60 More Starlink Satellites SpaceX is fresh of its historic crewed launch that sent astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station (ISS), but it’s not taking any time off to celebrate. The company has just launched yet another batch of Starlink internet satellites, and it did …
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Bearing Human Skin from Pluripotent Stem Cells A team of researchers from several U.S. institutions has created an organoid culture system that generates complex skin from human pluripotent stem cells. A hair-bearing skin organoid. Image credit: Indiana University School of Medicine. “This is the first study to show that human …
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Researchers Find New Evidence that Mars Once Had Massive Ring Mars had a massive ring system several billion years ago, according to new research from the SETI Institute and Purdue University. An artist’s impression of a ringed Mars. Image credit: Tushar Mittal. Mars has two small satellites, Phobos and Deimos, …
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Discovered in Peru An international team of ornithologists has described three new species of the bird genus Scytalopus from the Peruvian Andes. New Scytalopus species from the Peruvian Andes: (upper left) adult male and female of the Jalca tapaculo (Scytalopus frankeae); (upper right) male Jalca tapaculo from Junin; (lower left) …
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Study: Extended Parental Care Helps Juvenile Siberian Jays and New Caledonian Crows Grow Smarter New research on two corvid species, Siberian jays (Perisoreus infaustus) and New Caledonian crows (Corvus moneduloides), shows that extended family life is crucial to provide the social learning opportunities where juveniles acquire vital skills; the study …
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Scientists Unravel Genetic Mysteries of Dead Sea Scrolls The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls had an incomparable impact on the historical understanding of Judaism and Christianity. ‘Piecing together’ scroll fragments is like solving jigsaw puzzles with an unknown number of missing parts. Because most of the 2,000-year-old scrolls were …
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Paleontologists Find World’s Oldest Fossil Bug A 425-million-year-old fossil millipede from Scotland is the oldest-known ‘bug’ (an insect, arachnid or other related creature), according to new research published in the journal Historical Biology. Kampecaris obanensis. Image credit: British Geological Survey. Named Kampecaris obanensis, the prehistoric millipede lived during the Silurian …
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Neutron Star Cores May Contain Exotic Quark Matter Massive neutron stars have sizable quark-matter cores, according to a study published in the journal Nature Physics. An artist’s conception of a massive neutron star. Image credit: L. Calçada / ESO. Neutron stars, which are the result of a supernova explosion, are …
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Astronomers Confirm Earth-Like Planet Orbiting Nearest Star Scientists used to wonder if planets were common throughout the universe, and now we know: they are. Observations with ground-based and space telescopes like Kepler and TESS have proven planets are extremely common. There’s even a small, Earth-like planet right next door orbiting …
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Interstellar Object ‘Oumuamua Might Be a Hydrogen Iceberg Astronomers discovered our first confirmed interstellar visitor in 2017, naming it ‘Oumuamua, the word for “scout” in the Hawaiian language. Determining what ‘Oumuamua actually was proved a more daunting task. Eventually, astronomers decided ‘Oumuamua was probably a very old comet, but a …
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