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Scientists have claimed that the consumption of the fungi psilocybin, also known as 'magic mushrooms,' influenced pre-human hominids' brains six million years ago.They analyzed dozens of studies involving psilocybin and consciousness, finding the fungi increased connectivity between networks in the frontal brain region associated with expressive language, decision-making and memory.These 'significant neurological and psychological effects' may have been the catalase ancient ancestors to interact with each other and the environment - spurring consciousness among our species.The idea that magic mushrooms sparked the pivotal point in humans has been touted by podcaster Joe Rogan, who has referenced the 'Stoned Ape Theory'...

Prehistoric humans hunt a woolly mammoth. More and more research shows that this species – and at least 46 other species of megaherbivores – were driven to extinction by humans. Credit: Engraving by Ernest Grise, photographed by William Henry Jackson. Courtesy Getty’s Open Content Program ================================================================== Researchers at Aarhus University have concluded that human hunting, rather than climate change, was the primary factor in the extinction of large mammals over the past 50,000 years. This finding is based on a review of over 300 scientific articles. Over the last 50,000 years, many large species, or megafauna, weighing at least 45...

The discovery of butchered bones belonging to a glyptodont, a giant relative of the armadillo, suggests that humans were living in Argentina 20,000 years ago. Ancient humans may have butchered and eaten a giant armadillo-like creature around 20,000 years ago in what is now Argentina, a new study finds. The discovery of the butchered bones supports a growing body of evidence that people spread throughout the Americas much earlier than previously assumed. During the Late Pleistocene epoch (129,000 to 11,700 years ago), ice sheets and glaciers covered much of the planet, particularly during the Last Glacial Maximum, a period around...

The impacts of human-caused climate change are so overwhelming they’re actually messing with time, according to new research. Polar ice melt caused by global warming is changing the speed of Earth’s rotation and increasing the length of each day, in a trend set to accelerate over this century as humans continue to pump out planet-heating pollution, according to the study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The changes are small — a matter of milliseconds a day — but in our high-tech, hyperconnected world have an important impact on computing systems we have come to...

People also often try to simply change the topic of conversation. Image credit: zeljkodan/Shutterstock.com ================================================================== Eating too much meat is bad for you, bad for the environment, and fatal for the animals involved. Those are straight facts, indisputable and proven through years of study. But counterpoint: have you considered that vegans are annoying? If the comments section under just about any media promoting a vegetarian or vegan diet is anything to go by, the answer to that question is probably “yes”. And, in any case, what about all the poor plants, huh? You okay with murdering them, IFLScience? The blood...

Perhaps skip that in-flight negroni.You’ve had a good year. You and your significant other are about to board that long-haul flight to your well-deserved salmon-fishing vacation in Scotland, where you’ll be pampered just like King Charles in a real Scottish castle — with its own river, no less. Your wellies, your waders, and your fishing kit are on the plane. Next stop, Edinburgh and on to the wild Highlands. In the lounge with time to kill, you two decide to toast embarking on this adventure by ordering up a round of delicious Johnnie Walker Black on ice. Scotland, right? A...

As a vocal advocate of vaccinations for public health, Peter Hotez was no stranger to online harassment and threats. But then the abuse showed up on his doorstep. It was a Sunday during a brutal Texas heatwave in June 2023 when a man turned up at Hotez’s home, filming himself as he shouted questions at the scientist, who is a paediatrician and virologist at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. Because of the long-running online and real-life abuse he has faced, Hotez now has the Texas Medical Center Police, Houston Police Department and Harris County Sheriff’s Office on speed...

Fake studies have flooded the publishers of top scientific journals, leading to thousands of retractions and millions of dollars in lost revenue. The biggest hit has come to Wiley, a 217-year-old publisher based in Hoboken, N.J., which Tuesday will announce that it is closing 19 journals, some of which were infected by large-scale research fraud. Paywall.

Proving that unpaid anonymous review is worth every cent, the 217 year old Wiley science publisher “peer reviewed” 11,300 papers that were fake, and didn’t even notice. It’s not just a scam, it’s an industry. Naked “gobbledygook sandwiches” got past peer review, and the expert reviewers didn’t so much as blink.Big Government and Big Money has captured science and strangled it. The more money they pour in, the worse it gets. John Wiley and Sons is a US $2 billion dollar machine, but they got used by criminal gangs to launder fake “science” as something real.Things are so bad, fake...

The studied Psittacosaurus under natural (upper half) and UV light (lower half). (Zixiao Yang, Author provided) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Strong but light, beautiful and precisely structured, feathers are the most complex skin appendage that ever evolved in vertebrates. Despite the fact humans have been playing with feathers since prehistory, there's still a lot we don't understand about them. Our new study found that some of the first animals with feathers also had scaly skin like reptiles. Following the debut of the first feathered dinosaur, Sinosauropteryx prima, in 1996, a surge of discoveries has painted an ever more interesting picture of feather evolution....

