If you think way, way back to your high school biology class, you might remember a little cellular structure called the mitochondrion. Its claim to fame is that it’s the “powerhouse” of the cell — the organelle in charge of creating energy. But it also contains its own DNA, separate from the traditional DNA we think of, which lives in the nucleus of a cell. That nuclear DNA contains genetic information from both of our parents. But in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), that genet ...read more
A Strange Supernova
Astronomers studying a violent stellar explosion have witnessed a unique supernova phenomenon that’s like nothing they’ve seen before.
Researchers discovered the supernova, known as ASASSN-18bt (or SN 2018oh), this past February. And, strangely, within the early stages of the stellar explosion, researchers saw an unusual burst of light emerge. New analysis of this unique supernova could help researchers gain insight into the still-unclear process of how sta ...read more
The science story of the past week was the claim from Chinese scientist He Jiankui that he has created gene-edited human babies. Prof. He reports that two twin girls have been born carrying modifications of the gene CCR5, which is intended to protect them against future HIV risk.
It's far from clear yet whether the gene-editing that He described has actually taken place - no data has yet been presented. The very prospect of genetically-modifying human beings has, however, led to widesprea ...read more
Earlier today a M7 earthquake struck only 13 kilometers from Anchorage, Alaska. The earthquake was relatively deep, located ~40 kilometers beneath the surface. However, the city of Anchorage has experienced damage from the shaking. Anchorage airport has seen disruptions as the control tower was evacuated (and is apparently running out of a truck right now).
More importantly, a tsunami warning was declared for the coast of Alaska, so people are trying to evacuate the area. However, a P ...read more
Moon-bound
NASA's going back to the moon. President Trump signed a directive last year which ordered the agency to make plans for a lunar return, and today the agency took another step on that journey by announcing a slew of commercial partnerships aimed at getting payloads off the ground and moon-bound.
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced the nine companies that will be the first to participate in the agency's new Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program.
The ...read more
Astrophysicist Marco Ajello at the Clemson Outdoor Lab. (Credit: Pete Martin/Clemson University)
Ancient Starlight
Astrophysicists estimate that our universe formed about 13.7 billion years ago, with the first stars forming when the universe was just a few hundred million years old. By peering back at the earliest days of stellar creation, scientists in South Carolina have measured all of the starlight ever produced throughout the entire history of the observable universe.
Scientists have been ...read more
ALMA observed the Cat’s Paw Nebula, picking up nearly 700 emission lines from molecules within the region (blue). This result shows more than 10 times the emission lines picked up by the Herschel Space Observatory (gray, inverted to better compare the two). (Credit: S. Lipinski/NASA & ESA, NAOJ, NRAO/AUI/NSF, B. McGuire et al.)
The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array in Chile has been up and running since 2011. However, its initial incarnation involved only about one-third o ...read more
(Credit: Dmitry Pichugin/Shutterstock)
As humans spread across the planet, high-altitude places like the Tibetan Plateau were some of the last regions to be inhabited. Now archaeologists have discovered a cache of ancient stone blades in northern Tibet from at least 30,000 years ago. The find is the earliest evidence for people living at high altitude and means humans were living in the harsh conditions of the miles-high Tibetan Plateau much earlier than previously thought.
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Researchers have discovered that mother jumping spiders (Toxeus magnus, an ant mimic) nurse their young with a milk-like substance. (Credit: Chen/Science)
Got milk? Of course you do; few things are as uniquely mammalian as our milky infancies. Sure, we’ve all got backbones (but so do lizards), warm blood (but so do birds), and hair (but so do plants) – but it’s the mammary glands from which mothers nurse their young that really set us mammals apart from the rest of the Tree o ...read more
Ain Boucherit, a site in Algeria, has yielded numerous stone tools, such as this Oldowan core. The tools are up to 2.4 million years old and were found with hundreds of animal bones, several of which show signs of butchery. (Credit: M. Sahnouni)
Stone tools and animal bones with cut marks, excavated at a site in eastern Algeria, are up to 2.4 million years old, the oldest archaeological evidence in North Africa and one of the oldest known examples of butchery. The finds suggest hominins, m ...read more
