Science

A new genus and species of medium-sized abelisaurid dinosaur being named Tralkasaurus cuyi has been discovered by Dr. Mauricio Cerroni from the Argentine Museum of Natural Sciences and CONICET and his colleagues. An artist’s impression of Tralkasaurus cuyi. Image credit: Sebastian Rozadilla. Tralkasaurus cuyi lived approximately 90 million years ago …

An international team of paleontologists has unearthed several well-preserved shells and the first known jaw specimen of Stupendemys geographicus, a species of freshwater side-necked turtle that lived 5-10 million years ago (Miocence period) in South America. Together, the fossils shed new light on the biology, past distribution, and phylogenetic position …

Snorkelers in mangrove forest waters inhabited by the upside-down jellyfish Cassiopea xamachana report discomfort due to a sensation known as ‘stinging water.’ When Tohoku University’s Dr. Cheryl Ames and colleagues looked at toxin-filled mucus the jellyfish release into the water, they were surprised to discover gyrating balls of stinging cells …

On February 14, 1990, cameras of NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft pointed back toward the Sun and snapped a series of pictures of the Sun, Earth and other planets, making the first ever ‘Family Portrait of the Solar System’ as seen from the outside. One of those images, the picture of Earth, …

  The history of the human family is not as straightforward as you might think. While there’s just one species of human alive today, that was not the case at various points in the past. Studying the genetic markers floating around the Homo sapiens DNA pool can shed light on …

A team of physicists led by the University of British Columbia has demonstrated a novel way to precisely control electrical currents by leveraging the interaction between an electron’s spin and its orbital rotation around the nucleus. An artist’s impression of the dissolving of the electronic ‘traffic jam:’ the red atoms …

Bacteriophages — viruses that infect bacteria — are considered distinct from cellular life owing to their inability to carry out most biological processes required for reproduction. Typically, they have small genomes and depend on their bacterial hosts for replication. Now, an international team of scientists has discovered 351 new species …

Two members of a new class of glycopeptide antibiotics — the previously known glycopeptide antibiotic complestatin and a newly-discovered compound called corbomycin — have a unique mechanism of action against bacteria, according to a paper published in the journal Nature. TEM image of Bacillus subtilis grown in corbomycin shows a …

Scientists have long known that immune cells migrate to the site of an infection, which individuals experience as inflammation. Now, a team of researchers at the University of Washington and Northwestern University has uncovered evidence that this gathering is not just a consequence of immune activation; immune cells ‘count’ how …

Like giraffes, lions, hyenas and grey kangaroos, female Burrunan dolphins (Tursiops australis), a species of bottlenose dolphin endemic to southern Australian coastal waters, form social bonds with kin and other females in similar reproductive condition, while maintaining moderate and loose social bonds with some same-sex individuals, according to new research …