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May 1965 The Scythians “In central Siberia, a land whose prehistory has been almost completely unknown, Soviet archaeologists have in recent years uncovered the remains of an ancient people kept remarkably intact. The find consists of a number of burial mounds high in the Altai Mountains on the border between Siberia and Outer Mongolia. Here, in these chambers of eternal frost, the bodies of ancient chieftains, with their horses, clothing and varied possessions, have been preserved from decay....

As an epidemiologist, I am used to studying waves of infection and measuring the rise and fall of deaths. While the deaths of parents and grandparents from COVID crash and recede, the pattern of children affected by orphanhood resulting from the death of a caregiver is entirely different. In every country, the number of children affected inexorably rises, month after month. The death of a mother, father, caregiving grandparent or other relative is permanent and enduring....

In the early days of television, small-screen science fiction generally ignored the laws of nature, technology and common sense. Take the 1960s TV series Lost in Space. In one early segment a comet’s heat somehow threatens to fry a couple of members of the spacefaring Robinson family. Pretty far-fetched, considering that comets are made of ice, rock and dust. Even quality shows like The Twilight Zone made gaffes, as in the 1962 episode “The Little People,” which postulated humanoids hundreds of feet high....

This story is a supplement to the feature “The Migration History of Humans: DNA Study Traces Human Origins Across the Continents” which was printed in the July 2008 issue of Scientific American. Geneticists can track the path of ancient migrations by examining genetic markers in Y chromosomes from men who hail from different parts of the world. Each marker, such as M168 or M89, identifies a lineage of men and where the lineage originated....

The White House released a four-page memo (pdf) this week detailing its science budget priorities for fiscal year 2019, citing U.S. military superiority, security, prosperity, energy dominance and health as its top five focuses. The document makes no mention of environmental science or climate change—both top priorities under Barack Obama’s administration—but it does include commitments to basic research and aging-related health. It should come as little surprise the Trump administration’s science priorities emphasize investment in military might to the exclusion of climate and clean energy....

Astronomers have released the first results from the late 2018 passage of NASA’s Voyager 2 probe into interstellar space, revealing some notable differences to the first crossing made by its sister spacecraft, Voyager 1, in 2012. The data shows that although Voyager 1’s departure was fairly “messy,” the exit of Voyager 2 was much cleaner as it left our sun’s influence on its journey into the galaxy. Using data from Voyager 2’s Plasma Science Experiment, an instrument that was not working on Voyager 1 during its earlier entry into interstellar space, scientists confirmed that Voyager 2’s exit occurred on November 5, 2018....

My entry into the ocean plastics crisis began when our organization, SoulBuffalo, ran the first ever activist-to-industry ocean plastics summit in May of 2019. To imagine the summit, picture 165 senior leaders from Coca-Cola, Dow, Greenpeace, the American Chemistry Council, the World Bank, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and representatives of some of the world’s 15 million informal waste pickers all stuck on a boat together in the middle of the Atlantic Garbage Patch for four days....

If you’ve ever sat down at a pub to a plate of really good fish and chips—the kind in which the fish stays tender and juicy but the crust is supercrisp—odds are that the cook used beer as the main liquid when making the batter. Beer makes such a great base for batter because it simultaneously adds three ingredients—carbon dioxide, foaming agents and alcohol—each of which brings to bear different aspects of physics and chemistry to make the crust light and crisp....

When trying to understand why some people have trouble living within their means, we tend to blame factors such as high interest rates and irresponsible spending. Now researchers have found another possible culprit to add to the list: a gene linked to credit-card debt. Earlier work has shown that genetics plays a role in how we handle money. But a recent study was the first to show that a particular gene affects financial behavior outside the lab....

It’s official: Spring has sprung in the nation’s capital, and it’s early. The National Park Service announced yesterday it predicts peak cherry blossom bloom will occur sometime March 14 to 17, possibly the earliest on record. The emergence of the vibrant pink flowers is a bellwether in Washington, with the iconic cherry blossoms signifying the beginning of spring. A mild winter and unseasonably warm temperatures are the two biggest factors contributing to the early emergence of the blossoms, said Mike Litterst, chief of communications for the National Mall....

