Category Archives: News & Archives

Meet the ‘Antarctic king,’ an unlikely fossil from 250 million years ago

Wildlife in Antarctica conjures up images of penguins, seals and other animals who have adapted to survive in such a harsh, frozen environment. But researchers have made an unexpected discovery that pulls back the curtain on what life may have been like in Antarctica millions of years ago. Instead of miles of ice and icebergs…

Scripps Institution Scientists Study Imperial Beach As Sea Level Rises

San Diego scientists who are interested in rising sea levels recently spent a chunk of time in the coastal community of Imperial Beach. They were there to see the impact of a storm swell on top of an astronomical high tide. The low-lying city is nearly surrounded by water and the community faces real and immediate…

Body size may influence women’s lifespan more than it does men’s

Body size-height and weight- may influence women's lifespan far more than it does men's, suggests research published online in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health. And while physical activity is linked to longer lifespans in both sexes, it seems the more time men spend physically active every day, the better it is for their chances…

Researchers from Aarhus University, Denmark, and Copenhagen Zoo have discovered that the human mutation rate is significantly slower than for our closest primate relatives. The new knowledge may be important for estimates of when the common ancestor for humans and chimpanzees lived -- and for conservation of large primates in the wild. Over the past…

Artificial intelligence applied to the genome identifies an unknown human ancestor

By combining deep learning algorithms and statistical methods, investigators from the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE), the Centro Nacional de Análisis Genómico (CNAG-CRG) of the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) and the Institute of Genomics at the University of Tartu have identified, in the genome of Asian individuals, the footprint of a new hominid who…

First moon plants sprout in China’s Chang’e 4 biosphere experiment

A sprouting cotton seed on China’s Chang’e 4 lunar lander is the first plant ever to germinate on another world, heralding a new era for life in space. Seeds of cotton, oilseed rape, potato and arabidopsis were carried to the moon as part of a biosphere experiment, along with fruit fly eggs and some yeast. Pictures…

How an ancient cataclysm may have jump-started life on Earth

A cataclysm may have jump-started life on Earth. A new scenario suggests that some 4.47 billion years ago—a mere 60 million years after Earth took shape and 40 million years after the moon formed—a moon-size object sideswiped Earth and exploded into an orbiting cloud of molten iron and other debris. The metallic hailstorm that ensued…

The bacteria in your gut may reveal your true age

The billions of bacteria that call your gut home may help regulate everything from your ability to digest food to how your immune system functions. But scientists know very little of how that system, known as the microbiome, changes over time—or even what a “normal” one looks like. Now, researchers studying the gut bacteria of thousands of people…

Environmentalists to sue over delay in protecting rare Miami beetle and other species

The Center for Biological Diversity filed a notice of intent to sue federal wildlife managers on Tuesday for failing to protect dozens of rare species, including the Miami tiger beetle, one of the rarest insects in the U.S. found only on a tiny patch of pine rockland in Miami-Dade County. In 2016, after adding the beetle…

Antibiotic resistance in the environment linked to fecal pollution

Increased levels of antibiotic resistant bacteria in the environment may have different causes. It could be a consequence of on-site selection from antibiotic residues in the environment, hence promoting the evolution of new forms of resistance. Alternatively, it is simply due contamination by fecal bacteria that often tend to be more resistant than other bacteria.…