Science

An international team of researchers from Canada and China has sequenced the genome of the economically important species Apostichopus japonicus, commonly known as the Japanese spiky sea cucumber or the Japanese sea cucumber. The Japanese sea cucumber (Apostichopus japonicus). Image credit: Qiang Xu. Sea cucumbers are members of Holothuroidea, a …

A new study of ancient DNA appears to rule out the likelihood that inhabitants of Easter Island intermixed with Native South Americans prior to the arrival of Europeans on the island in 1722. Fehren-Schmitz et al found no Native American admixture in pre- and post-European-contact Rapanui. Image credit: Bjørn Christian …

Europeans and European/African Americans with a variant of the DNA Methyltransferase 3 Beta (DNMT3B) gene have an increased risk of developing nicotine dependence, smoking heavily, and developing lung cancer, a new study published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry shows. According to Hancock et al, the new genetic variant highlights the …

A team of researchers from Switzerland and the Netherlands has rediscovered and deciphered a 95-foot (29 m) long Luwian inscription found in the late 19th century on a limestone frieze in western Turkey. Luwian hieroglyphic inscription by Kupanta-Kurunta, the Great King of Mira, composed at about 1180 BC. Image credit: …

An international team of paleontologists from the United States, Australia and Tanzania has discovered a new species of hyaenodont that lived 25 million years ago during the Oligocene epoch, in what is now the Rukwa Rift Basin, Tanzania. Artist’s reconstruction of Pakakali rukwaensis. Image credit: NSF / Ohio University. The …

An ornamented bâton percé, or pierced rod, unearthed at the archaeological site of Go??biewo in Poland, may provide evidence of interregional contact in the European Mesolithic, according to a new study published in the journal PLoS ONE. An ornamented artifact from the Go?ebiewo site, Poland. Image credit: J. Kuriga. The …

An international team of researchers has found a way to slow the progression of an advanced form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of irreversible, severe vision loss in Western countries. Dry age-related macular degeneration is one of the most common causes of vision loss in people over …

In a study in mice, a team of researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, has found that black tea alters energy metabolism in the liver by changing gut metabolites. The study is published in the European Journal of Nutrition. According to Henning et al, black tea may promote …

Rosetta’s final image of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was taken by the probe shortly before its controlled impact into the comet’s surface on September 30, 2016. A final image from ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft, shortly before it made a controlled impact onto Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko on September 30, 2016, was reconstructed from residual telemetry. …

According to a new study led by Lund University scientist Stanley Heinze, a network of compass and speed neurons in the bee brain integrates every detail of changes in direction and distance covered on outbound journeys, and enables the insect to return directly home. Brain of the sweat bee Megalopta …