When the first fossil of the blue-jay-sized Longipteryx chaoyangensis was found in 2020, paleontologists thought its elongated skull with an extended, toothed beak suggested it ate fish. But a more recent look inside a specimen’s stomach showed the bird — which lived 120 million years ago in what’s now northeastern China — fed on fruit-like plants, according to a report in Current Biology.Comparing Longipteryx to Other Ancient BirdsPaleontologists initially compared the ancient bird to t ...read more

A lunar eclipse is one of the universe’s many captivating light shows. During this particular cosmic alignment, the Moon slips into our planet’s shadow, often transforming Luna’s familiar gray face into a stunning red orb. But what exactly causes a lunar eclipse, and why doesn’t it happen every month? Let's dive into everything you need to know about lunar eclipses, from their causes and frequency, to what makes them so captivating to stargazers worldwide.What Is a Lunar Eclipse?Total lu ...read more

Medical diseases have existed since ancient times. We’ve read about the horrors of the bubonic plague in history lessons, but did you know that even the plague technically still exists today? Over time, modern medicine has eradicated some of the most devastating diseases in the U.S., like smallpox, polio, rubella, malaria, and diphtheria. However, diseases like tuberculosis (TB) and the mumps do continue to exist. While it may surprise you that the following five diseases still exist today, we ...read more

Lupus is an autoimmune disease that can affect women nine times more often than men, often turning up in women in their 20s and 30s. It can cause joint pain, rashes, fatigue, and damage to organs — especially the kidneys. The root cause is still unclear, but it may have to do with genetics.“[Lupus] can cause injury to a number of different organs, all mediated by this particular autoimmune process,” says Deepak Rao, a rheumatologist at Harvard Medical School.New research is improving docto ...read more

Deep beneath the waves of the sea, hidden ecosystems have thrived for millennia. Scientists continue to discover more of them, including the recent find of a whole new underwater mountain and 20 potentially new deep-sea species about 900 miles off the coast of Chile. Discovering so many rare and likely new species is exciting, but far more unknown species lurk in the abyss just waiting to be discovered. While their ecosystems have long escaped human notice, there’s no guarantee they’ll escap ...read more

For anyone living in the 21st century, it’s hard to imagine a battle scene that isn’t plastered with camouflage: soldiers in muted green-brown fatigues, marching beside tanks painted the same colors. These days the pattern is even a perennial fixture of mainstream fashion. But in fact, it’s a relatively recent military tactic, albeit one with roots in some of the most ancient survival strategies. More than 2,000 years ago, in The Art of War, the Chinese strategist Sun Tzu wrote that, “Al ...read more

When humans first set their sights on the stars, space exploration was dominated by superpowers, national pride, and the race to outdo rival nations. After all, the Apollo Moon landings were carried out as more of a statement of Cold War superiority than a business venture. But in recent decades, a shift has occurred — a shift that has slowly seen the reins of space exploration handed from government agencies to commercial enterprises. The commercialization of space is no longer a futuristic d ...read more

Astronomers exploring the faraway universe with the James Webb Space Telescope, NASA’s most powerful telescope, have found a class of galaxies that challenges even the most skillful creatures in mimicry – like the mimic octopus. This creature can impersonate other marine animals to avoid predators. Need to be a flatfish? No problem. A sea snake? Easy.When astronomers analyzed the first Webb images of the remote parts of the universe, they spotted a never-before-seen group of galaxies. These ...read more

Nineteen-year-old U.S. Army Pvt. David Lewis set out from Fort Dix on a 50-mile hike with his unit on Feb. 5, 1976. On that bitter cold day, he collapsed and died. Autopsy specimens unexpectedly tested positive for an H1N1 swine influenza virus.Virus disease surveillance at Fort Dix found another 13 cases among recruits who had been hospitalized for respiratory illness. Additional serum antibody testing revealed that over 200 recruits had been infected but not hospitalized with the novel swine H ...read more

Paleontologists have long debated whether pterosaurs could fly. An analysis of fossils from two separate species of the ancient, winged dinosaur relatives suggest that not only did they fly, but also at least one species likely glided on air currents while another probably flapped its wings, according to a report in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Researchers determined these different abilities by using CT scans to analyze the fossilized bones. Scanning the humerus of Arambourgiania phi ...read more