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Scientists analyzed more than 2,700 modern Indian genomes from 17 states, including DNA from individuals from most geographic regions, speakers of all major languages, tribal and caste groups.They revealed that one of the three main ancestral groups in India — ancient Iranian farmers — can be traced back to a group of agricultural farmers from Sarazm in modern-day Tajikistan. They also uncovered the extraordinary diversity of DNA inherited from Neanderthals and Denisovans, the closest, now-extinct relatives of modern humans.Additionally, the team found that most of the genetic variation within the current Indian population stems from a single, major migration event...

Explanation: When the dark shadow of the Moon raced across North America on April 8, sky watchers along the shadow's narrow central path were treated to a total solar eclipse. During the New Moon's shadow play diamonds glistened twice in the eclipse-darkened skies. The transient celestial jewels appeared immediately before and after the total eclipse phase. That's when the rays of a vanishing and then emerging sliver of solar disk are just visible behind the silhouetted Moon's edge, creating the appearance of a shiny diamond set in a dark ring. This dramatic timelapse composite from north-central Arkansas captures both diamond...

Planetary warming, also known as climate change, continues to accelerate. The last eight years have been the warmest on global record, which is well-documented, with information dating back to 1850. Additional warming will continue in the years to come, but how much more warming depends on the decisions we make in the coming decades about energy use. For those looking to take individual actions, and in recognition of Earth Day, there are many that are relevant across income levels: 1. Reduce food waste This can be as simple as being sure that food is consumed before it goes bad and...

Explanation: A jewel of the southern sky, the Great Carina Nebula is more modestly known as NGC 3372. One of our Galaxy's largest star forming regions, it spans over 300 light-years. Like the smaller, more northerly Great Orion Nebula, the Carina Nebula is easily visible to the unaided eye. But at a distance of 7,500 light-years it lies some 5 times farther away. This stunning telescopic view reveals remarkable details of the region's glowing filaments of interstellar gas and obscuring cosmic dust clouds. The Carina Nebula is home to young, extremely massive stars, including the still enigmatic variable Eta Carinae,...

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — As part of their mission to combat misinformation online and ensure accuracy of what people read, Snopes journalists announced plans to personally fact-check the entire San Francisco Poop Map. The initiative will allow Snopes to judge the legitimacy of user-reported sightings of human feces strewn along the city's roadways and provide residents with reliable information on the locations of publicly deposited poo. "Confirming the existence of reported dumps is important," said Snopes journalist Fred Larkin. "We simply cannot allow false reports of human waste to be propagated across social media. There are a lot of people...

Using lasers and metal powder, Australian scientists have created a super strong, super lightweight new “metamaterial” — but they got the idea for this sci fi-sounding creation from plants. The challenge: Materials that are strong yet lightweight, such as carbon fiber and graphene, are used to make everything from medical implants to airships, and developing ones with ever greater “strength-to-weight ratios” is the goal of many material scientists. In pursuit of that goal, some have turned to nature, looking for ways to replicate in metal the hollow lattice structures, like those in the Victoria water lily, that make some plants...

Opinion The scientific community celebrated April 14 as World Quantum Day to raise awareness of quantum science’s impact across diverse fields The world of science is on the cusp of a transformative era driven by the burgeoning field of quantum technology. Quantum science is founded on several key principles that underpin the behaviour of particles and systems at the quantum scale. The term “quantum scale” refers to the realm of physics that deals with phenomena occurring at very small scales, typically at the level of atoms, subatomic particles and fundamental particles. It encompasses the principles of quantum mechanics, which govern...

Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. This is what American cities looked like a century ago. Everything you see here was demolished. Why?

Explanation: From our vantage point in the Milky Way Galaxy, we see NGC 1232 face-on. Nearly 200,000 light-years across, the big, beautiful spiral galaxy is located some 47 million light-years away in the flowing southern constellation of Eridanus. This sharp, multi-color, telescopic image of NGC 1232 includes remarkable details of the distant island universe. From the core outward, the galaxy's colors change from the yellowish light of old stars in the center to young blue star clusters and reddish star forming regions along the grand, sweeping spiral arms. NGC 1232's apparent, small, barred-spiral companion galaxy is cataloged as NGC 1232A....

From the Sciences and Cosmology web page: "Want me to tell you something that will blow your mind or make you lose sleep? Well, look at this picture. Each of those dots you see is a GALAXY... And each GALAXY has roughly 100BILLION STARS. Also, each STAR has at least 1 PLANET. Now how many galaxies do you think there can be in that picture? And this is just a photograph of a very little parcel of the universe. This makes me lose sleep, thinking about how so insignificant we really are. Lol."

