As far as odd couples go, this is onefor the record books.The ripples in spacetime stirred up bytwo distant, merging black holes suggest that one of the pair was much biggerthan the other. It’s the first definitively mismatched black hole pair spottedby the LIGO and Virgo collaborations, which search for the gravitational waves emittedin the cosmic encounters of black holes. The collision, detected on April 12,2019, occurred about 2.5 billion light-years from Earth.For all previous such black hole mergers, the two partners have been of similar size. But in this case, the bigger black hole...…As far as odd couples go, this is onefor the record books.The ripples in spacetime stirred up bytwo distant, merging black holes suggest that one of the pair was much biggerthan the other. It’s the first definitively mismatched black hole pair spottedby the LIGO and Virgo collaborations, which search for the gravitational waves emittedin the cosmic encounters of black holes. The collision, detected on April 12,2019, occurred about 2.5 billion light-years from Earth.For all previous such black hole mergers, the two partners have been of similar size. But in this case, the bigger black hole...WW…

One defective gene might turn some bunnies’ hops into handstands, a new study suggests.To move quickly, a breed of domesticated rabbit called sauteur d’Alfort sends its back legs sky high and walks on its front paws. That strange gait may be the result of , researchers report March 25 in PLOS Genetics.Sauteur d’Alfort rabbits aren’t the only animal to adopt an odd scamper if there’s a mutation to this gene, known as RORB. Mice with a mutation to the gene also do handstands if they start to run, says Stephanie Koch, a neuroscientist at University College London who was not involved with the...…One defective gene might turn some bunnies’ hops into handstands, a new study suggests.To move quickly, a breed of domesticated rabbit called sauteur d’Alfort sends its back legs sky high and walks on its front paws. That strange gait may be the result of , researchers report March 25 in PLOS Genetics.Sauteur d’Alfort rabbits aren’t the only animal to adopt an odd scamper if there’s a mutation to this gene, known as RORB. Mice with a mutation to the gene also do handstands if they start to run, says Stephanie Koch, a neuroscientist at University College London who was not involved with the...WW…

People hunted with bows and arrows in a rainforest on aSouth Asian island starting around 48,000 years ago, a new study suggests.Small bone artifacts with sharpened tips unearthed in a SriLankan cave represent , says a team led byarchaeologist Michelle Langley of Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia.Microscopic analyses of 130 of those bone points revealed surfacecracks and other damage caused by high-speed impacts, likely because theseartifacts were used as arrowheads, Langley and her colleagues conclude June 12in Science Advances. Notches and wearat the bottom of the bone points...…People hunted with bows and arrows in a rainforest on aSouth Asian island starting around 48,000 years ago, a new study suggests.Small bone artifacts with sharpened tips unearthed in a SriLankan cave represent , says a team led byarchaeologist Michelle Langley of Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia.Microscopic analyses of 130 of those bone points revealed surfacecracks and other damage caused by high-speed impacts, likely because theseartifacts were used as arrowheads, Langley and her colleagues conclude June 12in Science Advances. Notches and wearat the bottom of the bone points...WW…

Jets of high-energy plasma shootingaway from supermassive black holes resemble bell-bottom pants — starting outnarrow but ending with a flare. The shape can help astrophysicists ,researchers report in the July Monthly Notices of the Royal AstronomicalSociety.“From studying this regionwhere the geometric transition happens, we can understand the black hole better,”says astrophysicist Yuri Kovalev of the Lebedev Physical Institute of theRussian Academy of Sciences in Moscow.Most galaxies in theuniverse host supermassive black holes at the center. Some of those black holesare actively eating a...…Jets of high-energy plasma shootingaway from supermassive black holes resemble bell-bottom pants — starting outnarrow but ending with a flare. The shape can help astrophysicists ,researchers report in the July Monthly Notices of the Royal AstronomicalSociety.“From studying this regionwhere the geometric transition happens, we can understand the black hole better,”says astrophysicist Yuri Kovalev of the Lebedev Physical Institute of theRussian Academy of Sciences in Moscow.Most galaxies in theuniverse host supermassive black holes at the center. Some of those black holesare actively eating a...WW…

The world wasted about 931 million metric tons of food in 2019 — an average of 121 kilograms per person. That’s about 17 percent of all food that was available to consumers that year, a new United Nations report estimates.“Throwing away food de facto means throwing away the resources that went into its production,” said Martina Otto, who leads the U.N. Environment Program’s work on cities, during a news conference. “If food waste ends up in landfills, it does not feed people, but it does feed climate change.”Some 690 million people are impacted by hunger each year, and over 3 billion people...…The world wasted about 931 million metric tons of food in 2019 — an average of 121 kilograms per person. That’s about 17 percent of all food that was available to consumers that year, a new United Nations report estimates.“Throwing away food de facto means throwing away the resources that went into its production,” said Martina Otto, who leads the U.N. Environment Program’s work on cities, during a news conference. “If food waste ends up in landfills, it does not feed people, but it does feed climate change.”Some 690 million people are impacted by hunger each year, and over 3 billion people...WW…

