The Breakthrough Listen Initiative, the largest ever scientific research program aimed at finding evidence of alien civilizations, has released data from the most comprehensive survey yet of radio emissions from the region around Sagittarius A*, a supermassive black hole that is four million times the mass of the Sun, and the so-called Earth Transit Zone, the plane of Earth’s orbit. CSIRO’s Parkes…

On February 14, 1990, cameras of NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft pointed back toward the Sun and snapped a series of pictures of the Sun, Earth and other planets, making the first ever ‘Family Portrait of the Solar System’ as seen from the outside. One of those images, the picture of Earth, is now known as the ‘Pale Blue Dot.’ For the 30th anniversary of the famous photo, researchers at NASA’s…

Mud wasp nests have helped establish a date for the Gwion Gwion rock art in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. A typical remnant mud wasp nest (A) overlying pigment from a Gwion motif before removal and (B) the remainder with pigment revealed underneath. Image credit: Damien Finch. “The Kimberley region hosts thousands of rock art sites with some earlier depictions in a remarkably good…

An international team of paleontologists has unearthed several well-preserved shells and the first known jaw specimen of Stupendemys geographicus, a species of freshwater side-necked turtle that lived 5-10 million years ago (Miocence period) in South America. Together, the fossils shed new light on the biology, past distribution, and phylogenetic position of the gigantic turtle. Reconstruction of…

Snorkelers in mangrove forest waters inhabited by the upside-down jellyfish Cassiopea xamachana report discomfort due to a sensation known as ‘stinging water.’ When Tohoku University’s Dr. Cheryl Ames and colleagues looked at toxin-filled mucus the jellyfish release into the water, they were surprised to discover gyrating balls of stinging cells — dubbed cassiosomes — inside the…

A team of physicists led by the University of British Columbia has demonstrated a novel way to precisely control electrical currents by leveraging the interaction between an electron’s spin and its orbital rotation around the nucleus. An artist’s impression of the dissolving of the electronic ‘traffic jam:’ the red atoms are different in their quantum nature and allow transport of electrons…

The combination of decaffeinated green tea extract and voluntary exercise can effectively mitigate nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, suggests a new study conducted in mice. Khoo et al investigated the effects of decaffeinated green tea extract, voluntary exercise or the combination on the development of obesity-related nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and found that treatment of mice with…

Four West African populations — Yoruba, Esan, Mende, and Gambian — derive 2 to 19% of their genetic ancestry from a yet-undiscovered species of archaic hominin that diverged before the split of modern humans and the ancestors of Neanderthals and Denisovans, according to new research from the University of California, Los Angeles. Durvasula & Sankararaman provide complementary lines…

Zealandia — Earth’s seventh continent — experienced dramatic elevation changes between about 50 million and 35 million years ago, according to a new analysis of samples collected during the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 371 in 2017; this topographic upheaval may have been due to a widespread reactivation of ancient faults linked to formation of the western…

The combination of decaffeinated green tea extract and voluntary exercise can effectively mitigate nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, suggests a new study conducted in mice. Khoo et al investigated the effects of decaffeinated green tea extract, voluntary exercise or the combination on the development of obesity-related nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and found that treatment of mice with…