Science

In this stunning image taken by ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft, Mars is seen with north at the bottom, and the equator at the top. A stunning view of Mars from the north pole to the equator. Image credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO. The …

Most organisms that die don’t end up as fossils because the process requires very particular conditions. In the more recent past, at least the fossils are large enough to see with the naked eye. When you’re looking for fossils from the dawn of life on Earth, they’re microscopic. Some potential …

It’s been decades since humans set foot on the moon, but we could be going back as part of a push into the outer solar system. Scientists have increasingly thought of the moon as a launchpad for deep space missions, since NASA confirmed water ice exists in craters there. Before …

A detailed analysis of 3.465-billion-year-old microbial microfossils provides evidence to support an increasingly widespread understanding that life in the Universe is common. 3.465-billion-year-old fossil microbes indicate that life in the Universe is common. Image credit: Reimund Bertrams. Professor J. William Schopf from the University of California, Los Angeles, and his …

Viruses can transfer genes to organisms they are not known to infect, including organisms in different domains (superkingdoms) of life, according to a study published in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology. Malik et al find that viruses and cellular organisms share a large group of genes that help cells to …

Scientists have studied plenty of asteroids and comets — the ESA even landed a spacecraft on one. However, the mysterious object known as ‘Oumuamua is something new. It’s from someplace outside of our solar system, the first such object ever detected. It’s moving too fast to be studied closely, but …

A total of 28 rock art cave sites have been discovered on the Indonesian island of Kisar, which measures just 81 km2 and lies north of Timor-Leste. A paper describing cave paintings at five of the discovered sites is published in the Cambridge Journal of Archaeology. Kisar cave painting of …

An international team of paleontologists has found the remains of an unusual prehistoric bear that lived 3.5 million years ago (Pliocene epoch) in Canada’s High Arctic. Reconstruction of Protarctos abstrusus in the Beaver Pond site area during the late summer. An extinct beaver, Dipoides, is shown carrying a tree branch …

A cup of hot tea a day can keep glaucoma away, according to a new study published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology. According to Wu et al, hot tea drinking reduces the risk of developing glaucoma by about 74%. Image credit: Pexels. Glaucoma causes fluid pressure to build up …

The lifespans of flies and worms are prolonged by inhibiting the activity of RNA polymerase III, an enzyme common to all animals, finds a new study published in the December 14 issue of the journal Nature. Filer et al find that inhibition of Pol III extends organismal lifespan in flies …