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The cultural and technological innovations of Middle Stone Age humans in Southern Africa may not be directly linked to climate, according to new research. Environmental records obtained from archaeological sites where there are Middle Stone Age deposits are the subject of the study published in the journal, PLOS ONE .

New research finds that foster carers who have faced unproven allegations of abuse from the children they are looking after often have little support afterwards. The study drew on 190 records of unproven allegations against foster carers from all over England. It found that just over half (55%) of foster carers subjected to an unproven abuse allegation by the child were offered support on the day they learnt about the claim - usually from the relevant local authority, or fostering companies or charities involved.

Results from a long-term phase II study of the malaria vaccine RTS,S show that its efficacy falls over time, and that this decline is fastest in children living in areas with higher than average rates of malaria. The findings, published in the New England Journal of Medicine , suggest that the benefits of the vaccine are likely to vary across different populations and highlight the need for more research to determine the most effective way of using RTS,S, which last year became the first ever malaria vaccine to receive a green light from the European Medicines Agency.

An international team of scientists from Oxford University and Tel-Hai College (Israel) has shown that pea plants can demonstrate sensitivity to risk - namely, that they can make adaptive choices that take into account environmental variance, an ability previously unknown outside the animal kingdom.

Team spent ten years trying to find role of four genes:  Argfx, Leutx, Dprx and Tprx Genes only act in one brief period during the early stages of an embryo After fertilisation starts the engine of growth, genes control the 'first gear' of embryo development Genes arose 70 million years ago in an unstable area of human DNA Oxford University researchers are closer to solving a decade-old mystery after discovering that a set of genes they are studying play a key role in early human development.

Scientists have discovered that the malaria parasite  Plasmodium vivax  is evolving rapidly to adapt to conditions in different geographical locations, in particular to defend itself against widely-used antimalarial drugs. The study, published in  Nature Genetics  today, provides a foundation for using genomic surveillance to guide effective strategies for malaria control and elimination.

A new approach to gas exploration has discovered a huge helium gas field, which could address the increasingly critical shortage of this vital yet rare element. Helium doesn't just make your voice squeaky - it is critical to many things we take for granted, including MRI scanners in medicine, welding, industrial leak detection and nuclear energy.

Oxford University research has found that a little-studied and relatively unknown part of the human immune system could be twice as important as previously thought. Mucosal Associated Invariant T-cells (MAIT cells) were first identified in 1993 but largely ignored until recently. Australian researchers recently found that they had an important role in fighting bacterial infections.

You might think from anecdotal evidence that hate speech on social media by individuals and groups appears quite a lot, but one of first academic studies to examine the empirical data concludes that these extreme forms of speech on Facebook are marginal as compared with total content. Researchers from the University of Oxford and Addis Ababa University examined thousands of comments made by Ethiopians on Facebook during four months around the time of  Ethiopia's general election in 2015.

Researchers from the University of Oxford have revealed that the genetic ancestries of many of sub-Saharan Africa's populations are the result of historical DNA mixing events, known as admixture, within the last 4000 years. Their study, to be published in the journal eLife, uncovers signatures of these admixture events through a large analysis of DNA from populations across the continent.

Brief bouts of simple synchronised dancing can help groups of children warm to one another, says a new study. Researchers found this was even the case when children's feelings about the other group were negative beforehand. Around 100 children who took part in the Oxford University study were divided into groups and performed dance-like moves facing one another, wearing headphones for their rhythmic cues.

Brief bouts of simple synchronised dance-like moves can help groups of children warm to one another, says a new study. Researchers found this was even the case when children's feelings about the other group were negative beforehand. Around 100 children who took part in the Oxford University study were divided into groups and performed their moves facing one another, wearing headphones for their rhythmic cues.

With drug development costs topping $1.2bn (£850 million) to get a single treatment to the point it can be sold and used in the clinic, could genetic analysis save hundreds of millions of dollars? According to a new study published in the International Journal of Epidemiology this week, genetic research in large-scale prospective biobank studies can significantly improve the drug development pipeline and reduce costs.

For the first time, an international team of scientists from the European Society for Translational Antiviral Research (ESAR) has mapped the spread of the HIV virus around the globe after it reached the United States in the early 1970s. The major study, published in the Journal of Molecular Epidemiology and Evolutionary Genetics of Infectious Diseases ( MEEGID ), finds that HIV travelled from the US to Western Europe on a number of occasions, whereas Central and Eastern Europe remained isolated for the most part of the early epidemic.

Breastfeeding premature babies improves long-term heart structure and function, an Oxford University study has found. The hearts of babies born early often develop abnormally. Dr Adam Lewandowski and colleagues at the Oxford Cardiovascular Clinical Research Facility, directed by Professor Paul Leeson, have previously shown that, in adult life, the hearts of people who were born very preterm have smaller chambers, thicker walls and reduced function.

A new study looks into the history of stone tools used by wild macaques in coastal Thailand. It finds they have been using them for decades..and possibly thousands of years.. to crack open shellfish and nuts. While there have been several studies observing living non-human primates, this is the first report into the archaeological evidence of tool use by Old World monkeys.

But researchers warn that lack of available data from published and unpublished trials leads to great uncertainty around true effects Most available antidepressants are ineffective, and some may be unsafe, for children and teenagers with major depression, according to the most comprehensive comparison of commonly prescribed antidepressant drugs so far, published in  The Lancet .

'Pristine' landscapes simply do not exist anywhere in the world today and, in most cases, have not existed for at least several thousand years, says a new study led by the University of Oxford. An exhaustive review of archaeological data from the last 30 years details how the world's landscapes have been shaped by repeated human activity over many thousands of years.

A species of tropical fish has been shown to be able to distinguish between human faces. It is the first time fish have demonstrated this ability. The research, carried out by a team of scientists from the University of Oxford (UK) and the University of Queensland (Australia), found that archerfish were able to learn and recognise faces with a high degree of accuracy - an impressive feat, given this task requires sophisticated visual recognition capabilities.

What is it about the sight of an infant that makes almost everyone crack a smile? Big eyes, chubby cheeks, and a button nose? An infectious laugh, soft skin, and a captivating smell? While we have long known that babies look cute, Oxford University researchers have found that cuteness is designed to appeal to all our senses - even our noses! They explain that all these characteristics contribute to 'cuteness' and trigger our caregiving behaviours, which is vital because infants need our constant attention to survive and thrive.