Leo Wilson

Pattern found in world’s rainforests where 2% of species make up 50% of trees | Trees and forests

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Just 2% of rainforest tree species account for 50% of the trees found in tropical forests across Africa, the Amazon and south-east Asia, a new study has found. Mirroring patterns found elsewhere in the natural world, researchers have discovered that a few tree species dominate the world’s major rainforests, with thousands of rare species making … Read more

UAP bipartisan bill aims to protect pilots reporting sightings

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(NewsNation) — A new bipartisan bill announced Thursday looks to encourage commercial pilots to report sightings of unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs), or unidentified flying objects (UFOs), to the United States government. The effort — led by Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., and Rep. Glenn Grothman, R-Wisc. — aims to promote safe airspace for Americans by encouraging … Read more

Ancient DNA reveals reason for high multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer’s rates in Europe

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Researchers have created the world’s largest ancient human gene bank by analysing the bones and teeth of almost 5,000 humans who lived across western Europe and Asia up to 34,000 years ago. By sequencing ancient human DNA and comparing it to modern-day samples, the international team of experts mapped the historical spread of genes — … Read more

Ancient cities provide key datasets for urban planning, policy and predictions in the Anthropocene

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Multidisciplinary approaches to urban archaeology provide a wealth of information about how cities shape, and are shaped by, their environment. Credit: Michelle O’Reilly Cities play a key role in climate change and biodiversity and are one of the most recognizable features of the Anthropocene. They also accelerate innovation and shape social networks, while perpetuating and … Read more

Israelis and Palestinians by Jonathan Glover review – the psychology of conflict | Politics books

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Jonathan Glover’s new book, on the seemingly intractable nature of the Israel-Palestine conflict, quotes George Orwell on the Spanish civil war: “Everybody believes in the atrocities of the enemy and disbelieves in those of his own side without ever examining the evidence.” This could have been written today, amid bipolar thinking and pressure to take … Read more

The reaction mechanism for catalytic ammonia production experimentally determined

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Researchers at Stockholm University have for the first time been able to study the surface of iron and ruthenium catalysts when ammonia is formed from nitrogen and hydrogen; the results are published in the scientific journal Nature. A better knowledge of the catalytic process and the possibility of finding even more efficient materials opens the … Read more

First prehistoric person with Turner syndrome identified from ancient DNA

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Working picture of the excavation of a skeleton on the Lincoln Eastern Bypass site (Network Archaeology). Credit: Network Archaeology Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute, working with University of Oxford, University of York and Oxford Archaeology, have developed a new technique to measure the number of chromosomes in ancient genomes more precisely, using it to … Read more

Giganto, largest ever primate, died out due to diet change, say scientists | Extinct wildlife

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It was the largest primate ever to have roamed the Earth, but just why – and when – our distant cousin “giganto” ended up extinct has been something of a mystery. Now researchers say the enormous ape was victim of an unfortunate choice of food when its preferred snacks became scarce. Gigantopithecus blacki roamed mainland … Read more