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Supermassive black holes are characterized by just two numbers: mass and spin, but have a critical influence on the formation and evolution of galaxies. The spin of Sagittarius A*, a 4-million-solar-mass black hole at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy, has been poorly constrained so far. In a new paper published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, a team of U.S. astronomers placed an upper limit…

During the ‘Touch-And-Go’ sample collection event on October 20, 2020, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft collected more than enough surface material (at least 60 grams) of the near-Earth asteroid Bennu to meet one of its main mission requirements, according to the mission scientists. This series of images from OSIRIS-REx’s SamCam camera shows that the spacecraft’s sampler head is full of rocks…

Clovis is a prehistoric culture named for stone tools found near Clovis, New Mexico in the early 1930s. New radiocarbon testing of bones and artifacts from 10 known Clovis sites show that this culture first appeared about 13,050 years ago and disappeared 300 years later at the beginning of the Younger Dryas, coincident with the extinction of the remaining North American megafauna and the appearance…

Large tidal ranges from the Late Silurian to the Late Devonian epoch (420 to 380 million years ago) could have fostered both the evolution of air-breathing organs in bony fish to facilitate breathing in oxygen-poor tidal pools and the development of weight-bearing limbs in early tetrapods, the first vertebrate land-dwellers, to aid navigation within the intertidal zones, according to new research…

A team of ornithologists from the United States, Colombia and Denmark has described six new cryptic species in the rufous antpitta (Grallaria rufula) complex from montane forests of South America. The Muisca antpitta (Grallaria rufula). Image credit: Nigel Voaden / CC BY-SA 2.0. The rufous antpitta complex is a group of passerine birds that includes three species — the Muisca antpitta (Grallaria…

In a paper published this month in the journal Physical Review Letters, an international team of physicists described a new mechanism of dark matter production. Baker et al. described a new mechanism of dark matter production: if dark matter particles acquire mass during a first order phase transition, it is energetically unfavorable for them to enter the expanding bubbles; instead, most of them…

Consuming a high-flavanol diet was associated with a significantly lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure and was inversely associated with blood lipids in a new study published in the journal Scientific Reports. Flavanols are a large group of flavonoids, which include catechin, epicatechin, epigallocatechin, epicatechin gallate and epigallocatechin gallate. They are found in teas, cocoa, fava…

In 2010, the Human Proteome Organization (HUPO) launched the Human Proteome Project (HPP), creating an international framework for global collaboration, data sharing, quality assurance and enhancing accurate annotation of the genome-encoded proteome. During the subsequent decade, the HPP scientists established collaborations, developed guidelines and metrics, and undertook reanalysis of previously…

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…

Large tidal ranges from the Late Silurian to the Late Devonian epoch (420 to 380 million years ago) could have fostered both the evolution of air-breathing organs in bony fish to facilitate breathing in oxygen-poor tidal pools and the development of weight-bearing limbs in early tetrapods, the first vertebrate land-dwellers, to aid navigation within the intertidal zones, according to new research…