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Hubble Spots Sodium Chloride on Jupiter’s Moon Europa

The surface of Europa looms large in this newly-reprocessed color view; image scale is 1.6 km per pixel; north on Europa is at right. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SETI Institute.
Jun 13, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have discovered that the yellow color visible on portions of the surface of Europa, the second Galilean satellite outward from Jupiter, is actually sodium chloride (table salt). The discovery, reported in the journal Science Advances, suggests that Europa’s underground ocean may chemically resemble Earth’s oceans more than previously thought. The surface of Europa looms large in this newly-reprocessed...

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Scientists Sequence Spider Glue Genes

Jun 13, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

Researchers have published the first-ever complete sequences of two genes that allow spiders to produce glue, a modified version of silk that keeps a spider’s...

NO-Scv gel-mediated anti-inflammation therapy. Image credit: Pohang University of Science and Technology.

Nitric Oxide-Scavenging Nanogel Could Treat Rheumatoid Arthritis

Jun 12, 2019 by News Staff

Nitric oxide (NO), a radical gas molecule produced by nitric oxide synthase, prevents high blood pressure and artery plaque build-up in the human body....

Study: Pterosaurs Had Remarkable Ability to Fly from Birth

Jun 12, 2019 by News Staff

Pterosaurs were winged flying reptiles that lived at the same time as dinosaurs, between 210 million and 65 million years ago. Previously, they were thought...

The Mingan shrew-rat (Rhynchomys mingan). Image credit: Velizar Simeonovski, Field Museum.

Researchers Discover Two New Species of Shrewlike Rats in Philippines

Jun 12, 2019 by News Staff

Two new species of shrewlike rats have been discovered living in the montane and mossy forests of Luzon Island, Philippines. The Mingan shrew-rat (Rhynchomys...

The Hubble Tuning Fork illustrated with images of nearby galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Image credit: Karen Masters, Sloan Digital Sky Survey.

Galaxy Zoo Volunteers Help Re-Tune ‘Hubble Tuning Fork’

Jun 12, 2019 by News Staff

Galaxies are important building blocks of the Universe. Some are simple, while others are very complex in structure. In 1927, as one of the first steps...

Sleeping with a TV or artificial light on may be a risk factor for gaining weight or developing obesity. Image credit: Pexels.

Having Artificial Light On While Sleeping Increases Risk of Weight Gain and Obesity in Women

Jun 12, 2019 by News Staff

Exposure to artificial light while sleeping may be a risk factor for weight gain and development of overweight or obesity, says a new study from the National...

The superconducting quantum refrigerator is similar to a conventional refrigerator, in that it moves a material between hot and cold reservoirs. However, instead of a refrigerant that changes from a liquid state to a gas, the electrons in a metal change from the paired superconducting state to an unpaired normal state. Image credit: Michael Osadciw, University of Rochester illustration.

Physicists Developing Superconducting Quantum Refrigerator

Jun 11, 2019 by News Staff

A research team led by University of Rochester physicists has conceived an idea for a superconducting quantum refrigerator, which would cool atoms to nearly...

NGC 4395 is located in the constellation of Canes Venatici, approximately 14 million light-years away. Image credit: Mount Lemmon Observatory / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Astronomers ‘Weigh’ NGC 4395’s Central Black Hole

Jun 11, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers has found that the central black hole of the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 4395 has a mass of about 10,000 solar masses...

A northern pitcher plant with a trapped salamander. Image credit: M. Alex Smith.

Biologists Find Salamander-Eating Pitcher Plants in Canada

Jun 11, 2019 by News Staff

A team of biologists from the Universities of Guelph and Toronto has discovered that a species of carnivorous plant called the northern pitcher plant (Sarracenia...

The South Pole-Aitken Basin on the lunar far side is one of the largest and oldest impact features in the Solar System. It’s easily seen in the elevation data. The low center is dark blue and purple. Mountains on its edge, remnants of outer rings, are red and yellow. Image credit: NASA / GSFC / University of Arizona.

Mysterious Mass of Material Discovered Beneath Moon’s South Pole-Aitken Basin

Jun 11, 2019 by News Staff

The South Pole-Aitken basin — the largest crater in the Solar System — is a gigantic impact structure on the far side of the Moon. Data from...

