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The Galápagos pink land iguana (Conolophus marthae). Image credit: Gabriele Gentile & Howard L. Snell, doi: 10.11646/zootaxa.2201.1.1.

Galapagos Pink Land Iguanas on Verge of Extinction, Experts Say

Sep 3, 2021 by News Staff

A critically endangered species of lizard called Conolophus marthae is in dire need of conservation action, according to researchers from Galápagos Conservancy...

Profuse dendritic-synaptic interconnections among neurons in the neocortex embed intricate logic structures enabling sophisticated decision-making that vastly outperforms any artificial electronic analogues. The physical complexity is far beyond existing circuit fabrication technologies: moreover, the network in a brain is dynamically reconfigurable, which provides flexibility and adaptability to changing environments. In contrast, state-of-the-art semiconductor logic circuits are based on threshold switches that are hard-wired to perform predefined logic functions. To advance the performance of logic circuits, Goswami et al. re-imagined fundamental electronic circuit elements by expressing complex logic in nanometer-scale material properties. Image credit: National University of Singapore.

Brain-Inspired Molecular Memristor Has Exceptional Memory Reconfigurability

Sep 2, 2021 by News Staff

The new reconfigurable memristor, or an electronic memory device, is based on a molecular system that can transition between on and off states at several...

Cocoa and green tea flavonoids may be beneficial in the nutritional management of age-related deterioration of the neuromuscular system. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Green Tea and Cocoa-Enriched Diet May Help Prevent Age-Associated Neuromuscular Changes

Sep 2, 2021 by Natali Anderson

A new study in mice provides insights into the use of green tea and cocoa flavonoids as nutritional interventions for the treatment of aging-related neuromuscular...

Fast-moving debris from a supernova explosion triggered by a stellar collision in the VT 1210+4956 system crashes into material thrown out earlier, and the shocks cause bright radio emission seen by the VLA. Image credit: Bill Saxton / NRAO / AUI / NSF.

Compact Object Collision with Companion Star Triggers Supernova Event

Sep 2, 2021 by News Staff

Using data collected by the Very Large Array Sky Survey (VLASS), astronomers have found evidence that a compact object — a black hole or neutron...

Mars has annular modes. Image credit: Michael S. Helfenbein / NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Study: Mars and Titan Have Annular Atmospheric Modes

Sep 2, 2021 by News Staff

Annular modes explain much of the internal variability of Earth’s atmosphere but have never been identified as influential on other planets. Mars has...

This DEC image shows Centaurus A, a giant galaxy located some 13 million light-years away in the constellation of Centaurus. Image credit: CTIO / NOIRLab / DOE / NSF / AURA / M. Soraisam, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign & NOIRLab / T.A. Rector, University of Alaska Anchorage & NOIRLab / M. Zamani, NOIRLab / D. de Martin, NOIRLab.

Astronomers Capture Beautiful New Image of Centaurus A

Sep 2, 2021 by News Staff

Using the Dark Energy Camera (DEC) on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-m Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, astronomers have obtained...

MG B2016+112: the X-ray light from one of the objects on the left (purple) has been warped by the gravity of the intervening galaxy to produce two beams and X-ray sources (A and B) detected in the Chandra image, which is represented by the dashed square on the right; the X-ray light from the fainter object (blue) produces an X-ray source (C) that has been amplified by the galaxy to be as much as 300 times brighter than it would have been without the lensing; the Chandra image is shown in the inset; these two X-ray-emitting objects are likely a pair of growing supermassive black holes or a growing supermassive black hole and a jet. Image credit: NASA / CXC / M. Weiss / SAO / Schwartz et al.

Chandra Observes Gravitationally-Lensed Supermassive Black Hole System

Sep 1, 2021 by News Staff

By combining gravitational lensing with the capabilities of NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers have detected two X-ray-emitting objects —...

Padana, a female orangutan at Leipzig Zoo, continued to use wooden hammers to crack nuts for some time after the end of the study. Image credit: Claudio Tennie.

Orangutans Observed Using Hammer Tools to Crack Nuts

Sep 1, 2021 by Natali Anderson

New research from the University of Tübingen demonstrates that nut-cracking can emerge in Sumatran (Pongo abelii) and Bornean (Pongo pygmaeus) orangutans...

