ScienceDaily: Top Science News

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• Acid rain, ozone depletion contributed to ancient extinction
• Greenland's shrunken ice sheet: We've been here before
• 'Immune gene' in humans inherited from Neanderthals, study suggests

Acid rain, ozone depletion contributed to ancient extinction Posted: 22 Nov 2013 01:56 PM PST Around 250 million years ago, at the end of the Permian period, there was a mass extinction so severe that it remains the most traumatic known species die-off in Earth's history. Some researchers have suggested that this extinction was triggered by contemporaneous volcanic eruptions in Siberia. New results show that the atmospheric effects of these eruptions could have been devastating.

Greenland's shrunken ice sheet: We've been here before Posted: 22 Nov 2013 01:55 PM PST Think Greenland's ice sheet is small today? It was smaller — as small as it's been in recent history — from 3-5,000 years ago, according to scientists who studied the ice sheet's history using a new technique they developed for interpreting the Arctic fossil record.

'Immune gene' in humans inherited from Neanderthals, study suggests Posted: 22 Nov 2013 05:44 AM PST Scientists have discovered a novel receptor, which allows the immune system of modern humans to recognize dangerous invaders, and subsequently elicits an immune response. The blueprint for this advantageous structure was in addition identified in the genome of Neanderthals, hinting at its origin. The presence of this receptor in Europeans but its absence in early humans suggests that it was inherited from Neanderthals.

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