A hard hit to the head typically prompts physicians to look for signs of a concussion based on symptoms such as forgetfulness, wobbly gait and disorientation. But symptoms such as those are subjective, says physiologist Sushmita Purkayastha, Southern Methodist University, Dallas. Now a new study aims to find noninvasive objective indicators to diagnose whether an athlete has suffered a concussion.
Archaeologists translating a very rare inscription on an ancient Etruscan temple stone have discovered the name Uni — an important female goddess.
The established theory of how Ice Age peoples first reached the present-day United States is now challenged by an unprecedented study that concludes that entry route was “biologically unviable.” The North American ice-free corridor, thought to have been used by the first colonizers, only became biologically viable 12,600 years ago — after they would have arrived. Researchers suggest a Pacific coast was the entry route.
Now researchers at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed a model using geometry proofs that shows potential for wide adoption — a video game in which students make movements with their arms to learn abstract math concepts.
Uplift associated with East Africa's Great Rift Valley and the environmental changes it produced have puzzled scientists for decades because the timing and starting elevation have been poorly constrained.
Now paleontologists have tapped a fossil from the most precisely dated beaked whale in the world — and the only stranded whale ever found so far inland on the African continent — to pinpoint a date when the mysterious elevation began.
Initial results from the seismology team at Southern Methodist University reveal that a recent series of earthquakes near old Texas Stadium in the Dallas-Fort Worth area were relatively shallow and concentrated along a narrow two-mile line that indicates a fault extending from Irving into West Dallas. SMU and the United States Geological Survey have shared an interim report with the mayors of Dallas and Irving.
Should global warming cause sea levels to rise as predicted in coming decades, thousands of archaeological sites in coastal areas around the world will be lost to erosion.
With no hope of saving all these sites, an SMU archaeologist and others call for scientists to assess the sites most at risk.
Photo: A site at Anacapa Island, southern California, is in danger of eroding into the ocean. (Credit: Reeder)