When thinking about future events, optimists’ brains work similarly, while pessimists’ brains show a much larger degree of individuality. The Kobe University finding offers an explanation why optimists are seen as more sociable — they may share a common vision of the future. Optimists tend to be more satisfied with their social relationships and have…
Astronomers may have caught a still-forming planet in action, carving out an intricate pattern in the gas and dust that surrounds its young host star. Using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), they observed a planetary disc with prominent spiral arms, finding clear signs of a planet nestled in its inner regions. This is the first…
Around 10 million people globally live with the life-threatening virus HTLV-1. Yet it remains a poorly understood disease that currently has no preventative treatments and no cure. But a landmark study co-led by Australian researchers could change this, after finding existing HIV drugs can suppress transmission of the HTLV-1 virus in mice. The study, published…
Green-headed tanagers (Tangara seledon) are strikingly colourful Daniel Field Brightly coloured songbirds called tanagers are so eye-catching because they have a hidden layer of black or white beneath their dazzling plumage. Painters often prime a canvas with a layer of white to enhance the colours they will eventually layer on, as well as to make…
Artwork showing a herd of ceratopsians accompanied by an ankylosaur walking through an old river channel, watched by two tyrannosaurs Julius Csotonyi Did different species of plant-eating dinosaurs herd together for protection like many modern animals do? A set of 76-million-year-old tracks discovered in Canada might be the first evidence of this – but the…
Illustration of the Triassic reptile Mirasaura grauvogeli Rick Stikkelorum A reptile from the Middle Triassic had a spectacular crest made from feather-like structures, around 100 million years before the first feathered dinosaurs. Its remains comprise two fossils with the skeleton and crest and 80 fossils of just the crest, all found by a private collector…
Katy Watson Australia correspondent Reporting fromWestern Australia Watch: Can you un-bleach coral? BBC visits remote Australian reef to find out Australia boasts plenty of superlatives when it comes to its natural landmarks. The Great Barrier Reef, the world’s biggest coral reef system on the north-east coast, is rightly recognised as a Unesco World Heritage Site….
A landmark decision by a top UN court has cleared the way for countries to sue each other over climate change, including over historic emissions of planet-warming gases. But the judge at the International Court of Justice in the Hague, Netherlands on Wednesday said that untangling who caused which part of climate change could be…
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Artwork: The new system predicts missing text from broken inscriptions, their date and original location A new AI tool has the potential to turbocharge our understanding of all human history, researchers say. Artificial intelligence has already been used to fill in gaps in ancient Roman scrolls, but a new system…
In living organisms today, complex molecules like RNA and DNA are constructed with the help of enzymes. So how did these molecules form before life (and enzymes) existed? Why did some molecules end up as the building blocks of life and not others? A new study by Scripps Research scientists helps answer these longstanding questions….
