Sauropods, the long-necked giants of the dinosaur world, could orient their forefeet both forward and sideways, with the actual orientation depending on their speed and centre of mass, new research suggests. Read more here
Do you ever feel like there just isn’t enough time in the day? Well, the moon agrees with you — it’s actively slowing the Earth’s rotation, stretching out the length of our days little by little. Read more here
US scientists have introduced us to Galagadon nordquistae, a newly discovered species of freshwater shark from around 67 million years ago. Its claims to fame include having – in the words of said scientists – tiny teeth that “resemble the alien ships from the popular […]
For all the water stored in oceans, ice and other reservoirs at Earth’s surface, there’s likely even more in the planet’s interior, where it plays important roles in many geological processes, including the formation of magma and the lubrication of earthquake-producing fault zones. Read more […]
Supernovae are the explosive end stages of massive stars. About 2.6 million years ago, one such supernova lit up Earth’s sky from about 150 light-years away. A few hundred years later, after the new star had long since faded from the sky, cosmic rays from […]
The magnitude 7.5 earthquake, and subsequent tsunami, that struck Indonesia days ago has resulted in at least 1,200 deaths. Authorities are still gauging the extent of the damage, but it’s clear the earthquake and tsunami had a devastating effect on the Sulawesi region, particularly the city […]
When most of us learn about the solar system, it seems like a pretty well-ordered place. Our sun formed first, about five billion years ago, and the planets appeared a little later. As a very general trend, these planets grew larger and less dense the farther […]
Earth’s inner core is probably softer than previously thought. Seismologists from the Australian National University (ANU) have adapted a method used successfully to study the Earth’s crust and upper mantle to provide new evidence of what lies inside. The idea of there being an inner […]
The theory that feathers evolved only once – in a group of dinosaurs known as therapods, from which birds descended – has been thrown into serious question. In a paper published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, palaeontologists led by Baoyu Jiang from China’s Nanjing University present […]
Science is never exactly easy, but it’s especially tough when you can’t see, touch or even really interact with your subject. Consider the plight of a geophysicist interested in the makeup and structure of Earth’s interior. Without being able to dig up a sample of […]