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Fossils Reveal Giant New Species of Burrowing Bat: Vulcanops jennyworthyae

An artist’s impression of the New Zealand greater short-tailed, or burrowing, bat (Mystacina robusta) that went extinct last century. Vulcanops jennyworthyae is the biggest burrowing bat yet known. It also represents the first new bat genus to be added to New Zealand's fauna in more than 150 years. Image credit: Gavin Mouldey.
Jan 11, 2018 by News Staff

Paleontologists say they’ve found the fossilized remains of a new genus and species of bat that lived in New Zealand between 19 and 16 million years ago (Early Miocene epoch). An artist’s impression of the New Zealand greater short-tailed, or burrowing, bat (Mystacina robusta) that went extinct last century. Vulcanops jennyworthyae is the biggest burrowing bat yet known. It also represents the first new bat genus to be added to New Zealand’s...

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The globally distributed dishes of the European VLBI Network are linked with each other and the 305-m William E. Gordon Telescope at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. Together they have localized FRB121102’s exact position within its host galaxy. Image credit: Danielle Futselaar, www.artsource.nl.

Fast Radio Burst Source Linked to Extreme Magnetic Environment

Jan 11, 2018 by News Staff

Using the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico and the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia, astronomers have gained new insight into the extreme home of...

Artist’s impression of a galaxy in the early Universe. Image credit: Amanda Smith, University of Cambridge.

ALMA Detects ‘Whirlpool’ Movement in Two Early Galaxies

Jan 10, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile have spotted swirling gas in some of the Universe’s earliest galaxies. Artist’s...

There are many ways alcohol may cause cancer including directly damaging DNA, increasing levels of certain hormones and damaging the liver. Image credit: Laura M.

Research Shows How Alcohol Damages Stem Cell DNA

Jan 10, 2018 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology and the University of Cambridge, UK, has shown...

Leigh et al investigated the digestive function of bonnethead sharks in order to determine whether they can digest and assimilate nutrients from seagrass. Image credit: Mills Baker / CC BY 2.0.

Bonnethead Sharks Consume and Digest Seagrass

Jan 9, 2018 by News Staff

A small coastal shark called the bonnethead shark (Sphyrna tiburo) eats copious amounts of seagrass (Thalassia testudinum) and has adaptations in its digestive...

This illustration depicts Juno soaring over Jupiter’s swirling cloud tops. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS / Kevin M. Gill.

NASA’s Juno Orbiter Delivers Spectacular New Photos of Jupiter

Jan 8, 2018 by Enrico de Lazaro

NASA has released beautiful new images of Jupiter’s turbulent atmosphere from the tenth close flyby of its Juno spacecraft. This illustration depicts...

Easter Island, known as Rapa Nui to its earliest inhabitants, is one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world. Image credit: Yerson Retamal.

Study: Easter Island Had Supportive and Inclusive Community

Jan 8, 2018 by News Staff

An analysis of so-called pukao — colossal stone hats of monumental statues (moai) on Easter Island — provides evidence contrary to the widely...

This Hubble image shows part of 30 Doradus, home to the most massive stars in our cosmic neighborhood of about 25 galaxies. Image credit: NASA / ESA / D. Lennon and E. Sabbi (ESA / STScI) / J. Anderson, S. E. de Mink, R. van der Marel, T. Sohn, and N. Walborn (STScI) / N. Bastian (Excellence Cluster, Munich) / L. Bedin (INAF, Padua) / E. Bressert (ESO) / P. Crowther (University of Sheffield) / A. de Koter (University of Amsterdam) / C. Evans (UKATC / STFC, Edinburgh) / A. Herrero (IAC, Tenerife), N. Langer (AifA, Bonn), I. Platais (JHU), and H. Sana (University of Amsterdam).

Massive Stars are More Abundant than Thought

Jan 5, 2018 by News Staff

Observations of 30 Doradus, a star-forming region in a nearby galaxy called Large Magellanic Cloud, reveal that massive stars are more prevalent than models...

A scientific illustration of the Upward Sun River camp in what is now Interior Alaska. Image credit: Eric S. Carlson / Ben A. Potter.

Ancient Beringians: 11,500-Year-Old Genome Reveals Previously Unknown Native American Population

Jan 4, 2018 by News Staff

Genetic analysis of DNA from a female infant found at the Upward Sun River archaeological site in Alaska has revealed a previously unknown Native American...

