Page 131 | Sci.News: Breaking Science News

Goh et al. show that silences can substitute for sounds in three prominent auditory illusions caused by event representation. Image credit: Finmiki.

Silence is Truly Heard, New Research Suggests

Jul 11, 2023 by News Staff

Do we only hear sounds? Or can we also hear silence? These questions are the subject of a centuries-old philosophical debate between two camps: the perceptual...

The Ngoc Linh crocodile newt (Tylototriton ngoclinhensis), holotype male. Image credit: Phung et al., doi: 10.3897/zookeys.1168.96091.

New Crocodile Newt Species Discovered in Vietnam

Jul 11, 2023 by Natali Anderson

Scientists have described a new salamander species of the genus Tylototriton from evergreen montane forests on Ngoc Linh Mountain in the Central Highlands...

Boulila et al. highlight a common, correlatable 36-million-year cycle in the diversity of marine genera as well as in tectonic, sea-level, and macrostratigraphic data over the past 250 million years of Earth history. Image credit: James St. John / CC BY 2.0.

36-Million-Year Geological Cycle Drives Marine Biodiversity, Scientists Say

Jul 11, 2023 by News Staff

The evolution of life on Earth has changed dramatically at tens of million-year time scales. However, the causal mechanisms of these changes remain unclear....

Tiny meteoritic spherules from the most likely path of IM1. Image credit: Avi Loeb, Harvard University / Galileo Project.

Tiny Fragments of Interstellar Meteor May Have Been Found in Pacific Ocean

Jul 10, 2023 by Natali Anderson

Harvard University’s Professor Avi Loeb and colleagues have discovered at least 50 tiny spherical iron fragments near the fireball path of the first...

The linguliform brachiopod, Barroisella? milwaukeensis, showing color patterns, MPM P236. Image credit: Kenneth C. Gass / CC BY-SA 4.0 International.

Milwaukee’s Gift to Devonian Paleontology

Jul 10, 2023 by Kenneth C. Gass

Now known for its sports teams, Harleys, and beer, early Milwaukee County, Wisconsin was one of the nation’s leading producers of natural cement, and...

Western honeybees (Apis mellifera). Image credit: PollyDot.

New Research Reveals How Honeybees Make Fast, Accurate Decisions

Jul 10, 2023 by News Staff

A new study published in the journal eLife elucidates the honeybee’s behavioral strategy to associate sensory cues with rewards of different values....

An artist’s impression of LTT 9779b orbiting its host star. Image credit: Ricardo Ramírez Reyes, Universidad de Chile.

Cheops Finds Metal Clouds in Atmosphere of Ultrahot Neptune

Jul 10, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Aside from the Moon, the brightest object in our night sky is planet Venus, whose thick cloud layer reflects around 75% of the Sun’s light. By comparison,...

This Hubble image shows eMACS J1353.7+4329, a lensing galaxy cluster some 8 billion light-years away in the constellation of Canes Venatici. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / H. Ebeling.

Hubble Space Telescope Observes Exceptional Galaxy Cluster

Jul 10, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured a remarkable image of the strongly lensing galaxy cluster eMACS J1353.7+4329. This...

Rimrock Draw Rockshelter in Oregon, the United States. Image credit: University of Oregon.

Ancient Humans Occupied Oregon Rockshelter 18,250 Years Ago

Jul 7, 2023 by News Staff

Rimrock Draw Rockshelter in Oregon, the United States, is one of the oldest human-occupation sites in North America. Rimrock Draw Rockshelter in Oregon,...

Recreation drawing of ‘The Ivory Lady.’ Image credit: Miriam Luciañez Triviño.

New Scientific Method Reveals Female Leadership in Copper Age Iberia

Jul 7, 2023 by News Staff

The recently developed method of sex determination via sexually dimorphic amelogenin peptides in human tooth enamel represents a breakthrough for both...

A small piece of Burmese amber preserving feathers interpreted as belonging to a juvenile enantiornithine bird: (A) amber with the dorsal surface of the feather cluster exposed; (B) ventral surface exposed; (C) close up of the ventral surface (region marked in B); (D) close up of the ventral surface region marked in (C); (E) close up of the ventral surface region marked in (D); (F) close up of the dorsal surface marked in (A, larger rectangle); (G) close up of the dorsal surface marked in (A, smaller rectangle). Dotted lines indicate desiccation surfaces. Scale bars - 0.5 mm in (A, B, D and F), 0.1 mm in (C); 0.3 mm in (E); and 0.2 mm in (G). Anatomical abbreviations: ipl - immature plumaceous feather; ipn - immature pennaceous feather; ks - keratinous sheath; pf - probable filamentous ‘protofeathers.’ Image credit: O’Connor et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cretres.2023.105572.

