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This artist’s illustration depicts how, centuries ago, people believed that small worms living within the tooth caused excruciating pain via their cold breath. Proof of tooth worms came when an inflamed tooth was ripped out and small stringy structures -- the nerves and blood vessels -- were visible within the disintegrating pulp and dentin. The tooth worms are actually odontoblasts, cells that form the dentin layer of the tooth, which encases the soft tooth pulp. Bernal et al. demonstrated that the cold sensation in our teeth is mediated by the odontoblast (green structures) and transmitted to the brain via nerves (red), where pain is perceived. Image credit: Katharina Zimmermann.

Scientists Figure Out How Teeth Sense Cold

Mar 29, 2021 by News Staff

Odontoblasts, cells that form dentin, the shell beneath the tooth’s enamel that encases the soft dental pulp containing nerves and blood vessels, contain...

The Alagoas screech owl (Megascops alagoensis) in Brazil. Image credit: Gustavo Malacco.

Two New Species of Screech Owls Identified

Mar 29, 2021 by News Staff

Ornithologists from the United States, Brazil and Finland have described two new species of the owl genus Megascops from the Amazon and Atlantic forests. The...

Giant Extinct Australian Birds Had Well-Developed Stereoscopic Vision and Small Brain

Mar 25, 2021 by News Staff

Paleontologists from Flinders University have examined the brains of four species of extinct giant mihirungs (dromornithid birds): Ilbandornis woodburnei...

This EHT image shows the polarized view of the black hole in Messier 87. The lines mark the orientation of polarization, which is related to the magnetic field around the shadow of the black hole. Image credit: EHT Collaboration.

EHT Captures Polarized-Light Image of Messier 87’s Supermassive Black Hole

Mar 24, 2021 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) — a planet-scale array of eight ground-based radio telescopes (ALMA, APEX, the IRAM 30-m telescope,...

Archaeologists May Have Found ‘Original Stonehenge’

Mar 24, 2021 by News Staff

A research team led by University College London archaeologists has discovered a 5,000-year-old dismantled stone circle in west Wales, close to Stonehenge’s...

Reconstruction of Homo floresiensis. Image credit: Kinez Riza / Atelier Elisabeth Daynes, Sangiran Museum.

Southeast Asians Carry DNA of ‘Mysterious Southern Denisovans’

Mar 23, 2021 by News Staff

The hominin fossil record of Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) indicates that at least two super-archaic species, Homo luzonensis and Homo floresiensis, were...

Ancient Maya Used Salt Cakes as Money, New Research Suggests

Mar 23, 2021 by News Staff

The ancient Maya made salt by boiling brine in pots over fires in salt kitchens, according to a paper by Louisiana State University’s Professor Heather...

A fully bloomed Rafflesia tiomanensis. Image credit: Yunoh et al.

New Species of Rafflesia Discovered in Malaysia

Mar 23, 2021 by Natali Anderson

Researchers have found a new species of parasitic flowering plant in the forests of Pulau Tioman, an island in Malaysia. A fully bloomed Rafflesia tiomanensis....

The decay of a B0 meson into a K0 and an electron-positron pair in the LHCb detector, which is used for a sensitive test of lepton universality in the Standard Model. Image credit: CERN.

Intriguing New Results from CERN Challenge Standard Model of Particle Physics

Mar 23, 2021 by News Staff

The Standard Model of particle physics currently provides our best description of fundamental particles and their interactions. The new results from CERN’s...

An artist’s impression of the warm giant exoplanet TOI-201b and its parent star. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Warm Gas Giant Found Circling Young Active Star TOI-201

Mar 22, 2021 by Natali Anderson

Using data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and several ground-based telescopes, astronomers have discovered and confirmed a...

PAH molecules overlaid on the Taurus Molecular Cloud, a large blue-white cloud made of gas and dust with large and small stars of varying luminosities interspersed throughout. Aromatic molecule structures shown in order from left to right: 1-cyanonaphthalene, 1-cyano-cyclopentadiene, HC11N, 2-cyanonaphthalene, vinylcyanoacetylene, 2-cyano-cyclopentadiene, benzonitrile, E-cyanovinylacetylene, HC4NC, propargylcyanide. Image credit: M. Weiss / Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Astronomers Detect Two New Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Interstellar Medium

Mar 22, 2021 by News Staff

Using data from the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope, astronomers have identified emission from two isomers of a small polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon...

Life reconstruction of Aquilolamna milarcae. Image credit: Oscar Sanisidro.

Cretaceous Plankton-Eating Shark Had Long, Wing-Like Fins

Mar 19, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new species of shark with hypertrophied, slender pectoral fins has been identified from the fossilized remains discovered in northern Mexico. Life reconstruction...

View of the tunnel where the TOTEM experiment’s proton detectors are located. Image credit: TOTEM Collaboration.

Particle Physicists Confirm Existence of Odderon

Mar 19, 2021 by News Staff

Physicists from the TOTEM (TOTal cross section, Elastic scattering and diffraction dissociation Measurement) Collaboration at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider...

An artist’s impression of ‘Oumuamua as a piece of nearly pure nitrogen ice. Image credit: William Hartmann / Arizona State University.

Oumuamua is Nitrogen-Ice Fragment of Pluto-Like Exoplanet, New Theory Says

Mar 18, 2021 by News Staff

1I/‘Oumuamua, a strange object of extrasolar origin discovered on October 19, 2017 by the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope, was small, about half as long as a...

An illustration of early Earth, as it would have looked around 4 billion years ago. Image credit: Lucy Entwisle.

Lightning Strikes Played Role in Creating Prebiotic Phosphorus on Early Earth, Study Suggests

Mar 18, 2021 by News Staff

Phosphorus is one of the key elements for life, involved in biomolecules such as DNA, RNA, phospholipids, and adenosine triphosphate. Phosphide minerals...

Transmission electron micrograph showing the general cell morphology of Methylobacterium jeotgali. Image credit: Aslam et al., doi: 10.1099/ijs.0.64625-0.

Previously Unknown Species of Bacterium Found on International Space Station

Mar 17, 2021 by Natali Anderson

Biologists have found four bacterial strains of the Methylobacteriaceae family in surface samples collected from the International Space Station (ISS)...

Understanding the history of the Greenland Ice Sheet is critical for predicting its response to future climate warming and contribution to sea-level rise. Image credit: Rolf Johansson.

Geologists Find Million-Year-Old Plant Fossils Deep Beneath Greenland Ice Sheet

Mar 16, 2021 by News Staff

The deep ice at Camp Century in northwestern Greenland entirely melted at least once within the last million years and was covered with vegetation, including...

The new Dead Sea scroll fragments from the Cave of Horror, the Judean Desert, Israel. Image credit: Shai Halevi, Israel Antiquities Authority.

New Dead Sea Scroll Fragments Found in Israel

Mar 16, 2021 by News Staff

Archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority have discovered dozens of parchment fragments of a Biblical scroll, which is written in Greek and...

Life reconstruction of Vilevolodon diplomylos showing a parent and offspring. Image credit: Sarah Shelley.

Jurassic Gliding Mammal Relative Sheds New Light on Evolution of Mammalian Middle Ear

Mar 16, 2021 by News Staff

Paleontologists from the United States and China have examined the middle ear bones (ossicles) of Vilevolodon diplomylos, a gliding haramiyidan that lived...