More from Laura Baisas (Page 16)

Ma Rainey, a post-reproductive female of the Ngogo community of chimpanzees in Kibale National Park, Uganda, and her adult son Wes. The two are sitting among trees in a forest.

Wild chimpanzees show signs of potential menopause—a rarity in the animal kingdom

By Laura Baisas

A long torpedo-shaped fish swims among green plants. Knifefish like the black ghost knifefish are known for their shimmying motions and electrical pulses. and live in freshwater lakes and rivers in Central and South America.

Why electric knifefish ‘shimmy’

By Laura Baisas

A steak with kelp on top is plated by a chef holding a sauce pan.

This sea-to-farm-to-table restaurant wants kelp to catch on

By Laura Baisas

Ancient rock carvings that reappeared in the region of the Lajes Archaeological Site due to the severe drought affecting the region's rivers on the banks of the Negro River in Manaus, Brazil, on October 21, 2023. The carvings feature depictions of human faces.

Drought reveals ancient rock carvings of human faces in Brazil

By Laura Baisas

A woman wearing over the ear headphones leans her head back and closes her eyes.

Your favorite, bittersweet tunes may help relieve pain better than unfamiliar, relaxing music

By Laura Baisas

A kingfisher with blue and yellow feathers and outstretched wings dives through the air.

How kingfishers pull off breakneck dives without hurting their brains

By Laura Baisas

A fuzzy yellow and black bumblebee foraging on a green plant.

Bumblebees carbo-load on the fly

By Laura Baisas

A life-sized reconstruction of the head and jaws of the oldest megapredatory pliosaur called Lorrainosaurus. The reptile is long and torpedo shaped, with closed jaws and sharp exposed teeth.

This Jurassic-era ‘sea murderer’ was among the first of its kind

By Laura Baisas

A view from the summit of Volcán Salín, one of three Andean volcanoes where researchers uncovered the mummified cadavers of mice. Analyses of the mummies, combined with the capture of live specimens, suggest that the rodents scaled the Mars-like peaks on their own — and are somehow managing to live on them.

How did mummified mice end up on volcanoes in the Atacama Desert?

By Laura Baisas

NASA astronaut Harrison Schmitt is standing on the moon’s surface next to a large split lunar boulder, with a roving vehicle on the other side of the boulder.

The moon is 40 million years older than we thought, according to crystals collected by Apollo astronauts

By Laura Baisas

A box of a nasal decongestant called SudafedPe on a store shelf.

CVS to stop selling cold and allergy pills that FDA warns don’t work

By Laura Baisas

An illustration of a newly discovered shark species called Strigilodus tollesonae. The shark looks somewhat like a stingray, with outstretched wings, fan-like top fins, and a long tail with black spots.

Prehistoric shark called Kentucky home 337 million years ago

By Laura Baisas

An image of Jupiter taken with the James Webb Space Telescope’s NIR Cam in July 2022. Researchers recently discovered a narrow jet stream traveling 320 miles per hour sitting over Jupiter’s equator above the main cloud decks. The numerous bright white "spots" and "streaks" are likely very high-altitude cloud tops of condensed convective storms. Auroras, appearing in red in this image, extend to higher altitudes above both the northern and southern poles of the planet.

Space Telescope

Why a 3,000-mile-long jet stream on Jupiter surprised NASA scientists

By Laura Baisas

A satellite photo showing the swirling clouds of Hurricane Lee and Tropical Storm Margot in the Atlantic Ocean.

Atlantic hurricanes are getting stronger faster than they did 40 years ago

By Laura Baisas

A group of worker bees surround the queen bee on a honeycomb. All worker honeybees are female and they can go to extreme lengths to serve their queen even shedding their own ovaries.

Female honeybees may pass down ‘altruistic’ genes

By Laura Baisas

The planet Earth, as seen from the DSCOVR satellite. Earth appears as a bright blue dot against the darkness of space, with the shadow of an annular solar eclipse over much of North America.

What the ‘Ring of Fire’ eclipse looked like to a satellite nearly 1 million miles from Earth

By Laura Baisas

An artist's illustration of a cutaway of Mars along with the paths of seismic waves from two separate quakes in 2021. These seismic waves, detected by NASA’s InSight mission, were the first ever identified to enter another planet’s core.

Giant quake that shook Mars for hours had a surprising source

By Laura Baisas

A yellow-ish pepper named Pepper X sits on a crystal dish. Pepper X is the new hottest chili pepper in the world. It was crossbreed with Carolina Reaper and a mystery pepper.

The world’s hottest chili pepper is worse than bear spray

By Laura Baisas

Coral Beach on Scotland’s Isle of Skye, dotted with various types of seaweed.

Europeans ate a lot more seaweed 8,000 years ago

By Laura Baisas

Three stage of digital reconstruction. From left, the Pierolapithecus cranium shortly after discovery, after initial preparation, and after virtual reconstruction.

