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Bumblebees Work Better after Caffeine Intake, New Study Shows

Feeding bumblebees caffeine helps them better remember the smell of a specific flower with nectar inside. Image credit: Arnold et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.06.068.
Jul 29, 2021 by News Staff

Caffeine is a widely occurring plant defense chemical that occurs in the nectar of some plants, e.g., coffee and citrus, where it may influence pollinator behavior to enhance pollination. New laboratory tests show that buff-tailed bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) locate new food sources emitting a learned floral odor more consistently if they have been fed caffeine. Feeding bumblebees caffeine helps them better remember the smell of a specific flower...

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Some of the exquisitely preserved 167-million-year-old echinoderms from the Cotswolds area, England. Image credit: Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London.

Paleontologists Find Thousands of Jurassic-Period Echinoderm Fossils

Jul 29, 2021 by News Staff

Over 1,000 perfectly-preserved echinoderm specimens dating back 167 million years (Jurassic period) have been excavated in a quarry in the Cotswolds area...

An artist’s impression of binary black holes about to collide. Image credit: Mark Myers, ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav), Australian National University.

Gravitational-Wave-Detected Black Holes Could Be Product of Much Earlier Parent Mergers

Jul 28, 2021 by News Staff

While most of the binary black-hole mergers recently detected by NSF’s Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in the United States...

This artist’s impression shows the first interstellar asteroid ‘Oumuamua. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

Galileo Project Will Search for ‘Evidence of Extraterrestrial Technological Artifacts’

Jul 28, 2021 by News Staff

An international team of astrophysicists has announced a new scientific project to search for evidence of potential astro-archeological artifacts or active...

This illustration depicts a collapsing star that is producing two short gamma-ray jets. Image credit: Gemini Observatory / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / J. da Silva / M. Zamani, NOIRLab.

Shortest Supernova-Produced Gamma-Ray Burst Discovered

Jul 28, 2021 by News Staff

Most known supernova-powered gamma-ray bursts are ‘long’ (lasting more than two seconds), but a gamma-ray burst event called GRB 200826A lasted just...

The 65,000-year-old leaf point from Hohle Fels Cave, Germany. Image credit: University of Tübingen.

Neanderthals Hunted with Leaf-Shaped Spears, Archaeologists Say

Jul 28, 2021 by News Staff

Archaeologists say they have found a 65,000-year-old leaf point in a cave in the Swabian Jura, Germany. The 65,000-year-old leaf point from Hohle Fels...

Schematics of the observations of TYC 8998-760-1b using SINFONI on ESO’s Very Large Telescope. The background image is captured by the SPHERE instrument on the Very Large Telescope. The small blue box marks the field of view of SINFONI observations targeting TYC 8998-760-1b. Both the host star and TYC 8998-760-1c are outside the field of view. An example of the wavelength-collapsed image is shown in the enlarged blue box, showing negligible contribution from starlight. Image credit: ESO / Bohn et al. / Zhang et al.

Astronomers Detect Carbon-13 in Atmosphere of Young Super-Jupiter

Jul 28, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope have detected the isotopically substituted carbon monoxide, 13CO, in the atmosphere of the young giant exoplanet...

Honeybees begin constructing honeycombs in multiple locations, which they will eventually bridge together. Image credit: Michael Smith / Cornell University.

Honeybees are Skilled Architects, New Research Confirms

Jul 27, 2021 by News Staff

Honeybees (Apis mellifera) are renowned for constructing perfect hexagonal honeycombs, hailed as the pinnacle of biological architecture for its ability...

Display of a candidate WWW→ 3 leptons + neutrinos event; the event is identified by its decay to a muon (red line), two electrons (blue lines) and missing transverse energy (white dashed line). Image credit: CERN.

CERN Physicists Observe Triple W-Boson Production

Jul 27, 2021 by News Staff

Physicists from the ATLAS Collaboration at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have observed a process called WWW production: the simultaneous creation...

Silicon(IV) with a square-planar configuration represents a transition state. Image credit: Ebner & Greb, doi: 10.1016/j.chempr.2021.05.002.

Researchers Synthesize Square-Planar Silicon-IV

Jul 27, 2021 by News Staff

A duo of chemists from the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Heidelberg has synthesized and characterized the first species of silicon(IV)...

Mulugeta et al. found that middle to elderly age groups (37-73) gray brain matter decreased by 0.3% for every extra 1 kg/m2, which is equivalent of an extra 3 kg of weight for person of average height individuals, (173 cm). Image credit: Marta Cuesta.

