Science

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to stand on an alien planet, NASA has you covered. The agency’s “Exoplanet Travel Bureau” has launched a site where you can experience several potentially habitable exoplanets in a full 360-degree view. If you’ve got a VR viewer for your phone, you can …

It has been almost two years since NASA’s New Horizons probe made its historic flyby of Pluto, but we’re still learning new things about the dwarf planet from this mission’s data. Scientists were initially surprised to see the complex geology of Pluto, with ice mountains and vast frozen plains. It …

The human body has a ‘second brain’ located in its bowel, and scientists now understand the intricate way it works. The Enteric Anxious System (ENS) has a collection of millions of nerve cells that control motion in our intestines. The specific mechanism it utilizes has eluded scientists – till now. …

Amorphous organic residue from a large storage jar found at the Early Bronze Age settlement of Castelluccio in Sicily, Italy, suggests olive oil was being made on the island at the end of the 3rd millennium BC. The 4,000-year-old storage jar in which traces of olive oil were found. Image …

A tiny fossil of an early juvenile Spinosaurus has been discovered by a duo of Italian paleontologists. The largest and the smallest specimens of Spinosaurus known to date. Image credit: D. Bonadonna. Spinosaurus (meaning ‘spine lizard’) was the longest, and among the largest of all known predatory dinosaurs, and possessed …

Paleontologists have unearthed the world’s oldest squamate fossil — 240-million-year-old specimen of a species called Megachirella wachtleri — from a site in the Dolomite Mountains, Italy. Megachirella wachtleri. Image credit: Davide Bonadonna. Megachirella wachtleri is the most ancient ancestor of all modern squamates (lizards, snakes and amphisbaenians). The specimen — …

The first human corneas have been 3D bioprinted by a research team at Newcastle University. Newcastle University researchers Steve Swioklo and Che Connon with a dyed cornea. Image credit: Newcastle University. As the protective, outermost layer of the human eye, the cornea has an important role in focusing vision. It …

Ground-dwelling birds survived while their close, tree-dwelling relatives went extinct during the end-Cretaceous mass extinction event, caused by the impact of an asteroid off the Mexican coast some 66 million years ago, according to new research. A hypothetical surviving bird lineage — small-bodied and specialized for a ground-dwelling lifestyle — …

Patients with circulation and blood pressure disorders rely on compression therapy to keep blood from pooling in unwanted places, but it’s notoriously difficult to apply and keep these special wraps in place. If they’re not tight enough, blood won’t return efficiently enough. Too tight, and you restrict blood flow. A …

An international research team led by scientists at University College Cork, Linyi University, and China’s Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology has found and analyzed dandruff fragments preserved amongst the plumage of Cretaceous feathered non-avian dinosaurs, revealing the first evidence of how dinosaurs shed their skin. A pair of Beipiaosaurus …