News tagged with ancient plants

Castor oil: Action mechanism of one of the oldest drugs known to man elucidated

Castor oil is known primarily as an effective laxative; however, it was also used in ancient times with pregnant women to induce labour. Only now have scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created May 21, 2012 | popularity 3 / 5 (2) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Ancient Egyptian cotton unveils secrets of domesticated crop evolution

Scientists studying 1,600-year-old cotton from the banks of the Nile have found what they believe is the first evidence that punctuated evolution has occurred in a major crop group within the relatively short history of plant ...

Biology / Evolution

created Apr 02, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Fadang photo makes the cover of major botanical journal

The research efforts of University of Guam scientist Thomas Marler have put Guam's endangered native cycad, Cycas micronesica (fadang is the Chamorro name) on the cover of the June 2011 International Journal o ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Jul 29, 2011 | popularity 3.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Ancient Mayans Inspire Modern Fade Proof Dye

Physicists have created a dye that promises to last for a thousand years. The secret to this extraordinary durability? Its formula is based on a Mayan pigment, a brilliant blue color that survives to this ...

Physics / Condensed Matter

created Jul 30, 2010 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (19) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

A new view of fossils: The behavior of ancient life forms

A new book by researchers at Oregon State University uses the snapshot-in-time miracle of amber to offer a pioneering viewpoint on all types of animal and plant fossils - not just what ancient life forms looked ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Jun 15, 2010 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (4) | comments 2

Europe's first farmers replaced their Stone Age hunter-gatherer forerunners

(PhysOrg.com) -- DNA study suggests that further waves of prehistoric immigration are waiting to be discovered. Central and northern Europe's first farmers were immigrants with barely any ancestral ties to the modern population, ...

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created Sep 03, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (12) | comments 4

Weeds that reinvented weediness

Flowering plants are all around us and are phenomenally successful—but how did they get to be so successful and where did they come from? This question bothered Darwin and others and a paper published in the September issue ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Sep 03, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Ancient Humans Left Evidence from the Party that Ended 4,000 Years Ago

(PhysOrg.com) -- The party was over more than 4,000 years ago, but the remnants still remain in the gourds and squashes that served as dishware. For the first time, University of Missouri researchers have ...

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created Jul 21, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (9) | comments 1