This is a Mursi woman of Nilo-Saharan ancestry. Nilo-Saharan pastoralist populations possess some of the darkest skin in Africa. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania found mutations associated with both light and dark pigmentation in a genome-wide association study...
White-headed capuchin in Manuel Antonio National Park, Costa Rica. Credit: © nicksen / Fotolia Rhesus macaques and capuchin monkeys can find a stable solution when playing a competitive game in which one opponent always does better than the other, but only...
The white calcite 'veins' of the Loma Blanca fault are evident in this slab of rock on the fault. These veins of calcite reveal a record of fluid-driven earthquakes clustered together on a fault typically characterized by less frequent,...
MIT scientists have determined the structure of an enzyme that is found in ocean microbes and can produce a precursor to methane. Credit: David Born Industrial and agricultural activities produce large amounts of methane, a greenhouse gas that contributes to global...
Evidence from ancient volcanic deposits suggests that lunar magma contained substantial amounts of water, bolstering the idea that the moon's interior is water-rich. Credit: Olga Prilipko Huber A new study of satellite data finds that numerous volcanic deposits distributed across the...
From left, geology graduate students Jiashun Hu and Quan Zhou and professor Lijun Liu challenge traditional theories about western US volcanism with new evidence from supercomputer modeling. Credit: L. Brian Stauffer Recent stories in the national media are magnifying fears of...
Spacecraft Cassini with an instrument from the Swedish Institute of Space Physics on board (in red circle) passed through Saturn’s atmosphere. Credit: Artist’s impression: NASA A Langmuir probe, developed in Sweden and flown to Saturn on the Cassini spacecraft, has made...
The Earth's magnetosphere is home to the plasma waves being studied by Yuri Shprits and colleagues. Credit: NASA In the 1960s, NASA launched six satellites to study Earth's atmosphere, magnetosphere and the space between Earth and the moon. Using observations from...
Of the more than 1,000 verified planets found by NASA's Kepler Space Telescope, eight are less than twice Earth-size and in their stars' habitable zone. Credit: NASA Planet Earth is situated in what astronomers call the Goldilocks Zone -- a sweet...
Purple finches, indicators of healthy coniferous habitat, are declining in the Northwest, according to data from the Klamath Bird Observatory. Credit: J. Livaudais Populations of many North American songbirds are declining, and in many cases we don't understand why -- for...
Sealings from the archive of Doliche. Credit: Asia Minor Research Centre Classical scholars from the Cluster of Excellence "Religion and Politics" of the University of Münster discovered a large number of sealings in south-east Turkey. "This unique group of artefacts comprising...