‘Alien Megastructure’ Not the Cause of KIC 8462852’s Dimming

Jan 4, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers are one step closer to solving the mystery behind KIC 8462852, a main-sequence F-type star located in the constellation Cygnus, about 1,480...

Supermassive black holes at the cores of galaxies blast radiation and ultra-fast winds outward, as illustrated in this artist’s conception. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Central Black Holes Control Star Formation in Massive Galaxies: Study

Jan 2, 2018 by News Staff

Supermassive black holes, with masses more than a million times that of the Sun, reside at the centers of all massive galaxies. A new study published in...

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disease, characterized clinically by progressive memory loss, cognitive decline, and aberrant behavior. In Alzheimer’s, changes in tau protein lead to the disintegration of microtubules in brain cells. Image credit: Alzheimer’s Disease Education and Referral Center / National Institute on Aging.

New Diabetes Drug Shows Promise against Alzheimer’s Disease

Jan 1, 2018 by News Staff

A ‘triple receptor’ drug originally created to treat type 2 diabetes could be used to treat Alzheimer’s disease after researchers from China and...

This image, captured by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3, shows the megamaser galaxy UGC 6093. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Space Telescope Spots Megamaser Galaxy: UGC 6093

Jan 1, 2018 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken a picture of the galaxy UGC 6093. This image, captured by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3, shows the megamaser...

Saturn’s Great Northern Storm churning through the atmosphere in the planet’s northern hemisphere overtakes itself as it encircles the planet in this true-color view from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. This picture, captured on February 25, 2011, was taken about 12 weeks after the storm began, and the clouds by this time had formed a tail that wrapped around the gas giant. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.

Saturn’s Northern Storms Cause Disturbances in Its ‘Heartbeat’

Dec 31, 2017 by News Staff

Giant storms in Saturn’s northern hemisphere can disturb atmospheric patterns at the ringed giant’s equator, according to new research published in...

2014 MU69, the next flyby target of NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, might have a moon. Image credit: NASA / JHUAPL / SwRI.

Kuiper Belt Object 2014 MU69 Might Have a Small Moon

Dec 29, 2017 by News Staff

The upcoming encounter of NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft with 2014 MU69 will be an important and rare opportunity for close-up study of a Kuiper Belt...

This colorful image shows the sky around the bright pair of stars π1 Gruis (center-right, very red) and π2 Gruis (center-left, bluish-white). Just right of center the bright spiral galaxy IC 5201 is also visible and many other fainter galaxies are scattered across this wide-field image from the Digitized Sky Survey 2. Image credit: ESO / Digitized Sky Survey 2 / Davide De Martin.

Astronomers Observe Huge ‘Granules’ on Surface of Red Giant Star

Dec 29, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of scientists led by ESO astronomer Claudia Paladini has directly observed granules — patterns of convection currents in the...

The golden-collared manakin (Manacus vitellinus). Image credit: Sebastian Moreno / CC BY-ND 2.0.

Amazon’s First Hybrid Bird Species Found: Golden-Crowned Manakin

Dec 27, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of ornithologists has revealed that a rare Amazonian bird called the golden-crowned manakin (Lepidothrix vilasboasi) — first...

This image shows an enormous, balloon-like bubble (center) being blown into space by a super-hot, massive Wolf-Rayet star. Image credit: NASA / ESA / F. Summers, G. Bacon, Z. Levay, and L. Frattare (Viz 3D Team, STScI).

Solar System May Have Been Born in Wolf-Rayet Bubble

Dec 26, 2017 by News Staff

A team of astronomers from the University of Chicago and Clemson University has laid out a theory for how our Solar System could have formed in the dense...

Artistic reconstruction of Habelia optata. This creature and its relatives were active predators of the Cambrian sea floors, hunting for small shelly sea creatures, such as small trilobites -- arthropods with hard, mineralized exoskeletons that were already very diverse and abundant during Cambrian times. Image credit: Joanna Liang, Royal Ontario Museum.

Cambrian Sea Predator Had ‘Jackknife’ Head

Dec 25, 2017 by News Staff

Habelia optata, a close relative of the ancestor of modern-day spiders, scorpions and horseshoe crabs, evolved an extremely complex head to hunt and eat...

This transmission electron microscopic image depicts the ultrastructural details of an influenza virus particle. Image credit: Erskine L. Palmer & M.L. Martin / CDC.

New Diagnostic Test Could Help Detect Respiratory Viral Infection Faster

Dec 25, 2017 by News Staff

According to a study published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, a new test that measures mRNAs or proteins in human nasal epithelial cells could...

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