China's Shenzhou-16 crew complete first extravehicular activity
Shenzhou-16 crew members Jing Haipeng, Zhu Yangzhu and Gui Haichao successfully completed all the assigned tasks and safely returned to the space research module with the support of the robotic…
These beetles use surface tension to water-ski
Waterlily beetles (Galerucella nymphaeae) literally fly across water, high speed videography and a bit of mathematical modeling reveals. The beetles have a combination of hydrophobic hairs that line their legs…
Ancient Assyrians buried their dead with turtles
Ancient Assyrians sent their dead to the afterlife with fearsome companions: turtles. Excavations of a burial pit in southeastern Turkey revealed skeletons of a woman and a child, plus 21…
Science’s inconvenient (but interesting) uncertainties
Earth sciences reporter Thomas Sumner recalls seeing the documentary film An Inconvenient Truth when he was in high school. The climate science presented in the movie didn’t surprise him too…
A weasel has shut down the Large Hadron Collider
CERN’s Large Hadron Collider is in standby mode after a 66-kilovolt/18-kilovolt electrical transformer suffered a short circuit April 29 at 5:30 a.m. Central European Time. The culprit: A small wild…
Heartburn drugs can damage cells that line blood vessels
A popular type of heartburn medicine could hasten wear and tear of blood vessels. Proton pump inhibitors, or PPIs, gunk up cells that typically line the veins and arteries like…
Hornbills join toucans in the cool beak club
In the scorching heat of the Kalahari Desert, some birds still manage to keep their cool. Thermal imaging reveals that the southern yellow-billed hornbill (Tockus leucomelas) vents heat from its…
Bacteria resistant to last-resort antibiotic appears in U.S.
A last-ditch weapon against drug-resistant bacteria has met its match in Pennsylvania. A 49-year-old woman has tested positive for a strain of Escherichia coli resistant to the antibiotic colistin, researchers…
Earth has a tiny tagalong, and no, it’s not a moon
QuasisatelliteKWAH-zee-SAT-ah-lite n.A body that orbits the sun and appears to orbit Earth. Asteroid 2016 HO3 appears to orbit Earth, but that’s just an illusion. As the space rock loops around…
Black hole born without stellar parent, evidence suggests
A remote galaxy might harbor a type of black hole that arises directly from a massive cloud of gas rather than forming after the death of a star. This rare…