Science

A team of researchers at the University of British Columbia in Canada has isolated and characterized the Bodo saltans virus, a giant virus that infects an ecologically important microbe commonly found in aquatic environments. Mature BsV virion: DNA containing core is surrounded by two membranous layers; the capsid consists of …

In the search for alien life, astrobiologists have turned over all sorts of rocks. For example, Mars has geological features that suggest it once had subsurface liquid water. Scientists have also eyed Jupiter’s moons Europa, Ganymede and Callisto as well as Saturn’s Titan and Enceladus as possible havens for life …

Researchers have created new drill-shaped nanomaterials that infiltrate cellular membrane and deliver drugs inside the cell, providing a versatile means to increase potency of therapeutics. Their work is published in the Journal of Controlled Release. Ashwanikumar et al have developed a drug delivery system using cell-penetrating self-assembling peptide nanomaterials (CSPNs); …

The high-energy impact about 100 million years after our Solar System formed, resulted in the two colliding planetary objects completely merging to create the Earth-Moon system we have now. An international research team led by an Open University scientist has discovered that most of Earth’s water was present before the …

It has been several months since ‘Oumuamua’s discovery, but scientists are still puzzling over our first interstellar visitor. We’ve determined a few important facts, like it’s not an alien spaceship and it’s sort of cigar-shaped. Bigger questions like where it started out and how it got to our solar system …

A team of Canadian scientists from the University of Victoria and the Hakai Institute has found fossilized human footprints of at least three different sizes impressed into a 13,000-year-old paleosol beneath beach sands on Calvert Island, off the Pacific coast of Canada. Photograph of a human footprint (center) at the …

According to a new study published online in the journal PeerJ, foraging marine turtles use flippers to handle prey despite the limbs being evolutionarily designed for locomotion. A green turtle swiping the stinging jellyfish (Cyanea barkeri) in the water column at Hook Island, Queensland, Australia, taken June 2017. Image credit: …

A study published in the journal Nature Communications indicates that when people consume a form of Vitamin B3 called nicotinamide riboside (NR) daily, it mimics caloric restriction, kick-starting the same key chemical pathways responsible for its health benefits. NR also tends to improve blood pressure and arterial health, particularly in …

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has seen its fair share of delays (and then some), but we had every reason to expect it would finally launch in about a year. However, NASA now says it needs more time to test the telescope before sending it into space. The latest …

A team of researchers from New York University School of Medicine, Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical Center, the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research and the University of Pennsylvania has identified that layers of the human body long thought to be connective tissues — below the skin’s surface, lining the digestive …