Tag Archives: scale

Two New Edmontosaurus anectens Specimens Reveal Scale and Hoof Details

Posted on by
Reply

Paleontologists studied two remarkable specimens of end-Cretaceous duck-billed dinosaurs, Edmontosaurus anectens. They employed various imaging techniques to reconstruct the species’ physical appearance during its life, showcasing features such as the prominent crest over the neck and torso, a row of spikes on the tail, and the hooves covering the toes. Alongside fossilized footprints, Edmontosaurus anectens is now in my grasp.

Reconstruction of the life of Edmontosaurus anectens. Image credit: Dani Navarro.

“This marks the first time we’ve been able to capture a comprehensive and specific depiction of a large dinosaur,” stated researchers from the University of Chicago, including Professor Paul Sereno, the lead author of the study.

“The badlands of Wyoming, where this discovery occurred, serve as a unique ‘mummy zone’, promising additional surprises from fossils collected over years by a team of university undergraduates.”

Professor Sereno and colleagues utilized historical photographs and field research to outline a compact “mummy zone” in central-eastern Wyoming, home to several notable dinosaur “mummies” unearthed in the early 20th century.

They discovered two new mummies within piles of river sand: Edmontosaurus anectens — consisting of juveniles and adults — which preserved a large, continuous area of the external skin surface.

Using these specimens, they reconstructed a complete, fleshy profile of the species.

“The two specimens complemented each other exceptionally well,” Professor Sereno remarked.

“For the first time, we could visualize the entire outline rather than isolated patches.”

Paleontologists identified a continuous midline feature that begins as a fleshy crest along the neck and torso, transitioning into a row of spikes across the hips and down the tail. Each spike was identified on a single vertebra and interlocked with one another.

The lower body and tail featured the largest polygonal scales, while the majority were small, pebble-like scales just 1 to 4 millimeters in diameter, surprisingly tiny for a dinosaur exceeding 12 meters (40 feet) in length.

Wrinkles on the thorax indicate that this dinosaur had thin skin.

The hind legs of the significant “mummy” revealed the most unexpected finding: hooves.

The tips of each of the three hind legs were encased in wedge-shaped hooves with flat soles, akin to a horse’s.

Researchers utilized CT scans of the specimen’s feet and 3D images of the best-preserved footprints from the same era to accurately map the former to the latter.

Data from both sources enabled precise reconstruction of the hind paw’s appearance.

In contrast to the front feet, which made contact with the ground solely via the hooves, the hind feet featured thick heel pads behind the hooves.

“These duck-billed ‘mummies’ reveal several remarkable ‘firsts’: the oldest hooves ever found in a land vertebrate, the first ungulate reptile identified, and the first ungulate quadruped exhibiting distinct front and hind limb postures,” Professor Sereno asserted.

The team’s paper was published in today’s magazine, Science.

_____

Paul C. Sereno et al. 2025. The fleshy midline and hooves of a duck-billed dinosaur reveal a template for terrestrial clay ‘mummification.’ Science, published online October 23, 2025. doi: 10.1126/science.adw3536

Source: www.sci.news

Rate the Incoming Aliens from Space Rock: On a Scale of 1 to 10!

Posted on by
Reply
A new scientist. Science News and Long read from expert journalists and cover the science, technology, health and environmental development of websites and magazines.

Feedback is New Scientist Popular Sideways monitors the latest in science and technology news. You can contact Feedback@newscientist.com to share items you think might intrigue our readers.

In the Name of Science…

One of the highest honors in science is to have an object named in your memory. An example is geographer Alexander von Humboldt, remembered by various geographic landmarks including Humboldt Penguins and Humboldt Mountains.

Congratulations to Harvard astronomer Abraham “Avi” Loeb. A regular contributor to New Scientist over the past decade, Loeb has focused on the nature of interstellar objects traversing our solar system, starting with “Oumuamua” in 2017 and continuing with Comet 3i/Atlas this year.

Loeb has garnered significant attention by suggesting that these objects might be artificial in origin, a claim that has stirred skepticism among many peers. This skepticism intensified in 2023 when he allegedly identified fragments of interstellar meteors on the ocean floor. It turns out the signal he referenced was likely generated by “vehicles moving across the road beside the seismometer.”

Nevertheless, there are now efforts to classify interstellar objects, as detailed in a preprint. The classification will assess such objects based on their potential artificiality and whether they might impact Earth, ranging from 0 (consistent with known natural phenomena) to 10 (confirmed extraterrestrial artificial origin poses global threats).

