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Could Mysterious Fast Radio Bursts Be Powering Extragalactic Light Sails?

Mar 12, 2017 by News Staff

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) — powerful radio flashes lasting just milliseconds, with mysterious origins that continue to be a matter of debate —...

Ancient crocodile-like animals first saw easy meals on land and then evolved limbs that enabled them to get there. Image credit: Zina Deretsky, National Science Foundation.

New Hypothesis for Origin of Terrestrial Vertebrates Proposed

Mar 10, 2017 by News Staff

It was the power of the eyes — not the limbs — that first led our ancient aquatic ancestors to make the leap from water to land, according...

Cerealia Facula, a bright dome in the center of Occator Crater on the dwarf planet Ceres, is shown in enhanced color in this view from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA / PSI / LPI.

Researchers Determine Age of Ceres’ Brightest Spot

Mar 10, 2017 by News Staff

Cerealia Facula, a dome-like feature located in the center of Ceres’ Occator crater, is only 4 million years old — approximately 30 million years...

Pan: Saturn’s Flying Saucer-Shaped Moon Up Close

Mar 10, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft captured these stunning images of Pan, the second-innermost moon of Saturn, during a close flyby on March 7, 2017. These images...

El Sidron Neanderthals taste wild mushrooms, pine nuts and forest moss. Image credit: Abel Grau, CSIC Communication.

Neanderthals Used Plant-Based Painkillers, Ate Rhinoceros Meat, Mushrooms, Nuts, and Moss

Mar 9, 2017 by News Staff

An analysis of ancient DNA entrapped in Neanderthal dental calculus (calcified dental plaque) has revealed the complexity of Neanderthal behavior, including...

This artist’s impression shows what the galaxy A2744_YD4 might look like. Image credit: ESO / M. Kornmesser.

ALMA Detects Vast Amounts of Interstellar Dust, Oxygen in Very Young, Distant Galaxy

Mar 9, 2017 by News Staff

New observations using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have demonstrated that A2744_YD4 — the youngest and most remote galaxy...

Artist’s concept of a magneto-optical trap and atom chip to be used by NASA’s Cold Atom Laboratory aboard the International Space Station. CAL will provide an opportunity to study ultra-cold quantum gases in the microgravity environment of the space station -- a frontier in scientific research that is expected to reveal interesting and novel quantum phenomena. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

NASA’s Cold Atom Laboratory to Create ‘Coolest Spot in Universe’

Mar 8, 2017 by News Staff

This summer, a suite of instruments called the Cold Atom Laboratory (CAL) will fly to the International Space Station (ISS), where it will utilize the...

True’s beaked whales (Mesoplodon mirus). Image credit: Roland Edler, Duisburg Zoo.

Extremely Rare True’s Beaked Whale Caught on Video

Mar 7, 2017 by News Staff

The True’s beaked whale (Mesoplodon mirus) is a poorly known member of the family Ziphiidae, second largest family of cetaceans (which includes whales,...

According to Yovanovich et al, frogs can see color in extreme darkness, down to the absolute threshold of the visual system. Image credit: Sonja Pauen / CC BY 2.0.

Frogs Have Unique Ability to See Color in Extreme Darkness, Study Shows

Mar 6, 2017 by News Staff

Frogs have the ability to see color even when it is so dark that humans are not able to see anything at all, according to a new study published in the...

This image, taken with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3, shows the super star cluster Westerlund 1. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Spots Monster Star Cluster

Mar 6, 2017 by Natali Anderson

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured this vivid image of Westerlund 1, a young super star cluster. This image, taken with Hubble’s Wide Field...

Illustration of a supersolid state, in which the properties of a frictionless fluid and a crystalline state coincide. Image credit: Julian Léonard, ETH Zurich.

Supersolid: Physicists Create New State of Matter

Mar 4, 2017 by News Staff

Two teams of physicists have independently created a mysterious new state of matter. The state is known as a supersolid and it combines the properties...

This is an artist’s rendition of a woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius). Image credit: Flying Puffin / CC BY-SA 2.0.

Wrangel Island Mammoths Experienced ‘Genomic Meltdown’ Just Prior to Extinction, Says New Study

Mar 3, 2017 by News Staff

According to a new study published in the journal PLoS Genetics, dwindling populations created a ‘mutational meltdown’ in the genomes of the last wooly...

Blue skies on Pluto. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

The Secrets of Pluto’s Thin Blue Line

Mar 3, 2017 by James Romero

“Like a summer’s evening here on Earth just after sunset. A faint blue glow follows the Sun below the horizon — the only bit of color within...

Reconstruction of Darwinylus marcosi on a gymnosperm host. Based on the pollen grains found in the amber with the beetle, paleobiologists believe that the beetle was closely associated with cycads, an ancient gymnosperm group of plants that have living relatives today throughout the warmer parts of the world. Image credit: Enrique Peñalver / Museo Geominero, Instituto Geológico y Minero de Espana.

105-Million-Year-Old Amber Preserves Pollinating Beetle, Pollen

Mar 3, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of paleobiologists has uncovered the fossil of a 105-million-year-old gymnosperm pollinating beetle, named Darwinylus marcosi. The...

African elephants. Image credit: Ro Dobby.

Shortest-Sleeping Mammal? African Elephants Sleep Only Two Hours Per Day

Mar 2, 2017 by News Staff

A new study published in the journal PLoS ONE has revealed that wild African elephants (Loxodonta africana) sleep an average of two hours a day and regularly...

Hematite tubes from the NSB hydrothermal vent deposits that represent the oldest microfossils and evidence for life on Earth. Image credit: Matthew Dodd, University College London.

World’s Oldest Known Fossils Found in Canada Push Evidence for Life back by 70 Million Years

Mar 1, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of paleontologists has discovered in Quebec, Canada, the oldest physical evidence of life on Earth — fossils that date back...

This VLT image shows the spiral galaxy NGC 1055. This large galaxy appears to lack the whirling arms characteristic of a spiral, as it is seen edge-on; however, it displays odd twists in its structure that were probably caused by an interaction with a large neighboring galaxy, Messier 77. The VLT observed NGC 1055 with the FOcal Reducer and low dispersion Spectrograph 2 (FORS2) instrument using visible-light filters. Image credit: ESO.

ESO’s Very Large Telescope Spies Spiral Galaxy Edge-On

Mar 1, 2017 by News Staff

A new image from ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) gives a detailed view of NGC 1055, an edge-on spiral galaxy. This VLT image shows the spiral galaxy...

Pro.f Braswell holds a replica of the Maya jade pendant. Image credit: Erik Jepsen, University of California, San Diego Publications.

Remarkable Maya Pendant Unearthed in Belize

Feb 28, 2017 by News Staff

A team of archaeologists led by Geoffrey Braswell, Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, San Diego, has found a remarkable artifact...

Sound-shaping metamaterial bricks and the grid to contain them. Image credit: Gianluca Memoli et al, doi: 10.1038/ncomms14608.

Researchers Invent Sound-Shaping Metamaterial

Feb 28, 2017 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the Universities of Sussex and Bristol, UK, has invented the first metamaterial that easily bends, shapes and focuses sound...