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Laetoli location and site rediscovery: (a) a model of Laetoli site A generated using photogrammetry showing the five hominin footprints; (b) corresponding contour map of the site generated from a 3D surface scan with scale bar; (c) map of Laetoli localities 7 and 8, indicating the positions of bipedal trackways A, G and S; (d, e) topographical maps of the two best preserved A footprints, A2 (d) and A3 (e). Image credit: McNutt et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-04187-7.

Study: At Least Two Hominin Species with Different Feet and Gaits Coexisted at Laetoli, Tanzania

Dec 2, 2021 by News Staff

Bipedal trackways discovered in 1978 at Laetoli site G, Tanzania, and dated to 3.66 million years ago are widely accepted as the oldest unequivocal evidence...

The dwarf spheroidal galaxy Leo I is 30 times smaller than the Milky Way Galaxy. Image credit: ESA / Gaia / DPAC / SDSS.

Dwarf Galaxy Leo I Hosts Strangely Massive Black Hole, Astronomers Say

Dec 2, 2021 by News Staff

A black hole in the center of a dwarf spheroidal galaxy called Leo I is almost as massive as the central black hole of our own Milky Way Galaxy. The dwarf...

The skull of ‘Tristan Otto.’ Image credit: Hamm.

Tyrannosaurs Suffered from Bone Infections, New Research Shows

Dec 2, 2021 by News Staff

Using a CT scanner and a technique called dual-energy computed tomography (DECT), a team of scientists in Germany has identified a bone disease called...

Pacheco et al. investigated the impact of two levels of avocado allotment, plus a standard nutrition education intervention on the nutritional status of Hispanic/Latino families. Image credit: Sandid.

Study: High Avocado Consumption Improves Family-Level Nutritional Status

Dec 2, 2021 by News Staff

A new clinical trial has demonstrated that a differential allotment of avocados may impact overall self-reported caloric consumption, as well as macro-...

Photons emitted near rotating black holes encode quantum information that can be measured by actual quantum information technology. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Astrophysicists Search for Gravitational-Wave Signals from Ultralight Boson Clouds

Dec 1, 2021 by News Staff

Theories of beyond Standard Model physics allow for the production of ultralight bosons — hypothetical particles with masses less than a billionth...

New Zealand’s Extinct Giant Bird Killed Like Eagle, Ate Like Condor

Dec 1, 2021 by News Staff

The Haast’s eagle (Hieraaetus moorei), the largest known eagle, habitually killed prey larger than itself, then applied feeding methods typical of vultures...

Coadded images of comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein (C/2014 UN271) from 2018 and 2020, showing coma with a sunward asymmetry; coadded images from several Kuiper Belt objects and asteroids show examples of moving objects of similar brightness that are known to have no coma. Image credit: Farnham et al., doi: 10.3847/PSJ/ac323d.

Study: Giant Comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein is Among Solar System’s Most Distant Active Comets

Dec 1, 2021 by News Staff

Comet C/2014 UN271 Bernardinelli-Bernstein, the largest comet ever discovered, was already exhibiting coma at heliocentric distances 23.8 and 21.2 AU,...

This image, taken with the MUSE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope, shows two bright galactic nuclei, each housing a supermassive black hole, in NGC 7727. Image credit: ESO / Voggel et al.

Astronomers Find Two Supermassive Black Holes in NGC 7727

Dec 1, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

The supermassive black hole pair, located in the peculiar galaxy NGC 7727, is about 89 million light-years away from Earth, making it the record holder...

Meteorus stellatus. Image credit: S. Fujie.

Newly-Discovered Parasitoid Wasp Species Constructs Enigmatic Star-Shaped Cocoons

Dec 1, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Meteorus stellatus inhabits primary forests of the Okinawa-hontô and Amami-ôshima Islands, subtropical Japan. Meteorus stellatus. Image credit: S. Fujie. “Parasitoid...

This Hubble image shows NGC 6891, a planetary nebula located 11,784 light-years away in the constellation of Delphinus. Image credit: NASA / ESA / A. Hajian, University of Waterloo / H. Bond, Pennsylvania State University / B. Balick, University of Washington / Gladys Kober, NASA & Catholic University of America.

