Science

Three Ancient Roman Boats Reconstructed in 3D A team of researchers from Italy and France has made realistic 3D reconstructions of three wooden boats from the ancient Roman port of Ostia. 3D reconstructions of the three boat types found at Ostia: a fishing boat (left), a small sailboat (center) and …

Physicists Create New Isotope of Mendelevium In an experiment performed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s 88-inch cyclotron, a team of physicists successfully created a new isotope of the human-made element mendelevium. FIONA at Berkeley Lab’s 88-inch cyclotron. Image credit: Marilyn Sargent / Berkeley Lab. Mendelevium, a synthetic radioactive element of …

Physicists Verify Half-Century-Old Theory about Physicists from the University of Glasgow and the University of Arizona have experimentally verified a half-century-old theory that began as speculation about how an advanced alien civilization could use a rotating black hole to generate energy. An artist’s impression of a rotating black hole. Image …

Researchers Develop World’s Smallest Molecular Motor A molecular motor developed by a team of researchers from Switzerland consists of just 16 atoms. The world’s smallest molecular motor consists of a single acetylene rotor anchored to a chiral atomic cluster provided by a palladium-gallium surface that acts as a stator. Image …

CERN Plans New Particle Collider 30 Times More Powerful Than LHC The Large Hadron Collider is the most advanced and complex machine ever built by humanity, and it’s allowed us to study the inner workings of the universe in unprecedented ways. However, there’s only so much you can do with …

Coal-Burning Contributed to End-Permian Mass Extinction An international team of geologists has found the first direct evidence that volcanic eruptions in the southern part of the Siberian Traps region 252 million years ago burned large volumes of coal and vegetation. Elkins-Tanton et al demonstrate that the volume and composition of …

Paleontologists Redescribe Enigmatic Period Fish A team of U.S. paleontologists has redescribed the morphology of a long-snouted ray-finned fish called Tanyrhinichthys mcallisteri and created a more complete and accurate reconstruction of the fish as a living animal. Tanyrhinichthys mcallisteri was most likely a bottom-cruising predator similar in general ecomorphology to …

Scientists Find Anthropogenic Mercury in Earth’s Deepest Oceanic Trenches Two teams of marine biologists have found methylmercury, a potent toxin that bioaccumulates in marine food webs, in sediments and endemic fauna from Mariana, Yap and Kermadec trenches in the Pacific Ocean. A snailfish (bottom left) and small amphipods (center) at …

Was Hot and Had Subsurface Ocean: Study Pluto is thought to possess a subsurface ocean beneath its thick ice shell. It has generally been assumed that the dwarf planet formed out of cold material and then later developed its ocean due to warming from radioactive decay. By combining numerical simulations …

Paleontologists Find Giant Soft-Shelled Egg of Cretaceous-Period Marine Reptile in Antarctica A giant fossilized egg of an extinct marine reptile has been found in the 68-million-year-old nearshore marine deposits in Antarctica. An artist’s rendering of a pair of mosasaurs and their egg. Image credit: Francisco Hueichaleo. Named Antarcticoolithus bradyi, the …