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Study: Prolonged Drought Played Key Role in Collapse of Mayan Capital City

Drought may have led to an increase in civil conflict followed by political collapse in Mayapan, the capital of the Maya in the Yucatán Peninsula in the 13th and 14th centuries CE. Image credit: Bradley Russell.
Jul 20, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Mayapan emerged as a regional Maya capital on the Yucatán Peninsula, following the demise of Chichen Itza between 1000 and 1100 CE. Drought may have led to an increase in civil conflict followed by political collapse in Mayapan, the capital of the Maya in the Yucatán Peninsula in the 13th and 14th centuries CE. Image credit: Bradley Russell. In pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, the impacts of rainfall levels on food production may have been closely aligned...

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The language network in native speakers of diverse languages. Image credit: Malik-Moraleda et al., doi: 10.1038/s41593-022-01114-5.

New Study Across 45 Languages Reveals Universal Language Network

Jul 19, 2022 by News Staff

In a large-scale functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, neuroscientists from MIT and Harvard University evaluated the claim of language universality...

An artist’s impression of the HR 6819 triple system. Image credit: L. Calçada / ESO.

Astronomers Discover Massive, Compact System of Three Stars

Jul 19, 2022 by News Staff

TIC 470710327, a massive, compact hierarchical triple-star system recently identified by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), was originally...

Holotype of Plukenetia minima adjacent to the encyrtid wasp Hambletonia dominicana in Dominican amber. Scale bar - 0.6 mm. Image credit: Poinar Jr., doi: 10.1080/08912963.2022.2086053.

30-Million-Year-Old Flower and Parasitic Wasp Found Encased in Dominican Amber

Jul 19, 2022 by News Staff

A paleontologist from Oregon State University has found a new species of flower together with a new parasitic wasp species in a piece of amber excavated...

This image from Webb’s NIRCam instrument 2.12 micron filter shows Jupiter (center) and its moon Europa (left). Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / B. Holler & J. Stansberry, STScI.

Webb Team Releases Test Images of Jupiter and Its Moons

Jul 19, 2022 by News Staff

Several images of Jupiter and its moons as well as images and spectra of solar system asteroids from Webb’s commissioning period are now available on...

Li et al. systematically examined horizontal gene transfer in 218 high-quality genomes of diverse insects and found that they acquired 1,410 genes exhibiting diverse functions, including many not previously reported, via 741 distinct transfers from non-metazoan donors. Image credit: Li et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2022.06.014.

Insects Carry 1,410 Horizontally-Transferred Microbial Genes: Study

Jul 19, 2022 by News Staff

In new research, a team of scientists from Zhejiang University and Vanderbilt University examined horizontal gene transfer — an important evolutionary...

Boolani et al. suggest that energy and fatigue are unique traits that could be defined by distinct bacterial communities not driven by diet. Image credit: Darryl Leja, National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health.

New Study Finds Genetic Link between Alzheimer’s Disease and Gastrointestinal Tract Disorders

Jul 18, 2022 by News Staff

Consistent with the concept of the gut-brain phenomenon, observational studies suggest a relationship between Alzheimer’s disease and gastrointestinal...

This Hubble image shows NGC 3081, a barred lenticular ring galaxy located 85 million light-years away in the constellation of Hydra. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / R. Buta. University of Alabama.

Astronomers Discover 40,000 New Ring Galaxies

Jul 18, 2022 by News Staff

Using a new deep learning algorithm and data from the Galaxy Zoo citizen science project, astronomers have discovered 40,000 ring galaxies. This Hubble...

This artist’s impression shows what the binary system VFTS 243 might look like if we were observing it up close. The system, which is located in the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud, is composed of a hot, blue star with 25 times the Sun’s mass and a black hole, which is at least nine times the mass of the Sun. The sizes of the two binary components are not to scale: in reality, the blue star is about 200,000 times larger than the black hole. Image credit: ESO / L. Calçada.

Dormant Stellar-Mass Black Hole Detected in Tarantula Nebula

Jul 18, 2022 by News Staff

The newly-detected black hole is a member of the binary system VFTS 243, which is located in the famous Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud. This...

Brine pools are one of the most extreme environments on Earth, yet despite their high salinity, exotic chemistry, and complete lack of oxygen, these pools are teeming with life. Image credit: Purkis et al., doi: 10.1038/s43247-022-00482-x.

