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From Quanta Magazine (find original story here). Modern birds descended from a group of two-legged dinosaurs known as theropods, whose members include the towering Tyrannosaurus rex and the smaller velociraptors. The theropods most closely related to avians generally weighed between 100 and 500 pounds — giants compared to most modern birds — and they had large snouts, big teeth, and not much between the ears. A velociraptor, for example, had a skull like a coyote’s and a brain roughly the size of a pigeon’s....

Despite sharing 98 percent of our DNA with chimpanzees, humans have much bigger brains and are, as a species, much more intelligent. Now a new study sheds light on why: Unlike chimps, humans undergo a massive explosion in white matter growth, or the connections between brain cells, in the first two years of life. The new results, published today (Dec. 18) in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, partly explain why humans are so much brainier than our nearest living relatives....

Got a friend who thinks most people are jerks? It is probably no surprise that he is not the nicest person in other contexts, either. But the way you view others may reveal much more about your character than you think, according to a study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Researchers at Wake Forest University, the University of Nebraska and Washington University in St. Louis found that college students who were more inclined to rate their peers positively—as being trustworthy, nice and emotionally stable—reported greater life satisfaction, less depression, and better grades and test scores....

Since the invention of fermented beverages, curing the dreadful aftermath of overimbibing them has been one of humanity’s morning-after quests. Ancient Greeks ate sheep lungs and two owl eggs to cure such a hangover, a cure tweaked by Roman Gaius Plinius Secundus, better known as Pliny the Elder, who suggested raw owl eggs or a fried canary. Sicilians recommended dried bull penis although Mongolians prefer tomato juice and pickled sheep’s eyes....

Like all good mothers, lizard moms also want what’s best for their kids. To wit: researchers have found that female side-blotched lizards douse their eggs with extra doses of the hormone estradiol to change newborns’ markings and enhance their chances of survival after birth. Scientists say this “dress for success” strategy helps offspring live longer because the new stripes help them to better blend into their background to elude potential predators....

Some of the largest ocean waves in the world are nearly impossible to see. Unlike other large waves, such as tsunamis or rogue waves, these rollers, called internal waves, do not ride the ocean surface. Instead, they move underwater, undetectable without the use of satellite imagery or sophisticated monitoring equipment. Despite their hidden nature, internal waves are fundamental parts of ocean water dynamics, transferring heat to the ocean depths and bringing up cold water from below....

With all that’s known about human anatomy, you wouldn’t expect doctors to discover a new body part in this day and age. But now, researchers say they’ve done just that: They’ve found a network of fluid-filled spaces in tissue that hadn’t been seen before. These fluid-filled spaces were discovered in connective tissues all over the body, including below the skin’s surface; lining the digestive tract, lungs and urinary systems; and surrounding muscles, according to a new study detailing the findings, published today (March 27) in the journal Scientific Reports....

A pair of research teams recently linked large-scale mutations on one of the body’s 23 pairs of chromosomes (which carry cells’ genetic code) to autism, a finding that helps shed light on a disorder whose genetic underpinnings have confounded scientists for decades. The revelation represents the most concrete evidence to date that structural variations in the genome play a crucial role in the condition’s development, marked by symptoms that include a failure to socially connect, communication difficulties and obsessive behavior....

MEXICO Scientists discovered six new species of micro frog, including one that now holds the record for Mexico’s smallest frog. When fully grown, these forest amphibians are smaller than a human thumbnail. ARGENTINA Genetic analysis showed that the Patagonian sheepdog, a breed found in Argentina and Chile, is the closest living relative to the ancestor of all U.K. herding dog breeds. European colonizers likely introduced this line nearly 200 years ago....

That, however, may be about to change. The Block Island Wind Farm is set to break ground in July off the coast of Rhode Island, and with it, the future of offshore wind in the U.S. seems very real. If completed, it will be the first offshore wind farm in the U.S., and if it is successful, it could prove that wind power generated by turbines off the coast is a viable enterprise similar to onshore wind farms, which generate about 4 percent of America’s electricity....

