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Meet Saccorhytus coronarius, Humans’ Earliest-Known Ancestor

Reconstruction of Saccorhytus coronaries. Image credit: Jian Han et al, doi: 10.1038/nature21072.
Jan 31, 2017 by News Staff

A microscopic, bag-like marine creature that lived approximately 540 million years ago (Fortunian stage of the Cambrian period) has been identified from microfossils found in Shaanxi Province, China. Reconstruction of Saccorhytus coronaries: lateral, hind and ventral views. Image credit: Jian Han et al, doi: 10.1038/nature21072. The ancient animal, named Saccorhytus coronarius, is the most primitive example of a so-called deuterostome. The creature...

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This Cassini image features a density wave in Saturn’s A ring (at left) that lies around 83,575 miles (134,500 km) from Saturn. Density waves are accumulations of particles at certain distances from the planet. This feature is filled with clumpy perturbations, which researchers informally refer to as ‘straw.’ The wave itself is created by the gravity of Saturn’s moons Janus and Epimetheus, which share the same orbit around the gas giant. Elsewhere, the scene is dominated by ‘wakes’ from a recent pass of the ring moon Pan. The image was taken in visible light with Cassini’s wide-angle camera on December 18, 2016. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 34,000 miles (56,000 km) from the rings and looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.

Saturn’s Main Rings Up Close

Jan 31, 2017 by News Staff

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft took these stunning photos of Saturn’s rings on December 18, 2016, while it was performing one of its ‘ring-grazing’...

Hubble Frontier Fields view of a distant galaxy cluster. Image credit: NASA / ESA / HST Frontier Fields Team / STScI.

First Observational Evidence of Holographic Universe?

Jan 30, 2017 by News Staff

A ground-breaking study released in the journal Physical Review Letters (arXiv.org version) offers what its authors call ‘the first observational evidence...

Photo of metallic hydrogen at a pressure of 495 GPa; the sample is non-transmitting and is observed in reflected light; the central region is clearly more reflective than the surrounding metallic rhenium gasket; the sample dimensions are approximately 8-10 microns with thickness 1.2 microns. Image credit: Ranga P. Dias & Isaac F. Silvera, doi: 10.1126/science.aal1579.

Physicists Produce World’s First Sample of Metallic Hydrogen

Jan 30, 2017 by News Staff

A duo of physicists at Harvard University has succeeded in creating a metallic modification of hydrogen. The research is published in the journal Science. Photo...

Eggs of the Ordovician trilobite Triarthrus eatoni. Image credit: Thomas A. Hegna et al, doi: 10.1130/G38773.1.

Paleontologists Find 450-Million-Year-Old Fossilized Trilobite Eggs

Jan 27, 2017 by Natali Anderson

A research team led by Western Illinois University scientist Thomas Hegna has announced the discovery of two pyritized, egg-bearing specimens of the Ordovician...

HE0435-1223, located in the centre of this wide-field image, is among the five best lensed quasars discovered to date. The foreground galaxy creates four almost evenly distributed images of the distant quasar around it. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / S.H. Suyu et al.

Astronomers Use Gravitational Lensing to Measure Hubble Constant

Jan 27, 2017 by News Staff

Astronomers from the international H0LiCOW (H0 Lenses in COSMOGRAIL’s Wellspring) collaboration have made a new measurement of the Hubble constant —...

Head of Aethiocarenus burmanicus. Image credit: G. Poinar Jr. / A.E. Brown.

Mid-Cretaceous Burmese Amber Preserves Alien-Looking Insect

Jan 26, 2017 by News Staff

In a paper published in the journal Cretaceous Research, Oregon State University researchers described a never-before-seen insect species found in a piece...

This composite color full-disk visible image of the Western Hemisphere was captured from NOAA’s GOES-16 satellite on Jan. 15, 2017. Image credit: NOAA / NASA.

NOAA’s GOES-16 Weather Satellite Captures Its First Images of Earth

Jan 25, 2017 by News Staff

NOAA’s GOES-16 (formerly known as GOES-R), the first spacecraft in a new series of NASA-built advanced geostationary weather satellites, has sent the...

This is an artist’s rendering of the space collision 466 million years ago that gave rise to many of the meteorites falling today. Image credit: Don Davis, Southwest Research Institute.

Study: Today’s Rare Meteorites Were Common in Ordovician Period

Jan 25, 2017 by News Staff

A new study published in the journal Nature Astronomy is the first to look at meteorites from before giant space collision 466 million years ago. This...

