http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Carbon stored in Arctic tundra could be released into the atmosphere by new trees growing in the warmer region, exacerbating climate change, scientists have revealed. http://phys.org/news259148574.html Space & Earth Sun, 17 Jun 2012 13:00:06 EST news259148574 Although humans and woolly mammoths co-existed for millennia, the shaggy giants disappeared from the globe between 4,000 and 10,000 years ago, and scientists couldn't explain until recently exactly how the Flinstonian behemoths went extinct. http://phys.org/news258718450.html Other Sciences Tue, 12 Jun 2012 11:14:23 EST news258718450 The remains of the world's oldest musical instruments and human figurines suggest that music and artistic depictions of the human form may have first developed in Germany around 40,000 years ago, say researchers. http://phys.org/news257497129.html Other Sciences Tue, 29 May 2012 08:40:02 EST news257497129 German archaeologists of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena found one of the oldest archaeological evidence so far of Jewish Culture on the Iberian Peninsula at an excavation site in the south of Portugal, close to the city of Silves. http://phys.org/news257162889.html Other Sciences Fri, 25 May 2012 11:08:55 EST news257162889 University of Otago researchers working in remote Cambodian mountains are shedding new light on the lost history of an unidentified people by studying their enigmatic burial rituals. http://phys.org/news255772429.html Other Sciences Wed, 09 May 2012 09:20:01 EST news255772429 (Phys.org) -- Dendrochronologist Brendan Buckley’s usual occupation is drilling straw-like cores from old trees and extracting information about past climates by studying their rings. To extend the record beyond the time of living trees, he sometimes takes samples from long-dead trees, or even from timbers in ancient buildings. In 2010, the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory scientist was part of a team that traveled into the remote Cardamom Mountains of southern Cambodia to investigate human burials contained in coffins carved from entire logs. http://phys.org/news255771930.html Space & Earth Wed, 09 May 2012 08:46:14 EST news255771930 (Phys.org) -- New research led by the University of Reading has revealed that finds at Glastonbury Abbey provide the earliest archaeological evidence of glass-making in Britain. http://phys.org/news255689036.html Other Sciences Tue, 08 May 2012 09:44:27 EST news255689036 Experts have long debated whether the sophisticated animal drawings in a famous French cave are indeed the oldest of their kind in the world, and a study out Monday suggests that yes, they are. http://phys.org/news255626138.html Other Sciences Mon, 07 May 2012 16:30:02 EST news255626138 Cut marks found on Ice Age bones indicate that humans in Ohio hunted or scavenged animal meat earlier than previously known. Dr. Brian Redmond, curator of archaeology at The Cleveland Museum of Natural History, was lead author on research published in the Feb. 22, 2012 online issue of the journal World Archaeology. http://phys.org/news249836918.html Other Sciences Thu, 01 Mar 2012 15:09:02 EST news249836918 In 1923, a magnitude 7.9 earthquake devastated the Tokyo area, resulting in more than 100,000 deaths. About 200 years earlier, in 1703, a magnitude 8.2 earthquake struck the same region, causing more than 10,000 deaths. http://phys.org/news247247272.html Space & Earth Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:20:01 EST news247247272 A new University of Colorado Boulder-led study appears to answer contentious questions about the onset and cause of Earth's Little Ice Age, a period of cooling temperatures that began after the Middle Ages and lasted into the late 19th century. http://phys.org/news247149227.html Space & Earth Mon, 30 Jan 2012 12:34:06 EST news247149227 If you think a Chihuahua doesn't have much in common with a Rottweiler, you might be on to something. http://phys.org/news246553649.html Other Sciences Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:07:42 EST news246553649 (PhysOrg.com) -- A team of researchers led by the University of Colorado Boulder recently discovered the first prehistoric bronze artifact made from a cast ever found in Alaska, a small, buckle-like object found in an ancient Eskimo dwelling and which likely originated in East Asia. http://phys.org/news244976276.html Other Sciences Thu, 05 Jan 2012 08:58:13 EST news244976276 Negative ions play an important role in everything from how our bodies function to the structure of the universe. Scientists from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have now developed a new method that makes it possible to study how the electrons in negative ions interact in, which is important in, for example, superconductors and in radiocarbon dating. http://phys.org/news241795936.html Physics Tue, 29 Nov 2011 13:39:13 EST news241795936 Australian scientists have reconstructed the past six thousand years in estuary sedimentation records to look for changes in plant and algae abundance. Their findings, published in Global Change Biology, show an increase in microalgae relative to seagrass in the past 60 years. This shift could diminish the ability of estuaries, which are natural global carbon sinks, to mitigate climate change. http://phys.org/news241793958.html Space & Earth Tue, 29 Nov 2011 12:59:26 EST news241793958 A team of researchers led by the University of Colorado Boulder has discovered the first prehistoric bronze artifact made from a cast ever found in Alaska, a small, buckle-like object found in an ancient Eskimo dwelling and which likely originated in East Asia. http://phys.org/news240492272.html Other Sciences Mon, 