Month: April 2022

The evolution of Earth can be dated back 14 billion years ago to the Big Bang. This spiral timeline shows the events that led us to our modern world.

Source: Nature Timespiral: The Evolution of Earth from the Big Bang

From the archive: researchers visited the remote Kalash valleys to investigate how the concept of ‘happy’ and ‘sad’ music differs across cultures. Listen to The Conversation Weekly podcast.

Source: How culture informs people’s emotional reaction to music – podcast

Tourism revenues account for almost 10% of Costa Rica’s gross domestic product. New research shows that charismatic wildlife is necessary but not sufficient to attract ecotourists.

Source: Protecting biodiversity – and making it accessible – has paid off for Costa Rica

His idea takes us through Flatland, a two-dimensional world, and the tesseract, a four-dimensional cube.

Source: Hard Problem of Consciousness Solved?: A 4th Spatial Dimension? | Mind Matters

Diverse life forms may have evolved earlier than previously thought. Diverse microbial life existed on Earth at least 3.75 billion years ago, suggests a new study led by University College London (UCL) researchers that challenges the conventional view of when life began. Diverse microbial life e

Source: Diverse Life Forms Evolved 3.75 Billion Years Ago – Challenging the Conventional View of When Life Began

Nature – Climate’s effect on hominin habits, dispersals and species diversity.

Source: A lengthy look at climate and its role in hominin evolution

A colossal simulation of the past two million years of Earth’s climate provides evidence that temperature and other planetary conditions influenced early human migration — and possibly contributed to the emergence of the modern-day human species around 300,000 years ago.

Source: Record-Breaking Simulation Hints at How Climate Shaped Human Migration | Portside

What just happened with the W boson? And wait, what is a W boson?

Source: W boson explained: what’s going on with the surprisingly heavy particle.

Scientists have presented a stunningly preserved leg of a dinosaur. The limb, complete with skin, is just one of a series of remarkable finds emerging from the Tanis fossil site in the US State of North Dakota. But it’s not just their exquisite condition that’s turning heads – it’s what these ancient specimens are purported to represent. The claim is the Tanis creatures were killed and entombed on the actual day a giant asteroid struck Earth. The day 66 million years ago when the reign of the dinosaurs ended and the rise of mammals began.

Source: Fossil of Dinosaur Killed in Asteroid Strike Found, Scientists Claim | Portside