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The silky anteater (Cyclopes didactylus). Image credit: Quinten Questel / CC BY-SA 3.0.

DNA Reveals that Silky Anteaters Are Seven Species

Dec 12, 2017 by Natali Anderson

The silky anteater (Cyclopes didactylus) has previously been recognized to be a single species divided into several sub-species. But a new genetic analysis,...

An old man diagnosed as suffering from senile dementia. Color lithograph, 1896, J. Williamson, Byrom Bramwell. Image credit: Wellcome Images / CC BY 4.0.

Scientists May Have Discovered Major Cause of Dementia

Dec 12, 2017 by News Staff

The build-up of urea, also known as carbamide, in the brain to toxic levels can cause brain damage — and eventually dementia, according to new research. An...

Physicists Prove Existence of New Form of Matter: Excitonium

Dec 11, 2017 by News Staff

New research led by a University of Illinois physicist has proved the existence of a new form of matter — ‘excitonium,’ a solid crystal of excitons....

One diet doesn’t fit all, and what works for some may not be best for others. Image credit: Rita E.

Study: Diet Success Depends on Your Genes

Dec 11, 2017 by News Staff

A diet that makes one individual lean and healthy might have the complete opposite effect on another, according to a new study published in the journal...

New Research Shows Black Holes Have Significantly Weaker Magnetic Fields than Originally Thought

Dec 8, 2017 by News Staff

A sudden flare from a low-mass black hole in the binary system V404 Cygni has offered astrophysicists a unique opportunity to make precise measurements...

Reconstruction of Wakaleo schouteni challenging the thylacinid Nimbacinus dicksoni over a kangaroo carcass in the late Oligocene forest at Riversleigh, Australia. Image credit: Peter Schouten.

Dog-Sized Marsupial Lion Once Lived in Australia: Wakaleo schouteni

Dec 7, 2017 by News Staff

Paleontologists have discovered a new species of carnivorous marsupial lion that lived 26 to 18 million years ago (late Oligocene to early Miocene) in...

Artist’s conception of the most-distant supermassive black hole ever discovered, which is part of ULAS J134208.10+092838.61, a quasar from just 690 million years after the Big Bang. It is surrounded by neutral hydrogen, indicating that it is from the period called the Epoch of Reionization, when the Universe’s first light sources turned on. Image credit: Robin Dienel / Carnegie Institution for Science.

Astronomers Discover Most Distant Known Supermassive Black Hole

Dec 7, 2017 by News Staff

An international group of astronomers has discovered and measured the distance to the most distant supermassive black hole ever found. Artist’s conception...

This artist’s concept shows two super-Earth exoplanets, K2-18b and c, orbiting the red dwarf star K2-18. Image credit: Alex Boersma.

Nearby Red Dwarf Hosts Two Super-Earth-Sized Exoplanets — One in Its ‘Habitable Zone’

Dec 6, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers has found that a little-known exoplanet called K2-18b could be a scaled-up version of Earth, and also discovered the...

X-ray source LGGS J004527.30+413254.3. Image credit: NASA / CXC / University of Washington / T. Dorn-Wallenstein et al / ESA / J. Dalcanton et al / R. Gendler.

Double Supermassive Black Hole ‘Photobombs’ Andromeda Galaxy

Dec 5, 2017 by News Staff

Using X-ray data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and optical data from ground-based telescopes, astronomers have spotted what could be the most...

The high-quality genome sequence of the bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria) provides a useful resource for plant comparative genomics studies and cucurbit improvement. Image credit: Alice Paipai.

Scientists Sequence Calabash Genome

Dec 4, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of researchers has produced the first high-quality genome sequence for the bottle gourd, also known as calabash, and reconstructed...

Ancient DNA Shakes Up Horse Family Tree

Dec 3, 2017 by News Staff

An analysis of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA from fossils of extinct New World stilt-legged horses reveals that, contrary to previous findings, these enigmatic...

According to Alvarenga et al, dogs are brainier than cats. Image credit: Rihaij.

Dogs Have More Brain Neurons Than Cats, New Study Says

Dec 1, 2017 by News Staff

According to the first study to count the number of cortical neurons in the brains of a number of carnivores, dogs have about 530 million cortical neurons...

Colony of Hamipterus tianshanensis. Image credit: Chuang Zhao.

Paleontologists Find Cache of 215 Pterosaur Eggs in China

Dec 1, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of paleontologists has discovered a fossil-rich site with more than 200 fossilized eggs of the Cretaceous pterosaur species Hamipterus...

A still frame from the Patterson-Gimlin film, a famous motion picture of an unidentified subject filmed on October 20, 1967 by Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin on Bluff Creek, a tributary of the Klamath River about 25 road miles north-west of Orleans, California.

Purported Yeti Samples Are Genetically Identical to Asian Bears, DNA Study Says

Nov 30, 2017 by News Staff

The Yeti, a mysterious ‘hominid’-like creature said to inhabit the high mountains of Asia, looms large in the mythology of Nepal and Tibet. Now, a...

An ALMA image of the center of the Milky Way Galaxy showing the location of 11 young protostars within about 3 light-years of Sagittarius A*. The lines indicate the direction of the bipolar lobes created by high-velocity jets from the protostars. The illustrated star in the middle of the image indicates the location of Sagittarius A*. Image credit: ALMA / Yusef-Zadeh et al / B. Saxton / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / AUI / NSF.

ALMA Spots Eleven Protostars near Milky Way’s Central Black Hole

Nov 30, 2017 by News Staff

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has revealed the telltale signs of 11 low-mass stars forming close – within just 3 light-years...

The Mariana snailfish (Pseudoliparis swirei). Image credit: Mackenzie Gerringer, University of Washington.

Meet Mariana Snailfish, World’s Deepest-Dwelling Fish

Nov 29, 2017 by News Staff

In the frigid darkness of the Mariana Trench swims the world’s deepest-living fish — the Mariana snailfish (Pseudoliparis swirei). The Mariana...

This image, taken with the Wide Field Imager camera on the 2.2-m MPG/ESO telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile, shows the Sculptor dwarf galaxy. Image credit: ESO.

3D Motions of Stars in Sculptor Dwarf Galaxy Hint at Underlying Dark Matter

Nov 28, 2017 by News Staff

Based on the combination of data taken 12 years apart by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and ESA’s Gaia mission, astronomers have pinned down for...

Proton is a subatomic particle found in the nucleus of every atom. This artist’s impression shows a proton and a neutron. Image credit: Joanna Griffin / Jefferson Lab / Penn State.

Physicists Precisely Measure Proton’s Magnetic Moment

Nov 27, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro

In a paper published in the journal Science, a team of physicists from Japan and Germany reports the most precise measurement ever made of the magnetic...

This image from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft shows Saturn and its rings. Six of Saturn’s moons make a faint appearance in this image: the ice-covered moon Enceladus can be seen at the 1 o’clock position; directly below Enceladus, just outside the F ring (the thin, farthest ring from the planet seen in this image) lies the small moon Epimetheus; following the F ring clock-wise from Epimetheus, the next moon seen is Janus; at about the 4:30 position and outward from the F ring is Mimas; inward of Mimas and still at about the 4:30 position is the F-ring-disrupting moon, Pandora; moving around to the 10 o’clock position, just inside of the F ring, is the moon Prometheus. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.

NASA’s Cassini Team Releases Stunning Natural-Color Image of Saturn

Nov 23, 2017 by News Staff

After more than 13 years at Saturn, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft bid farewell to the Saturnian system by firing the shutters of its wide-angle camera and...