12-million-year-old ape skull bares its fangs in virtual reconstruction

By Laura Baisas

Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm speaks before US President Joe Biden at Tioga Marine Terminal on October 13, 2023 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Biden discussed how his Bidenomics agenda is creating good-paying union jobs, investing in infrastructure, accelerating the transition to a clean energy future, and combating the climate crisis.

US will build seven regional ‘hydrogen hubs’ to spark clean energy transition

By Laura Baisas

An endangered Texas ocelot in the vicinity of the highway.

Wildlife exits on Texas roads could help endangered ocelots

By Laura Baisas

The cave lion remains from Siegsdorf, Germany are displayed alongside a reproduction of a wooden spear similar to those used by Neanderthals.

Neanderthals may have hunted mighty cave lions

By Laura Baisas

Travis Gienger of Anoka, Minnesota celebrates during a pumpkin-weighing contest in Half Moon Bay, California.

This year’s heaviest pumpkin could be baked into 700 pies

By Laura Baisas

Two frogs mating in a body of water.

Female frogs appear to play dead to avoid mating

By Laura Baisas

Two loaves of rustic sourdough bread on a wooden counter.

Why no two sourdoughs are exactly the same

By Laura Baisas

Sweet potato, brown eggs, and corn in a husk on a stove. Traces of sweet potato, peanut, chili peppers, papaya, and more were found in coprolite samples from Puerto Rico.

Mummified poop reveals a diverse ancient Caribbean diet

By Laura Baisas

This new infrared image of NGC 346 from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) traces emission from cool gas and dust. In this image blue represents silicates and sooty chemical molecules known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs. More diffuse red emission shines from warm dust heated by the brightest and most massive stars in the heart of the region. Bright patches and filaments mark areas with abundant numbers of protostars.

Space Telescope

Star-making hot spot looks like a glowing raven in new JWST image

By Laura Baisas

Grazer looking chunky and getting ready for winter on September 14, 2023. The bear is in the river intensely staring for salmon.

Fierce mama Grazer takes 2023’s Fat Bear Week crown

By Laura Baisas

This image shows many looping and overlapping orbits encircling the Sun, all of different colors (to differentiate between asteroids). The center of the image – representing an area within the orbit of Jupiter – is very densely packed with orbits, while the outer edges remain clearer, showing the background plane of the Milky Way.

A mission to map the universe unveils star clusters, asteroids, and tricks of gravity

By Laura Baisas

Human hand bones during an archaeological dig.

Sensitive to pain? It could be your Neanderthal gene variants.

By Laura Baisas

An underwater closeup of Cayo margarita (a new species) in the coral reef of the Florida Keys. Note the two long tentacles, used by the snail to spread the mucus net for feeding.

New neon-yellow snail from the Florida Keys gets a happy hour-ready name

By Laura Baisas

A capybara standing on a riverbank. Capybaras are semi-aquatic rodents that can weigh up to 174 pounds.

4 capybara facts you’ll love, and 1 you’d like to forget

By Laura Baisas

A dove is released at noon from a window of the Nobel Peace Center following the announcement of the laureates of the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize at the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo on October 6, 2023. The Nobel Peace Prize was on October 6 awarded to imprisoned rights campaigner Narges Mohammadi, honored for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran.

Meet the 2023 Nobel Prize winners

By Laura Baisas

A newly discovered sauropod dinosaur left behind some epic footprints

A newly discovered sauropod dinosaur left behind some epic footprints

By Laura Baisas

A pair of chickens at a poultry farm. Bird flu has been detected in at least 67 countries.

USDA bans French poultry imports over avian influenza vaccine

By Laura Baisas

A lioness bears her teeth. Mammals in a new study were twice as likely to abandon a waterhole when hearing human voices than the sounds of a lion.

Humans are now the African savannah’s top predator

By Laura Baisas

Exposed sedimentary rock on a mountain slope. High erosion in southern France exposes these sedimentary rocks to weathering, releasing carbon dioxide as the ancient organic carbon breaks down.

Rocks may be able to release carbon dioxide as well as store it

By Laura Baisas

Two chimpanzees share a meal. A new study found that same-sex sexual behavior helps establish and maintain positive social relationships in animals including chimpanzees, bighorn sheep, lions, and wolves.

Mammals may use same-sex sexual behavior for conflict resolution, bonding, and more

By Laura Baisas

The Morona-Santiago stubfoot toad (Atelopus halihelos) in Ecuador is listed as critically endangered.

Endangered Species

How we can help the most endangered class of animals survive climate change

By Laura Baisas

Moungi Bawendi, Louis Brus, and Alexei Ekimov will share the 2023 Nobel prize in chemistry.

Discoverers of colorful quantum dot nanotech win 2023 Nobel Prize in chemistry

By Laura Baisas

A green monk parakeet standing in dirt. Parrots could have a unique tone of voice just like humans do.

