Science

In a study by researchers from the University of California, Irvine and elsewhere, exposure to chronic, low dose radiation — the conditions present in deep space — produced serious neurocognitive complications in mice. Acharya et al uncovered striking neurobehavioral and electrophysiological defects in rodents subjected to continuous (6 month) low …

A new genus and species of sauropodomorph dinosaur has been described — after its fossilized remains spent more than three decades sitting in a museum. The skull of Ngwevu intloko. Image credit: Kimberley Chapelle. The newly-identified dinosaur species, named Ngwevu intloko, lived between 191 and 201 million years ago (Early …

Gorilla diets are characterized by large amounts of fruits and plants. Hard-object feeding is not generally associated with these great apes as the high crests on their molar teeth would be at risk of damage from the mechanically challenging woody shell. Now, an international team of researchers from Germany and …

  You’re probably familiar with the way good sound design can bring a game or video to life. It can take huge teams of creators hour upon hour to make the audio just right, but almost no amount of time is enough to craft the perfect audio for a virtual …

A multinational team of researchers has sequenced the genomes of Mexican, Guatemalan and West Indian avocados, and the most commercially popular hybrid cultivar, Hass, shedding light on the ancient origins of this buttery fruit and laying the groundwork for future improvements to farming. The avocado (Persea americana) is a fruit …

A new study, published recently in the journal Depression and Anxiety, provides evidence that consumption of chocolate, particularly dark chocolate, may be associated with reduced odds of clinically relevant depressive symptoms. Eating dark chocolate may positively affect mood and relieve depressive symptoms. Image credit: Sci-News.com. Chocolate is widely reported to …

An international group of paleontologists has found two incomplete bones from an ancient parrot with a mass of 7 kg, double that of the heaviest known parrot, the kakapo (Strigops habroptila). Reconstruction of Heracles inexpectatus, dwarfing a bevy of 3.1-inch (8 cm) high Kuiornis — small New Zealand wrens scuttling …

  The Kepler Space Telescope ended its wildly successful planet-hunting mission last year, but it’s still making discoveries from the grave. NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has since taken up the planet-hunter banner, but it’s got a long way to go before it’s on the same level as Kepler. …

New research, published recently in the journal Evolution, shows that some dinosaurs may have taken flight thanks to sex appeal. Persons Currie explored how feathers went from dinosaur insulation to enabling flight. Image credit: Zhao Chuang / Martin Kundrát. Modern bird feathers are complicated: the feathers on a bird’s wing …

  From everything we’ve been able to tell, the Milky Way is a fairly typical galaxy. It’s a medium-large spiral with several smaller satellite galaxies, and the disk spans some 120,000 light-years. It can be hard to tell what the galaxy looks like from the inside, though. A new analysis …