Newsdesk Archive
Next month, after three years of legislative tug-of-war, the Navajo Nation will become the first place in the United States to impose a tax on junk food. The Healthy Diné Nation Act of 2014, signed into law by Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly last November, mandates a 2 percent sales tax on pastries, chips, soda, desserts, fried foods, sweetened beverages, and other products with "minimal-to-no-nutritional value" sold within the borders of the nation's largest reservation.Related: Diet soda linked to increases in belly fat in older adults
Could a pill make people more attune to inequality? When scientists gave people a drug that prolongs the effects of dopamine, they divvied up money more fairly.The researchers say that future studies may lead to a better understanding of the interaction between altered dopamine-brain mechanisms and mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia or addiction, and potentially light the way to diagnostic tools or treatments for these disorders.
By comparing the genes of current-day North and South Americans with African and European populations, an Oxford University study has found the genetic fingerprints of the slave trade and colonisation that shaped migrations to the Americas hundreds of years ago.The study published in Nature Communications found that: *While Spaniards provide the majority of European ancestry in continental American Hispanic/Latino populations, the most common European genetic source in African-Americans and Barbadians comes from Great Britain
In the late 19th century, astronomers developed the technique of capturing telescopic images of stars and galaxies on glass photographic plates. This allowed them to study the night sky in detail. Over 500,000 glass plate images taken from 1885 to 1992 are part of the Plate Stacks Collection of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), and is is the largest of its kind in the world.
Researchers from Brown University have completed a new analysis of an ancient Martian lake system in Jezero Crater, near the planet's equator. The study finds that the onslaught of water that filled the crater was one of at least two separate periods of water activity in the region surrounding Jezero."We can say that this one really well-exposed location makes a strong case for at least two periods of water-related activity in Mars' history,".
Global warming isn't happening on Mars, so face up to it on Earth. That's the conclusion of an analysis of the Red Planet's melting polar ice cap, which shows that Swiss-cheese-like pits forming in the ice are part of a natural cycle, not unusual warming.The pits were first spotted at the carbon dioxide ice cap at the Martian south pole in 1999, then pictured again in 2001, one Martian year later. Comparing the images revealed the pits had grown by a few metres. At that rate, the entire ice cap would disappear in a few thousand years.
An international team of scientists headed by Dr G. Ravindra Kumar of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai, India, has provided experimental evidence that stars may produce sound.When examining the interaction of an ultra-intense laser with a plasma target, Dr Kumar and his colleagues from the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and the University of York, UK, observed something unexpected.
NASA challenged the public and amateur scientists delivered, coming up with a software application that can help identify more asteroids, some of which endanger our planet.The US space agency issued a call to citizen scientists last year called "The Asteroid Data Hunter challenge" and offering a $55,000 prize.
New observations made with APEX and other telescopes reveal that the star that European astronomers saw appear in the sky in 1670 was not a nova, but a much rarer, violent breed of stellar collision. It was spectacular enough to be easily seen with the naked eye during its first outburst, but the traces it left were so faint that very careful analysis using submillimetre telescopes was needed before the mystery could finally be unravelled more than 340 years later.
A rare early copy of William Smith's 1815 Geological Map of England and Wales, previously thought lost, has been uncovered by Geological Society archivists. The new map has been digitised and made available online in time for the start of celebrations of the map's 200th anniversary, beginning with an unveiling of a plaque at Smith's former residence by Sir David Attenborough.The map, the first geological map of a nation ever produced, shows the geological strata of England, Wales and part of Scotland.
Archaeologists working in Guatemala have unearthed new information about the Maya civilization's transition from a mobile, hunter-gatherer lifestyle to a sedentary way of life.Led by University of Arizona archaeologists Takeshi Inomata and Daniela Triadan, the team's excavations of the ancient Maya lowlands site of Ceibal suggest that as the society transitioned from a heavy reliance on foraging to farming, mobile communities and settled groups co-existed and may have come together to collaborate on construction projects and participate in public ceremonies.
