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Study with Aye-Ayes, Slow Loris Sheds Light on Origins of Alcohol Consumption

An aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis). Image credit: David Haring.
Jul 20, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

In the first controlled study of its kind, a team of scientists at Dartmouth College has found that two species of non-human primates – the slow loris (Nycticebus coucang) and the aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis) — can discriminate varying concentrations of alcohol, and further, that both species prefer the highest available concentrations. An aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis). Image credit: David Haring. Alcohol is widespread in...

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An artist’s rendition of the K2-72 planetary system. Image credit: NASA / JPL.

NASA’s Kepler/K2 Mission Confirms 104 New Extrasolar Planets

Jul 20, 2016 by Sergio Prostak

A team of astronomers has reported a huge haul of new exoplanets discovered and confirmed using data from the first year of the Kepler/K2 mission. Among...

Turtle Shell Evolved for Burrowing, Study Suggests

Jul 19, 2016 by News Staff

A new study on the partially shelled fossil turtles suggests the broad-ribbed proto shell was initially an adaptation, not for protection, but rather for...

One year ago, NASA’s New Horizons space probe entered the history books by exploring the Pluto system. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

New Horizons’ Top Ten Images, Discoveries at Pluto

Jul 18, 2016 by News Staff

One year ago, NASA’s New Horizons space probe entered the history books by exploring the Pluto system. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University...

An array of household items, including whole pots. Image credit: Dave Webb / Cambridge Archaeological Unit.

Must Farm: Bronze Age Settlement Sheds Light on Everyday Life

Jul 15, 2016 by News Staff

Archaeologists from the University of Cambridge have made remarkable discoveries about everyday life in the Bronze Age during the excavation of ancient...

This is one slice through the map of the large-scale structure of the Universe from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey. Each dot in this picture indicates the position of a galaxy 6 billion years into the past. The image covers about 1/20th of the sky, a slice of the Universe 6 billion light-years wide, 4.5 billion light-years high, and 500 million light-years thick. Color indicates distance from Earth, ranging from yellow on the near side of the slice to purple on the far side. Galaxies are highly clustered, revealing superclusters and voids whose presence is seeded in the first fraction of a second after the Big Bang. This image contains 48,741 galaxies, about 3% of the full survey dataset. Grey patches are small regions without survey data. Image credit: Daniel Eisenstein / SDSS-III Collaboration.

Astronomers Create 3D Map of 1.2 Million Galaxies to Study Properties of Dark Energy

Jul 15, 2016 by News Staff

Astronomers from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS, part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III) have produced the largest-ever 3D map of...

Two Gualicho shinyae attack a smaller dinosaur. Image credit: Jorge Gonzalez / Pablo Lara.

Gualicho shinyae: New Theropod Dinosaur Unearthed in Argentina

Jul 14, 2016 by Natali Anderson

A team of paleontologists has found fossil fragments from a remarkable new species of theropod dinosaur that walked our planet around 94 million years...

This color view from NASA’s Juno spacecraft shows atmospheric features on Jupiter, including the Great Red Spot. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS.

Juno Beams Back First In-Orbit Images of Jupiter, Galilean Moons

Jul 13, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

Juno’s low-resolution in-orbit images of Jupiter and three of its largest moons — Europa, Io, and Ganymede — have made their way back to...

Dwarf planet Sedna. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / R. Hurt, SSC-Caltech.

2015 RR245: New Dwarf Planet Discovered in Solar System’s Kuiper Belt

Jul 12, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers have discovered a new dwarf planet in the Kuiper Belt, a vast ring of icy debris that is encircling the outer rim of our Solar System just...

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.

ESO’s Very Large Telescope Peers Deep into Heart of Orion Nebula

Jul 12, 2016 by News Staff

A group of astronomers has used the High Acuity Wide-field K-band Imager (HAWK-I), an infrared instrument installed on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT)...

This artist’s impression shows a view of the triple-star system HD 131399 (also known as HIP 72940 and 2MASS J14542529-3408342) from close to the Jupiter-like exoplanet orbiting in the system. HD 131399Ab and appears at the lower-left of the picture. Image credit: L. Calcada / ESO.

HD 131399Ab: Astronomers Find Super-Jupiter in Triple-Star System

Jul 7, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

Using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), astronomers have found a young Jupiter-like planet in a triple-star system. This artist’s impression shows...

View of the LHCb detector. Image credit: CERN.

CERN Physicists Observe Three New Tetraquark Particles

Jul 6, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

Physicists on CERN’s LHCb collaboration say they’ve observed three new exotic particles – X(4274), X(4500) and X(4700) – and also confirmed the...

Juno arrives at Jupiter. Image credit: NASA / JPL.

NASA’s Juno Spacecraft Enters Orbit around Jupiter

Jul 5, 2016 by Natali Anderson

After almost five years and 1.7 billion miles (2.7 billion km), NASA’s Juno spacecraft successfully entered the orbit around the biggest planetary inhabitant...

This illustration depicts NASA’s Juno spacecraft at Jupiter, with its solar arrays and main antenna pointed toward the distant Sun and Earth. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Juno Ready to Encounter Solar System’s Biggest Planet

Jul 4, 2016 by News Staff

NASA’s Juno spacecraft will arrive at Jupiter, the most massive planet in our Solar System, later today (July 4) to orbit the gas giant for 20 months...

This artist’s rendering shows Juno making one of its close passes over Jupiter. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Scientists Excited as Juno Nears Jupiter

Jul 3, 2016 by News Staff

NASA’s Jupiter-bound Juno spacecraft is on course to swing into orbit around the gas giant on Monday, July 4. This artist’s rendering shows Juno making...

Occator crater (center) appears to be among the youngest features on Ceres. Dawn mission scientists estimate its age to be about 78 million years old. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA.

Hydrothermal Activity May Explain Mysterious Bright Spots on Ceres

Jul 1, 2016 by News Staff

Anomalously bright areas on the dwarf planet Ceres have the highest concentration of sodium carbonate ever seen outside our planet, says a new study published...

This image combines an image taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope in the optical and observations of the Jovian aurora in the ultraviolet. Image credit: NASA / ESA.

Hubble Observes Spectacular Auroras on Jupiter

Jun 30, 2016 by Natali Anderson

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured stunning new ultraviolet images of the auroral lights in the atmosphere of the Solar System’s largest...

Kankuamo marquezi, male. Image credit: Dirk Weinmann.

Newly-Discovered Species of Tarantula Named after Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Jun 30, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

A relatively large species of tarantula discovered in an isolated mountain range in Colombia has been named after the famed Colombian novelist and 1982...

The view towards the east from the Carregal do Sal megalithic cluster, at dawn at the end of April around 4,000 BC, as reconstructed using a Digital Elevation Model and Stellarium. Aldebaran, the last star to rise before the Sun, is rising directly above Serra da Estrela, the ‘mountain range of the star.’ Image credit: Fabio Silva.

Iberian Megalithic Tombs: 6,000-Year-Old Lensless Telescopes?

Jun 30, 2016 by News Staff

A team of astronomers from the UK is exploring what might be described as the first astronomical observing tool, potentially used by humans around 4,000...

Olduvai Gorge, Great Rift Valley, Tanzania. Image credit: Noel Feans / CC BY 2.0.

Researchers Find Giant Helium Gas Field in Tanzania

Jun 28, 2016 by Natali Anderson

A team of researchers from Durham University, the University of Oxford, and the exploration company Helium One has discovered a world-class helium gas...

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