Each week we uncover the most interesting and informative articles from around the world, here are 10 of the coolest stories in science this week.
Franken-virus
The Klosneuvirus was discovered here, at this wastewater treatment plant in Klosterneuburg, Austria.
Credit: Marton Palatinszky
New giant viruses found at an Austrian wastewater treatment plant probably evolved from a smaller virus that picked up bits of genome from its hosts and incorporated it, Frankenstein-like, into its own genetic code.
The discovery of the new viruses was accidental — but enlightening. The research team was combing through genetic sequences from a wastewater treatment plant in the town of Klosterneuburg, Austria, trying to understand bacteria that convert ammonia to nitrate during the treatment process. [Read more about the monster virus.]
Cannibal calories
Prehistoric humans were known to feast on horses and reindeer, but occasionally, these early humans would also chow down on each other. Scientists have uncovered grisly evidence of this ancient cannibalism in butchered bones of children and adults found in caves across Europe.
Now, a new study suggests that it is unlikely ancient hominins cannibalized each other as an easy alternative to going out and hunting. [Read more about the their diet.]
Beauty uncovered
One of the most impressive finds was a mosaic floor, dating back second half of the 1st century B.C., discovered in the ruins of what's thought to be a Roman public building.
Credit: Bertrand Houix, INRAP
Hidden for centuries, mosaic floors from the lost Roman city of Ucetia have been uncovered in France.
The French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP) announced that the dig has so far been very fruitful. Some of the walls and structures that were uncovered date to just before the Roman conquest of present-day France (called Gaul at the time). But the most visually stunning finds are the well-preserved Roman-era mosaic floors with richly colored patterns and figures. [Read more about the elaborate mosaics.]
Up and down
Nearly 1 billion people around the world light up cigarettes every day, a new study finds.
In other words, because there are more people on Earth, there are more smokers. But compared to the overall population, the percentage of people who smoke is lower than it was 25 years ago. [Read more about the findings.]
Blackest black
Vantablack is now available in a spray-on form that blocks 99.8 percent of ultraviolet, visible and infrared light — enough to make an otherwise detailed 3D object appear as a flat black void.
Credit: Surrey NanoSystems
Though it may look like a 2D cartoon wormhole, "Vantablack" is the blackest material known to science.
Now, a variation of Vantablack (known as Vantablack S-VIS) is available in a spray-on form that blocks 99.8 percent of ultraviolet, visible and infrared light — enough to make an otherwise detailed 3D object appear as a flat black void. [Read more about the darkest known material.]
Sneak attack
In the deep ocean, a hungry squid can suddenly become a meal for a larger squid, seen here in a still from a video posted by CSIRO on YouTube.
Credit: CSIRO
A marine expedition exploring life in the deep sea near Australia recently captured footage of an incredible scene: a squid's sneak attack on a smaller squid.
The life-and-death struggle was visible for only a few dramatic seconds before the wrestling squids wriggled out of sight. [Read more about the attack.]
Weird atomic decay
The germanium detector array is being lowered into the liquid argon. The physicists wanted to see if this germanium-76 ever decays without releasing the neutrinos — neutrinoless double-beta decay.
Credit: M. Heisel/GERDA collaboration
A never-before-seen type of radioactivity could explain why matter, including humans, exists today. And now a team of physicists has launched an experiment to find the oddball phenomenon.
One way to explain this matter-antimatter asymmetry is to look for some difference between the two, besides charge, that could explain matter's advantage. It's a big question in contemporary physics, because otherwise matter and antimatter should, per contemporary theories, behave the same way. [Read more about the radioactivity.]
Superhero status
The so-called Daedalus suit is a jet engine-powered exosuit developed by amateur inventor Richard Browning.
Credit: Gravity
Residents of the quiet town of Salisbury, in the south of England, had no clue until last week that their neighbor, a 38-year-old oil trader named Richard Browning, is a real-life Iron Man in the making.
Despite the noisiness of the technology, which consists of three sets of miniature jet engines attached to the arms and the back, Browning managed to keep the work completely under wraps. [Read more about the real-life superhero.]
Zombie-proof
Here, knife-marks can been seen on the surfaces of two rib fragments. Cut-marks and chop-marks are the bones suggest the bodies had been mutilated after death.
Credit: Historic England
Zombies are hardly a modern preoccupation. For centuries, people have been worried about corpses rising from their graves to torment the living.
Now, archaeologists in England think they've found evidence of medieval methods to prevent the dead from walking. [Read more about the ancient practices.]
Obesity and death
Being overweight or obese at some point in adulthood may increase the risk of early death, a new study finds.
The new finding is "important from a public health perspective, given that about one-third of adults in the U.S. and more than a quarter of the world's population is overweight," study author Edward Yu, a graduate student at the Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health in Boston, said in a statement. [Read more about the obesity paradox.]
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UFOs sighted in Nova Scotia: report