Feedback is somewhat muddled as the scale seems to evaluate two variables simultaneously. Ignoring the most alarming cases, a rating of 8 or higher indicates definite extraterrestrial origins. The intriguing scores lie between 2 and 7, indicating varying degrees of potential artificial origins, from “non-gravitational acceleration” and “unusual shapes” to “operational signs” and “responsive behaviors.”

Feedback isn’t just about how you gauge some of these. Consider the odd structure of a space object, such as Mimas, Saturn’s moon, which resembles the Star Wars Death Star, though it is not a space station. There have also been numerous alerts regarding possible alien radio signals, as distinguishing artificial electromagnetic waves from natural ones proves challenging.

Everything seems a bit vague, so I decided to delve into the creators of the Loeb scale. Two are sports psychologists from Reichmann University in Israel, clearly at odds. The third one is Loeb himself.

Utility Vehicle for Dogs

Feedback frequently considers units of measurement, such as whether data transfer velocity can be assessed using a DVD-equipped snail.

Reader William Dockendorf introduces something entirely new. There’s a new vehicle in the U.S. called the Slate, described as a “two-door electric pickup truck” that can be customized endlessly, even as an SUV. Dockendorf humorously notes that “probably no one will buy it.”

The company website, slate.auto, features an extensive FAQ section, addressing questions like “How much junk can you fit in the bed?” Interestingly, “Frunk” is not a typo, as many electric vehicles have a front storage compartment often referred to as a “front trunk.”

In any case, measurements are provided in feet and cubic feet, detailing what William terms “fairly typical” items, like how a “55-inch flat screen TV (in a box)” fits in the cargo area. However, he also whimsically mentioned that “about 30 dachshunds” would also fit there.

William feels that it’s essential to “measure everything by an approximate count of dachshunds.” Feedback wonders if these are living dachshunds, or if they are non-living—possibly deceased and preserved like sardines.

The Latest Fart

After discovering Flavor Analysis and Recognition Transformers (FART), I sought more examples of clever acronyms, or at least some that are hopelessly entertaining. Below are your options from the Email Flood. This is destined to be a repeated topic, at least until morale picks up.

Firstly, Thomas Cleger writes about a regional bus and railway company in Ticino, the only Swiss canton where Italian is the sole official language. Its name in Italian is Ferovie Autoline Regional Ticinensis. Feedback confirms its authenticity, and its official website is entertaining: fartiamo.ch.

A few years back, physicist Paul Davis mentioned attending the launch of the “Australian and Japanese Space Ray Experimental Setup” near Uomera, Australia. This collaborative project also known as CANGAROO is an Outback gamma-ray observatory. “The perfect blend of creativity,” Davis remarked.

However, the final word should go to paleontologist John Hawks, who wrote about a paper he found in the American Journal of Human Genetics. The study discusses “How to estimate mutation rates and recent demographic histories from exceptionally large samples.” “Very large” refers to a dataset of 1 million genomes. Naturally, they deployed their resources to Diffusion of Rare Elements but ended up calling it “Dr. Evil.”

“I had quite a lot of fun,” Hawks noted. To which Feedback can only add: “Yeah, baby!”

Have you had a feedback moment?

You can submit stories to feedback via email at feedback@newscientist.com. Don’t forget to include your home address. This week’s and previous feedback can be found on our website.

Source: www.newscientist.com

Einstein’s theory proved correct on unprecedented scale in historical test

Posted on by
Reply

DESI instrument observing the sky from the Nicholas U. Mayall telescope during a meteor shower

KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/R. Sparks

Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity has been proven correct on the largest scale ever. Analysis of millions of galaxies showed that the way they evolved and clustered over billions of years was consistent with his predictions.

Ever since Einstein proposed his theory of gravity more than a century ago, researchers have been trying to find scenarios in which the theory of gravity doesn't hold true. However, no such test had ever been performed at the level of the longest distances in the universe. Mustafa Ishak-Bushaki At the University of Texas at Dallas. He and his colleagues conducted the experiment using data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopy Instrument (DESI) in Arizona.

The details of the structure of the universe and how it has changed over time provide a powerful test of how well we understand gravity. Because it was this force that shaped galaxies as they evolved from small fluctuations in the distribution of matter in the early universe.

