For the first time, scientists have shown that ancient human DNA can survive for thousands of years on cave walls, opening new ways to study prehistoric human activity. This interdisciplinary study was conducted within the framework of the First Art project, which is led by researchers from Spain and Portugal in collaboration with institutions across Spain, Portugal, the UK, China and Germany. The First Art project aims to date the earliest cave art and to characterise its chemical composition. In collaboration with researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, the team has now extended their analyses to include DNA analysis.

Mindelo (São Vicente). For five years now, a distinctive green laser beam has been shining at night up to 30 km above the harbour of the island’s capital. It forms part of a high-energy lidar with which the Leibniz Institute for Atmospheric Research (TROPOS) operates continuous aerosol and cloud measurements at the Ocean Science Centre Mindelo (OSCM).

The lidar is part of PollyNET, a global network of fixed and mobile lidar systems coordinated by TROPOS. This network enables the detection of airborne particles (aerosols) – such as desert dust, forest fire smoke, industrial pollution or even sea salt – as well as their trajectories across our planet. The remote sensing station in Mindelo complements the dust samples that have been collected of the island of São Vicente for almost 30 years in Calhau on the north-east coast.

A new study has uncovered a fundamental link between brain size and offspring size, helping to solve a long-standing evolutionary puzzle: why do birds lay such disproportionately large eggs?

Curtin University researchers have determined the most precise age yet for the oldest known impact crater on Earth, providing new insight into how meteorite strikes shaped the planet during its earliest history.