June 2011 Archives

An ancestor of modern humans may have became extinct earlier than was previously thought, throwing doubt on a key theory of human evolution.

Homo erectus, widely considered to be a direct ancestor of our own species Homo sapiens, migrated out of Africa around 1.8 million years ago.

By around 500,000 years ago it had vanished from Africa and much of Asia, but until now was thought to have survived in Indonesia until as recently as 35,000 years ago.

Early modern humans reached the region about 40,000 years ago, and so were believed to have co-existed with their ancestors.

The new research suggests this assumption was wrong, and Homo erectus disappeared long before the arrival of Homo sapiens in Asia.

New excavations and dating analysis indicate that Homo erectus was extinct by at least 143,000 years ago, and perhaps more than 550,000 years ago.

If this is the case, it challenges the widely accepted "Out of Africa" hypothesis which holds that modern humans became fully evolved in Africa before emigrating to other parts of the world.

Babies tune in to human voices even when they are asleep, according to new research published today.

Infants as young as three months old are also able to perceive different emotions from the voices they hear as they sleep, researchers from the Institute of Psychiatry (IoP) at King's College London found.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), they took brain images of sleeping babies and discovered that special areas in the brain which process sound are more sensitive than previously thought.

A bright beacon in space believed to be powered by a black hole may shed light on a hidden era of the early universe.

The object, named ULAS J1120+0641, is the most distant quasar known.

Quasars are incredibly bright sources of energy thought to be the hot centres of young galaxies swirling around supermassive black holes.

Earth got a close shave Monday morning from an asteroid so small it was originally mistaken for space junk.

The object, called 2011 MD, zipped 7,600 miles above Earth's surface. It was discovered on June 22 by the LINEAR project, which hunts for objects that pass close to Earth using robotic telescopes in New Mexico.

A galaxy dubbed NGC 6744 is being hailed at the Milky Way's galactic twin.

Just when you thought it was safe to get in the bath... along comes a carnivorous sponge.

Scientists have discovered a rare predatory sponge in deep waters of the Mediterranean off Spain and Italy.

Experts are now anxious to protect the tiny terror, which measures no more than 1.5 cm across.

Laughter begins in the brain as specific neurons "light up" in response to jokes, a study has shown.

The funnier the joke is found, the more activity is seen in the brain's "reward centres" which create feelings of pleasure.

Learning how humour affects the brain may have a serious use, say experts.

They believe it could help determine whether patients in a vegetative state can experience positive emotions.

A 26 day timelapse of spiders in space.

This picture of the dramatic nebula around the bright red supergiant star Betelgeuse was created from images taken with the VISIR infrared camera on ESO's Very Large Telescope.

If it were at home in the center of our solar system, this red supergiant's girth would extend out almost to the orbit of Jupiter. It's about a thousand times larger than the Sun and shines a hundred thousand times brighter.

What's more, the amount of mass it sheds every ten thousand years could create another sun. It's nearing the end of its life and when it goes supernova, we'll be able to see it here on Earth - even in broad daylight.

The ATV-2 Johannes Kepler departs from the International Space Station.

Astronaut Ron Garan posted the image on his Twitpic page, asking viewers if they thought the spacecraft looked like and X-wing fighter.