The giant reptiles are “ecosystem engineers,” providing a service similar to beavers and seabirds Meters below the copper, sun-broiled dirt of northwestern Australia, an entire community hides in the dark. Geckos lay their eggs as centipedes and scorpions scuttle by. A snake glides deeper underground, away from the light. ThisContinue Reading
The knifefishes were thought to dine alone, but in the Amazon, hundreds hunt together One Volta’s electric eel — able to subdue small fish with an 860-volt jolt — is scary enough. Now imagine over 100 eels swirling about, unleashing coordinated electric attacks. Such a sight was assumed to beContinue Reading
It’s snuggling and togetherness when the deadly, swaggering rodents have families Crested rats don’t just chew tree bark that’s poisonous enough to kill an elephant. The rabbit-sized rodents dribble and lick the toxic drool into their long rat fluff for a weaponized hairdo. Yet these dangerous rats, which scientists assumedContinue Reading
A never-before-seen climbing technique could inspire the creation of new serpentine robots Snakes do a lot more than slither. Some swim, while others sidewind across sand (SN: 10/9/14). Some snakes even fly (SN: 6/29/20). But no one has ever seen a snake move the way that brown tree snakes doContinue Reading
Different types of atoms fall with the same acceleration due to gravity According to legend, Galileo dropped weights off of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, showing that gravity causes objects of different masses to fall with the same acceleration. In recent years, researchers have taken to replicating this test inContinue Reading
Humans are born with a part of the brain that is prewired to be receptive to seeing words and letters, setting the stage at birth for people to learn how to read, a new study suggests. Analyzing brain scans of newborns, researchers found that this part of the brain —Continue Reading
At the end of the Jurassic period, corgi-size pterosaurs were searching for food along an ancient shoreline when they felt the cool pings of a light rain, new fossil track marks reveal. Researchers found the fossilized track marks of these winged reptiles interspersed with raindrop impressions near Casper, Wyoming, whichContinue Reading
Three decades after Cornell astronomer Carl Sagan suggested that Voyager 1 snap Earth’s picture from billions of miles away — resulting in the iconic Pale Blue Dot photograph — two astronomers now offer another unique cosmic perspective: Some exoplanets — planets from beyond our own solar system — have aContinue Reading
NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft unfurled its robotic arm Tuesday, and in a first for the agency, briefly touched an asteroid to collect dust and pebbles from the surface for delivery to Earth in 2023. This well-preserved, ancient asteroid, known as Bennu, is currentlyContinue Reading
New satellite imagery of California reveals not just the extent of its wildfire damage, but the depth of the loss. The maps derived from the satellite data show how far two major fires spread as well as how badly each region burned. Darker colors represent near-complete loss — charred landscapesContinue Reading
