In a study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists confirmed that the oldest fossils ever discovered — found in a nearly 3.5-billion-year-old rock from western Australia — contain 11 complex microbes that are members of five distinct species.
The findings not only suggest that life on our planet originated some 4 billion years ago, but also help support the increasingly widespread theory that life in the universe is much ...read more
(Credit: NASA)
Exoplanets have dominated astronomy news so much in recent years, some people are getting sick of them. It’s funny to think that their existence has only been confirmed for 25 years. Before astronomers announced in 1992 that pulsar B1257+12 had a couple of planets in tow, the idea of planets existing beyond our solar system was just that, an idea. It made sense, but no one had ever seen any.
The not-so-secret motivation behind exoplanet research nowadays is the hope of one ...read more
(Credit: Shutterstock)
Ladies, looks like we might have another thing to worry about — well, at least for those of us who play soccer.
New, unpublished research, presented in November at the annual Society for Neuroscience conference in Washington, D.C., suggests female soccer players experience greater brain damage from heading the ball than men do. The injury occurs in white matter tracts — the long, branch-like nerve fibers, or axons, that extend from neurons, crisscross the bra ...read more
Dragonfly is a dual-quadcopter lander that would take advantage of the environment on Titan to fly to multiple locations, some hundreds of miles apart. (Credit: NASA)
A little over once a decade, through its New Frontiers program, NASA hosts a battle-royale lottery that sets the tone for the agency’s focus on the future of exploration throughout the solar system. This year, in terms of planetary exploration, NASA decided on sending drones to Titan and a claw-machine to a familiar asteroi ...read more
(Credit: Alexander Raths/Shutterstock)
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced yesterday that it would be removing a three-year funding pause on so-called “gain-of-function” research.
The type of research in question involves engineering viruses to give them capabilities not found in nature in order to facilitate research. This can be as simple as producing a higher yield for a certain vaccine strain, but has also involved giving viruses potentially dangerous traits. ...read more
Confocal laser scanning microscope image of the Cassida rubiginosa flagellum tip. (Credit: Matsumura, Kovalev, Gorb, Sci. Adv. 2017;3: eaao5469)
Male beetles often have thin penises longer than their bodies. Now scientists are discovering how these insects can have sex without breaking their narrow, lengthy penises, findings that could help lead to longer, stronger catheters for use in medicine.
Scientists experimented with thistle tortoise beetles, Cassida rubiginosa. The insects are about 8 ...read more
What’s going on in your computer? (Credit: Shutterstock)
Nothing comes for free, especially online. Websites and apps that don’t charge you for their services are often collecting your data or bombarding you with advertising. Now some sites have found a new way to make money from you: using your computer to generate virtual currencies.
Several video streaming sites and the popular file sharing network The Pirate Bay have allegedly been “cryptojacking” their users’ ...read more
Holding in your poop because you don’t like pooping in public? Well, you aren’t doing yourself any favors. (Credit: Shutterstock)
You know the feeling when you have to poop, but there’s no toilet in reach or you’re too scared to stink up the stall at work? Then, instead of listening to Mother Nature, you end up holding in your poop?
Let’s face it, no matter how many times we hear “everybody poops,” it doesn’t make the endeavor any less awkward in ...read more
The city of Paris at night. By 2040, all oil exploration and production in France will end. Wikimedia Commons.
Today, Emmanuel Macron, the current president of France, announced that his country would no longer allow for oil exploration in its territory and by 2040, all oil extraction in France would be ended. Now, at first, you might be tempted to say this is merely symbolic as France isn’t exactly an huge oil producer, but you’d be wrong. France does have some significan ...read more
(Originally published 12/16)
CC BY-SA 3.0
Make sure you’re on Santa’s “nice list” this year. Lend your hands, hearts and brains to science during these 12 days leading up to Christmas!
On the 1st day of Christmas, the Forest Restoration Alliance gave to me:
A chance to monitor the invasive insects that attack both hemlocks and Fraser firs (the most popular Christmas Tree in North America).
On the 2nd day of Christmas, Audubon gave to me:
Two turtle doves that I ...read more
