A small satellite galaxy, named Heracles, collided with our Milky Way Galaxy about 10 billion years ago and its remnants account for about one third of the Milky Way’s spherical halo, according to an analysis of data gathered by Sloan Digital Sky Surveys’ Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE). An artist’s impression of what the Milky Way might look like seen from above….

An international team of researchers has detected a polyheterocyclic organic molecule called hexamethylenetetramine in three carbonaceous meteorites: Murchison, Murray, and Tagish Lake. The presence of this molecule in carbon-rich meteorites promises its pivotal role to carry interstellar prebiotic precursors to the inner Solar System, which should contribute to the chemical evolution in the primordial…

Archaeologists on the ERC project LASTJOURNEY have discovered spectacular rock pictographs in three separate rock shelters in the Guaviare Department of Colombia. The drawings, made around 12,600 and 11,800 years ago, provide proof the Amazon rainforest’s earliest inhabitants lived alongside now-extinct Ice Age animals such as giant sloths and mastodons. Professor Iriarte at the archaeological…

A new genus and species of probainognathian cynodont that roamed our planet during the Triassic period has been identified from two fossilized specimens found in southern Brazil. Life reconstruction of Agudotherium gassenae. Image credit: Márcio L. Castro. The new cynodont species lived approximately 218 million years ago (Late Triassic epoch). The animal, scientifically named Agudotherium gassenae,…

An international team of researchers has discovered microbial life, in particular bacterial vegetative cells, in up to 1.2-km-deep and up to 120 degrees Celsius hot sediments in the Nankai Trough subduction zone off Cape Muroto, Japan. A microbial cell (center of the picture) detected from a sediment core sample at the depth of 1176.8 m at 120 degrees Celsius. Scale bar – 20 μm. Image credit:…

Using the polarization data from ESA’s Planck satellite, a mission that have studied the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), the oldest light in the Universe, a duo of astrophysicists has uncovered intriguing signs of new physics beyond the Standard Model of elementary particles and fields. As the CMB light (left image) travels through the Universe until observed on Earth (right image), the direction…

New research suggests that additional restriction of meat intake with a parallel increase in plant-based, protein-rich foods may further benefit the cardiometabolic state and reduce cardiovascular risk, beyond the known beneficial effects of the traditional Mediterranean diet. A green Mediterranean diet is further enriched with green plant-based foods and lower meat intake. Image credit: Higorhsa. “The…

By pairing a new app called iGenomics with a handheld DNA sequencer, users can easily align and analyze relatively small genomes, like those of viral pathogens. Aspyn Palatnick holding the world’s first mobile genetics laboratory at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s 125th anniversary Open House. Image credit: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Following the miniaturization of integrated circuitry and…

The Islands of Four Mountains, a small group of volcanic islands in the central Aleutians, could actually be part of a single, undiscovered giant volcano in the same category as Yellowstone, according to new research. An aerial oblique photo of the volcanoes in the Islands of Four Mountains, Alaska, taken in July 2014. In the center is the summit of Mount Tana. Behind Tana are (left to right) Herbert,…

By pairing a new app called iGenomics with a handheld DNA sequencer, users can easily align and analyze relatively small genomes, like those of viral pathogens. Aspyn Palatnick holding the world’s first mobile genetics laboratory at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s 125th anniversary Open House. Image credit: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Following the miniaturization of integrated circuitry and…