news 2015

New digital techniques have allowed researchers to predict structural evolution of the skull in the lineage of Homo sapiens and Neanderthals, in an effort to fill in blanks in the fossil record, and provide the first 3D rendering of their last common ancestor. The study suggests populations that led to the lineage split were older than previously thought.

New research from the University of Birmingham has shown that progesterone supplements in the first trimester of pregnancy do not improve outcomes in women with a history of unexplained recurrent miscarriages. The findings, published today in The New England Journal of Medicine , mark the end of a five year trial and provide a definitive answer to 60 years of uncertainty on the use of progesterone treatment for women with unexplained recurrent losses.

Humans have been exploiting bees as far back as the Stone Age, according to new research from the University of Bristol published in Nature today. Previous evidence from prehistoric rock art is inferred to show honey hunters and Pharaonic Egyptian murals show early scenes of beekeeping. However, the close association between early farmers and the honeybee remained uncertain.

A haul of undelivered letters from the 17th-century recently discovered in the Netherlands will be analysed by an international team of academics. 600 unopened letters found in a postmaster's trunk were discovered in The Hague's Museum voor Communicatie in 2012, along with 2,000 opened but undelivered letters.

We welcome your feedback Please help us improve The University of Manchester website by completing a short questionnaire at the end of your visit. Yes, I'll give feedback No, thanks Rice - the staple food source of around 50% of the World's population, has been domesticated on three separate occasions, according to a new study by Faculty scientists.

Archaeologists from a consortium of universities including UCL have found out what people ate while building Stonehenge, by analysing the food residues preserved in their pots as well as the animal bones and other food waste from the large settlement of Durrington Walls near Stonehenge. Pork and beef were the prime foods, barbecued and boiled.

Scientists from the University of Liverpool have used new data which indicates that the Earth's inner core was formed 1 - 1.5bn years ago as it "froze" from the surrounding molten iron outer core. The inner core is Earth's deepest layer. It is a ball of solid iron just larger than Pluto which is surrounded by a liquid outer core.

First study to indicate that mummification may have been widely practised throughout Bronze Age Britain Archaeologists use microscopic bone analysis to compare British skeletons with known mummies Research paves the way for discovery of other ancient civilisations that mummified their dead Bronze Age Brits practised exotic, novel and bizarre funerary rituals Ancient Britons may have intentionally mummified some of their dead during the Bronze Age, according to archaeologists at the University of Sheffield.

Detail from a circos plot showing genetic admixture: Links join the best-matching major admixture source, which is always from West Eurasia, to the relevant cluster. Genetics researchers at the University of Oxford have used DNA to map the history of population movements in and around Europe. The technique may help historians to understand more about how over nearly three thousand years people across the continent have migrated, mingled and multiplied.

The remains of a major new prehistoric stone monument have been discovered less than 3 kilometres from Stonehenge. Using cutting-edge, multi-sensor technologies, the Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project - involving University of Birmingham archaeologists - has revealed evidence for a large stone monument hidden beneath the bank of the later Durrington Walls 'super-henge'.

Archaeologists from the University of Bristol have uncovered artefacts that they believe may help solve the long-running mystery of the fate of the first English colonists in North America. Excavations on the Island of Hatteras (North Carolina) have discovered a number of artefacts, dated to late 16th century, which point to the possibility that the colonists assimilated into the local Native American tribe.

Dr Richard Coulton, based at QMUL's School of English and Drama, reflects on the discovery of Britain's oldest tea. Dr Coulton is one of three authors of a forthcoming book, Empire of Tea: The Asian Leaf that Conquered the World. Last week we released a news story about our discovery of Britain's oldest tea leaves alongside colleagues at the Natural History Museum in London.

Bodies found in a 200 year-old Hungarian crypt have revealed the secrets of how tuberculosis (TB) took hold in 18th century Europe, according to a research team involving UCL scientists. A new study published in Nature details how samples taken from naturally mummified bodies found in an 18th century crypt in the Dominican church of Vác in Hungary have yielded 14 TB genomes, suggesting that mixed infections were common when TB was at peak prevalence in Europe.

Archaeological investigations discovered one of Britain's largest medieval hospital cemeteries, containing over 1,000 human remains, when excavating beneath the Old Divinity School at St John's College, Cambridge, a new report shows.

New research has challenged the prevailing belief that the higher proportion of male babies born in the general population results from a higher proportion of males being conceived. The conclusions suggest that embryonic death is bound up with the embryo's sex in ways that are not yet fully understood.

A previously undiscovered species of crocodile-like amphibian that lived during the rise of dinosaurs was among Earth's top predators more than 200 million years ago, a study shows. Palaeontologists identified the prehistoric species - which looked like giant salamanders - after excavating bones buried on the site of an ancient lake in southern Portugal.

By comparing the genes of current-day North and South Americans with African and European populations, a new study has found the genetic fingerprints of the slave trade and colonisation that shaped migrations to the Americas hundreds of years ago. The team, from Oxford University, UCL and the Universita' del Sacro Cuore of Rome, analysed more than 4,000 previously collected DNA samples from 64 different populations, covering multiple locations in Europe, Africa and the Americas.

By comparing the genes of current-day North and South Americans with African and European populations, an Oxford University study has found the genetic fingerprints of the slave trade and colonisation that shaped migrations to the Americas hundreds of years ago. The study published in Nature  found that: While Spaniards provide the majority of European ancestry in continental American Hispanic/Latino populations, the most common European genetic source in African-Americans and Barbadians comes from Great Britain.

By constructing the first fine-scale map of the British Isles, Oxford University researchers have uncovered distinct geographical groupings of genetically similar individuals across the UK. The study found that: There was no single 'Celtic' genetic group. In fact the Celtic parts of the UK (Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and Cornwall) are among the most different from each other genetically.

An international research team has shed new light on the diet of some of the earliest recorded humans in Sri Lanka. The researchers from Oxford University, working with a team from Sri Lanka and the University of Bradford, analysed the carbon and oxygen isotopes in the teeth of 26 individuals, with the oldest dating back 20,000 years and found that nearly all the teeth analysed suggest a diet largely sourced from the rainforest.