More from Laura Baisas (Page 14)

Green dots representing spores are dispersed from a leaf.

Watch ‘tiny tornadoes’ spread plant pathogens

By Laura Baisas

Two long stone tools from the Lincombian–Ranisian–Jerzmanowician (LRJ) culture uncovered at Ranis. Item 1 is a partial bifacial blade point characteristic of the LRJ. Item 2 also contains finely made bifacial leaf points.

Neanderthals and modern humans intermingled in Europe 45,000 years ago

By Laura Baisas

A multiple-exposure photograph of insects circling an artificial light at night. The light can mess with a moth’s sense of what direction is up and which way is down.

Why artificial light—and evolution—trap moths

By Laura Baisas

H5N1 flu has been confirmed in Gentoo penguins for the first time. Over 20 Gentoo chicks have been reported dead from the virus or are showing symptoms of this highly contagious strain of bird flu.

Antarctic penguins are now dying from the H5N1 strain of bird flu

By Laura Baisas

Face-on spiral galaxy, NGC 628, is split diagonally in this image: The James Webb Space Telescope’s observations appear at top left, and the Hubble Space Telescope’s on bottom right. JWST’s observations combine near- and mid-infrared light and Hubble’s showcase visible light. Dust absorbs ultraviolet and visible light, and then re-emits it in the infrared. In JWST’s images, we see dust glowing in infrared light. In Hubble’s images, dark regions are where starlight is absorbed by dust.

Space Telescope

JWST images show off the swirling arms of 19 spiral galaxies

By Laura Baisas

An artist’s reconstruction of the locomotor behavior and paleoenvironment of Lufengpithecus. Six primates that resemble chimpanzees are in a wooded area. Some are walking upright on two legs, while others are on all fours.

Extinct ape’s inner ear holds clues to how humans learned to walk upright

By Laura Baisas

A great white pup swimming in the Pacific Ocean. In July 2023, wildlife filmmaker Carlos Gauna and University of California, Riverside biology doctoral student Phillip Sternes took footage of what could be the first newborn great white shark ever recorded.

This could be the first newborn great white shark ever captured on camera

By Laura Baisas

The full moon rises, with clouds below and behind it.

The moon is shrinking (very slowly)

By Laura Baisas

This photograph shows a male dusky antechinus in a naturalistic enclosure located in Cape Otway, Australia.

Sex is more important than sleep for these marsupials

By Laura Baisas

A bright young star within a colorful nebula. The star is identifiable as the brightest spot in the image, surrounded by six large spokes of light that cross the image. A number of other bright spots can also be seen in the clouds, which are shown in great detail as layers of colorful wisps.

Space Telescope

Check out JWST’s new image of a star factory

By Laura Baisas

A colony of Emperor penguins in Antarctica. The larger black, white, and yellow adult penguins are standing behind the small and fuzzy black, white, and grey chicks.

Poop stains reveal four previously unknown Emperor penguin colonies

By Laura Baisas

A blue bottle fly.

How bug ‘wranglers’ help document the lives of flies, dung beetles, and more

By Laura Baisas

A colorful orange pink, and purple butterfly rotates against a dark screen. A new camera system and software package allows both researchers and filmmakers to capture and display animal-view videos.

How animals see the world, according to a new camera system

By Laura Baisas

A sea otter resting in a kelp bed in Monterey Bay, California.

Sea otters can help conserve vital kelp forests

By Laura Baisas

A top-down view of the OSIRIS-REx Touch-and-Go-Sample-Acquisition-Mechanism (TAGSAM) head with the lid removed, revealing the remainder of the asteroid sample inside. The picture was taken using manual high-resolution precision photography and a semi-automated focus stacking procedure. The result is an image that can be zoomed in on to show extreme detail of the sample. The remaining sample material includes dust and rocks up to about 0.4 inch in size.

This is what’s inside NASA’s previously stuck asteroid sampler

By Laura Baisas

A brownish-gray tardigrade swimming. These microscopic invertebrates have eight limbs and shriveled skin.

We may know what makes tardigrades so darn tough

By Laura Baisas

A mako shark swimming in the ocean.

The ‘meg’ may have been longer and less chonky than previously thought

By Laura Baisas

A yellow salamander with a brown stripe on its back sits on a green leaf.

Endangered Species

Why small, scary, and ‘non-charismatic’ lost species are harder to rediscover

By Laura Baisas

Dense thickets of the reef-building coral Desmophyllum pertusum make up most of the deep-sea coral reef habitat found on the Blake Plateau in the Atlantic Ocean. The white coloring is healthy–deep-sea corals don’t rely on symbiotic algae, so they can’t bleach. Images of these corals were taken during a 2019 expedition dive off the coast of Florida.

