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Most popular science news & articles of the past 365 days

Hubble discovers a fifth moon orbiting Pluto

This image, taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, shows five moons orbiting the distant, icy dwarf planet Pluto. The green circle marks the newly discovered moon, designated P5, as photographed by Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 on July 7. The observations will help scientists in their planning for the July 2015 flyby of Pluto by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft.

Planet found in nearest star system to Earth

This artist's impression shows the planet orbiting the star Alpha Centauri B, a member of the triple star system that is the closest to Earth. Alpha Centauri B is the most brilliant object in the sky and the other dazzling object is Alpha Centauri A. Our own Sun is visible to the upper right. The tiny signal of the planet was found with the HARPS spectrograph on the 3.6-metre telescope at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile.European astronomers have discovered a planet with about the mass of Earth orbiting a star in the Alpha Centauri system -- the nearest to Earth. It is also the lightest...

Largest-ever study of mammalian ancestry completed by renowned research team

This is an artist’s rendering of the hypothetical placental ancestor, a small insect-eating animal. The research team reconstructed the anatomy of the animal by mapping traits onto the evolutionary tree most strongly supported by the combined phenomic and genomic data and comparing the features in placental mammals with those seen in their closest relatives.A groundbreaking six-year research collaboration has produced the most complete picture yet of the evolution of placental mammals, the group that includes humans. Placental mammals are the largest branch of...

Major breakthrough in deciphering bread wheat's genetic code

Scientists have unlocked key components of the genetic code of one of the world's most important crops. The first analysis of the complex and exceptionally large bread wheat genome, published...

Giant galaxy cluster sets record pace for star creation

The Phoenix Cluster, shown here as it appears in microwave (orange), optical (red, green, and blue) and ultraviolet (blue) wavelengths, is forming stars at the highest rate ever observed for the middle of a galaxy cluster. The Phoenix Cluster was discovered by a collaboration of astronomers from the University of Chicago’s Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics and elsewhere.Astronomers have found an extraordinary galaxy cluster, one of the largest objects in the universe, that is breaking several important cosmic records. Observations of the Phoenix cluster with NASA's Chandra...

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AGU: Voyager 1 has left the solar system, sudden changes in cosmic rays indicate

Thirty-five years after its launch, Voyager 1 appears to have travelled beyond the influence of the Sun and exited the heliosphere, according to a new study appearing online today.

Long-term testosterone treatment for men results in reduced weight and waist size

In testosterone-deficient men, major weight loss was an added benefit of testosterone replacement therapy for most of the patients who participated in a new study.

New model reconciles the Moon's Earth-like composition with the giant impact theory of formation

Shown is an off-center, low-velocity collision of two protoplanets containing 45 percent and 55 percent of the Earth’s mass. Color scales with particle temperature in kelvin, with blue-to-red indicating temperatures from 2,000 K to in excess of 6,440 K. After the initial impact, the protoplanets re-collide, merge and form a rapidly spinning Earth-mass planet surrounded by an iron-poor protolunar disk containing about 3 lunar masses. The composition of the disk and the final planet’s mantle differ by less than 1 percent.The giant impact believed to have formed the Earth-Moon system has long been accepted as canon. However, a major challenge to the theory has been that Earth and Moon have...

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Arctic sea ice shrinks to new low in satellite era

This visualization shows the extent of Arctic sea ice on Aug. 26, 2012, the day the sea ice dipped to its smallest extent ever recorded in more than three decades of satellite measurements, according to scientists from NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center. The data is from the US Defense Meteorological Satellite Program’s Special Sensor Microwave/Imager. The line on the image shows the average minimum extent from the period covering 1979-2010, as measured by satellites. Every summer the Arctic ice cap melts down to what scientists call its “minimum” before colder weather builds the ice cover back up. The size of this minimum remains in a long-term decline. The extent on Aug. 26. 2012 broke the previous record set on Sept. 18, 2007. But the 2012 melt season could still continue for several weeks.The extent of the sea ice covering the Arctic Ocean has shrunk. According to scientists from NASA and the NASA-supported National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colo.,...