New research shows that prehistoric Ice-Age people hunted horse and camel 13,300 years ago in North America, much earlier than previously believed, according to a team of researchers led by a Texas A&M University anthropologist.Waters and the research team examined the skeletal remains of seven horses and one camel found in an area called Wally's Beach, located about 80 miles south of Calgary in Canada.
A simplified version of the layers of the earth, showing the mantle (red-orange), the outer core (lighter orange), and inner core (yellow). The newly discovered layer is not shown.Our perspective of Earth tends to be very shallow--literally. Everything we experience, from the deepest depths of the ocean to the highest mountain peaks, only skims the top of the outermost layer of the Earth, the crust, which is about 4 miles thick under the ocean and 20 to 30 miles thick on land. With a radius of 3,959 miles, the Earth has plenty of secrets buried inside it.
Electricity in the air appears to help animals predict earthquakes, according to a new study of the phenomenon.Camera traps in Peru's Yanachaga National Park in Peru have shown an "amazing" drop in animals numbers up to 23 days before a major quake.
This furry ball of cuteness is an endangered mammal closely related to rabbits and hares. The species was first discovered in 1983 and individuals have rarely been seen since.Related: River Otter beavers 'native to UK', tests find - "River Otter beavers 'native to UK', tests find"
A frog in Ecuador's western Andean cloud forest changes skin texture in minutes, appearing to mimic the texture it sits on.Originally discovered by a Case Western Reserve University PhD student and her husband, a projects manager at Cleveland Metroparks' Natural Resources Division, the amphibian is believed to be the first known to have this shape-shifting capability.
Peacock tails may be hard to miss, but humans are unaware of the noise created by the bird's pretty plumage. Scientists have shown that peacocks shake their tails to make a noise that is too low for us to hear.Male birds may make the infrared rumble to scare off an approaching rival or to attract a mate.Related: A flashy little hummingbird in the Bahamas could get upgraded to full species status, thanks to research that began with noise-making tail feathers
Dogs do it. Rats do it. Even some people seem to be able to sniff out cancer and other diseases. Now we can add the humble roundworm to the list of super-smellers.Japanese researchers have discovered that Caenorhabditis elegans worms can detect cancer in people's urine. They are working with technology companies Hitachi and Johnan to turn the finding into a diagnostic test that can be used to catch the disease in its early stages.
Planting farmland with strips of flowers can boost the number of wild bumblebees, a study has confirmed.Not only does it attract foraging bees, but it also encourages nesting, say researchers at University of Sussex.
Mars's life-friendly past just got friendlier. Using samples previously collected by the NASA rover Curiosity, scientists have discovered evidence of nitrates in Martian rock: nitrogen compounds that on Earth are a crucial source of nutrients for living things.The findings, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, lend further support to the idea that the Red Planet, now barren and dry, could once have hosted habitable environments.
The ancient City of Teotihuacan was burned down by an angry mob in response to city rulers trying to control a booming economy, a study has suggested.Teotihuacan was once the biggest city in the pre-Colombian Americas, with a population of about 125,000 people. It was established around 100 BCE, with buildings constructed up until around 250AD.Alt: Fall of the Gods: What Caused the Collapse of Teotihuacán?
Kukulkan Temple, at the Chichen Itza archaelogical site in Mexico, isn't just an impressive architectural achievement. It also uses physics to make bird calls. That's right, a stone temple has the ability to mimic the sounds a local bird. Let's see the pyramids at Giza do that!The calls are all good imitations of the quetzal bird, a spiritually important animal to the 12th century Mayans.
Two of the ancient cities now being destroyed by Islamic State lay buried for 2,500 years, it was only 170 years ago that they began to be dug up and stripped of their treasures. The excavations arguably paved the way for IS to smash what remained - but also ensured that some of the riches of a lost civilisation were saved.
