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Astronomers using the HARPS (High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher) spectrograph at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile have detected gaseous magnesium (Mg), sodium (Na), calcium (Ca), chromium (Cr), iron (Fe), nickel (Ni) and vanadium (V) in the atmosphere of WASP-121b, a hot-Jupiter exoplanet approximately 881 light-years away in the constellation of Puppis. The top of WASP-121b’s atmosphere…

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer) mission to the near-Earth asteroid Bennu is designed to return a carbon-rich sample of the asteroid to Earth. This 500-m-diameter body was chosen as the mission target due to its spectral similarity to primitive and organic-rich carbonaceous chondrite meteorites. In a series of six papers…

Archaeologists from Tel Aviv University, the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Geological Survey of Israel have excavated a Chalcolithic-period (5th millennium BCE) copper-smelting workshop at the site of Horvat Beter in Beer Sheva, southern Israel. Copper slag from Horvat Beter, Beer Sheva, southern Israel. Image credit: Anat Rasiuk, Israel Antiquities Authority. “The excavation revealed evidence…

Paleontologists have found the remains of Mesopithecus pentelicus — an extinct species of Old World monkey that lived in Europe and Asia between 7 and 5 million years ago — in the Shuitangba lignite mine in northeastern Yunnan Province, China. The discovery indicates that this monkey species existed in Asia at the same time as apes, and is probably the ancestor of some of the modern monkeys…

Black imported fire ants (Solenopsis richteri) have the remarkable ability to adapt its tool use: when provided with small containers of sugar water, they were able to float and feed on the surface, but when researchers reduced the surface tension, the ants started depositing sand grains on the inside of the container leading out of it. When faced with the risk of drowning, black imported fire ants…

A team of physicists from the United States and Italy has developed an accurate model to explain how neutrinos interact with atomic nuclei, complicated systems made of protons and neutrons (nucleons) bound together by the strong force. This knowledge is essential to unravel an even bigger mystery — why during their journey through space or matter neutrinos magically morph from one into another…

While the cause of Alzheimer’s disease remains a mystery, amyloid plaques that are toxic to brain cells are known indicators of the disease. A team of researchers from Australia and Iceland has found that these plaques start in the same place and spread in the same way in the brains of people with obstructive sleep apnea, as in those with Alzheimer’s. Owen et al. confirm links between obstructive…

The male-specific Y chromosome plays a critical role in sex determination and male fertility. However, because of its repetitive nature, it is frequently absent from genome assemblies and remains enigmatic. In new research, a team of scientists at Penn State University has sequenced and assembled the Y chromosome of the bonobo (Pan paniscus) and the Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii). They’ve also…

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…

An international team of researchers has virtually reconstructed the ribcages of four Neanderthal individuals from birth to around 3 years old and found that most of the skeletal differences between the Neanderthal and modern human ribcage are already largely established at birth, the Neanderthal ribcage being deeper and shorter than that of modern humans. Reconstruction of a Neanderthal. Image credit:…