(Tokyo University of Science) Plastic waste often ends up in river bodies and oceans, posing a serious threat to the marine ecosystem. To prevent the accumulation of plastic debris, we must find out where plastic emission is prevalent. To this end, scientists in Japan have come up with a new method to track plastic emissions from inland areas to sea. This method is useful to identify the 'hotspots' of plastic emission and can even help to implement appropriate measures to avoid plastic pollution.

(Aarhus University) An international team of researchers has put together a new image of Neanderthals based on the genes Neanderthals left in the DNA of modern humans when they had children with them about 50,000 years ago. The researchers found the new information by trawling the genomes of more than 27,000 Icelanders. Among other things, they discovered that Neanderthal children had older mothers and younger fathers than the Homo-Sapien children in Africa did at the time.

(Florida Museum of Natural History) Florida and Georgia archaeologists have discovered the location of Fort San Antón de Carlos, home of one of the first Jesuit missions in North America. The Spanish fort was built in 1566 in the capital of the Calusa, the most powerful Native American tribe in the region, on present-day Mound Key in the center of Estero Bay on Florida's Gulf Coast.

(University of Chicago Press Journals) A recent study confirms that Mesoamerican priests ripped the hearts out of their still-living victims in three different ways. New forensic evidence, historic witness accounts and native representations now show that the most common form of native heart extraction was from beneath the rib cage, second was forceful chest penetration between two ribs and at mid-chest level between the nipples, and thirdly, a mid-chest opening of one single blow, extracting the heart from the front.

(University of Helsinki) A multidisciplinary research group coordinated by the University of Helsinki dated the bones of dozens of Iron Age residents of the Levänluhta site in Finland, and studied the carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios. The results provide an overview of the dietary habits based on terrestrial, marine and freshwater ecosystems, as well as of sources of livelihoods throughout the Levänluhta era.

(University of York) An international team of scientists, led by researchers at the University of York, analysed the molecular remains of food left in pottery used by the first farmers who settled along the Atlantic Coast of Europe from 7,000 to 6,000 years ago.

(American Friends of Tel Aviv University) The research reveals that hunter-gatherer societies expressed a deep emotional and psychological connection with the animal species they hunted, especially after their disappearance. The study will help anthropologists and others understand the profound environmental changes taking place in our own lifetimes.

(World Scientific) New book explores human's endeavours to measure the age of the Earth -- the biblical story, geology's response, Darwin's contribution, Kelvin's cooling Earth model, and modern science.

(Molecular Biology and Evolution (Oxford University Press)) In a new paper, Dang Liu, Mark Stoneking and colleagues have analyzed newly generated genome-wide SNP data for the Kinh and 21 additional ethnic groups in Vietnam, encompassing all five major language families in MSEA, along with previously published data from nearby populations and ancient samples.

(Bentham Science Publishers) Two authors representing environmental geomorphology and historical archaeology collaborated in an investigation that aimed to examine the material culture still evident in urban burial sites with dated, upstanding headstone memorials.

(University of Warwick) 21st century X-ray technology has allowed University of Warwick scientists to peer back through time at the production of the armour worn by the crew of Henry VIII's favoured warship, the Mary Rose.

(PLOS) The ancient cemetery of Mözs-Icsei d?l? in present-day Hungary holds clues to a unique community formation during the beginnings of Europe's Migration Period, according to a study published April 29, 2020 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Corina Knipper from the Curt-Engelhorn-Center for Archaeometry, Germany, István Koncz, Tivadar Vida from the Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary and colleagues.

(Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History) What makes our species unique compared to other hominins? High profile genetic, fossil and material culture discoveries present scientists working in the Late Pleistocene with an ever-more complex picture of interactions between early hominin populations. One distinctive characteristic of Homo sapiens, however, appears to be its global distribution. Exploring how Homo sapiens colonized most of the world's continents in a relatively short period could reveal the exceptional capacities of humans relative to other hominins.

(Stony Brook University) In evolutionary terms, islands are the stuff of weirdness. It is on islands where animals evolve in isolation, often for millions of years, with different food sources, competitors, predators, and parasites...indeed, different everything compared to mainland species. As a result, they develop into different shapes and sizes and evolve into new species that, given enough time, spawn yet more new species.

(Cell Press) In a study appearing April 30 in the journal Current Biology, scientists tell the story of three 16th century African slaves identified from a mass burial site in Mexico City. Using a combination of genetic, osteological, and isotope analyses, the scientists determined from where in Africa they were likely captured, the physical hardships they experienced as slaves, and what novel pathogens they may have carried with them across the Atlantic.

(Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History) Three 16th-century skeletons from a mass burial in Mexico City highlight the role of the transatlantic slave trade in introducing and disseminating new pathogens to the Americas. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia in Mexico analyzed skeletal features, genetic data and isotopes to explore the life history of three enslaved Africans and explore the wide-ranging impacts of massive forced migration.

(University of Chicago Press Journals) Extensive cooperation among biologically unrelated individuals is uniquely human. It would be surprising if this uniqueness were not related to other uniquely human characteristics, yet current theories of human cooperation tend to ignore the human aspects of human behavior. This paper presents a theory of cooperation that draws on social, cultural, and psychological aspects of human uniqueness for which current theories have little or no explanation.

(Florida Museum of Natural History) More than a thousand years ago, people from across the Southeast regularly traveled to a small island on Florida's Gulf Coast to bond over oysters, likely as a means of coping with climate change and social upheaval.

(University of Maryland) Many historians have claimed the Justinianic Plague (c. 541-750 CE) killed half of the population of Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire. New historical research and mathematical modeling challenge the death rate and severity of this first plague pandemic, named for Emperor Justinian I.

(Universitat Pompeu Fabra - Barcelona) Expansions by groups of humans were common during prehistoric times, after the adoption of agriculture. Among other factors, this is due to population growth of farmers which was greater than of that hunter-gatherers. We can find one example of this during the Neolithic period, when farming was introduced to Europe by migrations from the Middle East.

(Perot Museum of Nature and Science) Published in PLOS ONE today, a study by an international team from the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas and Hokkaido University in Japan further explores the proliferation of the most commonly occurring duck-billed dinosaur of the ancient Arctic as the genus Edmontosaurus. The findings reinforce that the hadrosaurs -- dubbed 'caribou of the Cretaceous' -- had a geographical distribution of approximately 60 degrees of latitude, spanning the North American West from Alaska to Colorado.

(Harvard Medical School) An international research team has conducted the first in-depth, wide-scale study of the genomic history of ancient civilizations in the central Andes mountains and coast before European contact. The findings reveal early genetic distinctions between groups in nearby regions, population mixing within and beyond the Andes, surprising genetic continuity amid cultural upheaval, and ancestral cosmopolitanism among some of the region's most well-known ancient civilizations.

There is no special announcement (19:45 HKT on 03.05.2020)

(University of Plymouth) Researchers say a fossil found on the Jurassic coast of southern England in the 19th century demonstrates the world's oldest known example of a squid-like creature attacking its prey.

(King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST)) Optical fibers wrapped around date palm trunks could help detect this tree's most destructive pest early enough to save it.

(University of Warwick) A microbial community is a complex, dynamic system composed of hundreds of species and their interactions, they are found in oceans, soil, animal guts and plant roots. Each system feeds the Earth's ecosystem and their own growth, as they each have their own metabolism that underpin biogeochemical cycles. Researchers from the School of Life Sciences at the University of Warwick have produced an extendable thermodynamic model for simulating the dynamics of microbial communities.

(American Society of Agronomy) Study shows which desert soils better recover from disturbance.

(US Department of Agriculture - Agricultural Research Service) A new freeze-resistant Trichinella species has been discovered in wolverines by Agricultural Research Service scientists and their colleagues. Trichinella are parasites that cause the disease trichinosis (formally referred to as trichinellosis), which people can get by eating raw or undercooked meat from infected animals.

(Texas A&M University) Spoiling foods, souring wine and worsening wounds have a common culprit -- a process called oxidation. Although the ill effects of these chemical reactions can be curtailed by antioxidants, creating a sturdy platform capable of providing prolonged antioxidant activity is an ongoing challenge.

(Purdue University) Researchers at Purdue University have discovered that male treefrogs reduce their attractiveness to predators and parasites by overlapping their mating calls with their neighbors.

(Arizona State University) Hydrogen is an essential commodity with over 60 million tons produced globally every year. However over 95 percent of it is made by steam reformation of fossil fuels, a process that is energy intensive and produces carbon dioxide. If we could replace even a part of that with algal biohydrogen that is made via light and water, it would have a substantial impact.

(University of Adelaide) An international team of scientists led by the University of Adelaide's Davies Research Centre has shown that it is possible to disentangle the DNA sequences of the chromosomes inherited from the mother and the father, to create true diploid genomes from a single individual.

