ScienceDaily: Top Science News

'Slushy' magma ocean led to formation of the Moon’s crust

Posted: 13 Jan 2022 06:21 AM PST

Scientists have shown how the freezing of a 'slushy' ocean of magma may be responsible for the composition of the Moon's crust.

Fastest DNA sequencing technique helps undiagnosed patients find answers in mere hours

Posted: 13 Jan 2022 06:21 AM PST

A research effort set the first Guinness World Record for the fastest DNA sequencing technique, which was used to sequence a human genome in just 5 hours and 2 minutes.

Cosmic 'spider' found to be source of powerful gamma-rays

Posted: 12 Jan 2022 11:50 AM PST

Astronomers have discovered the first example of a binary system where a star in the process of becoming a white dwarf is orbiting a neutron star that has just finished turning into a rapidly spinning pulsar. The pair is a 'missing link' in the evolution of such binary systems.

Regrowing knee cartilage with an electric kick

Posted: 12 Jan 2022 11:50 AM PST

Bioengineers successfully regrew cartilage in a rabbit's knee, a promising hop toward healing joints in humans.

Oxygen ions in Jupiter's innermost radiation belts

Posted: 12 Jan 2022 11:50 AM PST

Researchers find high-energy oxygen and sulfur ions in Jupiter's inner radiation belts -- and a previously unknown ion source.

Study challenges evolutionary theory that DNA mutations are random

Posted: 12 Jan 2022 09:15 AM PST

Researchers have found that DNA mutations are not random. This changes our understanding of evolution and could one day help researchers breed better crops or even help humans fight cancer.

1,000-light-year wide bubble surrounding Earth is source of all nearby, young stars

Posted: 12 Jan 2022 09:15 AM PST

The Earth sits in a 1,000-light-year-wide void surrounded by thousands of young stars -- but how did those stars form? For the first time, astronomers have retraced the history of our galactic neighborhood, showing exactly how the young stars nearest to our solar system formed.

Earliest human remains in eastern Africa dated to more than 230,000 years ago

Posted: 12 Jan 2022 09:15 AM PST

The age of the oldest fossils in eastern Africa widely recognized as representing our species, Homo sapiens, has long been uncertain. Now, dating of a massive volcanic eruption in Ethiopia reveals they are much older than previously thought.

Rainy days harm the economy

Posted: 12 Jan 2022 09:15 AM PST

Economic growth goes down when the number of wet days and days with extreme rainfall go up, a team of scientists finds. The data analysis of more than 1,500 regions over the past 40 years shows a clear connection and suggests that intensified daily rainfall driven by climate-change from burning oil and coal will harm the global economy.

Newly discovered type of 'strange metal' could lead to deep insights

Posted: 12 Jan 2022 09:14 AM PST

A new discovery could help scientists to understand 'strange metals,' a class of materials that are related to high-temperature superconductors and share fundamental quantum attributes with black holes.

Rubber material holds key to long-lasting, safer EV batteries

Posted: 12 Jan 2022 09:14 AM PST

For electric vehicles (EVs) to become mainstream, they need cost-effective, safer, longer-lasting batteries that won't explode during use or harm the environment. Researchers may have found a promising alternative to conventional lithium-ion batteries made from a common material: rubber.

Rugby ball-shaped exoplanet discovered

Posted: 12 Jan 2022 08:01 AM PST

With the help of the CHEOPS space telescope, an international team was able to detect the deformation of an exoplanet for the first time. Due to strong tidal forces, the appearance of the planet WASP-103b resembles a rugby ball rather than a sphere.

Why we feel confident about decisions we make

Posted: 12 Jan 2022 07:56 AM PST

A team of researchers has shown for the first time that decisions feel right to us if we have compared the options as attentively as possible -- and if we are conscious of having done so. This requires a capacity for introspection.

Black hole at center of Milky Way unpredictable and chaotic

Posted: 12 Jan 2022 06:40 AM PST

Researchers have found that the black hole at the center of our galaxy, Sagittarius A*, not only flares irregularly from day to day but also in the long term.

Remembering faces and names can be improved during sleep

Posted: 12 Jan 2022 06:40 AM PST

New research has documented the effect reactivating memory during sleep has on face-name learning. The researchers found that people's name recall improved significantly when memories of newly learned face-name associations were reactivated while they were napping. Key to this improvement was uninterrupted deep sleep.

Identification of one of the first multicellular algae thanks to its chlorophyll fossilized for 1 billion years

Posted: 11 Jan 2022 08:20 AM PST

Researchers have discovered the first in-situ evidence of chlorophyll remnants in a billion-year-old multicellular algal microfossil preserved in shales from the Congo Basin. This discovery has made it possible to unambiguously identify one of the first phototrophic eukaryotic organisms in the fossil record. This research opens up new perspectives in the study of the diversification of eukaryotes within the first ecosystems.