Marine Researchers Discover Deep-Sea Complex of Brine Pools in Red Sea

Jul 18, 2022 by News Staff

Scientists from the University of Miami have discovered one 10,000 m2 brine pool and three minor pools of less than 10 m2 in the Gulf of Aqaba, a northern...

This Hubble image shows the gravitationally lensed galaxy SGAS J143845+145407. Gravitational lensing has resulted in a mirror image of SGAS J143845+145407 at the center of the image, creating a captivating centerpiece. Image credit: Hubble / ESA / NASA / J. Rigby.

Strong Gravitational Lens Shows Same Galaxy Two Times

Jul 18, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

The striking new photo from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope features the gravitationally lensed galaxy SGAS J143845+145407. This Hubble image shows...

New Tardigrade Species Discovered in Kyrgyzstan

Jul 16, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Cornechiniscus mystacinus has catfish-like ‘barbels’ and can be found in the Jalalabat region of Kyrgyzstan. Cornechiniscus mystacinus. Image credit:...

Van Wassenbergh et al. found that woodpecker heads behave very stiffly during pecking impacts. Image credit: Van Wassenbergh et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2022.05.052.

Heads of Woodpeckers Function as Stiff Hammers during Pecking, Says New Study

Jul 15, 2022 by News Staff

The skull of a woodpecker has long been hypothesized to serve as a shock absorber that minimizes the harmful deceleration of its brain upon impact into...

An artist’s illustration of neutrinos originating from a high-energy blazar. Image credit: Benjamin Amend, Clemson University.

High-Energy Astrophysical Neutrinos are Coming from Blazars: Study

Jul 14, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Neutrinos are the most elusive particles in the Universe, capable of traveling nearly unimpeded across it. Despite the vast amount of data collected, a...

Scientists Sequence Genome of Red Deer Cave Human

Jul 14, 2022 by News Staff

Researchers have sequenced and analyzed the genome of a Late Pleistocene hominin from Red Deer Cave located in Southwest China, which was previously reported...

This enormous image from Webb reveals never-before-seen details of the Stephan’s Quintet. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI.

Webb Captures Best Ever Image of Stephan’s Quintet

Jul 14, 2022 by News Staff

This enormous mosaic of Stephan’s Quintet, a visual grouping of galaxies in the constellation of Pegasus, is the largest image captured by the NASA/ESA/CSA...

Smith et al. investigated the contribution of polyphenol and carbohydrate components of dried plums on a bone model of postmenopausal osteoporosis to explore their prebiotic activity. Image credit: Smith et al., doi: 10.3390/nu14091685.

Study: Bioactive Compounds in Dried Plums Have Prebiotic Activity, Help Restore Bone Health

Jul 14, 2022 by News Staff

New research in mice shows that both polyphenol and carbohydrate components of dried plums (Prunus domestica) have prebiotic activity characterized by...

Two cameras aboard Webb captured these images of the Southern Ring Nebula: two stars, which are locked in a tight orbit, shape the local landscape; they are prominent in the image from Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) on the left, while the image from Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) on the right shows for the first time that the second star is surrounded by dust; the brighter star is in an earlier stage of its stellar evolution and will probably eject its own planetary nebula in the future. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI.

Webb Reveals New Details in Southern Ring Nebula

Jul 14, 2022 by News Staff

Two cameras aboard the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have captured new images of the Southern Ring Nebula, a planetary nebula approximately 2,500...

The globally distributed dishes of the European VLBI Network are linked with each other and the 305-m William E. Gordon Telescope at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. Together they have localized FRB121102’s exact position within its host galaxy. Image credit: Danielle Futselaar, www.artsource.nl.

Mysterious Repeating Fast Radio Burst Has ‘Heartbeat’ Pattern

Jul 13, 2022 by News Staff

A fast radio burst (FRB) dubbed FRB 20191221A persists for up to three seconds, about 1,000 times longer than the average FRB; within this window, astronomers...

Reconstruction of cranium and lower jaw of Marmorerpeton wakei. Image credit: Jones et al., doi: 10.1073/pnas.2114100119.

Fossils of New Salamander Species Found in Scotland

Jul 13, 2022 by News Staff

Paleontologists have described a new species of the enigmatic stem-salamander genus Marmorerpeton from the well-preserved fossils found on the Isle of...

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