14 Nov 2011 11:24:49 EST news240492272 Members of our species (Homo sapiens) arrived in Europe several millennia earlier than previously thought. At this conclusion a team of researchers, led by the Department of Anthropology, University of Vienna, arrived after re-analyses of two ancient deciduous teeth. These teeth were discovered 1964 in the "Grotta del Cavallo", a prehistoric cave in southern Italy. Since their discovery they have been attributed to Neanderthals, but this new study suggests they belong to anatomically modern humans. Chronometric analysis, carried out by the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit at the University of Oxford, shows that the layers within which the teeth were found date to ~43,000-45,000 cal BP. This means that the human remains are older than any other known European modern humans. The research work was published in the renowned science journal Nature. http://phys.org/news239460980.html Other Sciences Wed, 02 Nov 2011 14:00:12 EST news239460980 At the end of the last Ice Age, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels rose rapidly as the planet warmed; scientists have long hypothesized that the source was CO2 released from the deep ocean. http://phys.org/news236864292.html Space & Earth Mon, 03 Oct 2011 12:38:23 EST news236864292 Neanderthal cavemen supped on shellfish on the Costa del Sol 150,000 years ago, punching a hole in the theory that modern humans alone ate brain-boosting seafood so long ago, a new study shows. http://phys.org/news235281714.html Other Sciences Thu, 15 Sep 2011 05:02:17 EST news235281714 (PhysOrg.com) -- In a new study called Gathering Time published this month, archaeologists from English Heritage and Cardiff University have been able to create an accurate timeline of the first 700 years of settlement in Britain. Using a newly refined computer and dating system, the researchers have been able to accurately date battle, migrations and construction. This new dating system has changed what was originally believed to have taken place over a time span of 700 years and narrowed it down to less than 100 years. http://phys.org/news226671568.html Other Sciences Tue, 07 Jun 2011 13:19:48 EST news226671568 University of Florida researchers have described a new species of land crab that documents the first crab extinction during the human era. http://phys.org/news224785949.html Biology Mon, 16 May 2011 17:33:03 EST news224785949 A pattern of earthen berms, spread across a northern peninsula of the big island of Hawaii, is providing archeologists with clues to exactly how residents farmed in paradise long before Europeans arrived at the islands. http://phys.org/news224761781.html Other Sciences Mon, 16 May 2011 14:50:01 EST news224761781 (PhysOrg.com) -- According to a newly released report in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a newly refined method of radiocarbon dating has found that Neanderthals died off much earlier than originally believed. Where previous testing had shown fossils as young as 29,000 years ago, this new method puts the date closer to 39,000 years ago, sparking the debate that Neanderthals and modern humans probably never interacted in Europe. http://phys.org/news224241426.html Other Sciences Tue, 10 May 2011 10:17:29 EST news224241426 (PhysOrg.com) -- A newly excavated archaeological site in Alaska contains the cremated remains of one of the earliest inhabitants of North America. These remains may provide rare insights into the burial practices of Ice Age peoples, while shedding new light on their daily lives, according to a paper published Feb. 25 in the journal Science. http://phys.org/news217778280.html Other Sciences Thu, 24 Feb 2011 13:58:14 EST news217778280 (PhysOrg.com) -- While enthusiasts across the world pored over the Voynich manuscript, one of the most mysterious writings ever found – penned by an unknown author in a language no one understands – a research team at the UA solved one of its biggest mysteries: When was the book made? http://phys.org/news216557332.html Other Sciences Thu, 10 Feb 2011 10:53:31 EST news216557332 The unusually cold weather this winter has been caused by a change in the winds. Instead of the typical westerly winds warmed by Atlantic surface ocean currents, cold northerly Arctic winds are influencing much of Europe. http://phys.org/news214226685.html Space & Earth Fri, 14 Jan 2011 11:25:22 EST news214226685 New research by an international team of scholars shows early human colonization of Eastern Polynesia took place much faster and more recently than previously established. http://phys.org/news213356254.html Other Sciences Tue, 04 Jan 2011 09:37:46 EST news213356254 A study in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences finds that social hierarchies may have emerged within Southwestern Native American society as early as the 9th century. http://phys.org/news208543456.html Other Sciences Tue, 09 Nov 2010 16:44:35 EST news208543456 (PhysOrg.com) -- New University of Florida research puts to rest the mystery of where old carbon was stored during the last glacial period. It turns out it ended up in the icy waters of the Southern Ocean near Antarctica. http://phys.org/news207239244.html Space & Earth Mon, 25 Oct 2010 15:27:55 EST news207239244 (PhysOrg.com) -- The theory that later Neanderthals might have been sufficiently advanced to fashion jewellery and tools similar to those of incoming modern humans has suffered a setback. A new radiocarbon dating study, led by Oxford University, has found that an archaeological site that uniquely links Neanderthal remains to sophisticated tools and jewellery may be partially mixed. http://phys.org/news206700849.html Other Sciences Tue, 19 Oct 2010 09:55:45 EST news206700849