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Orange-colored carbonate grains in the ALH 84001 meteorite. Image credit: Koike et al, doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-15931-4.

Researchers Find Nitrogen-Bearing Organics in Ancient Martian Meteorite

May 1, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Four-billion-year-old carbonates in a Martian meteorite called Allan Hills (ALH) 84001 contain nitrogen-bearing organic molecules, according to a new study...

Two Spinosaurus aegyptiacus hunt Onchopristis, a prehistoric sawfish, in the waters of the Kem Kem river system in what is now Morocco. Image credit: Jason Treat / National Geographic Staff / Mesa Schumacher / Davide Bonadonna / Nizar Ibrahim, University of Detroit Mercy.

Spinosaurus aegyptiacus is First Known Aquatic Dinosaur

Apr 30, 2020 by News Staff

A species of carnivorous dinosaur called Spinosaurus aegyptiacus used tail-propelled swimming locomotion to hunt for prey in rivers, according to a new...

Life reconstruction of Adalatherium hui. Image credit: Andrey Atuchin / Denver Museum of Nature & Science.

Paleontologists Find 66-Million-Year-Old Fossil of Bizarre Mammal

Apr 30, 2020 by News Staff

A new species of gondwanatherian mammal from the Cretaceous period has been identified from a very well-preserved fossilized skeleton found on the island...

This artist’s impression shows how ULAS J1120+0641, a very distant quasar powered by a black hole with a mass two billion times that of the Sun, may have looked. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

New Measurements of Fine-Structure Constant Suggest Laws of Nature Not as Constant as Previously Thought

Apr 29, 2020 by News Staff

The fine-structure constant is a measure of electromagnetism — one of the four fundamental forces in nature; the others are gravity, weak nuclear...

Hubble resolved roughly 30 fragments of comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS) on April 20, 2020. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / D. Jewitt, University of California, Los Angeles / Q. Ye, University of Maryland.

Hubble Space Telescope Witnesses Breakup of Comet ATLAS

Apr 29, 2020 by News Staff

New images from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of the long-period comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS), taken on April 20 and 23, 2020, provide the sharpest views...

SEM image of Bacillus subtilis biofilm. Image credit: A. Bridier et al, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0044506.

Bacterial Communities Have Memory, New Study Shows

Apr 29, 2020 by News Staff

Collectives of bacteria, or biofilms, stimulated with light remembered the exposure hours after the initial stimulus, according to new research. Reported...

Gymnothorax elaineheemstrae. Image credit: Dennis King.

New Species of Moray Eel Discovered

Apr 28, 2020 by Sergio Prostak

A team of researchers from South Africa has discovered that the Indo-Pacific undulated moray eel (Gymnothorax undulatus), first described by the French...

An artist’s impression of a rocky asteroid. Image credit: Mark A. Garlick, Space-art.co.uk / University of Warwick / University of Cambridge.

High-Inclination Centaur Asteroids Came from Interstellar Space: Study

Apr 28, 2020 by Natali Anderson

At least 17 high-inclination Centaurs and two trans-Neptunian objects were captured by the Solar System from the interstellar medium, according to a new...

Glowing young tobacco plants (Nicotiana tabacum). Image credit: Planta.

Researchers Create Glowing Tobacco Plants

Apr 27, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of scientists has genetically engineered tobacco plants (Nicotiana tabacum) with a fungal bioluminescence system. This biological...

Sahara was Earth’s Most Dangerous Place 100 Million Years Ago

Apr 27, 2020 by News Staff

A large number of ferocious predators, including predatory dinosaurs, pterosaurs and crocodile-like creatures, made Sahara the most dangerous place on...

This Hubble image shows the giant nebula NGC 2014 and its neighbor NGC 2020. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / STScI.

NASA and ESA Unveil Turbulent Stellar Nursery as Official Hubble 30th Anniversary Image

Apr 24, 2020 by News Staff

In celebration of the 30th anniversary of the launch of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers used the telescope to take a portrait of the giant...

Lava streaming from an active vent during the 2018 eruption of Kīlauea volcano. Image credit: U.S. Geological Survey.

Extreme Rainfall Triggered 2018 Eruption of Kilauea Volcano, Researchers Say

Apr 23, 2020 by News Staff

The 2018 eruption of Kīlauea volcano in Hawaii was likely initiated by prolonged, and at times extreme, rainfall in the months leading up to the event,...

This scanning electron microscope image shows SARS-CoV-2 (yellow) isolated from a patient in the U.S., emerging from the surface of cells (blue/pink) cultured in the lab. Image credit: NIAID.

Could COVID-19 Pandemic Be Controlled Using Existing Vaccines Like MMR or BCG?

Apr 23, 2020 by The Conversation

The race is on to develop a vaccine that can protect us from the COVID-19 pandemic. An impressive 115 vaccine candidates are currently being investigated,...

The Unified Geologic Map of the Moon. Image credit: U.S. Geological Survey / Lunar and Planetary Institute / South Dakota School of Mines and Technology / NASA / JAXA.

Researchers Create Comprehensive Geologic Map of Moon

Apr 23, 2020 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey, the Lunar and Planetary Institute and the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology has released...

A composite image of Venus as seen by JAXA’s Akatsuki spacecraft. Image credit: Institute of Space and Astronautical Science / Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

MESSENGER Finds Chemically Distinct Regions in Atmosphere of Venus

Apr 22, 2020 by News Staff

A new analysis of archival data from NASA’s Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft reveals a sudden rise...

Colorized scanning electron micrograph of an apoptotic cell (red) infected with SARS-COV-2 virus particles (yellow), isolated from a patient sample. Image credit: NIAID.

Study Reveals New Clues about Biology of COVID-19

Apr 22, 2020 by News Staff

A new study published in the journal Cell pinpoints the likely cell types SARS-CoV-2, a new coronavirus behind the COVID-19 disease, infects; it also shows...

Fomalhaut b Doesn’t Exist, Astronomers Say

Apr 21, 2020 by News Staff

The directly-imaged massive exoplanet Fomalhaut b is actually a dispersing cloud of dust, produced by a catastrophic collision between two large planetesimals...

This rendering depicts the secretion of cytokines, the tiny pink bits, from a cell. Image credit: Scientificanimations.com / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Antibody-Like Proteins May Halt COVID-19 Cytokine Storm

Apr 21, 2020 by News Staff

Cytokines are signaling proteins that stimulate inflammation and other immune responses. ‘Cytokine storm,’ or cytokine release syndrome, plays a critical...

Hubble captured this image of the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov on December 9, 2019. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / K. Meech, University of Hawaii / D. Jewitt, University of California, Los Angeles.

Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov Has Unusual Chemical Composition

Apr 21, 2020 by News Staff

Comets spend most of their lives at large distances from any star, during which time their interior compositions remain relatively unaltered. Cometary...