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The world’s most unusual dinosaur is even stranger than first realized… Research published in Nature on August 27 reports that Spicomellus afer had a tail weapon more than 30 million years before any other ankylosaur, as well as a unique bony collar ringed with meter-long spikes sticking out from either side of its neck. Spicomellus…

For the first time, researchers have uncovered direct genomic evidence of the bacterium behind the Plague of Justinian — the world’s first recorded pandemic — in the Eastern Mediterranean, where the outbreak was first described nearly 1,500 years ago. The landmark discovery, led by an interdisciplinary team at the University of South Florida and Florida…

Over the past 50 years, rates of obesity and type-2 diabetes have soared, while sperm quality has plummeted. Driving these changes could be the increasing popularity of ultra-processed foods, which have been linked to a range of poor health outcomes. However, scientists still aren’t sure whether it’s the industrial nature of the ingredients themselves, the…

When injured, cells have well-regulated responses to promote healing. These include a long-studied self-destruction process that cleans up dead and damaged cells as well as a more recently identified phenomenon that helps older cells revert to what appears to be a younger state to help grow back healthy tissue. Now, a new study in mice…

Small, colorless, and blind, amblyopsid cavefishes inhabit subterranean waters throughout the eastern United States. In a new study, Yale researchers reveal insights into just how these distinctive cave dwellers evolved — and provide a unique method for dating the underground ecosystems where they reside. In an analysis of the genomes of all known amblyopsid species,…

A team of international astronomers, including a University of Michigan doctoral student, were the first to publish the discovery of just the third known interstellar object to visit our solar system on July 3. Now, two of the researchers involved — Aster Taylor of the U-M Department of Astronomy and Darryl Seligman of Michigan State…

Malcolm PriorRural affairs producer BBC Live army manoeuvres have caused 385 wildfires on MoD training sites across the UK countryside since 2023 Live-fire military training has sparked hundreds of wildfires across the UK countryside since 2023, with unexploded shells often making it too dangerous to tackle them. Fire crews battling a vast moorland blaze in…