Researchers at Stanford University have found that an aqueous solution of a common food color approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, tartrazine, has the effect of reversibly making the skin, muscle, and connective tissues transparent in live rodents. Illustration of skin tissues rendered transparent following saturation by FD & C Yellow 5, including
Paleontologists say they’ve discovered the fossilized bones of a new type of early-branching neoceratopsian dinosaur in the Japanese prefecture of Hyogo. Life reconstruction of Sasayamagnomus saegusai. Image credit: Kanon Tanaka. The newly-discovered dinosaur roamed our planet during the Albian age of the Early Cretaceous epoch, between 113 and 100 million years ago. Dubbed Sasayamagnomus saegusai
It’s 7 billion years ago, and the Universe’s heyday of star formation is beginning to slow. What might our Milky Way Galaxy have looked like at that time? Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have found clues in the form of a cosmic question mark, the result of a rare alignment across light-years
In a paper published in the journal Nature Geoscience, scientists offer a new explanation for a string of severe environmental crises, called oceanic anoxic events, which happened between 185 and 85 million years ago (Mesozoic era); these occurred when the seas became critically depleted of dissolved oxygen. Oceanic anoxic events are geologically abrupt phases of
Paleontologists have unearthed the skeletal remains from a previously unknown species of lithostrotian titanosaur at the fossil site of Lo Hueco, Cuenca, Spain. An artist’s reconstruction of Qunkasaura pintiquiniestra. Image credit: José Antonio Peñas Artero. Qunkasaura pintiquiniestra lived in Europe around 75 million years ago during the Cretaceous period. The ancient creature was a member
Named Haliotis pirimoana, the newly-identified gastropod species is only found at Manawatāwhi Three Kings Islands, off New Zealand’s North Island. Shells of Haliotis pirimoana from Manawatāwhi Three Kings Islands (A-D) and Haliotis virginea (E-G). Scale bar – 5 mm in (A-C) and 0.5 mm in (D-G). Image credit: Jean-Claude Stahl. Abalones (family Haliotidae) are herbivorous
Around a fifth of U.K. citizens believe Earth has been visited by extraterrestrials, and an estimated 7% believe that they have seen a UFO. The figures are even higher in the U.S. — and rising. The number of people who believe UFO sightings offer likely proof of alien life increased from 20% in 1996 to
The kākāpō (Strigops habroptilus) is a living species of flightless parrot endemic to New Zealand. The kākāpō (Strigops habroptilus). Image credit: Jake Osborne. “Our research had prompted a rethink of our native fauna,” said Canterbury Museum’s Dr. Paul Scofield. “Many of the species that we thought of as iconic New Zealand natives — a classic
