A Stone Age person buried 12,000 years ago in a cave in Italy had a rare genetic disorder that shortened her arms and legs, a new study finds. A DNA analysis of her skeleton revealed that she was a teenage girl who had a rare form of dwarfism. The finding is the earliest DNA diagnosis
NASA has announced an earlier-than-expected target date to launch the next astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). The agency is now targeting Feb. 11 for liftoff of the SpaceX Crew-12 mission, which will fly four astronauts to join the skeleton crew presently operating the orbital lab. A scant three are currently covering the maintenance
NASA is preparing to move forward with a key milestone as it readies the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft for the Artemis II mission. A “wet dress rehearsal” allows launch teams to practice fueling and countdown procedures under conditions that closely mirror launch day, much like a full dress rehearsal before a
Black holes may be invisible, but their influence shapes galaxies, modern technology and humanity’s understanding of its own limits. That was the message shared last week by Priyamvada Natarajan, a theoretical astrophysicist at Yale University, during a session at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Natarajan, whose research focuses on cosmology, gravitational lensing and
Using a powerful AI tool, astronomers have combed through vast troves of data from NASA’s Hubble and found over 1,300 cosmic anomalies, more than 800 of which are new to science. The new research by David O’Ryan and Pablo Gomez from ESA (the European Space Agency) is published in Astronomy and Astrophysics. “Archival observations from
Jupiter’s moon Io is covered in hundreds of volcanoes, which spew fountains of lava that constantly refill impact craters on its surface with scorching molten lakes. A recent discovery of extreme volcanic activity on the Jovian moon tops any eruption previously detected on Io, proving that this chaotic world knows no bounds. NASA’s Juno mission
Credit: Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Posts on social-media platform X that are critical of scientific research can act as early warning signs of problematic articles, according to two large studies. The findings reflect how post-publication commentary can help to identify errors or fraudulent results, say scientists. Previous research has shown that potentially problematic articles get
Initial analyses suggested if the dots were in fact supermassive black holes, they’d have to be nearly as massive as their host galaxies, varying between 10 and 100 percent of their total mass. The problem was that the dots were visible at very high red shift, which means astronomers saw them as they were when
Inventor Thomas Edison is known for being ahead of his time, and a new study could add another notch to his overachieving belt. Researchers at Rice University suggest Edison may have inadvertently created graphene in 1879 – a “wonder material” that wasn’t officially made until 125 years later. Being a sheet of carbon just a
A great white shark is a masterwork of evolutionary engineering. These beautiful predators glide effortlessly through the water, each slow, deliberate sweep of the powerful tail driving a body specialised for stealth, speed, and efficiency. From above, its dark back blends into the deep blue water, while from below its pale belly disappears into the