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Microorganisms that crashed to Earth embedded in the fragments of distant planets might have been the sprouts of life on this one, according to new research from Princeton Univ., the Univ. of Arizona and the Centro de Astrobiología in Spain. The researchers report in the journal Astrobiology that under certain conditions there is a high…
Researchers at the University of Washington have determined that “some” microbial life migrated from the Earth’s oceans to land some 2.75 billion years ago. However, a number of scientists continue to hypothesize that such land-based life was limited – at least initially – because the ozone layer that shields against ultraviolet radiation didn’t form until…
Astronomers in Germany have developed an artificial intelligence algorithm to help them chart and explain the structure and dynamics of the universe around us with unprecedented accuracy. The team, led by Francisco Kitaura of the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics in Potsdam, report their results in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Scientists…
Chimps may be similar to us in many ways but they can’t compete when it comes to brain size. Now for the first time we can see when the differences emerge by tracking the brain development of unborn chimps. Researchers in Japan subjected a pregnant chimp to a 3D ultrasound to gather images of the…
The top ocean predators in the North Pacific could lose as much as 35% of their habitat by the end of the century as a result of climate change , according to a study published in the journal Nature Climate Change. The analysis took data compiled from tracking 4,300 open-ocean animals over a decade and…
Adam Steltzner is a rocker-turned-NASA engineer who helped take the country’s cool new Curiosity rover to the surface of Mars. “I’m so thankful to Clara Ma for suggesting the name ‘Curiosity.’ It embodies a fundamental attribute that defines us as humans,” Steltzner begins, when asked to explain why Curiosity matters. “Why do we explore? It’s…
Our galaxy — and the nearby Large and Small Magellanic Clouds as well — appears to be surrounded by an enormous halo of hot gas, several hundred times hotter than the surface of the Sun and with an equivalent mass of up to 60 billion Suns, suggesting that other galaxies may be similarly encompassed and…
The man known to a generation of Americans as “The Science Guy” is condemning efforts by some Christian groups to cast doubts on evolution and lawmakers who want to bring the Bible into science classrooms. Bill Nye, a mechanical engineer and star of the popular 1990s TV show “Bill Nye The Science Guy,” has waded…
We like to believe that more information allows us to make more informed decisions, to be more knowledgeable. That’s wrong: knowledge does not grow with information access.
On Sunday, September 16, the sun did not rise above the horizon in the Arctic. Nevertheless enough of the sun’s heat had poured over the North Pole during the summer months to cause the largest loss of Arctic sea ice cover since satellite records began in the 1970s. The record low 3.41 million square kilometers…