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Dino-Killing Mass Extinction Boosted Bird Evolution, Study Says

This is the ‘Liliput Timeline.’ Image credit: Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Sep 22, 2017 by News Staff

The Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction — an event 65 million years ago that wiped out the dinosaurs and was triggered by a massive asteroid that slammed into Earth — led to acceleration in the rate of genetic evolution among its avian survivors, and these survivors were much smaller than their pre-extinction relatives, according to a new study. This is the ‘Liliput Timeline.’ Image credit: Cornell Lab of Ornithology. “There is good...

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Deutsch et al found new evidence of ice sheets in permanently shadowed craters near the north pole of the planet Mercury. Image credit: Brown University.

Scientists Find New Evidence for Surface Water Ice at Mercury’s North Pole

Sep 21, 2017 by News Staff

A new study led by Brown University planetary researchers adds three new large members to the list of water ice-filled craters near Mercury’s north pole...

Like humans, Cassiopea jellyfish exhibit the telltale signs of sleep. Image credit: California Institute of Technology.

Jellyfish Have Sleep-Like State, Biologists Discover

Sep 21, 2017 by News Staff

Cassiopea jellyfish, a genus of true jellyfish found throughout the tropics in shallow ocean waters and mudflats, exhibit reversible behavioral quiescence...

This ALMA image reveals much finer structure in the U Antliae shell than has previously been possible. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / F. Kerschbaum.

ALMA Captures Smoky Bubble around Carbon Star U Antliae

Sep 21, 2017 by News Staff

New observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have revealed a remarkably thin spherical shell around U Antliae, a star...

Easter Island is located some 3,512 km from Chile’s west coast and its nearest inhabited neighbor, Pitcairn Island, located some 2,075 km to the west. For reasons still unknown early Rapa Nui people began carving giant statues out of volcanic rock. Image credit: Marlene Hanssen.

Study: Easter Island May Have Had Population of 17,500 in Its Heyday

Sep 21, 2017 by News Staff

A new study published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution examines the relationship between agricultural potential and population on Easter...

Hubble Spots Unusual Binary Asteroid in Main Belt

Sep 21, 2017 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have spotted an unusual object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter: two asteroids orbiting...

A view over the smaller pyramids on the eastern side of Plaza de la Luna from Piramide de la Luna towards Piramide del Sol at Teotihuacan. Image credit: Daniel Case / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Teotihuacan is Unique among Ancient Mesoamerican Cities, Archaeologist Says

Sep 20, 2017 by News Staff

Arizona State University archaeologist Michael E. Smith has conducted a comparative analysis of Teotihuacan with earlier and later Mesoamerican urban centers...

A study by Abramovitch et al is the first analysis of existing data on the link between IQ and OCD sufferers verses the general population. Image credit: AirPix.

New Study Debunks Myth that Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is Associated with Higher IQ

Sep 20, 2017 by News Staff

According to a meta-analytic study published in the journal Neuropsychology Review, obsessive-compulsive disorder is not associated with a higher intelligence...

South American horned frog showing round shape and large mouth. Image credit: Kristopher Lappin.

Giant Prehistoric Frogs Ate Small Dinosaurs, Claim Scientists

Sep 20, 2017 by News Staff

Exceptionally large individuals of Beelzebufo ampinga, an extinct species of frog that lived in Madagascar during the Late Cretaceous epoch, about 68 million...

A ‘Blue Marble’ image of the Earth taken from the VIIRS instrument aboard NASA’s Earth-observing satellite Suomi NPP (named in honor of Verner E. Suomi of the University of Wisconsin). This composite image uses a number of swaths of the Earth’s surface taken on January 4, 2012. Image credit: NASA / NOAA / GSFC / Suomi NPP / VIIRS / Norman Kuring.

Researchers Produce Estimate of Earth’s Elemental Composition

Sep 20, 2017 by News Staff

A team of researchers at the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia, has produced the most comprehensive estimate yet of Earth’s composition...

An artistic illustration of a binary black hole. Image credit: NASA / ESA / G. Bacon, STScI.

