School of Science

Traci Watso reports for USA Today about new evidence uncovered by a team of researchers from MIT that could be the earliest known evidence that the Neanderthals were, “omnivores who ate significant quantities of plant-based food.” 

Monte Morin of the Los Angeles Times reports on new MIT researching showing the Neanderthals did eat vegetation. “Using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, researchers studied the powdered samples for traces of stanols and sterols, lipids that are formed in the intestines when gut bacteria act on plant and animal matter,” Morin writes. 

Writing for The Huffington Post, Jacqueline Howard reports that an analysis of ancient fecal matter by MIT researchers shows that the Neanderthals ate more vegetables than originally thought. 

Jonathan Webb of BBC News reports on research showing that the Neanderthals ate vegetables. "If you find it in the faeces, you are sure that it was ingested," Ainara Sistiaga explains. "This molecular fossil is perfect to try to know the proportion of both food sources in a Neanderthal meal."

The Huffington Post reports on new MIT research examining how sperm cells travel and function. The team’s findings, which show how sperm travel upstream so efficiently, could lead to advances in artificial insemination.