In Earth’s largest extinction, land die-offs began long before ocean turnover
The mass extinction at the end of the Permian Peri od 252 million years ago -- one of the great turnovers of life on...
Missing link in coronavirus jump from bats to humans could be pangolins, not snakes
As scientists scramble to learn more about the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, two recent studies of the virus' genome reached controversial conclusions: namely, that snakes are...
Evolutionary elements arrived on Earth much later than thought
A large proportion of the elements carbon and nitrogen, as well as the compound water, were not delivered to Earth until very late in...
Scientists discover the ancestor of all animals in fossils
A team led by UC Riverside geologists has discovered the first ancestor on the family tree that contains most familiar animals today, including humans.
The...
Scientists find the origins of the building blocks of life
Rutgers researchers have discovered the origins of the protein structures responsible for metabolism:
Simple molecules that powered early life on Earth and serve as chemical...
How sperm unpack dad’s genome so it can merge with mom’s
A sperm enters an egg, an embryo develops and eventually a baby is born.
But back up a second -- how does the mother's half-genome...
Has dinosaur DNA been found? An expert explains what we really know
Researchers in China and the US have found material in a dinosaur fossil that they claim looks like DNA.
In a new paper in National...
Scientists discover why the oceans are so diverse
A new study in the journal Science has given insight into why the world's oceans are full of more species than ever before -...
New technology to speed up the development of more resilient crops
A research collaboration led by The University of Western Australia has created a new technique that speeds up the development of seeds, producing better...
One-third of plant and animal species could be gone in 50 years
Accurately predicting biodiversity loss from climate change requires a detailed understanding of what aspects cause extinctions, and what mechanisms may allow species to survive.
A...
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Universe’s expansion may not be the same in all directions, says new study
One of the fundamental ideas of cosmology is that everything looks the same in all directions if you look over large enough distances.
A new...
Tiny robots could swim through the body and deliver drugs to tumors
Tiny biohybrid robots on the micrometer scale can swim through the body and deliver drugs to tumors or provide other cargo-carrying functions.
The natural environmental...
This compound in common vegetables may help fight fatty liver disease
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, or NAFLD, occurs when the liver becomes “marbled” with fat, sometimes due to unhealthy nutrition, such as excessive intake of...
Common arthritis drug linked to higher skin cancer risk
Methotrexate is a common drug with a long history; for the past 40 years, it’s been used to treat a range of diseases.
Today it...
Mindfulness may benefit people with common bowel diseases
In a new study, researchers found that people with irritable bowel syndrome experienced fewer gut symptoms after they participated in a mindfulness program meant...
Whether marijuana could reduce pain is unclear, new study shows
In a new study, researchers found that medical marijuana users who say they have high levels of pain are more likely than those with...