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New Estimate: There are Over 18,000 Bird Species on Earth

Toucan. Image credit: Tambako the Jaguar / CC BY-ND 2.0.
Dec 29, 2016 by News Staff

A new study published in the journal PLoS ONE suggests that there are 18,043 bird species in the world — nearly twice as many as previously thought. Toucan. Image credit: Tambako the Jaguar / CC BY-ND 2.0. Birds (class Aves) are traditionally thought of as a well-studied group, with more than 95% of their global species diversity estimated to have been described. Most checklists used by ornithologists as well as by bird watchers say that there...

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This false-color image shows the dwarf planet Ceres. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA.

Dawn Finds New Evidence for Water Ice on Ceres

Dec 28, 2016 by News Staff

Images from NASA’s Dawn probe have revealed a dark, cratered world whose brightest area is made of reflective salts — not water ice. But several...

ESO’s New Technology Telescope Views Messier 98

Dec 28, 2016 by Natali Anderson

This image snapped by ESO’s New Technology Telescope (NTT), a 3.58-m telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile, shows the edge-on spiral galaxy...

This artist’s impression shows how Mars may have looked about 4 billion years ago. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

More Evidence for Warm, Wet Early Mars

Dec 27, 2016 by News Staff

A study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets provides new evidence for a warm early Mars that hosted water across a geologically long...

World’s Thinnest Electrical Wires Developed: Just Three Atoms Wide

Dec 27, 2016 by News Staff

Researchers are reporting development of the world’s thinnest electrical wires, made of chalcogenide and diamondoids (the smallest possible bits of diamond)....

The bony armor on the body of this gulf pipefish, raised in the lab of Prof. Cresko, is not yet well ossified and appears mostly transparent; bones are stained red; cartilage is stained blue. Image credit: Mark Currey.

Gulf Pipefish Genome Sequenced

Dec 26, 2016 by News Staff

A team of scientists from the University of Oregon and Texas A&M University has sequenced and explored the genome of the gulf pipefish (Syngnathus...

This image shows the megamaser galaxy LEDA 58817, which lies in the constellation Ophiuchus, about 370 million light-years away. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Judy Schmidt, www.geckzilla.com.

Hubble Spots Cosmic Megamaser

Dec 26, 2016 by News Staff

NASA has released a stunning image snapped by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of the megamaser galaxy LEDA 58817. This image shows the megamaser galaxy...

An anatomical illustration from Sobotta’s Human Anatomy, 1908.

Mesentery: Researchers Reclassify Part of Digestive System as Organ

Dec 23, 2016 by News Staff

The mesentery, which connects the intestine to the abdomen, had for hundreds of years been considered a fragmented structure made up of multiple separate...

Limusaurus inextricabilis is the only known reptile to lose its teeth and form a beak after birth. Image credit: Yu Chen.

Limusaurus: Beaked, Bird-Like Dinosaur Species Had Teeth as Juveniles, Lost Them as They Grew

Dec 23, 2016 by News Staff

An international team of paleontologists has discovered that Limusaurus inextricabilis, a species of Jurassic dinosaur, lost its teeth in adolescence and...

Light and color would look different on a planet orbiting a tiny red star, like this artist’s impression of Proxima b. The Earth-sized planet in the habitable zone is the nearest exoplanet to our Sun. Image credit: ESO / M. Kornmesser.

Are Exoplanets Like Those in ‘Star Wars: Rogue One’ Really Out There?

Dec 21, 2016 by NASA

In the ‘Star Wars’ universe, ice, ocean and desert planets burst from the darkness as your ship drops out of light speed. But these worlds might be...

ESA’s Swarm satellites have led the discovery of a jet stream in the liquid iron part of Earth’s core about 1,870 miles beneath the surface. In addition, Swarm data show that this jet stream is speeding up. Image credit: ESA.

