More from Laura Baisas

High fiber foods, including coconuts, Brussel sprouts, squash, and spinach on a wooden table.
Diseases

Chronic constipation could be a sign of a worsening health condition

By Laura Baisas

An artistic reconstruction showing how this 300,000 year-old stick would have been thrown on a hunt. Two men stand in a shallow body of water, with one aiming the stick towards three birds.
Archaeology

A javelin-like stick shows early humans may have been keen woodworkers

By Laura Baisas

This image taken with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) shows the young planetary system PDS 70, located nearly 400 light-years away from Earth. The system features a star at its center, around which the planet PDS 70 b is orbiting. On the same orbit as PDS 70b, astronomers have detected a cloud of debris that could be the building blocks of a new planet or the remnants of one already formed. The ring-like structure that dominates the image is a circumstellar disc of material, out of which planets are forming. There is in fact another planet in this system: PDS 70c, seen to the right of the inner rim of the disc.
Deep Space

New image reveals a Jupiter-like world that may share its orbit with a ‘twin’

By Laura Baisas

Aerial view of Shishaldin Volcano with Isanotski Peaks in the background, taken from a helicopter overflight during geology field work on Unimak Island in the Aleutians. August 15, 2018.
Environment

Alaska’s Shishaldin Volcano spews 5.5-mile-high ash cloud

By Laura Baisas

Currency printed by Franklin and his partner David Hall and later by the firm of Hall and William Sellers. Soon after establishing himself as an independent printer, Benjamin Franklin was awarded the “very profitable Jobb” of printing Pennsylvania bills of credit, partly because he had written and published a pamphlet on the need for paper currency in 1729.
Science

Benjamin Franklin used science to protect his money from counterfeiters

By Laura Baisas

Illustration showing Repenomamus robustus as it attacks Psittacosaurus lujiatunensis moments before a volcanic debris flow buries them both about 125 million years ago.
Animals

This badger-like mammal may have died while trying to eat a dinosaur

By Laura Baisas

A preterm baby in an incubator in a neonatal intensive care unit. RSV sends about 58,000 children under five to the hospital every year in the United States.
Diseases

FDA approves long-acting medication to protect babies from RSV

By Laura Baisas

A green sea turtle swims in the ocean.
Animals

Hungry green sea turtles have eaten in the same seagrass meadows for about 3,000 years

By Laura Baisas

In this artist’s rendering from 2020, the small white orb represents the white dwarf (a remnant of a long-dead sun-like star), while the purple foreground object is the newly discovered brown dwarf companion, confirmed by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. This faint brown dwarf was previously overlooked until being spotted by citizen scientists working with Backyard Worlds: Planet 9, a NASA-funded citizen science project.
Science

A Jupiter-sized dwarf star burns half as hot as a campfire

By Laura Baisas

A protester stands next to a digital display of an unofficial heat reading at Furnace Creek Visitor Center during a heat wave in Death Valley National Park in Death Valley, California, on July 16, 2023. The signs read “this is the climate emergency,” and “happy death day.”
Climate Change

Extreme heat warning extends to more than 100 million people in the US

By Laura Baisas

An artist’s illustration of Alligator munensis, which is skimming the water with its eye out and surrounded by lush green trees. The large tooth sockets towards the back of its mouth suggest this extinct gator could crush shells and may have snacked on hard-shelled prey like snails.
Animals

Extinct snub-nosed gator had big teeth for crushing snails

By Laura Baisas

Multiple boxes of Diet Coke on a store shelf.
Food Safety

WHO categorizes aspartame as a possible carcinogen—but don’t panic

By Laura Baisas

A dire wolf reconstruction on exhibit at the La Brea Tar Pits & Museum.
Animals

Mighty saber-toothed cats and dire wolves probably had achy joints

By Laura Baisas

This image of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover at the rim of Belva Crater was taken by the agency’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter during the rotorcraft’s 51st flight on April 22, 2023, the 772nd Martian day, or sol, of the rover’s mission. At the time the image was taken, the helicopter was at an altitude of about 40 feet.
Mars

