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Fifteen moais of Ahu Tongariki. Image credit: Bjørn Christian Tørrissen / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Ancient Easter Islanders Used Rope and Ramps to Put Massive Stone Hats on Moai

Jun 11, 2018 by News Staff

The ancient people of Easter Island, Chile, were able to move so-called pukao — massive stone hats of the island’s famed monumental statues (moai)...

An artist’s impression of an Earth-sized exoplanet orbiting an M-dwarf star. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

We May Miss Life-Hosting Exoplanets If We Only Look for Their Oxygen

Jun 8, 2018 by James Romero

There could be a flaw in the search for atmospheric oxygen as a signature of life around most of our nearby exoplanets. A team from the University of Washington...

Mosaic of the Valles Marineris hemisphere of Mars projected into point perspective, a view similar to that which one would see from a spacecraft. The distance is 1,550 miles (2,500 km) from the surface of the planet. The mosaic is composed of 102 Viking Orbiter images of Mars. The center of the scene shows the entire Valles Marineris canyon system, over 1,240 miles (2,000 km) long and up to 5 miles (8 km) deep, extending form Noctis Labyrinthus, the arcuate system of graben to the west, to the chaotic terrain to the east. Many huge ancient river channels begin from the chaotic terrain from north-central canyons and run north. The three Tharsis volcanoes (dark red spots), each about 15.5 miles (25 km) high, are visible to the west. South of Valles Marineris is very ancient terrain covered by many impact craters. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Curiosity Finds Organic Molecules in Ancient Rocks, Seasonal Methane Releases on Mars

Jun 8, 2018 by News Staff

NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity has detected organic molecules in 3-billion-year-old sedimentary rocks at the base of the Murray formation at Pahrump Hills,...

Visualization of a data event from the tt¯H(γγ) Had BDT bin with the largest signal over background ratio; the event contains two photon candidates, with a diphoton mass of 125.4 GeV; in addition, six jets are reconstructed using the anti-kt algorithm and R = 0.4, including one jet that is b-tagged using a 77% efficiency working point; the photons correspond to the green towers in the electromagnetic calorimeter, while the jets (b-jets) are shown as yellow (blue) cones. Image credit: ATLAS Collaboration.

Physicists Observe Simultaneous Production of Higgs Boson with Top Quark-Antiquark Pair

Jun 8, 2018 by News Staff

In July 2012, ATLAS (A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS) and CMS (Compact-Muon-Solenoid) experiments at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider jointly announced the discovery...

A study of the inhabitants of Easter Island served in part as the basis for a mathematical model showing the ways a technologically advanced population and its planet might develop or collapse together. Image credit: Michael Osadciw / University of Rochester.

How Do Extraterrestrial Technological Civilizations Solve Climate Change?

Jun 7, 2018 by News Staff

As the population of a technologically advanced civilization grows, it uses more and more of its planet’s resources. By consuming the resources, the...

The first artist’s illustration shows a key part of the process that created this new black hole, as the two neutron stars spin around each other while merging. The purple material depicts debris from the merger. Image credit: NASA / CXC / M.Weiss.

Recent Gravitational-Wave Event Likely Created Low-Mass Black Hole

Jun 5, 2018 by News Staff

A new study using X-ray data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory indicates that the neutron star merger that became the gravitational wave source,...

This artist’s impression shows the evolution of the Universe beginning with the Big Bang on the left followed by the appearance of the Cosmic Microwave Background. The formation of the first stars ends the cosmic dark ages, followed by the formation of galaxies. Image credit: M. Weiss / Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Does Small Fraction of Dark Matter Particles Carry Electric Mini-Charge?

Jun 4, 2018 by News Staff

A duo of astrophysicists is proposing a new model for the invisible material that makes up most of the Universe: it’s possible that a small fraction...

This Pluto mosaic was made from New Horizons LORRI images taken on July 14, 2015, from a distance of 49,700 miles (80,000 km). This view is projected from a point 1,118 miles (1,800 km) above Pluto’s equator, looking northeast over the dark, cratered Cthulhu Regio toward the bright, smooth expanse of icy plains called Sputnik Planum. Pluto’s North Pole is off the image to the left. This mosaic was produced with panchromatic images from the New Horizons LORRI camera, with color overlaid from the Ralph color mapper onboard New Horizons. Image credit: S.A. Stern et al.

