Extrasolar planets hosted by stars with sufficiently high carbon-to-oxygen ratios could be made of diamonds and silica, according to new research by Arizona State University and the University of Chicago. An artist’s impression of a carbide planet with diamond and silica as main minerals. Image ctredit: Shim / ASU / Vecteezy. When stars and planets are formed, they do so from the same cloud of…

Extrasolar planets hosted by stars with sufficiently high carbon-to-oxygen ratios could be made of diamonds and silica, according to new research by Arizona State University and the University of Chicago. An artist’s impression of a carbide planet with diamond and silica as main minerals. Image ctredit: Shim / ASU / Vecteezy. When stars and planets are formed, they do so from the same cloud of…

A team of researchers from Tel Aviv University and Duke University and an expert from Israel Police has analyzed 18 ancient inscriptions dating back to around 600 BCE from Arad, a well preserved desert fort on the southern frontier of the Biblical Kingdom of Judah, and found that the texts were written by at least 12 authors. Ink inscriptions on clay (ostraca) from Arad. These documents are dated…

Paleontologists have examined the fossilized remains of a previously unknown species of eurypterid (sea scorpion) and found direct evidence that these marine creatures were able to breathe in subaerial environments through their main respiratory organs. Lamsdell et al present details of the respiratory organs of Adelophthalmus pyrrhae from the Carboniferous of Montagne Noire, France, revealed through…

In a study published in the Journal of Morphology, an international team of scientists has pieced together the ancestral relationships that make up the family tree of hillstream loaches (Balitoridae), detailing for the first time a range of unusual pelvic adaptations across the family that have given some of its members an ability to crawl, or even walk as salamanders do, to navigate terrestrial…

The so-called self-interacting dark matter theory helps explain why NGC 1052-DF2 and NGC 1052-DF4, a pair of ultra-diffuse galaxies located approximately 65 million light-years away the constellation of Cetus, contain little dark matter. The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope took this image of NGC 1052-DF2 on November 16, 2017. Image credit: NASA / ESA / P. van Dokkum, Yale University. The prevailing…

Moderate adolescent cannabis use may have adverse effects on cognitive functioning, specifically verbal memory, that cannot be explained by familial factors, according to a study of siblings led by the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Ellingson et al aimed to examine whether moderate adolescent cannabis use has neurocognitive effects that are unexplained by familial confounds. Image credit:…

An international team of scientists has successfully extracted and sequenced the mitochondrial DNA from an 80,000-year-old adult Neanderthal tooth found in a small cave in Poland. Reconstruction of a Neanderthal. Image credit: Neanderthal Museum. The Neanderthal molar tooth, dubbed S5000, was found in 2007 in Stajnia Cave in Poland’s Kraków-Częstochowa Upland. An assemblage of stone tools and…

A new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reveals a mechanism that may contribute to the formation of sharply pointed rock spires in striking landforms called stone forests. Stone forest in Yunnan province, China. Image credit: Zhang Yuan. Stone forests are pointed rock formations resembling trees that populate regions of China, Madagascar, and many other locations…

Minoan Linear A is still an undeciphered script mainly used on the island of Crete from 1700 to 1400 BCE. A new study published in the published in the Journal of Archaeological Science sheds light on one of the most enigmatic features of Linear A — the precise mathematical values of its system of numerical fractions (such as 1/2, 1/4, 1/8). Left: Linear A fraction signs and their standard…