List of All Articles with Tag 'science'

A 4,000-year-old site reminiscent of Stonehenge has been uncovered in the Netherlands for the first time. The monument was uncovered by Dutch archaeologists on Wednesday (21 June), uncovering an ancient religious site that has been nicknamed the “Stonehenge of the Netherlands”. Uncovered in the dig was a burial mound containing the remains of 60 men, women and children. The mound also served as a solar calendar, with the Sun shining directly through passages on the shortest and longest days of the year. Digging at the so-called “open-air sanctuary”, located in the town of Tiel, began in 2017, but the results of the archaeologists’ findings were only recently made public. A post on the town’s Facebook page, read: “What a spectacular archaeological discovery! Archaeologists have found a 4,000-year-old religious sanctuary on an industrial site.” Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter It continued: “This is the first time a site like this has been discovered in the Netherlands.” By comparing different samples of clay and their composition, three burial mounds were located during the excavation. The mounds are located just a few kilometres from the bank of the Waal River, with the main mound measuring 20 meters wide and its passages perfectly aligned to serve as a solar calendar. One of the archaeologists explained: “People used this calendar to determine important moments including festival and harvest days.” Dutch national broadcaster, NOS, added: “This hill reminded one of Stonehenge, the well-known mysterious prehistoric monument in Britain, where this phenomenon also occurs.” Other fascinating discoveries at the site included a single glass bead found inside a grave – analysis showed it originated in Mesopotamia, which is Iraq today. 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.

The baby croc was the product of a mother who has spent her entire life in captivity.

A search vessel reached the sea floor near the wreck of the Titanic and began looking for a

One of the key building blocks required for human life has been found in the depths of space. Astronomers have been looking out into a region 1,000 light-years from Earth, known as the Perseus Molecular Complex, and they’ve found an amino acid which is essential in human growth. Tryptophan is one of the 20 amino acids required for humans to develop. Babies require it to grow and it’s also important for protein development and muscle function in adults Readings from the Spitzer telescope, which is no longer in use, were crucial to the discovery. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter The Perseus Molecular Complex is only visible when viewed through infrared instruments, and tryptophan gives off an identifiable light reading when observed in this way. Dr Susana Iglesias-Groth is from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias and was lead author on the new research. "The evidence for tryptophan in the Perseus molecular complex should encourage additional effort to identify other amino acids in this region, and in other star-forming regions,” Dr Iglesias-Groth said. “It is a very exciting possibility that the building blocks of proteins are widely present in the gas from which stars and planets form – it may be key for the development of life in exoplanetary systems.” The findings were published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. It comes after research showed that life forms could potentially be able to survive in the conditions in the clouds above Venus. The key point revolves around the presence of the biosignature gas phosphine, which is often identified as a sign of life. It also posits the idea that potential life forms on the planet could use sulphuric acid the way life forms on Earth use water. 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.

Scientists have just created an entirely new state of matter made out of subatomic particles. The bosonic correlated insulator, to be precise, is both a new material and a new state of matter, said researchers from California, Arizona and Japan. There are four fundamental states of matter, liquid, solid, gas and plasma – an electrically charged gas found in situations like stars and lightning strikes. But there are many others when you drill down to quantum level (that means at an atomic and subatomic level). The scientists said this is a new one. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter The new material is a lattice-shaped pattern, formed from a layer of the two different types of subatomic particles: bosons and fermions. Bosons are a type of particle which is difficult for scientists to create and manipulate because they do not interact with each other. Fermions are more stable – particles such as electrons – and interact through electrostatic force. The material sees the two different types of particle combining and interacting in a new way, with the particles eventually form into a crystalline state, which in turn creates a material which has an insulating effect. “Conventionally, people have spent most of their efforts to understand what happens when you put many fermions together,” says condensed matter physicist Chenhao Jin from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). “The main thrust of our work is that we basically made a new material out of interacting bosons.” The new material doesn’t yet have any practical uses, but exotic creations like this help scientists understand how the universe is put together, the team said. “What happened here is that we discovered the correlation that drove the bosons into a highly ordered state,” said physicist Richen Xiong, from UCSB. The scientists think the discovery could lead to them finding more materials like this further down the line. “We know that some materials have very bizarre properties,” said Xiong. “And one goal of condensed matter physics is to understand why they have these rich properties and find ways to make these behaviours come out more reliably.” 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.

The researcher who invented the term 'cisgender' has hit back at "cowardly" Elon Musk for calling the term a slur. 'Cis' or 'cisgender' was coined by now-retired researcher Dana Defosse. They are used to describe someone whose gender identity aligns with the sex they were assigned at birth. It is not offensive or intended to be used as an insult. Defosse first used the term in a 1994 internet forum, before being added to the Oxford English Dictionary much later in 2015. In an essay for HuffPost, Defosse explained how she invented the term: "I knew that in chemistry, molecules with atoms grouped on the same side are labelled with the Latin prefix ‘cis–,’ while molecules with atoms grouped on opposite sides are referred to as ‘trans–.’ So, cisgender. It seemed like a no-brainer," she wrote. On Wednesday (21 June), Musk responded to a user who claimed to have been harassed by trans rights activists. Twitter user James Esses said he "rejected" the terms after receiving "a slew of messages from trans activists calling me ‘cissy’ and telling me that I am ‘cis’ ‘whether or not I like it.’" In response, Musk tweeted: "Repeated, targeted harassment against any account will cause the harassing accounts to receive, at minimum, temporary suspensions. The words “cis” or “cisgender” are considered slurs on this platform." Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter The tech mogul's response left many social media users baffled, with Defosse saying it came as no surprise after his "ghastly history of attacking trans people." “The post on Twitter has degenerated into a sort of free-for-all for antisemitic and racist tropes, so it sort of fits in with the direction that platform is going," Defosse said. "The fact is, whether or not somebody identifies as cisgender doesn’t negate the fact that cisgender identity is a valid construct. It exists, and it has meaning in how we operate in the world." The retired researcher went on to call his censorship attempt "cowardly". "Banning use of a word that’s part of our daily vocabulary around the world, that appears in the Oxford English Dictionary, it’s a cowardly and futile attempt to censor an idea which is, in my opinion, way bigger and more enduring than anything Musk could hope to offer," she added. 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.

