Page 191 | Sci.News: Breaking Science News

Eirini Marouli et al report 83 height-associated coding variants with lower minor-allele frequencies and effects of up to 2 cm per allele, greater than ten times the average effect of common variants. Image credit: Popular Science Monthly, D. Appleton and Company, 1887.

Study: Height May Be Unrecognized Risk Factor for Several Common Conditions in Adults

Jun 6, 2022 by News Staff

An international team of researchers has found genetic evidence supporting associations between height and 127 clinical traits. Raghavan et al. conclude...

Colorful New Species of Gecko Discovered in India

Jun 6, 2022 by Sergio Prostak

Scientists have discovered a new species of leopard gecko (genus Eublepharis) living in the forests of the Indian states of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. The...

Higher coffee intake is associated with a lower risk of incident acute kidney injury and could present an opportunity for cardiorenal protection through diet. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Drinking Coffee Daily May Lower Risk of Acute Kidney Injury

Jun 6, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

In a prospective cohort study with 14,207 middle-aged participants, those who drank any quantity of coffee every day had a 15% lower risk of acute kidney...

This Hubble image shows Ruprecht 106, a globular cluster some 69,100 light-years away in the constellation of Centaurus. The color image was made from separate exposures taken in the visible and near-infrared regions of the spectrum with Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys. Two filters were used to sample various wavelengths. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / A. Dotter.

Hubble Snaps Brilliant Image of Ruprecht 106

Jun 6, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a striking new photo of the globular cluster Ruprecht 106. This Hubble image shows Ruprecht 106, a globular...

NASA’s Perseverance rover acquired this image on April 22, 2021, using its left Mastcam-Z camera. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.

Ingenuity Performs Its Longest and Fastest Flight to Date on Mars: Video

Jun 3, 2022 by News Staff

On April 18, 2022, NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter made a record-breaking 25th flight. The rotorcraft covered 704 m (2,310 feet) at a max speed of 5.5...

An artist’s impression of a giant galaxy with a high-energy jet. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO.

ALMA Spots Unknown Radio Structure around Distant Quasar

Jun 3, 2022 by News Staff

Using archival and new data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers have imaged 3C 273, a radio-loud quasar located some...

Example of illusorily expanding central region or ‘hole;’ viewing the image full screen is best for eliciting the effect. Image credit: Laeng et al., doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2022.877249.

New Visual Illusion Trick Your Brain into Thinking Static Black Hole is Expanding

Jun 3, 2022 by News Staff

A new study published in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience shows that the ‘expanding hole’ optical illusion, which is new to science, is...

Male combat in Discokeryx xiezhi. Image credit: Xiaocong Guo.

Miocene Giraffe Had Disk-Shaped Headgear and Head-Neck Joints Adapted for Head-Butting Combat

Jun 3, 2022 by News Staff

Paleontologists have identified a new species of giraffoid that lived in northern China during the Early Miocene epoch some 17 million years ago. Named...

This image of the Carina Nebula reveals the dynamic cloud of interstellar matter and thinly spread gas and dust as never before; the massive stars in the interior of this cosmic bubble emit intense radiation that causes the surrounding gas to glow; by contrast, other regions of the nebula contain dark pillars of dust cloaking newborn stars. Image credit: ESO / J. Emerson / M. Irwin / J. Lewis.

Astronomers Discover 116,027 New Variable Stars

Jun 1, 2022 by News Staff

Using machine learning techniques and data from the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN) and several other surveys, astronomers have identified...

Poseidon’s ribbon weed (Posidonia australis) meadow in Shark Bay, Western Australia. Image credit: Rachel Austin, University of Western Australia.

Single Clone of Poseidon’s Ribbon Weed is Largest Plant in World

Jun 1, 2022 by News Staff

A single plant or ‘clone’ of the Poseidon’s ribbon weed (Posidonia australis), a species of seagrass that occurs in the southern half of Australia,...

Carcharocles megalodon pursuing two prehistoric whales. Image credit: Karen Carr / CC BY 3.0.

Great White Sharks May Have Played Role in Megalodon Extinction

Jun 1, 2022 by News Staff

Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and elsewhere have looked at zinc isotopes found in the teeth of extanct wild and...

