Archeologists from the University of Tübingen have found eight extremely well-preserved spears — an astonishing 300,000 years old, making them the oldest known weapons anywhere. The spears and other artifacts as well as animal remains found at the site demonstrate … Continue reading
Light from the young galaxy captured by the orbiting observatories shone forth when the 13.7-billion-year-old universe was just 500 million years old. via Ultra-distant galaxy discovered amidst cosmic dark ages: May be oldest galaxy ever. … Continue reading
Previously it was thought that the first insects to help with plant fertilisation were the bees, which evolved with flowering plants during the Cretaceous Period about 100 million years ago (mya), but recent research at Portland State University has shown … Continue reading
There is some evidence (although not conclusive) that a duplication of a gene in Homo habilis led to an increase in their intelligence by increasing the number of connections between the neurons in their brains. In two reports published in … Continue reading
Human population 50-40 thousand years ago was about 1.5 million as calculated by paleodemographer Jean-Noel Biraben, according to a report in Science et Avenir March 2012 page 58. In Europe the population of hunter-gatherers was 200,000 just before the demographic … Continue reading
A major bug with the History of the Universe website has been fixed. Previously there were many links which did not work. We apologise to all visitors for this lack of care. … Continue reading
One of my conclusions from the study of history is that peace will not be possible until the world has some form of effective government which can enforce its will on national governments which wage war on their own citizens … Continue reading
For an excellent introduction to the Higgs Boson, see Frequently Asked Questions: The Higgs! – CERN Bulletin. Extracts: According to the Englert-Brout-Higgs mechanism, the property that we measure as the ‘mass’ of a particle is the result of a constant … Continue reading
It looks very much as if the Higgs Boson has been identified at CERN, it was announced today during an emotional webcast at which Peter Higgs was present. Results from both CMS and ATLAS were presented. The presenters emphasised, however, … Continue reading
Panguite is a new titanium oxide (named after Pan Gu, the giant from ancient Chinese mythology who established the world by separating yin from yang to create the earth and the sky) which has been discovered by scientists from the … Continue reading