You never really know what you might find hiding in your own backyard, especially if those things are particularly adept at escaping detection. Just 1,924 light-years from the Solar System, in the constellation of Aquila, astronomers have just discovered a black hole. And it's not just any black hole. Named Gaia BH3, or BH3, the object is the most massive stellar-mass black hole we've ever spotted in the Milky Way, clocking in at a hefty 33 times the mass of the Sun. It's the second-closest black hole we've found to our home-world, and it's just hanging out, quietly in space,...

This late-medieval document is covered in illustrations of stars and planets, plants, zodiac symbols, naked women, and blue and green fluids. But the text itself – thought to be the work of five different scribes – is enciphered and yet to be understood.In an article published in Social History of Medicine, my coauthor Michelle L. Lewis and I propose that sex is one of the subjects detailed in the manuscript – and that the largest diagram represents both sex and conception.Late-medieval sexology and gynaecologyResearch on the Voynich manuscript has revealed some clues about its origins. Carbon dating provides a 95%...

Explanation: Not one, but two comets appeared near the Sun during last week's total solar eclipse. The expected comet was Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks, but it was disappointingly dimmer than many had hoped. However, relatively unknown Comet SOHO-5008 also appeared in long duration camera exposures. This comet was the 5008th comet identified on images taken by ESA & NASA's Sun-orbiting SOHO spacecraft. Likely much smaller, Comet SOHO-5008 was a sungrazer which disintegrated within hours as it passed too near the Sun. The featured image is not only unusual for capturing two comets during an eclipse, but one of the rare times that...

Methane plumes are detected by plane at a Georgia landfill surrounded by homes. Photo courtesy of Carbon Mapper April 16 (UPI) -- Far more methane, a potent greenhouse gas, is being released from landfills and oil and gas operations around the world than governments realized, recent airborne and satellite surveys show. That's a problem for the climate as well as human health. It's also why the U.S. government has been tightening regulations on methane leaks and wasteful venting, most recently from oil and gas wells on public lands. The good news is that many of those leaks can be fixed...

(Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have developed a new strategy in the quest to harness fusion to produce electricity: combining two existing methods of managing plasma to allow greater overall flexibility. The PPPL team’s new dual approach brings together electron cyclotron current drive (ECCD) methods with resonant magnetic perturbations (RMP), marking the first time a simulation showing how they can be used together could facilitate greater control of plasma during fusion reactions. In simple terms, fusion produces energy by replicating the natural processes occurring on the surface of...

A comprehensive review by an international consortium of scientists has raised serious concerns about the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines’ safety profile. Review articles are summaries of current research on a particular topic. They are also sometimes called literature reviews or secondary sources. The review, “N1-methyl-pseudouridine (m1Ψ): Friend or foe of cancer?” published on Science Direct, delves into the potential implications of a vaccine ingredient—N1-methyl-pseudouridine (m1Ψ)—that may play a role in immune suppression and cancer proliferation. m1Ψ was incorporated into Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 mRNA vaccine to enhance its efficacy. This component was introduced in the mRNA vaccine as a means to produce a...

“To reach out to the Muslim world… to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math, and engineering.” There’s the Right Stuff (pictured above) and the Woke Stuff. NASA no longer has the right stuff, so all it’s got is the DEI stuff.Remember this? In July 2010, NASA chief Charles Bolden, an Obama appointee, told Al Jazeera that his boss had given him three priorities… none of them involving space exploration. The foremost priority for the agency once tasked with sending a man to the moon was “to reach out to the Muslim world… to help them...

Research scientists from Linköping University (LiU) in Sweden say they have created the first two-dimensional single-atom layer of gold using a technique perfected by Japanese smiths over 100 years ago. Dubbed “goldene” in reference to the popular single-atom carbon material graphene that essentially kicked off the 2D materials revolution, the breakthrough material could possess a large number of exotic properties like those found in other single-atom 2D materials. The researchers behind the first-ever accomplishment also say they believe goldene could also offer several immediate applications. These include new methods for harvesting energy, catalysis for hydrogen generation, carbon conversion, water purification,...

Explanation: The explosion is over, but the consequences continue. About eleven thousand years ago, a star in the constellation of Vela could be seen to explode, creating a strange point of light briefly visible to humans living near the beginning of recorded history. The outer layers of the star crashed into the interstellar medium, driving a shock wave that is still visible today. The featured image captures some of that filamentary and gigantic shock in visible light. As gas flies away from the detonated star, it decays and reacts with the interstellar medium, producing light in many different colors and...

Medieval fire arrows were real! So I followed the old books, made some and tested them in every way I could think of. We have loads of old manuscripts, pictures, drawings, fire arrow heads and recipes of fire arrows but because some people haven't looked at the old information and can't make them work, lots of people think they were a myth. You see them everywhere in films and computer games so it is easy to dismiss them as a modern popular culture affectation - they were as real as you are. So this film is an exhaustive description of...