Mar 5th, 2025 - If there was a contest for the most interesting moon in our solar system, Callisto would be a contender. Jupiter's second-largest moon has more impact craters on its surface than any other planetary body in the solar system, and it has tons of ice on its surface as well.  For decades. researchers have theorized that resting beneath Callisto's pockmarked surface is a liquid saltwater ocean that spans the entire moon. After taking a closer look at data from 30 years ago, researchers now have stronger evidence that such an ocean really does exist. A team led by Corey J. Cochrane of NASA's ... [Read More]

Mar 5th, 2025 - Freelance photographer Sarah Mateskovich stopped by Schenley Park in Oakland to snap images of a great horned owl nest last week. The apex predator's stature — about 2 feet tall — and its nocturnal lifestyle have drawn birders and photographers to the park over the last month. The great horned owl is the state's earliest breeding bird. Nicknamed "tiger of the air," the bird doesn't build nests, it takes them over. The Schenly Park owls moved into an old red-tailed hawk nest under the Panther Hollow Bridge and had three young this year. After spending time on a trail watching ... [Read More]

Mar 4th, 2025 - A woolly mouse compared with a normal mouse, at Colossal Biosciences labs. Credit - Courtesy of Colossal Biosciences E xtinction is typically for good. Once a species winks out, it survives only in memory and the fossil record. When it comes to the woolly mammoth, however, that rule has now been bent. It's been 4,000 years since the eight-ton, 12-foot , elephant-like beast walked the Earth, but part of its DNA now operates inside several litters of four-inch, half-ounce mice created by scientists at the Dallas-based  . The mice don't have their characteristic short, gray-brown coat, but ... [Read More]

Mar 4th, 2025 - With most targeted changes not mammoth-specific, the focus is on gene editing. On Tuesday, the team behind the plan to bring mammoth-like animals back to the tundra announced the creation of what it is calling wooly mice, which have long fur reminiscent of the woolly mammoth. The long fur was created through the simultaneous editing of as many as seven genes, all with a known connection to hair growth, color, and/or texture. But don't think that this is a sort of mouse-mammoth hybrid. Most of the genetic changes were first identified in mice, not mammoths. So, the focus is on the fact that ... [Read More]

Mar 4th, 2025 - Shares of IonQ fell 37.8% in February 2025, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence . The quantum computing researcher soared in fall 2024 thanks to a seemingly game-changing technology achievement by a larger competitor, but lost momentum in January as quantum fans were reminded that truly usable machines are many years away. Investor enthusiasm continued to fade in February, accelerated by another gut check in the form of a mixed earnings report. IonQ's quantum hype turned into a downward spiral Here's a quick recap of the recent quantum computing boom-and-bust cycle: ... [Read More]

Mar 4th, 2025 - Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. . science and culture for people who love beautiful writing. 1 Human Healers Have Learned From Animals For Thousands of Years Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. When I first started studying how monarch butterflies use toxic plants as medicine, a lot of scientists scoffed at the idea that an animal as simple as an insect would know how to medicate itself. Many were skeptical even of the use of medicine by chimpanzees, even though these animals have large brains and behave like us in so many other ways. But humans have known about ... [Read More]

Mar 4th, 2025 - Firefly Aerospace released video Tuesday showing the historic touchdown of its Blue Ghost lunar lander. The Cedar Park, Texas-based commercial company was making its first trip to the moon with help from NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. While fellow Texas company Intuitive Machines managed a soft landing in 2024 under the program, that company's lander named Odysseus tipped to one side, and NASA was not able to glean as much from its on-board experiments as it could have had the lander stayed upright. Blue Ghost did just that, nailing the landing early Sunday to begin a ... [Read More]

Mar 4th, 2025 - Colossal Biosciences, a US biotech start-up, has announced the birth of what it calls a "woolly mouse" – the world's first animal genetically altered to express key genes from a woolly mammoth. The company says the luxuriously haired rodents are living proof that it's making progress in its mission to resurrect the woolly mammoth from extinction within a matter of years. To make the mice, scientists used the latest genetic technologies to introduce eight simultaneous edits to the genomes of laboratory mice. These include the addition of genes that cause their fur to grow up to three ... [Read More]