This is an artist’s impression of a free-floating Y-dwarf. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Enigmatic Ancient Brown Dwarf Spotted in Solar Neighborhood

Sep 1, 2021 by News Staff

WISEA J153429.75-104303.3 (WISE 1534-1043 for short) — nicknamed ‘The Accident’ by its discoverer, citizen scientist Dan Caselden — is...

This image shows the asteroid Vesta. Image credit: NASA / JPL.

Researchers Probe Origin of Asteroid Vesta’s Enormous Troughs and Impact Basins

Sep 1, 2021 by News Staff

A team of planetary researchers from the University of Georgia and NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center has explored the relative age of large-scale troughs...

The egg, as one of the most traditional food products, has long attracted the attention of mathematicians, engineers, and biologists from an analytical point of view. Image credit: Designer Coleman.

Researchers Find Universal Formula for Egg Shape

Sep 1, 2021 by News Staff

The new mathematical formula can describe any bird’s egg existing in nature, says a team of scientists from the United Kingdom and Ukraine. The egg,...

Tsoabichi greenriverensis, cast of specimen in private collection. Scale bar - 5 cm. Image credit: Christopher A. Brochu, doi: 10.1080/02724634.2010.483569.

New Fossils Illuminate Evolutionary History of Caimans

Aug 31, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

An incomplete fossil record hampers reconstructing the early evolution of caimans (subfamily Caimaninae). In new research, paleontologists from Germany...

The bowfin (Amia calva). Image credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services.

Bowfin Genome Sheds New Light on Evolution of Ray-Finned Fishes

Aug 31, 2021 by News Staff

The bowfin (Amia calva) is a species of ray-finned fish native to North America. Also known as freshwater dogfish, grinnel, and mud pike, this species...

Tusks of straight-tusked elephants (Palaeoloxodon antiquus) and small objects at the site of Castel di Guido, Italy. Image credit: Villa et al., doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0256090.

400,000-Year-Old Elephant Bone Tools Unearthed in Italy

Aug 31, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Around 400,000 years ago, pre-modern hominids — likely Neanderthals — at a Middle Pleistocene site in Italy appropriated elephant carcasses...

Scientists Discover New Wood Lizard Species in Peru

Aug 31, 2021 by News Staff

An international team of researchers has discovered a new species of the lizard genus Enyalioides living in the premontane forest of the Río Huallaga...

Regular walnut consumption may be a useful part of a multicomponent dietary intervention or dietary pattern to lower atherogenic lipids and improve CVD risk. Image credit: Lubos Houska.

Walnut-Supplemented Diet May Help Reduce Cardiovascular Disease Risk

Aug 31, 2021 by News Staff

Eating 30-60 grams (15% of energy) of walnuts every day for two years lowered levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL, or ‘bad’) cholesterol and reduced...

Zoomed in view of an ALMA (red/orange) and Hubble (optical) composite of NGC 4921; it highlights filament structures resulting from the effects of ram-pressure stripping. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / S. Dagnello, NRAO / NASA / ESA / Hubble / K. Cook, LLNL / L. Shatz.

Astronomers Find Cosmic Boomerang in Coma Cluster Galaxy

Aug 30, 2021 by News Staff

Using data from the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-Wave Astronomy (CARMA) and the NASA/ESA Hubble...

A life reconstruction of the plioplatecarpine mosasaur Angolasaurus bocagei, alongside the turtle Angolachelys mbaxi. Image credit: Henry Sharpe / CC BY-SA 4.0.

New Mosasaur Species Uncovered in Kansas

Aug 30, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new species of the mosasaur genus Ectenosaurus has been identified from the fossilized remains found in western Kansas, the United States. A life reconstruction...

An artist’s conception of exoplanets in a dense star cluster. Image credit: Michael Bachofner.

Milky Way Galaxy’s Bulge Could Have Planetary Systems, Too

Aug 30, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

The Milky Way’s bulge is the ancient and crowded central hub of our Galaxy. It contains about one quarter of the total stellar mass of the Milky Way...