The chemistry behind the vibrant colors of fireworks is another reason to “ooh” and “aah” at the sky this Fourth of July.

There’s a reason nobody’s referring to the missing ‘Titanic’ submersible as a submarine.

Life forms could potentially be able to survive in the conditions in the clouds above Venus – although, to be honest, we don’t want to be the ones who go there and have to test this theory out. Venus has fascinated scientists for years due to the relative similarities between the planet and Earth. The surface of Venus now is around 475 degrees Celsius, but its geology resembled Earth’s before the greenhouse effect took hold over millions of years. To add to that, the surface is also covered in sulphuric acid, so the chances of it being able to foster life is slim to say the least. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter However, new research has looked into the conditions in the clouds above the surface and the findings have been published in the journal Astrobiology. The key point revolves around the presence of the biosignature gas phosphine, which is often identified as a sign of life. It also posits the idea that potential life forms on the planet could use sulphuric acid the way life forms on Earth use water. The paper reads: "Although we consider the prospects for finding life on Venus to be speculative, they are not absent. "The clouds can support a biomass that could readily be detectable by future astrobiology-focused space missions from its impact on the atmosphere." It goes on: “We conclude that Venus' aerial biosphere must be much smaller than the Earth's. However, even such scarce, strictly aerial life could leave a detectable mark on the chemistry of the atmosphere in the clouds… “We conclude that terrestrial precedent exists for mechanisms that could keep at least some life-containing cloud particles aloft on Venus, and it prevents the entire ecology from inevitably falling to its doom in the hot, lower layers of the atmosphere.” 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.

Elon Musk tweeted on Wednesday that the words “cis” and “cisgender” are now considered slurs on Twitter. The CEO and billionaire tweeted the announcement shortly after midnight ET on Wednesday in response to a user who claimed to have been harassed by trans rights activists. James Esses tweeted on Tuesday saying he ‘rejected’ the word ‘cis’ and received “a slew of messages from trans activists calling me ‘cissy’ and telling me that I am ‘cis’ ‘whether or not I like it.’” Cisgender refers to anyone whose gender identity aligns with the sex they were assigned at birth. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Despite the claims from many anti-trans activists that the term cisgender is relatively new, the Oxford English Dictionary notes that the term became popular back in the 1990s. This isn’t the first time the billionaire has promoted anti-trans sentiment. In April, Musk removed Twitter’s previous ban on deadnaming transgender individuals. A move that was denounced by LGBT+ advocacy organisation GLAAD. Some have speculated that much of Musk’s promotion of anti-trans views and rhetoric is related to his estranged daughter, who is trans. Many have criticised Musk’s announcement: Despite Musk’s announcement that ‘cis’ and ‘cisgender’ are now considered slurs, there has been no update to Twitter’s official guidelines. It is also not clear what the consequences are for using such terms. However, many have been quick to point out that Musk’s announcements haven’t always followed through or been implemented. 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.

Conservative female politicians look happier and more attractive in pictures than liberals, according to artificial intelligence. A study conducted in Denmark and published in Scientific Reports found that those on the right were more likely to have happier facial expressions, whereas liberals looked more neutral. The scientists inputted some 3,200 photos of political candidates who ran in the 2017 Danish municipal election into Microsoft Azure’s Face API tool to assess the person’s emotional state. The analysis found 80 per cent of the faces displayed a happy expression, while 19 per cent read as neutral. “For females (though not males), high attractiveness scores were found among those the model identified as likely to be conservative,” read the findings. “These results are credible given that previous research using human raters has also highlighted a link between attractiveness and conservatism.” Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Meanwhile, left-leaning male politicians showed more neutral, less happy faces than their conservative counterparts, the study found. “Attractiveness was not the only correlate of model-predicted ideology,” the scientists explained. “We also found that expressing happiness is associated with conservatism for both genders. “Previous work has found smiling in photographs to be a valid indicator of extraversion,” they continued. “And while extraversion is not broadly associated with ideology some studies have found that right-wing politicians are more extraverted.” Scientists noted that “because attractiveness generally helps electoral success, all candidates are incentivised to provide an attractive photograph.” “Politicians on the left and right may have different incentives for smiling — for example, smiling faces have been found to look more attractive which is comparatively important for conservative politicians,” the paper reads. “Future work is needed to explore the extent to which happy faces are indicative of conservatism outside of samples of politicians." 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.

An international exploration club with members on board the submersible missing near the Titanic wreck suggested “likely signs