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Will Dunham
The discovery of the Navaornis hestiae fills the intermediate step in evolution between the first bird-like dinosaurs, such as Archaeopteryx, and living birds.
WORLD / Science & Health
Nov 15, 2024
'One-of-a-kind' fossil from Brazil reveals birds' brain evolution
The fossil discovery filled in a gap of 70 million years in the understanding of the evolution of avian neuroanatomy.
An image of the planet Uranus captured by the NASA spacecraft Voyager 2 in 1986
WORLD / Science & Health
Nov 12, 2024
Scientists reveal misunderstanding about magnetic field around Uranus
The Voyager 2 probe encountered Uranus just a few days after solar wind had compressed its magnetosphere to about 20% of its usual volume.
A bed of rock shows chunks of ripped-up seafloor as debris from a tsunami that followed a huge meteorite impact on Earth dating back to about 3.26 billion years ago, seen in a region called the Barberton Greenstone Belt in northeastern South Africa in this undated photograph.
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 22, 2024
Ancient meteorite was 'giant fertilizer bomb' for life on Earth
The space rock that slammed into Earth 66 million years ago and doomed the dinosaurs was far from the largest meteorite to strike our planet.
A flock of Common Teal fly across a wetland on a winter day on the outskirts of Srinagar.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife
Oct 5, 2024
Study documents extinction of 610 bird species and ecological impacts 
The disappearance of avian species erases functions they serve in innumerable ecosystems and may lead to "secondary knock-on extinctions."
Scientists now think they know the reason behind Mount Everest's growth, and it has to do with the monumental merger of two nearby river systems.
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 4, 2024
Scientists explain Mount Everest's anomalous growth
The geological process at work on Mount Everest, scientists say, is called isostatic rebound.
An artist's impression of a large asteroid impacting at Chicxulub on the Mexican coastline, which caused the end-Cretaceous mass extinction, 66 million years ago, with the planet Mars and asteroid bodies in the background.
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 16, 2024
Asteroid that doomed the dinosaurs originated beyond Jupiter
After migrating inward to become part of the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, the asteroid was somehow sent hurtling in the direction of Earth.
Scientists have proposed a way to heat up Mars using heat-trapping iron or aluminum particles as an initial step toward making the planet habitable for people.
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 10, 2024
Scientists propose warming up Mars by using heat-trapping 'glitter'
The scientists who developed the proposal see it as a potentially doable initial step toward making the planet habitable.
Scientists work inside Baishiya Karst Cave, where the remains of the extinct archaic human species called Denisovans — as well as bones of blue sheep and various other animals — have been discovered, on the northeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau in China's Gansu province, in this undated handout photograph.
WORLD / Science & Health
Jul 4, 2024
Study brings lifestyle of enigmatic extinct Denisovans into focus
Researchers studied more than 2,500 bones found inside Baishiya Karst Cave on the Tibetan Plateau in China's Gangsu province.
A bird perches on an elephant in the Amboseli National Park in Kajiado County, Kenya, on April 4.
WORLD / Science & Health
Jun 12, 2024
Study shows elephants might call each other by name
In the study, researchers analyzed vocalizations made by more than 100 elephants in Amboseli National Park and Samburu National Reserve in Kenya.
Scientists have observed an orangutan applying medicinal herbs to a face wound in an apparently successful attempt to heal an injury, the first time such behavior has been recorded.
WORLD / Science & Health
May 3, 2024
Orangutan's use of medicinal plant to treat wound intrigues scientists
Researchers said they believed this was the first documented case of a wild animal self-treating a wound.
A human tooth discovered at Taforalt Cave in Morocco. Isotopic analysis has uncovered unexpected dietary habits among preagricultural communities in the country.
WORLD / Science & Health
Apr 30, 2024
New study offers insight into what people ate before agriculture
Chemical markers in the bones and teeth from the remains of seven individuals were analyzed, along with several isolated teeth, dating back 15,000 years.
O.J. Simpson appears in district court during his trial at the Clark County Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas in September 2008.
SPORTS
Apr 12, 2024
O.J. Simpson, football star who faced trial for ex-wife's murder, dies at 76
One of the most popular U.S. athletes of the 1970s, Simpson was later found responsible for his former wife's death then imprisoned for other crimes.
An analysis of all the publicly available viral genome sequences yielded a surprising result: humans give more viruses — about twice as many — to animals than they give to us.
WORLD / Science & Health
Mar 27, 2024
Humans give more viruses to animals than they give us, study finds
Researchers looked at nearly 12 million virus genomes and detected almost 3,000 instances of viruses jumping from one species to another.
The study used functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine brain activity.
WORLD / Science & Health
Mar 12, 2024
Study of polyglots offers insight on brain's language processing
The brain's language network consists of a few areas situated in its frontal and temporal lobes.
Scientists on Wednesday identified what might be the genetic mechanism behind humankind's tailless condition — a mutation in a gene instrumental in embryonic development.
WORLD / Science & Health
Mar 3, 2024
People with tails? No, because of this ancient genetic mutation
The absence of a tail may have better balanced the body for orthograde — upright — locomotion and eventually bipedalism, said one scientist.
Chinstrap penguins in Orne Harbour in the western Antarctic peninsula in March 2016
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife
Dec 1, 2023
Antarctic chinstrap penguins get by on just secondslong micronaps
Falling asleep while guarding a nest can spell doom for the eggs and later the chicks, but the species has an ingenious way of getting enough sleep.
U.S. President Jimmy Carter and first lady Rosalynn Carter dance at a White House Congressional Ball in Washington, on Dec. 13, 1978.
WORLD
Nov 20, 2023
Former U.S. first lady Rosalynn Carter dies at 96
Seen as unassuming and quiet before coming to Washington in 1977, Carter developed into an eloquent speaker, campaigner and activist.
A group of chimpanzees listen to other chimpanzees heard at a distance in the West African forests of Cote d'Ivoire, studied as part of research by the Tai Chimpanzee Project, in this undated handout photograph.
WORLD / Science & Health
Nov 3, 2023
Scientists observe chimpanzees using human-like warfare tactic
The study, the researchers said, records for the first time the tactical use of elevated terrain by our species' closest living relatives.
An iceberg in the Weddell Sea, near the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. Researchers say they have detected buried under the continent's ice sheet a vast ancient landscape.
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 26, 2023
Ancient landscape formed by rivers seen deep under Antarctic ice
Researchers say they have detected buried under the continent's ice sheet a vast ancient landscape, replete with valleys and ridges.
The planet Mars as captured by the NASA Hubble Space Telescope in 2016
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 19, 2023
Scientists surprised by source of largest quake detected on Mars
They first suspected a meteorite impact had caused the marsquake. But a search for an impact crater came up empty.

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Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?