Tau Bootis b was one of the first exoplanets discovered, just 16 years ago in 1996, and remains as one of the nearest exoplanets to us. But until now we’ve never actually seen it, only having knowledge of it because of the gravitational effects on its star. The parent star of Tau Bootis b […]
New Method Developed To Learn About Alien Planets Read More 👉
“For the first time we can actually see the structure of individual aerosol particles floating in air, their ‘native habitat’,” said DESY scientist Henry Chapman from the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science (CFEL) in Hamburg. “This will have important implications for various fields from climate modelling to human health.” The CFEL is a joint
Structure Of Floating Soot Particles Seen For The First Time Read More 👉
The Allende meteorite that exploded over the skies of Mexico in 1969 is the source of a newly discovered mineral, panguite. More than 40 years after crashing to Earth, this meteorite is still a spring of information — a previously unknown mineral embedded in it was recently identified by scientists from the California Institute
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New research from environmental toxicologists at the University of California, Santa Cruz, shows that California condors are exposed to harmful levels of lead regularly. The main source of this being from ingesting lead ammunition. This continual exposure to lead is preventing the condor’s recovery — if it wasn’t for condor recovery programs, this issue
Condors Are Being Driven To Extinction By Lead Poisoning Read More 👉
The emergence of asymmetrical flatfishes, such as halibut, flounder, and sole, has long been an evolutionary puzzle. Their truly strange asymmetrical heads are one of the most unusual body features among vertebrates, the evolution of which has been hard to explain. How did an animal evolve to feature both their eyes on one side
Missing Link In The Evolution Of Asymmetrical Flatfishes Found Read More 👉
A new system of data transmission using twisted beams of light at ultra-high speeds — capable of transmitting up to 2.56 terabits per second, has been developed by a team of researchers from the U.S., China, Israel, and Pakistan. For perspective, broadband cable at its best does about 30 megabits per second. This new
The rates of sea level rise along the U.S. Atlantic Coast are increasing 3 to 4 times faster than they are globally, according to a new report by the U.S. Geological Survey. “Since about 1990, sea-level rise in the 600-mile stretch of coastal zone from Cape Hatteras, N.C. to north of Boston, Mass. —
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External stimulation during sleep enhances the acquisition of a skill, new research from Northwestern University shows. In the case of the research, the playing of a musical piece during the test subjects’ sleep allowed them to learn the piece faster than an unplayed one. The new research expands on existing evidence suggesting that “memories can
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Stonehenge was built as a monument to the unification of Britain’s different tribes of people after a long time period of regional conflict and differences, says researchers, following a ten year long investigation into the site. Each of the large stones are thought to symbolize the different tribes of Britain, with each stone coming
Stonehenge Marked The Unification Of Britain, Researchers Say Read More 👉
Researchers working at Stonehenge have concluded, after ten years of archaeological investigation at the site, that it was built as a monument to unify the peoples of Britain after a long period of conflict and regional differences.
Stonehenge Was A Monument To Tribal Unification, Say Researchers Read More 👉
Researchers have for the first time calculated the size of the snow particles in the clouds at the Martian poles, by using data from orbiting spacecraft. They found that the snow particles at the south pole are somewhat smaller than the snow particles at the north pole, but that they are around the size
Snow Particles On Mars Are As Small As Red Blood Cells Read More 👉
Researchers analyzing the water content of two Martian meteorites have found that the amount of water in parts of Mars’ mantle must be vastly higher than previously estimated, nearly the same as the Earth’s. Until this discovery, the Earth was the only planet known to have very large reservoirs of water in its interior.
