Science
Newfound 'baby' planet smashes record for youngest known world
Astronomers have confirmed a world less than a million years old as the youngest known planet, using data from archives. Called Elias 2-24 b, the baby planet is still whirling in …
SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket-landing team gets 1st-ever Neil Armstrong Space Prize
The SpaceX Falcon 9 Booster Landing Team received the first-ever Neil Armstrong Space Prize during a ceremony in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday night (Sept. 15).
Muon rings enable precise calibration of telescopes at the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory
Research initiated as part of a bachelor's thesis in physics at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) has culminated in a new analytical description of the muon-based calibr…
Without bacteria or chemicals: How methanol and formaldehyde form abiotically in nature
The biopolymer lignin—one of the most important carbon reservoirs in plants and soils—not only decays through fungi or bacteria but can also be chemically attacked by iron linked …
Circular Rydberg atoms set three records, staying stable for 11 milliseconds
Rydberg atoms are considered promising building blocks for quantum computers and their precursors, quantum simulators. Researchers at the 5th Institute of Physics of the Universit…
Dog-guided cameras uncover weasels across Georgia, including regions unseen for 30 years
University of Georgia researchers recently located the mammal equivalent of a needle in a haystack: weasels. Weasels are extremely difficult to find, so not much is known about th…
Why do some chimpanzee mothers carry their dead infants for months?
Chimpanzee and bonobo mothers sometimes continue to carry their infants after they have died, a behavior known as infant corpse carrying (ICC). It is widely documented, and many e…
Sliding droplets point to charging mechanism beyond mobile ions
Whether on a windowpane at home or during the industrial cleaning of computer chips: droplets sliding over solid surfaces become electrically charged. Yet the physical mechanism b…
Dogs show human-like brain activity when they restrain themselves
When we tell a dog "no" and it resists temptation, what happens in its brain? New research from the Department of Ethology at ELTE and the HUN-REN Research Centre of Natural Scien…
NASA’s Moon Orbiter Spots New, ‘Once-in-Century’ Moon Crater
It started as a routine data-quality check. But as Robert Wagner, a scientist with NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), scanned a giant Moon map on his computer screen, an u…
Bone strength study reveals new clues about human evolution
Bipedalism, or walking on two legs, is one of the key features that distinguishes humans from other apes. But when and why our ancestors transitioned from a life often spent in tr…
Tyrannosaurus rex teeth reveal a body temperature close to the human average
When picturing a scaled, toothy Tyrannosaurus rex stomping across North America, building nests and eating other dinosaurs, it's easy to forget that scientists have gleaned everyt…
AI reveals novel nighttime feeding behaviors in right whales
Right whales forage near the water's surface at night, putting them at greater risk of potentially fatal collisions with boats, Jay Kirkham at Dalhousie University, Canada, and co…
Roman Space Telescope starts waking up as NASA powers on instruments for the 1st time
NASA has begun flipping on the instruments aboard the Roman Space Telescope to prepare the observatory for its scientific mission as it travels nearly a million miles to its final…
Hedgehog coronaviruses may threaten cats more than humans, new study finds
Washington State University researchers have discovered how a group of coronaviruses circulating in hedgehogs invades host cells, a key to understanding their potential to jump be…
From 10 to 22 years: The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope's mission has just been extended
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope hasn't yet reached its Sun–Earth L2 orbit, and it already has some good news. NASA has announced that the mission has enough fuel to potentia…
Prime assembly can correct multiple mutations at once, pointing toward universal gene therapies
Genomic editing holds great potential yet continues to have limitations. Current methods either rely on untargeted gene delivery or short DNA edits that need to be individualized …
Land use and management intensity affect the suitability of habitats for wildlife in Europe
Common, wide-ranging vertebrate species, such as foxes, may be finding more suitable habitat in towns and cities than in the wider landscape, while rarer species—which live in sma…
Spring-like porous crystals could enable chemically responsive microscale materials
Crystals are usually imagined as rigid objects with flat faces and straight edges. A research team led by the University of Osaka has recently created a porous crystal that grows …
Texas Oil and Gas Regulator Doubles Down and Defies State Legislature
AUSTIN, Texas—A chair with Railroad Commissioner Wayne Christian’s name on it sat empty Tuesday in the hearing room of the Texas House Committee on Energy Resources. Committee Cha…
NASA Celebrates Restoration of Guam Station Damaged by Typhoon Mawar
NASA celebrated the full restoration of its Guam Remote Station with a ribbon-cutting on Sept. 10, closing out more than three years of recovery after Super Typhoon Mawar devastat…
NASA Watches Earth’s Weight, Finds Center of Mass
Seasonal changes redistribute enough water around Earth to shift the planet’s center of mass back and forth by fractions of an inch relative to its geometric center. NASA scientis…
The universe's most extreme dead stars can form from vampire white dwarfs — and scientists finally know how
Some vampire white dwarfs that feed on companion stars can transform into neutron stars, but like a cosmic Goldilocks, conditions must be "just right" for this extreme makeover.
The science behind greener, healthier lawns
A healthy, green lawn can be the envy of any neighborhood, but how does someone cultivate a yard like that? Assistant Professor of Ecosystem Science Amber Churchill has been getti…