An elephant, a narwhal and aguinea pig walk into a bar. From there, things could get ugly.All three might get drunkeasily, according to a new survey of a gene involved in metabolizing alcohol. They’reamong the creatures affected by 10 independent breakdowns of the ADH7 gene during the history of mammalevolution. Inheriting that dysfunctional gene might make it harder for theirbodies to break down ethanol, says molecular anthropologist Mareike Janiak ofthe University of Calgary in Canada.She and colleagues didn’tlook at all the genes needed to metabolize ethanol, but the failure of...…An elephant, a narwhal and aguinea pig walk into a bar. From there, things could get ugly.All three might get drunkeasily, according to a new survey of a gene involved in metabolizing alcohol. They’reamong the creatures affected by 10 independent breakdowns of the ADH7 gene during the history of mammalevolution. Inheriting that dysfunctional gene might make it harder for theirbodies to break down ethanol, says molecular anthropologist Mareike Janiak ofthe University of Calgary in Canada.She and colleagues didn’tlook at all the genes needed to metabolize ethanol, but the failure of...WW…

The first sign that Albert Einstein’stheory of gravity was correct has made a repeat appearance, this time near a supermassiveblack hole.In 1915, Einstein realized that his newly formulated general theory of relativity explained a weird quirk in the orbit of Mercury. Now, that in a star’s orbit of the enormous black hole at the heart of the Milky Way, researchers with the GRAVITY collaboration report April 16 in Astronomy & Astrophysics.The star, called S2, is part of astellar entourage that surrounds the Milky Way’s central black hole. Fordecades, researchers have tracked S2’s...…The first sign that Albert Einstein’stheory of gravity was correct has made a repeat appearance, this time near a supermassiveblack hole.In 1915, Einstein realized that his newly formulated general theory of relativity explained a weird quirk in the orbit of Mercury. Now, that in a star’s orbit of the enormous black hole at the heart of the Milky Way, researchers with the GRAVITY collaboration report April 16 in Astronomy & Astrophysics.The star, called S2, is part of astellar entourage that surrounds the Milky Way’s central black hole. Fordecades, researchers have tracked S2’s...WW…

Society for Science & the Public, which publishes Science News, uses cookies to personalize your experience and improve our services. For more information on how we use cookies on our websites, .ContinueBehold the Wonderchicken,the earliest modern bird ever found.Asteriornismaastrichtensis lived 66.7 millionyears ago, less than a million years before the asteroid impact that doomed allnonavian dinosaurs. The winged and beaked descendants of this quail-sized bird,however, survived that mass extinction event, forming a long lineage thatincludes modern chickens and ducks.Based on analyses...…Society for Science & the Public, which publishes Science News, uses cookies to personalize your experience and improve our services. For more information on how we use cookies on our websites, .ContinueBehold the Wonderchicken,the earliest modern bird ever found.Asteriornismaastrichtensis lived 66.7 millionyears ago, less than a million years before the asteroid impact that doomed allnonavian dinosaurs. The winged and beaked descendants of this quail-sized bird,however, survived that mass extinction event, forming a long lineage thatincludes modern chickens and ducks.Based on analyses...WW…

Bit by bit, physicists are winnowingdown the potential masses for hypothetical particles called axions.If they exist, the subatomic particlescould make up dark matter, a mysterious source of mass that pervades theuniverse. Axions are expected to be extremely lightweight — billionths ortrillionths the mass of an electron. But there were in a mass range between 2.81 millionths and 3.31millionths of an electron volt (between about 5.5 trillionths and 6.5trillionths of an electron’s mass), physicists with the ADMX experiment reportin a paper in press in Physical ReviewLetters.Scientists expect...…Bit by bit, physicists are winnowingdown the potential masses for hypothetical particles called axions.If they exist, the subatomic particlescould make up dark matter, a mysterious source of mass that pervades theuniverse. Axions are expected to be extremely lightweight — billionths ortrillionths the mass of an electron. But there were in a mass range between 2.81 millionths and 3.31millionths of an electron volt (between about 5.5 trillionths and 6.5trillionths of an electron’s mass), physicists with the ADMX experiment reportin a paper in press in Physical ReviewLetters.Scientists expect...WW…

Superconductors are getting edgy.For the first time, scientists have spotteda superconducting current traveling along the edge of a material, like a trailof ants crawling along the rim of a dinner plate without venturing into its middle.Normally, such superconducting currents, in which electricity flows without any loss of energy, permeate an entire material. But in a thin sheet of molybdenum ditelluride chilled to near absolute zero, the interior and edge make up , physicist Nai Phuan Ong and colleagues report in the May 1 Science. The two superconductors are “basically ignoring each...…Superconductors are getting edgy.For the first time, scientists have spotteda superconducting current traveling along the edge of a material, like a trailof ants crawling along the rim of a dinner plate without venturing into its middle.Normally, such superconducting currents, in which electricity flows without any loss of energy, permeate an entire material. But in a thin sheet of molybdenum ditelluride chilled to near absolute zero, the interior and edge make up , physicist Nai Phuan Ong and colleagues report in the May 1 Science. The two superconductors are “basically ignoring each...WW…