Burning planet leaves dust in its wake

Astronomers have for the first time, found a rocky planet that's slowly being vapourised by the blistering heat of the star it's orbiting.

Palæontologists discover new type of raptor

A new species of raptor dinosaur that was about the size of a coyote has been found near Utah's iconic Arches National Park. The raptor was among several discovered at or near Doelling's Bowl Bone Bed, about 370 kilometres southeast of Salt Lake City, which has yielded several new species in the last two decades and is thought to be the base of Utah's Cretaceous record. Fossils found at the bone bed are estimated at between 120 and 130 million years old.

The turtle is closer to crocodiles and birds than lizards and snakes

The ancestry of the turtle, which evolved between 200 and 300 million years ago, has caused much scientific squabbling - its physiology suggesting a different branch of the family tree than its genes do.

Earliest wall art features female genitalia

A massive block of limestone in France contains what scientists believe are the earliest known engravings of wall art dating back some 37,000 years.

Light from “super-Earth” reported

NASA’s Spitzer Space Tel­e­scope has de­tected light from a “su­per-Earth” plan­et be­yond our so­lar sys­tem for the first time.

Instead of “dark matter,” rogue planets?

Weeks after two stud­ies cast doubt on a the­o­ry that a strange “dark mat­ter” ac­counts for vast amounts of material in the uni­verse that’s mis­sing, an­oth­er study pro­poses a rad­i­cal new solution: Planets.

No single “God spot” in brain

Multiple parts of the human brain contribute to spirituality, so there is no single “God spot” in that organ of the mind as scientists have speculated, a study indicates.  University of Missouri scientists sought to replicate a previous study finding linking a sense of spiritual “transcendence” with lowered activity in a brain region called the right parietal lobe. That finding held up, but the researchers also determined that other aspects of spiritual functioning are related to increased activity in another part of the brain.

Mystery of cosmic rays deepens

Mysterious particles routinely pummeling Earth’s atmosphere from space don’t seem to come from cosmic explosions as many scientists have theorised.

Art appreciation, self-reflection may go together in the brain

A network of brain structures activated during intense aesthetic experiences overlaps with another that’s associated with inward contemplation and self-assessment.

Wall of stars found to extend through our galaxy

A wall of mini-galaxies and star clus­ters sur­rounds our gal­axy, as­tro­no­mers say—and poses a new problem for the theory of “dark mat­ter,” an in­vis­i­ble sub­stance that permeates galaxies.

Unexpected allies aid ants at war with “zombifying” parasite

Tropical ants plagued by a par­a­site that turns them in­to “zom­bies” have un­ex­pected al­lies in their strug­gle: oth­er par­a­sites, sci­en­tists say.

Hot Jupiters

Astronomers searching for Earth-like planets can strike off stars that have a 'hot Jupiter' orbiting around them.

After anæsthesia, “primitive” consciousness awakens first

Our con­fused first wak­ing mo­ments af­ter gen­er­al an­æs­the­sia rep­re­sent a ru­di­men­ta­ry form of consciousness that arises from an­cient brain struc­tures, new re­search con­cludes.  The sci­en­tists in­volved de­scribed this mud­dled men­tal state as a “prim­i­tive” con­scious­ness based on deep brain struc­tures that hu­mans pos­sess in com­mon with many an­i­mals.

Where’s the dark matter?

Dark mat­ter is not here, a new study has con­clud­ed. It might be somewhere else, but not in, or even anywhere near, our so­lar sys­tem. And that’s a big prob­lem, be­cause it should be all over the gal­axy. To make mat­ter worse, dark mat­ter is still sadly very much needed to plug oth­er gaps in as­tro­nom­i­cal theories.