News Archive for November 2019

This image illustrates the beginning stages of an influenza infection and shows what happens after the influenza viruses enter the human body. Image credit: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Ketogenic Diet Protects against Influenza A Virus Infection, Animal Study Finds

Nov 19, 2019 by News Staff

A new study led by Professor Akiko Iwasaki of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Professor Vishwa Deep Dixit from Yale School of Medicine shows that...

Forensic facial reconstruction of another Australopithecus species - A. afarensis. Image credit: Cicero Moraes / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Living Great Apes are Smarter than Australopithecines, New Research Suggests

Nov 18, 2019 by News Staff

New research challenges the long-held idea that, because the brain of human ancestors called australopithecines was larger than that of many modern great...

A reconstruction of the Kawhia giant penguin. Image credit: Simone Giovanardi.

Paleontologists Unearth Another Giant Penguin in New Zealand

Nov 18, 2019 by Natali Anderson

Paleontologists in New Zealand have uncovered a nearly complete skeleton of a giant-sized penguin that swam the oceans about 27 million years ago (Oligocene...

The odd orbits of Neptune’s inner moons Naiad and Thalassa enable them to avoid each other as they race around the giant planet. Image credit: Brozović et al, doi: 10.1016/j.icarus.2019.113462.

Neptune’s Moons Naiad and Thalassa Perform ‘Dance of Avoidance’

Nov 18, 2019 by News Staff

A new study, published in the journal Icarus, shows that Naiad and Thalassa, two innermost moons of Neptune, are locked in an unusual type of orbital resonance. The...

TAS2R38 predicted lower consumption of vegetables in people who possessed the PAV haplotype. Image credit: Jerzy Górecki.

Genetic Variants Play Role in Our Food Choices: Study

Nov 18, 2019 by News Staff

Genetic variants determine whether or not you can tolerate eating certain vegetables, according to new research. TAS2R38 predicted lower consumption of...

This new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the spiral galaxy NGC 3749. The image is made up of observations from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) in the infrared and optical parts of the spectrum. Two filters were used to sample various wavelengths. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / D. Rosario et al.

Hubble Snaps Stunning Image of Spiral Galaxy NGC 3749

Nov 18, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured an amazing new photo of a galaxy called NGC 3749. This new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope...

This is a simulation showing a section of the Universe at its broadest scale; a web of cosmic filaments forms a lattice of matter, enclosing vast voids. Image credit: Greg Poole / Tiamat Simulation.

Study: Direction in Which Galaxies Spin Depends on Their Mass

Nov 15, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers have measured the rotation of 1,418 galaxies and found that small ones are likely to spin on a different axis to large ones. The rotation was...

Cheng et al report genome sequences and analyses of two early diverging Zygnematophyceae species, Spirogloea muscicola and Mesotaenium endlicherianum, that share the same subaerial/terrestrial habitat with the earliest-diverging embryophytes, the bryophytes. Image credit: Cheng et al, doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2019.10.019.

Natural Genetic Engineering Allowed Plants to Move from Water to Land

Nov 15, 2019 by News Staff

Horizontal gene transfer from soil bacteria to algae allowed early life to move to land, according to new research. Cheng et al report genome sequences...

Tiny holes punched into a high-temperature superconducting material revealed that Cooper pairs can also conduct electricity the way metals do. Image credit: Brown University.

Scientists Uncover New State of Matter in Superconductor

Nov 15, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of physicists and materials scientists from the United States and China has discovered a new state of matter they’ve named ‘Cooper...

Life restoration of Fukuipteryx prima, a primitive bird that lived in what is now Japan about 120 million years ago. Image credit: Masanori Yoshida.

New Dinosaur-Era Bird Discovered in Japan: Fukuipteryx prima

Nov 15, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of non-ornithothoracine bird has been identified from bones collected in Japan. Life restoration of Fukuipteryx prima, a primitive...

Healthy sleep linked to brain-wave bursts that mathematically mimic earthquakes. Image credit: Wang et al.

Animal Study Links Healthy Sleep to Earthquake-Like Brain-Wave Bursts

Nov 15, 2019 by News Staff

Cortical arousals and brief awakenings during sleep exhibit non-equilibrium dynamics and complex organization across time scales necessary for spontaneous...

