Fossil captures starfish splitting itself in two—showing this has been happening for 155 million years
One of the wildest wonders of nature is the ability of some animals to reproduce by splitting in half. There is still so much we don't know about this process. So the discovery of a 155-million-year-old starfish fossil frozen partway through this pro.....»»
Meta’s new lightweight AR prototype shows a future beyond bulky VR headsets
100g "Orion" prototype offers 70-degree FOV, could hit market "in the next few years." Enlarge / The future's so bright, Mark Zuckerberg's gotta wear shades. (credit: Meta) Thus far, Meta's heavily money-losing Reality L.....»»
Cox sues state in attempt to block $109 million in funding for rival ISPs
Cox disputes speed tests, claims it serves areas eligible for broadband grants. Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Adrienne Bresnahan) Cox Communications asked a court to block Rhode Island's plan for distributing $108.7 mi.....»»
Study shows Mars" early thick atmosphere could be locked up in the planet"s clay surface
Mars wasn't always the cold desert we see today. There's increasing evidence that water once flowed on the red planet's surface, billions of years ago. And if there was water, there must also have been a thick atmosphere to keep that water from freez.....»»
Ice cores show pollution"s impact on Arctic atmosphere
A Dartmouth-led study on ice cores from Alaska and Greenland found that air pollution from the burning of fossil fuels reaches the remote Arctic in amounts large enough to alter its fundamental atmospheric chemistry. The findings illustrate the long.....»»
How coral and sediments helped to reconstruct 2.6 million years of climate history
Today's climate change is man-made. The consensus in the climate science community is unequivocal, but in order to determine just how exceptional current climate change is, we have had to contextualize the present on a much longer time scale. To do t.....»»
Palestinian education "under attack", leaving a generation close to losing hope, study warns
The ongoing war in Gaza will set children and young people's education back by up to five years and risks creating a lost generation of permanently traumatized Palestinian youth, a new study warns......»»
Restoring nature, "adaptation" helped limit Storm Boris impact
The restoration of a creek in Vienna reduced the impact of flooding caused by Storm Boris, authorities say, one of many projects experts believe helped central Europe endure the deluge better than in previous years......»»
Ultra-high speed camera for molecules: Attosecond spectroscopy captures electron transfer dynamics
In nature, photosynthesis powers plants and bacteria; within solar panels, photovoltaics transform light into electric energy. These processes are driven by electronic motion and imply charge transfer at the molecular level. The redistribution of ele.....»»
Fostering a love of stories in a child"s first years is key to lifelong reading, says researcher
Children's literacy rates are falling around the globe. In response, a number of governments, including New Zealand's, are overhauling the way reading is taught in primary school......»»
Can the "hard steps" in the evolutionary history of human intelligence be recast with geological thresholds?
What took so long for humans to appear on Earth? The Earth is 4.6 billion years old, and life began about 4 billion years ago, yet humans—the only intelligent, technological species we know of in the universe—have existed only for the last 200,0.....»»
New evolutionary model revises the origins of biodiversity
An international team of scientists has made a discovery that could reshape our understanding of how global biodiversity evolved. By reconstructing the evolution of species over the past 45 million years, researchers found that the geographic origins.....»»
Finnish zoo to return pandas to China early
Finland will return two giant pandas on loan from China more than eight years ahead of schedule because of financial problems at the zoo where they are housed, its chair told AFP on Wednesday......»»
"Palm-sized birds" extinct in the wild since 1988 make "monumental" return to island
It's been 35 years since this "cerulean blue and cinnamon" colored bird has flown free in the wild......»»
Naked mole-rat found to have lost infection-resistant proteins
Scientists have found that the naked mole-rat—an underground rodent that lives up to 40 years—has lost a number of CD1 functional genes. The CD1 gene family in mammals is responsible for protein synthesis that protects the body against infectious.....»»
Astronaut’s stunning photo shows ‘flowing silver snakes’
An astronaut aboard the International Space Station has captured some stunning images of Earth showing 'flowing silver snakes' and 'glowing golden claws.'.....»»
Bottled water has a huge and growing toll on human and planetary health, experts warn
The huge and growing toll bottled water is taking on human and planetary health warrants an urgent rethink of its use as 1 million bottles are bought every minute around the globe, with that figure set to rise further still amid escalating demand, wa.....»»
Evaluating the flow of information for high-impact weather events
Sixteen years to the day that Hurricane Katrina devastated Louisiana, Ida slammed into the Gulf Coast state's seaport town of Port Fourchon as a Category 4 cyclone on Aug. 29, 2021, leaving a widespread path of destruction......»»
In the room where it happened: When NASA nearly gave Boeing all the crew funding
"In all my years of working with Boeing I never saw them sign up for additional work for free." Enlarge / But for a fateful meeting in the summer of 2014, Crew Dragon probably never would have happened. (credit: SpaceX).....»»
Mechanism behind autophagy trigger unveiled
An international research team led by Osaka University has identified a new mechanism crucial for the initiation of autophagy, a self-degradation process cells use to eliminate unneeded or damaged components. In recent years, autophagy has also been.....»»
How a butterfly invasion minimizes genetic diversity
Until a few years ago, the butterfly known as the southern small white could barely be found north of the Alps. That was before a Europe-wide invasion that brought a huge increase in the insect's distribution—at the same time as a rapid decrease in.....»»