A campaign against the building of a road tunnel past Stonehenge has been backed by a trio of historians.A £2bn proposal, which includes a 1.8-mile (2.9km) tunnel, was announced by the government in December, aimed at easing congestion on the nearby A303.Related: 'World's oldest railway tunnel' awarded protected status
The ancient city of Mohenjo Daro was one of the world's earliest major urban settlements - but as Razia Iqbal found on a recent visit to Pakistan, its remains are in danger of crumbling away.Related: Ezhuthala paintings fading away with time
The first of what archaeologist Barbara Deppert-Lippitz calls the "most sensational finds of the last century" surfaced not in a museum but at Christie's in New York. Among more than a hundred pieces of ancient jewelry for sale on December 8, 1999, was Lot 26, a spiraling, snake-shaped gold bracelet that the auction house identified as a "massive Greek or Thracian gold armband."
A rare, 338-year-old copy of the Old Testament has been reunited with its twin, a copy of the same edition that was printed in Frankfurt, Germany, in the 1600s.The biblical text's journey was long and circuitous. After its publication in 1677, the book bounced among scholars, landed in Egypt and finally fell into the hands of Micha Shagrir, an Israeli film producer and director.
Hundreds of people are visiting a home in Kampung Mahandoi, Malaysia, where a statue has suddenly appeared to be crying tears. Miracle, hoax or something else?Michael George, owner of the home and the statue, says it was brought from the Philippines about a year ago by his sister-in-law. The 13 inch (33 cm) statue was recently taken to be blessed by Archbishop John Wong at the Our Lady Queen of Peace Church at Kg Kobusak.
Those mysterious booms that have been heard around the world with increasing frequency may have claimed some innocent victims. On March 16, 2015, loud booms were heard and felt by people living along the U.S. Atlantic coast from North Carolina north to Delaware. Less that 24 hours later, thousands of dead fish began washing up on the beaches of the Outer Banks in North Carolina. Coincidence, catastrophe or conspiracy?Related: Thousands of Geese Mysteriously Fall From the Sky Over Idaho
A psychology study from The University of Texas at Austin sheds new light on today's standards of beauty, attributing modern men's preferences for women with a curvy backside to prehistoric influences.Related: Believing Beauty Is Attainable Causes Pain
Scientists at Harvard University are one step closer to bringing Woolly mammoths back to life, after successfully inserting some sequences of mammoth DNA into an elephant genome. The study is yet to be published, though, as there is still work to do.Alt: Woolly mammoth could roam again as extinct DNA merged with elephant
A fatty acid might be among organic molecules discovered on Mars by Nasa's Curiosity rover.However, it's not possible at this stage to determine whether the compound has a biological or non-biological origin.
Two new maps of Mercury taken by a NASA probe have identified never-before-seen formations on the planet's surface.The previously unidentified regions of Mercury have compositions that differ significantly from the crust around them. Known as geochemical terranes, these zones provide insight into the formation of the outer skin of the planet. The maps appear in two new studies, which suggest that the most recently identified features may have formed not from the planet's crust but from just below it, in the mantle.
A team led by astronomers from the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland, recently used the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii to observe and measure a rare class of "active asteroids" that spontaneously emit dust and have been confounding scientists for years. The team was able to measure the rotational speed of one of these objects, suggesting the asteroid spun so fast it burst, ejecting dust and newly discovered fragments in a trail behind it.Related: Rosetta's comet is spinning down
A Chinese airline on Saturday completed the country's first commercial flight using biofuel, made from waste cooking oil, as the government seeks to promote greater environmental sustainability.A Hainan Airlines flight from commercial hub Shanghai to Beijing used biofuel supplied by China National Aviation Fuel company and energy giant Sinopec, according to a statement from US aircraft giant Boeing.
Taking a "poo bus" to work in Bristol, UK, is about to get a lot easier. A commuter bus that runs on biomethane gas produced by food waste and fecal matter will enter regular service on March 25th, The Guardian reports. This means that people in Bristol will be able to ride the waste-powered bus four days a week, on Service Route 2, of all places.Related: Holy crap. Watch this guy turn plastic back into oil
Just as humans will travel to their favorite restaurant, chimpanzees will travel a farther distance for preferred food sources in non-wild habitats, according to a new study from scientists at Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo that publishes on March 17 in the journal PeerJ.Chimpanzees at Lincoln Park Zoo prefer grapes over carrots. Previous research at the zoo provided that insight into food preferences.