Excessive Body Fat Can Lead to Brain Atrophy, Increase Dementia and Stroke Risks: Study

Jul 27, 2021 by News Staff

In a study of 336,309 UK Biobank participants, researchers found that the increased body fat incrementally leads to the increased atrophy of gray matter...

Identifying the raw material used by wild New Caledonian crows for manufacturing hooked stick tools: (A) New Caledonian crow holding a hooked stick tool manufactured from Desmanthus virgatus at site-2; (B) satellite photograph showing study sites on the west coast of Grande Terre, New Caledonia; (C) timeline of animal-centered approaches employed while attempting to identify the tool material used at site-3, with short explanations for their limited success; (D) timeline of the artifact-centered, DNA barcoding approach which ultimately led to successful material identification; (i) hooked stick tool recovered at site-3; (ii) Mimusops elengi trees, with close-up of a forked terminal branch, which would be suitable for tool manufacture; (iii) simplified maximum-likelihood ITS phylogenetic tree detailing clustering of tool samples and a subset of reference data; (iv) ‘refit’ of a hooked stick tool made from Mimusops elengi material by a temporarily captive crow from site-1: the tool is displayed along with stem and plant debris which were discarded by the crow during the manufacture process. Scale in mm. Image credit: Steele et al., doi: 10.1073/pnas.2020699118.

Scientists Use DNA Barcoding to Identify Tool Materials of New Caledonian Crows

Jul 27, 2021 by News Staff

Using a taxonomic method called DNA barcoding, researchers have identified, from just a few recovered tool specimens, the plant species New Caledonian...

Desmodus draculae in a burrow of a giant sloth. Image credit: Daniel Boh / Museo de Ciencias Naturales de Miramar.

100,000-Year-Old Fossil of Giant Vampire Bat Found in Argentina

Jul 26, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists in Argentina have found a fossilized jaw of the extinct bat species Desmodus draculae inside an ancient burrow of a giant sloth. Desmodus...

Schematic view of the propagation of seismic waves in the Martian crust and seismic conversions at the base of the discontinuity, at a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles). Image credit: IPGP.

NASA’s InSight Lander Provides New Information about Crust, Mantle and Core of Mars

Jul 26, 2021 by News Staff

According to new analyses of data from the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) instrument deployed during NASA’s InSight mission, Mars likely...

Roth et al. reveal the first evidence for water vapor in the atmosphere of Ganymede, the result of the thermal escape of water vapor from the moon’s icy surface. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / J. daSilva.

Hubble Detects Water Vapor in Atmosphere of Ganymede

Jul 26, 2021 by News Staff

Jupiter’s icy satellite Ganymede is the largest moon in the Solar System. Water ice on its surface is frozen solid in frigid temperatures as low as minus...

A sulphur-crested cockatoo (Cacatua galerita) opening the lid of a household waste bin using one of many different opening techniques; this bird holds the lid with the bill and its left foot; a second bird is observing it closely. Image credit: Klump et al., doi: 10.1126/science.abe7808.

Study: Sulphur-Crested Cockatoos Spread Bin-Opening Behavior through Social Learning

Jul 26, 2021 by News Staff

Ornithologists from Germany and Australia have documented the emergence of a cultural adaptation to urban environments — opening of household waste...

This Hubble image shows the triple galaxy system Arp 195. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / J. Dalcanton.

Hubble Space Telescope Sees Interacting Galaxy Triplet

Jul 26, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured a striking photo of the triple merging system Arp 195. This Hubble image shows the...

Jaquemontia chuquisacensis. Image credit: John Pink.

Five New Species of Flowering Plants Discovered in Bolivia

Jul 23, 2021 by News Staff

A team of U.K. botanists has discovered five new species in the plant genus Jacquemontia in the Andes of Bolivia. Jaquemontia chuquisacensis. Image credit:...

Preserved alignment of flat stones in the Treporti Channel in the Venice Lagoon, Italy. Image credit: Madricardo et al., doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-92939-w.

Archaeologists Find Submerged Roman Road in Venice Lagoon

Jul 23, 2021 by News Staff

Archaeologists have documented the presence of an about 1,200-m-long segment of an ancient Roman road on a beach ridge now submerged in the Venice Lagoon,...

Pham et al. examined whether habitual coffee consumption is associated with differences in brain volumes or the odds of dementia or stroke. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Excessive Coffee Consumption is Associated with Smaller Brain Volumes, Increased Odds of Dementia

Jul 23, 2021 by News Staff

Coffee is a highly popular beverage worldwide, containing caffeine which is a central nervous system stimulant. In a study of 398,646 UK Biobank participants,...

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