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Bamboo shark Hemiscyllium halmahera (© Mark Erdmann).

Marine Biologists Solve Mystery of How ‘Walking’ Sharks Split

Jan 23, 2020 by Natali Anderson

An international team of marine biologists has found that members of the genus Hemiscyllium are the ‘youngest’ — as in, the most recently evolved...

Monkeys fresco on the north wall of Room 6 of Building Complex Beta at Akrotiri, Thera. Image credit: Thera Akrotiri Excavations.

Researchers May Have Solved Mystery of Akrotiri’s Monkey Frescoes

Jan 22, 2020 by The Conversation

The blue monkeys painted on the walls of Akrotiri on the Greek island of Santorini are among many animals found in the frescoes of this 3,600-year-old...

This illustration shows the surroundings of a black hole feeding on ambient gas as mapped using ESA’s XMM-Newton X-ray observatory. Image credit: ESA.

Astronomers Map Surroundings of Supermassive Black Hole

Jan 22, 2020 by News Staff

As material spirals towards a black hole, it is heated up and emits X-rays that, in turn, echo and reverberate as they interact with nearby gas. These...

This scanning electron microscope image shows a tardigrade. Image credit: Diane Nelson, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.

Could Invisible Extraterrestrial Life Forms Really Exist Among Us?

Jan 21, 2020 by The Conversation

Life is pretty easy to recognize. It moves, it grows, it eats, it excretes, it reproduces. Simple. In biology, researchers often use the acronym ‘MRS-GREN’...

Parecis titis (Plecturocebus parecis) in the forest reserve of the UHE Rondon II hydroelectric plant, municipality of Pimenta Bueno, Rondônia, Brazil. Image credit: Alberto Caldeiras.

New Species of Titi Monkey Discovered in Brazil

Jan 20, 2020 by Natali Anderson

An international team of researchers has discovered a new species of titi monkey living in the forests of Brazil. Parecis titis (Plecturocebus parecis)...

An artist’s rendering of what Wulong bohaiensis might have looked like. Image credit: Erick Toussaint.

New Feathered Dinosaur Species Identified in China

Jan 17, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists in China have identified a new species of microraptorine dromaeosaur closely related to the famous dinosaur Velociraptor. An artist’s...

An artist’s rendering shows G-objects, with the reddish centers, orbiting the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*. The black hole is represented as a dark sphere inside a white ring (above the middle of the rendering). Image credit: Jack Ciurlo.

Astronomers Spot Four New G-Objects near Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole

Jan 17, 2020 by News Staff

At the center of our Milky Way Galaxy lurks Sagittarius A*, a supermassive black hole that is four million times the mass of the Sun. Recently, two unusual...

An artist’s impression of the Proxima Centauri system. Image credit: Lorenzo Santinelli.

Proxima c: Possible Second Planet Found around Sun’s Nearest Neighbor

Jan 16, 2020 by Sergio Prostak

An international team of astronomers has detected a candidate super-Earth planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to the Sun. An artist’s...

An artist’s concept of the Gliese 180 planetary system, which is located 39 light-years away in the constellation of Eridanus. Image credit: Robin Dienel, Carnegie Institution for Science.

Astronomers Discover Five New Planets around Nearby Red Dwarfs

Jan 15, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers have detected five new planets, eight planet candidates, and confirmed three previously reported planets, around nine nearby M-dwarf (red dwarf)...

An Atlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica) scratching with a stick on Grimsey Island, Iceland. Image credit: Fayet et al, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1918060117.

Seabirds Spotted Using Tools for the First Time

Jan 15, 2020 by Natali Anderson

An international team of researchers from the University of Oxford and the South Iceland Nature Research Centre has observed two Atlantic puffins (Fratercula...

Escherichia coli and Acinetobacter baylyi form intricate flower-like patterns when grown together over a 24-hour period. Image credit: BioCircuits Institute / University of California, San Diego.

Two-Species Bacterial Colonies Form Intricate Flower-Like Patterns

Jan 14, 2020 by News Staff

In a series of experiments, a team of biologists at the University of California, San Diego studied the structure of growing colonies comprised of two...

The fossilized cloudinomorph Costatubus bibendi from the Wood Canyon Formation, Nye County, Nevada, the United States. Image credit: Scale bar - 1 mm. Image credit: Selly et al, doi: 10.1080/14772019.2019.1623333 / Schiffbauer et al, doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-13882-z.

550-Million-Year-Old Fossilized Guts Found

Jan 14, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists from the University of Missouri have discovered the well-preserved digestive tracts in the fossils of microscopic animals called cloudinomorphs....

NGC 6240 as seen with ALMA. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / E. Treister / AUI / NSF / S. Dagnello / NASA / ESA / Hubble.

ALMA Finds Molecular Gas within Sphere of Influence of Binary Supermassive Black Hole

Jan 14, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have mapped the distribution of molecular gas in NGC 6240, a nearby merging galaxy...

Scanning electron microscope image of the 6.2-billion-year-old grain of silicon carbide from the Murchison meteorite. Image credit: Heck et al, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1904573117.

Scientists Find 7-Billion-Year-Old Stardust in Murchison Meteorite

Jan 13, 2020 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the United States, Switzerland and Australia has found 4.6 to 7-billion-year-old presolar grains of silicon carbide (SiC) in...

Fossil Stemonitis in Kachin amber. Image credit: Rikkinen et al, doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-55622-9.

World’s Oldest Slime Mold Found in Amber

Jan 13, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

The fossilized fruiting bodies of a myxomycete from the extant genus Stemonitis preserved in Kachin amber date back some 100 million years (mid-Cretaceous...

The Taliabu grasshopper-warbler (Locustella portenta). Image credit: James Eaton / Birdtour Asia.

Researchers Discover Ten New Bird Taxa in Indonesia

Jan 10, 2020 by Natali Anderson

An international team of ornithologists has discovered five new species and five new subspecies of songbirds on little-explored islands off the northeastern...

Tea consumption is associated with reduced risks of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality, especially among those consistent habitual tea drinkers. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Habitual Tea Drinking Reduces Risk of Cardiovascular Disease

Jan 10, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Using large prospective cohorts among Chinese adults, a research team led by the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College has...

This image from the 8-m Gemini North telescope shows SDSS J015800.28+654253.0 (center), the host galaxy of FRB 180916 (green circle). Image credit: Gemini Observatory / NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory / AURA.

Repeating Fast Radio Burst Localized to Massive Spiral Galaxy

Jan 9, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers have pinpointed the source galaxy of the fast radio burst known as FRB 180916.J0158+65 (FRB 180916 for short) — making it the closest...

TEM image of double-layered M2e-NA nanoparticles. Scale bar - 500 nm. Image credit: Wang et al, doi: 10.1002/adhm.201901176.

New Nanoparticle Vaccine Protects Mice from Six Influenza Strains

Jan 9, 2020 by News Staff

The new double-layered nanoparticles vaccine, developed by researchers from the Center for Inflammation, Immunity & Infection at the Georgia State...