Articles by Enrico de Lazaro

$‘Clam-shell’ view of Side A (top) and B showing black dendrites against the background of the brown mudstone. The flake, only shown re-attached on Side A, is the result of a post-excavation fracture of the specimen. Arrows point to large inclusion visible on Sides A and B. Image credit: Davorka Radovčić et al, doi: 10.1016/j.crpv.2016.04.013.$

Neanderthals Capable of Incorporating Symbolic Objects into Their Culture, Discovery Suggests

Jan 18, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro

An unusual limestone rock found at an archaeological site in Croatia indicates that Neanderthals were capable of incorporating symbolic objects into their...

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft obtained this image of Mimas on Oct. 22, 2016. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.

Cassini Captures Breathtaking View of Saturn’s Moon Mimas

Jan 16, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro

This image of Saturn’s seventh largest moon, Mimas, was photographed when NASA’s Cassini spacecraft was approximately 115,000 miles (185,000 km) away. NASA’s...

Brattas et al. report that ERVs are bound by TRIM28 in human neural progenitor cells. This results in the establishment of local heterochromatin that affects nearby gene expression, suggesting a role for ERVs in the control of transcriptional networks in the developing human brain. Interestingly, ERVs bound by TRIM28 are mostly enriched for elements that integrated around 35–55 million years ago, thus not binding to the most recent ERVs as well as ancient elements. Image credit: Per Ludvik Brattas et al, doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2016.12.010.

Study: Endogenous Retroviruses in Genome Important for Human Brain

Jan 13, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro

About 8% of the human genome is composed of endogenous retroviruses. According to a new study published in the journal Cell Reports, these retroviruses...

In this extended color image of Pluto taken by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, rounded and bizarrely textured mountains, named the Tartarus Dorsa, rise up along Pluto’s day-night terminator and show intricate but puzzling patterns of blue-gray ridges and reddish material in between. This view, roughly 330 miles (530 km) across, combines blue, red and infrared images taken by New Horizons’ Ralph/Multispectral Visual Imaging Camera on July 14, 2015. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

New Horizons Spots Penitentes in Pluto’s Tartarus Dorsa Region

Jan 6, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro

Planetary researchers using data from NASA’s New Horizons mission have found evidence of snow and ice features on the dwarf planet Pluto that, until...

This image of Orion A is composed of near-infrared observations from ESO’s VISTA survey telescope. Image credit: ESO / VISION Survey.

VISTA Captures Detailed Image of Orion A

Jan 4, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro

This striking image, captured by ESO’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA), shows the Orion A molecular cloud, the nearest known...

This is one of Cassini’s closest views to date of Pandora, a small, inner moon of Saturn. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.

Cassini Closes in on Saturn’s Moon Pandora

Dec 26, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

This image from NASA’s Cassini robotic orbiter is one of the highest-resolution views ever taken of Pandora, Saturn’s F ring shepherd moon. This is...

With a diameter of 57 miles (92 km), Occator crater is larger than Tycho crater on the Moon. Its steep walls stand tall at over 1.4 miles (2 km), higher than the North face of the Eiger in the Bernese Alps. The origin and nature of the bright spots in its interior is still not clear. Image credit: DLR.

Fly over Ceres’ Colossal Crater and Bright Spots in Incredible Video

Dec 24, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

Researchers from the Institute of Planetary Research at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, or DLR) have produced...

This low-angle self-portrait of NASA’s Curiosity rover shows the vehicle at the site from which it reached down to drill into a rock target called ‘Buckskin’ on lower Mount Sharp. The selfie combines several component images taken by Curiosity’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on Aug. 5, 2015, during 1065 Sol (Martian day) of the rover’s work on Mars. For scale, the rover’s wheels are 20 inches (50 cm) in diameter and about 16 inches (40 cm) wide. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.

NASA’s Curiosity Rover Finds Boron on Martian Surface

Dec 14, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

Boron, a metalloid chemical element with properties intermediate between those of carbon and aluminum, has been identified for the first time on the Martian...

Distribution of the atmospheric ammonia concentration in June, July, and August 2008 at 9.3 mile (15 km) height as observed by MIPAS. Bright areas are measurement gaps due to high cloud cover. Image credit: Michael Höpfner / Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.

Ammonia Detected in Earth’s Upper Troposphere

Dec 5, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

Ammonia, a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the formula NH3, has been found for the first time in the upper troposphere of our planet. Distribution...

