MADDIE BURAKOFF

FILE - A student places her handprint along with those of other students at a primary school in Lufkin, Texas on Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2005. (Joel Andrews/The Daily News via AP, File)

Science shows giving thanks has been part of human survival. Here’s how we got and stayed grateful

Giving thanks isn’t just a holiday tradition. It’s an important part of being human. Science says the feeling of gratitude probably showed up early in our evolution.

Palestinians collect water from a water tap, amid drinking water shortages, in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Sunday, Oct, 15, 2023. Israel cut off water to Gaza after a Hamas attack last week killed 1,300 people and Israel's retaliatory strikes killed more than 2,300 Palestinians. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

Gaza’s limited water supply raises concerns for human health

Limited water supplies are posing a growing threat to human health in the Gaza Strip. Regular sources of water have mostly dried up with Israel cutting off pipelines and fuel and electricity to run water and sewage plants.

FILE - A Walgreens store is seen, June 25, 2018, in Peoria, Ariz. Some Walgreens pharmacy staff walked off the job this week over concerns that working conditions are putting employees and patients at risk. Organizers on Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2023, estimated that more than 300 Walgreens locations — out of nearly 9,000 nationwide — were affected by walkouts planned for Monday, Oct. 9, through Wednesday, Oct. 11. A company spokesperson said “no more than a dozen” pharmacies experienced disruptions. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)

Walgreens pharmacy staffers stage walkouts over work conditions

Walgreens has named a new CEO as pharmacy staff walked off the job this week over concerns that working conditions are putting employees and patients at risk.

Tourists walk through the Acropolis of Copan, an ancient Maya site in western Honduras, Sunday, Sept. 24, 2023. In Copan, intricate lime sculptures and temples remain intact even after more than 1,000 years exposed to a hot, humid environment. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

How are ancient Roman and Mayan buildings still standing? Scientists are unlocking their secrets

Scientists are trying to understand how some ancient buildings have lasted for centuries in hopes of making modern buildings more durable.

FILE - Japan Prize 2022 laureates Hungarian-American biochemist Katalin Kariko, left, and American physician-scientist Drew Weissman, right, pose with their trophies during the Japan Prize presentation ceremony Wednesday, April 13, 2022, in Tokyo. The Nobel Prize in medicine awarded to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman for enabling development of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, it was announced on Monday, Oct. 2, 2023. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool, File)

Karikó and Weissman win Nobel Prize in medicine for work that enabled mRNA vaccines against COVID-19

Two scientists have won the Nobel Prize in medicine for discoveries that enabled the creation of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 and that could be used to develop other shots in the future.

An exhibit of early human species, whose faces have been recreated, are seen inside the Smithsonian Hall of Human Origins, Thursday, July 20, 2023, at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

We carry DNA from extinct cousins like Neanderthals. Science is now revealing their genetic legacy

More research is showing that we carry genes from other kinds of ancient humans, and their DNA affects our lives today.

Busts of Neanderthal and hominins line a table at the studio of paleoartist John Gurche in Trumansburg, N.Y., Wednesday, May 31, 2023. Along with more fossils and artifacts, DNA findings are pointing us to a challenging idea: We're not so special. For most of human history we shared the planet with other kinds of early humans — and those now-extinct groups were a lot like us. (AP Photo/Heather Ainsworth)

Science paints a new picture of the ancient past, when we mixed and mated with other kinds of humans

The science of human evolution has made big leaps in recent years, and it’s painting a new picture of our origins.

FILE - The sun sets beyond the downtown skyline of Kansas City, Mo., as the autumnal equinox marks the first day of fall Sunday, Sept. 22, 2013. During the equinox, the Earth’s axis and its orbit line up so that both hemispheres get an equal amount of sunlight. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)

The fall equinox is here. What does that mean?

Fall gets its official start this weekend in the Northern Hemisphere. This year’s autumnal equinox arrives on Saturday. But what does that mean?

In this photo provided by researchers, an excavation team uncovers a wooden structure found on a riverbed near a waterfall in Zambia in 2019. The pair of crossed logs may be the oldest evidence of early humans building with wood, nearly half a million years old, according to a study published Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2023 in the journal Nature. (Larry Barham/University of Liverpool via AP)

This simple log structure may be the oldest example of early humans building with wood

A pair of crossed logs in Zambia may be the oldest evidence of early humans building with wood. That’s according to research published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

Mosquitoes lay eggs inside the World Mosquito Program's factory, in Medellin, Colombia, Thursday, Aug. 10, 2023. (AP Photo/Jaime Saldarriaga)

Special mosquitoes are being bred to fight dengue. How the old enemies are now becoming allies

Preventing dengue fever has long meant teaching people to fear mosquitoes and avoid their bites. Now scientists are promoting a new way to control the disease with the help of mosquitoes.

