For the first time, two million-year-old DNA has been identified, opening a completely new and previously unexplored chapter in the history of evolution. The researchers have found microscopic fragments of environmental DNA in sediments in northern Greenland. The research is now presented in the journal Nature. Using advanced techniques, the researchers discovered that the fragments are a million... 

Scientists have found new evidence indicating there could be liquid water on Mars, which is a major breakthrough in the search for life there. The University of Cambridge-led study provided the first independent evidence that uses data aside from radar that there is liquid water beneath the south polar ice cap of the Red Planet. “This study gives the best indication yet that there is liquid water... 

A researcher warned parents that voice assistants Siri and Alexa are creating rude and antisocial children. Dr. Anmol Arora of the University of Cambridge said children’s interactions with these voice assistant devices at a young age may be a critical factor as to how they will develop later on in life. He wrote in a paper published in Archives of Disease in Childhood: “Interacting with the devices... 

An international team of astronomers has managed to compile the first temperature map of 55 Cancri e, a rocky ‘super-Earth’ exoplanet thought to have twice the diameter of Earth, according to NASA. The first thermal map of the exoplanet 55 Cancri e has been compiled by researchers using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope; the map reveals extreme temperature swings from one side of the... 

The genome of humans and other complex animals contains essential “foreign” segments of genetic code, new study says. The research, which cast doubt on the theory that evolution is exclusively a process of selection through ancestry, was published on Friday in the journal Genome Biology. Initially, it was thought that complex animals’ genes were solely inherited through parents, but the... 

Artificial intelligence (AI) needs to develop human emotion if humanity is to avoid the potential existential threat posed by machines capable of consciousness, a leading scientist has warned. Computers that are “human-like” will be capable of empathy and moral reasoning, therefore reducing the risk of AI turning against humanity, he said. Murray Shanahan, professor of cognitive robotics at Imperial... 

Inactivity kills more than obesity. A new major study says exercise is beneficial for people of any age, warning that physical inactivity could kill twice as many people as obesity. A 12-year study of more than 300,000 European people, who had an average age of around 50, suggests that about 676,000 deaths each year were attributed to physical inactivity, compared with 337,000 associated to obesity. The... 

Researchers at the University of Cambridge have suggested the women who experience breastfeeding to their baby could benefit lower risk of post-natal depression. The study of nearly 1400 mothers indicated that among those ones who started to breastfeed their kids there was a 50% reduction in the risk of postpartum depression. Breastfeeding can help to relax mothers and reduce stress, so it might play... 

New research shows that deforestation imposes crisis in amount of available food for freshwater fish, resulting reduction in their size and consequently their population. The team of scientists from Canada and the UK found that where there was less forest cover or even no trees, the fish were undersized as well as with health problems. The study also indicated that the condition also influenced the... 

First light: The young star cluster NGC1818 in the Large Magellanic Cloud, taken as part of calibration and testing before the science phase of the Gaia telescope mission begins. Europe’s billion-star surveyor Gaia is slowly being brought into focus as it begins its mission to create the most accurate map of the Milky Way begins. Launched in December, the satellite has now reached its destination... 

The University of Cambridge has published a report about experiences of almost 50 British women of all backgrounds, ethnicities, ages and faiths (or no faith), who have all converted to Islam. The report was commissioned and produced by the University’s Centre of Islamic Studies (CIS), in association with the New Muslims Project, Markfield. The 129-page report brings up some “recommendations”... 

World renowned physicist Stephen Hawking has found himself in the midst of a media-fueled misunderstanding over his recent decision to boycott an international conference hosted by Israel in protest of that country’s treatment of Palestinians. Professor Hawking’s announcement that he has declined an invitation to headline the fifth annual Presidential Conference, hosted by Israeli President Shimon... 

British scientists have developed a new stem cell technique for growing working liver cells which could eventually avoid the need for costly and risky liver transplants. A team of researchers led by the Sanger Institute and the University of Cambridge used cutting-edge methods to correct a genetic mutation in stem cells derived from a patient’s skin biopsy, and then grew them into fresh liver...