Orangutans use their hands to alter their voices and make themselves sound bigger, say scientists.The animals cup their mouths when they produce kiss squeaks - alarm calls that often signify a predator is nearby.
The Campanian Ignimbrite (CI) eruption in Italy 40,000 years ago was one of the largest volcanic cataclysms in Europe and injected a significant amount of sulfur-dioxide (SO2) into the stratosphere. Scientists have long debated whether this eruption contributed to the final extinction of the Neanderthals. This new study tests this hypothesis with a sophisticated climate model.Related: Neanderthals shape up as globe's first jewellers
In boys with and without Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, new research has found that an extra daily dose of Omega-3 fatty acids reduced symptoms of inattention.The study found that in a small clinical trial involving boys 8 to 14 years old, parents rated their son's ability to pay attention more highly if the child's diet was supplemented for 16 weeks with the long-chain fatty acid than if he got a placebo instead.
Limiting flies to specific eating hours protected their hearts against aging, a study has demonstrated. Previous research has found that people who tend to eat later in the day and into the night have a higher chance of developing heart disease than people who cut off their food consumption earlier. "So what's happening when people eat late?" asked a biologist whose research focuses on cardiovascular physiology. "They're not changing their diet, just the time.".
Could a simple finger test screen for schizophrenia?Maybe so, at least in men. New research suggests that the ratio of the length of a guy's index finger to his ring finger may predict his risk for the devastating mental disorder.Related: Children with symmetrical hands 'are smarter'
Modern life, with its preponderance of inadequate exposure to natural light during the day and overexposure to artificial light at night, is not conducive to the body's natural sleep/wake cycle.It's an emerging topic in health, one that UConn Health (University of Connecticut, Farmington, Conn.) cancer epidemiologist Richard Stevens has been studying for three decades.
Bicarbonate, or baking soda, could improve vision, according to a recent study.Baking soda makes sparkling water sparkle, causes bread to rise, absorbs odors and can be used for cleaning all sorts of stuff, including teeth. In the body, it plays essential roles in buffering pH, aiding in digestion and neutralizing lactic acid produced during physical exertion.
Short-sightedness is reaching epidemic proportions. Some scientists think they have found a reason why.The southern city of Guangzhou has long held the largest eye hospital in China. But about five years ago, it became clear that the Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center needed to expand.More and more children were arriving with the blurry distance vision caused by myopia, and with so many needing eye tests and glasses, the hospital was bursting at the seams.
Did you know that there are mushrooms that actually glow? Aristotle was aware of this intriguing fact more than 2,000 years ago. He also was the first person to ask a simple question in print: Why? Now, researchers reporting in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on March 19 finally have a good answer. The light emitted from those fungi attracts the attention of insects, including beetles, flies, wasps, and ants. Those insect visitors are apparently good for the fungi because they spread the fungal spores around.Related: Human Bodies Glow, Proving That The World Is Weirder Than We Can Imagine
When it comes to the future of farming, could sun and dirt become a thing of the past?Scientists at the Dutch firm PlantLab are developing agricultural methods that allow plants to flourish in boxes underground rather than in open fields. The psychedelic hydroponic conditions consume less energy, space and water than conventional methods.Related: Dew-Collecting Greenhouse Grows Veggies in the Desert
Spring arrives on Friday, and you might want to make the most of it. The season of flowers and showers actually gets shorter every year by about 30 seconds to a minute, due to astronomical quirks, researchers say.This year, spring officially starts at 6:45 p.m. EDT on March 20, according to the U.S. National Weather Service (NSW). At that exact moment, which is called the vernal equinox, the Earth's axis will reach a halfway mark, where it points neither toward the sun (as it does on the summer solstice) nor away from the sun (as it does on the winter solstice), said Gavin Schmidt, the director of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City.
Earth is now entering a period of changing climate that will likely be faster than what's occurred naturally over the last thousand years, according to a new article, committing people to live through and adapt to a warming world.
