Science

In a new paper in the journal Physical Review Letters, an international team of theoretical physicists described a scenario for the formation of primordial black holes from vacuum bubbles in the early Universe and discussed its intriguing realization that can naturally account for all of the dark matter. ‘Baby universes’ …

The parent body of the Almahata Sitta meteorites — space rocks that rained down on the Nubian Desert in Sudan in 2008 — is a 640 to 1,800 km-wide water-rich asteroid that is as yet unknown, according to new research. Hamilton et al. studied the composition of Almahata Sitta 202 …

Marine biologists from the University of Oregon and the University of New Brunswick have recorded common, previously unknown, ultrasonic vocalizations produced by Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii), the world’s southernmost-ranging mammal. They’ve identified nine recurrent call types in more than one year (2017-2018) of broadband acoustic data obtained by a continuously …

Archaeologists have unearthed a frescoed thermopolium (a hot-food-drink shop) in Pompeii, an ancient Roman city frozen in time after the catastrophic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE. The 2,000-year-old thermopolium in the Pompeii archeological park, near Naples, Italy. Image credit: Parco Archeologico di Pompei. “Thermopolia, where drinks and hot …

An early mammal called Priacodon fruitaensis was well adapted for powerful and precise biting, and had a varied faunivorous diet that likely included insects and small vertebrates, according to a University of Bonn-led study. Life restoration of the carnivorous mammal Gobiconodon, a distant relative of Priacodon fruitaensis. Image credit: Pavel …

In new research, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Australian National University and the University of Guam analyzed ancient DNA from two humans who lived on Guam 2,200 years ago and found that their ancestry is linked to the Philippines. Moreover, they are closely related to ancient …

    (Credit: sharply_done/Getty Images)In 2015, Billionaire Yuri Milner launched the Breakthrough Listen project, an effort to scan the million closest stars for radio signals that could indicate intelligent life. Astronomers working on the project have announced the discovery of just such a signal from Proxima Centauri, which is just …

A team of paleontologists from Oregon State University and the Agricultural Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture has found a new genus and species of fossil angiosperm in the mid-Cretaceous amber deposits of Myanmar. Valviloculus pleristaminis, flower in lateral view. Image credit: Poinar, Jr. et al., doi: 10.17348/jbrit.v14.i2.1014. …

Fleas are not a separate insect order, as previously thought, and are a lineage of scorpionflies, which evolved when they started feeding on the blood of vertebrates sometime between 290 and 165 million years ago (Permian to Jurassic periods), according to a new genetic analysis of fleas and related insects. …

Zoologists believe they have found a previously unknown species of tree hyrax in the Taita Hills, Kenya. A female tree hyrax in Ngangao Forest, Taita Hills, Kenya. Image credit: Hanna Rosti. Tree hyraxes, members of the genus Dendrohyrax, are medium-sized (3-5 kg) mammals native to Africa. Also known as tree …