Science

New findings from researchers at the University of Cambridge, UK, support the theory that teeth in the animal kingdom evolved from the jagged scales of ancient fish, the remnants of which can be seen today embedded in the skin of extant cartilaginous fish (sharks, skates and rays). Dermal denticles on …

Oxytocin, a powerful hormone produced by all mammals, including canines, is a key factor in the interaction between dogs and humans, according to a new study led by University of Helsinki researchers. Happy faces are attractive to dogs. Image credit: Sanni Somppi. “It seems that oxytocin influences what the dog …

A group of marine biologists that used motion-sensing tags to track the movements of blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus) off the California coast discovered that most have a lateralization bias — in other words, they essentially are right- or left-handed. The study appears in the journal Current Biology. A blue whale …

Most Americans will spend Saturday in varying degrees of stupor, having just consumed a month’s worth of calories and/or spent a month’s worth of income. But not Mike Hughes. Mike, a 61-year-old limo driver has spent the past few years building a homemade, steam-powered rocket. This initial rocket — which …

Just over a month ago, scientists working on the Pan-STARRS (Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System) observatory at Haleakala, Hawaii caught a glimpse of something truly extraordinary: the first known interstellar object to pass through the solar system. Over the past month, we’ve refined observations and detailed what we …

A great deal of time and energy is put into designing the instruments and cameras that go to Mars on rovers, but none of those will do any good if the vehicle is dead in the sand after a few weeks. After all, it’s a few million miles to the …

According to an analysis published in the journal Nuclear Technology, the first of the two major explosions reported by eyewitnesses of the Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear and not a steam explosion. Chernobyl disaster aftermath: reactor 4 (center), turbine building (lower left) and reactor 3 (center right). “Numerous studies have …

An international team of scientists from the Johns Hopkins University, Pacific Biosciences, and Earlham Institute has produced the first near-complete genomic sequence for the common bread wheat (Triticum aestivum). The research appears in the journal GigaScience. A field of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) in Ukraine. Image credit: Oleksii Alieksieiev. Bread …

It turns out solid-phase haze particles help cool the atmosphere of the dwarf planet Pluto. That’s according to new research by planetary scientists from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and elsewhere. According to Zhang et al, Pluto’s atmosphere is unique among Solar System planetary atmospheres, as its equilibrium temperature …

The number of people with Parkinson’s disease will soon grow to pandemic proportions, according to a commentary paper published in journal JAMA Neurology. Parkinson’s disease. Image credit: Blausen Gallery 2014 / Wikiversity Journal of Medicine, doi: 10.15347/wjm/2014.010. “Pandemics are usually equated with infectious diseases like Zika, influenza, and HIV. But …