Some 19,000 years ago, a woman was coated in red ochre and buried in a cave in northern Spain. What do her remains say about Paleolithic life in western Europe?SHE was privileged to have a tombstone, and her grave may have been adorned with flowers. But the many who, for millennia after her death, took shelter in El Mirón cave in northern Spain must have been unaware of the prestigious company they were keeping.
Natural tunnels known as lava tubes could safely house permanent bases on the Moon, scientists have said.The underground volcanic structures have previously been proposed as ideal sites for human settlements.
Scientists have raised concerns about a large, rapidly thinning glacier in Antarctica, warning it could contribute significantly to rising sea levels.They say they've discovered two openings that could channel warm seawater to the base of the huge Totten Glacier and bring the threat of potentially disastrous melting.
A 17-million-year-old beaked whale fossil is helping researchers solve a puzzle about the likely birthplace of humanity in East Africa, a new study finds.The whale (Ziphiidae) lived when the East African plateau was substantially lower and covered by dense forests, the researchers said.Related: First dolphins appeared millions of years earlier than previously thought
A newly discovered crocodilian ancestor may have filled one of North America's top predator roles before dinosaurs arrived on the continent. Carnufex carolinensis, or the "Carolina Butcher," was a 9-foot long, land-dwelling crocodylomorph that walked on its hind legs and likely preyed upon smaller inhabitants of North Carolina ecosystems such as armored reptiles and early mammal relatives.
Today's rich variety of beetles may be due to an historically low extinction rate rather than a high rate of new species emerging, according to a new study. These findings were revealed by combing through the fossil record."Much of the work to understand why beetles are diverse has really focused on what promotes speciation,".
Spiders can customise their webs to make sure they get the diet they need, new research suggests.In response to their diet, they optimise the size, strength and stickiness of their webs for catching whatever prey is around, say researchers today in the Royal Society journal Open Science.Related: 'Sparklemuffin' and 'Skeletorus' spider species discovered by university graduate student
Where did the thief go? You might get a more accurate answer if you ask the question in German. How did she get away? Now you might want to switch to English. Speakers of the two languages put different emphasis on actions and their consequences, influencing the way they think about the world, according to a new study. The work also finds that bilinguals may get the best of both worldviews, as their thinking can be more flexible.
When people interact in an Internet community, they experience higher levels of trust initially. But as time passes and more information comes to light about other users, they are more wary, according to new Stanford research.Technology reduces overall uncertainty and promotes trust between strangers. But at the same time, it erodes some of the serendipity involved in meeting new people.Related: Trust increases with age; benefits well-being
Iron vapor from cosmic impacts during the early days of Earth could have triggered "metal rain" to fall on the newborn planet, researchers say.This new finding could help solve mysteries concerning the formation and evolution of the Earth and moon, the investigators said.
A bizarre crystal-like mineral recently found in a meteorite that crashed to Earth perhaps 15,000 years ago adds more support for the idea that the fragile structure can survive in nature. But how it formed at the beginnings of the solar system is still a mystery.The newfound mineral is called a "quasicrystal" because it resembles a crystal, but the atoms are not arranged as regularly as they are in real crystals. The quasicrystal hitched a ride to Earth on a meteorite that zipped from space through Earth's atmosphere and crashed to the ground.
What happens when a meteorite hits snow? Instead of forming classic impact craters, the fragments form strange funnels of dense snow diving into the surface instead. Here's the physics of how "snow carrots" form.When the Chelyabinsk meteorite exploded over Russia in February 2013, it showered rock fragments over the landscape below. In the following days, geologists from the nearby Vernadsky institute tracked down 450 fragments, most only 3 to 6 centimeters large.
The hunt for a sinking ship that launched a distress flare was cancelled - after lifeboat crews discovered it was actually a meteor.Numerous eagle-eyed families living off the Cumbrian coast sent Maryport Coastguard Rescue Team reports of seeing the ship's flare, prompting a full-scale sea rescue operation.
One hundred fifty years ago, the Great French Wine Blight nearly wiped out an industry that today produces some 40 billion bottles of wine a year. The only solution was a radical fusion of species that remains essential to the success of the wine market. Here's the story of how humanity hacked the wine grape.
