Articles by Enrico de Lazaro

Microphotograph of Ourasphaira giraldae. Image credit: Loron et al, doi: 10.1038/s41586-019-1217-0.

Paleontologists Find One-Billion-Year-Old Fossil Fungi in Canada

May 23, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of paleontologists has discovered 1,000- to 900-million-year-old microfossils of a fungus in estuarine shale of the Grassy Bay Formation...

The mcr-9 gene’s protein structure graphic depicts the differing protein chains (solid color ribbons) and the protein surface (mesh) surrounding it. Image credit: Ahmed Gaballa / Cornell University.

New Antibiotic Resistance Gene Discovered: Mcr-9

May 9, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of scientists from Cornell University and the University of Zurich has discovered a new jumping gene that makes bacteria resistant...

Ambopteryx longibrachium. Image credit: Chung-Tat Cheung & Min Wang / Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Tiny Jurassic Dinosaur Had Membranous Wings

May 9, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

A previously unknown species of bird-like dinosaur with pterosaur-like wings has been discovered by a team of paleontologists working with the Institute...

An artist’s rendering of how Suskityrannus hazelae may have looked. Image credit: Andrey Atuchin.

Small T. rex Relative Found in New Mexico: Suskityrannus hazelae

May 7, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new species of predatory tyrannosauroid dinosaur that lived about 92 million years ago (Cretaceous period) has been identified from fossils found in...

This Hubble image shows the massive galaxy cluster SPT-CL J0615-5746. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Karachentsev et al / High et al.

Hubble Sees Extremely Distant Lensing Galaxy Cluster

May 6, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

A spectacular new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows SPT-CL J0615-5746, a very massive group of galaxies located approximately 7.7 billion...

Denisovans were probably dark-skinned, unlike the pale Neandertals. The picture shows a Neanderthal man. Image credit: Mauro Cutrona.

160,000-Year-Old Denisovan Jawbone Discovered in Tibetan Cave

May 2, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

In 1980, a Buddhist monk found the right half a fossilized hominin jawbone in Baishiya Karst Cave on the Tibetan Plateau, Xiahe, China. An analysis of...

Using the MUSE, an integral-field spectrograph on ESO’s Very Large Telescope, Göttgens et al discovered the remains of a nova near the center of the globular cluster Messier 22. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / F. Göttgens, Institute for Astrophysics, University of Göttingen.

Astronomers Find Ancient Nova Remnant in Messier 22

Apr 30, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

A nova is a cataclysmic event on the surface of a white dwarf star in a binary stellar system that increases the overall brightness by several orders of...

These 210 images reflect Rosetta’s ever-changing view of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko between July 2014 and September 2016. The sequence begins in the month leading up to Rosetta’s arrival on August 6, 2014, when the comet was barely a few pixels in the field of view. Suddenly, the curious shape was revealed and Rosetta raced to image its surface, coming within 10 km, to find a suitable place for Philae to land just three months later. Philae’s landing is featured with the ‘farewell’ images taken by both spacecraft of each other shortly after separation, and by Philae as it drew closer to the surface at its first touchdown point. An image taken at the final landing site is also shown. The subsequent images, taken by Rosetta, reflect the varying distance from the comet as well as the comet’s rise and fall in activity as they orbited the Sun. Before the comet reached its most active phase in August 2015, Rosetta was able to make some close flybys, including one in which the lighting geometry from the Sun was such that the spacecraft’s shadow could be seen on the surface. Then, owing to the increase of dust in the local environment, Rosetta had to maintain a safer distance and carry out scientific observations from afar, but this also gave some impressive views of the comet’s global activity, including jets and outburst events. Once the activity began to subside, Rosetta could come closer again and conduct science nearer to the nucleus, including capturing more high-resolution images of the surface, and looking out for changes after this active period. Eventually, as the comet returned to the colder outer Solar System, so the available solar power to operate Rosetta fell. The mission concluded with Rosetta making its own dramatic descent to the surface on September 30, 2016. A selection of the final images taken are reflected in the last images shown in this montage. Image credit: ESA / Rosetta / NavCam / MPS for OSIRIS Team / MPS / UPD / LAM / IAA / SSO / INTA / UPM / DASP / IDA / Philae / CIVA / ROLIS / DLR.

