Billion-year geological model explains the Great Unconformity seen in the Grand Canyon
Mantle-flow models suggest prolonged continental uplift, followed by sinking and burial, helped form and preserve the Great Unconformity.The…
Researchers identify nearly 600 genetic differences in human chimpanzee and gorilla brains
Human, chimpanzee and gorilla brain organoids revealed differences in how developing stem cells regulate shared genes.Researchers identified 599…
Stephen Colbert’s trapdoor spider connects comedy, chromosomes and conservation
Researchers assembled the first reference genome for Stephen Colbert’s namesake trapdoor spider and its family, Euctenizidae.Repeated DNA accounts…
Scientists use light to control random motion inside molecules
A light-controlled molecular motor can reversibly hinder the random rotation of another component within the same molecule.Spectroscopy confirms…
Tiny gold particles in a helium droplet help solve the century-old Thomson problem
Gold nanoparticles preserved charge patterns on helium droplets, bringing the century-old Thomson problem into the laboratory.Researchers analyzed 25…
Einstein’s equations offer new clues to extreme gravity and space-time behavior
A theoretical study describes how gravitational field structures could change their connections, drawing on methods used in plasma…
Scientists discover a hidden layer of molten rock beneath Earth’s surface
Seismic evidence supports a widespread layer of partly molten rock within Earth’s mostly solid asthenosphere.A study of 716…
‘Enchanted Broomstick’ protein walks on two tiny legs to protect the brain’s nerve cells
A nerve cell can stretch far beyond the reach of its center. Yet every distant branch still needs…
30,000-year-old woman’s DNA links ancestry between eastern and western Europe
A woman’s DNA from southwestern France reveals ancestry connections between eastern and western European populations more than 30,000…
Ancient viral DNA offers clues to why human and chimpanzee brains evolved differently
An ancient viral insertion silences LINC00662 in chimpanzee cells, while the gene is active during early human brain…
Scientists can now predict qubit behavior faster and more accurately
A molecular modeling approach identifies boron- and oxygen-containing diamond defects as promising candidates for quantum technologies.The calculations focus…
Scientists discover why animals evolved necks, and surprisingly it wasn’t to turn their heads
Models suggest that separating the head from the shoulders did not immediately give early tetrapod relatives highly mobile…