Science

By Nell Greenfieldboyce Scientists have long puzzled over the origin and evolution of our closest relative, the Neanderthal. Now, researchers say that Neanderthals seem to have developed their distinctive jaws and other facial features first, before they evolved to have big brains. That’s according to an analysis of 17 skulls, all taken from one excavation site …

By Yoko Kubota   The Japanese government is planning to offer ample support to popularize fuel cell vehicle technology as Toyota Motor Corp and Honda Motor Co prepare to launch hydrogen-powered cars in 2015. The government on Thursday drafted a timeline that spelled out targets and actions over the next 25 years to commercialize fuel cell …

By Christine Dell’Amore   One of Kenya‘s most adored elephants, who had giant tusks and was known as Satao, has been killed for his ivory—a “monumental” loss, experts say. Poachers shot the bull elephant with a poisoned arrow in Tsavo East National Park, waited for him to die a painful death, and hacked off his face to …

By Jonathan Amos   The orbiting Gaia telescope will lose some performance because stray light is getting inside the observatory, the European Space Agency (Esa) says. But the impacts are likely to be very small, scientists believe, and the expectation is that all the mission’s chief objectives will still be met. Most of the unwanted …

By Rebecca Morelle   The top of a 3,000m-high (10,000ft) mountain in Chile has been blown up to make way for the world’s largest optical and infrared telescope. A million tonnes of rock were blasted in order to create a level surface on which to build the European-Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). At its heart will …

By Heather Chen   Swarms of giant moths have descended on Malaysia, invading homes and even disrupting a national football match. Thousands of the furry insects, with a wing span of up to 16cm (6in), interrupted a semi-finals match at the Darul Makmur Stadium last week. Over 800 sightings were also reported in neighbouring Singapore last month, …

By P. Nash Jenkins   If engineered correctly, the enzyme can “chew up” toxic agents in the human body. A team of researchers at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville has identified an enzyme produced in the bodies of squid that may be effective in breaking down nerve gasses and other deadly chemical weapons. The team’s study, recently …

By Matt McGrath   The US plans to create the world’s biggest marine protected area (MPA) in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The White House will extend an existing protected area, known as the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument. Fishing and drilling would be banned from an area that could eventually cover two …

By Phil Mercer   On the south-western coast of the world’s driest inhabited continent sits a green, vibrant city that is defying a chronic lack of rain and warming temperatures. Perth is Australia’s driest major city, yet in its central areas at least, does not feel like a place that has confronted a water crisis. …

By Joseph Castro, Space.com Contributor Four spacecraft and one ground-based observatory recorded the eruption of a powerful X-class solar flare on March 29, making it the best-observed such event in history, NASA officials say. Solar flares are powerful explosions with energies exceeding that of millions of hydrogen bombs. Never before has an X-class flare — …

By Tom Foster At first glance, the bright red shipping container that sits by the side of the road in a slum outside Johannesburg doesn’t look like something that could transform hundreds of lives. Two sliding doors open to reveal a small shop counter, behind which sit rows of canned food, toilet paper, cooking oil, …

By Michele Catanzaro, Giuliana Miranda, Lisa Palmer & Aleszu Bajak It may seem heretical to say so in the land of the beautiful game, but science in Brazil beats the World Cup — at least in a financial match-up. Government and businesses there invest some US$27 billion annually in science, technology and innovation, dwarfing the price tag for the football …