Science Scanner: Leonardo da Vinci Might be Wrong and is Planet Mercury a Hit-and-run Victim?
Scientists Catch Photosynthesis in Action Researchers have snapped the very first images of photosynthesis as it happens. Photosynthesis is the process which plants use to convert light energy into chemical energy, which is then stored as sugar. Using the U.S. Department of Energy’s LCLS x-ray laser, the world’s most powerful, the researchers imaged the part […]
Weekly Science Scanner
A bizarre hybrid star has been discovered by American, British and Chilean astronomers. Using the Magellan Clay telescope at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile, the researchers were able to confirm the existence of what, until now, has only been part of a theoretical class of stars. Called a Thorne-Zytkow object (TZO), this celestial oddity […]
Flies Credited with Giving Zebras Their Stripes
Scientists say flies played a key role in the centuries-old mystery of how zebras came to have their distinguishing coat of black and white stripes. Like humans and other primates whose fingerprints are unique to each individual, every zebra has its own distinctive set of striped markings. The research team from the University of California, […]
Earth’s Magnetic Fields Guide Salmon Home to Spawn
Earth’s magnetic fields play a significant role in helping salmon find their way home to spawn, according to two new studies from Oregon State University. After poring over 56 years of data, the researchers found that a magnetic map is responsible for providing sockeye salmon with their keen sense of direction which guides them home, […]
Monarch Butterfly Mexico Migration Hits All-time Low
One of nature’s most beautiful sights is when a monarch butterfly comes fluttering into view. Monarchs are the only known North American butterfly to migrate south for the winter, hibernating and returning in the spring as birds do. However, a new report finds the number of these butterflies hibernating in Mexico reached an all-time low […]
Move Over Cleopatra, Chinese May Have Loved Cats Before Ancient Eyptians
Researchers in China and Missouri have traced the origins of today’s domesticated cat back 5,300 years to an ancient Neolithic Chinese agricultural village located in the modern-day Shaanxi Province. Like in the old Mother Goose nursery tale “This is the cat that killed the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack […]
Dogs Communicate with Wag of a Tail
The direction in which a dog wags its tail can communicate its emotional state to other canines, according to a new study published in Current Biology. The Italian research team behind the study says dogs recognize, and respond accordingly, whether other canines wag their tails to the right or to the left. The reason dogs […]
Study: Sudden Explosion of Cambrian Period Animal Life Caused by a ‘Cascade of Events’
Last week we told you about an Australian study that suggested that the evolution of life during the Cambrian Explosion took place at five times the rate it occurs today. Now, another group of scientists from Britain, in their newly published study, weigh in on the “Big Bang of Life.” They propose that the explosion […]
Whales Get Sunburned Too
Anyone who has experienced the searing pain of sunburn knows that too much sun can wreak havoc on your skin. Turns out that our fellow mammal, the whale, can also tan and get sunburn. A study published in ‘Scientific Reports, from the publishers of the journal Nature, reveals the sun produces an increase in pigment […]
Scientists Discover How Marine Mammals Hold Their Breath for Long Periods
Special properties of an oxygen-binding protein in the muscles of marine mammals, such as seals, whales and dolphins, are the reason these animals can hold their breath underwater for long periods of time, according to a new study. Many of these mammalian divers can hold their breath underwater for over an hour, while land-based mammals, […]