Ripples of Underground Magma

A new geologic study suggests waves of magma ripple and move under the Earth's surface over millions of years, whose fluid motion may account for prehistoric changes in sea level and movement of polar ice sheets due to convection currents in the mantle.

Ancient Rubber Makers

The Aztec, Olmec and Maya of ancient Mesoamerica produced various grades of stabilized rubber around 3000 years ago by using natural latex from rubber trees mixed with the juice of morning glory vines.

Lungs Grown and Transplanted

Researchers have taken diseased lungs from a rat and, with a process of chemical washing to reveal the organ's underlying scaffolding and then incubation in a biological slurry of lung cells, have successfully regrown healthy, functional lungs that were subsequently implanted back into the original rat.

Superstorm Seen on Exoplanet

By studying the spectral signatures of carbon monoxide between the day and night side of the gas giant exoplanet HD209458b, astronomers have for the first time detected a global superstorm on the planet with winds of up to 10,000 kph.

Evolution of Limb/Fin Gene

Researchers have identified two specific genes of zebrafish embryos that encodes for development of the fins, marking a significant evolutionary artifact as it is believed that the loss of this gene began the transition into limb development for higher animals.

Music from the Sun

Astronomers have discovered longitudinal vibrations within the outermost layer of the Sun's atmosphere that produce harmonious audible-wavelength sounds, providing a new insight into the physics of the solar corona.

Upright Walking in Humans

The discovery of new 3.6-million-year-old male Australopithecus afarensis fossil remains in Ethiopia supports the idea that upright walking in hominids, corresponding to the elongation of our legs, evolved even earlier than previously believed.

New Air Conditioning System

A new technology combining evaporative cooling membranes with liquid dessicant salt solutions (DEVap) produces commercial-grade air conditioning that uses 50% to 90% less energy than even the most advanced units available on the market today.

Extreme Gravity with Oxygen

For the first time, the extreme gravitational effects of a neutron star consuming a nearby white dwarf have been detected through the x-ray signature of elemental oxygen instead of the more common yet ambiguous iron.

Star Birth Witnessed

Astronomers have observed an object in the Perseus star-forming region that is in the earliest stages of star formation, having just begun pulling in matter from a surrounding cloud of gas and dust, and is believed to be the earliest protostar yet discovered.

Prehistoric Mammal Tooth Marks

Paleontologists have discovered a variety of dinosaur bones in Alberta, Canada, from the Late Cretaceous that have evidence of mammalian tooth marks, the earliest such gnawing evidence from the primitive mammals of that age.

Brain's Distorted Body Model

A hand study reveals the brain's representation and perception of various body parts is highly distorted from the actual proportions, most likely due to the differences in sensory information received from those parts.

Multiple Higgs Bosons

New data gathered by the DZero experiment at Fermilab suggests that the as-yet undiscovered Higgs boson, believed to be the quantum mechanism behind mass, may not be a single particle but as many as five differently charged particles.

Ancient Ocean on Mars

A new study analyzing water-related topography concludes that a vast sustained sea covered roughly a third of the surface of Mars about 3.5 billion years ago.