By Lisa Anderson NEW YORK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Nearly 2 billion of the world’s women are struggling or suffering in their daily lives, while 620 million describe themselves as thriving, according to a Gallup poll released on Wednesday. Based on interviews conducted with women and men in 160 countries in 2013, the survey found that 61% of women globally were struggling, 26% thriving and 13% suffering - numbers that have remained virtually the same since Gallup began doing the Life Evaluation Index in 2006....

If you can believe the many testimonials posted on the Web, a diet free of gluten and casein is a miracle treatment for autism. Parents of children suffering from the disorder, which is characterized by impaired social and communication skills, fervently describe astounding improvements that occurred as soon as they removed gluten (a mixture of plant proteins found in wheat, rye and barley) and casein (the main protein in dairy products) from their kids’ meals....

For years now, physicists and engineers have been building computer simulations of physics in order to understand the behavior of objects in the world. Want to see if a bridge would be stable during an earthquake? Enter it into the simulation, apply earthquake dynamics, and see what happens. Recently, the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published work by MIT psychologists (and my labmates) Peter Battaglia, Jessica Hamrick, and Joshua Tenenbaum, arguing that all humans do roughly the same thing when trying to understand or make predictions about the physical world....

NASA’s next-generation space observatory has sustained its first noticeable micrometeoroid impact less than six months after launch, but the agency isn’t too concerned. The James Webb Space Telescope, also known as Webb or JWST, launched on Dec. 25, 2021. It has spent the intervening months trekking out to its deep-space post and preparing for science observations, a complicated process that has gone remarkably smoothly; recently, NASA said it expects to unveil the first science-quality images from the telescope on July 12....

Researchers are now experimenting with stem cells—progenitor cells that can develop into many different types of tissue—to coax the bodies of a few individuals to heal themselves. Some of the most advanced clinical trials so far involve treating congestive heart disease and regrowing muscles in soldiers who were wounded in an explosion. But new developments are happening so quickly that investigators have come up with a new name—regenerative medicine—to describe the emerging field....

As more states legalize medical and recreational marijuana, doctors may be replacing opioid prescriptions with suggestions to visit a local marijuana dispensary. Two papers published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine analyzing more than five years of Medicare Part D and Medicaid prescription data found that after states legalized weed, the number of opioid prescriptions and the daily dose of opioids went way down. That indicates that some people may be shifting away from prescription drugs to cannabis, though the studies can’t say whether this substitution is actually happening or if patients or doctors are the driving force....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. By the time he led his invasions of Britain, Julius Caesar (100-44 BCE) was already an experienced politician and successful military commander. As a member of a patrician family which claimed a pedigree reaching back even earlier than the foundation of the city of Rome, Caesar seemed destined to climb the political career ladder....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The Arthashastra (or Arthaśāstra) is one of the oldest surviving treatises on statecraft. There is considerable debate about the dating and authorship of the text; it underwent compilation, recension, and redaction several times over the centuries and is likely to have been a witness of religious and ideological transformations, political and socio-economic changes....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. In the mid-2nd century CE, Christianity began a gradual process of identity-formation that would lead to the creation of a separate, independent religion from Judaism. Initially, Christians were one of many groups of Jews found throughout the Roman Empire. The 2nd century CE experienced a change in the demographics, the introduction of institutional hierarchy, and the creation of Christian dogma....

Astronomers have detected an alien planet that may be capable of supporting life as we know it — and it’s just a stone’s throw from Earth in the cosmic scheme of things. The newfound exoplanet, a so-called “super-Earth” called HD 40307g, is located inside its host star’s habitable zone, a just-right range of distances where liquid water may exist on a world’s surface. And the planet lies a mere 42 light-years away from Earth, meaning that future telescopes might be able to image it directly, researchers said....