Paleontologists Reconstruct Ecology of Archaeopteryx
New Species of Fossil Koala Found in Museum Drawer
Researchers Find Molecular Clue to Why Coffee May Be Good for You
106-Million-Year-Old Pterosaur Footprints Discovered in Korea
Omnivorous, Rodent-Like Mammal Lived in Dinosaurs’ Shadow on Pacific Coast
Two-Toed Sloths May Be Three Distinct Species, New Research Suggests
New images from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope capture the barred spiral galaxy Messier 77 as a whirlpool of glowing dust, newborn stars and a brilliantly active core. This image of Messier 77 from Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) highlights its swirling spiral arms, the dust in its disk and its piercingly bright core like never before. The bright orange lines appearing to radiate...
Space debris — ranging from defunct satellites and discarded rocket stages to fragments from collisions — poses an ever-increasing threat to active spacecraft and human spaceflight. New research shows that surges in solar activity can accelerate the descent of space debris, reshaping how scientists predict satellite lifetimes and collision risks. Space junk begins to fall down much faster...
Hominins at the Acheulian site of Gesher Benot Ya’aqov in Israel relied on driftwood gathered along a lakeshore to fuel their hearths, according to new research led by archaeologists from the Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social and Bar-Ilan University; 780,000-year-old charcoal fragments from the site show that survival wasn’t about finding the perfect wood — it...
A new analysis of 470 flowering plant species finds that whole-genome duplication surged precisely during Earth’s violent environmental crises, suggesting nature keeps a backup plan hidden in plain sight. Chen et al. constructed a comprehensive genomic dataset of 470 flowering plant species and dated 132 ancient whole-genome duplication (WGD) events that are non-randomly distributed, revealing...
For decades, scientists treated the yellow-eyed penguin (Megadyptes antipodes) as a single species split into two broad populations. A new genomic study has shattered that picture, revealing three deeply separate lineages that have been isolated from one another for thousands of years — long predating the arrival of humans in New Zealand (Aotearoa). Geographical distribution of yellow-eyed...
New research by astronomers from the University of California, Riverside, Sam Houston State University and the University of Oklahoma suggests decaying dark matter could have triggered the rapid collapse of early gas clouds, helping supermassive black holes form far sooner than current theories allow. Aggarwal et al. show that the energy released from dark matter decay could alter the chemistry of...
A team of U.S. researchers has demonstrated, for the first time in human trials, a device that reads brain signals to automatically amplify the voice a listener wants to hear — a potential lifeline for the 430 million people worldwide with disabling hearing loss. Participants with intracranial electrodes listened to two competing, spatially separated conversations. Their neural signals were...
A new analysis of 470 flowering plant species finds that whole-genome duplication surged precisely during Earth’s violent environmental crises, suggesting nature keeps a backup plan hidden in plain sight. Chen et al. constructed a comprehensive genomic dataset of 470 flowering plant species and dated 132 ancient whole-genome duplication (WGD) events that are non-randomly distributed, revealing...
Unusual gases rising from geothermal springs within the Kafue Rift of Zambia suggest a deep fracture in Earth’s crust could mark the early stages of a new tectonic boundary. Location map of the extensional zone within the Central African Plateau of Zambia. The Kafue Rift is connected to the Luano and Luangwa rifts to the NE, and the Western branch of the EARS at the Rukwa rift (RRB) and Rungwe...
Unusual gases rising from geothermal springs within the Kafue Rift of Zambia suggest a deep fracture in Earth’s crust could mark the early stages of a new tectonic boundary. Location map of the extensional zone within the Central African Plateau of Zambia. The Kafue Rift is connected to the Luano and Luangwa rifts to the NE, and the Western branch of the EARS at the Rukwa rift (RRB) and Rungwe...
