Petra University

Scientists have used chemical isotopes in ancient soil to measure prehistoric tree cover -- in effect, shade -- and found that grassy, tree-dotted savannas prevailed at most East African sites where human ancestors and their ape relatives evolved during the past 6 million years.

The mountainous region on the far side of the moon, known as the lunar farside highlands, may be the solid remains of a collision with a smaller companion moon, according to a new study.

British scientists are using an 'amino acid time capsule' to date the Quaternary period, stretching back nearly three million years. It is the first widespread application of refinements of the 40-year-old technique of amino acid geochronology. The refined method measures the breakdown of a closed system of protein in fossil snail shells, and provides a method of dating archaeological and geological sites.

In new research that could have implications for increasing fertilization in humans and other mammals, life scientists have studied interactions between individual sperm and individual eggs in the natural habitats of abalone -- a large marine snail -- and made precise chemical measurements and developed physical models of these interactions. They are the first scientists to do so.