Sundman et al reveal, for the first time, an interspecific synchronization in long-term stress levels. Image credit: Roman Michael Gottfried.

Dogs Mirror Stress Level of Their Owners, Study Suggests

Jun 11, 2019 by News Staff

A team of scientists from Linköping University, Sweden, has examined how stress levels in dogs are influenced by their owners and lifestyle factors. The...

LOFAR image centered on the Abell 0399-Abell 0401 system; color and contours show the radio emission at 140 MHz; the faceting of the field is shown with red lines. Image credit: Govoni et al, doi: 10.1126/science.aat7500.

LOFAR Telescope Sees Ridge of Radio-Emitting Plasma between Two Merging Galaxy Clusters

Jun 10, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR) telescope network have detected a vast ridge of radio emission connecting the merging galaxy clusters...

Deep-sea fishes living in darkness have evolved unique predation and communication mechanisms involving bioluminescence and other strategies. Another adaptation is the transparency of the teeth of several species, which is hypothesized to provide stealth for predation. Velasco-Hogan et al investigated the transparent teeth of Aristostomias scintillans and discovered that it is due to the mixture of nanocrystalline and amorphous phases in both its enamel-like and dentin layers and the absence of tubules. This structure significantly decreases the Rayleigh scattering of the hydroxyapatite-collagen mixture. Image credit: Velasco-Hogan et al, doi: 10.1016/j.matt.2019.05.010.

Why Deep-Sea Dragonfish Has Transparent Teeth

Jun 10, 2019 by News Staff

A species of dragonfish called Aristostomias scintillans is a voracious predator of the deep sea with an arsenal of tools to hunt prey. It has proportionately...

Scientists Find 1.2-Billion-Year-Old Impact Crater Off Coast of Scotland

Jun 10, 2019 by News Staff

A 3,300-foot- (1 km) wide asteroid struck our planet 1.2 billion years ago, according to new research published in the Journal of the Geological Society. An...

Hubble Looks at Explosive Spiral: NGC 4051

Jun 10, 2019 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced a spectacularly detailed image of a spiral galaxy called NGC 4051. This Hubble image shows the intermediate...

The study sheds new light on the link between sleep deprivation and obesity. Image credit: Sweet Briar College.

Study: People Who Sleep Less Than Seven Hours Show Lower Intakes of Micro- and Macronutrients

Jun 10, 2019 by News Staff

In a new study, a team of researchers from Pharmavite LLC and Nutrition Impact LLC found that people who got fewer than seven hours of sleep per night...

Extant and extinct sloths: in the tree, going clockwise from left -- extinct West Indian sloth (Acratocnus), extant three-fingered sloth or ai (Bradypus), and extant two-fingered sloth or unau (Choloepus); from left to right on the ground are representative giant ground sloths -- Mylodon (South America), Megalonyx (North America), and Megatherium (South America). According to the new molecular studies, Bradypus is most closely related to a group that includes Megalonyx and Megatherium. Choloepus is related to Mylodon, but Acratocnus and its West Indian kin represent a separate branch that is distinct from that of all other sloths. Human for scale: 1.85 m. Image credit: Jorge Blanco.

DNA and Protein Studies Shake Up Sloth Family Tree

Jun 7, 2019 by News Staff

Sloths once roamed the Americas, ranging from cat-sized animals that lived in trees all the way up to giant ground sloths. The only species we know today,...

A scientific illustration of the Upward Sun River camp in what is now Interior Alaska. Image credit: Eric S. Carlson / Ben A. Potter.

Genetic Analysis Reveals Previously Unknown Group of Ancient Siberians

Jun 7, 2019 by News Staff

Northeastern Siberia has been inhabited by humans for more than 40,000 years but its deep population history remains poorly understood. In a new study,...

An artist’s impression of a disk of cool interstellar gas surrounding the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. Image credit: NRAO / AUI / NSF / S. Dagnello.

ALMA Spots Rotating Disk of Cool Hydrogen around Milky Way’s Central Black Hole

Jun 7, 2019 by News Staff

There is a supermassive black hole of nearly 4 million solar masses at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. A large reservoir of hot and cooler hydrogen...

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