Page 380 | Sci.News: Breaking Science News

Tilles et al observed a possible new way that lightning forms called fast negative breakdown.

Fast Negative Breakdown Triggers Lightning Flashes, New Observations Show

Apr 12, 2019 by News Staff

A team of scientists from the University of New Hampshire Space Science Center, the Langmuir Laboratory for Atmospheric Research, Earth Networks and NASA’s...

Fossils of Silurian Sea Cucumber Found in UK

Apr 12, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of paleontologists has found the remains of an extinct sea cucumber in 430 million-year-old (Silurian period) fossil-rich deposits...

An archaic hominin. Image credit: Ninara / CC BY 2.0.

Homo luzonensis: New Species of Ancient Human Discovered

Apr 11, 2019 by News Staff

An early human species with a unique mix of primitive (that is, Australopithecus-like) and derived (that is, Homo sapiens-like) morphological features...

This artist’s impression shows a view of the surface of Proxima b orbiting Proxima Centauri. Alpha Centauri AB also appears in the image to the upper-right of Proxima itself. Proxima b is a little more massive than the Earth and orbits in the habitable zone around its star, where the temperature is suitable for liquid water to exist on its surface. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

Our Closest Neighboring Exoplanets Could Be Habitable After All

Apr 11, 2019 by News Staff

Proxima b, TRAPPIST-1e, Ross-128b and LHS-1140b — the closest potentially habitable exoplanets — orbit a different kind of star than our Sun:...

Potassium pearls under paraffin oil. Image credit: Images of Elements / CC BY 3.0.

Physicists Confirm Existence of Chain-Melted State of Matter

Apr 10, 2019 by News Staff

Until now, atoms in physical matter were understood to exist typically in one of three states — solid, liquid or gas. An international team of physicists...

The EHT Collaboration unveiled the first direct visual evidence of the supermassive black hole in the center of the elliptical galaxy Messier 87 and its shadow. The shadow of a black hole seen here is the closest we can come to an image of the black hole itself, a completely dark object from which light cannot escape. The black hole’s boundary -- the event horizon from which the EHT takes its name -- is around 2.5 times smaller than the shadow it casts and measures just under 25 billion miles (40 billion km) across. Image credit: EHT Collaboration.

Event Horizon Telescope Captures First Image of Black Hole

Apr 10, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) — a planet-scale array of eight ground-based radio telescopes (ALMA, APEX, the IRAM 30-m telescope,...

This image depicts a Pleistocene landscape in northern Spain with woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius), equids, a woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis), and European cave lions (Panthera leo spelaea). Image credit: Mauricio Anton.

Study: Neanderthals, Woolly Mammoths Shared Genetic Traits

Apr 10, 2019 by News Staff

Neanderthals and woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius) co-existed in similar geographic and environmental European settings during the Middle and Upper...

A volunteer demonstrates Inspiratory Muscle Strength Training. Image credit: University of Colorado Boulder.

Ultra-Time-Efficient Exercise Lowers Blood Pressure, Boosts Brain Function

Apr 10, 2019 by News Staff

A five-minute workout called Inspiratory Muscle Strength Training (IMST) lowers blood pressure in middle-aged to older adults; it also improves artery...

As a metallic asteroid such as Psyche cooled and solidified, iron volcanoes may have erupted onto its surface. Image credit: Elena Hartley.

Ferrovolcanism: Liquid Iron-Spewing Volcanoes Erupted on Metallic Asteroids, Scientists Say

Apr 9, 2019 by News Staff

Metallic asteroids are the cooled cores of disrupted planetesimals. They originated early in the history of our Solar System when planets were beginning...

Durum wheat (Triticum turgidum ssp. durum). Image credit: Christine Dautin.

Durum Wheat Genome Sequenced

Apr 9, 2019 by News Staff

A multinational team of researchers has successfully sequenced and analyzed the genome of durum wheat (Triticum turgidum ssp. durum), a cereal grain mainly...

Colorful clouds formed by the release of vapors from the two AZURE rockets allow scientists to measure auroral winds. Image credit: Lee Wingfield / NASA.

NASA Launches Two Sounding Rockets to Study Auroral Winds: AZURE Mission

Apr 9, 2019 by News Staff

From the ground, the dance of the northern lights, or aurora borealis, can look peaceful. But those shimmering sheets of colored lights are the product...

New Species of Extinct Pig-Footed Bandicoot Discovered

Apr 9, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of researchers from Australia and the United Kingdom has discovered a new species of pig-footed bandicoot which has been extinct...

Simplified pathway of vitamin D metabolism with a suggested approach to manage hypervitaminosis D. Key steps include the following: limit sun exposure; stop oral vitamin D supplements; use medications such as corticosteroids, ketoconazole and hydroxychloroquine to block 1α-hydroxylase activity; stop oral calcium supplements to reduce burden of hypercalcemia from hypervitaminosis D. Key enzymes involved in metabolism pathway are shown in green. Image credit: Auguste et al, doi: 10.1503/cmaj.180465 / Creativology / BSG Studio.

Taking Too Much Vitamin D Can Lead to Kidney Failure

Apr 9, 2019 by News Staff

Vitamin D — which exists in two forms: D2 (ergocalciferol) and D3 (cholecalciferol) — helps regulate the amount of calcium and phosphate in...

tBHQ, at a dose relevant to human diet, impairs the primary and memory immune responses to influenza infection. Image credit: C. S. Goldsmith & A. Balish / CDC.

Widely-Used Food Additive E319 Impairs Immune Responses to Influenza Infection

Apr 8, 2019 by News Staff

A common food additive called tert-butylhydroquinone (E319) suppresses the immune response the body mounts when fighting the flu; it also reduces the effectiveness...

The view from the bottom of ‘Menara.’ Image credit: Unding Jami / University of Oxford.

World’s Tallest Tropical Tree Found in Malaysia

Apr 8, 2019 by News Staff

The world’s tallest known tropical tree, and possibly the tallest flowering plant, has been discovered in the Danum Valley Conservation Area in the Malaysian...

Phobos transits the Sun’s disk, as seen by NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity on March 26, 2019. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.

Martian Moons Phobos and Deimos Eclipse the Sun

Apr 8, 2019 by News Staff

NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity has captured several stunning videos of solar eclipses from the surface of the Red Planet. Phobos transits the Sun’s disk,...

This Hubble image shows the globular cluster Messier 3. The color image was made from separate exposures taken in the visible and ultraviolet regions of the spectrum with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). Five 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 / G. Piotto et al.

Hubble Looks at Brilliant Globular Cluster

Apr 8, 2019 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured an amazing new photo of the 8-billion-year-old globular cluster Messier 3. This Hubble image shows the...

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe approaching the Sun. Image credit: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Makes Second Close Approach to Sun

Apr 8, 2019 by News Staff

On April 4, 2019, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe achieved its second perihelion (close approach) of the Sun and flew within 15 million miles (24 million km)...

VLA image of Cygnus A’s central region. Image credit: Carilli et al / NRAO / AUI / NSF.

Astronomers Capture Direct Image of Active Galactic Nucleus Torus

Apr 5, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers using NSF’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) have caught the direct image of the thick torus surrounding the supermassive black hole...