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SMSS J160540.18-144323.1, an ultra-metal-poor red giant star located in the halo of the Milky Way, on the other side of the Galaxy about 35,000 light-years from Earth, contains a record-low amount of iron, according to a new study. This image shows the ultra-metal-poor star SMSS J160540.18-144323.1. Image credit: Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg / SIMBAD / PanSTARRS . The very first…

A 17-kg chondrite meteorite that landed on Earth less than 1,000 years ago has been discovered by chance in the Australian state of Victoria. The Maryborough meteorite. Image credit: Rodney Start / Museums Victoria. In May 2015, gold prospector David Hole discovered a 17 kg single mass of a stony meteorite while fossicking for the precious metal, using a metal detector, in Maryborough Regional Park,…

Shards of incised ceramic vessels dating back to 4640-4460 BCE have been found at the site of Real Alto on the Ecuadorian coast. The 6,500-year-old pottery fragments from the archaeological site of Real Alto in the Chanduy Valley of Ecuador’s Guayas province. Image credit: Kanomata et al, doi: 10.15184/aqy.2019.56. The pottery fragments from the Real Alto site appear to belong to a previously unknown…

A new species of marine predator that lived about 506 million years ago (Cambrian period) has been identified from exceptionally well-preserved fossils found in Kootenay National Park — part of the famous Burgess Shale Formation — in Canada. Reconstruction of Cambroraster falcatus. Image credit: Lars Fields / Royal Ontario Museum. Named Cambroraster falcatus, the ancient creature was…

Nadia Paez, a PhD student at the University of British Columbia, and Pontifical Catholic University’s Professor Santiago Ron have discovered eleven new species of the frog genus Pristimantis living in the Ecuadorian Andes. The rain frogs comprise a unique group lacking a tadpole stage of development. Their eggs are laid on land and hatch as tiny froglets. Image credit: BIOWEB-PUCE. Pristimantis…

A quantum spin liquid is a state of matter where unpaired electrons’ spins, although entangled, do not show magnetic order even at the zero temperature. The realization of a quantum spin liquid is a long-sought goal in physics. In a paper published in the journal Nature Physics, physicists from Rice University and elsewhere show that cerium zirconium pyrochlore (Ce2Zr2O7), in its single-crystal…

In a study published recently in the Journal of Burn Care & Research, a team of researchers reviewed all pavement burn injury admissions into a Las Vegas area burn center, and compared the outdoor temperatures at the time of each patient admission to, in essence, determine how hot is too hot. Pavement burns account for significant burn-related injuries in the Southwestern United States and other…

An international team of scientists has isolated and sequenced RNA from the permafrost-preserved liver, cartilage and muscle tissue of a 14,300-year-old Pleistocene ‘wolf’ puppy from Tumat, Siberia. A canid in Cassell’s Natural History. Image credit: Peter Martin Duncan / North Carolina State University / NCSU Libraries. DNA, which encodes the hard copy of genes, is known to survive for thousands…

A 17-kg chondrite meteorite that landed on Earth less than 1,000 years ago has been discovered by chance in the Australian state of Victoria. The Maryborough meteorite. Image credit: Rodney Start / Museums Victoria. In May 2015, gold prospector David Hole discovered a 17 kg single mass of a stony meteorite while fossicking for the precious metal, using a metal detector, in Maryborough Regional Park,…

Smoke from fires in southern Africa is the largest contributor of phosphorus — an important agricultural fertilizer — to the Amazon rainforest, Tropical Atlantic and Southern oceans, according to new research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Using satellite data and models, Barkley et al identified a previously underestimated source of soluble phosphorus:…