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One of two newly discovered planets is a rocky planet that is 1.5 times the size of Earth. The second is a gas planet almost four times Earth’s size. Together they are part of a “bizarre” star system in which the planets orbit closer to each other than any other planets yet discovered. “We’ve
Proximity Of Newly Discovered Planets Challenges Current Theories Read More 👉
NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft is nearing the edge of our solar system, where the intensity of charged particles from beyond our solar system is markedly increased. The voyager scientists who are studying this rapid rise think that Voyager 1 is very close to exiting out of solar system, which will make it the first man-made
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft has found indications that water ice may make up as much as 22 percent of the material on the surface of a crater located at the moon’s south pole. The research team used laser light from LRO’s laser altimeter to examine the floor of Shackleton crater. They found
Reservoir Of Water Ice Possibly Found On The Moon Read More 👉
Astronomers working on NASA’s Kepler Mission have discovered two planets of very different composition and densities, locked in extremely close orbits to each other around their parent star. One of the planets is a rocky ‘super-Earth’ about 1.5 times the size of our planet and 4.5 times the mass. The other is a ‘Neptune-like’
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The first definitive evidence that cattle were used for their milk, by humans, in prehistoric Saharan Africa nearly 7,000 years ago is the focus of a study just published in the journal Nature. The research was done by an international group of scientists, led by researchers from the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom
Cattle Milked At Least 7,000 Years Ago Read More 👉
The Emperor penguin, Antarctica’s iconic, nearly 4-foot-tall sea bird, is likely to see its populations collapse as warming and ice loss in Antarctica accelerates. According to a new study from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI), the Emperor penguins living in Terre Adélie, in East Antarctica, will eventually disappear if the presently occurring warming
Emperor Penguin Population May Collapse By 2100 (VIDEO) Read More 👉
With the right sensors, actuators and software, robots can now be given a tactile sense that imitates that of the sense of touch in humans. A specially designed robot is able to outperform humans in the identification of a wide range of materials based on their textures, according to new research from the University
Sense Of Touch Developed For Robots Read More 👉
The rapid decline of the world’s animal, plant, and fungi species is threatening the livelihood of many millions of people. Food, clean water, medicine, and climate, are heavily dependent on the myriad numbers of species in the world, many of which are rapidly approaching extinction from primarily human activities. The IUCN Red List of
The Red List Of Threatened Species, Annual Report Released (VIDEO) Read More 👉
The Energy Secretary of the United States, Steven Chu, announced on June 18th that a newly built supercomputer called Sequoia is now the fastest computer in the world. Built for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in Livermore, California; Sequoia has now been ranked in ‘The Top500 list’, which is an annual ranking of
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Newly analyzed data from the ‘BaBar experiment’ suggests that there might be flaws in the Standard Model of particle physics, which is the accepted theory of how the universe works on subatomic scales. The BaBar experiment is a high-energy physics experiment based at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The
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The world population is now approaching 8 billion, all of whom need to eat. However, how much someone eats varies of course, depending to a large degree on mass. New research just published in the journal BMC Public Health “has estimated the total mass of the human population, defined its distribution by region, and
Obesity Is A Major Environmental Threat, Study Says Read More 👉
The Arctic is becoming greener as plant growth increases due to warmer temperatures. More plant growth means more carbon stored as biomass, so it had been thought that this would lead to the Arctic removing enough carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to slow warming slightly. But new research shows that the stimulation of decomposition rates
Expansion of Forests Into The Arctic Will Release Carbon Dioxide Read More 👉
Ancient Antarctica was much warmer and wetter than was previously thought, according to a new study just released in the journal Nature Geoscience. The climate supported lush vegetation, including stunted trees, along Antarctica’s coastline. The research was done by the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and included researchers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Ancient Climate Change Greened Antarctica Read More 👉
Stem cells derived from humans can spontaneously form the tissue that develops in the part of the eye that allows us to see, according to a new study published in the journal Cell Stem Cell. Transplanting this tissue into patients could help patients with visual impairments see. “This is an important milestone for a
Stem Cells May Be Able To Restore Vision, New Study Says Read More 👉
The Air Force’s robotic space plane that has been in orbit for more than a year returned to the Earth June 16th. The Air Force landed its ‘secret’ X-37B space plane on Saturday, after having spent 15 months in space. It landed at California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base. The landing date was somewhat flexible.
'Secret' Air Force Space Plane Has Landed From Year-Long Flight Read More 👉
Bones that are theorized to be the bones of John the Baptist have recently been dated to the 1st century AD, confirmed as a male, and also found to be from an mtDNA haplogroup that is most common in the Middle East region he would have been from. The bones were found in 2010
John The Baptist's Bones May Have Been Found In Bulgaria Read More 👉
A just-discovered asteroid the size of a city block buzzed past Earth Thursday night (June 14th). The new asteroid is named 2012 LZ1. The newly discovered asteroid is 1650-feet wide and passed just within 3.3 million miles — that’s about 14 times the distance of the Earth and Moon. The closest approach was around
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An active sunspot-filled region on the sun, AR 1504, rotated into our view on June 10, 2012. So far, the sunspot region fired off two M-class flares, and two coronal mass ejections (CMEs) on June 13th and 14th. The final flare lasted a long time for a CME, nearly 3 hours. It peaked around
Powerful Solar Flare Producing Sunspot Facing The Earth Read More 👉