A genetic study of papaya sex chromosomes reveals that the hermaphrodite version of the plant, which is of most use to growers, arose as a result of human selection, most likely by the ancient Maya some 4,000 years ago.The study, reported in the journal Genome Research, homes in on a region of papaya's male sex chromosome that, the study indicates, gave rise to the hermaphrodite plants.
A translucent orange gem engraved with an image of a goddess of hunting has been found near a mausoleum built by Herod the Great, the king of Judea who ruled not long before the time of Jesus.The carnelian gem shows the goddess Diana (or her Greek equivalent, Artemis) with a sumptuously detailed hairstyle and wearing a sleeveless dress, with a quiver behind her left shoulder and the end of a bow protruding from her right shoulder. Both Diana and Artemis were goddesses of hunting and childbirth.
A DNA study of Britons has shown that genetically there is not a unique Celtic group of people in the UK.According to the data, those of Celtic ancestry in Scotland and Cornwall are more similar to the English than they are to other Celtic groups.Related: Britons still live in Anglo-Saxon tribal kingdoms, Oxford University finds
From hunting grounds to athletic fields to trading floors, men moving together in packs, and sometimes alone, are typically engaged in what anthropologists term "male status competition." And their levels of testosterone--the hallmark hormone of maleness--tend to rise accordingly.But a new study explores the nurturing, familial side of men who engage in such primal activities, often to support, feed or bring honor to their families. It finds that that side, too, is expressed hormonally, when a man arrives home to his family bearing dinner (or perhaps a paycheck or a trophy).
A new study has identified a rural community in Brazil that still follows the earlier sleep and wake times similar to pre-industrial times. The team of researchers studied the population of Baependi, a small rural town in south-eastern Brazil, whose sleep/wake cycle is much more aligned with that of our ancestors.
A Nasa spacecraft orbiting the Red Planet has detected a mysterious aurora that reaches deep into the Martian atmosphere.The Maven mission observed these "Christmas lights" for five days leading up to 25 December last year.Related: Powerful Magnetic Storm Produces Beautiful Aurora Around the World
Ice would make a fine rocket fuel, if you're a CubeSat.These lightweight, low-cost satellites are made up of 1 litre modules, making them popular for student projects. Once they have hitched a ride into Earth orbit, they can do real science, such as monitoring the atmosphere or searching for extrasolar planets.
It may be possible to draw energy from a vacuum using gravity, a theoretical physicist says.If researchers succeed in showing that this can happen, it could prove the long-postulated existence of the graviton, the particle of gravity, and perhaps bring scientists one step closer to developing a "theory of everything" that can explain how the universe works from its smallest to largest scales.
There are only five bodies in our solar system that are known to bear rings. The most obvious is the planet Saturn; to a lesser extent, rings of gas and dust also encircle Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune. The fifth member of this haloed group is Chariklo, one of a class of minor planets called centaurs: small, rocky bodies that possess qualities of both asteroids and comets.
Green beer and emerald rivers? Pah. How about a vibrant light show of green and red auroras dancing across the night sky. Earth is currently experiencing a "severe" solar storm, probably due to clouds of charged particles that came racing off the sun on March 15. When high-speed particles from such coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, hit our atmosphere, they excite molecules of gas in the air and trigger brilliant displays of lights, most commonly around the Poles.
Babies who are breast-fed may be more likely to be successful in life, a provocative study published Tuesday suggests.The study followed more than 3,000 babies into adulthood in Brazil. The researchers found those who were breast-fed scored slightly higher in intelligence tests in their 30s, stayed in school longer and earned more money than those who were given formula.
Recalling a particular memory can cause us to forget another, similar memory - and neuroscientists have now watched this process happen using brain scans.Inside the brains of human subjects, they pinpointed the unique imprints of two visual memories that were triggered by the same word.Alt: Memories Weaken Without Reinforcement, Study Finds
After a chance observation in the lab, researchers found a method that can force dangerous leukemia cells in the lab to mature into harmless immune cells called macrophages.Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have discovered that when a certain aggressive leukemia is causing havoc in the body, the solution may be to force the cancer cells to grow up and behave.