NASA rover finds evidence of carbon-based chemistry in Martian crater

By Laura Baisas

Rows of birth control pills with the days of the week on the label.
Health

FDA approves first over-the-counter birth control pill in the US

By Laura Baisas

An image of the northern Gulf of Mexico created from remote-sensing reflectance and chlorophyll measurements taken from newly reprocessed VIIRS data. Green water is seen closer to the coast, while it gets darker and more blue further out.
Climate Change

Scientists say the ocean is changing color—and it’s probably our fault

By Laura Baisas

A banded sea snake swimming freely
Animals

Some sea snakes may not be colorblind after all

By Laura Baisas

This is an artist impression of exoplanet LTT9779b orbiting its host star. The host star is located on the left as a large white circle with rays coming out of it in orange. The exoplanet is smaller and shown on the right of the image. The side of the exoplanet that is facing its host star is illuminated. The planet is around the size of Neptune and reflects 80% of the light shone on it, making it the largest known “mirror” in the Universe. The background of the image is black and speckled across the image is a starfield, showing innumerable stars of many sizes
Deep Space

The Milky Way’s shiniest known exoplanet has glittering metallic clouds

By Laura Baisas

Heavy rain sends mud and debris down the Ottauquechee River in Quechee, Vermont on July 10, 2023.
Climate Change

Dangerous inland flooding will last for days in some Northeast states

By Laura Baisas

A large group of shells on a beach. Organisms with hard, durable parts, like shells, are more likely to be preserved as fossils than organisms composed entirely of soft tissue.
Animals

The fossil record holds clues about modern-day marine ecology

By Laura Baisas

A honey bee pollinates a yellow flower against a bright blue sky.
Animals

Bee brains could teach robots to make split-second decisions

By Laura Baisas

Two male male rhesus macaques sit on the ground, one with his head down towards the other
Animals

Same-sex mounting in male macaques can help them reproduce more successfully

By Laura Baisas

A green and blue aurora borealis glows above a body of water and mountains.
Science

Updated forecast shows northern lights won’t be visible in most US states this week

By Laura Baisas

A doctor points to multiple MRI's of the brain. A newly approved drug targets beta-amyloid, a brain protein that has long been believed by scientists to be one of the underlying causes of Alzheimer’s disease.
Diseases

Alzheimer’s-slowing drug Leqembi gains full FDA approval

By Laura Baisas

A four-legged spider mite sits on a plant.
Animals

Before spider mites mate, one of them gets their skin removed

By Laura Baisas

A family plays a board game.
Health

Kids pick up math skills while playing certain board games

By Laura Baisas

Abortion rights demonstrators march behind a sign that reads "Abortion on demand and without apology," near the State Capitol in Austin, Texas on June 25, 2022. Abortion rights defenders fanned out across America on June 25 for a second day of protest against the Supreme Court's thunderbolt ruling, as state after conservative state moved swiftly to ban the procedure.
Health

Texas saw a jump in its birth rate after banning most abortions, according to new study

By Laura Baisas

A recreation drawing of “The Ivory Lady.” Her remains date back to the Copper Age and her individual burial and the treasures in her tomb indicate that she possibly held the highest status in her society. She is seated above other members who are attentively listening to her. She is also adorned in a red top with a headdress.
Archaeology

Treasures from the ‘Ivory Lady’ tomb reveal a Copper Age woman’s extraordinary power

By Laura Baisas

Crotalus helleri snake
Animals

Stressed rattlesnakes just need a little help from their friends

By Laura Baisas

A Southwest Research Institute scientist named Norm Pelletier is wearing all white protective gear as he prepares the Ultraviolet Spectrograph (UVS) for delivery and integration onto the European Space Agency’s JUICE spacecraft. As part of a 10-instrument payload to study Jupiter and its large moons, UVS will measure ultraviolet spectra that scientists will use to study the composition and structure of the atmospheres of these bodies and how they interact with Jupiter’s massive magnetosphere.
Moons