Robots can develop the basics of language skills through interacting with a human, according to new research from the University of Hertfordshire. The research has just been published in the journal PLoS ONE. The researchers, Dr Caroline Lyon, Professor Chrystopher Nehaniv, and Dr Joe Saunders have recently done new experiments as part of the
Robots Can Learn Language From People Read More 👉
NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft is nearing the edge of our solar system, where the intensity of charged particles from beyond our solar system is markedly increased. The voyager scientists who are studying this rapid rise think that Voyager 1 is very close to exiting out of solar system, which will make it the first
Voyager Is Nearing The Edge Of The Solar System Read More 👉
The existence of mirror particles may explain the anomalous loss of neutrons witnessed during recent experiments, according to a new study just published in the European Physical Journal (EPJ) C. The existence of matter that mirrors our own has been theorized to exist, in a variety of different scientific contexts, for some time now,
Neutrons Might Be Disappearing Into A Parallel World Read More 👉
The El Castillo cave paintings in Northern Spain have now been dated to at least 40,800 years ago. This makes them the oldest known European cave art. The new dating has pushed back the date of the oldest known cave art in Europe by 10,000 years, deep into the last ice age. The research
Oldest Cave Paintings Date Back At Least 40,800 Years Read More 👉
New research suggests that Earth-like planets can form in a much wider variety of star systems than previously thought. It had been thought rocky planets could only form around stars with a large amount of heavier elements, therefore excluding newer star-producing regions in the universe. The new research means that Earth-like planets could have
Earth-Like Planets Are More Common Than Thought Read More 👉
A ‘tropical’ lake has been found near the equator on Saturn’s moon Titan. The observation was made by the Cassini spacecraft, which spotted the apparently hydrocarbon-composed lake among dunes in the equatorial region. The finding suggests that oases of liquid methane might lie beneath Titan’s surface. This liquid methane could possibly serve the same function
Tropical Lake Found On Saturn’s Moon Titan Read More 👉
Until recently, the cause of the woolly mammoth extinction 4,000-10,000 years ago has been unclear. But according to new research, the species fell to a lethal combination of climate warming, encroaching humans, and habitat loss. These are many of the same threats facing most species today. “We were interested to know what happened to
Mammoth Extinction Has Lessons For Modern Climate Change Read More 👉
The contribution of genetic and environmental factors to IQ, “hyperactivity,” height, and weight, varies considerably by geographic region, according to a new study. The research was done by the Twins Early Development Study at King’s College London’s Institute of Psychiatry and involved the study of data from 6700 different families and 45 different childhood
Nature Versus Nurture, Depends On Where You Live Read More 👉
NASA has narrowed down the potential landing sites for its rover, Curiosity. It has decided to land closer to its destination for science operations, but also closer to the foot of a mountain slope, which may create problems. The rover Curiosity is scheduled to land on Mars in August, and look for signs of
NASA's Mars Rover Curiosity Aiming For Landing Closer To Prime Exploration Site Read More 👉
The ocean warming that has occurred over the past 50 years is primarily caused by humans, new research shows. The new research, from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, shows that the observed ocean warming over the last 50 years is only consistent with climate models when the models include the influence of increasing greenhouse
Humans Are The Primary Cause Of Ocean Warming, Study Shows Read More 👉
An undersea volcano located 250 miles off the coast of Oregon gave off clear warning signals just hours before erupting last year, according to researchers from Oregon State University. The research is from the same team that correctly predicted the eruption of the same volcano, years in advance, before its 2011 eruption. The researchers had
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A new DNA analysis of the Martian-like landscape on top of some South American volcanoes has found communities of bacteria, fungi, and archaea. These organisms are not just capable of surviving there, but also deriving their energy in ways not currently known, perhaps from volcanic gases, the researchers think. “We haven’t formally identified or characterized
Microbes Capable Of Surviving On Mars Found Read More 👉
A massive phytoplankton bloom has been found underneath of the Arctic pack ice in the Chukchi Sea. The “impossible” discovery will require a completely new understanding of Arctic ecosystems, and is a clear signal of the changing climate in the Arctic. The discovery was made during NASA’s 2011 ICESCAPE expedition. To thrive, phytoplankton need light
Massive Phytoplankton Bloom Found Underneath The Arctic Pack Ice (Video) Read More 👉
Last September experiments done as part of the OPERA collaboration recorded faster-than-light travel by neutrinos. But new experiments done to test this finding have shown neutrinos traveling at the speed of light, not faster. The four experiments used to test this were the Borexino, ICARUS, LVD, and OPERA experiments, all of which measured a neutrino
Neutrinos Not Faster Than Light, New Experiments Confirm Read More 👉
Thirty percent of the threatened species in the world are in that situation because of consumption in the developed world, according to new research from the University of Sydney. The researchers mapped the global economy to track the trade of goods that are implicated in biodiversity loss, such as coffee, cocoa, and lumber. “Our
Global Trade Is Causing Many Species Extinctions Read More 👉
Parasitic mites appear to be the cause of the deformed wing virus spreading throughout bee colonies, according to new research from the University of Sheffield. The virus is thought to be one of many factors contributing to the collapse of honey bee populations worldwide. It’s probable that the virus has contributed to the deaths
Honey Bees Infected With Highly Contagious Virus By Mites Read More 👉
New cases of untreatable gonorrhoea have been found in Australia, France, Japan, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. The World Health Organization (WHO) warns that with resistance to the last antibiotic effective against gonorrhoea growing, millions of people will be left with no treatment options. “Gonorrhoea is becoming a major public health challenge, due
Untreatable Gonorrhea Spreading Worldwide, World Health Organization Warns Read More 👉
The Rio+20 sustainable development conference beginning on June 20th must achieve concrete decisions and agreements regarding clean energy, poverty, and more sustainable and fair use of resources, says the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. “Rio+20 is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to make real progress towards the sustainable economy of the future,” Mr. Ban told a