Double Supermassive Black Hole is Most Compact Ever Found

Sep 19, 2017 by News Staff

Astronomers have discovered what may be the most compact binary supermassive black hole ever known in a galaxy about 400 million light years from Earth. An...

Papua New Guinea was likely a stepping stone for human migration from Asia to Australia. Bergstroem et al performed genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphism genotyping on 381 individuals from 85 language groups in Papua New Guinea and found a sharp divide originating 10,000 to 20,000 years ago between lowland and highland groups and a lack of non-New Guinean admixture in the latter. This photo shows drummers and dancers from each village on the beach of Port Moresby, the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea. Image credit: Steve Jurvetson / CC BY 2.0.

New Study Reveals Remarkable Genetic Diversity among Papuan New Guinean Peoples

Sep 19, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of researchers led by the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute has analyzed genome-wide data of 381 individuals from 85 language groups...

Aeolis Dorsa, Mars: the dotted white arrow points to curved strata recording point bar growth and river migration; the boundaries of ancient valley walls are defined by textural and albedo changes and are also associated with lateral river migration; stacked above the point bars and completely confined within the dotted white and black lines are topographically inverted river deposits outcropping as ridges (e.g., black arrow); in places (e.g., south of the dotted white arrow), the ridges run against the dotted boundaries, suggesting flow was once redirected along a valley wall. Image credit: Cardenas et al, doi: 10.1130/B31567.1.

Planetary Researchers Find More Evidence of Water on Early Mars

Sep 19, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro

River deposits exist across the Martian surface. A large sedimentary basin named Aeolis Dorsa contains some of the planet’s most spectacular and densely...

Immunohistochemical analysis of a human lung section stained with anti-PIWIL4 antibody. Scale bars - 10 μm. Image credit: Wasserman et al, doi: 10.1172/JCI94639.

Researchers Identify New Type of Lung Cell

Sep 19, 2017 by News Staff

A research team led by Boston University scientists has identified a new type of lung cell that is implicated in the body’s immune defense against pneumonia-causing...

Regulus. Image credit: DSS / Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg / SIMBAD.

Astronomers Detect Polarized Light from Regulus

Sep 18, 2017 by News Staff

Nearly five decades after it was first predicted that rapidly rotating hot stars would emit polarized light, astronomers have succeeded in observing the...

The Early Permian dissorophoid temnospondyl Cacops morrisi displays its fearsome dentition as it preys on the hapless reptile Captorhinus. Image credit: Brian Engh, dontmesswithdinosaurs.com.

Ancient Primitive Amphibians Had Mouthful of Teeth, New Research Finds

Sep 18, 2017 by News Staff

Temnospondyls — a diverse group of extinct small-to-giant amphibians that flourished worldwide during the Carboniferous, Permian, and Triassic periods...

Top: an orange-billed sparrow (Arremon aurantiirostris). Bottom left: a golden-crowned warbler (Basileuterus culicivorus). Bottom right: a yellow-olive flycatcher (Tolmomyias sulphurescens). Image credit: Dominic Sherony / Dario Sanches / Gary L. Clark / CC BY-SA 2.0.

Song Playback Experiments Reveal 21 Possible New Species of Birds

Sep 18, 2017 by News Staff

Two bird species that look the same, but have songs so different they can’t recognize each other, should be considered distinct species, according to...

This image shows the spiral galaxy NGC 6753, which lies in the constellation Pavo, about 148 million light-years away. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Judy Schmidt.

Hubble Snaps Photo of Unusual Spiral Galaxy NGC 6753

Sep 18, 2017 by News Staff

NGC 6753 is a whirl of color in this remarkable image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope — the bursts of blue throughout the spiral arms are...

Ancient Indian Manuscript Contains Oldest Example of Mathematical Symbol ‘Zero’

Sep 18, 2017 by News Staff

The Bakhshali manuscript, an ancient Indian mathematical manuscript written on more than 70 leaves of birch bark, is notable for having a dot representing...

Cassini entering Saturn’s atmosphere. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Cassini Completes Its Historic Journey with Plunge into Atmosphere of Saturn

Sep 15, 2017 by News Staff

Today, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft made its final approach to Saturn and dove into the gas giant’s atmosphere. Loss of contact with the orbiter took...

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