Science

A parasite called the varroa mite (Varroa destructor) is the most serious pest of European honeybees (Apis mellifera) worldwide. For decades, scientists have assumed that varroa mites feed on honeybee hemolymph (blood). But a new study suggests that these parasites instead have a voracious appetite for a honeybee organ called the …

  China’s Chang’e 4 mission already made history when it completed the first-ever soft landing on the far side of the moon. Now, it’s accomplished another first: An experimental module on the lander filled with seeds has succeeded in growing the first Earth plants on another world. Eventually, the lander …

The stomach contents preserved in an adult specimen of the archaic whale Basilosaurus isis from the site of the Wadi Al Hitan in Egypt suggest it was an apex (top) predator that fed on smaller whales (juvenile Dorudon atrox) and large fishes (Pycnodus mokattamensis), according to new research, published in …

  LAS VEGAS — As we’re all too painfully aware, health care costs have continued to rise precipitously in the US. While technology continues to make huge advances in healthcare in general, with few exceptions it has not contributed much to a reduction in cost in the delivery of health …

The Earth’s magnetic field is steadily getting weaker, and researchers are warning that it might quickly flip. If that happens, it will be a cataclysmic occasion beyond anything that we have ever experienced prior to. Obviously many people never even provide much thought to the huge magnetic field that surrounds …

Missions like the Kepler Space Telescope and the newer Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) have revealed thousands of exoplanets out there among the stars, but we know surprisingly little about them. To get up close and personal, we’re going to need extremely precise space telescopes. MIT scientists have proposed an …

A team of researchers from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador has described a new species of treefrog from Cordillera del Condor, a largely unexplored range in the eastern Andes. Hyloscirtus hillisi. Image credit: Gustavo Pazmiño, BIOWEB Ecuador. The newly-discovered treefrog belongs to Hyloscirtus, a genus of 37 species distributed …

At 2:43 p.m. EST (7:43 GMT) on December 31, 2018, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft went into orbit around asteroid Bennu — setting new records for the smallest body ever orbited by a spacecraft and the closest orbit of a planetary body by any spacecraft. NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft at asteroid Bennu. Image …

At 9:26 p.m. EST on January 2, 2019 (2:26 a.m. GMT, 10:26 a.m. Beijing Time on January 3), China National Space Administration’s Chang’e-4 lunar probe touched down on the far side of the Moon, becoming the first spacecraft to successfully soft-land on the Moon’s side never visible from Earth. This …

The science team of NASA’s New Horizons mission has unveiled potentially significant discoveries about a Kuiper Belt object known as Ultima Thule. This image taken by New Horizons’ Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) is the most detailed of Ultima Thule returned so far by the spacecraft. It was taken at 12:01 …