A toaster-sized NASA instrument captured a UV scene of the Milky Way

By Laura Baisas

Octopuses brooding near hydrothermal vents deep under water. The 19-day Octopus Odyssey expedition located a site of low temperature (7oC) hydrothermal venting with brooding octopus on an unnamed outcrop that was explored for the very first time on this trip.
Animals

New species of inkless octopus may have been found in Costa Rica’s deep seas

By Laura Baisas

Beach-goers seeking relief from the heat at Bolsa Chica State Beach in Huntington Beach California, on July 1, 2023.
Climate Change

July 3 may have marked the hottest day ever recorded

By Laura Baisas

An illustration of Anomalocaris, which lived 541 million to 530 million years ago during the Cambrian Period. The animal has two bulging eyes on the top of its head and spiny front appendages,
Biology

Ancient ‘weird shrimp from Canada’ used bizarre appendages to scarf up soft prey

By Laura Baisas

falcon perches on handler's glove, jersey shore attractions in background
Animals

The birds of summer patrolling Ocean City’s boardwalk

By Laura Baisas, Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet

The ringed planet Saturn imaged for the first time using near-infrared observations. The planet itself appears quite dark and the rings are bright.
Deep Space

Saturn’s rings get a glow up in new near-infrared telescope images

By Laura Baisas

Common bottlenose dolphins swimming in Coffee Bay in South Africa.
Animals

Drones are following dolphins to spy on their complex social lives

By Laura Baisas

A painting of a group of prehistoric residents of Tabon Cave in the Philippines, featuring four individuals of varying ages, using fiber technology at Tabon Cave, 39 to 33,000 years ago. It was painted by Carole Chwval for the exhibition "Trajectories and Movements of the Philippine Identity," curated by Hermine Xhauflair and Eunice Averion.
Archaeology

Damage on 39,000-year-old tools may reveal a prehistoric ‘Age of Bamboo’

By Laura Baisas

A full moon known as the Buck Moon is seen as a deer grazes outside the village of Taarbaek, Denmark on July 14, 2022.
Mars

July’s skies heat up with the Buck Moon, a shimmery Venus, and more

By Laura Baisas

A fresco painted on a wall in the ancient city of Pompeii that depicts a focaccia with fruit and possibly pesto sauce on it. It is served on a silver tray and has a wine chalice next to it.
Archaeology

A fresco discovered in Pompeii looks like ancient pizza—but it’s likely focaccia

By Laura Baisas

A Cryo-EM map of a Fanzor protein indicated by gray, yellow, light blue, and pink in complex with ωRNA indicated in purple and its target DNA in red. Non-target DNA strand in blue.
Biology

These organisms have a natural gene-editing system that could be more useful than CRISPR

By Laura Baisas

A greater honeyguide feeding on beeswax with an open mouth in Niassa Special Reserve in Mozambique.
Animals

Badgers and birds may be teaming up to steal honey

By Laura Baisas

The silhouette of a female hunter with a bow and arrow at sunrise.
Biology

Women have been skillful, purposeful hunters in most foraging societies

By Laura Baisas

A mosquito sitting on a bright green leaf.
Animals

Rare homegrown malaria cases in the US force health advisory, but don’t panic yet

By Laura Baisas

Pouring a cup of hot coffee into a mug.
Health

The ‘experience’ of a cup of coffee may be just as stimulating as its caffeine

By Laura Baisas

A spider monkey stands on a tree branch with a baby monkey on her back.
Animals

The ancestor of all placental mammals survived the dino-killing asteroid

By Laura Baisas

A saltwater crocodile peering up over green-ish water.
Animals

Why scientists gave vaccines to farmed crocodiles

By Laura Baisas

An orangutan sits in the forest and looks forward with its hands under its chin.
Animals