OSIRIS Team Releases Nearly 70,000 Images of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Apr 18, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

Between 2014 and 2016, the OSIRIS (Optical, Spectroscopic, and Infrared Remote Imaging System) camera onboard ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft captured almost...

Achrioptera manga, an adult male from Foret d’Orangea, Madagascar. Image credit: Glaw et al, doi: 10.3389/fevo.2019.00105.

Malagasy Giant Stick Insects Play with Colors

Apr 4, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

In two new species of giant stick insects from the dry forests of Madagascar, males turn blue or multicolored at sexual maturity. Achrioptera manga, an...

Reconstruction of the American mastodon (Mammut americanum). Image credit: Sergio De la Rosa Martinez / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Pacific Mastodon: New Species of Ancient Elephant Relative Identified

Apr 1, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new species of mastodon that lived during the Pleistocene period has been identified from fossil found in California and Idaho. The Pacific mastodon...

An artist’s impression of a massive gas giant in orbit around its parent star. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / R. Hurt, SSC & Caltech.

Hot-Saturn Exoplanet Discovered by TESS, Characterized Using Asteroseismology

Mar 29, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) have discovered a massive gaseous exoplanet orbiting a subgiant star called HD...

Davis et al detected BMAA in the cerebral cortex of stranded dolphins; they also report Alzheimer-like neurodegenerative changes in the brains of dolphins containing BMAA. Image credit: NASA.

Scientists Find Cyanobacterial Neurotoxin and Amyloid Plaques in Brains of Stranded Dolphins

Mar 29, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

High levels of BMAA (β-methylamino-L-alanine), a neurotoxin produced by cyanobacterial blooms, and beta-amyloid plaques, a hallmark in human beings of...

Wang et al report a strong, specific human brain response to ecologically-relevant rotations of Earth-strength magnetic fields. Image credit: Gerd Altmann.

First Neuroscientific Evidence that Humans Have Geomagnetic Sense

Mar 19, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of neuroscientists and geoscientists from Caltech, the University of Tokyo, Princeton University and Tokyo Institute of Technology...

Stormtropis muisca, male. Image credit: Perafán et al, doi: 10.3897/zookeys.830.31433.

Stormtropis: New Genus of Bald-Legged Spiders Named after Star Wars’ Stormtroopers

Mar 15, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of researchers has described six new species of bald-legged spiders from Colombia and established a new genus for four of them, Stormtropis. Stormtropis...

Yamagata et al succeeded in observing the signs of the biological activity of 28,140-year-old mammoth nuclei in mouse oocytes. In this image, proteins that form chromosomes (red) and proteins that form dividing spindles (green) gather around a mammoth cell nucleus (upper right) in the mouse oocyte. Image credit: Yamagata et al, doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-40546-1.

Researchers ‘Revive’ Woolly Mammoth Cell Nuclei

Mar 14, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

In 2010, the 28,140-year-old partial carcass of a woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius), nicknamed ‘Yuka,’ was found in Siberian permafrost. Now a...

An artist’s illustration of events on the Sun changing the conditions in near-Earth space. Image credit: NASA.

Solar Super-Storm Hit Earth 2,610 Years Ago

Mar 12, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

Evidence of an enormous solar storm that struck the Earth around 2,610 years ago has been found in ice cores from Greenland. An artist’s illustration...

Study Finds No Link between Measles, Mumps, Rubella Vaccine and Autism

Mar 7, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

The mumps, measles, and rubella (MMR) vaccination does not increase the risk for autism, does not trigger autism in susceptible children, and is not associated...

The Wallace’s giant bee (Megachile pluto). Image credit: Clay Bolt.

Wallace’s Giant Bee: World’s Largest Bee Rediscovered in Indonesia

Feb 22, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

A living individual of a bee species feared to be extinct has been found in the Indonesian islands known as the North Moluccas. The Wallace’s giant...

An artist’s concept of Hippocamp. Image credit: NASA / ESA / J. Olmsted, STScI.

Hippocamp: Seventh Inner Moon of Neptune May Have Broken from Larger Moon

Feb 21, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new study led by SETI Institute astronomers suggests that the recently-discovered moon of Neptune, Hippocamp, is probably an ancient fragment of a much...

Study: Sleep Deprivation May Damage Your DNA

Jan 29, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new observational study by researchers from Hong Kong demonstrates that disrupted sleep is associated with DNA damage. The findings appear in the journal...

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