ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

Researchers have discovered the first fossil evidence of an ancient amphibian, Micropholis stowi, from Antarctica. Micropholis lived in the Early Triassic, shortly after Earth's largest mass extinction. It was previously known only from fossils in South Africa, and its presence in Antarctica has implications for how amphibians adapted to high-latitude regions in this dynamic period of Earth's history.

A new allotrope of carbon has been produced. Like graphene, it is only one atom thick, but unlike graphene it behaves like a metal even at small scales, ideal for nanosized wires. This result is exciting for engineers trying to develop new carbon-based electronics and the new method demonstrates a novel way to produce other theoretically-designed but not-yet-created forms of nanoscale carbon materials.

New research shows that activation of distinct human endogenous retroviruses, which are part of our genome, impair brain development dramatically. The finding could help to advance research into therapies for neurodegenerative diseases.

There are roughly 50 billion individual birds in the world, a new big data study suggests -- about six birds for every human on the planet.