Science

Migrating birds may see Earth’s magnetic field superimposed on the world around them — the result, scientists suspect, of a quantum reaction inside light-sensitive proteins in their eyes called cryptochromes.

Migrating birds may see Earth’s magnetic field superimposed on the world around them — the result, scientists suspect, of a quantum reaction inside light-sensitive proteins in their eyes called cryptochromes.

A robin migrating at night can choose a seasonally appropriate direction within a featureless cage, even when stars and landmarks are not available. It rotates the magnetic field around the bird and its preferred direction rotates with it. The behavioral fact is well established: many birds possess a magnetic compass. The unresolved part is how … Read more

Gypsum crystals discovered by Zhurong on roughly 760-million-year-old Martian terrain may still contain microscopic pockets of the brine they grew from — tiny sealed samples that could preserve the chemistry of liquid water from a surprisingly recent chapter of Mars’s history.

Gypsum crystals discovered by Zhurong on roughly 760-million-year-old Martian terrain may still contain microscopic pockets of the brine they grew from — tiny sealed samples that could preserve the chemistry of liquid water from a surprisingly recent chapter of Mars’s history.

China’s Zhurong rover crossed a thin layer of flat, hydrated rocks in southern Utopia Planitia. A new analysis argues that its branching internal patterns and chemistry are best explained by large crystals of selenite, a clear, well-formed variety of gypsum that grows directly from concentrated water. If that interpretation is correct, Mars maintained an active … Read more

New record! SpaceX launches 2 Falcon 9 rockets just 38 minutes apart

New record! SpaceX launches 2 Falcon 9 rockets just 38 minutes apart

SpaceX continues to set records in spaceflight. Elon Musk’s company launches far more frequently than any other team and operates the largest satellite constellation ever created: the Starlink broadband network, consisting of nearly 11,000 satellites (and counting). On Saturday night (August 15), SpaceX set another record, for the shortest time between orbital flights: it launched … Read more

Enceladus appears to have almost everything life should need — water, chemistry, hydrothermal energy and an ocean capable of lasting geological ages. If we search it thoroughly and find nothing alive, that failure may become one of astrobiology’s most important discoveries: evidence that habitability alone is not enough to make life happen.

Enceladus appears to have almost everything life should need — water, chemistry, hydrothermal energy and an ocean capable of lasting geological ages. If we search it thoroughly and find nothing alive, that failure may become one of astrobiology’s most important discoveries: evidence that habitability alone is not enough to make life happen.

Enceladus offers astrobiology an unusually disciplined question. Saturn’s small icy moon has liquid water, contact between that water and rock, chemical energy, salts, phosphorus and a varied inventory of organic compounds. The models also show ways in which its hidden hydrothermal and oceanic circulation persists through geological time. Those findings make Enceladus plausibly habitable. They … Read more

Astronomers discovered a reservoir of water vapor 12 billion light-years away containing 140 trillion times as much water as all of Earth’s oceans combined — surrounding a quasar that releases as much energy as a thousand trillion Suns.

Astronomers discovered a reservoir of water vapor 12 billion light-years away containing 140 trillion times as much water as all of Earth’s oceans combined — surrounding a quasar that releases as much energy as a thousand trillion Suns.

In July 2011, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced that two astronomy teams had detected a huge reservoir of water vapor around the quasar APM 08279+5255. The agency translated the modeled mass into a number that still repeats itself: about 140 trillion times all the water in Earth’s oceans. The same account said that the quasar … Read more

A squid pulled from a sperm whale’s stomach during an Antarctic whaling expedition in 1955–56 sat overlooked in scientific collections for nearly 70 years — until researchers realised it wasn’t just a new species, but an entirely new family of oceanic squid no one knew existed.

A squid pulled from a sperm whale's stomach during an Antarctic whaling expedition in 1955–56 sat overlooked in scientific collections for nearly 70 years — until researchers realised it wasn't just a new species, but an entirely new family of oceanic squid no one knew existed.

A preserved squid removed from the stomach of a sperm whale in 1955 or 1956 turned out to be much more unusual than its label suggested. The animal, considered for decades an example of the sharp-eared oenope squid Ancistrocheirus lesueurii, is now the only known representative of Mobydickia poseidonii and a newly created family, Mobydickidae. … Read more

Dolphins filmed using shells to hunt for first time

Dolphins filmed using shells to hunt for first time

Researchers are shocked by the latest marine discovery. Dolphins have been filmed using shells to catch prey off the coast of Australia, marking the first time this clever tactic has been caught on camera, according to an explosive article in Marine Mammal Science. “The moment I saw that shell in the air, I immediately knew … Read more

They’re a whopping 150 million years older than dinosaurs, look like a shark, have a tail like a rat, teeth like a rabbit and sharp, venomous spines 

They’re a whopping 150 million years older than dinosaurs, look like a shark, have a tail like a rat, teeth like a rabbit and sharp, venomous spines 

Deep in the ocean there is an ancient fish that glides by flapping its pectoral fins instead of waving its rat tail. They resemble a shark but with larger eyes, a more prominent snout, and only one visible gill opening. These are chimeras, also known as ghost sharks, rat fish and rabbit fish. They diverged … Read more

Lego’s supersized Hubble deserves a little more shine

Lego's supersized Hubble deserves a little more shine

EXTRAORDINARY Excellent internal details cannot completely disguise some costly decisions. Lego has released its largest Hubble Space Telescope yet: a model built to roughly minifigure scale that dwarfs the observatory included with its space shuttle Discovery set. The first thing to say about this set is that there is a lot of gray. This is … Read more