China has released the second batch of science and technology results collected from the first spacecraft of the country's Innovation X satellite series, which achieved multiple national and international firsts such as the first solar transition zone image, as well as the brightest Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) ever recorded, the Global Times learned from developers on […]
China has established the world's largest language resource repository, consisting of over 120 languages and dialects that are being used in the world's most populous country, the Chinese Ministry of Education said Wednesday. Speaking at a news conference held in Anyang, Central China's Henan Province, Tian Lixin, director of the Language and Information Management Department […]
ATLANTA — Homo naledi, a rock star among fossil species in the human genus, has made an encore. Its return highlighted debate over whether this hominid was a distinct Homo species that purposefully disposed of at least some of its dead. H. naledi made worldwide headlines last year when researchers announced the discovery of an […]
There are some pets that you just don’t pet. But that didn’t stop Philip Stoddard, a zoologist at Florida International University in Miami, from petting his pet electric eel Sparky. “It was so beautiful, I had to pet it,” he told Science News for Students. That was a big mistake, writes Roberta Kwok, because Sparky […]
Ancient stargazers chose well when they named the solar system’s largest planet, Jupiter, after the king of the Roman gods. With more than twice the mass of all the other planets combined, Jupiter reigns supreme. It’s the most influential member of our planetary family — after the sun. Jupiter might have hurled the asteroids that […]
Very distant galaxies have surprisingly little dark matter, the invisible stuff thought to make up the bulk of matter in the universe, new observations suggest. Stars in the outer regions of some far-off galaxies move more slowly than stars closer to the center, indicating a lack of dark matter, astronomer Reinhard Genzel and colleagues report […]
This rainbow pinwheel of mouse placentas isn’t just an eye-catching, award-winning image. The differences in color also provide researchers with new clues to how a mother’s immune system may affect her or her baby’s health during pregnancy. The work could lead to earlier diagnosis and treatment of preeclampsia, a common pregnancy complication. Suchita Nadkarni, an […]
Kids can have virtual out-of-body experiences as early as age 6. Oddly enough, the ability to inhabit a virtual avatar signals a budding sense that one’s self is located in one’s own body, researchers say. Grade-schoolers were stroked on their backs with a stick while viewing virtual versions of themselves undergoing the same touch. Just […]
It may have walked like a duck and swum like a penguin, but a flipper-limbed creature discovered in what is now Mongolia was no bird. The strange new species is the first known nonavian dinosaur that could both run and swim, researchers say. To compensate for a long swanlike neck, probably used for dipping underwater […]
One of the top stories of 2016 quietly exited much of the public’s consciousness in 2017. But it’s still a hot topic among scientists and for good reasons. After Zika emerged in the Western Hemisphere, it shook the Americas, as reports of infections and devastating birth defects swept through Brazil and Colombia, eventually reaching the […]