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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Scientists have solved a longstanding mystery over the age of a landmark skull found in 1921 in Zambia – the first fossil of an extinct human species discovered in Africa – in research with big implications for deciphering the origin of our own species. The Natural History Museum’s Professor Chris Stringer is

BEIJING (Reuters) – A team of Chinese scientists has isolated several antibodies that it says are “extremely effective” at blocking the ability of the new coronavirus to enter cells, which eventually could be helpful in treating or preventing COVID-19. FILE PHOTO: The ultrastructural morphology exhibited by the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV), which was identified as

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Antarctica is now a harsh land of ice and snow, but has not always been that way. FILE PHOTO: A glacier is seen in Half Moon Bay, Antarctica, February 18, 2018. REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini Earth’s southernmost continent long ago was home to temperate, swampy rainforests teeming with life, scientists said on Wednesday based

LONDON (Reuters) – Losing your sense of smell and taste may be the best way to tell if you have COVID-19, according to a study of data collected via a symptom tracker app developed by scientists in Britain and the United States to help monitor the coronavirus pandemic. FILE PHOTO: A poster in the window of a pharmacy is

LONDON (Reuters) – Losing your sense of smell and taste may be the best way to tell if you have COVID-19, according to a study of data collected via a symptom tracker app developed by British scientists to help monitor the pandemic caused by the new coronavirus. FILE PHOTO: A poster in the window of a pharmacy is pictured

FILE PHOTO: SpaceX founder and chief engineer Elon Musk attends a post-launch news conference to discuss the SpaceX Crew Dragon astronaut capsule in-flight abort test at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S. January 19, 2020. REUTERS/Steve Nesius (Reuters) – NASA on Friday picked a new space capsule from Elon Musk’s SpaceX to

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A worm-like creature smaller than a grain of rice that burrowed on the sea floor in search of meals like dead organic matter about 555 million years ago may be the evolutionary forerunner of most animals living today – including people. The primitive worm-like animal Ikaria wariootia that lived 555 million years

BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombia’s central military hospital, which for decades was inundated with victims of landmines and other casualties of the country’s internal conflict, is being outfitted to battle a new enemy: coronavirus. A Colombian soldier stands outside one of the tents being built in a parking lot of the Military Hospital for patients with

FILE PHOTO: A Gilead Sciences, Inc. office is shown in Foster City, California, U.S. May 1, 2018. REUTERS/Stephen Lam (Reuters) – Gilead Sciences Inc’s experimental drug remdesivir, seen as one of the more promising potential treatments for the coronavirus, on Monday received the orphan drug designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The announcement

FILE PHOTO: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, carrying the Crew Dragon astronaut capsule, lifts off on an in-flight abort test , a key milestone before flying humans in 2020 under NASA’s commercial crew program, from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S. January 19, 2020. REUTERS/Joe Skipper (Reuters) – Private rocket company SpaceX

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Scientists in Singapore say they have developed a way to track genetic changes that speeds testing of vaccines against a coronavirus that has killed more than 16,000 people worldwide. FILE PHOTO: The ultrastructural morphology exhibited by the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV), which was identified as the cause of an outbreak of respiratory

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Inside the stout fins of a fish that prowled the shallow waters of an estuary in what is now eastern Canada about 380 million years ago, scientists have found what they call the evolutionary origins of the human hand. FILE PHOTO: An artist’s reconstruction of the extinct fish Elpistostege watsoni, which lived

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australian researchers said on Tuesday they have mapped the immune responses from one of country’s first coronavirus patients, findings that the health minister said were an important step in developing a vaccine and treatment. FILE PHOTO: The ultrastructural morphology exhibited by the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV), which was identified as the cause

(Reuters) – Drugs used for treating arthritis are being tested as treatments for COVID-19, the disease caused by a new coronavirus, as researchers rush to find ways of helping patients and slowing the number of infections. FILE PHOTO: A Sanofi sign outside the French drugmaker’s Paris headquarters, October 30, 2014. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann//File Photo Sanofi and

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Valentina Tereshkova was hailed as a hero when she became the first woman in space in 1963. FILE PHOTO: Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman cosmonaut, attends a news conference in Star City outside Moscow, June 7, 2013. REUTERS/Sergei Remezov/File Photo Now 83, she has became a hate figure for some

FILE PHOTO: A full-size model of the ExoMars entry, descent and landing module, Schiaparell is seen during a press conference at the European Space Agency (ESA) Headquarters in Darmstadt, Germany October 20, 2016. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File Photo MOSCOW/BRUSSELS (Reuters) – A joint Russian-European mission to send a rover to Mars has been postponed by two years

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Today’s artificial limbs can look very natural, and now an innovative process makes prosthetic hands move more naturally as well. Paul Cederna (foreground), the Robert Oneal Professor of Plastic Surgery at the University of Michigan, shifts his attention as Daniel Lyons, a resident of plastic surgery, stitches up the arm of

Kosza, the 2,5 year-old Belgian shepherd and Fuge, the 6 year-old golden retriever are seen before a test at the Ethology Department of the ELTE University in Budapest, Hungary, March 2, 2020. REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo BUDAPEST (Reuters) – Dogs have a type of infrared sensor in the tip of their nose which enables them to detect

Dr. Daylan Tzompa Sosa holds a handful of crickets at Ghent University, Belgium February 27, 2020. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir GHENT, Belgium (Reuters) – Belgian waffles may be about to become more environmentally friendly. Scientists at Ghent University in Belgium are experimenting with larva fat to replace butter in waffles, cakes and cookies, saying using grease from

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Red pandas, the bushy-tailed and russet-furred bamboo munchers that dwell in Asian high forests, are not a single species but rather two distinct ones, according to the most comprehensive genetic study to date on these endangered mammals. FILE PHOTO: A one year old Red Panda sits in the trees having only recently