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Tratayenia rosalesi crosses a stream in what is now Patagonia, Argentina roughly 85 million years ago. Image credit: Andrew McAfee, Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

New Carnivorous Dinosaur Unveiled: Tratayenia rosalesi

Apr 16, 2018 by News Staff

A partial skeleton of a megaraptorid dinosaur unearthed over a decade ago in northwestern Patagonia, Argentina, has been recognized as belonging to a new...

Ecological restoration of moths in the Cretaceous Burmese amber forest. Image credit: Dinghua Yang.

Fossil Study Sheds Light on Mesozoic Butterfly and Moth Wing Colors

Apr 13, 2018 by News Staff

New research by a team of scientists from the University of Exeter and elsewhere offers an illuminating insight into iridescent colors found on the earliest...

A cold and windy spring night on the vast landscape of the Devon Ice Cap where two subglacial lakes are lurking 1,805 to 2,460 feet (550-750 m) below the surface. Image credit: Anja Rutishauser.

Geophysicists Discover Two Salty Subglacial Lakes in Canadian Arctic

Apr 12, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of geophysicists has discovered two hypersaline lakes beneath the Devon Ice Cap, one of the largest ice caps in the Canadian Arctic. A...

Giant ichthyosaurs Shonisaurus. Image credit: Nobumichi Tamura.

Giant Triassic Ichthyosaur is One of Biggest Animals Ever

Apr 11, 2018 by News Staff

According to a study released this week in the journal PLoS ONE, an isolated bone from the lower jaw of a prehistoric marine reptile found in Somerset,...

A Homo heidelbergensis, a Neanderthal and a Cro-Magnon. Image credit: SINC / José Antonio Peñas.

Mobile Eyebrows Played Important Role in Human Survival, Research Suggests

Apr 10, 2018 by News Staff

New research published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution contributes to a long-running debate about why archaic hominins had gigantic brow...

Thin section of a Xenorhabdus nematophila cell, showing outer membrane blebs on the surface of the cell and in the surrounding area. Image credit: Mattia2 / Kenyon College.

Odilorhabdins: Researchers Discover New Class of Antibiotics

Apr 9, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of scientists led by the University of Illinois, Chicago, has discovered a new class of naturally produced, ribosome-targeting antibacterial...

Astronomers Find Isolated Neutron Star in Small Magellanic Cloud

Apr 6, 2018 by News Staff

New images from the MUSE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile have revealed a ring-shaped structure in the young supernova remnant 1E 0102.2-7219...

This image shows the nearby globular cluster NGC 6397, located at a distance of 7,800 light-years in the southern constellation Ara. Image credit: NASA / ESA / T. Brown & S. Casertano, STScI / J. Anderson, STScI.

Astronomers Make First Precise Distance Measurement to Ancient Globular Cluster

Apr 5, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have for the first time precisely measured the distance to one of the oldest objects in the Universe...

10,000 Stellar-Mass Black Holes Exist in Milky Way’s Central Region, Astronomers Say

Apr 5, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory have discovered what they believe are 12 stellar-mass black holes gathered around Sagittarius A*,...

Study: Japanese Macaques Bathe in Hot Springs to Reduce Cold-Climate Stress

Apr 4, 2018 by News Staff

Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata), also known as snow monkeys, are the world’s most northerly species of non-human primates. They have been enjoying...

Jurassic Dinosaur Footprints Found on Scotland’s Isle of Skye

Apr 4, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of paleontologists from the University of Edinburgh, Staffin Museum and Chinese Academy of Sciences has discovered a new dinosaur...

This Hubble image shows the galaxy cluster MACS J1149.5+223, whose light has taken over 5 billion years to reach us. Highlighted is the position where the Icarus star appeared -- its image magnified by a factor 2,000 by gravitational microlensing. The spiral galaxy in which the star is located can be seen three times on the sky -- multiplied by strong gravitational lensing. Image credit: NASA / ESA / S. Rodney, John Hopkins University / FrontierSN Team / T. Treu, University of California Los Angeles / P. Kelly, University of California Berkeley / GLASS Team / J. Lotz, STScI / Frontier Fields Team / M. Postman, STScI / CLASH Team / Z. Levay, STScI.

Icarus Star: Hubble Spies Most Distant Star Ever Seen

Apr 3, 2018 by News Staff

A blue supergiant star nicknamed Icarus is so far away that its light has taken 9 billion years to reach our planet. It appears to us as it did when the...

Eocene Monitor Lizard Had Four Eyes: Study

Apr 3, 2018 by News Staff

According to a new study, Saniwa ensidens — an extinct monitor lizard that lived in what is now Wyoming 51-49 million years ago (Eocene epoch) —...

Venus in real colors, processed from Mariner 10 images. Image credit: Mattias Malmer / NASA.

Venus’ Atmosphere Could Host Acid-Resistant Microorganisms

Apr 2, 2018 by News Staff

In the search for alien life, astrobiologists have turned over all sorts of rocks. For example, Mars has geological features that suggest it once had subsurface...

Greenwood et al discovered that water was present on Earth at an early stage in its evolution and survived the giant impact, which formed the Moon. This is an artist’s depiction of a catastrophic collision between two celestial bodies; such an impact between the proto-Earth and Theia likely formed the Moon. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Earth’s Water was Present before Moon-Forming Impact, Research Shows

Mar 30, 2018 by News Staff

The high-energy impact about 100 million years after our Solar System formed, resulted in the two colliding planetary objects completely merging to create...

Ashwanikumar et al have developed a drug delivery system using cell-penetrating self-assembling peptide nanomaterials (CSPNs); these drilled-shaped nanomaterials traverse cellular membranes to deliver drugs and can be fine-tuned into different shapes to optimize delivery. Image credit: Ashwanikumar et al, doi: 10.1016/j.jconrel.2018.02.041.

Scientists Develop Drug-Delivering ‘Nanodrills’ that Penetrate Cell Membranes

Mar 30, 2018 by Zvi Cramer

Researchers have created new drill-shaped nanomaterials that infiltrate cellular membrane and deliver drugs inside the cell, providing a versatile means...

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope took this image of NGC 1052-DF2 on November 16, 2017. Image credit: NASA / ESA / P. van Dokkum, Yale University.

Hubble Discovers Ultra-Diffuse Galaxy with Almost No Dark Matter

Mar 29, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have discovered a unique galaxy — the first of its kind — that appears to contain virtually...

The interstitium is seen here beneath the top layer of skin, but is also in tissue layers lining the gut, lungs, and urinary systems, as well as those surrounding blood vessels and the fascia between muscles; the organ is a body-wide network of interconnected, fluid-filled compartments supported by a meshwork of strong, flexible proteins. Image credit: Jill Gregory / Mount Sinai Health System.

Interstitium: ‘New’ Organ Found in Human Body

Mar 28, 2018 by News Staff

A team of researchers from New York University School of Medicine, Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical Center, the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research...

Astronomers Find Super-Earth with Mercury-Like Composition: K2-229b

Mar 28, 2018 by Natali Anderson

An international team of astronomers has discovered a planetary system containing at least three massive planets, orbiting the bright late-G/early-K-type...