Author: Malcolm Ritter
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Experts say Ford got the science of memory mostly right
Christine Blasey Ford listens to her attorney Michael Bromwich as she testifies to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington on Thursday. Saul Loeb/Pool Photo via the associated press NEW YORK • In her testimony to a Senate committee, the woman who accused Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were teenagers…
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Moose, bighorn sheep pass on migration tips
NEW YORK • Looking for the best place to eat? Ask a local. Now scientists say that same insider knowledge shapes the springtime migrations of moose and bighorn sheep. Animals learn from experienced members of the herd about where to find the best food, building sort of a cultural know-how that’s passed through generations and improves…
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Bones found in 1940 seem to be Amelia Earhart’s, study says
NEW YORK — Bones found in 1940 on a western Pacific Ocean island were quite likely to be remains from famed aviator Amelia Earhart, a new analysis concludes. The study and other evidence “point toward her rather strongly,” University of Tennessee anthropologist Richard Jantz said Thursday. Earhart disappeared during an attempted flight around the world…
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Ancient penguin was as big as a (human) Pittsburgh Penguin
NEW YORK — Fossils from New Zealand have revealed a giant penguin that was as big as a grown man, roughly the size of the captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins. The creature was slightly shorter in length and about 20 pounds (9 kilograms) heavier than the official stats for hockey star Sidney Crosby. It measured…
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Some flowers create blue halo to say hello to foraging bees
NEW YORK — Some flowers have found a nifty way to get the blues. They create a blue halo, apparently to attract the bees they need for pollination, scientists reported Wednesday. Bees are drawn to the color blue, but it’s hard for flowers to make that color in their petals. Instead, some flowers use a…
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DNA shows early spread of cats in human world
NEW YORK — Long before cats became the darlings of Facebook and YouTube, they spread through the ancient human world. A DNA study reached back thousands of years to track that conquest and found evidence of two major dispersals from the Middle East, in which people evidently took cats with them. Genetic signatures the felines…
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Neanderthals in California? Maybe so, provocative study says
NEW YORK — A startling new report asserts that the first known Americans arrived much, much earlier than scientists thought — more than 100,000 years ago __ and maybe they were Neanderthals. If true, the finding would far surpass the widely accepted date of about 15,000 years ago. Researchers say a site in Southern California…
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Scientists take first steps to growing human organs in pigs
NEW YORK — Scientists have grown human cells inside pig embryos, a very early step toward the goal of growing livers and other human organs in animals to transplant into people. The cells made up just a tiny part of each embryo, and the embryos were grown for only a few weeks, researchers reported Thursday.…
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Baby born with DNA from 3 people, first from new technique
NEW YORK — Scientists say the first baby has been born from a controversial new technique that combines DNA from three people — the mother, the father and an egg donor. The goal was to prevent the child from inheriting a fatal genetic disease from his mother, who had previously lost two children to the…
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Human DNA tied mostly to single exodus from Africa long ago
Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save NEW YORK — The genetic ancestry of people living outside Africa can be traced almost completely to a single exodus of humans from that continent long ago, new studies suggest. Still, a tiny legacy from…