UC Davis

Presently, in order to check the level of opioid drugs in a person's bloodstream, a blood sample must be taken. Things may soon be getting much less invasive, however, as scientists have now developed a breath test that does the job.

Archaeologists have found ancient tools at a dig site in Mongolia, indicating that humans were on the scene about 45,000 years ago, which is much earlier than current evidence suggests. There’s also a chance that the site is one spot where our ancestors mingled with the mysterious Denisovans.

Our bodies aren't great at regeneration. Other creatures have mastered this skill though, and now scientists at the University of California Davis (UC Davis) and Harvard have sequenced the RNA transcripts for the immortal hydra and figured out how it manages to do just that.

While exploring the “dark heart” of the human genome, geneticists have now found some of the most ancient pieces of DNA, inherited from Neanderthals and an as-yet-unknown human relative, which may be affecting our sense of smell to this day.

A recent study indicated that fewer horseflies land on mannequins with stripes painted onto them. The research was inspired by observations that zebras also tend not to be bothered much by flies. A separate study now offers an explanation as to why that's the case.

​Even if you love olives out of the jar, chances are you wouldn't like them straight off the tree. When freshly-picked, they contain bitter-tasting chemical compounds that have to be removed via an environmentally-iffy process. According to a new study, however, there could be a greener alternative.

​Although the platypus may seem like a real oddball of an animal, it turns out that a prehistoric reptile had some of the same key features. Like the platypus (which is a mammal, albeit one that lays eggs), Eretmorhipis carrolldongi had small eyes, four flippers, and a flexible duck-like bill.

While it's kind of people to set up hummingbird feeders in their back yards, some scientists are wondering if the practise may be causing more harm than good. In an effort to better understand the issue, researchers equipped a group of the birds with tags that were read by devices at feeders.

After over decade of development, the world’s first full-body medical scanner has produced its first images. The groundbreaking imaging device is almost 40 times faster than current PET scans and can capture a 3D picture of the entire human body in one instant scan.

Not only is spring springing earlier, but how early depends on how far from the equator you are, according to a new study. Spring arrives four days earlier for every 10 degrees north you may find yourself, which is about three times the variation previously thought.

Switching to farming from hunting left an indelible mark on our biology, as the softer foods meant we didn’t need to spend so much energy chewing. Studying hundreds of pre-industrial era human skulls, new research has singled out the foodstuff with the biggest impact on our skull shape: cheese.

Life is adept at adapting, and the environment is changing faster than ever thanks to us. Evolution is normally thought of in millions of years, but a new study has observed how human activity has directly driven separate populations of geckos to evolve new attributes in the space of just 15 years.