A 3D printing process that harnesses light and oxygen has been demonstrated at the Ted (Technology, Entertainment and Design) conference in Vancouver.Carbon3D said its "game-changing" process could make objects such as car parts, medical devices or shoes.
Researchers from the University of Cambridge have designed a new type of pixel element and demonstrated its unique switching capability, which could make three-dimensional holographic displays possible.Real-time dynamic holographic displays, long the realm of science fiction, could be one step closer to reality, after researchers from the University of Cambridge developed a new type of pixel element that enables far greater control over displays at the level of individual pixels.
The galaxy could be stuffed with large moons that orbit alien worlds, according to an analysis of data from NASA's Kepler space telescope. Such moons are thought to be the most likely places to find alien life, so groups are clamouring to find the first.Astronomers have raked in thousands of exoplanets, but their smaller moons have proved harder to come by.
Astronomers have discovered thousands of exoplanets in our galaxy, the Milky Way, using the Kepler satellite and many of them have multiple planets orbiting the host star. By analysing these planetary systems, researchers from the Australian National University and the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen have calculated the probability for the number of stars in the Milky Way that might have planets in the habitable zone. The calculations show that billions of the stars in the Milky Way will have one to three planets in the habitable zone, where there is the potential for liquid water and where life could exist.
Scientists from the Rosetta mission may have solved the puzzle of features on Comet 67P that look like they were produced by wind.Dust appears to be getting blown along the surface - a surprise finding on an "airless" body like a comet.
In the summer of 2015 a team of archaeologists will begin excavation of a cyclopean sanctuary located on the Mediterranean island of Menorca. This type of building is monumental and exclusive to this island, with no parallel around the world. Because of this, fieldwork at this building will offer the opportunity to both researchers and excavators to uncover a unique megalithic religious center, where they will obtain information about the ritual practices carried out there and the whole meaning of the building in relation to their users: the so-called Talayotic society.
A recent study paints a picture of a great ancient Mexican city-state that eventually collapsed, at least in part, due to the weight of its own internal social, political and economic struggles.Known as Teotihuacán, the enigmatic end of this ancient, powerful central Mexican civilization has been the subject of a variety of theories and explanations, including warfare, draught, and internal unrest or conflict, to name a few. The latest study, however, points to internal social and economic struggles characteristic of a mixed, complex and fractured social fabric and power structure that essentially set the stage for conditions leading to its downfall.
Using airborne laser scanners, researchers have discovered ancient fortifications in Italy that make up the oldest known Roman military camp, where soldiers may have fought pirates more than 2,000 years ago.This camp may help reveal clues about how the Romans developed their army, and the structures might have served as the foundations of the modern Italian city of Trieste, the researchers said in the new study.
A large bronze mask of the god Pan, the only of its kind, was uncovered at the excavation at Hippos-Sussita National Park. According to experts, bronze masks of this size are extremely rare and usually do not depict Pan or any of the other Greek or Roman mythological images.Related: 2,000-year-old sword found in Henan
U.S. authorities turned over more than 60 stolen artifacts to Iraq today (March 16), including gold-plated items from Saddam Hussein's palace and a limestone head of the Assyrian king Sargon II from an ancient city that was recently wrecked by ISIS militants.Back in June 2008, special agents with the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in New York were working on "Operation Lost Treasure," an effort to break up antiquities-trafficking networks.
A group of Russian and South Korean researchers has begun their attempt to clone a woolly mammoth, starting by extracting DNA from a spectacularly well-preserved specimen discovered in the Siberian permafrot in 2013. The project is led by Hwang Woo-Suk, a Korean cloning scientist who was the focus of a scandal in 2006 involving fraudulent research on human stem cells. Hwang has had success with animals, however, reportedly creating the world's first cloned dog and several cloned coyotes.
