Whales, dolphins and other cetaceans underwent numerous physiological changes as they transitioned from the land to the sea. (Credit: Carl Buell, John Gatesy)
Life began in the oceans, and for hundreds of millions of years, that's where it stayed. It took our deep ancestors eons to crawl, flop and gasp their way onto land. It turned out to be a pretty good decision, all told, as those creatures found a brand new world to inhabit. The ancient pioneers eventually led to mammals, including us &m ...read more
Two Late Bronze Age feeding vessels dated to around 1200– 800 BC. (Credit: Katharina Rebay-Salisbury)
Ancient pottery is helping scientists learn how prehistoric parents fed their infants.
A study of tiny clay pots with small spouts discovered at archaeological digs reveals that the vessels were likely used as milk bottles to feed babies. The specialized pots have long been found at sites around the world, and scientists have speculated that they may have been used to feed children ...read more
Earth's oceans are a powerful tool when it comes to mitigating climate change. a new report argues. (Credit: NASA)
A future where climate change is taken seriously everywhere — where batteries trump fuel tanks and forests stay intact — is easy to picture. But for too long, ideas of a sustainable planet have focused on what we can do on land, and not planned for what the ocean could help accomplish.
That’s the argument put forth by the High Level Panel for a Sustainable O ...read more
There are two ways to see the sun’s corona: Send up a spacecraft or wait for a total solar eclipse. On the left, the sun’s wispy atmosphere glows with ultraviolet light, captured by the European Space Agency’s PROBA2 satellite. Loops and arcs of plasma follow magnetic field lines coming from the sun. On the right, light scattering off particles in the corona becomes visible during the 2017 total solar eclipse that traversed the United States. (CREDIT: S.R. CRANMER AND A.R. WINE ...read more
A person's gait may help doctor's diagnose memory disorders like dementia and Alzheimer's. (Credit: Ljupco Smokovski/Shutterstock)
Dementia takes many forms. Hallmark symptoms, like memory
loss and disorientation can help doctors detect if a patient has some form of the
disease. But to the naked eye, it can be difficult to distinguish between conditions
like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Lewy body dementia (LBD).
That is, unless you look at the way someone walks. New research s ...read more
The three crew members in front of the Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft before the launch. (Credit: NASA)
Expedition 61, the next mission to the International Space Station, will launch three crew members in a Soyuz MS-15 rocket on September 25 at 9:57 a.m. EDT from Kazakhstan.
Heading up to the ISS, the crew includes Jessica Meir, a NASA astronaut, Oleg Skripochka, a Russian cosmonaut, and Hazzaa Al Mansoori from the United Arab Emirates.
The flight will take about six hours as the crew makes t ...read more
Centaur Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 has a chance to get funneled into the inner solar system in the not-so-distant future. This artist's concept shows what the comet would look like if it were 0.2 AU (19 million miles, 30 million kilometers) from Earth. Note the Moon at upper right for scale. (Credit:
University of Arizona/Heather Roper)
Astronomers have discovered an orbital region just beyond Jupiter that appears to act as a kind of gateway for some objects entering the inner solar system from ...read more
The bacterium Escherichia coli, illustrated here, moves itself with propeller-like structures called flagella; it is one of the mobile microbes scientists have linked to cargo-carrying structures to form biohybrid microrobots. (Credit: supergalactic/Shutterstock)
In the universe of TV's Doctor Who, the scariest adversaries of all are the hybrid robot-organic life-forms known as the Daleks.
Each Dalek is a living being encased in a robotic shell equipped with lethal weaponry, frequently em ...read more
A model of ancient Jerusalem. (Credit: Dennis Jarvis/Flickr)
(Inside Science) -- In the 6th century B.C., the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II, fearful that the Egyptians would cut off the Babylonian trade routes to the eastern Mediterranean region known as the Levant, invaded and laid siege to Jerusalem to block them. His army destroyed the temple the Hebrew king Solomon built there, and forced the city’s elite to exile in Babylonia.
So began the Babylonian Exile or Captivity, an e ...read more
Participants in a recent trial experienced old memories, vividly.
Halfpoint/Shutterstock.com
Alzheimer’s disease is one of the most dreaded diagnoses, and the fear is particularly acute among older people. This complex brain disorder, which usually affects older individuals, can cause many cognitive disabilities, most notably memory impairment.
About 5.7 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease. In addition, millions of loved ones and caregivers are ...read more
