Nicoletta Lanese writes: Ancient microbes whose existence predates the rise of nucleus-carrying cells on Earth may hold the secrets to how such complex cells first came to be. Now, for the first time, scientists have grown a large enough quantity of these microbes in the lab to study their internal structure in detail, Science reported. Researchers Read More…
Tag: Live Science
From Live Science: Search for alien life just got 1,000 times bigger after new telescope joins the hunt
“Astronomers searching for radio signals that could be signs of extraterrestrial life have just gained access to South Africa’s MeerKAT telescope.”
At Live Science: 4.6 billion-year-old meteorite may reveal the origin of Earth’s water
How amazing is this?! Possible answers to an important question about Earth’s history crash-land on a driveway in England.
At Live Science: 3.5 billion-year-old rock structures are one of the oldest signs of life on Earth
Stephanie Pappas writes: Fossils called stromatolites from Western Australia were created by microbes 3.48 billion years ago. Layered rocks in Western Australia are some of Earth’s earliest known life, according to a new study. The fossils in question are stromatolites, layered rocks that are formed by the excretions of photosynthetic microbes. The oldest stromatolites that Read More…
At Live Science: Mysterious ‘ancient heart’ of the Milky Way discovered using Gaia probe
“The protogalaxy is a collection of ancient stars from which the rest of the Milky Way grew.”
At Live Science: Are black holes wormholes?
A possible “shortcut” through the universe?
At Live Science: Could extinct Tasmanian tigers be brought back from the dead?
“Can an extinct species be brought back to life? Scientists are taking a “giant leap” in that direction by using gene-editing to resurrect the Tasmanian tiger, a carnivorous marsupial from Australia and the continent’s only marsupial apex predator.”
At Live Science: ‘STEVE’ descends on North America after surprise solar storm
“The glowing river of light [known as ‘STEVE’] may look like an aurora, but it’s actually a unique phenomenon that was considered “completely unknown” to science upon its discovery.”
At Live Science: Solar storm from hole in the sun will hit Earth on Wednesday (Aug. 3)
Ben Turner writes: Thankfully, the storm is classified as weak. High-speed solar winds from a “hole” in the sun’s atmosphere are set to hit Earth’s magnetic field on Wednesday (Aug 3.), triggering a minor G-1 geomagnetic storm. Forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) made the prediction after observing Read More…
At Live Science: Scientists discover 200 ‘Goldilocks’ zones on the moon where astronauts could survive
“Scientists discover pits on the moon that are room temperature in the shade.”
At Live Science: How many people can Earth support?
Researchers: “Right now the scientific consensus is that the population of the world will reach a peak some time later this century. The world population is projected to reach 10.4 billion people sometime in the 2080s and remain there until 2100.”
At Live Science: Scientists pinpoint the exact moment in evolutionary time when mammals became warm-blooded
“Scientists have pinpointed the moment in time our earliest ancestors evolved to be warm-blooded, and it happened much later and far more quickly than the researchers expected.”
At Live Science: ‘Unlucky’ creatures that enter rare Red Sea brine pools are immediately stunned to death
Researcher: “Deep-sea brine pools are a great analog for the early Earth and, despite being devoid of oxygen and hypersaline, are teeming with a rich community of so-called ‘extremophile’ microbes.”
The James Webb Space Telescope’s first images are here, and they’re spectacular
“The most powerful telescope in history reveals its debut images.”
At Live Science: Why can’t we drink saltwater?
Why did humans — and nearly all other land animals, for that matter —evolve to drink freshwater when saltwater is so much more plentiful?