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Translation, the synthesis of proteins from RNA, is a process that distinguishes living cells from viruses. But the discovery of two of the largest viruses ever found--Tupanviruses that are 2.3 [...]

The second-oldest genome sequenced from a New World human revealed a lineage of early arrivals to North America, yielding clues about how humans arrived there. The DNA comes from the [...]

Initial studies are yielding insights into the nature of the first interstellar object observed by astronomers, an asteroid named 'Oumuamua, which appeared on October 19, 2017, in images from the [...]

Butterflies and moths emerged at least 10 million years earlier than previously thought, according to wing scales Dutch researchers found while looking for ancient pollen grains. The team found about [...]

Severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, emerged in China in 2002; the exact origin of the outbreak has been a mystery until now. It was known that masked palm civets [...]

Viral DNA sequences, incorporated long ago into the genomes of animals, may play a role in long-term memory formation. Two studies, one on mice and another on flies, focused on [...]

The first direct observation of a merger of two neutron stars--the remnants of massive stars that died in a supernovas--occurred on August 17. Gravitational waves produced by the merger, designated [...]

A new species of unicellular organism complicates the story of early evolution in eukaryotes--the domain of life that includes organisms with a nuclear membrane around protein-bound DNA and with organelles [...]

A partially fossilized fungus was found in a vein of quartz from Sweden 800 meters underground, during a search for nuclear storage space. The biome of the deep continental subsurface [...]

A lubricant-infused material could prevent the spread of invasive mussels and other invertebrate stowaways on ships. By preventing mussels from latching on to a surface, the infused silicone material, called [...]

Two studies affirm the promise of genetic modification of mosquitoes to curb malaria transmission. Malaria is caused by a pathogen that lives in mosquitoes' guts. One study focused on whether [...]

ON IMMUNITY: An Inoculation. Eula Biss, vi + 210 pp. Graywolf Press, 2014. $24.00. The daughter of a doctor and a poet, Eula Biss was raised with an attention to [...]

Inspired by certain vivid colors in nature, such as those of some birds and butterflies, polymer scientists have figured how to make long-lasting 'structural' colors. Such colors are formed through [...]

A fossil dating to about 360 million years ago, when fish evolved into land-dwelling animals, does not fit clearly in the current evolutionary tree, because it possesses features of two [...]

Astronomers have captured the clearest picture yet of the birth of a new black hole from a catastrophic stellar explosion. Gamma ray bursts are one of the most powerful explosions [...]

A new study clarifies how honeybee larvae develop into worker bees or queens, showing that plants are more important for controlling bee development than had been recognized. It's long been [...]

A clinical trial with 48 children suggests the first successful long-lasting treatment for peanut allergies. The study participants were given either a daily treatment of a probiotic combined with a [...]

A promising method of desalinating water has been designed. Many desalination techniques, such as reverse osmosis methods, are energy-intensive. A sieve could require less energy--but achieving such nanoscale, precise pores [...]

A proposed dinosaur family tree accounts for more recent fossil discoveries as well as longstanding evolutionary puzzles. The conventional family tree, mostly unchallenged for 130 years, categorized dinosaurs by their [...]

The latest addition to the hominin family tree, Homo naledi, has been dated to the late Middle Pleistocene, 335,000 to 236,000 years ago, which means it could have mingled with [...]

Analysis of the mineral grains from the oldest rocks indicates that 4.4 billion years ago, land on Earth was flat and almost entirely covered with water. The research indicates that [...]

A 40-year record of atmospheric carbon over Alaska indicates that the region has become a net source of carbon, despite the carbon dioxide stored via plant growth in boreal forests. [...]

Researchers were able to extract ancient Neanderthal and Denisovan DNA by analyzing dust from five caves in Eurasia. Previously, DNA this old had been isolated from fossilized bones but not [...]

The kea, a playful parrot that lives in New Zealand, has a specific call that puts other keas in a good mood--making it the first known nonmammal to show contagious [...]

Genes passed down to some modern humans from ancestors who mated with Neanderthals around 50,000 years ago affect gene expression, according to a new study. Previous studies had shown that [...]

For decades cosmologists have known that the Milky Way and its companion galaxy Andromeda are traveling through space at about 1.4 million miles per hour relative to the rest of [...]

A fossilized 540-million-year-old animal found in China is the earliest known common ancestor to all vertebrates as well as to certain invertebrates, such as starfish and sea urchins. This broad [...]

Seagrass meadows protect coral reefs from the bacteria in untreated wastewater. In seawater off of four islands near Sulawesi in Indonesia, researchers monitored levels of Enterococcus-type bacteria, which can infect [...]

Bacteria with a genetic code of six nucleotides, the building blocks of DNA, were engineered successfully. DNA in nature is made up of four nucleotides. Previous research had shown that [...]

A team led by Nicholas Melosh of Stanford University has created the tiniest wires ever made: conductive cables just three atoms wide composed of interlocking cages of carbon and hydrogen [...]

Once thought to occur only in eukaryotic cells, prions--infectious misfolded proteins responsible for illnesses such as 'mad cow' disease--have now been observed in bacteria. A section of protein from the [...]

Many recent discoveries about dinosaurs have highlighted how many more traits they share with birds than we once thought, but a new study notes a trait that is decidedly reptilian: [...]

Lunar rocks and soil collected in 1971 during the Apollo 14 mission have been analyzed to show that the Moon is older than expected, 4.51 billion years old. Earlier estimates [...]

Home education, or home schooling, is a rapidly growing global educational phenomenon. Given the emphasis that educators, policy makers and researchers have placed upon the arts as an important element in a holistic education, the ways in which the growing home education community are facilitating arts learning warrants consideration. Facilitating quality arts learning has been found to be extremely challenging, especially for generalist classroom teachers who may not possess background learning across the range of arts subjects represented in most arts curricula. Revelations from this study on Australian home educating parents identifies a similar dilemma with the facilitation of arts learning in home contexts, and a significant proportion of the home educating participants acknowledged little to no educational or artistic training. In this project, an online survey was conducted to develop insights into the ways Australian home educators (n = 193) approach arts education, the challenges associated with facilitating arts learning and the strategies they employ in light of these challenges. The research highlights that, while home education is pedagogically unique and distinct from traditional classroom education, the challenges participants expressed regarding teaching in the arts aligned closely with those expressed by classroom teachers in wider research; however, the uniqueness of home education contexts means that support structures for classroom teachers are less helpful for home educators. Implications arising from the research are thus beneficial in understanding the nature of support that might be tailored for arts learning in home education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sometimes a failed experiment is exactly what a scientist needs to propel her toward a big new idea. That's where Gretchen Daily of Stanford University found herself in 1995 when [...]

Joan E. Strassmann of Washington University in St. Louis studies social evolution on the very small scale: Her test subject is Dictyostelium discoideum, an amoeba that is better known as [...]

An invasive pest threatens America's orange groves. Saving them may require early detection and genetic engineering. The epidemic known as citrus greening is the greatest threat the U.S. citrus industry [...]