Nancy Shute

Nov 29, 2024 | sciencenews.org | Nancy Shute

The human body is a marvel of engineering, but it’s a machine that requires maintenance and repair. At times, that means trying to replace parts lost to injury or illness. The oldest known prosthesis is the “Cairo toe,” crafted out of wood and leather and thought to be 2,700 to 3,000 years old. Its flexibility as well as signs that it was repaired multiple times suggest that it wasn’t built just for appearance — it helped the person walk.

Nov 15, 2024 | sciencenews.org | Nancy Shute

Since her public debut in 1978, Lucy has been on a first-name basis with the world. Not bad for someone from rural Ethiopia who had been an unknown for 3.2 million years or so. Paleoanthropologists Donald Johanson and Tom Gray had discovered Lucy’s fossilized bones a few years earlier (SN: 1/4/75, p. 4). That spectacular moment 50 years ago quickly upended how many scientists thought about human evolution.

Nov 1, 2024 | sciencenews.org | Nancy Shute

Those of us who grew up in Western cultures tend to think of archaeology as the study of a place — a point on the map where edifices or artifacts tell us something important about past people and cultures. Archaeologists have tended to think this way, too. A site is identified; excavation ensues. Artifacts are discovered. The artifacts are studied, inventoried and carefully stored so that they will be available to the archaeologists of the future.

Oct 18, 2024 | sciencenews.org | Nancy Shute

Concern about the health of democratic governments has been rising worldwide, and one of the key metrics researchers use to measure the robustness of a democracy is its ability to conduct free and fair elections. With the United States in the midst of a polarized presidential election, we here at Science News have taken a close look at the science of studying democracies and what characteristics make them strong — or can destabilize them.

Oct 4, 2024 | sciencenews.org | Nancy Shute

He brings people together. She is good at recruiting other people to her vision. She has crossed boundaries between nations, scientific fields and languages. She is invaluable to the physics community. These phrases are used to describe four of the remarkable early-and mid-career scientists profiled in our SN 10: Scientists to Watch. And the gist of those observations — that collaborating and communicating with others is essential to science — is true of all 10 of the scientists on our list.