Astronomy

Rocky Planets May Have Started Forming Just 100 Million Years after Big Bang

This artist’s impression shows a field of Population III stars as they would have appeared a mere 100 million years after the Big Bang. Image credit: NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / J. da Silva / Spaceengine.

New simulations suggest supernova explosions of the Universe’s first stars scattered the ingredients for rocky planets only 100 million years after the Big Bang, with water already present in some planet-forming disks. This artist’s impression shows a field of Population III stars as they would have appeared a mere 100 million years after the Big Bang. Image credit: NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / J....

Archaeology

40,000-Year-Old Bird Figurines Found in German Cave

Two bird figurines found at Hohle Fels Cave in Germany. Image credit: Ralf Ehmann / University of Tübingen / Museum of Prehistory and Ice Age Art.

Archaeologists in southwestern Germany have unearthed two miniature bird figurines carved from mammoth ivory, among the smallest and most delicate examples of Ice Age art ever found. Two bird figurines found at Hohle Fels Cave in Germany. Image credit: Ralf Ehmann / University of Tübingen / Museum of Prehistory and Ice Age Art. The two ancient figurines, roughly 2 cm (0.8 inches) long and weighing...

Biology

Why Were There No Tiny Non-Avian Dinosaurs? Mammals May Have Been to Blame

Torvosaurus gurneyi. Image credit: © Sergey Krasovskiy.

Dinosaurs evolved into some of the largest animals ever to walk the Earth, but a new mathematical model suggests that early mammals may have crowded them out of the ecological niches reserved for the smallest creatures. Torvosaurus gurneyi. Image credit: © Sergey Krasovskiy. “Across vertebrates living today, tiny animals are everywhere. Mice, hummingbirds, geckos, and shrews all weigh just a few...

Geology

Australia’s North Pole Dome Crater is Earth’s Oldest and Only Known Archean Impact Structure

The North Pole Dome crater: (A) simplified map of the East Pilbara Terrane (EPT, Western Australia), showing Paleoarchean granite domes (pink) and greenstone belts (greens and blues); the North Pole Dome (NPD) lies near the terrane center; (B) geological map of the NPD and the shatter-cone field (yellow star); (C) A quartz (Qtz)-carbonate vein cutting shatter-cone lineation. Image credit: Kirkland et al., doi: 10.1130/G54866.1.

Zircon crystals and impact-altered minerals show that a massive asteroid slammed into what is now the Pilbara region of Western Australia about 3 billion years ago. The North Pole Dome crater: (A) simplified map of the East Pilbara Terrane (EPT, Western Australia), showing Paleoarchean granite domes (pink) and greenstone belts (greens and blues); the North Pole Dome (NPD) lies near the terrane center;...

Other Sciences

Manuka Honey’s Antibacterial Power Goes beyond Sugar and MGO: Study

Allcott et al. show that increasing UMF grade of Manuka honey is associated with stronger antibacterial activity and that this activity cannot be explained by sugar content or methylglyoxal alone. Image credit: Estelle Heitz.

Manuka honey, the New Zealand product long touted for wound care, may also hold potential against bacteria that cause respiratory infections, including strains resistant to common antibiotics, and its antibacterial effects arise from the combined action of methylglyoxal (MGO) and additional components within the honey matrix, according to new research led by Aston University. Allcott et al. show...