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Study: Elephant Birds were Nocturnal, Possibly Blind

An artist’s interpretation of elephant birds foraging in the ancient forests of Madagascar at night. Image credit: John Maisano / University of Texas at Austin Jackson School of Geosciences.
Nov 1, 2018 by News Staff

The recently extinct Malagasy elephant birds included the largest birds ever discovered. Seven species are recognized across two genera, including the larger Aepyornis and the smaller, gracile Mullerornis. The neuroanatomy of these enigmatic birds is understudied but can shed light on their lifestyle. In a study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, researchers from the University of Texas at Austin examined the neuroanatomy...

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This mosaic of images from the MDIS Narrow Angle Camera on NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft shows the impact crater Hokusai, located on Mercury at a latitude of 58°N. The crater has an impressive system of rays, which extend as much as a thousand kilometers (more than 600 miles) across the planet and are the longest that have yet been identified on Mercury. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Carnegie Institution of Washington.

The Great Wave that Brought Water to Mercury

Nov 1, 2018 by James Romero

The impact that formed Mercury’s spectacular 100-km (62-mile) wide Hokusai crater, named after the famous Japanese artist, who created the Great Wave...

Artist’s conception of NASA’s Kepler space telescope. Image credit: NASA / Ames / Dan Rutter.

NASA Ends Kepler Space Telescope’s Science Operations

Oct 31, 2018 by News Staff

NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope, which spent nine years in deep space collecting data that detected thousands of exoplanets, has run out of fuel needed...

New Research Confirms Six Living Tiger Subspecies

Oct 30, 2018 by News Staff

Today, fewer than 4,000 free-ranging tigers survive in the wild, covering only 7% of their historical range. Efforts to protect these animals have been...

An artist’s impression of the Kordylewski dust cloud in the night sky. Image credit: Gábor Horváth.

Astronomers Confirm Existence of Kordylewski Dust Clouds

Oct 29, 2018 by News Staff

A research team from Hungary has confirmed the existence of two enigmatic celestial objects called Kordylewski dust clouds (KDCs) — large concentrations...

A 15,000-year-old stemmed point at the Debra L. Friedkin site, Texas. Image credit: Waters et al, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aat4505.

Archaeologists Find 15,500-Year-Old Spear Points in Texas

Oct 26, 2018 by News Staff

Through excavation of the Debra L. Friedkin site northwest of Austin, Texas, a team of archaeologists has identified a particular style of projectile point...

Reconstruction of Archaeopteryx albersdoerferi. Image credit: Zhao Chuang / Martin Kundrát.

Paleontologists Discover New Species of Archaeopteryx

Oct 26, 2018 by News Staff

Archaeopteryx was first described as the ‘missing link’ between reptiles and birds in 1861 — and is now regarded as the link between dinosaurs...

The Central African slender-snouted crocodile (Mecistops leptorhynchus). Image credit: Shirley et al, doi: 10.11646/zootaxa.4504.2.1.

Cryptic New Species of Crocodile Identified in Africa

Oct 26, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of researchers has identified a cryptic new species of slender-snouted crocodile living in Central Africa. The Central African slender-snouted...

A new oxygen-delivery therapeutic restored the function of oxygen-starved heart tissue in an animal model of global hypoxia.

Novel Therapeutic Delivers Oxygen to Hypoxic Tissues

Oct 25, 2018 by Sam Sander Effron

Researchers from the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) have developed a novel therapeutic that can deliver oxygen specifically to under-oxygenated...

This vivid picture of NGC 2467 was captured with the FORS2 instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope. Image credit: ESO.

ESO’s Very Large Telescope Observes NGC 2467

Oct 25, 2018 by News Staff

The Very Large Telescope (VLT), a telescope facility operated by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) on Cerro Paranal in the Atacama Desert of northern...

This image of the rectangular iceberg was taken during an Operation IceBridge flight over the northern Antarctic Peninsula on October 16, 2018. Image credit: Jeremy Harbeck, NASA.

NASA’s IceBridge Researchers Find Rectangular Icebergs in Southern Ocean

Oct 24, 2018 by News Staff

Members of the Operation IceBridge, NASA’s decade-long airborne survey of polar ice, spotted two rectangular icebergs during a flight over the northern...

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.

Salty, Oxygenated Water on Mars Could Host Simple Aerobic Life

Oct 23, 2018 by News Staff

Caltech researcher Vlada Stamenković and co-authors calculated that if liquid water exists on the Red Planet, it could contain more oxygen than previously...

The Rote leaf warbler (Phylloscopus rotiensis). Image credit: Philippe Verbelen.

Rote Leaf Warbler: New Bird Species Discovered in Indonesia

Oct 23, 2018 by News Staff

A striking new species of leaf warbler has been discovered in the forests of the Indonesian island of Rote by an international team of researchers. The...

An artist’s impression of the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo spacecraft in cruise configuration, with Mercury in the background. On its 7.2 year journey to the innermost planet, BepiColombo will fly by Earth once, Venus twice and Mercury six times before entering into orbit. The MTM module is shown with ion thrusters firing, and with its solar wings extended, spanning about 100 feet (30 m) from tip-to-tip. The 24.6-foot (7.5 m) long solar array of the MPO orbiter in the middle is seen extending to the top. The Mio orbiter is hidden inside the sunshield in this orientation. Image credit: ESA / ATG Medialab / NASA / JPL.

European-Japanese BepiColombo Spacecraft is on Its Way to Mercury

Oct 23, 2018 by News Staff

BepiColombo, a joint endeavor between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), blasted off from Europe’s Spaceport...

The Pando aspen clone from a distance (green foreground and middle -- not yellow). Image credit: Lance Oditt, Studio 47.60° North.

Pando, World’s Largest Single Organism, is Shrinking

Oct 22, 2018 by News Staff

A team of researchers from Utah State University has conducted the first complete assessment of the Pando aspen clone — the largest living organism...

Piranhamesodon pinnatomus, 2.8 inches (7.1 cm) long, from the Late Jurassic of Ettling, Solnhofen Archipelago, Germany. Image credit: M. Ebert.

Jurassic Flesh-Eating Fish Had Piranha-Like Teeth

Oct 19, 2018 by Enrico de Lazaro

A remarkable new species of predatory fish that lived about 152 million years ago (Jurassic period) has been identified from a fossil found in Germany. Piranhamesodon...

Electrons Are Perfectly Spherical, New Measurements Confirm

Oct 18, 2018 by News Staff

Physicists from the Advanced Cold Molecule Electron Electric Dipole Moment (ACME) Collaboration have examined the shape of an electron’s charge with...

The Hyperion proto-supercluster is the largest and most massive structure yet found at such a remote time and distance -- about 2.3 billion years after the Big Bang. Image credit: ESO / L. Calçada & Olga Cucciati et al.

Astronomers Find Proto-Supercluster of Galaxies in Early Universe

Oct 18, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope have spotted a gigantic galaxy proto-supercluster in the early Universe, just 2.3 billion years after the...

The wild sugarcane (Saccharum spontaneum). Image credit: Joydeep / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Researchers Sequence Genome of Wild Sugarcane

Oct 17, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of over 100 scientists from 16 institutions has sequenced the genome of the wild sugarcane (Saccharum spontaneum). The results appear...

This scanning electron micrograph shows macrophages infected with Bacillus anthracis (Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology)

New Nanoparticle-Based Vaccine Protects against Anthrax and Plague

Oct 17, 2018 by Enrico de Lazaro

A research team in the United States has developed a nanoparticle-based dual vaccine against Bacillus anthracis and Yersinia pestis — pathogens that...

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