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Elections 2026Americas / Phys.org
A team of Griffith University archaeologists has uncovered evidence that humans were using mind-altering substances much earlier than previously supposed.
Researchers have captured the moment two DNA molecules zip together, overcoming their identical negative charges to pair up and revealing a mechanism that has puzzled scientists for more than 20 years. Using high-powered atomic force microscopy, scientists at the University of Sheffield and the University of York directly imaged two DNA double helices locking together, marking the first time this fundamental biological process has been visualized.
The Anthropocene became part of the zeitgeist after Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen launched the idea in 2000. This is the notion that a crescendo of human impacts has recently propelled Earth out of the relatively stable climatic conditions of the Holocene epoch, during which human civilization developed and flourished, to produce a new kind of planet.
Finding a fossilized dinosaur egg is exceptionally rare, but finding a stash of more than 250 shell fragments in the chilly southern reaches of the planet is even more surprising. The discoveries come from southernmost Patagonia in Argentina, where giant, long-necked titanosaurs roamed toward the end of the dinosaur era. Previous egg discoveries suggested that these massive beasts usually nested much farther north.