Hubble Spots Beautiful Planetary Nebula: NGC 6891

Nov 30, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have produced an outstanding image of a planetary nebula called NGC 6891. This Hubble image shows...

Life reconstructions of Kyhytysuka sachicarum. Image credit: Dirley Cortés.

New Species of Hypercarnivorous Ichthyosaur Identified

Nov 30, 2021 by News Staff

A new species of Cretaceous hypercarnivorous ichthyosaur, Kyhytysuka sachicarum, has been described from a fossil found in Colombia. Life reconstructions...

This image, taken with ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope, shows NGC 7727, a peculiar galaxy some 69 million light-years away in the constellation of Aquarius. Image credit: ESO / VST-ATLAS Team / Durham University / CASU / WFAU.

VST Sees Messy Result of Cosmic Collision

Nov 30, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Using ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope (VST), astronomers have captured this image of the peculiar galaxy NGC 7727. This image, taken with ESO’s VLT Survey...

Kriegman et al. show that clusters of cells, if freed from a developing organism, can similarly find and combine loose cells into clusters that look and move like they do, and that this ability does not have to be specifically evolved or introduced by genetic manipulation. Image credit: Kriegman et al., doi: 10.1073/pnas.2112672118.

Researchers Create Self-Replicating Living Robots

Nov 30, 2021 by News Staff

Professor Joshua Bongard, a computer scientist and robotics expert at the University of Vermont, and his colleagues from Tufts University and Harvard University’s...

Daly et al. used atom probe tomography to directly observe an average ~1 mol% enrichment in water and hydroxyls in the solar-wind-irradiated rim of an olivine grain from the S-type asteroid Itokawa. Image credit: Curtin University.

Part of Earth’s Water Came from the Sun, New Study Suggests

Nov 29, 2021 by News Staff

The solar wind, comprised of solar particles largely made of hydrogen ions, created water on the surface of dust grains carried on asteroids that smashed...

Map showing the locality where Tarchia tumanovae was discovered: (a) map of Mongolia; (b) enlarged map of the dotted lined rectangle of A marked with the fossil locality; (c) photo of the excavation site; (d) quarry map showing bone location; (e-f) skeletal diagram of the specimen in dorsal (e) and left lateral (f) views (white bones represent recovered elements); (g) skeletal reconstruction with dermal armor. Abbreviations: 7os - Type 7 osteoderm; csr - caudosacral vertebra; dr - dorsal rib; dsr - dorsosacral vertebra; il - ilium; maj os - major osteoderm; ot - ossified tendon; sk - skull. Image credit: Park et al., doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-02273-4.

New Species of Armored Dinosaur Discovered

Nov 29, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have discovered what they say is a new species of the ankylosaurid dinosaur genus Tarchia that lived during the Upper Cretaceous epoch...

An artist’s rendition of the ultrahot Jupiter TOI-1518b and its parent star. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Ultrahot Gas Giant Found Circling TOI-2109

Nov 29, 2021 by Natali Anderson

With an extremely short orbital period of 0.67 days (16 hours), the newly-discovered ultrahot Jupiter — named TOI-2109b — has the shortest...

Life reconstruction of Effigia okeeffeae. Image credit: Mark Witton.

Triassic Crocodile Relative was Specialist Herbivore, Study Reveals

Nov 29, 2021 by News Staff

Effigia okeeffeae, a shuvosaurid (an ancient relative of the crocodiles) that lived in North America during the Triassic period, was a specialist herbivore...

This Hubble image shows NGC 1317, a small spiral galaxy some 55 million light-years away in the constellation of Fornax. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / J. Lee / PHANGS-HST Team.

Hubble Space Telescope Focuses on NGC 1317

Nov 29, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured a striking new photo of the small spiral galaxy NGC 1317. This Hubble image shows NGC...

FASERν event displays of two of the neutral vertices in the yz projection longitudinal to the beam direction (left) and in the view transverse to the beam direction (right). Image credit: FASER Collaboration.

CERN Physicists Detect Collider Neutrinos for First Time

Nov 26, 2021 by News Staff

Physicists from the Forward Search Experiment (FASER) Collaboration have observed six neutrino interactions during a pilot run of FASERν, a compact emulsion...