Scientists discover first ever record of insect pollination from 100 million years ago
Amber from Cretaceous deposits (110-105 my) in Northern Spain has revealed the first ever record of insect pollination. Scientists have discovered in two pieces of amber several specimens of tiny insects covered ...
May 14, 2012 |
4.4 / 5 (7) |
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Samples returned from asteroid Itokawa reveal history of violent impacts
(PhysOrg.com) -- In June of 2010, Japanese researchers launched a probe called Hayabusa into space on a mission to study the asteroid Itokawa (25143). It managed to collect dust specimens from the asteroids ...
Whale population size, dynamics determined based on ancient DNA
Estimates of whale population size based on genetics versus historical records diverge greatly, making it difficult to fully understand the ecological implications of the large-scale commercial whaling of the 19th and early ...
May 09, 2012 |
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Neanderthals died out earlier than originally believed
(PhysOrg.com) -- According to a newly released report in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a newly refined method of radiocarbon dating has found that Neanderthals died off much earlier than o ...
Mushroom lights up the night in Brazil: Researcher finds bioluminescent fungus not seen since 1840
In 1840, renowned English botanist George Gardner reported a strange sight from the streets of Vila de Natividade in Brazil: A group of boys playing with a glowing object that turned out to be a luminescent ...
Jul 06, 2011 |
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Tree resin captures evolution of feathers on dinosaurs and birds
Secrets from the age of the dinosaurs are usually revealed by fossilized bones, but a University of Alberta research team has turned up a treasure trove of Cretaceous feathers trapped in tree resin. The resin ...
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Sep 15, 2011 |
5 / 5 (15) |
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Researchers turn to museums to track down clues in mysterious amphibian declines
There's a crisis among the world's amphibians -- about 40 percent of amphibian species have dwindled in numbers in just three decades. Now, museum jars stuffed full of amphibians may help scientists decide ...
May 02, 2011 |
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Millennium-old olive trees of the Iberian Peninsula are younger than expected
Northeast Spain is home to olive trees so old that they are known as "millennium-old." A group of scientists have now studied their age. The oldest is to be found in the Catalan region of Montsia and is 627 ...
May 16, 2012 |
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Floor of oldest forest discovered in Schoharie County
Scientists from Binghamton University and Cardiff University, and New York State Museum researchers, and have reported the discovery of the floor of the world's oldest forest in a cover article in the March ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Feb 29, 2012 |
4 / 5 (6) |
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Physics group uses graphene to allow electron microscopy of liquid objects
(Phys.org) -- News of new uses for graphene continue to come in with remarkable regularity, and now a team of physicists, as they describe in their paper published in the journal Science, have figured out a ...
Salamander found in China oldest of its kind
(PhysOrg.com) -- Six salamander specimens were found in an ancient dry lakebed in China recently and now the team of Ke-Qin Gao from Peking University and Neil H. Shubinb of the University of Chicago has identified ...
A living species of aquatic beetle found in 20-million-year-old sediments
The fossil beetle discovered in the 16-23 million years old sediments of the Irtysh River in southern Siberia belongs to the modern species Helophorus sibiricus, a member of the water scavenger beetles (Hydro ...
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Oct 06, 2011 |
4.7 / 5 (7) |
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The evolution of orchids
(PhysOrg.com) -- Charles Darwin and many other scientists have long been puzzled by the evolution of orchids, the largest and most diverse family of flowering plants on Earth. Now genetic sequencing is giving ...
Stanford group creates miniature self-contained fluorescence microscope
(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of researchers working at Stanford University have devised a means for building the smallest self-contained fluorescence microscope ever. Weighing just under 2 grams and slightly larger ...
Fossilized beetles are redder than they were in life
(PhysOrg.com) -- A new study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B shows that the colors of fossilized beetles do not represent the colors they sported in life. From what researchers can de ...