Oct 1st, 2023 - Do fruit flies remember their larval lives? To find out, scientists made the neurons inside larvae glow, then tracked how they reshuffled as they formed adult brains. The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine . On warm summer nights, green lacewings flutter around bright lanterns in backyards and at campsites. The insects, with their veil-like wings, are easily distracted from their natural preoccupation with sipping on flower nectar, avoiding predatory bats, and reproducing. Small clutches of the eggs they lay hang from long stalks on the underside of leaves and sway ... [Read More]

Sep 30th, 2023 - While trapdoor spiders can come in all kinds of different sizes, like the massive and nightmarish Euoplos dignitas , or the much smaller brush-footed trapdoor spider, like those found in Australia. Now, though, a new giant trapdoor spider fossils has given us a glimpse at an ancestor of the brush-footed, which is estimated to be four times larger than the modern day species. The new fossil showcases that the ancient trapdoot spider, which has been named Megamonodontium mccluskyi , has a body that is roughly 23.31 millimeters in size – just under an inch. However, with its legs spread ... [Read More]

Sep 30th, 2023 - Hurricane Idalia's incredible influx of flamingos expanded deeper into the country over the past 10 days with sightings of the bright pink birds in Wisconsin, Missouri and even Kansas.  Bird watchers and others first spotted flamingos dropping out of the clouds as Idalia arrived along Florida's west coast on August 30. Over the next four weeks, at least 150 American flamingos were seen in more than four dozen locations across Florida and in at least 14 states. Flamingos are seen from time to time in Florida and the birds – real and plastic – are synonymous with the state's ... [Read More]

Sep 30th, 2023 - By subscribing, you agree to our and You may unsubscribe at any time. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has captured the expansion of a cataclysmic stellar explosion into the boundless expanse of space. Following a supernova event, the shredded remains of a massive star continue to hurtle through space at breakneck speeds. Hubble skillfully imaged the expanding shell of gas and dust of the Cygnus Loop, a nearby supernova remnant situated 1,500 light years away from Earth. It was formed 20,000 years ago by the explosion of a massive star. The Cygnus Loop has a bubble-like shape and spans around ... [Read More]

Sep 30th, 2023 - Recent discoveries in the field of epigenetics, the study of inheritance of traits that occur without changing the DNA sequence, have shown that chronological age in mammals correlates with epigenetic changes that accumulate during the lifetime of an individual. In humans, this observation has led to the development of epigenetic clocks, which are now extensively used as biomarkers of aging. While these clocks work accurately from birth until death, they are set back to zero in each new generation . Now, an international team co-led by the University of Georgia, the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre ... [Read More]

Sep 29th, 2023 - MEXICO CITY, Sept 29 (Reuters) - A museum exhibit displaying Aztec ritual offerings dug up from underneath downtown Mexico City opened on Friday in a first-ever showcase that offers new insight into pre-Hispanic art and religious practices. The artifacts, all crafted from wood, include finely carved masks, sculpted scepters believed to have been wielded by ancient gods, and weapons that were buried with sacrificed animals dressed as deities and warriors, both male and female. Reuters gained exclusive access to the exhibit at the Mexican capital's Templo Mayor Museum before it opened. Most of ... [Read More]

Sep 29th, 2023 - While New Yorkers were urged to stay indoors during Friday's downpours and flash flooding , one resident found a little opportunity in the rising waters — a resident of the Central Park Zoo, that is.  Buoyed by the flooding, a female sea lion was able to swim out of the zoo's sea lion pool and do some exploring. "Zoo staff monitored the sea lion as she explored the area before returning to the familiar surroundings of the pool and the company of the other two sea lions. The water levels have receded, and the animals are contained in their exhibit," Jim Breheny, director of the ... [Read More]

Sep 29th, 2023 - Multi-billion-year-old mud cracks on the surface of Mars are helping researchers piece together the ancient history of our planetary neighbor's climate. Observed by NASA's Curiosity rover in 2021, the hexagonal cracks are the subject of new research published in the journal Nature that lays out how they came to be and how they connect to Mars' — and possibly Earth's — early history. These cracks emerged on a stretch of the Martian surface that researchers believe experienced a regular — potentially even seasonal — cycle of saturation and dryness. That's important ... [Read More]