D-BRIEF

Turducken Space Rock: Antarctic Meteorite Hid Comet Inside Asteroid Remains

Our solar system is a whopping 4.5 billion years old. And those earliest days were some of the most interesting for astronomers. That’s when the planets formed, building from dust grains into the whole worlds that now populate our space neighborhood. But most of this material has been drastically changed since its early days – incorporated into planets, or baked by the sun and weathered by time. However, if we could find material that hasn’t been changed in some way it would help …

D-BRIEF

Researchers Resuscitate Pig Brains Hours After Death

Researchers say they’ve rebooted pigs’ brains four hours after the animals died. The scientists managed to restore some blood flow and brain cell activity to the dead animals’ brains by pumping a protective solution through the tissue using a proprietary technology they call BrainEx. The brain was never alert and researchers did not restore consciousness, but the work could lead to new ways to aid recovery after trauma like heart attacks and strokes, the researchers say.

“BrainEx� …

DEAD THINGS

Gobihadros: New Member of Duck-billed Dinosaur Dynasty

Toothy tyrannosaurs and enormous titanosaurs may be the most dramatic dinosaurs of the Late Cretaceous, but plant-eating hadrosaurs had the numbers. These widely-distributed animals, often called duck-billed dinosaurs, are among the most commonly found fossils from the period that stretched 66 million-100 million years ago. Yet the hadrosaur origin story remains a bit of a mystery. Today, a magnificent new find from Mongolia fills in some of the gaps.

Paleontologists unearthed multip …

D-BRIEF

Understanding the Sacrificial Puppies Found in Shang Dynasty Graves

During the last centuries of China’s Shang dynasty, which lasted from 1600 B.C. to 1050 B.C., ritual sacrifice was a well-oiled cultural phenomenon, rich and varied in its manifestations. Rulers and elites sacrificed animals and humans to appease spirits or the ancestors. Just as humans met their ends, dogs were often right beside them.

Now a study in Archaeological Research in Asia, published in March, shows that people from the Shang dynasty relied heavily on sacrificial puppies to ac …

D-BRIEF

Astronomers Find Oldest Type of Molecule in Space

Everything has a beginning. That’s true for stories, for people, for the universe and even for chemistry. The Big Bang itself produced just a handful of elements (variations of hydrogen, helium and lithium nuclei), so researchers have a pretty good sense of what the first atoms and molecules might have been. But the very first molecular bond to form, linking together atoms of different elements in a single molecule, has long been missing in action.

Known as a helium hydride ion (HeH+),  …

ROCKY PLANET

What Is the Most Dangerous Volcanic Hazard?

Volcanoes can be pretty dangerous. Thankfully, we’ve gotten better over the last half century at getting people out of the way of volcanic hazards. However, many hundreds of millions of people still live close enough to volcanoes to feel the impact of an eruption — especially when the volcano decides to have a spectacular eruption.

There are a lot of misconceptions out there about what the most dangerous aspects of a volcanic eruption might be. I think many people picture lava flows casc …

THE CRUX

NASA’s Twins Study: How Spaceflight (Temporarily) Changes the Body

Brothers compete. So in 2016, when astronaut Scott Kelly returned to Earth after spending a year in space, it must have really annoyed his identical twin brother — retired astronaut Mark Kelly — that Scott was two inches taller than when he left. However, Scott’s temporary increase in height was not the only thing that changed during his trip.

As part of NASA’s Twins Study, while Scott was in space, Mark went about his daily life on Earth. Over the course of the year-long mission, res …

THE CRUX

Meet the Snake That Hunts Birds With a Spider On Its Tail

When Steven Anderson first examined a specimen of the Iranian spider-tailed viper, he, of course, noticed the arachnid-shaped lump on the dead snake’s tail. It was 1970, and the herpetologist was at the Field Museum in Chicago examining what the museum assumed to be a Persian horned viper, a snake common throughout the Middle East.

But this one had such a bizarre growth on its tail. To Anderson, a biologist who studies reptiles in Southeast Asia, it resembled “an oval knob-like struct …

D-BRIEF

Regular Users of Marijuana Can Require More Sedatives During Medical Procedures

Increasing numbers of Americans are using marijuana. In some states, obtaining marijuana is as easy as walking into a store and picking out what catches the eye in a glass display case. But even as states move to legalize recreational and medical cannabis, it remains a taboo topic, even in doctors’ offices.

Now, a new study suggests that keeping marijuana use secret from medical professionals probably isn’t a good idea. A team of researchers in Colorado has found that people who r …

D-BRIEF

Astronomers Find a Third Planet in This Weird ‘Tatooine’ Star System

Like the planet Tatooine from Star Wars, two suns — one bright, one dim and red— rise over the horizon of Kepler 47d. But unlike dry and sandy Tatooine, this planet’s surface is gassy and indistinct. The system also holds two smaller planets; one planet closer to the double suns, and one farther out. Both lack a solid surface. If you visited in a spaceship, all the planets would be easy to spot because they’re packed, along with their stars, into a space smaller than Earth’s orbit  …