Tiny planet Kepler-37b found

Astronomers have made what they say are the first observations of a planet outside our solar system smaller than Mercury, the smallest planet orbiting our sun.  Identified by studying nearly three years of high-precision data from NASA’s Kepler spacecraft, the planet is estimated as being about the size of the Earth’s moon. It is one of three planets orbiting a star designated Kepler-37 in the Cygnus-Lyra region of the Milky Way.

The ev­o­lu­tion­ary or­i­gin of the head

Researchers found that the same genes that control head development in higher animals govern the development of the front end of the swimming larva, or juvenile form, of a simple, brainless sea anemone. This front end becomes the so-called “foot” of the adult animal.

Higgs data indicate finite life of universe

Scientists are still sorting out the details of last year's discovery of the Higgs boson particle, but add up the numbers and it's not looking good for the future of the universe.

Tooth decay bacteria evolved as diet changed

Mesolithic hunter-gatherers living on a meat-dominated, grain-free diet had much healthier mouths that we have today, with almost no cavities and gum disease-associated bacteria.

Earliest Common Ancestor Of Placental Mammals

A small, four-legged insect-eating animal was the earliest common ancestor of placental mammals, according to the most detailed exploration of the mammalian 'tree of life' to date.

Fossil leaves uncover mass plant extinction

A previously unknown mass extinction of plants occurred around a million years ago in the southeast corner of Australia, an analysis of fossilised leaves shows.

Evolution of Spoken Language Decrypted and Reconstructed by Computer Algorithm

Archaeologists will gain a powerful new tool in their quest to recover ancestral, disappeared languages: Connecting machine learning algorithms with Big Data in this field proved successful and will automate a process that until now took decades. Spoken language changes continuously, and ancient languages eventually die out and disappear - but only apparently, since even modern languages still contain the roots of those proto-languages.

Neanderthal extinction earlier than thought

Neanderthals may have become extinct in Europe some ten thousand years earlier than scientists currently think, a new radiocarbon dating study suggests.

Intermediate-Luminosity Red Transients

Strange red glowing lights in deep space may be caused by pairs of stars getting so close to each other they share atmospheres.