Alpha Centauri—the star system closest to our sun and the inspiration for legions of science fiction writers—harbors at least one planet and probably more, astronomers announced. The planet orbits very close to Alpha Centauri B—the smaller of two paired stars—and likely has a lava-like consistency to show for it, scientists said. As such, the new…
University of Alaska Fairbanks scientists have identified what they think is the ancestral trait that allowed for the evolution of air breathing in vertebrates. “To breathe air with a lung you need more than a lung, you need neural circuitry that is sensitive to carbon dioxide,” said Michael Harris, lead researcher of a team that…
Some 41,000 years ago a complete reversal of the Earth’s magnetic field occurred and compass needles would have pointed south not north, German scientists say. Researchers at the Helmholtz Center Potsdam — GFZ German Research Center for Geosciences report the most remarkable feature of the phenomenon was the speed of the reversal. “The field geometry…
The most common measure of intelligence in animals, brain size relative to body size, may not be as dependent on evolutionary selection on the brain as previously thought, according to a new analysis by scientists. Brain size relative to body size has been used by generations of scientists to predict an animal’s intelligence. For example,…
Creativity is often part of a mental illness, with writers particularly susceptible, according to a study of more than a million people. Writers had a higher risk of anxiety and bipolar disorders, schizophrenia, unipolar depression, and substance abuse, the Swedish researchers at the Karolinska Institute found. They were almost twice as likely as the general…
As a biographical sketch, Darwin: Portrait of a Genius is brisk and sufficient. But as an exploration of Darwin’s theory and its effect on the world, the book feels like Paul Johnson’s weird, bitter vendetta against a scientist who was always more interested in mollusks than men. Johnson attributes to Darwin a startling majority of…
Scientists like to think that true measures of our understanding are our ability to predict something, and, in experimental physics, control something. This year’s Nobel Prize in physics has been awarded to Serge Haroche and David Wineland for controlling the quantum world in ways that, not so long ago, were simply unthinkable. In this case,…
The most crowded alien planetary system found yet possesses five worlds all orbiting a star at least 12 times closer than Earth does the sun, researchers say. KOI-500 is a super-compact planetary system, the most tightly packed one seen yet, hosting at least five planets ranging from 1.3 to 2.6 times the size of Earth….
Sumatran orangutans are in trouble: Only about 6,600 of the animals are left, scattered throughout the northern tip of the Indonesian island where they once flourished. A new genetic study of the animals has found that deforestation on Sumatra has isolated different groups of the primates, which could lead to inbreeding and further decline. But…
The globe last month matched a record for the hottest September, set in 2005. It was the third time since 2000 that the world set or tied a heat record for September. In addition to 2012 and 2005, previous hot September records were set in 2003. And these records go back to 1880. Last month’s…