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Categories: Paleontology: General, Space: Cosmology
Published Colliding neutron stars provide a new way to measure the expansion of the Universe
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source In recent years, astronomy has seen itself in a bit of crisis: Although we know that the Universe expands, and although we know approximately how fast, the two primary ways to measure this expansion do not agree. Now astrophysicists suggest a novel method which may help resolve this tension.
Published Insights into early snake evolution through brain analysis
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Recent study sheds new light on the enigmatic early evolution of snakes by examining an unexpected source: their brains. The results emphasize the significance of studying both the soft parts of animals’ bodies and their bones for understanding how animals evolved.
Published A turtle time capsule: DNA found in ancient shell
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Paleontologists discover possible DNA remains in fossil turtle that lived 6 million years ago in Panama, where continents collide.
Published New study removes human bias from debate over dinosaurs' demise
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers tried a new approach to resolve the scientific debate over whether it was a giant asteroid or volcanoes that wiped out the dinosaurs -- they removed scientists from the debate and let the computers decide. The researchers created a model powered by 130 interconnected processors that, without human input, reverse-engineered the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction until they reached a scenario that matched the fossil record. The model determined that while a meteorite contributed to the cataclysm, the outpouring of climate-altering gases from the nearly 1-million-year eruptions of volcanoes in western India's Deccan Traps would have been sufficient to trigger the extinction and clear the way for the ascendance of mammals.
Published Down goes antimatter! Gravity's effect on matter's elusive twin is revealed
(via sciencedaily.com) For the first time, in a unique laboratory experiment at CERN, researchers have observed individual atoms of antihydrogen fall under the effects of gravity. In confirming antimatter and regular matter are gravitationally attracted, the finding rules out gravitational repulsion as the reason why antimatter is largely missing from the observable universe.
Published New research reveals extreme heat likely to wipe out humans and mammals in the distant future
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new study shows unprecedented heat is likely to lead to the next mass extinction, akin to when the dinosaurs died out, eliminating nearly all mammals in some 250 million years time.
Published Hidden supermassive black holes reveal their secrets through radio signals
(via sciencedaily.com) Astronomers have found a striking link between the amount of dust surrounding a supermassive black hole and the strength of the radio emission produced in extremely bright galaxies.
Published Pollen analysis suggests peopling of Siberia and Europe by modern humans occurred during a major Pleistocene warming spell
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new study appearing in Science Advances compares Pleistocene vegetation communities around Lake Baikal in Siberia, Russia, to the oldest archeological traces of Homo sapiens in the region. The researchers use the 'remarkable evidence' to tell a compelling story from 45,000-50,000 years ago with new detail: how the first humans migrated across Europe and Asia.
Published Astronomers discover newborn galaxies with the James Webb Space Telescope
(via sciencedaily.com) With the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers are now able to peer so far back in time that we are approaching the epoch where we think that the first galaxies were created. Throughout most of the history of the Universe, galaxies seemingly tend to follow a tight relation between how many stars they have formed, and how many heavy elements they have formed. But for the first time we now see signs that this relation between the amount of stars and elements does not hold for the earliest galaxies. The reason is likely that these galaxies simply are in the process of being created, and have not yet had the time to create the heavy elements.
Published Astronomers find abundance of Milky Way-like Galaxies in early Universe, rewriting cosmic evolution theories
(via sciencedaily.com) Galaxies from the early Universe are more like our own Milky Way than previously thought, flipping the entire narrative of how scientists think about structure formation in the Universe, according to new research.
Published Dinosaur feathers reveal traces of ancient proteins
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Palaeontologists have discovered X-ray evidence of proteins in fossil feathers that sheds new light on feather evolution.
Published Shh! Quiet cables set to help reveal rare physics events
(via sciencedaily.com) Newly developed ultra-low radiation cables reduce background noise for neutrino and dark matter detectors.
Published Tag team of the James Webb Space Telescope and ALMA captures the core of the most distant galaxy protocluster
(via sciencedaily.com) An international research team has used the James Webb Space Telescope and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array to observe the most distant galaxy protocluster to date, 13.14 billion light-years away. The team has successfully captured the 'core region' of the galaxy protocluster, which corresponds to a metropolitan area with a particularly high number density of galaxies. The team has revealed that many galaxies are concentrated in a small area and that the growth of galaxies is accelerated. Furthermore, the team used simulations to predict the future of the metropolitan area and found that the region will merge into one larger galaxy within tens of millions of years. These results are expected to provide important clues regarding the birth and growth of galaxies.
Published Slow growth in crocodile ancestors pre-dated their semi-aquatic lifestyle
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A groundbreaking study is reshaping our understanding of crocodile evolution by pinpointing the onset of slow growth rates to the Late Triassic period, much earlier than the previously assumed Early Jurassic timeline. The research highlights newly discovered fossil crocodile ancestors (known as crocodylomorphs) that exhibited slow growth rates, similar to modern-day crocodilians. Intriguingly, these early crocodylomorphs were not the lethargic, semi-aquatic creatures we are familiar with today; they were small, active, and fully terrestrial. The study also suggests that this slow-growth strategy was not a mere evolutionary quirk but a survival mechanism, as only the slow-growing crocodylomorphs managed to survive the End-Triassic mass extinction. This stands in stark contrast to the fast-growing dinosaurs of the same era, setting the stage for the divergent evolutionary paths that would later define their modern descendants.
Published Prehistoric fish fills 100 million year gap in evolution of the skull
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source X-rays of an ancient jawless fish shows earliest-known example of internal cartilage skull, unlike that of any other known vertebrate.
Published New recipes for origin of life may point way to distant, inhabited planets
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Life on a faraway planet -- if it's out there -- might not look anything like life on Earth. But there are only so many chemical ingredients in the universe's pantry, and only so many ways to mix them. Scientists have now exploited those limitations to write a cookbook of hundreds of chemical recipes with the potential to give rise to life. Their ingredient list could focus the search for life elsewhere in the universe by pointing out the most likely conditions -- planetary versions of mixing techniques, oven temperatures and baking times -- for the recipes to come together.
Published RNA for the first time recovered from an extinct species
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new study shows the isolation and sequencing of more than a century-old RNA molecules from a Tasmanian tiger specimen preserved at room temperature in a museum collection. This resulted in the reconstruction of skin and skeletal muscle transcriptomes from an extinct species for the first time. The researchers note that their findings have relevant implications for international efforts to resurrect extinct species, including both the Tasmanian tiger and the woolly mammoth, as well as for studying pandemic RNA viruses.
Published Brilliant galaxies of early universe
(via sciencedaily.com) Scientists have used data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) as part of the Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) Survey to change the way we think about the universe and its distant galaxies. Astronomers authored a paper confirming very bright galaxies in the early universe, while also disproving the identification of what would have been the most distant galaxy ever found.
Published Carbon atoms coming together in space
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Lab-based studies reveal how carbon atoms diffuse on the surface of interstellar ice grains to form complex organic compounds, crucial to reveal the chemical complexity in the universe.
Published Matter comprises of 31% of the total amount of matter and energy in the universe
(via sciencedaily.com) One of the most interesting and important questions in cosmology is, 'How much matter exists in the universe?' An international team has now succeeded in measuring the total amount of matter for the second time. The team determined that matter makes up 31% of the total amount of matter and energy in the universe, with the remainder consisting of dark energy.