This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the highly inclined spiral galaxy NGC 4388. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Captures Spectacular Image of Spiral Galaxy NGC 4388

Dec 5, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken a colorful photo of NGC 4388, an active spiral galaxy at the core of the Virgo Cluster. This image from the...

B.H.C. Emonts et al found that the Spiderweb, a massive galaxy in the center of a distant protocluster, is forming from a large reservoir of molecular gas. In this artist’s conception of the protocluster, the protogalaxies are shown in white and pink, and the blue indicates the location of the carbon monoxide gas. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

Astronomers Witness Birth of Massive Cluster Galaxy

Dec 3, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

Massive galaxies may grow from cold molecular gas that condenses as stars rather than forming in violent mergers, according to an international team of...

This artist’s impression shows a super-Earth orbiting a red dwarf star. Image credit: NASA.

K2-3d: Ground-Based Telescope Observes Super-Earth Transiting Bright Star

Nov 28, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

A team of astronomers in Japan has conducted the first ground-based transit observation of K2-3d, a super-Earth within the habitable zone around a bright...

Virgo I: New Dwarf Galaxy Discovered in Orbit around Milky Way

Nov 21, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers have identified a new ultra-faint dwarf satellite companion of our Milky Way Galaxy. A schematic showing the locations of Virgo I and other...

Ventral view of the new bohaiornithid specimen. Left: photograph of the primary slab. Right: interpretive drawing. Abbreviations: co - coracoid; cv - cervical vertebrae; fe - femur; fu - furcula; hu - humerus; il - ilium; mcI-III – metacarpals I–III; mt - metatarsals; pd I–IV - pedal digits I–IV; phI-1 - first phalanx of digit I; phII/III-1/2 - first/second phalanx of digit II/III; pu -pubis; py - pygostyle; ra - radius; sc - scapula; sk - skull; sml - semilunate carpal; st - sternum; sy - synsacrum; th - thoracic vertebrae; ti - tibia; ul - ulna; uln - ulnare. Scale bar - 1 cm. Image credit: Jennifer A. Peteya et al, doi: 10.1111/pala.12270.

Dinosaur-Era Bird Had Iridescent Feathers

Nov 16, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

A group of paleontologists led by University of Akron researcher Jennifer Peteya has discovered a new bohaiornithid bird specimen from the Cretaceous period...

Sampling of a pine trunk with a hand-powered saw; the tree protrudes from the organic-rich sediment ridge seen to the left and is partly covered by sand. Image credit: Arne Sjöström.

Swedish Researchers Find Submerged Mesolithic Settlement

Nov 15, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

A team of researchers headed by Lund University’s Professor Dan Hammarlund has uncovered an exceptionally well-preserved Mesolithic site off the Baltic...

An artistic reconstruction, showing the last-ditch struggle of Tongtianlong limosus as it was mired in mud. Image credit: Zhao Chuang.

Tongtianlong limosus: New Species of Feathered Dinosaur Discovered in China

Nov 10, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new species of oviraptorid dinosaur has been discovered in southern China dating back approximately 69 million years to the latest Cretaceous period,...

Chimpanzee fishing algae. Image credit: PanAf Project / Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

Chimps Discovered Using Tools to Fish for Algae

Nov 9, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

Chimpanzees in Guinea are regularly using long and robust tools to fish for algae, reveals new research published this month in the American Journal of...

Stiphrornis erythothorax, until now the only species in the genus Stiphrornis, by Joseph Smit, 1883, in the Catalogue of the birds in the British Museum, vol. 7.

Three New Species of Forest Robin Discovered in Africa

Nov 7, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

Researchers have described three new species in the previously monotypic bird genus Stiphrornis: two from West Africa and one from the Congo. Stiphrornis...

Oncorhynchus rastrosus in Proto-Tuolumne River. Image credit: Jacob Biewer.

Oncorhynchus rastrosus: Sabertooth Salmon Used Tusk-Shaped Teeth for Fighting and Display

Nov 2, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

The sabertooth salmon (Oncorhynchus rastrosus), a giant species of salmon that swam in Pacific Northwest waters from the mid-Miocene to early Pliocene,...

An artist impression of Huanansaurus ganzhouensis. Image credit: Chuang Zhao.

Avimimus Dinosaurs were Gregarious, Social Creatures, Paleontologists Say

Oct 25, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

Dozens of fossils from a bird-like theropod dinosaur known as Avimimus have been unearthed in a single bonebed in Mongolia, providing strong evidence that...

«‹83 848586 87 ›»