Sequencing DNA from individual cells is changing the way that researchers think of humans as a whole.
Semen doesn’t just ferry sperm. It also bears a mystery ingredient that turns on ovulation in some animals and may even pump up fertility in humans as well. The molecule, nerve growth factor, kick-starts egg release and revs up pregnancy-protective hormones in llamas, researchers report online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences….
A giant string of invisible dark matter has been discovered across the universe between a pair of galaxy clusters. The filament forms a bridge between two huge clusters called Abell 222 and Abell 223, which lie 2.7 billion light-years away. The universe is thought to be filled with such strings of dark matter, a mysterious…
From the 2009 Terry Lectures at Yale University by Nancy Ellen Abrams and Joel Primack. Author Metanexus Editors
Spacetime may be less like beer and more like sipping whiskey. Or so an intergalactic photo finish may suggest. Physicist Robert Nemiroff reached this heady conclusion after studying the tracings of three photons of differing wavelengths that were recorded by NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope in May 2009. The photons originated about 7 billion light…
A new study challenges the notion that the force of an exploding star forced the formation of the solar system. University of Chicago researchers Haolan Tang and Nicolas Dauphas found the radioactive isotope iron 60 — the telltale sign of an exploding star—low in abundance and well mixed in solar system material. As cosmochemists, they…
A new map that divides the world’s vertebrates into 11 biogeographic realms is the biggest update to a 19th century version, and one of the most important maps for our understanding of global biodiversity. The map was published online in the journal Science. The original map was created by naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace in 1876. He divided the…