Madagascar’s recently extinct elephant birds, once thought to be active during the day, were actually nocturnal, according to new research. (Credit: John Maisano for the University of Texas at Austin Jackson School of Geosciences) They were enormous, the biggest of the big, and, say authors of a new study reconstructing bird brains, the elephant birds of Madagascar were also nocturnal. The new research reveals surprising details about the animals, their habitats and their closes ...read more

Artist’s concept of the Kepler Space Telescope, which led the search for exoplanets over the past decade. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech) NASA’s legendary Kepler space telescope, which is responsible for the discovery of thousands of bizarre and intriguing exoplanets, has officially run out of fuel. With the telescope’s retirement comes the end of the most prolific period of planetary discovery in the entire history of astronomy — at least so far. “As NASA’s firs ...read more

via GIPHY When the Mars 2020 rover arrives at the Red Planet, it will need a working parachute. Fortunately, in a record-breaking test performed last month, NASA confirmed that the parachute designed to carry the rover most of the way to the Martian surface is ready to do its job. The test started with the launch of a Black Brant IX sounding rocket; less than two minutes after launch, the payload carrying the parachute separated from the rocket and began to fall back to Earth. As it passed a hei ...read more

An artist’s impression of the Kordylewski cloud in the night sky (with its brightness greatly enhanced) at the time of the observations. (Credit: Gábor Horváth) A team of Hungarian astronomers and physicists may have finally confirmed two clouds of interplanetary dust orbiting Earth that were first reported in 1961. There are five points of stability in the Earth-moon system where gravitational forces keep objects in position. Scientists call these “Lagrange points,&r ...read more

(Credit: Anan Kaewkhammul/shutterstock) Buzzing smart phones, a filling email inbox, the chatter of colleagues and friends. In today’s society, focus often feels futile. Now researchers say they have figured out how the brain pays attention. The work could explain what goes awry in attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and other attention conditions. “There are a million things out there in the world bombarding our eyes, our ears, our skin and other sensory organs,” Shrees ...read more

Dogs can be trained to detect malaria, the mosquito-borne disease that claims hundreds of thousands of lives every year. (Credit: Trudie Davidson/Shutterstock) (Inside Science) — Dogs have an incredible sense of smell. Their noses can sniff out illegal drugs, hidden bombs and bed bugs, and they can also help locate everything from criminals to cancer. Now scientists have found a completely new application for these super smellers: detecting malaria, the mosquito-borne disease that killed ...read more

“We’ve figured out a way to put these building blocks together at the right angles to form these very complex nanostructures,” Baker explains. He plans to stud the exterior with proteins from a whole suite of flu strains so that the immune system will learn to recognize them and be prepared to fend off future invaders. A single Death Star will carry 20 different strains of the influenza virus. Baker hopes this collection will cover the entire range of possible influenza mutatio ...read more

The Bengal tiger is one of six subspecies confirmed by a new genetic study. (Credit: Dangdumrong/shutterstock) You may have heard that no two tiger’s stripes are alike. And according to a new study, each tiger’s distinct genetic and evolutionary history gives it unique characteristics that may be key to saving these majestic big cats from extinction. With less than 4,000 living in the wild due to poaching and habitat loss, tigers are recognized as an endangered species by the World ...read more

(Credit: RugliG/Shutterstock) Wendy Fonarow arrived in Mexico City late in October 2017, eager to observe the nation’s Día de Muertos or Day of the Dead. Celebrations for this holiday—also called Día de los Muertos—start on the evening of October 31 and in fact span several days during which people celebrate lost loved ones. On November 1, they memorialize children, and on the second, adults. In many regions of Latin America, families prepare ofrendas, or a ...read more