Los Angeles Angels' Shohei Ohtani sits in the dugout before a baseball game against the Philadelphia Phillies, Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2023, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

A 2nd Tommy John rehab could be tougher for Angels’ Shohei Ohtani. But it’s not a given

If Shohei Ohtani has a second Tommy John surgery, it’s possible his recovery might be more difficult than the first — but not a given.

This photo provided by The South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology shows "Oetzi the Iceman," one of the oldest human glacier mummies. Decades after he was discovered in the Italian Alps, scientists determined that Oetzi was mostly descended from farmers from present day Turkey, and his head was balder and skin darker than what was initially thought, according to a study published Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2023, in the journal Cell Genomics. (Marco Samadelli, Gregor Staschitz/South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology/EURAC via AP)

Fresh look at DNA from Oetzi the Iceman traces his roots to present day Turkey

New research takes another look at the DNA of the famous glacier mummy to paint a better picture of the ancient hunter.

FILE - In this long exposure photo, a streak appears in the sky during the annual Perseid meteor shower at the Guadarrama mountains, near Madrid, in the early hours of Aug. 12, 2016. The best viewing for the annual shower visible around the world will be from Saturday night, Aug. 12, 2023, local time, into early Sunday morning, when viewers might be able to spot a meteor per minute. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco, File)

The Perseid meteor shower peaks this weekend and it’s even better this year

The annual Perseid meteor shower reaches its peak this weekend. The best viewing will be from Saturday night into early Sunday morning, when viewers might be able to spot a meteor per minute.

Paleontologist Mario Urbina poses for a photo next to the vertebrae of a newly found species named Perucetus colossus, or “the colossal whale from Peru”, during a presentation in Lima, Peru, Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2023. The bones were first discovered more than a decade ago by Urbina from the University of San Marcos’ Natural History Museum. An international team spent years digging them out from the side of a steep, rocky slope in the Ica desert, a region in Peru that was once underwater and is known for its rich marine fossils. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

The heaviest animal ever may be this ancient whale found in the Peruvian desert

A newly studied species of ancient whale might be the heaviest animal ever found. Scientists reported Wednesday that the creature could challenge the blue whale’s title as the heaviest animal to live on Earth.

This image of a fossil provided by the Canadian Museum of Nature shows the left hand of a mammal wrapped around the lower jaw of a dinosaur. The unusual fossil from China suggests some early mammals may have hunted down dinosaur meat for dinner. The fossil shows a badger-like creature chomping down on a beaky dinosaur three times its size. The research published on Tuesday, July 18, 2023, adds to growing evidence that even when dinosaurs ruled the Earth, some mammals were biting back. (Gang Han/Canadian Museum of Nature via AP)

Mammals may have hunted down dinosaurs for dinner, rare fossil suggests

An unusual find in China suggests some early mammals may have hunted dinosaur for dinner. The fossil shows a badgerlike creature chomping down on a small, beaked dinosaur, their skeletons intertwined.

An aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights, is seen in the sky in the early morning hours of Monday, April 24, 2023, near Washtucna, Wash. An intense solar storm has the aurora borealis gracing the skies farther south than usual. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

Northern lights might be visible this week, but most of the US won’t see them

The northern lights could be visible for some people this week, but most of the U.S. will miss out. The shimmering green curtain of the aurora is more likely to be spotted in Canada and Alaska.

This photo provided by researcher Sam England in June 2023 shows a tick sitting on a flower. Hungry ticks have some slick tricks. They can zoom through the air using static electricity to latch onto people, pets and other animals, according to a study published Friday, June 30, 2023, in the journal Current Biology. (Sam England via AP)

There’s something about you that attracts ticks, a study finds

Static electricity might help ticks zoom through the air to grab onto people and animals. A study published Friday found that the static charges we pick up from the environment may be giving the hungry parasites a boost to their next meal.

This illustration provided by researchers in June 2023 depicts gravitational waves stretching and squeezing space-time in the universe. On Wednesday, June 28, 2023, researchers reported signals from what they call low-frequency gravitational waves — changes in the fabric of the universe that are created by huge objects moving around and colliding in space. It took decades of work by scientists across the globe to track down the evidence for these super-slow wobbles. (Aurore Simonnet/NANOGrav Collaboration)

Scientists have finally ‘heard’ the chorus of gravitational waves that ripple through the universe

Scientists have observed for the first time the faint ripples caused by the motion of black holes that are gently stretching and squeezing everything in the universe.