World’s largest known deep-sea coral reef is bigger than Vermont

By Laura Baisas

A team of astronomers identified a new radio source (white square) in the center of globular cluster 47 Tucanae (red circle).

Astronomers produce most sensitive radio image of a globular cluster ever taken

By Laura Baisas

Dead elephant seal pups in the front line with an adult male carcass contrasting in size, and another adult individual in the background. The beach in Argentina is empty of living seals that should be thriving in the area at this time of the year.

Seal pup die-off from avian flu in Argentina looks ‘apocalyptic’

By Laura Baisas

An octopus hatchling emerges from a group of eggs at a new octopus nursery. This nursery was first discovered in June 2023 at Tengosed Seamount off Costa Rica.

Four new octopus species discovered in the deep-sea vents off Costa Rica

By Laura Baisas

An aerial view taken on January 15, 2024 shows volcanic activity near Grindavík after an eruption. According to authorities, volcanic activity in southwest Iceland appears to have eased, one day after lava from an eruption flowed into the fishing town, engulfing several homes.

Volcanic activity easing in Iceland following eruption

By Laura Baisas

Green rhodopsin proteins inside the blue cell walls help these yeast grow faster when exposed to light.

This yeast loves light

By Laura Baisas

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx curation engineer, Neftali Hernandez, attaches one of the tools developed to help remove two final fasteners that prohibited complete disassembly of the Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism head that holds the remainder of material collected from asteroid Bennu. Engineers on the team, based at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, developed new tools that freed the fasteners on January 10.

NASA finally pries open stuck Bennu asteroid sampler

By Laura Baisas

A pink hummingbird sits on a perch inside of a tunnel. Green and black stripes are projected on the walls of the tunnel.

How hummingbirds switch gears at breakneck speeds

By Laura Baisas

An image taken by a camera aboard the Peregrine spacecraft, with Earth in the top right.

Private Space Flight

Peregrine sent back this image from its now abandoned lunar mission

By Laura Baisas

NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with the Orion spacecraft atop launches the agency’s Artemis I flight test on November 16, 2022. The Artemis I mission was the first integrated test of the agency’s deep space exploration systems.

NASA delays two crewed Artemis moon missions

By Laura Baisas

An artist’s impression of a group of G. blacki within a forest in southern China. Four of these giant apes sit on the grass near a stream, while an orangutan hangs from a tree branch. They are brown with yellow-ish manes around their faces.

These extinct, nearly 10-foot-tall apes could not adapt to shifting seasons

By Laura Baisas

Fruit bats hanging on tree branches in daylight in Bangladesh on November 6, 2023.

Why fruit bats can eat tons of sugar without getting diabetes

By Laura Baisas

A white toilet bowl in a bathroom with yellow brick walls is surrounded by multiple shelves holding plants and towels.

Scientists finally discover the enzyme that makes pee yellow

By Laura Baisas

Smoke billows out of two engines as United Launch Alliance's Vulcan Centaur, lifts off from Space Launch Complex 41d at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on January 8, 2024. The new rocket is carrying Astrobotic's Peregrine Lunar Lander.

Peregrine lunar lander experiences ‘critical loss of propellant’ following successful launch

By Laura Baisas

Voyager 2/ISS images of Uranus and Neptune released shortly after the Voyager 2 flybys in 1986 and 1989, respectively, compared with a reprocessing of the individual filter images in this study to determine the best estimate of the true colors of these planets.

This is what Uranus and Neptune may really look like

By Laura Baisas

An illustration of the pelagic ecosystem and the organisms fossilized in Sirius Passet, revealing how Timorebestia was one of the largest predators in the water column more than 518 million years ago.

Extinct ‘terror beasts’ were some pretty formidable worms

By Laura Baisas

A Matabele ant tends to the wound of a fellow ant whose legs were bitten off in a fight with termites.

Matabele ants might be able to diagnose and treat infected wounds

By Laura Baisas

The packaging for an inhaler called Flovent HFA. Flovent is a popular inhaled corticosteroid that helps keep inflammation in the lungs low and the airways open for people with asthma.

Popular corticosteroid asthma inhaler Flovent was discontinued this month

By Laura Baisas

A reddish moon on a black background, dotted with several gray marks that are volcanoes. Jupiter's moon Io is one of Jupiter’s several moons. This image was taken on December 30, 2023 during the Juno spacecraft’s flyby of this volcanic Jupiterian moon.

See the most volcanic world in our solar system in new NASA images

By Laura Baisas

A full moon rises n a purple sky over snowy mountain peaks.

The Full Wolf Moon and Quadrantids meteor shower ring in 2024

By Laura Baisas

Check out some of National Geographic’s 2023 Pictures of the Year

Check out some of National Geographic’s 2023 Pictures of the Year

By Laura Baisas

A hand reaches for a present wrapped in red and gold wrapping paper underneath a Christmas tree.

