The flashes of white light accompanying some solar flares are caused by the sun’s acceleration of electrons to speeds greater than half the speed of light.
The phenomenon’s new explanation derives from data recorded from a …
Exoplanet orbits that seem just right for life could be bent out of shape by pushy neighbors. New simulations of extrasolar planetary systems may mean the definition of “habitable” planets needs to be completely overhauled.
When …
A new vaccine may be able to provide some protection against all strains of influenza.
Current immunizations create antibodies that target a specific piece of a molecule on the surface of the virus that researchers call …
Detailed Hubble images reveal a single supermassive black hole wandering away from its host galaxy’s center where it belongs. The misplaced black hole is probably the result of a merger between two smaller black holes, …
Mysterious clouds of gas hovering above the plane of the Milky Way may be the fractured remnants of superbubbles blown by stellar winds and exploding stars.
“There’s a fundamental, interesting connection between gas far away from …
As horror-flick titles go, Night of the Living Chaos and Rosemary’s Nonlinearity aren’t the catchiest. But filmmakers know that chaos — the mathematical kind — is scary. Now scientists know it too.
sciencenewsFilmmakers use chaotic, unpredictable …
In the popular imagination, the colossal squid is fast and terrifying, able to dispatch whales and submarines with ease.
But the image of the squid as a nasty predator of the deep is probably more mythology …
The wings were willing, but the feathers were weak. Delicate, thin-shafted plumage would have made flapping difficult if not impossible for two prehistoric birds, a new analysis of fossil feathers suggests.
sciencenews Their feathers probably would …
After a judge excluded brain scan evidence offered by the plaintiff, a jury quickly found for the defense in a Brooklyn sexual harassment case this week.
The case, which drew national attention following a Wired.com article …
After ravens see a friend get a beat down, they approach the victim and appear to console it, according to new research.
Orlaith Fraser and her co-author Thomas Bugnyar watched the aftermath of 152 fights over …
From wings to low-density bones to echolocation, the evolution of flight in bats required many radical changes. But the most important change may have been metabolic.
A genetic comparison of dozens of mammal species shows that …
The Allan Hills meteorite, named for the site where it was found in Antarctica, was once thought to contain fossil traces of life. That idea has been mostly dismissed, and now the rock also appears …
Two 1.9 million-year-old skeletons found in a South African cave have added a new and intriguing member to the primate family.
Dubbed Australopithecus sediba, it has many features — including long legs and a protruding nose …
In the muck of the deep Mediterranean seafloor, scientists have found the first multicellular animals capable of surviving in an entirely oxygen-free environment.
Some types of bacteria and other single-celled organisms can live without oxygen, but …
The Venus Express spacecraft has found convincing evidence that Earth is not the only geologically active planet in the solar system.
Infrared emissions from lava flows on the surface of Venus indicate that they are relatively …
A late-winter expansion of Arctic sea ice is a good example of ice-forming dynamics that could keep the Arctic from hitting a “tipping point” in the near future.
Some scientists have predicted that rising temperatures could …
Birds, bats and lizards may play an important role in Earth’s climate by protecting plants from insects that forage on foliage. A new study suggests that preserving these animals could be a low-tech way to …
If bones could scream, a bloodcurdling din would be reverberating through a 500-year-old cemetery in Peru. Human skeletons unearthed there have yielded the first direct evidence of Inca fatalities caused by Spanish conquerors.
sciencenewsEuropean newcomers killed …
It’s the ultimate love-at-first-sight story: In the middle of the desert, hundreds of miles from anything else, lonely sand grains meet up in a crowd and decide to electrify each other. Sparks fly.
sciencenewsPhysicists have long …
A massive search for a prime suspect in the mystery of the missing heritability has come up empty.
Known as copy-number variations, or CNVs, these extra or missing sequences of the genome have been linked to …