99-Million-Year-Old Burmese Amber Preserves Feathers of Immature Enantiornithine Bird

Jul 7, 2023 by News Staff

The specimen provides the first unequivocal evidence of immature feathers in the Mesozoic fossil record. A small piece of Burmese amber preserving feathers...

CEERS 1019’s black hole existed just over 570 million years after the Big Bang and weighs only 9 million solar masses. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Leah Hustak, STScI.

Astronomers Detect Farthest Active Supermassive Black Hole Yet

Jul 6, 2023 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA / CSA James Webb Space Telescope have discovered an active supermassive black hole in CEERS 1019, a galaxy that existed...

Primary sequential molt in Microraptor; the arrow indicates the location of the molt-related gap within the primary feathers. Scale bar - 10 cm. Image credit: Y. Kiat & J.K. O’Connor, doi: 10.1038/s42003-023-05048-x.

Rarity of Molt Evidence in Feathered Dinosaurs Suggests Annual Molt Evolved Later among Flying Birds

Jul 6, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Feathers are a primitive trait among pennaraptoran dinosaurs, which today are represented by living birds, the only clade of dinosaurs to survive the end-Cretaceous...

This image, taken with ESA’s Solar Orbiter on April 1, 2022, shows a partial section of the Sun with gas at 1 million degrees; the red paths correspond to some of the rain tracks analyzed by Antolin et al. Image credit: Patrick Antolin / ESA / Solar Orbiter / EUI / HRI.

Meteor-Like ‘Fireballs’ Spotted in Solar Corona

Jul 6, 2023 by News Staff

Coronal rain is the most dramatic display of cooling in the Sun’s corona. It corresponds to cool and dense clumps of plasma appearing over a timescale...

Xing et al. report printable metallic gels (pendular suspensions) consisting of an aqueous suspension of copper particles connected by bridges of liquid eutectic gallium indium alloy (EGaIn). Pendular suspensions rely on capillary forces to form networks between solid particles with a composition-dependent rheology, but prior studies have focused on insulating suspensions. Here, the rheology of a conductive solid-liquid-liquid suspension is tuned for 3D printing by varying the composition and the pH; the latter promotes metallic wetting. The dry printed parts have metallic electrical conductivity without requiring a sintering step. Drying at elevated temperatures can accelerate the removal of water while creating stress that drives shape change (i.e., 4D printing). As a demonstration, the authors print a conductive spider that lifts and assembles its own body from an initially flat shape. Such conductive inks are promising for printing metallic structures under ambient conditions. Image credit: Xing et al., doi: 10.1016/j.matt.2023.06.015.

Scientists Develop Metallic Gel for Conductive 3D and 4D Printing

Jul 6, 2023 by News Staff

Materials scientists at the North Carolina State University have connected copper particles with gallium indium alloy bridges to form a conductive printing...

Hubble image of NGC 6946, the host galaxy of both SNe 2004et and 2017eaw. Bottom left-hand panel: composite image of SN 2004et taken with Webb/MIRI. Bottom right-hand panel: composite image of SN 2017eaw taken with Webb/MIRI. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Ori Fox, STScI / Melissa Shahbandeh, STScI / Alyssa Pagan, STScI.

Webb Observes Dust Reservoirs in Two Type IIP Supernovae

Jul 6, 2023 by News Staff

The dust reservoirs observed in two type IIP supernovae, SN 2004et and SN 2017eaw, both in the medium-sized, face-on spiral galaxy NGC 6946 about 22 million...

The 300,000-year-old ‘giant handaxe’ from the Maritime Academy site in Frindsbury, Kent, England. Image credit: Ingrey et al., doi: 10.11141/ia.61.6.

300,000-Year-Old ‘Giant Handaxes’ Unearthed in England

Jul 5, 2023 by News Staff

Archaeologists have found several handaxes — two of which can be classed as ‘giant handaxes’ — at the Maritime Academy site in Frindsbury,...

This illustration shows the Compton-Belkovich Volcanic Complex (CBVC) on the Moon’s far side and the boxed area indicated a large granite zone, which could not be picked up by topography. Image credit: Siegler et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-023-06183-5.

Planetary Scientists Find Large Granite Formation on Moon’s Far Side

Jul 5, 2023 by News Staff

The 50-km-diameter granitic system discovered below the far side feature known as Compton-Belkovich Volcanic Complex likely was formed from the cooling...

This deep galaxy field from Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) shows an arrangement of 10 distant galaxies marked by eight white circles in a diagonal, thread-like line. Two of the circles contain more than one galaxy. This 3 million light-year-long filament is anchored by a very distant and luminous quasar. Ccalled J0305-3150, this quasar appears in the middle of the cluster of three circles on the right side of the image. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Feige Wang, University of Arizona.

Webb Detects 3-Million-Light-Year-Long Filament of Galaxies in Early Universe

Jul 5, 2023 by News Staff

Galaxies are strung along filaments in the vast cosmic web, which also contains enormous voids. Using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers...