BOLIVIA
A new study traces how smoke plumes from heavy Amazon burning in 2007 and 2010 deposited black carbon and dust in the Andes, speeding up melting of the Bolivian Zongo Glacier by boosting heat absorption.
ITALY
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New analysis suggests a fragment of ancient glass may have formed from a Herculaneum inhabitant's brain, heated by the A.D. 79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
CAMEROON
Bones of children buried 3,000 and 8,000 years ago in Cameroon grasslands provided the first ancient human DNA from this region. The discovery illuminates early genetic diversity and at least one long-gone population.
FINLAND
Aurora chasers in Finland helped to identify a new feature in the Northern Lights. Nicknamed “the dunes,” it may reflect an elusive type of ripple in Earth's upper atmosphere.
JAPAN
Researchers isolated and grew an intriguing single-celled microorganism in the lab from sediment off the coast of central Japan. The tentacled Archaean uses proteins common to multicellular organisms and might lend insight into how the latter evolved.
NEW GUINEA
Off the island of New Guinea and northern Australia, researchers spotted four species of intricately patterned sharks that walk on their fins to hunt during low tides. They average less than a meter long and bring the total of known “walking” sharks to nine.