No two parakeets sound exactly the same

By Laura Baisas

Artist conception of early starbursting galaxies. The image is rendered from FIRE simulation data used for this research that can explain recent JWST results. Stars and galaxies are shown in the bright white points of light, while the more diffuse dark matter and gas are shown in purples and reds.

Space Telescope

Bursting stars could explain why it was so bright after the big bang

By Laura Baisas

An illustration of Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz, and Anne L´Huillier. The three will share the 2023 Nobel prize in physics.

Winners of the 2023 Nobel Prize in physics measured electrons by the attosecond

By Laura Baisas

A map of Britain in the late 13th century.

Grisly medieval murders detailed in new interactive maps

By Laura Baisas

The 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is jointly awarded to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman. This is an illustration of the two scientists.

mRNA vaccine innovators win the Nobel Prize in medicine

By Laura Baisas

Purple, blue, and white meteors fall at night during October stargazing

A ‘ring of fire’ eclipse and Hunter’s Moon will bring lunar drama to October’s skies

By Laura Baisas

A killer whale in the Salish Sea is observed harassing a porpoise, a behavior that has long perplexed scientists.

Why are these orcas harassing porpoises? Scientists have 3 theories.

By Laura Baisas

This 6-million-year-old turtle shell still has some DNA

This 6-million-year-old turtle shell still has some DNA

By Laura Baisas

A volcano spews lava and ash. In roughly 250 million years, massive tectonic activity could push together all of our current landmasses into a supercontinent like Pangea and make the climate inhospitable to humans and other mammals.

A boiling hot supercontinent could kill all mammals in 250 million years

By Laura Baisas

A row of organic orange carrots with their green stems still attached on a table.

How carrots get their trademark orange color

By Laura Baisas

A hyenea shows its jaws. Giant hyenas went extinct about 500,000 years ago, but were roughly 240 pounds and skilled scavengers like their modern counterparts.

How many ancient humans does it take to fight off a giant hyena?

By Laura Baisas

An illustration of Bohemolichas feeding on the seafloor, moments before it is engulfed, buried, and preserved by an underwater mud flow.

A fossilized trilobite stomach can show us clues to Cambrian cuisine

By Laura Baisas

Aerial view of a hot air balloon over Namib desert. The circular “fairy circles” are derived from any vegetation & surrounded by tall grass.

Mysterious ‘fairy circles’ may appear on three different continents

By Laura Baisas

$A close up of the black and white stripes of a zebra. The same patterns that dictate zebra stripes could also control the way sperm swim.$

The mathematical theory that connects swimming sperm, zebra stripes, and sunflower seeds

By Laura Baisas

An artistic representation of the TRAPPIST-1 red dwarf star, featuring its very active nature. Exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 b is the closest planet to the system’s central star and is featured in the foreground with no apparent atmosphere. The exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 g is in the background to the right of the star.

JWST just scanned the skies of potentially habitable exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 b

By Laura Baisas

A tarantula with a mostly black body, but bright blue legs and pincers. Chilobrachys natanicharum is the first tarantula species found in Thailand’s mangrove trees. CREDIT: Yuranan Nanthaisong/ZooKeys.

Meet the first electric blue tarantula known to science

By Laura Baisas

Rafflesia kemumu in the rainforest of Sumatra.

Earth’s stinkiest flower is threatened with extinction

By Laura Baisas

An MRI scan of a human brain on a screen. Scanning the brain can help clinicians find abnormalities and the links between them.

Substance use disorder may be connected to a specific brain circuit

By Laura Baisas

A high-density field of corals, including the spiraling Iridogorgia magnispiralis. Image courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, 2016 Deepwater Exploration of the Marianas.

The deepest known ocean virus lives under 29,000 feet of water

By Laura Baisas

Yellow pollen spring out from a coniferous tree. The pollen that makes us sneeze every spring, may have helped lay the groundwork for the migration of our very distant ancestors into Eurasia.

Pollen could hold clues to mysteries of early human migration

By Laura Baisas

A Caribbean box jellyfish on a black background. It has a round, bell shaped body, with about 11 visible tentacles. It also has four parallel brain-like structures with roughly 1,000 nerve cells in each.

These 24-eyed jellyfish learn from their mistakes

By Laura Baisas

A view of the Cueva de los Marmoles entrance from the inside. Skeletal remains from at least 12 prehistoric individuals have been found inside.

Early humans carved old skeletal remains from burial caves into tools

By Laura Baisas

A black and white French bulldog puppy sits in a garden with green grass and orange flowers. In an experiment where dogs had to find food hidden in a box, flat-faced dogs were more likely to look back at people than a breed with a mid-length muzzle.

Humans might just love French bulldogs because they remind them of babies

By Laura Baisas

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