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Yaniv Erlich and Dina Zielinski, associate scientist at the New York Genome Center, prepare to make trillions of of a DNA file. (Credit: New York Genome Center) By 2020, the volumes of data that humanity generates may reach 44 trillion gigabytes, according to information technology analyst firm International Data Corporation in Framingham, Massachusetts. That’s equivalent to over 6 towers of 128-gigabyte iPad Airs, each reaching from Earth to the moon. To make use of all this data, ...read more

There’s nothing but bones left of this mighty woolly mammoth, now on display at the Milwaukee Public Museum. Credit: Ernie Mastroianni. The extinct woolly mammoth lives on today as a regal symbol of the last ice age, a poster child for de-extinctionists and an occasional guest on HBO’s Game of Thrones. But new research reveals that when it made its last stand on a remote island, the species was a mess. Mammuthus primigenius had disappeared from most of Eurasia and No ...read more

Leprechaun skulls! Kidding. The vivid green chosen for this reconstruction of two partial human crania sure does help them stand out from the background, a photograph of the site in China where they were found. Credit: Xiujie Wu. The period about 100,000 years ago was a crucial one for our species — and a time not well represented in the fossil record. A pair of partial human skulls from Central China are helping to fill in some of the mystery, but their blend of archaic and modern Homo s ...read more

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Senior author John Bischof and a sample. (Credit: University of Minnesota) Every year, thousands of donated organs go to waste because they cannot be matched with recipients in the brief window of time in which they are still viable. Extending the shelf-life of organs could help alleviate this problem, potentially cutting into waiting lists for organs where many patients languish for years. Chilling organs at extremely low temperatures and then reheating them when they are needed is one curren ...read more

Haematite tubes from the hydrothermal vent deposits are said to be the oldest microfossils and evidence for life on Earth. (Credit: Matthew Dodd) Four billion years ago, as a faint young sun beat down on the newly-formed Earth, a cluster of creatures—each less than half the width of a human hair—were already thriving around volcanic vents. In a study published Wednesday in Nature, researchers say they’ve found the microfossil remnants of organisms that, if confirmed, lived at ...read more

(Credit: tano_d’ere/Flickr) Calorie-free, artificial sweeteners aren’t metabolized in the body—they go in, and they come out unscathed. With that in mind, take a moment to metabolize the title of a new study: “Sweetened Swimming Pools and Hot Tubs.” Indeed, in a study published Wednesday in Environmental Science & Technology Letters, researchers describe a new test that measures levels of acesulfame-K, a widely consumed artificial swee ...read more

Australian wildlife officials tested small drones as a possible way to drop poisoned cat bait on Christmas Island. Credit: Department of Parks and Wildlife, Western Australia In the land down under, feral cats slaughter an estimated 75 million native animals each day. That threat to biodiversity prompted the Australian government to declare it would kill 2 million feral cats over five years starting in 2015. As part of that campaign, officials plan to enlist a drone air force ca ...read more

A reconstruction of Anchiornus, based on the new data. (Credit: Julius T. Csotonyi) Firing lasers at fossils continues to be a winning strategy for paleontologists. The new technique brings hidden details in fossils to the forefront, including remnants of soft tissue invisible to the naked eye. And a team of researchers from China is using the laser-assisted images to help piece together the evolutionary process that turned dinosaurs into the birds we know today. In a paper published Tues ...read more