Rain began to fall over the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires late at night April 1. By the next morning, rainfall records for the month had been broken and the city woke up to find its streets covered with water. Torrential rains dumped more than 6 inches of water on the city in less than two hours, according to reports from the Buenos Aires Central Observatory, killing eight people and leaving hundreds displaced....

Sweltering temperatures exacerbated by climate change dealt a multibillion-dollar blow to U.S. farmers and the public insurance program that shields them from devastating losses. Those costs threaten to take a toll on the domestic agriculture sector and American taxpayers, who subsidize the federal insurance program that insulates farmers from financial shocks such as plunging crop prices and yield volatility, according to new research. A recent study in Environmental Research Letters by Stanford University climate scientists examined global warning’s impact on the U....

An independent advisory council’s recommendation on Thursday cleared the way for an “all but certain” U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval that would likely result in health care workers and nursing home residents starting to receive Pfizer/BioNTech’s genetic vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 early next week, the Washington Post reported (12/10/20). The council of experts recommended that the agency provide “emergency use authorization” for the vaccine in adults age 16 and older....

Contributing to climate change is once again expensive—at least in the eyes of the federal government. That’s after the Biden administration on Friday raised the social cost of carbon to about $51 per ton. The figure factors into a wide variety of policy decisions including EPA regulations and government spending. The move dramatically raises the value of carbon, which had fallen to as little as $1 under President Trump. The figure used by Biden mirrors estimates from the Obama-era, when it was $50 a ton....

Moving troops by land, sea and air has required a wide variety of military vehicles during the era of modern warfare. Trains, trucks, ships, aircraft and helicopters have all done their part to transport divisions across oceans and continents, move units up to the frontline or carry soldiers directly into combat. But the U.S. military and other forces have also experimented with an astounding lineup of troop transport vehicles that never saw action....

Congressional Democrats are moving toward enacting two measures that could vastly expand access to flood insurance and give communities a more accurate picture of their flood risk through better maps. Two provisions in a budget reconciliation bill the House Financial Services Committee approved Tuesday address long-standing shortcomings in flood protection as climate change and coastal development intensify damage from flooding. One item provides $1 billion to launch a subsidy program to help low- and moderate-income households buy flood insurance and close the coverage gap that leaves poorer households and communities more vulnerable to flood damage....

We are surrounded by waves. Tiny vibrational waves transport sound to our ears. Light waves stimulate the retinas of our eyes. Electromagnetic waves bring radio, television and endless streaming content to our devices. Remarkably, all these different waves are governed largely by the same fundamental physical principles. And in the past few years there has been a revolution in our ability to control these waves using materials, engineered at the nanoscale, known as metamaterials....

Exxon was aware of climate change, as early as 1977, 11 years before it became a public issue, according to a recent investigation from InsideClimate News. This knowledge did not prevent the company (now ExxonMobil and the world’s largest oil and gas company) from spending decades refusing to publicly acknowledge climate change and even promoting climate misinformation—an approach many have likened to the lies spread by the tobacco industry regarding the health risks of smoking....

Want a chance to win millions of dollars? A college scholarship? A free shotgun? All you have to do is get vaccinated against COVID. As vaccination rates have slowed, a growing number of states, companies and organizations have started offering incentives ranging from cash giveaways to free beer. The need to promise such rewards in exchange for protection against a deadly disease may seem baffling—especially when so many people around the world lack access to vaccines entirely....

The number of walkable areas in metro centers across the country is on the rise, signaling a dramatic shift in United States development trends, according to new report. The report, produced by the Center for Real Estate and Urban Analysis at George Washington University in conjunction with LOCUS, a national network of real estate developers and investors, ranked the country’s largest 30 cities based on the amount of commercial development in walkable urban places, or “WalkUPs....