Science

Most of us don’t have anything really interesting in our basements, and certainly nothing of historical significance. In the case of a former engineer from Pittsburgh, his basement was home to a pair of NASA computers from the 1960s. After the unnamed engineer passed away, a scrap dealer was preparing …

In a study comparing young soccer players to swimmers, cyclists and a control group of boys not involved in regular sport, an international team of researchers found soccer (European football) led to better bones after one year of training. The results are published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral …

Researchers have detected a herpes virus in wild mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) that is very similar to Epstein-Barr virus in humans. A family of mountain gorillas in Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda. Image credit: Tierra Smiley Evans, University of California, Davis. Epstein-Barr virus is a gamma herpesvirus in the genus …

For the first time, researchers have used the CRISPR-Cas microbial immune system to encode a primitive digital movie into — and then ‘play it back’ from — the genomes of living E.coli bacteria. DNA is emerging as an excellent medium for storing data. Image credit: Shipman et al, doi: 10.1038/nature23017. …

NASA’s Juno spacecraft has provided planetary researchers the first close-up views of Jupiter’s mysterious, roiling storm called the Great Red Spot. This enhanced-color image of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot was created by citizen scientists Gerald Eichstaedt and Sean Doran using data from the JunoCam imager on NASA’s Juno spacecraft. The …

A Stanford-led research team has captured the freezing of water, molecule-by-molecule, into a super-dense, exotic form of ice called ice VII. The results are published in the journal Physical Review Letters. Experimental configuration of the X-ray Free Electron Laser probe and optical laser; the shock freezing behavior of water captured …

In a genome-wide association study, researchers from the University of Cambridge and elsewhere have identified 16 common genetic variants which influence muscle strength in humans. The results appear today in the journal Nature Communications. Willems et al identified 16 genetic variants associated with maximal hand grip strength. Image credit: Skeeze. …

New research provides evidence contrary to the widely-held belief that the prehistoric population of Easter Island (Rapa Nui) caused an ecological disaster through rapid deforestation and over-exploitation of natural resources. Easter Island, known as Rapa Nui to its earliest inhabitants, is one of the most remote inhabited islands in the …

Marine arthropods called sea spiders use gut peristalsis to move hemolymph and oxygen throughout most of their bodies, according to a team of researchers led by Dr. H. Arthur Woods from the University of Montana. A sea spider on the sea floor. Image credit: Timothy R. Dwyer / PolarTREC 2016 …

NASA’s Cassini robotic orbiter captured this incredible view of Epimetheus, an inner satellite of Saturn, during a flyby on February 21, 2017. The flyby had a close-approach distance of 9,300 miles (15,000 km). This image of Saturn’s moon Epimetheus was taken with Cassini’s narrow-angle camera on February 21, 2017, using …