Healthy growth and development depend on tens of thousands of genes being activated at the right time and place. Specific regions of DNA help coordinate this process, guiding the production of enzymes, hormones, proteins, and other molecules that cells need to function properly. When gene activation fails, cells can malfunction and contribute to diseases, including … Read more
The fossil record preserves this same fragmented leaf litter. Comparing the shapes of thousands of epidermal cells with the leaf area index we measured revealed a remarkably strong relationship: the more elongated the cells, the denser the forest cover above them. That relationship allowed us to reconstruct the structure of Wyoming’s forests millions of years … Read more
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A misbehaving coronal mass ejection (CME) that ejected a hidden cloud of charged particles headed toward Earth has been tracked by a record 17 spacecraft spread across the solar system, revealing that the CME is surprisingly imbalanced. CMEs are “burps” from the sun: huge clouds of magnetized plasma belched from the sun’s warm outer atmosphere, … Read more
The anticipated launch of China’s Chang’e-7 robotic mission, designed to explore the Moon’s south pole in search of water ice (a highly valuable resource that the United States also hopes to use) “cannot take place during this year’s planned window,” according to a statement from China’s Manned Space Engineering Office shared by Chinese state media. … Read more
2026-08-23T11:07:04.809Z How to view a partial lunar eclipse A lunar eclipse captured over the UK in 2007. (Image credit: Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images) One of the wonderful things about a lunar eclipse is that it can be witnessed by anyone on the night side of the Earth while it occurs, weather permitting. You don’t … Read more
A powerful enough engine can make a spacecraft move faster and faster. That familiar phrase contains a trap: it seems that any speed will eventually be reached if the engine runs long enough. Special relativity says the opposite. A spacecraft with non-zero mass can approach the speed of light in a vacuum, conventionally written as … Read more
Before the bulldozers entered the Ivanpah Valley in California’s Mojave, just before the Nevada line, biologists walked around and counted. Their first survey of the 3,500-acre footprint found 16 desert tortoises. Refined estimates raised the likely total to a few dozen, with 32 commonly cited as the upper limit. Federal regulators wrote the permits accordingly: … Read more
To replicate information, life tends to have pretty simple ways of doing things. To copy DNA, DNA is generally used as a template. To make RNA, cells generally use DNA as a template, while the RNA, in turn, provides the instructions for making proteins. But now a bacteria has revealed a different path, and it’s … Read more
The mystery that had biologists crawling under wind turbines in southern Alberta was a simple contradiction: dead, unmarked bats. A bird found under a turbine often looks like what happened to it. Broken wings, blunt force trauma, the signature of a collision with the tip of a blade moving at highway speeds or faster. But … Read more