Strumigenys ananeotes. Image credit: Jack Longino / University of Utah.

Entomologist Discovers New Ant Species in His Own Backyard

Nov 14, 2019 by News Staff

Dr. John Longino, an ant expert in the Department of Biology at the University of Utah, has discovered a new ant species in an urban yard in Salt Lake...

The rise of the Neo-Assyrian Empire occurred during a two-centuries-long interval of anomalously wet climate in the context of the past 4,000 years, while megadroughts during the early-mid 7th century BCE, as severe as recent droughts in the region but lasting for decades, triggered a decline in Assyria’s agrarian productivity and thus contributed to its eventual political and economic collapse. Image credit: Carole Raddato / CC BY-SA 2.0.

Megadroughts Likely Triggered Fall of Neo-Assyrian Empire

Nov 14, 2019 by News Staff

Climate-related megadroughts built the foundation for the collapse of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (912 to 609 BCE), the largest and most powerful empire of...

Gigantopithecus is Related to Modern-Day Orangutans, New Study Shows

Nov 14, 2019 by News Staff

Orangutans (genus Pongo) are the closest living relatives of Gigantopithecus blacki, the biggest primate that ever walked the Earth, according to new research...

This image from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows Jezero Crater on Mars, the landing site for NASA’s Mars 2020 mission. On ancient Mars, water carved channels and transported sediments to form fans and deltas within lake basins. Examination of spectral data acquired from orbit show that some of these sediments have minerals that indicate chemical alteration by water. Here in Jezero Crater delta, sediments contain clays and carbonates. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS / JHU-APL.

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Finds Hydrated Silica in Jezero Crater

Nov 14, 2019 by News Staff

Using data from the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) instrument aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, researchers have...

An artist’s impression of Ferrisaurus sustutensis. Image credit: Raven Amos / Royal BC Museum.

New Species of Herbivorous Dinosaur Identified in Canada

Nov 14, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists in Canada have found the fossil fragments from a new species of leptoceratopsid dinosaur that walked the Earth during the Cretaceous period. An...

This composite image of Ultima Thule was compiled from data obtained by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft as it flew by the object on January 1, 2019. The image combines enhanced color data (close to what the human eye would see) with detailed high-resolution panchromatic pictures. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute / Roman Tkachenko.

Kuiper Belt Object Ultima Thule Has New Name: Arrokoth

Nov 13, 2019 by News Staff

Ultima Thule (also known as 2014 MU69), the Kuiper Belt Object that was the target of the January 1, 2019 flyby by NASA’s New Horizons mission, has been...

A fossil feather from the Koonwarra Fossil Bed, Australia. Image credit: Kundrát et al, doi: 10.1016/j.gr.2019.10.004.

Paleontologists Find Fossilized Feathers of Cretaceous Polar Dinosaurs and Birds

Nov 13, 2019 by News Staff

Paleontologists have discovered the fossilized feathers of dinosaurs and birds that lived 118 million years ago (Early Cretaceous epoch) in polar environment...

An artist’s impression of S5-HVS1’s ejection by Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. Sagittarius A* and the captured binary partner to S5-HVS1 are seen far away in the left corner of the picture, while S5-HVS1 is in the foreground, speeding away from them. Image credit: James Josephides, Swinburne Astronomy Productions.

S5-HVS1: Hypervelocity Star Ejected by Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole

Nov 13, 2019 by News Staff

A main-sequence hypervelocity star traveling at huge speeds after being ejected by Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky...

Photographs of the study site at the White Sands National Monument, New Mexico: (a) ‘ghost tracks’ - the surface expression of the tracks is poor as can be seen from the image and they can only be seen under specific moisture and salt conditions; scale bar - 500 mm from target to target; (b) tracks at the study site excavated to reveal both human and mammoth tracks; (c) ground-penetrating radar (GPR) equipment used in this study; (d) gridded foam mats used to protect the surface during the GPR survey; (e) excavated human tracks at the study site. Image credit: Urban et al, doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-52996-8.

Ground-Penetrating Radar Reveals Ice-Age Human and Animal Footprints in New Mexico

Nov 13, 2019 by News Staff

‘Ghost’ fossilized footprints of human, mammoths, giant sloths and other Pleistocene creatures discovered at the White Sands National Monument in New...

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