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Oldest Modern-Human Fossil Outside Africa Found in Israel

Jan 26, 2018 by News Staff

An upper jawbone complete with teeth found at a site called Misliya Cave, part of a complex of prehistoric caves along the western slopes of Mount Carmel...

Thin-section electron microscopy of an agar overlay containing plaques of the representative Autolykiviridae virus 1.008.O; virus particles in contact with cell membranes are observed to occasionally possess tail-tube-like structures, whereas those not in contact with cells do not. Image credit: Kauffman et al, doi: 10.1038/nature25474.

Scientists Find New Type of Virus in World’s Oceans: Autolykiviridae

Jan 25, 2018 by News Staff

Non-tailed double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) viruses infect bacteria and dominate water samples from the world’s oceans. They have long escaped analysis because...

Israeli Scientists Decode One of Last Encrypted Dead Sea Scrolls

Jan 24, 2018 by News Staff

A team of scientists from the Department of Bible Studies at the University of Haifa, Israel, has deciphered one of the last obscured parts of the Dead...

Turmeric contains curcumin, which has been shown to have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. Image credit: Joachim Schlosser / CC BY-SA 2.0.

Turmeric Compound Boosts Cognitive Power, Reveals New Study

Jan 24, 2018 by News Staff

Daily consumption of a certain form of curcumin, a bioactive compound found in the cooking spice turmeric, improved memory and mood in people with age-related...

In the study, male cats showed a left-side bias for natural behaviors, females a right-side bias. Image credit: Jan Mallander.

Study: Female Domestic Cats Are More Likely to Be Right-Handed

Jan 23, 2018 by News Staff

Female domestic cats are much more likely to use their right paw than males, according to a new study published in the journal Animal Behaviour. In the...

Artist’s impression of the black hole-star system in NGC 3201, a globular cluster located approximately 16,300 light-years away towards the southern constellation Vela. Image credit: ESO / L. Calçada / Spaceengine.org.

Astronomers Detect Lonely Black Hole in Globular Cluster NGC 3201

Jan 18, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers led by Georg-August-Universität Göttingen researcher Benjamin Giesers has discovered a star in the globular cluster...

Caihong juji lived in China about 161 million years ago and may have used its impressive feathers to attract mates. Image credit: Velizar Simeonovski, Field Museum.

Caihong juji: Jurassic Bird-Like Dinosaur Had Iridescent Feathers

Jan 17, 2018 by News Staff

A newly discovered species of bird-like dinosaur, Caihong juji, had a beautiful iridescent coloration, according to a study published in the journal Nature...

The panther chameleon shows fluorescent crests on the head. Image credit: David Prötzel, ZSM & LMU.

Chameleons Glow under Ultraviolet Light

Jan 17, 2018 by News Staff

Chameleons are small to mid-size tree-dwelling reptiles that are famous for their ability to change colors. A team of researchers from Germany has now...

Artist’s impression of two Diluvicursor pickeringi foraging on the bank of a high-energy river within the Australian-Antarctic rift valley. Image credit: Peter Trusler.

New Dinosaur Species Discovered in Australia

Jan 16, 2018 by News Staff

A new species of turkey-sized herbivorous dinosaur being named Diluvicursor pickeringi has been unearthed in southeastern Australia. Artist’s impression...

Five-Planet System Found: K2-138

Jan 16, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of citizen scientists and professional astronomers has discovered a system of at least five massive exoplanets, orbiting the Sun-like...

This image of the Orion Nebula was obtained from multiple exposures using VLT’s HAWK-I infrared camera. This is the deepest view ever of this region and reveals more very faint planetary-mass objects than expected. Image credit: H. Drass et al / ESO.

Spitzer and Hubble Telescopes Provide 3D Journey through Magnificent Orion Nebula

Jan 15, 2018 by News Staff

By combining the visible and infrared capabilities of NASA’s Spitzer and NASA/ESA Hubble space telescopes, a team of specialists at NASA’s Universe...

This high-resolution HiRISE image shows a detailed subsection of an icy scarp on Mars in enhanced color. Image credit: NASA / JPL / University of Arizona / USGS.

New HiRISE Images Show 3D Structure of Martian Ice Sheets

Jan 12, 2018 by News Staff

New images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter reveal never-before-observed details...

This Hubble image shows the Orion Nebula. Image credit: NASA / ESA / M. Robberto, Space Telescope Science Institute & ESA / Hubble Space Telescope Orion Treasury Project Team.

Hubble Finds Three Giant Exoplanets and Several Brown Dwarfs in Orion Nebula

Jan 12, 2018 by News Staff

Using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to peer deep into the famous Orion Nebula, Space Telescope Institute researcher Massimo Robberto and colleagues...

A salt crystal recovered from the Zag meteorite. Image credit: Queenie Chan, Open University.

Scientists Find Primordial Organic Matter in Two Meteorites

Jan 11, 2018 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the United States, UK and Japan has found liquid water and a mix of complex organic compounds in 4.5-billion-year-old salt crystals...

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.

Fossils Reveal Giant New Species of Burrowing Bat: Vulcanops jennyworthyae

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...

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...