Mystery solved? Not Yeti, but close. A year ago, geneticists reported that RNA extracted from hair samples attributed to the Himalayan Yeti monster, a.k.a. "the Abominable Snowman," were actually most similar to the 40,000-year-old genetic signature of a now-extinct breed of polar bear. They suggested there might be a yet-to-be-discovered bear species lurking in the remote Himalayan snows.Now a different research team says the hairs were just as likely to come from a type of brown bear that's common in the Himalayas.
A 22-foot beaked whale that apparently took a wrong turn up an African river about 17 million years ago may offer clues to the climate-change forces that shaped human evolution.Lost for more than 30 years, the fossilized beak with part of the jaw bone helps determine that the East African Plateau probably began rising no earlier than 17 million years ago, according to a study published online Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
It's a seemingly innocent pastime. But experts warn that feeding ducks bread is not just bad for the bird's health - it can damage entire ecosystems, says Justin Parkinson.Throwing crumbs of stale bread in a pond or river is a ritual of family days out dating back to at least the 19th Century.Alt: Feed ducks frozen peas instead of stale bread, charity asks
Do you know where all your DNA is?From stray hairs to wads of gum, people shed their cells in public spaces all the time. And that physical detritus contains a surprising amount of information, experts say.Because DNA can reveal so much about the person who left it behind, its casual presence everywhere could endanger people's security and privacy.
Say you're a medical researcher interested in a rare chemical produced in the roots of a little-known Peruvian flower. It's called ratanhine, and it's valuable because it has some fascinating anti-fungal properties that might make for great medicines. Getting your hands on the rare plant is hard, and no chemical supplier is or has ever sold it. But maybe, thanks to the work of University of Illinois chemist Martin Burke, you could print it right in the lab.
Advancements in robotics have enabled humankind to automate a whole range of industrial processes, leading to more efficient and safer production and helping to expand our knowledge through scientific discovery. Why is it, however, that we can send a robot into space to take samples of Martian rocks, but still can't delegate the ironing to a household robot?
Ever wanted to buy a flying car? You only have a couple more years to wait, says a company that has built prototypes that can both drive and fly.The flying roadster, a sporty two seater that transforms into a light sports aircraft, aims to go on sale in just two years from Slovakia-based Aeromobil.
There is a looming problem in many parts of the world over what to do with dead bodies, as pressure on burial space intensifies.The industrial revolution, in the 18th and 19th Centuries, saw a mass migration from small villages and towns to cities. Previously, most people had lived in rural locations and would be buried in the local church's graveyard.
Artificial night time light from sources such as street lamps affects the growth and flowering of plants and even the number of insects that depend on those plants for food, a study published today confirms.The research shows that light pollution can impact the natural environment in complex ways that may be hard to predict. Due to the global extent of artificial light at night, there are concerns that these ecological impacts may be widespread.
Teens who were heavy marijuana users - smoking it daily for about three years -- had an abnormally shaped hippocampus and performed poorly on long-term memory tasks, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study.Related: Small Washington town becomes first to open government-run pot shop
Replacing faulty genes in early human embryos and germ cells is within our grasp. Such changes affect DNA in the nucleus and so would be heritable; ultimately, they could be used to make a genetically modified baby.There are already reports that groups in China, the US and the biotech industry have done this kind of genetic engineering in the lab, prompting some scientists to call for a moratorium on this work. But the underlying technology is potentially hugely disruptive, offering easier and more precise ways to manipulate genes.
Female mice are attracted more strongly to the odour of healthy males than unhealthy males. This had already been shown in an earlier study by researchers from the Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology at the Vetmeduni Vienna. Now the team of behavioural scientists went one step further - and tested a common assumption that more attractive males have better mating success than other males.Females also mate with unhealthy males.
Does your dog obey your every command? It might be thanks to the bonding hormone oxytocin.A new Australian study has found that dogs were better at following cues to find a hidden treat after they were given oxytocin.The findings provide the best clues yet on how dogs might have evolved to be humans' best friend, and could help pave the way for breeding dogs that respond even better to human cues, said researcher Jessica Oliva, who carried out the research as part of her PhD in biological sciences at Monash University.