PARIS (AFP) ― The rugged landscape created by volcanic eruptions and tectonic plate shifts in east and south Africa millions of years ago may be what prompted our human ancestors to start walking on two legs, a study said.The research published in the journal Antiquity challenges the commonly-held theory that early hominins (members of the broad human family) were forced onto two feet on the ground because climate change reduced the number of trees they lived in.According to the new hypothesis,

PARIS (AFP) ― Minerals found in craters on the Moon may be remnants of asteroids that slammed into it and not, as long believed, the satellite’s innards exposed by such impacts, a study said Sunday.The findings, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, cast doubt on the little we knew of what the Moon is actually composed of.It had long been thought that meteoroids vaporize on impact with large celestial bodies.Unusual minerals like spinel and olivine found in many lunar craters, but rarely o

A lack of serotonin, a chemical substance known to affect a person’s mood, may affect sexual preference in mice, a new study by Chinese scholars suggested.Yi Rao of Peking University in Beijing and his colleagues conducted a study where they genetically engineered female mice so that they could not make or respond to serotonin. The researchers found that the mutated mice preferred female genital odor over that of male and generally preferred females over males as their mating partners.“We demons

The capital city of Seoul saw its first ozone warning of the year take effect on Thursday.The Seoul Metropolitan Government said the warning was issued at 3 p.m., as ozone density in the northern part of the city averaged 0.131 ppm per hour.The warning is issued when the density of the powerful oxidants is more than 0.120 ppm.“We measure the density in five regions of the city, and even one area detected to exceed that point leads to the issuance (of the warning) for the whole city,” said Kim Hy

Scientists have finally recovered stem cells from cloned human embryos, a longstanding goal that could lead to new treatments for such illnesses as Parkinson's disease and diabetes.A prominent expert called the work a landmark, but noted that a different, simpler technique now under development may prove more useful.Stem cells can turn into any cell of the body, so scientists are interested in using them to create tissue for treating disease. Transplanting brain tissue might treat Parkinson's di

A group of scientists from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology has discovered a way to produce an “unbreakable” screen, which may pave the way in display technology, the school announced on Tuesday.The research team led by Yoon Choon-sup used polyamide film instead of glass.Researchers have already been looking at using polyamide film, but so far failed to put it to practical use because of its weak heat-resistance and durability.The KAIST team noted that they have increased t

PARIS (AFP) ― The discovery of a new thick-skulled dinosaur the size of a large dog may challenge our image of a prehistoric Earth dominated by supersized lizards, a study said.The planet may, in fact, have been inhabited by many more types of small dinosaur than widely thought, a group of researchers wrote in the journal Nature Communications.“It would have been a world filled with a diversity of dinosaur life, both large and small,” study co-author David Evans of the Royal Ontario Museum’s nat

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― Our Ice Age ancestors in Europe, 15,000 years ago, may have used words we would recognize today, according to a new study out this week in a U.S. journal.Words that sound alike in related languages are generally assumed to have come from a common route, like “father” in English and “pater” in Latin.Lead author Mark Pagel, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Reading in Britain, and his team were able to take the analysis a step further by showing that certain very co

The government will soon set up measures to help commercialize its space technology while also working to further develop its commercial space sector that will include the early development of a shuttle to the moon, the science ministry said Thursday.The move comes as there are only 61 private companies or research institutes developing space technologies in the country while 44.2 percent of them have annual sales of less than 1 billion won ($909,000), according to the Ministry of Science, ICT a

Prosecutors on Thursday raided the houses of two former agents of the nation’s main intelligence agency and one informant as part of a widening investigation into allegations that the organization attempted to influence public opinion ahead of last year’s presidential election. The scandal centers around allegations that the National Intelligence Service extensively and systemically meddled in the presidential election by using its agents to post a slew of politically sensitive comments against