When John Kerry heads to Beijing Sunday for a long-awaited trip to restart climate negotiations, the US climate envoy will step off the plane into one of the hottest summers ever recorded in the Chinese capital.

It’s one of the questions which has fascinated scientists for hundreds of years, but how did the dinosaurs really go extinct? Well, new research might have just solved the mystery once and for all. Of course, most people are familiar with the fact that an asteroid struck the Earth around 66 million years ago, but fewer people might know that the object measured a whopping 10 to 15 kilometres wide and landed in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. Fewer people still might know that while it sparked all sorts of devastation, including earthquakes and megatsunamis, and now experts have revealed that what might have really proved fatal for the dinosaurs was the dust that it caused. We’re not talking a little bit of dust, either. Trillions of tons of the stuff was released into the atmosphere when then asteroid struck. The damage done by this dust is explored in the new report published by Nature Geoscience. So much was released, in fact, that it caused a “global winter”, with huge clouds of silicate dust and sulphur causing temperatures to drop by 15C. The lack of light would have caused entire ecosystems to collapse, causing 75 per cent of species to be rendered extinct. The effects of the dust could have blocked out sunlight for as long as two years, which according to the Belgium researchers who led the study is what would have killed off dinosaurs gradually – rather than being killed off straight away by the asteroid. It is, however, what eventually led to other life forms emerging and ultimately the development of the human race. "Dinos dominated Earth and were doing just fine when the meteorite hit," co-author of the study and planetary scientist Philippe Claeys said. "Without the impact, my guess is that mammals - including us - had little chance to become the dominant organisms on this planet." Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings

Celine Song’s wistful romance “Past Lives” has earned top honors at the Gotham Awards at an award-season kickoff where the night’s biggest drama came in a political speech by Robert De Niro that the actor claimed had been edited

Zach Johnson cares mostly about group chemistry for his American team at the Ryder Cup

'Joker 2' is in the final stages of post-production and it sounds like fans are in for a ride.

The March on Washington of 1963 is remembered most for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech

The complete head-to-head record between Liverpool and Newcastle.

Tom Sandoval was allegedly spotted at the Austin Proper Hotel with a blonde woman who is rumored to be Austin-based influencer Karlee Hale

President Joe Biden will announce a new national monument to preserve land around Grand Canyon National Park and limit it from mining

England has reached the quarterfinals of the Rugby World Cup without losing and yet it's hard to judge just how good Steve Borthwick's team is

Here are all of the Killstreaks that will be available in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 at launch.

Viewers will get to enjoy a recap of Simon and Terry's favorite auditions from 'AGT' and 'BGT' instead of the new episode