Tag: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News

What makes some ocean animals more prone to extinction? An analysis of roughly 500 million years of fossil data for marine invertebrates reveals that ocean animals with small ranges have been consistently hard hit, whereas population size has little effect. This means that reductions in range size — such as when a species’ habitat is destroyed or degraded — could mean a big increase in long-term extinction risk, even when remaining populations are large, the authors say.

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The laws that govern how intricate surface patterns, such as those found in the cauliflower, develop over time have been described, for the first time. Researchers have now provided a mathematical formula to describe the processes that dictate how cauliflower-like patterns – a type of fractal pattern – form and develop.

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Between 30 April and 1 May of the year 1006 the brightest stellar event ever recorded in history occurred: a supernova, or stellar explosion, that was widely observed by various civilizations from different places on the Earth. More than a thousand years later researchers have found that the supernova of 1006 (SN 1006) probably occurred as a result of the merger of two white dwarfs.

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Researchers from Berlin have published an 878 megapixel aerial mosaic image of Berlin at night. With one pixel per square meter, the resulting map is the highest resolution image ever published of a city at night. The ecologists used the image to measure how much light comes from different types of land use areas, such as streets or parks.

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A good violin depends on the expertise of the violin maker, but also on the quality of the wood that is used. Professor Francis W. M. R. Schwarze of th Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology has succeeded in modifying the wood for a violin through treatment with special fungi, making it sound indistinguishably similar to a Stradivarius.

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A new psychology study finds adults are more likely than children to find supernatural explanations for existential questions.

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Voters’ racial attitudes, both conscious and unconscious, may be a significant factor in this year’s U.S. presidential election, particularly since whites tend to prefer people of their own race, according to new research.

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Professors look at what happens when neat freaks and slobs are paired, either romantically or as roommates.

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Unique arm morphology in Neandertals was likely caused by scraping activities such as hide preparation, not spear thrusting as previously theorized, according to new research.

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Chimpanzees use weight to pick the best tool, and monkeys beg more when they’re paid attention to.

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