At an extremely high magnification of 44,818x, this colorized scanning electron microscopic (SEM) image reveals some of the morphologic details displayed by Escherichia coli. Image credit: Janice Haney Carr / CDC.

Stable Semi-Synthetic Bacterium Created

Jan 25, 2017 by News Staff

Researchers from the United States, China and France have created what they say is the world’s first stable semi-synthetic microorganism. The research...

Two individuals of Siamogale melilutra. Image credit: Mauricio Anton.

Siamogale melilutra: Giant Otter Fossils Reveal New Species

Jan 23, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of paleontologists has identified a new species of giant otter that lived in what is now China during the latest Miocene, approximately...

A range of now extinct megafauna that was present when humans first arrived in Australia. Image credit: Peter Trusler, Monash University.

Humans Caused Extinction of Australia’s Prehistoric Giant Animals: New Evidence

Jan 23, 2017 by News Staff

New evidence indicates the primary cause of megafaunal extinction in Australia 45,000 years ago was likely a result of humans, not climate change. A paper...

Astronomers Characterize Wolf 1061 Planetary System

Jan 20, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro

A research team led by San Francisco State University astronomer Stephen Kane has obtained new observations of Wolf 1061, known to host at least three...

A pair of thylacines, a male and female, c. 1905. Image credit: Smithsonian Institutional Archives / E. J. Keller, National Zoological Park.

Thylacine Had Brain Structure Suited to Predatory Life Style

Jan 19, 2017 by News Staff

A duo of researchers from the United States and Australia has used an imaging technique to reconstruct the brain architecture and neural networks of the...

A watercolor drawing of the durian (Durio zibethinus), c. 1819-1823. The drawing is one of 477 natural history drawings of plants and animals of Malacca and Singapore commissioned by William Farquhar.

Chemists Identify Key Compounds Responsible for Durian’s Pungent Odor

Jan 19, 2017 by Natali Anderson

A team of researchers in Germany has analyzed a set of stinky and fruity chemical ingredients and found that the overall odor of durian pulp could be mimicked...

An artist’s impression showing the increasing effect of ram-pressure stripping in removing gas from the spiral galaxy NGC 4921 and its satellite galaxies. Image credit: ICRAR / NASA / ESA / Hubble Heritage Team / STScI / AURA.

‘Ram-Pressure Stripping’ Shuts Off Star Formation in Galaxies, Astronomers Say

Jan 18, 2017 by News Staff

According to a new study published this week in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, a phenomenon called ram-pressure stripping is more...

‘Clam-shell’ view of Side A (top) and B showing black dendrites against the background of the brown mudstone. The flake, only shown re-attached on Side A, is the result of a post-excavation fracture of the specimen. Arrows point to large inclusion visible on Sides A and B. Image credit: Davorka Radovčić et al, doi: 10.1016/j.crpv.2016.04.013.

Neanderthals Capable of Incorporating Symbolic Objects into Their Culture, Discovery Suggests

Jan 18, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro

An unusual limestone rock found at an archaeological site in Croatia indicates that Neanderthals were capable of incorporating symbolic objects into their...

Roasted beans of Arabica coffee (Coffea arabica). Image credit: University of California, Davis.

Researchers Sequence Genome of Arabica Coffee

Jan 17, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of researchers led by University of California, Davis, geneticists has publicly released the first public genome sequence of Arabica...

The ruby seadragon (Phyllopteryx dewysea). Image credit: Scripps Institution of Oceanography / Western Australia Museum.

Ruby Seadragon Filmed Alive in Ocean for First Time

Jan 16, 2017 by Natali Anderson

A team of marine biologists from Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Western Australia Museum has captured on video the first-ever field sighting...

The six most common elements of life on Earth (including more than 97% of the mass of a human body) are carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur and phosphorus. The colors in the spectra show dips, the size of which reveal the amount of these elements in the atmosphere of a star. The human body on the left uses the same color coding to evoke the important role these elements play in different parts of our bodies, from oxygen in our lungs to phosphorous in our bones (although in reality all elements are found all across the body). In the background is an artist’s impression of the Galaxy, with cyan dots to show the APOGEE measurements of the oxygen abundance in different stars; brighter dots indicate higher oxygen abundance. Image credit: Dana Berry / SkyWorks Digital Inc / SDSS.

Astronomers Map ‘Elements of Life’ in Milky Way Galaxy

Jan 14, 2017 by News Staff

At the 229th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society on Jan. 5, 2017, astronomers from the SDSS/APOGEE (Sloan Digital Sky Survey/Apache Point Observatory...

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