A new way to discover DNA modifications
Using their approach, which combines bioanalytical chemistry, comparative genomics, and a special type of DNA sequencing, the team has discovered a DNA modification that helps bacter...
World’s oldest chameleon found in amber fossil
Over time, the resin fossilized into amber, leaving the lizard remarkably preserved. Seventy-eight million years older than the previous oldest specimen on record, the dime-size cham...
Video: Sentinel-3 for oceans
Covering 70% of the planet, the oceans are directly linked to our weather and climate. They are also essential for global transport and provide a wealth of resources. What happens fa...
Tracing deep ocean currents
Researchers like Yongqi Gao follow the radioactive waste to understand how ocean currents are formed and to see where they flow. Radioactive material has also been released from the ...
Studying the solar system with NASA’s Webb Telescope
But the observatory also will investigate objects in Earth’s own neighborhood - planets, moons, comets and asteroids in our solar system. These studies will help scientists understan...
Study finds surprising variability in shape of Van Allen Belts
The authors of the study, from Los Alamos National Laboratory and the New Mexico Consortium, found that the inner belt–the smaller belt in the classic picture of the belts–is much la...
Sentinel-3A prepares for liftoff
This timelapse video shows Sentinel-3A, from final preparations to liftoff on a Rockot launcher from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia, at 17:57 GMT (18:57 CET) on 16 Februa...
Sentinel-3A liftoff
Replay of the Sentinel-3A liftoff on a Rockot launcher from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia at 17:57 GMT (18:57 CET) on 16 February 2016. Sentinel-3A is the third satellit...
Seeing the light: Army ants evolve to regain sight and more in return to surface
But some of the ants that O’Donnell and his research partners studied appeared to grow back parts of the brain used in seeing. It appeared to be a rare example of a species’ brain ti...
Oldest ancient-human DNA details dawn of Neanderthals
Meyer’s feat of recovery has revealed that the remains, from a cavern in northern Spain, represent early Neanderthals — and has pushed back estimates of the time at which the ancient...
Ocean oases: How islands support more sea-life
The question of how such a productive system exists in such a seemingly unproductive environment became known as Darwin’s paradox. The Island Mass Effect is a hypothesis explaining w...
Neanderthals diet: 80% meat, 20% vegetables: Isotope studies shed a new light on the eating habits of the prehistoric humans
Scientists from the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment (HEP) in Tübingen have studied the Neanderthals’ diet. Based on the isotope composition in the collag...
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope secondary mirror installed
The sole secondary mirror that will fly aboard NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope was installed onto the telescope at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, on Mar...
Mercury’s mysterious ‘darkness’ revealed
About a year ago, scientists proposed that Mercury’s darkness was due to carbon that gradually accumulated from the impact of comets that traveled into the inner Solar System. Moreov...
Magnetoreception molecule found in the eyes of dogs and primates
Dogs and some primates can sense the earth magnetic field with the help of molecules in their eyes. In birds, cryptochromes are also involved in the light-dependent magnetic orientat...
Intensive training for Mars voyage
The complex and challenging mission will be operated by teams at ESA’s ESOC control centre in Darmstadt, Germany, where, after months of simulations covering all phases of the journe...
In Photos: Amber Preserves Cretaceous Lizards
Colorful scales (Image credit: Daza et al. Sci. 2016; 2 : e1501080) Soft tissues rarely survive in fossils preserved in rock, but amber can protect delicate structures, keeping the...
How climate change will affect western groundwater
By 2050 climate change will increase the groundwater deficit even more for four economically important aquifers in the western U.S., reports a University of Arizona-led team of scien...
High-tech predictions of the impacts of extreme weather
When it comes to rainfall in particular, the impact of extreme weather is hard to forecast, says Herman Russchenberg, director of the TU Delft Climate Institute, the Netherlands. In ...
Here’s how what you buy affects the environment
Source: Ivanova et al. Environmental Impact Assessment of Household Consumption. Their analysis, recently published in the Journal of Industrial Ecology, showed that consumers are re...
Half of the Amazonian tree species are endangered
The Amazon Tree Diversity Network international consortium, which includes the IRD, has just revealed in the Science Advances journal that, according to the predicted deforestation s...
Gravitational waves detected 100 years after Einstein’s prediction: LIGO opens new window on the universe with observation of gravitational waves from colliding black holes
The LIGO Observatories are funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), and were conceived, built, and are operated by Caltech and MIT. Based on the observed signals, LIGO scient...
Gravitational waves: a three-minute guide
Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or tur...
First microwhip scorpion from Mesozoic period found in Burmese amber
Electrokoenenia yaksha. Meet Electrokoenenia yaksha, a newly described type of microwhip scorpion, or palpigrade, from Myanmar, whose minute fossilised remains have been found, trapp...
Evolutionary ‘selection of the fittest’ measured for the first time
At each generation the ‘fittest’ individuals are selected and this is a major force shaping the biological world we see today. Over time evolution selects against cheetahs that canno...