Astronomers have discovered vast comet belts surrounding two nearby planetary systems – GJ 581 and 61 Vir – known to host only Earth-to-Neptune-mass worlds.   Previously, scientists found that…

Archaeologists have discovered the remains of a fleet of early-19th century ships and ancient harbor structures from the Hellenistic period at the city of Akko (Acre), one of the major ancient ports…

Bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) accounts for 20% of the calories consumed by the entire world and is one of the Big Three globally important crops, along with rice and corn.  A few months after…

A jet of X-rays from the supermassive black hole in quasar GB 1428+4217, 12.4 billion light years from Earth, has been detected by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory - the most distant X-ray jet…

Millions of years ago, tiny animal thieves going by the alias protozoa held algae captive and then exploited and stole their genes for energy production, thereby evolving into a new and more powerful…

When it comes to the number of pieces of information the mind can cope with before confusion sets in, the "magic" number is seven, psychologists have long said.  But did phone companies pick…

Temperature rises are consistent with projections made in the IPCC's fourth assessment report (AR4) but satellite measurements show that sea levels are rising at a rate of 3.2 mm a year compared to…

Quasars are the luminous centers of distant galaxies powered by huge black holes.  Although black holes are noted for pulling material in, most quasars also accelerate some of the material…

The newest Access to Medicine Index, which ranks pharmaceutical companies on their efforts to improve access to medicine in developing countries, shows that the industry, led by GlaxoSmithKline,…

The Galapagos giant tortoise, the largest living species of tortoise (and in the top 10 reptiles), likes to move around.  We know this because scientists with the Max Planck Institute for…

While a subset of scientists, and certainly atheists, think any evidence of religion is grounds for dismissal from the ranks of science, most scientists disagree. In actuality, religious belief among…

While a subset of scientists, and certainly atheists, think any evidence of religion is grounds for dismissal from the ranks of science, most scientists disagree. In actuality, religious belief among…

Researchers have discovered that a virus commonly found in dogs may lead to a breakthrough in human vaccine development. Parainfluenza virus 5, or PIV5, is harmless to humans but is thought to…

Three new collembolan species have been discovered in the Maestrazgo caves in Teruel, Spain. Their description has been published in the Zootaxa journal and belong to one of the most ancient animal…

Berkeley, CA — The installed price of solar photovoltaic (PV) power systems in the United States fell substantially in 2011 and through the first half of 2012, according to the latest edition of…

The percentage of Americans who say they are strong in their religious faith has been steady for the last four decades but a new sociology analysis claims that religious groups who have become more…

Update: I got a confirmation that at the latest INFN board of directors meeting the news was given that the Super-B factory to be built outside Rome is no more. Super-B joins other remarkable…

What happens when the modern evolutionary theory of punctuated equilibrium collides with the older theory of mosaic evolution? That's the issue addressed by paleobiologists Melanie J Hopkins at the…

The race is on to blame everything related to ecological change on human footprints - even the past can be re-framed as anthropocenic climate change and University of Massachusetts Amherst…

Elsevier has launched a new, international, open access journal, Case Studies in Engineering Failure Analysis.  The journal seeks to provide a forum for rapid publication of short, structured…