Excavation area in Cueva de Ardales with evidence from the Middle Paleolithic period. Image credit: Ramos-Muñoz et al. / CC-BY 4.0.

Study: Spain’s Cueva de Ardales Was Used by Ancient Humans for Over 50,000 years

Jun 1, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Cueva de Ardales is a hugely important Paleolithic site in Malaga, Spain, owing to its rich inventory of rock art. According to new research, Neanderthals...

This diagram shows three layers of aerosols in the atmospheres of Uranus and Neptune. The height scale on the diagram represents the pressure above 10 bar. The deepest layer (Aerosol-1 layer) is thick and composed of a mixture of hydrogen sulfide ice and particles produced by the interaction of the planets’ atmospheres with sunlight. The key layer that affects the colors is the middle layer, which is a layer of haze particles (Aerosol-2 layer) that is thicker on Uranus than on Neptune. Irwin et al. suspect that, on both planets, methane ice condenses onto the particles in this layer, pulling the particles deeper into the atmosphere in a shower of methane snow. Because Neptune has a more active, turbulent atmosphere than Uranus does, the team believes Neptune’s atmosphere is more efficient at churning up methane particles into the haze layer and producing this snow. This removes more of the haze and keeps Neptune’s haze layer thinner than it is on Uranus, meaning the blue color of Neptune looks stronger. Above both of these layers is an extended layer of haze (Aerosol-3 layer) similar to the layer below it but more tenuous. On Neptune, large methane ice particles also form above this layer. Image credit: Gemini Observatory / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / J. da Silva / NASA / JPL-Caltech / B. Jónsson.

Haze Layers are Responsible for Different Blue Hues of Neptune and Uranus, Scientists Say

Jun 1, 2022 by News Staff

An international team of planetary researchers led by University of Oxford scientists has performed an analysis of visible/near-infrared observations of...

Sela macaques (Macaca selai). Image credit: Zoological Survey of India.

New Species of Macaque Identified in India

May 31, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Scientists from the Zoological Survey of India and the University of Calcutta have discovered a cryptic new species of macaque in the forests of the Indian...

Liu et al. found that compared to non-coffee drinkers, adults who drank moderate amounts (1.5 to 3.5 cups per day) of unsweetened coffee or sugar-sweetened coffee were less likely to die during a 7-year follow up period. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Drinking Coffee Daily, Even with Sugar Added, Reduces Mortality Risk: Study

May 31, 2022 by News Staff

Moderate dietary consumption (1.5 to 3.5 cups per day) of unsweetened or sugar-sweetened coffee is associated with a lower mortality risk, according to...

Atmospheric water harvesting (AWH) technology and design principle of super hygroscopic polymer films (SHPFs): (a) key steps of AWH technology; (b) geographic distribution of world average annual relative humidity; regions with less than 40% relative humidity are indicated from brown to red (warm color) regions; (c) material design of SHPFs for AWH at low relative humidity; (d) qualitative comparison of different materials in terms of core requirements for practical application of AWH. Image credit: Guo et al., doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-30505-2.

Super Hygroscopic Polymer Film Can Harvest Water from Arid Air

May 31, 2022 by News Staff

Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have developed a low-cost polymer film made of renewable biomass and hygroscopic salt that can extract...

MeerKAT image of the PSR J0901-4046 region at 1.28 GHz. Image credit: Caleb et al., doi: 10.1038/s41550-022-01688-x.

Astronomers Discover Unusual Radio-Emitting Neutron Star

May 31, 2022 by News Staff

Radio-emitting neutron stars are objects with spin periods ranging from milliseconds to tens of seconds; as they age and spin more slowly, their radio...

A group of bottlenose dolphins in Xcaret, Mexico.

Bottlenose Dolphins Get Their ‘Names’ from Neighborhood, Study Says

May 31, 2022 by News Staff

In a paper published in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers described the signature whistles produced by six distinct geographical units of the...

The ruins of the ancient agricultural farmstead at Horbat Assad in the Galilee region, Israel. Image credit: Emil Aladjem, Israel Antiquities Authority.

Israeli Archaeologists Unearth 2,100-Year-Old Farmstead

May 30, 2022 by News Staff

A team of archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) has uncovered the 2,100-year-old ruins of an agricultural farmstead in the Galilee...