Science

Dinosaurs that roamed what is now China some 160 million years ago had two ‘flying’ neighbors — strange creatures with long limbs, long hand, foot fingers, and wing-like membranes for tree-to-tree gliding. Named Maiopatagium furculiferum and Vilevolodon diplomylos, these prehistoric animals are the earliest known gliders in the long history …

Paleontologists from the Museo Egidio Feruglio in Argentina have discovered and described a new supermassive titanosaur species. At about 122 feet (37 m) long and weighing about 69 tons in life, Patagotitan mayorum is the largest animal ever to walk the planet and one of the most complete titanosaurs. Life …

A well-preserved 106-year-old fruit cake has been found in a hut on Cape Adare, Northern Victoria Land, Antarctica. The Huntley and Palmer’s fruit cake from Cape Adare. Image credit: New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust. The Cape Adare huts were built by Norwegian Carsten Borchgrevink’s British Antarctic (Southern Cross) Expedition in …

A petroglyph on the south face of Piedra del Sol, a free-standing rock in New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon, may depict the solar corona observed during the total solar eclipse of July 11, 1097 CE, says Professor J. McKim ‘Kim’ Malville of the University of Colorado, Boulder. The solar eclipse petroglyph …

Paleontologists have announced the discovery of two new troodontid dinosaur species, Latenivenatrix mcmasterae and Stenonychosaurus inequalis, based on remains found in Alberta, Canada. Life reconstruction of Latenivenatrix mcmasterae. Image credit: Julius Csotonyi. In 2014, University of Alberta paleontology student Aaron J. van der Reest discovered an intact troodontid pelvis in …

There’s an eclipse coming up on August 21st, and even with the best possible planning, you won’t be able to see it for longer than two minutes and 40 seconds. That’s the maximum amount of time the moon’s shadow will be visible overlapping the sun from directly in the eclipse’s path, …

An international team of paleontologists has identified from an almost complete skeleton found in China a massive oviraptorid dinosaur with a toothless beak and a distinct cassowary-like crest atop its head. The living scene of Corythoraptor jacobsi. Image credit: Zhao Chuang. Named Corythoraptor jacobsi, the new discovered dinosaur belongs to …

An international group of physicists and engineers, led by Professor Zenghu Chang of the University of Central Florida, has produced the shortest-ever laser pulse: a 53-attosecond X-ray flash. Professor Chang and co-authors broke the record for the shortest light pulse. Image credit: University of Central Florida. Attosecond pulses were first …

It’s hard to get a sense of the scale of the universe from our little corner of it, but scientists realized decades back that the universe is expanding. This naturally led to questions about the distribution and movement of matter out there. There are cosmological models to predict these things, …

China’s FAST (Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope) is the largest radio telescope in the world, dwarfing the 1,000-foot (305-meter) Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico. FAST was a heavy lift for China, with a final price tag of $180 million, and some technical issues that are still being worked out. …