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The Sichuan bush warbler (Locustella chengi), Laojun Shan, China. Image credit: Per Alström et al.

Top New Bird Discoveries of 2015

Jan 5, 2016 by Natali Anderson

A small warbler from China, a cryptic species of owl from the Middle East, and a tiny tapaculo from South America are just three of the incredible bird...

The CSU team has successfully produced a completely recyclable, biodegradable polymer. Image credit: Colorado State University.

Chemists Develop Fully Recyclable Polymer

Jan 2, 2016 by News Staff

A team of scientists at Colorado State University (CSU) has successfully produced a completely recyclable, biodegradable polymer. A graphical illustration...

A New Caledonian crow (Corvus moneduloides). Image credit: Jolyon Troscianko.

New Caledonian Crows Caught on Camera Making Hooked Stick Tools

Dec 28, 2015 by Enrico de Lazaro

A team of scientists from the United Kingdom has captured first video recordings documenting how New Caledonian crows (Corvus moneduloides) make ‘hooked...

Text of Cairo Calendar page rto VIII; inside the superimposed rectangle is the hieratic writing for the word Horus. A passage in this document dates it to the reign of Ramses II in the Nineteenth Dynasty. Image credit: Jetsu L. / Porceddu S., doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0144140.s001.

3,200-Year-Old Papyrus Contains Astrophysical Information about Variable Star Algol

Dec 23, 2015 by Sergio Prostak

Ancient Egyptians wrote Calendars of Lucky and Unlucky Days that assigned astronomically influenced prognoses for each day of the year. The best preserved...

Short-nosed sea snakes. Image credit: Grant Griffin / WA Parks and Wildlife Service.

Researchers Rediscover Two Rare Species of Sea Snakes

Dec 22, 2015 by Natali Anderson

A team of scientists from James Cook University and Curtin University, both in Australia, has rediscovered two Australian endemic sea snake species, leaf-scaled...

Artist’s reconstruction of a Red Deer Cave man. Image credit: Peter Schouten.

14,000-Year-Old Bone Found in Red Deer Cave Points to Archaic Human Species

Dec 18, 2015 by News Staff

An archaic species of the genus Homo from China, thought to be long extinct, likely survived until as recently as 14,000 years ago, a thigh bone found...

Morelladon beltrani: New Sail-Backed Dinosaur Species Discovered in Spain

Dec 17, 2015 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new species of ornithopod dinosaur has been discovered in Spain dating back 125 million years to the Barremian stage of the Early Cretaceous epoch. Life...

This artist’s concept depicts a super-Earth. Image credit: NASA / Ames / JPL-Caltech.

Wolf 1061c: Potentially Habitable Super-Earth Spotted 14 Light-Years Away

Dec 17, 2015 by Natali Anderson

A team of astronomers has spotted three exoplanets orbiting around the same star – Wolf 1061 – one of which is in the habitable zone. This...

This image shows an artist’s impression of the ten hot Jupiter exoplanets studied by the astronomers. The images are to scale with each other. HAT-P-12b, the smallest of them, is approximately the size of Jupiter, while WASP-17b, the largest planet in the sample, is almost twice the size. The planets are also depicted with a variety of different cloud properties. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Astronomers Solve Missing Water Mystery in Comparative Study of Hot Jupiters

Dec 15, 2015 by Natali Anderson

A survey of so-called hot-Jupiters – giant exoplanets that orbit very close to their host stars – conducted with NASA’s Spitzer and the NASA/ESA...

Kunbarrasaurus ieversi: New Armored Dinosaur Species Discovered

Dec 11, 2015 by Natali Anderson

A new species of armored dinosaur has been identified from bones discovered more than two decades ago in Australia. An artist impression of Kunbarrasaurus...

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.

Two Studies Offer Fascinating Insights about Ceres, Its Bright Spots

Dec 10, 2015 by Enrico de Lazaro

In two new studies, published today in the journal Nature, the dwarf planet Ceres reveals some of its most eye-catching secrets. In the first study, researchers...

Life restoration of Phosphorosaurus ponpetelegans, with a pair ambushing coleoid cephalopods at night. Image credit: Tatsuya Shinmura / Ashoro Museum of Paleontology / Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London.

Phosphorosaurus ponpetelegans: Fossil Find in Japan Uncovers New Mosasaur Species

Dec 9, 2015 by Natali Anderson

Paleontologists have discovered what they say is a completely unexpected new mosasaur that lived 72 million years ago in Japan. Life restoration of Phosphorosaurus...

Stonehenge Bluestones Came from Two Quarries in Wales, Scientists Say

Dec 8, 2015 by News Staff

Enormous standing stones at Stonehenge are of sarsen, a local sandstone, but the smaller ones, known as bluestones, came from two prehistoric quarries...

This Pluto mosaic was made from New Horizons LORRI images taken on July 14, 2015, from a distance of 49,700 miles (80,000 km). This view is projected from a point 1,118 miles (1,800 km) above Pluto’s equator, looking northeast over the dark, cratered Cthulhu Regio toward the bright, smooth expanse of icy plains called Sputnik Planum. Pluto’s North Pole is off the image to the left. This mosaic was produced with panchromatic images from the New Horizons LORRI camera, with color overlaid from the Ralph color mapper onboard New Horizons. Image credit: S.A. Stern et al, doi: 10.1126/science.aad1815.

New Horizons Sends Back High Resolution Views of Dwarf Planet Pluto

Dec 7, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s New Horizons team has released a series of breathtaking new images of Pluto’s surface, giving planetary researchers a high resolution window...

An artist’s impression of FRB 110523 reaching Earth; the colors represent the burst arriving at different radio wavelengths, with long wavelengths (red) arriving seconds after short wavelengths (blue). Image credit: Jingchuan Yu / Beijing Planetarium.

Astronomers Detect Mysterious Burst of Radio Waves 6 Billion Light-Years Away

Dec 3, 2015 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers have detected a so-called fast radio burst from around 6 billion light-years away, one of less than two dozen such events they’ve discovered...

An artist’s impression of giant sauropods on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. Image credit: Jon Hoad.

Giant Dinosaur Footprints Found on Isle of Skye

Dec 2, 2015 by Sergio Prostak

Hundreds of footprints left behind by massive herbivorous sauropod dinosaurs have been discovered on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. An artist’s impression...

Nucleation of microdiamond from nanodiamond filaments which were quenched after the formation at 6,740 degrees Fahrenheit. Image credit: Jagdish Narayan / Anagh Bhaumik.

Q-Carbon: Scientists Discover New Allotrope of Carbon

Dec 1, 2015 by News Staff

A team of material scientists in the United States has discovered a novel allotrope of carbon, Q-carbon. Nucleation of microdiamond from nanodiamond filaments...

The red clover (Trifolium pratense). Image credit: Masaki Ikeda / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Red Clover Genome Sequenced

Nov 30, 2015 by Natali Anderson

A team of genetic researchers, led by Dr Jose de Vega of the Genome Analysis Center and Aberystwyth University, UK, has successfully sequenced the genome...

This artist’s impression shows a supermassive black hole consuming a star that has been torn apart by the black hole’s gravity; as a result of this ‘meal’ the black hole begins to launch a powerful jet that astronomers can detect with radio telescopes. Image credit: NASA / Goddard Space Flight Center / Swift.

Astronomers Spot Unusual Jet from Supermassive Black Hole in PGC 43234

Nov 26, 2015 by Natali Anderson

A group of scientists, led by Dr Sjoert van Velzen of Johns Hopkins University, has observed a new way for plasma to escape the gravitational pull of a...