Shaking presents for science

By Laura Baisas

A jellyfish Cladonema pacificum with multiple branched tentacles.

These fingernail-sized jellyfish can regenerate tentacles—but how?

By Laura Baisas

The Running Chicken Nebula comprises several clouds, all of which we can see in this vast image from the VLT Survey Telescope. The clouds shown in wispy pink plumes are full of gas and dust, illuminated by the young and hot stars within them.

The Running Chicken Nebula shimmers in new ESO image

By Laura Baisas

Five new species of soft-furred hedgehogs have been identified

Five new species of soft-furred hedgehogs have been identified

By Laura Baisas

A small brown frog standing on leaves at the water’s edge.

This tiny ‘leaf-nester’ is the smallest known fanged frog

By Laura Baisas

Gray and fuzzy mold growing on red strawberries.

Plants may fight mold with molecules and bubbles

By Laura Baisas

The vast lava flows on Elysium Planitia as seen by the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter.

Lava may have flowed over parts of Mars

By Laura Baisas

A volcano spews lava and smoke as it erupts near the town of Grindavik, Iceland.

Volcano erupts in Iceland near an airport, a power plant, and an evacuated town

By Laura Baisas

An aardvark with a long nose sits in grass.

Why scientists are studying aardvarks’ poop

By Laura Baisas

A reindeer stands on snowy ground with hills in the distance.

Reindeer can see UV light—and we may know why

By Laura Baisas

A 2010 image captured by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft shows water from the subsurface ocean of Saturn’s moon Enceladus spraying from huge fissures out into space. The spacecraft sampled icy particles and scientists are continuing to make new discoveries from the data.

More evidence for key ingredients to life detected on Saturn’s moon Enceladus

By Laura Baisas

The Wakayama Soryu was about the size of a great white shark and lived more than 72 million years ago.

This ‘blue dragon’ sliced through the ancient Pacific with paddle-like fins

By Laura Baisas

This image from the Near-Infrared Camera instrument on the James Webb Space Telescope shows the central portion of the star cluster IC 348. The wispy curtains filling the image are interstellar material reflecting the light from the cluster’s stars. The bright star closest to the center of the frame is actually a pair of type B stars in a binary system, which are the most massive stars in the cluster. Winds from these stars may help sculpt the large loop seen on the right side of the field of view.

Space Telescope

Record-breaking ‘failed star’ spotted by JWST

By Laura Baisas

A bearded seal swimming in Arctic waters in Svalbard, Norway. Their name comes from the long and sensitive facial whiskers that they use to find food.

Arctic seals have special noses

By Laura Baisas

Two people hold coffee cups while looking at a a sunrise.

Neanderthals may have been early risers

By Laura Baisas

The skull of a Swedish Viking dating back to the 10th through 12th Century CE undergoes a dental examination.

Vikings filed their teeth to cope with pain

By Laura Baisas

Stop using homeopathic eye drops

Stop using homeopathic eye drops

By Laura Baisas

A bird called a green honeycreeper stands on a tree branch. It has blue male plumage on its left side and green female plumage on its right.

Rare bird with half male and half female plumage photographed in Colombia

By Laura Baisas

A man holes a 14-inch goldfish removed from the Niagara River.

Releasing pet goldfish into the wild has serious consequences

By Laura Baisas

A new high-definition image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam unveils intricate details of supernova remnant Cassiopeia A and shows the expanding shell of material slamming into the gas shed by the star before it exploded.

Space Telescope

JWST releases new image of famous supernova remnant—with a twist

By Laura Baisas

An illustration of a tall two-legged dinosaur called Gorgosaurus libratus eating a small bird-like dinosaur called Citipes elegans. The smaller dinosaur's legs are still visible as the Gorgosaurus swallows the Citipes.

This teenage tyrannosaur had a stomach full of dino drumsticks

By Laura Baisas

Paleontologist Martin Lockley sits in front of a rock with dinosaur claw marks and shows how dinosaurs must have clawed into the rock during a mating ceremony where they made pseudo nests for potential mates.

Why dinosaur footprints inspired paleontologist Martin Lockley

By Laura Baisas

A researcher handles a petri dish while observing a CRISPR/Cas9 process through a stereomicroscope at the Max-Delbrueck-Centre for Molecular Medicine.

FDA approves the first gene-editing treatment in the US

By Laura Baisas

Apollo 16 lunar landing mission commander John W. Young leaps from the lunar surface as he salutes the United States flag. The flag is located at the Descartes landing site during the first Apollo 16 extravehicular activity.

Why scientists think it’s time to declare a new lunar epoch

By Laura Baisas

Finely ground bits of coffee come out of a red coffee grinder.

Chemists and volcanologists want you to make a better espresso

By Laura Baisas

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