Science

A process called subduction — when a tectonic plate slides underneath another and sinks deep into a planetary body’s interior — is physically possible in the ice shell of Jupiter’s moon Europa, according to new research from Brown University. This is important because material from the surface of Europa could …

After the Moon’s formation, Earth experienced a protracted bombardment by large (over 1,500?km in diameter) planetesimals. Dr. Simone Marchi, a researcher at the Southwest Research Institute, and co-authors recently modeled this process. Based on their simulations, the researchers say that the large planetesimals delivered more mass to our planet than …

Is there life out there among the stars? No one knows for sure, but we’re constantly finding new exoplanets that have some potential to harbor life. Astronomers don’t currently have the technology to examine these distant objects directly, but we may be able to learn about their atmospheres. This could help …

Ideally, a rocket makes things go up instead of down, but a Russian Soyuz launch last week did very much the opposite. The rocket’s payload of 19 satellites failed to reach orbit for previously unknown reasons. Now, reports indicate that it was a programming error that led to the loss …

The production of iron from its ore only started in the 2nd millennium BC, but a number of iron artifacts from the preceding Bronze Age are known to exist. According to a new study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, the composition of all Bronze Age iron artifacts is …

Vanillin, one of the most widely used flavoring products worldwide, is an effective bioactive compound against psoriatic skin inflammation, according to a mouse study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. Vanilla plant, 1915. Image credit: McCormick and Company. Psoriasis is an inflammatory skin disorder that affects about …

An international team of researchers has produced the first high-quality genome sequence for the bottle gourd, also known as calabash, and reconstructed the genome of the most recent common ancestor of cucurbits (family Cucurbitaceae). The results are published in The Plant Journal. The high-quality genome sequence of the bottle gourd …

NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft is the only human-made object in interstellar space. The spacecraft, which has been flying for 40 years, relies on small devices called thrusters to orient itself so it can communicate with Earth. Now, the Voyager team is able to use a set of four backup thrusters, …

  Your phone, your laptop computer, Tesla’s new Roadster, and even your cousin’s vape all work on , researchers for the Department of Energy have discovered a solid conductor called magnesium scandium selenide spinel that could power your laptop simply as well as lithium-ion, with none of the safety risks.It’s …

An analysis of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA from fossils of extinct New World stilt-legged horses reveals that, contrary to previous findings, these enigmatic animals actually belonged outside of the horse genus Equus. This illustration depicts a family of New World stilt-legged horses (Haringtonhippus francisci) in Yukon, Canada, during the last …