For years we've heard that humans are the problem when it comes to the environment. The complaints in recent years have become so intense and extreme that we're being told that humans have been likened to a harmful virus, even to the point that some individuals have begun a "human extinction project" in the crazed belief that the only chance to "save the planet" is to erase humans from existence. It's gotten to the point where hardly a day goes by where we don't hear about someone who expresses a desire to see the Earth "depopulated", at least to the...

Roughly 75% of Americans drink coffee every day. That won’t be the case for long, apparently, if the elites at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, have their way. Did anyone notice what they were talking about back in January during the 2024 World Economic Forum's Davos get-together? During a recent WEF panel discussion, a reporter for Moneywise, in an item posted on Yahoo! Finance, reported that one speaker, some banker named Hubert Keller, remarked, “The coffee that we all drink emits between 15 and 20 tons of CO2 per ton of coffee.” Ominously, he added, “so we should...

First, the stage must be set. The joke that currently occupies the Bully Pulpit says he’s the first climate president, says he’s making history by confronting the climate crisis, not denying it. “I’m taking the most significant action on climate ever in the history of the world.” Now to his latest tactic.Biden gave a warning on climate change in September 2021, when he surveyed damage caused by Hurricane Ida in New York and New Jersey. “We’ve got to listen to the scientists ... they all tell us this is code red. ... The nation and the world are in peril,...

“I had the hormonal urges,” said Prof Camille Parmesan, a leading climate scientist based in France. “Oh my gosh, it was very strong. But it was: ‘Do I really want to bring a child into this world that we’re creating?’ Even 30 years ago, it was very clear the world was going to hell in a handbasket. I’m 62 now and I’m actually really glad I did not have children.” Parmesan is not alone. An exclusive Guardian survey has found that almost a fifth of the female climate experts who responded have chosen to have no children, or fewer children,...

Of Homo sapiens, Darwin made only a passing mention on the third-to-last page of the tome, noting coyly that "light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history." That's it. That is all he wrote about the dawning of the single most consequential species on the planet.

A new study from a liberal law school claims that global warming, also known as “climate change,” has a greater impact on LGBT couples than on normal couples. As reported by Fox News, the study from the UCLA School of Law claims that “same-sex couples are more likely to reside in communities with poorer infrastructure and less access to resources. They are, therefore, less prepared to respond and adapt to natural hazards and other climate disruptions.” The report, authored by analyst Lindsay Mahowald and senior fellow Ari Shaw, goes on to claim that the solution to this “problem” is for...

The record-breaking rain that fell over the United Arab Emirates and Oman this month, triggering deadly floods and chaos, was driven partly by the climate crisis, according to a scientific analysis published Thursday, which pointed directly at humans burning fossil fuels.A team of 21 scientists and researchers, under the World Weather Attribution initiative, found that climate change was making extreme rainfall events in the two countries — which typically fall during El Niño years — between 10 and 40% more intense than they would have been without global warming.Over a period of less than 24 hours between April 14 and...

Scientific American has published a piece claiming that “misinformation,” such as the notion that there are only two sexes, is “being used against transgender people” and in order to target “gender-affirming medical care.”The article states that there are three types of “misinformation,” and they are “oversimplifying scientific knowledge, fabricating and misinterpreting research, and promoting false equivalences.”Three types of misinformation are being used against transgender people: oversimplifying scientific knowledge, fabricating and misinterpreting research, and promoting false equivalences. https://t.co/1AOp6Bk6A2 — Scientific American (@sciam) April 20, 2024The piece asserts that “Many of the arguments against trans rights center on the idea that transness...

Spain: Mutant cockroaches pose health risks Image of a cockroach. Credit: chaipanya/Shutterstock.com Recent findings suggest a disturbing trend in the genetic alterations of cockroaches, directly linked to ongoing climate changes. So far in 2024, Spain has reported a significant rise in cockroach infestations, with incidents increasing by 33 per cent compared to the previous year. Experts, including Jorge Galvan, director of the National Association of Environmental Health Companies (Anecpla), attribute this surge to the record temperatures that are accelerating the metabolic cycles of these pests, notably the Germanic cockroach, commonly found in homes and food-related businesses. Most Read on Euro...

A federal district court has overturned the Biden administration's climate rule that required states to track and set reduction goals for greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles on highways. In a sweeping judgment late Monday, Judge Benjamin Beaton of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky ordered the Federal Highway Administration to stand down on the rules, which the agency finalized in November. The ruling represents a major victory for the State of Kentucky, which challenged the regulations alongside 21 other states. "President Biden’s radical environmental agenda has lost touch with reality, and Kentucky families, farmers and workers...