It comes as no surprise to regular readers of mine that I have a special place in my heart for parasites. I have waxed poetic about their global dominion, but usually, I focus on the animal kingdom’s most malicious moochers. Today, though, is all about plant parasites. Specifically, this lovely orchid: 光合成やめた植物「クロヤツシロラン」が、地下で& ...read more

Some organs, maybe. (Credit: Komsan Loonprom/Shutterstock) Humans might have a new organ, and the press is all over it—again. In brief: It’s called the interstitium, or a layer of fluid-filled pockets hemmed in by collagen and it can be found all over our bodies, from skin to muscles to our digestive system. The interstitium likely acts as a kind of shock absorber for the rest of our interior bits and bobs and the workings of the fluid itself could help explain everything from ...read more

The seven planets that tightly orbit TRAPPIST-1 likely underwent an inward migration over time, influencing the state of water on the planets’ surfaces. (Credit: NASA/JPL-CalTech) Hope was ignited in the science community when researchers discovered that three of the seven Earth-size planets orbiting TRAPPIST-1, a cool red dwarf about 40 light-years from Earth, are within the star’s habitable zone and could have flowing water on their surfaces. But while the presence of water undou ...read more

Human footprints such as this one, known as Track #17 and digitally enhanced on the right, suggest people were walking along North America’s Pacific Coast 13,000 years ago. (Credit Duncan McLaren) Nearly 30 human footprints from at least three different individuals, found at a remote island off Canada’s Pacific Coast, could be the latest evidence that people arrived in North America by sea. At about 13,000 years old, the tracks pre-date the end of the last ice age. Ancient ...read more

Welcome to Triassic Park! Researchers spent a decade working at remote African sites to fill in serious gaps in our understanding of life at the Dawn of the Dinosaur Age. The scene, including dino-relative Teleocrater in foreground, illustrates what mid-Triassic Tanzania might have looked like 240 million years ago. (Credit Mark Witton/Natural History Museum, London) You’ve probably heard about The Great Dying, more formally known as the End-Permian mass extinction, when more than 95 perc ...read more

A gun turret containing a Mark 12 5-inch gun from the USS Juneau that was discovered as part of the sunken warship’s wreckage on March 17, 2018. Credit: Navigea Ltd. One of the most well-known stories of family sacrifice in wartime is the loss of the five Sullivan brothers aboard the light cruiser USS Juneau during World War II. That story resurfaced after an expedition headed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen discovered wreckage from the USS Juneau lying on the ocean floor in the South ...read more

Asperitas cloud over Newtonia, Missouri, US. (Credit: © Elaine Patrick, Cloud Appreciation Society Member 31940) Clouds form in a multitude of different shapes and sizes, their infinite combinations and position across the sky offering a visual drama in response to the light conditions. But despite their apparent randomness, a detailed naming convention is in place to categorize them. When a cloud ultimately can’t be fitted into one of the many existing categories, it can be nominate ...read more

NASA will be making history again, soon. Sometime this spring, if all goes as planned, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will carry the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) into space. Once in “high-Earth” orbit, the satellite’s instruments will scan the entire sky, hoping to find small planets outside our solar system. The main targets are potentially habitable worlds that are relatively nearby, within a few hundred light-years.But the mission’s scientific objectives aren ...read more

By the time he reached Los Angeles, Landry was scared, dazed and exhausted. Flying for the first time in his life, the 13-year-old from Cameroon was now some 8,200 miles from all things familiar. Landry, whose parents had recently died in a car crash, came to LA to live with his legal guardian. Although Aunt Delphine welcomed him warmly, Landry’s first night in America was restless. His left ankle was puffy and warm.He settled in to his new environment, attending school and studying Englis ...read more