Science

The moon is huge, and it’s not very far away in the grand scheme of things. With with uncountable trillions of tons of “moon” out there, you wouldn’t think tiny pieces it would be so valuable, but humanity has only managed to bring a tiny bit of lunar material back …

An international team of archaeologists and paleoanthropologists has uncovered 2.4-million-year-old stone artifacts and cutmarked bones at the archaeological site of Ain Boucherit in Algeria. The discovery, reported in the journal Science, suggests that humans’ ancestors inhabited the Mediterranean fringe in North Africa much earlier than previously thought. The Ain Boucherit …

A team of scientists in China has discovered that females of a species of ant-mimicking jumping spider called Toxeus magnus secrete a nutritious milk-like substance to feed their young. The discovery is described in a paper published this week in the journal Science. Toxeus magnus, adult female. Image credit: Chen …

An international team of researchers from Germany and the United States has sequenced the genome of the giant tegu (Salvator merianae), also known as the black and white tegu, a South American lizard with its own heating system. The giant tegu (Salvator merianae). Image credit: Renato Recoder. “Most reptiles are …

NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine hosted a press conference today to reveal the next phase of the agency’s lunar ambitions. The Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) has its first official partners. The nine companies announced at the event will begin developing technology to support the upcoming Gateway lunar station and land …

While everyone was caught up in the spectacle of NASA’s latest Mars landing, there was another important event happening nearby. Two tiny cubesats traveling along with InSight came online, beaming data back to Earth from InSight. No one has ever sent one of these small, off-the-shelf satellites so far away …

Your cells need energy to function, and they get most of that energy from mitochondria. Naturally, scientists have taken great interest in studying this cellular organelle, but we’re still encountering surprises. We’ve long believed that mitochondrial DNA is only passed down by mothers. A team of researchers from the US, …

As far back as 40,000 years ago (Upper Paleolithic), ancient people kept track of time using relatively advanced knowledge of astronomy. The Lascaux Shaft Scene: a panel with a rhino, a duck/goose and a disemboweled aurochs/bison with a dying man on the main wall. Image credit: © Ministère de la …

A research team led by Vanderbilt University Medical Center scientists has isolated a human monoclonal antibody that can ‘neutralize’ the West Nile virus. This is a digitally-colorized transmission electron microscopic (TEM) image of the West Nile virus. Image credit: Cynthia Goldsmith / P.E. Rollin / CDC. West Nile virus (WNV), …

Some things you learn in school turn out not to be true, for example that there are just five senses or three states of matter. Now cutting-edge research has added to the list by proving the mitochondria (the power sources in our cells) comes from both our parents and not …