Articles by News Staff

Study: Children’s Personalities Influence How They Perform in Math and Reading

Dec 26, 2018 by News Staff

Proficiency in reading and math is associated with a complex system of skills, some of which derive from personality traits. In new research, Dr. Margherita...

An artist’s impression of New Horizons encountering Ultima Thule. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute / Alex Parker.

New Horizons Team Puzzled by Lack of Light Curve from Ultima Thule

Dec 25, 2018 by News Staff

Over the past three months, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has been taking images to measure the brightness of its next flyby target — a Kuiper...

This is a Nanjinganthus dendrostyla fossil, showing its ovary (bottom center), sepals and petals (on the sides) and a tree-shaped top. Image credit: Fu et al, doi: 10.7554/eLife.38827.

Plant Fossil from Early Jurassic Pushes Back Origin of Flowers

Dec 25, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of paleontologists has identified and described a new genus and species of extinct flowering plant (angiosperm), based on over 200...

This Hubble image shows RS Puppis, one of the most luminous in the class of Cepheid variable stars. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble Heritage Team / STScI / AURA / H. Bond, STScI and Pennsylvania State University.

Hubble Observes Variable Star RS Puppis and Surrounding Nebula

Dec 25, 2018 by News Staff

NASA has released a striking photo taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of RS Puppis, a Cepheid type variable star. The brightest star in the Hubble...

Bees can solve seemingly clever counting tasks with very small numbers of neurons in their brains. Image credit: PollyDot.

Bees Can Solve Counting Tasks with Just Four Neurons, New Study Shows

Dec 25, 2018 by News Staff

Bees can count up to four or five items, can choose the smaller or the larger number from a group and even choose ‘zero’ against other numbers when...

This Hubble image shows the globular cluster NGC 1466. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

NGC 1466: Brilliant Globular Cluster Shines in New Hubble Photo

Dec 24, 2018 by News Staff

NASA has released a beautiful photo taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of an ancient star cluster called NGC 1466. This Hubble image shows the...

The 51st known Mersenne prime has 24,862,048 digits. Image credit: Pete Linforth.

Largest Known Prime Number Has Almost 25 Million Digits

Dec 24, 2018 by News Staff

Professional and amateur mathematicians from a worldwide research project called the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) have discovered the largest...

These three radar images of near-Earth asteroid 2003 SD220 were obtained on December 15-17, 2018. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / GSSR / NSF / GBO.

Asteroid 2003 SD220 Makes Close Approach to Earth

Dec 24, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers working with NASA’s Goldstone Deep Space Network, NSF’s Green Bank Telescope and Arecibo Observatory’s 1,000-foot (305-m) antenna have...

ALMA image of 46P/Wirtanen taken on December 2, 2018, as the comet approached Earth. The image shows the concentration and distribution of HCN molecules near the center of the comet’s coma. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / M. Cordiner / NASA / CUA.

ALMA Takes Close Look at Comet 46P/Wirtanen

Dec 24, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) captured the radio image of 46P/Wirtanen on December 2, 2018, when the comet...

In Seattle, WA, delaying the start time of two high schools by 55 minutes lengthened students’ daily sleep by 34 minutes, and was associated with reduced sleepiness and increased academic performance. Image credit: E.B. Pilgrim.

Later School Start Times Increase Sleep, Attendance and Grades: Study

Dec 24, 2018 by News Staff

In 2017, the Seattle School District decided to delay the start time for secondary schools from 7:50 a.m. to 8:45 a.m. This change allowed a team of researchers...

Hubble captured this view of comet 46P/Wirtanen on December 13, 2018. Image credit: NASA / ESA / D. Bodewits, Auburn University / J.-Y. Li, Planetary Science Institute.

Hubble and SOFIA Capture New Images of Comet 46P/Wirtanen

Dec 21, 2018 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) snapped stunning images of a short-period comet...

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

Little Foot Fossil Sheds New Light on Hominin Brain Evolution

Dec 21, 2018 by News Staff

The first detailed comparative description of the external neuroanatomy of the 3.67-million-year-old Australopithecus prometheus fossil known as the Little...

Perspective view of Korolev crater. Image credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

ESA’s Mars Express Orbiter Spots Water Ice-Filled Crater

Dec 21, 2018 by News Staff

New images from the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft show an impact crater in the northern lowlands of Mars. Known...

Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron. Image credit: Kathryn Cross & Nikki Horn, Institute of Food Research.

Study: Dietary Fructose and Glucose Target Good Gut Bacteria

Dec 21, 2018 by News Staff

Dietary fructose and glucose, which are prevalent in the Western diet, silence a key protein that is necessary for gut colonization, but not for utilization...

The galaxy cluster Abell S1063 was observed by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope as part of the Frontier Fields Program. The huge mass of the cluster -- containing both baryonic matter and dark matter -- acts as cosmic magnification glass and deforms objects behind it. In the past astronomers used this gravitational lensing effect to calculate the distribution of dark matter in galaxy clusters. A more accurate and faster way, however, is to study the intracluster light (visible in blue), which follows the distribution of dark matter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / M. Montes, University of New South Wales.

Intracluster Light Illuminates Dark Matter in Galaxy Clusters

Dec 20, 2018 by News Staff

Dark matter is a mysterious substance that makes up about 85% of the matter in the Universe. It does not emit any kind of electromagnetic radiation and...

Life reconstruction of a c. 8.2 foot (2.5 m) long breaching Cretoxyrhina mantelli biting the neck of a 16.4 foot (5 m) wingspan Pteranodon longiceps. The predatory behavior of this scene is speculative with respect to the data offered by the 80-million-year-old specimen, but reflects the fact that Cretoxyrhina is generally considered a predatory species, the vast weight advantage of the shark against the pterosaur, and the juvenile impulse of the artist to draw an explosive predatory scene. Image credit: Mark Witton.

Fossil Clue Found to Ancient Clash between Shark and Pteranodon

Dec 20, 2018 by News Staff

In a paper in the journal PeerJ, paleontologists report finding a shark tooth embedded in an 80-million-year-old cervical vertebra of the large flying...

NASA’s InSight lander placed its seismometer on Mars on December 19, 2018. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

InSight Deploys First Instrument onto Martian Surface

Dec 20, 2018 by News Staff

On Wednesday, December 19, 2018, NASA’s InSight lander deployed its first instrument — the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) —...

The common primrose (Primula vulgaris). Image credit: GT 1976 / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Primrose Genome Sequenced

Dec 20, 2018 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the University of East Anglia, Earlham Institute and the UK’s National Institute for Agricultural Botany has successfully...

Material from the dusty and gas-rich disk (orange) plus hot gas (blue) mildly flows onto the star, creating a hot spot. Image credit: Caltech / T. Pyle, IPAC.

Astronomers Spot Young Star in ‘Growth Spurt’

Dec 19, 2018 by News Staff

A young star in the midst of a dramatic growth phase has been observed with the help of ESA’s Gaia satellite and NASA’s Near-Earth Object Wide-field...

Two large iguanodontian footprints with skin and claw impressions from the Lee Ness Sandstone of the Ashdown Formation. Image credit: Neil Davies.

Early Cretaceous Dinosaur Footprints Discovered in Southern England

Dec 19, 2018 by News Staff

Paleontologists in southern England have uncovered a set of well-preserved footprints made by at least seven different dinosaur species about 140 million...

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