(University of Southern Denmark) Investing in the future: Researchers show how cannibalism among the invasive comb jelly enables adults to survive severe conditions at the edge of their ecological range with implications for the use and evolutionary origins of cannibalism.

(American Society of Agronomy) Researchers develop soil-gas diffusivity model based on two agricultural soils.

(Bentham Science Publishers) This comprehensive review presented by researchers from K.S. Rangasamy College of Arts and Science, Tiruchengode, Tamil-Nadu, India, gives readers a brief overview of phytoconstituents, nutritional values and medicinal properties of the plant.

(University of Bonn) The extent to which Brazilian soy production and trade contribute to climate change depends largely on the location where soybeans are grown. This is shown by a recent study conducted by the University of Bonn together with partners from Spain, Belgium and Sweden. In some municipalities, CO2 emissions resulting from the export of soybean and derivatives are more than 200 times higher than in others.

(University of Tsukuba) Researchers from the University of Tsukuba have revealed that pectin, a carbohydrate found in plant cell walls, plays a vital part in the development of female reproductive tissues of rice plants. It was found that the presence of a gene involved in pectin modification increased plant fertility relative to a modified plant with the gene removed. These findings could have major implications in crop variety development and genetic modification.

(University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture) David Mercker, an Extension forestry specialist with the University of Tennessee Department of Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries, has been named 2020 Extension Forester of the Year by the Forest Landowners Association (FLA). FLA is a national organization that promotes and protects the interests of private forest landowners and bestows this award annually as determined by its board of directors.

(National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)) Researchers will soon have access to the full genomic sequences for 23 marine mammal species preserved by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), thanks to an ongoing collaboration between NIST and a scientific consortium called the DNA Zoo.

(Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research) Thanks to the support of additional German research vessels, the MOSAiC expedition will continue, despite the coronavirus pandemic. The new team will start in May.

(Queensland University of Technology) Robots that fly, swim and drive are being designed and built by internationally renowned Australian scientists from QUT.

(Ohio State University) The land masses of Japan shifted from east to west to east again in the months before the strongest earthquake in the country's recorded history, a 2011 magnitude-9 earthquake that killed more than 15,500 people, new research shows.

(Rutgers University) Algae in the oceans often steal genes from bacteria to gain beneficial attributes, such as the ability to tolerate stressful environments or break down carbohydrates for food, according to a Rutgers co-authored study.

(Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute) Oil pollution is known to cause lethal and sublethal responses on coral communities in the short-term, but its long-term effects have not been widely studied. The Bahia Las Minas oil spill, which contaminated about 40 square kilometers (about 15 square miles) near the Smithsonian's Galeta Point Marine Laboratory in Colon and became the largest recorded near coastal habitats in Panama, served as an opportunity to understand how coral reefs in tropical ecosystems recover from acute contamination over time.

(American Chemical Society) When a dead body is found, one of the first things a forensic pathologist tries to do is estimate the time of death. There are several ways to do this, including measuring body temperature or observing insect activity, but these methods don't always work for corpses found in water. Now, researchers are reporting a mouse study in ACS' Journal of Proteome Research showing that certain proteins in bones could be used for this determination.

(University of Washington) By comparing new measurements from NASA's ICESat-2 mission with the original ICESat mission, which operated from 2003 to 2009, scientists were able to measure precisely how the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have changed over 16 years.

(American Association for the Advancement of Science) Microplastic particles entering the sea surface were thought to settle to the seafloor directly below them, but now, a new study reveals that slow-moving currents near the bottom of the ocean direct the flow of plastics, creating microplastic hotpots in sediments of the deep sea.

(American Association for the Advancement of Science) Ice sheet losses from Greenland and Antarctica have outpaced snow accumulation and contributed approximately 14 millimeters to sea level rise over 16 years (2003 to 2019), a new analysis of data from NASA's laser-shooting satellites has revealed.

(University of Manchester) An international research project has revealed the highest levels of microplastic ever recorded on the seafloor, with up to 1.9 million pieces in a thin layer covering just 1 square meter.

(University of Colorado at Boulder) CU Boulder researchers have developed a method that could enable scientists to accurately forecast ocean acidity up to five years in advance. This would enable fisheries and communities that depend on seafood negatively affected by ocean acidification to adapt to changing conditions in real time, improving economic and food security in the next few decades.