Orangutans can make two sounds at the same time

By Laura Baisas

An artist's illustration of a megalogon, which went extinct 3.6 million years ago and are believed to have grown to lengths of 50 feet.
Animals

Megalodons were likely warm-blooded, despite being stone-cold killers

By Laura Baisas

A close-up of a katydid, an insect with six long and lean legs.
Animals

A 50-million-year-old insect testicle is one lucky find

By Laura Baisas

Close-up photos of three fossil animal specimens from the same area and time horizon as the fossil hominin tibia studied by the research team. These fossils show similar cut marks to those found on the hominin tibia studied. The photos show (a) an antelope mandible, (b) an antelope radius (lower front leg bone) and (c) a large mammal scapula (shoulder blade).
Archaeology

Cut-up prehistoric bone raises questions about early human cannibalism

By Laura Baisas

Astronomers studying a powerful gamma-ray burst (GRB) with the International Gemini Observatory, operated by NSF’s NOIRLab, may have observed a never-before-seen way to destroy a star. Unlike most GRBs, which are caused by exploding massive stars or the chance mergers of neutron stars, astronomers have concluded that this GRB came instead from the collision of stars or stellar remnants in the jam-packed environment surrounding a supermassive black hole at the core of an ancient galaxy.
Black Holes

Explosive star ‘demolition derby’ observed for the very first time

By Laura Baisas

An artist’s reconstruction of Olympicetus thalassodon pursuing a school of fishes alongside plotopterid birds (background) somewhere in the eastern North Pacific Ocean.
Animals

This dolphin ancestor looked like a cross between Flipper and Moby Dick

By Laura Baisas

An aerial view of the excavation site in Tiel, Netherlands. The excavation of the 4,000 year old sanctuary began in 2017.
Archaeology

Newly discovered ‘Stonehenge of the Netherlands’ is 4,000 years old

By Laura Baisas

A school of grunts and horse-eye jack fish swim above a reef in Hol Chan Marine Reserve near Ambergris Cay, Belize.
Animals

Fish are thriving near marine protected areas—and so are coastal communities

By Laura Baisas

Two small huts near clear, turquoise tropical waters in Tobacco Caye, Belize. he Central American country is the third nation this year to be certified malaria-free.
Animals

After a 70-year battle, the WHO declares Belize malaria-free

By Laura Baisas

Examples of engravings discovered in the Roche-Cotard cave (Indre et Loire - France). On the left, the "circular panel" (ogive-shaped tracings) and on the right the "wavy panel" (two contiguous tracings forming sinuous lines).
Archaeology

Neanderthals were likely creating art 57,000 years ago

By Laura Baisas

Bumblebee pollinator over red and orange flowers
Animals

Microscopic worms use electricity to ride bumblebees like EVs

By Laura Baisas

A white Andalusian horse galloping in a field.
Animals

Horses once had multiple hoofed toes

By Laura Baisas

An old scale used for calculating body weight.
Health

New medical policy finally address the limitations and flaws of BMI

By Laura Baisas

A summer sunrise over a grassy meadow.
Climate Change

‘Unprecedented’ ocean temperatures and extreme heat waves pop up around the globe

By Laura Baisas

An archaeologist uncovers a skull and bones. The Trumpington Cross was found during the excavation of the burial in 2012.
Archaeology

This 7th-century teen was buried with serious bling—and we now know what she may have looked like

By Laura Baisas

A glow-worm on a leaf.
Animals

Bright white lights are a buzzkill for glow-worm romance

By Laura Baisas

Two ants facing one another. Ants release a pheromone that helps other ants sense danger.
Animals

Ants brains are surprisingly good at communicating danger to others

By Laura Baisas

A Tyrannosaurus Rex menaces the theme park's first customers in a scene from the 1993 film Jurassic Park.
Dinosaurs

Celebrate 30 years of Jurassic Park with these recent dinosaur discoveries

By Laura Baisas