Scientists in Australia have identified the oldest known fossil footprints of a reptile-like animal, dated to around 350 million years ago. The discovery suggests that after the first animals emerged from the ocean around 400 million years ago, they evolved the ability to live exclusively on land much faster than previously assumed. “We had thought the transition from fin to…
After a traumatic event like a divorce or the death of a loved one, some people may experience chest pain and shortness of breath — the result of a condition known colloquially as “broken heart syndrome.” The syndrome, which doctors formally call takotsubo cardiomyopathy, is thought to be triggered by physical or emotional stress, which releases…
Wild chimpanzees have been observed self-medicating their wounds with plants, providing medical aid to other chimps and even removing others from snares left by human hunters, new research suggests. The behaviors — which are documented in a new study published in the journal Frontiers in Evolution and Ecology on Wednesday — provide new clues about…
An early-season heat wave is set to bake huge swaths of the country this week, with record or near-record high temperatures expected across the northern and the southern Plains, the Southwest and much of central and southern Texas. Temperatures will reach the 90s in North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota on Monday, with some areas…
The Los Angeles wildfires were still smoldering when President Donald Trump began reversing Biden-era directives for federal agencies to tackle the climate crisis. January fire weather conditions driven by climate change had helped fuel the Palisades and Eaton wildfires, which razed almost 40,000 acres of land and destroyed tens of thousands of homes across L.A….
Jupiter’s dazzling auroras are hundreds of times brighter than those seen on Earth, new images from the James Webb Space Telescope reveal. The solar system’s largest planet displays striking dancing lights when high-energy particles from space collide with atoms of gas in the atmosphere near its magnetic poles. Jupiter’s auroras and Earth’s Northern and Southern lights are all powered…
New research suggests wild chimpanzees have developed a far more nuanced communication system than previously realized, using several mechanisms that combine their vocalizations to create new meaning. These elements of chimpanzee communication, described in a study published Friday in the journal Science Advances, resemble some of the fundamental building blocks of human language. Scientists analyzed…
A Soviet spacecraft launched in 1972 on a failed mission to Venus is believed to have crashed back onto Earth early on Saturday morning. The European Space Agency, which was monitoring the craft’s uncontrolled descent, said it was last spotted by radar over Germany. At at the time of its expected crash, radars could no…
A defunct, Soviet-era spacecraft is falling back to Earth uncontrolled, but experts say there’s little cause for alarm. The half-ton craft, known as Kosmos-482, was designed to land on Venus but instead has spent the past 53 years languishing in Earth’s orbit because of a rocket malfunction. Now the spacecraft is expected to plunge through…
Eggs are less likely to crack when they fall on their side, according to research published Thursday in the journal Communications Physics. What does this mean for the best way to crack an egg for breakfast? Not much, since a break around the middle is the best way to get the golden yolk and runny whites to ooze out. But scientists…
