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The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a striking new photo of the spiral galaxy NGC 2985. This Hubble image shows the multi-armed spiral galaxy NGC 2985. The color image was made from separate exposures taken in the visible and near-infrared regions of the spectrum with Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). It is based on data obtained through two filters: F658W and F814W. The…

NASA’s Curiosity rover was imaged on Mars on May 31, 2019, by the HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) camera aboard the agency’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity can be seen in this image taken from space on May 31, 2019, by the HiRISE camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech. “This may be the best or most interesting…

A rare gold solidus dating back 1,600 years has been found by a group of Israeli students in the Galilee region. The 1,600-year-old gold solidus, obverse. Image credit: Nir Distelfeld, Israel Antiquities Authority. “The gold coin is a solidus minted by the emperor Theodosius II in Constantinople around 420-423 CE,” said Dr. Gabriela Bijovsky, a numismatic expert at the Israel Antiquities Authority…

Paleontologists in China have uncovered a nearly complete, fully articulated skeleton of Microraptor zhaoianus, a pigeon-sized, four-winged dinosaur that lived about 120 million years ago, and found an additional surprise preserved in its stomach: a previously unknown species of prehistoric lizard. Microraptor swallowing Indrasaurus wangi. Image credit: Doyle Trankina. The unique Microraptor specimen…

Insects can enter a neuropathic pain-like state after nerve injury, according to a new study in fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster). Khuong et al offer the first genetic evidence of what causes chronic pain in Drosophila melanogaster. Image credit: Virvoreanu Laurentiu. Chronic pain is defined as persistent pain that continues after the original injury has healed. It comes in two forms: inflammatory…

A team of physicists from the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Glasgow has captured an image of Bell entanglement, a strong form of quantum entanglement. Full-frame single image of Bell entanglement. Scale bar – 1 mm. Image credit: Moreau et al, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aaw2563. Two particles which interact with each other — like two photons passing through a beam splitter,…

Ghrelin, a hormone synthesized by endocrine cells of the stomach, is known as the ‘hunger hormone’ given its role in increasing appetite, meal initiation and food intake. A new study by researchers from the University of Southern California and University of Florida suggests that ghrelin may also be important for memory control. Davis et al identified a surprising new role for a stomach-derived…

A large international team of researchers has sequenced the genome of the cowpea (Vigna unguiculata), a major crop for worldwide food and nutritional security, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. African farmers domesticated the cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) from its wild form, in a process of unconscious selection over many centuries. Domesticated cowpea has much larger seeds that have lost its dormancy…

A 3,300-foot- (1 km) wide asteroid struck our planet 1.2 billion years ago, according to new research published in the Journal of the Geological Society. An artist’s depiction of an asteroid impact. Image credit: Don Davis / NASA. In 2008, a team of researchers from the Universities of Oxford and Aberdeen found evidence for the ancient meteorite strike near Ullapool, Scotland. The thickness and…

Earth’s magnetic field protects and makes our planet habitable by stopping harmful high-energy particles from space, including from the Sun. The source of this magnetic field is the core at the center of our planet. But the core is very difficult to study, partly because it starts at a depth of about 2,900 km (1,802 miles), making it too deep to sample and directly investigate. A research team…