This cave art discovery changes what we thought we knew about the emergence of humanity

Northern Spain has been home to the oldest known example of a cave painting for a long time. While 10,000-year-old cave paintings have been found in a number of other locations, nothing ever held a candle to the 40,000-year-old El Castillo red disk.

But on Wednesday, a research team published the results of a new examination of cave art from Sulawesi, Indonesia, that dates a painting there as at least 39,900 years old. The oldest painting is of a human hand — an art form that would become increasingly popular through the ages and would be familiar even to school children today. Another painting, an animal known as a pig deer, is believed to be at least 35,400 years old.

Those two paintings are the oldest surviving examples of true art — rather than just a colored disk like the El Castillo painting. According to The New York Times, this recent discovery reinforces the idea that humanity grew into southeast Asia early on its trek out of Africa — and many researchers say it makes it likely that the defining cultural characteristics of humanity came with them.

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Vladimir Putin's tiger leaves for China

Earlier this year, Vladimir Putin released three highly endangered Siberian tigers into the wild Russian forests. Since then, researchers have tracked the three tigers to try and ensure their safety and health. Well, one of the three tigers left Russia recently, crossing the border into China in search of food. The Siberian tiger once roamed vast parts of China as well, but it has been hunted virtually to extinction there through the years. Now Russian and Chinese officials are teaming up to keep this tiger safe.

According to the BBC, the tiger, named Kuzya, has entered the Taipinggou nature reserve in northeastern China. An official from the reserve said, if neccessary, cattle will be released into the reserve for Kuzya to catch and eat. Just 400 wild tigers remain in Siberia. President Putin has made a habit of posing in elaborately staged photos in nature, often with big cats. He says he does it to draw attention to the need to preserve the endangered species.

Your sense of smell may be an early warning sign — for your life

As people age, their hearing and their vision often deteriorate — we've known that for a while. But it turns out another sense also deteriorates when someone is on the verge of death — smell. In fact, researchers have found that sense of smell is strongly correlated with life expectancy. In a study of older Americans, people with a deteriorated sense of smell were far more likely to be dead within five years than those who retained full command of their nose.

So, what does this mean for anyone who's suddenly worried about what their nose knows? PRI's Science Friday talked to one of the researchers behind the project. He said people should use their sense of smell as an warning. If your sense of smell suddenly deteriorates for a reason you can't explain — i.e. not because you have a cold — then, he says, you should see a physician.

This video convinced a multinational toy company to ditch its partnership with one of the world's largest oil companies

Legos have been entertaining kids for decades, their easy use and clever designs providing endless opportunities to test a child's imagination. The company's sets run the gamut from the Wild West to city scenes. And for years, they've also had a partnership with Shell, the Dutch oil giant, that featured the Shell logo in some of their sets — gas stations, tanker trucks and the like. But that didn't sit well with Greenpeace, which launched an international campaign to get Lego to end its relationship with Shell.

Greenpeace argued Shell was brainwashing children to keep them from questioning its environmental practices. The centerpiece of the campaign was this viral video, which depicted a Lego world being covered in oil, killing people and animals. The video made heavy use of Shell logo Lego pieces, and invited people to visit a website where they could sign a petition to Lego to get them to terminate the partnership. It worked. According to the Huffington Post, Lego ended its 50-year, $110 million marketing agreement with Shell in the face of public demands.

Deforestation is making us more vulnerable to Ebola

The currest West African Ebola outbreak has impacted thousands and it's continuing to expand. Ebola has been a problem for decades, though in recent years outbreaks have become far more common. Part of the reason for that, scientists say, is humans are having a much greater and more disruptive impact on the environment, coming into greater contact with the animals that are believes to carry and harbor the virus.

PRI's The World reports that deforestation is one activity that is contributing to the increase in Ebola risk. By cutting down trees where fruit bats live — fruit bats are believe to be a major carrier of Ebola — the animals are forced to find new homes, often in villages and towns in close contact with humans. Meanwhile other human behaviors, like killing animals for bush meat and then selling it in cities, also make it more likely humans will contract Ebola. And this isn't isolated to Ebola. More than six in 10 infectious diseases today come from animals.

What we're seeing on social

Weather around the world

Southwest England was batted by 50 mph gales, tornadoes and almost a dozen flood warnings on Wednesday and Thursday, The Guardian reports. At least two separate tornadoes touched down, though no deaths were reported. Bad weather earlier in the week killed a 61-year-old man after masonry fell and struck him. Brits were hoping for some relief from the bad weather the next couple days, though more storms were expected to move in on Sunday.