Two-hundred 44 million years ago, an 8.6 meter-long monster ruled the ocean that covered what is today America’s western desert. In a study supported by the National Geographic Society, an international team of scientists describes the giant predator, whose fossilized remains were found on a remote Nevada mountain range in 2010. Named Thalattoarchon saurophagis – […]
Fossil of Giant Marine Predator Sheds Light on Ecosystem Resilience
Posted January 7th, 2013 at 3:25 pm (UTC-5)
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Astronauts on Long Space Missions Will Need Earth-like Sleep Habits
Posted January 7th, 2013 at 1:30 pm (UTC-5)
There is nothing like a regular sleep schedule to keep you healthy, especially on a long voyage to Mars. On June 3, 2010, a six-man team of international volunteers was sealed into a 550-cubic-meter spacecraft-like compartment at a Russian Academy of Sciences facility to simulate a 520-day round-trip mission to the Red Planet. During the […]
Cassini Probe Sees Nile-Like River on Saturn Moon
Posted December 12th, 2012 at 3:10 pm (UTC-5)
The international Cassini space probe, which has been orbiting Saturn and its moons since 2004, has sent detailed new images of a remarkable, Nile-like river valley on Saturn’s moon Titan. The river stretches more than 400 kilometers from its headwaters’ and flows into a large sea. It is the first time astronomers have seen a […]
US Space Agency Announces New Plans for Mars Exploration
Posted December 5th, 2012 at 5:45 pm (UTC-5)
The U.S. space agency has big plans for the Red Planet. NASA has announced an ambitious multi-year Mars exploration program, looking ahead to meeting President Barack Obama’s challenge to send humans to Mars in the 2030s. NASA administrator Charles Bolden says the seven missions, planned or already under way, will ensure America remains the world […]
Astronaut, Cosmonaut Prepare for Year in Space
Posted November 27th, 2012 at 5:35 pm (UTC-5)
The U.S. and Russian space agencies have selected two men for a one-year mission aboard the International Space Station. Astronaut Scott Kelly and cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko will head to the orbiting laboratory on a Russian Soyuz rocket in the spring of 2015, and return to Kazakhstan 12 months later. The mission will include collecting scientific […]
Colony of Microbes Thriving in Dark, Frozen Antarctic Lake
Posted November 26th, 2012 at 5:30 pm (UTC-5)
Where there is water, there is life… even when the water is 13 degrees below zero Celsius and six times saltier than the ocean. A report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences describes an ancient community of bacteria in the salty, pitch dark and subfreezing environment beneath nearly 20 meters of ice […]
The Nose Knows: Simple Scents Increase Sales, Performance
Posted November 26th, 2012 at 4:10 pm (UTC-5)
Smells can evoke memories. The scent of a certain perfume can prompt visions of a first love, perhaps. Smells can provide comfort, as any practitioner of aromatherapy will tell you. And smells can encourage you to buy something – which is why clever realtors often bake cookies in homes they’re trying to sell. Marketing experts […]
Study: Arabica Coffee Could Go Extinct in the Wild
Posted November 7th, 2012 at 4:40 pm (UTC-5)
Coffee, the world’s favorite beverage, could be a victim of climate change, warn scientists in England and Ethiopia. Arabica coffee provides about 70 percent of the world’s commercial production, and although it is grown on plantations around the world, its natural range is restricted primarily to the highlands of southern Ethiopia. It is highly sensitive […]
New Evidence Shows Surprising Reach of Eastern US Quake
Posted November 6th, 2012 at 5:20 pm (UTC-5)
Last year’s 5.8 magnitude earthquake in Mineral, Virginia, was felt over an area much larger than previously thought. In a new study, scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey report landslides triggered by the quake four times farther away from the epicenter, and over an area 20 times larger than expected, based on studies of other […]
1,000 Genomes Project Paints Detailed Picture of Human Variation
Posted October 31st, 2012 at 2:00 pm (UTC-5)
Results of a project that has mapped the genetic material, or genomes, of 1,092 individuals from 14 countries will help researchers interpret genetic changes in people with disease. The first phase of the so-called ‘1,000 Genomes Project,’ published in the journal Nature, profiles the rare and common genetic variations in the human species. Scientists believe […]
