Zombie-Ant Fungus Faces its Own Deadly, Specialized Parasites

Scientists Use Quasars to Probe Dark Energy & Measure its Role in the Evolution of the Universe

Prolonged Drought Contributed to Maya Civilization’s Collapse

Hubble Spots Lenticular Galaxy NGC 5010

Planetary Nebula Fleming 1 Likely Has Two White Dwarfs Circling Each Other at its Center

New Earth-Like Planet HD 40307g May Be Capable of Supporting Life

Smilodon’s Distinctive Fangs Still Puzzling to Paleontologists

Star Cluster Cygnus OB2

Photons Traverse Optical Obstacles as Both a Wave and Particle Simultaneously

Star Formation in the Universe has Decreased Drastically

November 13, 2012

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There are many people who dislike clashing dissonances of some modernist composers. It’s been long thought that dissonant musical chords contain acoustic frequencies that interfere with another, disturbing people. Now, a new study indicates that humans prefer consonant chords because of the mathematical relationship between the many different frequencies that make up the sounds. The [...]

November 13, 2012

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A bacterial disease outbreak is threatening a collection of 3,200 coconut palms in the South Pacific. This gene bank is located in Papua New Guinea and is part of an international collection of the South Pacific’s coconut species. The warning was issued at a meeting of the pacific coconut research and development strategy in Samoa [...]

November 13, 2012

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A team of scientists have discovered that humans and chimpanzees share the same three distinct communities of bacteria in their guts. In the last few years, scientists have made great inroads in understanding the crucial interactive role gut bacteria play in harvesting nutrients, assisting immune systems, and protecting the host against pathogens. Now Yale University [...]

November 13, 2012

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The Queen Charlotte Islands are a biodiverse archipelago and Parks Canada has been trying to restore the balance in the ecosystem by getting rid of rats, which seem to be the main culprits of hobbling the ecosystem. The Queen Charlotte Islands were invaded by rats three centuries ago, and are being restored to their original [...]

November 13, 2012

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The UK’s new plan that will deal with ash disease might not come in time, as most of the country’s 90 million ash trees are likely to be wiped out. Ash dieback is caused by the fungus Chalara fraxinea and it will probably kill 99% of the ash trees in the UK. Diseased trees will [...]

November 13, 2012

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In the USA, an ongoing fungal meningitis outbreak has killed 30 people and sickened another 419. The fungus responsible has never wrecked such havoc before. Exserohilum rostratum is a plant-eating generalist fungus that has a spore-launching mechanism ideal for airborne infection. It is usually found in grasses, but it will dine on anything, including humans. [...]

November 13, 2012

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Physicists have demonstrated that a hydrogen molecule dancing between two possible positions can induce regular vibration of a nearby cantilever, creating a miniature tuning fork made up of quartz. The scientists published their findings in the journal Science. A single molecule has never been shown to be able to move something on a macroscopic scale, [...]

November 13, 2012

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The zombie-ant fungus is part of the Ophiocordyceps genus, and its strange way of infecting worker ants’ heads and controlling them to distribute more spores has been well documented in scientific literature. Fossil evidence suggests that this infection has been occurring for at least 48 million years. Research seems to indicate that different species of [...]

November 13, 2012

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An international team of scientists are measuring the role of dark energy in the evolution of the universe by using a new mapping technique that uses quasars to probe dark energy over 10 billion years in the past. BOSS, the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey, is mapping a huge volume of space to measure the role [...]