Mars has found to be weird – something that defies easy explanation. This time, it’s holes.

Archaeologists have recently been excavating tombs at the Saqqara necropolis, a UNESCO World Heritage Site around 40 kilometers (24 miles) southwest of Cairo. In the latest discovery, the team found a stunning tomb dating to the Old Kingdom, roughly 4,700 to 4,200 years ago.

New research has revealed that ancient builders deliberately transported enormous 25-tonne stones across at least 18 kilometers (11 miles) to build Britain’s tallest surviving prehistoric stone row—the iconic Devil’s Arrows. The study, “Deliberate Prehistoric Sourcing of the Devil’s Arrows, Britain’s Tallest Stone Row,” was published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical and Physical Sciences.

Scientists are battling over whether supposedly simple organisms should be considered ‘intelligent’…The battle is fraught, sometimes dirty. Michael Levin, a Tufts University professor who is perhaps the most polarising figure among the biogenic group, believes that every individual cell is intelligent and cognitive in its own way; for this, he told me he regularly receives hate mail. (One letter called him “dangerously insane”.)

A multidisciplinary study has answered key questions about how agricultural practices diffused into ancient Gansu from Eurasia, as well as described population movements and burial practices in the Gansu region thousands of years ago. The study was published in Cell on Sept. 3

The scientific community has been making one fascinating discovery about Neanderthals after another of late, broadening our idea of an ancient human ancestor we once incorrectly assumed was so stupid that they became shorthand for primitive thinking. Today, we get word of yet another way Neanderthals were a heartier people than we give them credit for, but this time the evidence isn’t in their heads. It’s in their feet, according to a study published in the Journal of Human Evolution.

A psychedelic best known for its effects on the brain may also protect peripheral nerves from chemotherapy damage, early research suggests. A new mouse study, published Thursday (Sept. 3) in the journal Science, suggests that psilocybin, the psychedelic compound in “magic mushrooms,” may help prevent this painful and sometimes permanent side effect of chemotherapy, known as chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN).

If you ask a scientist how life appeared on Earth, they will usually begin the story in one of two places: A warm, mineral-rich pool on the surface of our primordial planet. Or a deep-sea vent pumping warm, hydrogen-rich fluid through the ocean floor. Both tales are highly engaging, but only one holds any water, according to a provocative new take by geochemist Benjamin Tutolo from the University of Calgary. Tutolo’s perspective is now laid out in the peer-reviewed journal PNAS.

The strange sculpture reverses a recurring Stone Age motif of humans confronting dangerous predators.

Two doses of the psychedelic compound psilocybin can reverse signs of depression and anxiety in rats exposed to chronic stress. The substance appears to work by encouraging the growth of new brain cells and normalizing stress hormone levels. The research was published in Progress in Neuropsychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry.

Anthropologists studying the hip bones of Homo floresiensis have discovered that its pelvis was human-like, raising new questions about the origin of the enigmatic species. The study was published Aug. 25 in the American Journal of Biological Anthropology.

One of the world’s favorite sweet treats, chocolate, may have been enjoyed in eastern North America much earlier than previously thought, about 1,000 years ago. New research published in the journal PLOS One suggests that people in the Mississippian city of Etowah were consuming cacao, the plant used to make chocolate, in the 11th and 12th centuries.