2020 has been all about Covid-19. Almost. Nature produced an excellent piece to review an extraordinary year: A review of 2020 through Nature’s editorials Quanta Magazine has produced a set of articles to remind us that science, in general, has not stopped: 2020 Biology: While the study of the SARS-CoV-2 virus was the most urgent […]
Levant may have experienced tsunami 10K years ago Archaeologists examining sediment cores have found clues that a massive tsunami may have once hit the coast of the Levant about 10,000 years ago. The clues consisted of seashells within sediment cores they are collecting along a beach in Israel, which was much farther inland at the […]
Ancient shipwreck offers clues about African elephants About 100 tusks found among the artifacts of a trading ship that sank in 1533 are giving researchers new insights into the African elephants that lived during that time, according to findings scheduled to be published in Current Biology. Conditions at the shipwreck site preserved DNA in the […]
Pterosaur ancestry may have an answer Pterosaurs have been linked to a group of ancient small reptiles called lagerpetids, according to an examination of a variety of fossils from several regions. Lagerpetids, which date back between 237 million and 210 million years ago, share similar traits with pterosaurs, including inner ear shape, longer hand bones […]
Unique electron bursts observed by space probes Probes from NASA’s Voyager spacecraft have detected a peculiar type of electron burst in a quiet region of space. The unusual thing about the bursts is that they appear to precede shock waves significantly in what study co-author Don Gurnett has called “a brand-new mechanism.” Gizmodo Quantum supremacy […]
Calcite layers boost hardness of ants’ bodies A layer of calcite covers the bodies of leaf-cutting worker ants, allowing them to take on much bigger enemy ants, according to findings published by Nature Communications. Researchers tested ants with and without the thin calcite layer and found that the mineral makes the ants’ exoskeletons at least […]
New Horizons finds light in the darkness of space The New Horizons space probe, which has moved beyond its exploration of Pluto, has found evidence that space itself has its own glow. When researchers removed visible light sources from images of the open universe sent back from the space probe, now about 4 billion miles […]
Social learning in otters Otters learn to survive by observing others in their social circles. The experiment with Asian short-clawed otters, in which the animals learned to open containers filled with meatballs after watching their peers do it, “is the first to show evidence of social learning and long-term memory in Asian short-clawed otters,” says […]
Strange exoplanet with oceans of lava discovered Astronomers have discovered an extremely hot Earth-sized planet hundreds of light-years away that has oceans made of lava, supersonic winds and rainfall made of rocks. K2-141b is very close to its star, and most of the planet is always in daylight because it is locked in place, facing […]
How long ago were Denisovans on the Tibetan Plateau? Denisovans were present on the Tibetan Plateau as far back as 100,000 years ago, according to mitochondrial DNA found in layers of cave sediment. Other sediment samples dating back approximately 60,000 to possibly 30,000 years ago could suggest the Denisovans were in the region when humans […]