Researchers Discover Jet Stream in Earth’s Molten Iron Core

Dec 20, 2016 by News Staff

A jet stream within the Earth’s core has been discovered by researchers using data from ESA’s Swarm satellite mission. ESA’s Swarm satellites have...

Artist’s impression of a cloud of trapped antihydrogen atoms. Image credit: Chukman So.

CERN Physicists Observe Light Spectrum of Antimatter for the First Time

Dec 19, 2016 by News Staff

Physicists from CERN’s ALPHA experiment today report the first ever measurement on the optical spectrum of an antimatter atom. Artist’s impression...

This pointy-nosed blue chimaera (Hydrolagus trolli) was videotaped by MBARI’s remotely operated vehicle Tiburon near Hawaii at a depth of 5,384 feet (1,641 m). Image credit: Amber N. Reichert et al, doi: 10.1186/s41200-016-0095-5.

Pointy-Nosed Blue Chimaera Spotted in North Pacific Ocean

Dec 19, 2016 by News Staff

A large deep-water fish that was previously identified in the Southeastern Pacific has recently been found around the Hawaiian Islands and off the coast...

Hubble’s view of Jupiter. Image credit: NASA.

Teasing Out the Secrets beneath Jupiter’s Cloud Tops

Dec 17, 2016 by James Romero

As NASA’s Juno probe makes its closest flyby of the gas giant, new research from France’s space agency could help make more sense of the data it sends...

Large, Exceptional Gem Diamonds Formed from Metallic Liquid inside Earth’s Mantle

Dec 16, 2016 by News Staff

New research in the journal Science explains how diamonds of exceptional size and quality formed — from metallic liquid deep inside Earth’s mantle. World’s...

Minke whale. Image credit: Len Joh / CC BY-ND 2.0.

Mysterious Sound Recorded in Mariana Trench Believed to be from Minke Whales

Dec 15, 2016 by News Staff

A strange sound in the Mariana Trench notable for its complexity likely represents the discovery of a new minke whale call, says a team of marine researchers...

This low-angle self-portrait of NASA’s Curiosity rover shows the vehicle at the site from which it reached down to drill into a rock target called ‘Buckskin’ on lower Mount Sharp. The selfie combines several component images taken by Curiosity’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on Aug. 5, 2015, during 1065 Sol (Martian day) of the rover’s work on Mars. For scale, the rover’s wheels are 20 inches (50 cm) in diameter and about 16 inches (40 cm) wide. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.

NASA’s Curiosity Rover Finds Boron on Martian Surface

Dec 14, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

Boron, a metalloid chemical element with properties intermediate between those of carbon and aluminum, has been identified for the first time on the Martian...

Lechuguilla Cave, New Mexico. Image credit: Max Wisshak.

Multi-Drug Resistant Bacteria Found Deep in New Mexico’s Lechuguilla Cave

Dec 13, 2016 by News Staff

According to a team of researchers led by Gerald Wright, a professor of biochemistry and biomedical sciences at McMaster University, Lechuguilla Cave —...

In this artist’s illustration, HAT-P-7b closely orbits a star that’s 1,044 light-years from Earth. A companion star (top right) and a candidate planet (foreground) lie in the distance. Image credit: NAOJ.

Scientists Find Evidence of Weather Change on Jupiter-Like Exoplanet HAT-P-7b

Dec 12, 2016 by News Staff

Signs of powerful changing winds have been detected on an extrasolar gaseous planet called HAT-P-7b, which is 40% larger than Jupiter and orbits a star...

The feathered tail of a coelurosaur preserved in mid-Cretaceous amber from Kachin State, Myanmar. Image credit: Lida Xing et al, doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2016.10.008.

Feathered Dinosaur Tail Found Encased in Mid-Cretaceous Burmese Amber

Dec 9, 2016 by News Staff

An international team of paleontologists from China, Canada and the United Kingdom has discovered the tail of a non-avian theropod dinosaur (likely a coelurosaur)...

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