Researchers Find Methane Ice Dunes on Pluto

Jun 1, 2018 by News Staff

Wind-blown dunes are known on Earth, Mars, Venus, Saturn’s moon Titan, and Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko — and, now on Pluto, according to a...

The NOTCH2NL genes arose in human ancestors just before a dramatic increase in brain size and are involved in genetic defects associated with neurological disorders. Image credit: Gerd Altmann / Sci-News.com.

Newly-Identified Human-Specific Genes Influence Brain Size

Jun 1, 2018 by News Staff

A set of three nearly identical genes found only in humans, NOTCH2NL, appears to play a critical role in the development of our large brains, according...

Hubble Space Telescope Sees Messy Result of Galactic Collision: NGC 3256

Jun 1, 2018 by News Staff

A gorgeous new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows NGC 3256, an impressive example of a peculiar galaxy that is actually the relict of...

Megachirella wachtleri. Image credit: Davide Bonadonna.

Megachirella wachtleri: World’s Oldest Squamate Fossil Found

May 31, 2018 by News Staff

Paleontologists have unearthed the world’s oldest squamate fossil — 240-million-year-old specimen of a species called Megachirella wachtleri —...

Newcastle University researchers Steve Swioklo and Che Connon with a dyed cornea. Image credit: Newcastle University.

Researchers 3D Bioprint Human Corneas

May 31, 2018 by News Staff

The first human corneas have been 3D bioprinted by a research team at Newcastle University. Newcastle University researchers Steve Swioklo and Che Connon...

The largest and the smallest specimens of Spinosaurus known to date. Image credit: D. Bonadonna.

Paleontologists Find Fossil of Smallest Spinosaurus

May 31, 2018 by Natali Anderson

A tiny fossil of an early juvenile Spinosaurus has been discovered by a duo of Italian paleontologists. The largest and the smallest specimens of Spinosaurus...

Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid Impact Devastated Forests, Wiped Out Tree-Dwelling Birds

May 30, 2018 by News Staff

Ground-dwelling birds survived while their close, tree-dwelling relatives went extinct during the end-Cretaceous mass extinction event, caused by the impact...

Ruthenium. Image credit: Metalle-W / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Researchers Discover 4th Room-Temperature Ferromagnetic Element: Ruthenium

May 29, 2018 by News Staff

A platinum-group chemical element called ruthenium (Ru) is the fourth single element to have unique ferromagnetic properties at room temperature. Ruthenium....

A pair of Beipiaosaurus dinosaurs. Image credit: Pavel Riha / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Paleontologists Find Fossilized Dandruff of Feathered Dinosaurs

May 29, 2018 by News Staff

An international research team led by scientists at University College Cork, Linyi University, and China’s Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology...

This high-resolution image of Pluto was taken by New Horizons on July 14. Pluto’s surface sports a remarkable range of subtle colors, enhanced in this view to a rainbow of pale blues, yellows, oranges, and deep reds. Many landforms have their own distinct colors, telling a complex geological and climatological story that scientists have only just begun to decode. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

Is Pluto ‘an Agglomeration of a Billion Comets’?

May 28, 2018 by News Staff

Planetary researchers working with data from NASA’s New Horizons and ESA’s Rosetta missions have developed a new theory for the formation of the dwarf...

Cifelliodon wahkarmoosuch. Image credit: Jorge A. Gonzalez / Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

Paleontologists Discover Fossil of Early Mammal Relative in Utah

May 25, 2018 by News Staff

A team of paleontologists has discovered and described the nearly complete fossilized skull of a previously unknown mammal relative that lived about 130...

Social gathering of six bonobos at San Diego Zoo. Image credit: William H. Calvin, University of Washington / CC BY-SA 4.0.

First Detailed Anatomical Study of Bonobos Contradicts Key Dogmas about Human Evolution

May 24, 2018 by News Staff

Bonobos (Pan paniscus) and other apes, such as common chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and gorillas (Gorilla sp.), have muscles long-believed to be only...