https://phys.org/science-news/ en-us The latest science news on archaeology, fossils, mathematics, and science technology from Phys.org This week in our wrap up, we lull you into a false sense of security with adorable lion cubs then ambush you with terrifying pulsars. We do this not out of a sense of malice but to prepare your mind for the possibility of a giant cosmic void. Also, Japan has launched a new fusion research facility. https://phys.org/news/2023-12-saturday-citations-adorable-kittens-violent.html Other Sat, 02 Dec 2023 09:00:02 EST news620652209 A research group led by the Nagoya University Museum and Graduate School of Environmental Studies in Japan has clarified differences in the physical characteristics of rocks used by early humans during the Paleolithic. They found that humans selected rock for a variety of reasons and not just because of how easy it was to break off. This suggests that early humans had the technical skill to discern the best rock for the tool. https://phys.org/news/2023-12-paleolithic-humans-understood-properties-stone.html Archaeology Fri, 01 Dec 2023 07:23:03 EST news620637781 A series of 'bone biographies' created by a major research project tell the stories of medieval Cambridge residents as recorded on their skeletons, illuminating everyday lives during the era of Black Death and its aftermath. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-bone-biographies-reveal-medieval-england.html Archaeology Social Sciences Thu, 30 Nov 2023 19:00:01 EST news620582536 Scientists should seek answers hidden in the dirt using proven and state-of-the-art archaeological science techniques to support new discoveries about human evolution following recent controversies at a cave site in Africa, says a group of international experts. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-dishing-dirt-human-evolution-scientific.html Archaeology Thu, 30 Nov 2023 11:57:48 EST news620567865 A new study, published in PLOS ONE, has uncovered a remarkable connection between individuals' musical preferences and their moral values, shedding new light on the profound influence that music can have on our moral compass. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-uncovers-link-musical-moral-compass.html Social Sciences Thu, 30 Nov 2023 11:23:03 EST news620565781 Economics and physics are distinct fields of study, yet some researchers have been bridging the two together to tackle complex economics problems in innovative ways. This resulted in the establishment of an interdisciplinary research field, known as econophysics, which specializes in solving problems rooted in economics using physics theories and experimental methods. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-validation-lillo-mike-farmer-large.html Mathematics Economics & Business Thu, 30 Nov 2023 09:56:53 EST news620560608 We tend to think of large cities as melting pots—places where people from all sorts of backgrounds can mingle and interact. But according to new research, people in big cities tend to primarily interact with other individuals in the same socioeconomic bracket, whereas people in small cities and rural areas are much more likely to have diverse interactions. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-big-cities-foster-socioeconomic-segregation.html Social Sciences Economics & Business Wed, 29 Nov 2023 15:10:09 EST news620493001 Despite a similar statutory tax rate for multinational corporations (MNCs) across many countries, the effective tax rate that MNCs actually pay differs greatly—as low as 1% of gross income in Luxembourg and as high as 67% in Norway. That's one conclusion of a study published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Javier Garcia-Bernardo of Utrecht University, the Netherlands, Petr Janský of Charles University, Czechia, and Thomas Tørsløv of Danmarks Nationalbank, Denmark. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-reveals-real-tax-paid-multinational.html Economics & Business Political science Wed, 29 Nov 2023 14:00:01 EST news620476111 About 350 million people across Africa speak one or more of the 500 Bantu languages. New genetic analysis of modern and ancient individuals suggests that these populations probably originated in western Africa and then moved south and east in several waves. The study has been published in Nature. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-bantu-speaking-populations-expansion-africa.html Archaeology Social Sciences Wed, 29 Nov 2023 12:20:03 EST news620482801 Remote teams are less likely to make breakthrough discoveries compared to those who work onsite, according to research led by the universities of Oxford and Pittsburgh into the rise of remote collaborations among scientists and inventors across the world. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-remote-collaborations-scientific-breakthroughs-co-led.html Economics & Business Education Wed, 29 Nov 2023 11:00:01 EST news620476408 The double burial of an adult woman and an infant, dating to about 7000–6800 BCE, discovered in 1934 during construction works at the spa gardens of Bad Dürrenberg, is regarded as one of the outstanding burial finds of the Mesolithic in Central Europe. Because of the unusual equipment with the woman, who was buried in a seated position, and her bodily anomalies, the burial is interpreted as that of a shaman. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-genetic-year-old-shaman-burial-germany.html Archaeology Wed, 29 Nov 2023 09:40:04 EST news620473201 In a study published in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers from the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment (SHEP) at the University of Tübingen show that early humans of the Middle Paleolithic had a more varied diet than previously assumed. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-early-humans-paleolithic-age-game.html Archaeology Tue, 28 Nov 2023 09:37:12 EST news620386630 New research from the Johns Hopkins Disability Health Research Center suggests that Ph.D. graduates in science, technology, engineering and medicine (STEM) in the U.S. who became disabled before age 25 earn $14,360 less per year in academia than those without disabilities. They are also underrepresented at higher faculty levels (such as deans and presidents) and in tenured positions. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-phd-disabilities-underpaid-underrepresented-academia.html Economics & Business Education Mon, 27 Nov 2023 16:07:03 EST news620323621 These days, "Star Wars" is everywhere. There are numerous films and all kinds of merchandise. But is "Star Wars" also an integral part of the English language? That is the question Prof Dr. Christina Sanchez-Stockhammer, chair of English and Digital Linguistics at Chemnitz University of Technology, set out to investigate. "I wanted to find out whether words from the 'Star Wars' universe have already become part of our own universe," notes the linguist. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-star-wars-vocabulary.html Social Sciences Mon, 27 Nov 2023 13:35:44 EST news620314542 Recommender systems are machine learning applications in online platforms that automate tasks historically done by people. In the news industry, recommender algorithms can assume the tasks of editors who select which news stories people see online, with the goal of increasing the number of clicks by users, but few studies have examined how the two compare. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-algorithmic-technology-human-curation-online.html Social Sciences Mon, 27 Nov 2023 13:00:28 EST news620312423 Researchers from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM) and Loyola University have discovered that personality does not seem to have much influence when it comes to choosing social friendships at school, which are based more on the closeness of our contacts, according to a study recently published in the journal PNAS. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-people-friendships-school.html Social Sciences Education Mon, 27 Nov 2023 12:44:00 EST news620311437 The national park of Koli in eastern Finland is home to a famous, 34-meter-long crevice cave known as Pirunkirkko, or Devil's Church in English. In folklore, this crevice cave was known as a place where local sages would meet to contact the spirit world. Even today, the place is visited by practitioners of shamanism, who organize drumming sessions in the cave. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-witchcraft-devil-church-koli-based.html Archaeology Mon, 27 Nov 2023 10:25:03 EST news620303101 Research led by Nathan Nakatsuka of the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, Boston, has found evidence supporting migrations into California from Mexico and the presence of Mexican-related ancestry in Central and Southern California starting around 5,200 years ago. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-years-migrations-mexico-california-mystery.html Archaeology Social Sciences Mon, 27 Nov 2023 09:29:25 EST news620299762 This week, we reported on new developments in lithium-ion batteries, and a real industrial pollution hat trick with stories on coal, lead and microplastics. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-saturday-citations-microplastics-coal-filthy.html Other Sat, 25 Nov 2023 07:30:01 EST news620055434 A possibly pre-Christian temple from the time of the East Anglian Kings, some 1,400 years ago, has been found at Rendlesham, near Sutton Hoo in Suffolk, by a team of archaeologists led by UCL researchers. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-year-old-temple-suffolk-royal-settlement.html Archaeology Fri, 24 Nov 2023 13:32:56 EST news620055173 In a landmark collaboration between Wiradjuri people, NSW State government and archaeologists, new research has revealed the deep-time hidden story of Wiradjuri carved trees (marara) and burials (dhabuganha) in Southeast Australia. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-unveiling-sacred-wiradjuri-trees.html Archaeology Fri, 24 Nov 2023 08:43:36 EST news620037806 A behavioral economist at the University of Bath in the U.K. has found evidence linking higher levels of unwarranted financial optimism with lower levels of cognitive ability. In his study, published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Chris Dawson surveyed thousands of people in the U.K. about their economic outlook and compared their responses with their true financial outlook. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-higher-financial-optimism-cognitive-ability.html Social Sciences Economics & Business Thu, 23 Nov 2023 10:00:01 EST news619782783 A new analysis suggests that a person with higher cognitive ability may have been more likely to vote "Remain" in the 2016 Brexit referendum, and that a spouse's cognitive skills may also be linked to Brexit voting decisions. Chris Dawson and Paul Baker of the University of Bath, U.K., present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on November 22, 2023. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-higher-cognitive-ability-linked-chance.html Social Sciences Political science Wed, 22 Nov 2023 14:00:01 EST news619867735 The Iron Age site of Casas del Turuñuelo was used repeatedly for ritualized animal sacrifice, according to a multidisciplinary study published November 22, 2023 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Mª Pilar Iborra Eres of the Institut Valencià de Conservació, Restauració i Investigació, Spain, Sebastián Celestino Pérez of Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Spain, and their colleagues. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-casas-del-turuuelo-site-animal.html Archaeology Wed, 22 Nov 2023 14:00:01 EST news619869578 New research findings reveal that some children in early medieval Bavaria were breastfed for much longer periods than today. Also, many early Bavarians buried around 500 AD originate from other geographical regions where feeding practices apparently differed. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-childhood-medieval-bavaria-teeth-reveal.html Archaeology Social Sciences Wed, 22 Nov 2023 10:51:04 EST news619872662 A pair of sociologists, one with the University of Oslo, the other with the Polish Academy of Sciences has found that men benefit more in the workplace from being attractive than women do. In their study, reported in the journal Social Science Quarterly, Alexi Gugushvili and Grzegorz Bulczak describe analyzed data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (NLSAH). https://phys.org/news/2023-11-men-benefit-workplace-women.html Social Sciences Economics & Business Wed, 22 Nov 2023 10:10:05 EST news619869742 People who speak two languages may be better at shifting their attention from one thing to another compared to those who speak one, according to a study published this month in the journal Bilingualism: Language and Cognition. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-bilingual-brain-irrelevant.html Social Sciences Tue, 21 Nov 2023 16:26:44 EST news619806402 A new study shows that female academics are significantly underrepresented in winning academic prizes and having awards named after them. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-female-academics-prizes-award-woman.html Social Sciences Education Tue, 21 Nov 2023 16:26:31 EST news619806390 An analysis of 5.8 million authors across all scientific disciplines shows that the gender gap is closing, but there is still a long distance to go. The new research by John Ioannidis of the Meta-Research Innovation Center at Stanford (METRICs) at Stanford University, US, and colleagues, was published Nov. 21 in the journal PLOS Biology. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-most-cited-scientists-men-gender-gap.html Social Sciences Education Tue, 21 Nov 2023 14:00:02 EST news619778116 Success in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) demands keeping up with the latest tools and techniques. The AI boom, for example, has made coding and data management skills integral. But going back to school isn't an option for most scientists. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-framework-aims-short-stem-effective.html Education Tue, 21 Nov 2023 10:30:29 EST news619785026