Science

Scientists have found that Rapetosaurus – one of the species of plant-eating titanosaurs – were born with adult like proportions and were more independent than other species of dinosaurs. Kristina Curry Rogers, a paleontologist at Macalester College in Minnesota, and her colleagues found fossils from a baby Rapetosaurus in an ancient 70- to 66-million-year-old rock formation in Madagascar. The specimen, …

NASA astronauts have discovered a lonely planetary-like mass floating on its own, without a solar system. A recent study “provides new clues in this mystery of galactic proportions,” said NASA, after scientists found a free-floating, planetary-mass object within a young star family called the TW Hydrae association.

An Australian fossil enthusiast discovered a giant tooth of an ancient sperm whale that used to roam the seas five million years ago, munching up fish and even other whales. Murray Orr discovered the tooth at a beach at Beaumaris Bay near Melbourne, known for its vast trove of fossils. Orr immediately donated the fossil to Museum Victoria for further …

Pecking at seeds may have helped ancestors of modern birds survive the cataclysm that wiped out the dinosaurs, scientists believe. Most bird-like dinosaur species — like their larger relatives — died off during the extinction event that occurred roughly 66 million years ago. Several early bird species, however, survived. Why did these close relatives of feathered dinosaurs outlast their predecessors? …

Scientists have found substantially different climate change impacts for a global warming of 1.5°C and 2°C by 2100, the two temperature limits included in the Paris climate agreement. The additional 0.5°C would mean a 10-cm-higher global sea-level rise by 2100, longer heat waves, and would result in virtually all tropical coral reefs being at risk. “We found significant differences for …

A message in a bottle thrown into the sea by Plymouth researchers and found more than 100 years later is now officially the oldest in the world. The bottle was released in the North Sea between 1904 and 1906 and found by a woman on a beach in Amrum, Germany in April last year. It has been confirmed as being …

Researchers have warned that disappearing summer and fall sea ice will force polar bears to swim greater distances — and spend more energy doing so — as they try to find enough food to survive. Now they’ve gathered direct evidence that it’s already happening. “While polar bears as a species are eminently suited to swimming, not all bears are equally …

A new interactive robot named Jia Jia was unveiled Friday by the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in Hefei, capital of east China’s Anhui Province. “Jia Jia” looks very much like a real woman and can speak English and Mandarin Chinese. Jia Jia’s limited motion and stilted speech shouldn’t leave anyone in any doubt she’s a robot. …

Like a duel between rival street gangs, two Chinese construction firms have taken their feud to the streets. Half a dozen bulldozers and front-end loaders got into a battle royale on a Chinese street on April 17th, using their buckets and blades as weapons to push and claw at one another. A video captured at the scene showed the clash …

In 1977, the alien-hunting astronomer Jerry Ehman spotted a signal from deep space which was so unusual that he scribbled the word “Wow” in the margin of his notebook. Now an American researcher has uncovered evidence which could finally demolish claims that this mysterious burst of radio waves was produced by an extraterrestrial civilisation. Antonio Paris, a professor of astronomy …

A new study has revealed that certain dinosaur species were in decline millions of years before the meteorite that’s credited for wiping most of them out smashed into Earth. Until now, most experts have believed dinosaurs were flourishing just before disaster struck in the form of a huge asteroid or comet that smashed into the Earth. New research suggests more …