Argonauta argo, also known as the greater argonaut, is a species of octopus that lives in tropical and subtropical open seas. Female argonauts have a protective, spiral, shell-like egg case, which protects the eggs inside. Researchers have long wondered about the origin of this egg case. It looks very much like the shell of the commonly known pearly nautilus (Nautilus pompilius). This very distant relative of the argonaut has a true hard shell and lives on the ocean floor, but that may just be a coincidence....

How do organisms evolve into individuals that are distinguished from others by their own personal brain structure and behavior? Scientists in Dresden, Berlin, Münster, and Saarbrücken have now taken a decisive step towards clarifying this question. Using mice as an animal model, they were able to show that individual experiences influence the development of new neurons, leading to measurable changes in the brain. The results of this study are published in Science on May 10th....

While meteorites—due to their extreme origins in space—present researchers with a wide variety of material phases from the oldest states of the solar system, they also present detection challenges because of the potentially minute measurability of the phases. The research team overcame this challenge using an ultrasensitive measurement technique called magnetic field modulated microwave spectroscopy (MFMMS). Details of their work are published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)....

The research could help development of new pest control methods. A unique study conducted by University of Georgia entomologists led to the discovery of a distinctive supergene in fire ant colonies that determines whether young queen ants will leave their birth colony to start their own new colony or if they will join one with multiple queens. Researchers also found that ants were more aggressive toward queens who don’t possess the supergene, causing main colony workers to kill them....

Astronomers have studied active galaxies since the 1950s. Active galaxies have a super-massive black hole at their center that is swallowing matter. During these active phases the objects often emit extremely strong radio, infrared, ultraviolet, and X-ray radiation. In two new publications, an international team of astronomers focused on all the active galaxies in the well-studied GOODS-North region in the constellation of Ursa Major. Until now that region had been studied mainly by space telescopes collecting visible light, infrared light and UV light....

A supernova “remnant” refers to the collective, leftover signs of an exploded star, or supernova. The red filaments in this image belong to a supernova remnant known as HBH 3 that was first observed in 1966 using radio telescopes. Traces of the remnant also radiate optical light. The branches of glowing material are most likely molecular gas that was pummeled by a shockwave generated by the supernova. The energy from the explosion energized the molecules and caused them to radiate infrared light....

Is it a magnetar or is it a pulsar? A second member of a rare breed of dead, spinning star has been identified thanks to an armada of space-based X-ray telescopes, including ESA’s XMM-Newton. Its curious behavior is illustrated in this animation. Animation illustrating the behavior of recently discovered Swift J1822.3–1606, a ‘low-field magnetar’ with an intense internal magnetic field that ruptures through the star’s crust in bursts of X-ray emission....

Among the features coming into focus are the jutting curves of the Arches Cluster containing the densest concentration of stars in our galaxy, as well as the Quintuplet Cluster with stars a million times brighter than our Sun. Our galaxy’s black hole takes shape with a glimpse of the fiery-looking ring of gas surrounding it. The new view was made possible by the world’s largest airborne telescope, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA....

The risk of death for patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection and thoracic cancer is based on seven major determinants, according to research published in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology, the official journal of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer. The researchers analyzed data from The Thoracic Cancers International COVID-19 Collaboration (TERAVOLT), which is an active global registry that was established in March 2020 to understand the impact of COVID-19 infection on patients with thoracic malignancies in academic and community practices globally....

The Paleozoic era culminated 251.9 million years ago in the most severe mass extinction recorded in the geologic record. Known as the “great dying,” this event saw the loss of up to 96% of all marine species and around 70% of terrestrial species, including plants and insects. The consensus view of scientists is that volcanic activity at the end of the Permian period, associated with the Siberian Traps Large Igneous Province, emitted massive quantities of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere over a short time interval....

Its special properties mean it could be useful in the development of quantum computing. A world leading team of ultra-low temperature physicists at Lancaster University decided to place a LEGO ® figure and four LEGO ® blocks inside their record-breaking dilution refrigerator. For the first time, LEGO ® has been cooled to the lowest temperature possible in an experiment which reveals a new use for the popular toy. Credit: Josh Chawner This machine – specially made at the University – is the most effective refrigerator in the world, capable of reaching 1....

A recent study in the Journal of Biological Chemistry has revealed the secret behind an evolutionary marvel: a bacteriophage with an extremely long tail. This extraordinary tail is part of a bacteriophage that lives in inhospitable hot springs and preys on some of the toughest bacteria on the planet. Bacteriophages are a group of viruses that infect and replicate in bacteria and are the most common and diverse things on Earth....

10 January 2013. In their search for habitable worlds, astronomers have started to consider exomoons, or those likely orbiting planets outside the solar system. In a new study, a pair of researchers found that exomoons are just as likely to support life as exoplanets. The research, conducted by René Heller of Germany’s Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam and Rory Barnes of the University of Washington and the NASA Astrobiology Institute, will appear in the January issue of Astrobiology....

The Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project has discovered the remains of a major new prehistoric stone monument less than 3 kilometers from Stonehenge. Durrington Walls is one of the largest known henge monuments measuring 500m in diameter and thought to have been built around 4,500 years ago. Measuring more than 1.5 kilometers in circumference, it is surrounded by a ditch up to 17.6m wide and an outer bank c.40m wide and surviving up to a height of 1 meter....

An active region on the sun, labeled AR1515, sent out an M5.3 class solar flare that peaked at 5:55 AM EDT on July 4, 2012. This is the same region that produced an M5.6 class flare on July 2, and several smaller flares as well. The sunspots (left, lower group) causing this latest burst of activity stretches more than 100,000 miles across, over 12 times the diameter of Earth.

Waters near the city of Erciş (population 90,000) are shallow, but other parts of the lake can be up to 450 meters (1,467 feet) deep. Lake Van water levels have changed by 100s of meters over the past 600,000 years due to climate change, volcanic eruptions, and tectonic activity. Turbidity plumes, which appear as swirls of light- and dark-toned water, are mostly comprised of calcium carbonate, detrital materials, and some organic matter....

It could be an early step to establishing an extra-terrestrial oxygen extraction plant. This would help to enable exploration and sustain life on the Moon while avoiding the enormous cost of sending materials from Earth. The oxygen generated would mostly be used to make rocket fuel, but could also provide air for lunar settlers. The project is part of ESA’s preparations to establish a permanent and sustainable lunar presence. Astronauts will live and work on the Moon, where they will help to develop and test technologies needed for missions farther into deep space....

Astronomers using ESO facilities in combination with telescopes in the Canary Islands have identified two surprisingly massive stars at the heart of the planetary nebula Henize 2-428. As they orbit each other the two stars are expected to slowly get closer and closer, and when they merge, about 700 million years from now, they will contain enough material to ignite a vast supernova explosion. The results appear online in the journal Nature....

Ride-hailing trips increase the number of crashes for motorists and pedestrians at pick-up and drop-off locations, reports a new study from researchers at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. The research is the first to use data for individual ride-hailing trips, rather than comparing cities where ride-hailing is available to those where it is not available. The findings are published in the journal Injury Prevention. Motor vehicle crashes are one of the main causes of death globally, and each year around 1....

As with human embryonic stem cells, the newly found cells are pluripotent, or capable of turning into most cell types, the authors said. The scientists discovered that when the cells were put either in mice, or in cell culture, the cells could differentiate to produce multiple cell types, including those that proceed to make heart, intestine, brain, pancreas and even cartilage. The finding is significant, the authors said, because scientists previously believed that pluripotent cells did not exist in the body after the embryonic stage of human development....