Science

Archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) have found a two-shekalim limestone weight dating from the First Temple period in Jerusalem, Israel. The 2,700-year-old two-shekalim weight found in Jerusalem, Israel. Image credit: Shai Halevi, Israel Antiquities Authority. “The weight is dome-shaped with a flat base,” said IAA archaeologists Dr. Barak …

Paleontologists have described new fossils of pelagornithid birds from the middle Eocene Submeseta Formation on Seymour Island, Antarctica. An artist’s depiction of ancient albatrosses harassing a pelagornithid as penguins frolic in the oceans around Antarctica 50 million years ago. Image credit: Brian Choo. Pelagornithids are an extinct group of large …

An international team of researchers has found extraterrestrial hydrocarbons, sulfurized and nitrogen-containing compounds in the Hamburg meteorite, which landed on frozen lakes in Michigan in 2018. A fragment of the Hamburg meteorite found on Strawberry Lake near Hamburg, Michigan, the United States. Image credit: Heck et al., doi: 10.1111/maps.13584. The …

Using high sensitivity spectroscopic observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers have detected a small cyclic molecule called cyclopropenylidene (C3H2) in the atmosphere of Titan, the largest moon of Saturn. This composite image shows an infrared view of Titan. In this image blue represents wavelengths centered at 1.3 …

  Researchers confirmed a long-standing theory that there was water ice on the moon, according to a pair of studies published in Nature Astronomy. While water on the moon has been suspected for several decades, and multiple lunar missions have gathered data that pointed to its presence, definitive proof had …

  NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft successfully landed gently on the surface of the asteroid Bennu last week and scooped up a sample of pristine material from the early solar system. It’s an incredible accomplishment for all involved, but OSIRIS-REx might end up a victim of its own success. NASA reports the …

A new genus and species of elasmosaurid plesiosaur has been identified by an international team of paleontologists led by Dr. Valentin Fischer from the Evolution Diversity Dynamics Lab at the Université de Liège. Life restoration of Jucha squalea. Image credit: Fischer et al., doi: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaa103. Jucha squalea swam the world’s …

In 2010, the Human Proteome Organization (HUPO) launched the Human Proteome Project (HPP), creating an international framework for global collaboration, data sharing, quality assurance and enhancing accurate annotation of the genome-encoded proteome. During the subsequent decade, the HPP scientists established collaborations, developed guidelines and metrics, and undertook reanalysis of previously …

During the ‘Touch-And-Go’ sample collection event on October 20, 2020, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft collected more than enough surface material (at least 60 grams) of the near-Earth asteroid Bennu to meet one of its main mission requirements, according to the mission scientists. This series of images from OSIRIS-REx’s SamCam camera shows …

  Humans have been grafting plants onto other plants for thousands of years, but only in the last few generations have we understood the genetic implications of the technique. Researchers from Penn State and the University of Florida partnered with a Nebraska startup to combine genetically “stressed” roots with regular …