On our daily walks, my partner and I often bump into other local dog owners. We’ll have a brief conversation, but when we walk away I’ll often have to remind him who that person actually was.

Some people are excellent at remembering faces, while others can’t recognise the faces of even their closest friends. The former are called super-face-recognisers while the latter are said to have face blindness. Others, like my partner and I, sit somewhere in between. Now, new research shows people who are super-face-recognisers are likely to be better at recognising voices too.

The new study is the first to show a link between people with an exceptional ability to recognise faces and those who can recognise voices. It’s also the first to suggest people with excellent voice-recognition abilities might be able to help with policing and security operations.

Meanwhile, archaeologists have discovered an extremely rare Norman coin, the second ever to be found in Sweden, as part of a Viking hoard of silver. Dug up just north of Stockholm, the coin is changing our understanding of French history.

Looking even further back in time, the Earth was completely molten 3.7 billion years ago. Now, the chemical remnants of Earth’s magma oceans have been found in rocks from southern Greenland. The rare rocks have lots to tell us about our planet’s structure, the chemistry of its surface and the formation of its early atmosphere.

Abigail Beall

Science and Tech Editor

Can you recognise voices? Shutterstock/Viktoria Kurpas

Super-recognisers: some people excel at both face and voice recognition

Ryan Jenkins, University of Greenwich; David James Robertson, University of Strathclyde ; Josh P Davis, University of Greenwich

The people who are excellent at recognising faces might also excel at recognising voices.

The Viking hoard being excavated. Acta Konserveringscentrum

Swedish Viking hoard: how the discovery of single Norman coin expands our knowledge of French history

Jens Christian Moesgaard, Stockholm University

A Viking hoard of silver coins and jewellery expands our understanding of French history.

4 billion years ago, the Earth was composed of a series of magma oceans hundreds of kilometres deep. Larich/Shutterstock

Earth’s early magma oceans detected in 3.7 billion year-old Greenland rocks

Helen M Williams, University of Cambridge

The rocks provide rare evidence of a time when Earth's surface was a deep sea of incandescent magma.

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