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Misconduct, not error, accounts for most scientific paper retractions

In sharp contrast to previous studies suggesting that errors account for the majority of retracted scientific papers, a new analysis -- the most comprehensive of its kind -- has found...

In the Eastern US, spring flowers keep pace with warming climate

Using the meticulous phenological records of two iconic American naturalists, Henry David Thoreau and Aldo Leopold, scientists have demonstrated that native plants in the eastern United States are flowering as...

Unique study reveals genetic 'spelling mistakes' that increase the risk of common cancers

More than 80 genetic 'spelling mistakes' that can increase the risk of breast, prostate and ovarian cancer have been found in a large, international research study within the framework of the EU network COGS. For the first time, the researchers...

Black hole surprise in ancient star cluster

Astronomers have made the unexpected discovery of two black holes inside an ancient cluster of stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way.

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Dwarf planet makemake lacks atmosphere

This artist’s impression shows the surface of the distant dwarf planet Makemake. This dwarf planet is about two thirds of the size of Pluto, and travels around the Sun in a distant path that lies beyond that of Pluto, but closer to the Sun than Eris, the most massive known dwarf planet in the Solar System. Makemake was expected to have an atmosphere like Pluto, but this has now been shown to not be the case.Dwarf planet Makemake [1] is about two thirds of the size of Pluto, and travels around the Sun in a distant path that lies beyond that of Pluto but closer...

Adding bavituximab to second-line chemotherapy doubles response rate

Adding the monoclonal antibody bavituximab to docetaxel chemotherapy doubles overall response rate and improves progression-free survival and overall survival in late-stage non-squamous, non-small cell lung cancer (NS-NSCLC) patients who have...

GPS can now measure ice melt, change in Greenland over months rather than years

Researchers have found a way to use GPS to measure short-term changes in the rate of ice loss on Greenland -- and reveal a surprising link between the ice and...

New Kenyan fossils shed light on early human evolution

The KNM-ER 1470 cranium, discovered in 1972, combined with the new lower jaw KNM-ER 60000; both are thought to belong to the same species. The lower jaw is shown as a photographic reconstruction, and the cranium is based on a computed tomography scan.Exciting new fossils discovered east of Lake Turkana confirm that there were two additional species of our genus -- Homo -- living alongside our direct human ancestral species, Homo erectus,...

International study provides more solid measure of melting in polar ice sheets

This is a view down the Ilulissat Fjord toward the terminus where Jakobshavn Isbrae rapidly discharges ice to the ocean. This fjord is frequently clogged with icebergs along its entire 60-km (37 mile) length.The planet's two largest ice sheets have been losing ice faster during the past decade, causing widespread confusion and concern. A new international study provides a firmer read on the...

A whale with a distinctly human-like voice

For the first time, researchers have been able to show by acoustic analysis that whales -- or at least one very special white whale -- can imitate the voices of...

World's oldest dinosaur embryo bonebed yields organic remains

This is a flesh reconstruction of embryonic dinosaur inside egg.The great age of the embryos is unusual because almost all known dinosaur embryos are from the Cretaceous Period. The Cretaceous ended some 125 million years after the bones at...

Remains of extinct giant camel discovered in High Arctic by Canadian Museum of Nature

This is an illustration of the High Arctic camel on Ellesmere Island during the Pliocene warm period, about three-and-a-half million years ago. The camels lived in a boreal-type forest. The habitat includes larch trees and the depiction is based on records of plant fossils found at nearby fossil deposits.A research team led by the Canadian Museum of Nature has identified the first evidence for an extinct giant camel in Canada's High Arctic. The discovery is based on 30...

Research finds evidence of a 'mid-life crisis' in great apes

Chimpanzees and orangutans can experience a mid-life crisis just like humans, a study suggests.

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