DESI has so far collected data on how nearly 6 million galaxies have come together over the past 11 billion years. Ishak-Boushaki and his colleagues combined this with the results of several other large-scale surveys, including the cosmic microwave background radiation and supernova mapping. They then compared this to the predictions of a theory of gravity that encompasses both Einstein's ideas and more modern modified theories of gravity. They did not discover any deviations from Einstein's gravity. Ishak-Boushaki says that while there is some uncertainty in the measurements, there is still no strong evidence that theories that deviate from Einstein's can more accurately capture the state of the universe. .

Itamar Allari Professors at Brown University in Rhode Island say that although general relativity has been shown to hold up in very precise tests performed in the laboratory, it is important that it can be tested at all scales, including the entire universe. states. This eliminates the possibility that Einstein correctly predicted objects of one size but not others, he says.

The new analysis also provides hints about how dark energy, the mysterious force thought to be responsible for the accelerating expansion of the universe, fits into theories of gravity. Nathalie Palanque-Dravuille At Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, California. Einstein's early formulations of general relativity included a cosmological constant (a type of antigravity that plays the same role as dark energy), but earlier DESI results showed that dark energy is not constant. It suggested that. That may have changed as the universe aged, Palanque-Delabouille said.

“The fact that we see that we agree; [general relativity] And any deviation from this cosmological constant opens up a Pandora's box of what the data can actually tell us,” says Ishak Boushaki.

DESI will continue to collect data for several more years, eventually recording the locations and properties of 40 million galaxies, which the three scientists agree will support the theory of general relativity and dark energy. He said it would be clear how to combine them correctly. This new analysis used only one year of data from DESI, but in March 2025 the team plans to share findings from the instrument's first three years of observations.

Allari said these results could help pinpoint changes in the Hubble constant, a measure of the rate of expansion of the universe, narrow down the mass of elusive particles called neutrinos, and even search for new particles. He said he expects it to be significant in this important respect. Cosmic components such as “dark radiation”.

“This analysis will have implications not just for gravity, but for cosmology as a whole,” he says.

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

Equipment failure forces NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to scale back observations

Posted on by
Reply

Hubble encountered additional difficulties.

The space telescope entered hibernation over a week ago due to the failure of one of its three remaining gyroscopes, which are part of its pointing system. This same gyro had been malfunctioning for months, affecting its scientific capabilities.

NASA confirmed on Tuesday that efforts to repair the gyro had been unsuccessful, leaving the spacecraft operating with just one gyroscope, limiting its scientific functions.

As a result, Hubble will be inactive until mid-June. The telescope will have reduced agility and slower target acquisition. Despite these limitations, officials believe that Hubble will still be able to make significant discoveries in the coming decade.

“We are optimistic about Hubble’s future,” said Patrick Close, NASA’s project manager.

Mark Crump, NASA’s astrophysics director, stated that there are currently no plans to launch a mission to extend Hubble’s life by raising it to a higher orbit.

A billionaire who has booked SpaceX flights for himself has offered to sponsor and perform the necessary repairs. However, Crumpen expressed concerns about the risks involved and the need for further analysis.

The Hubble Telescope was launched into orbit in 1990, initially facing challenges due to a misaligned mirror. After a successful repair mission, Hubble resumed its observations of the cosmos in remarkable detail.

During a visit in 2009, astronauts installed six new gyroscopes on Hubble. Unfortunately, three of them have stopped functioning. These gyroscopes are crucial for maintaining the telescope’s stability and orientation.

Currently, only two gyroscopes are operational, one for pointing and the other as a backup.

The Webb Space Telescope, a more advanced successor to Hubble, is set to launch in 2021.

Source: www.nbcnews.com

New genetic research on flowering plants changes the tree of life at a large scale

Posted on by
Reply

The pink lapacho tree is one of approximately 300,000 species of flowering plants

Roberto Okamura Tetsuo/Shutterstock

Botanists have used genome data from more than 9,500 species to map evolutionary relationships among flowering plants. The newly compiled Tree of Life will help scientists piece together the origins of flowering plants and inform future conservation efforts.

Approximately 90 percent of plants that live on land are flowering and fruiting plants called angiosperms. These flowering plants are essential to maintaining Earth's ecosystems, including storing carbon and producing oxygen, and they make up a large portion of our diet.

“Our very existence depends on them,” he says. william baker At the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, England. “That's why we need to really understand them.”

For the past eight years, Baker and his colleagues have been working to complete the Tree of Life, which describes the evolutionary relationships between all genera of plants and fungi.

Starting with flowering plants, the researchers designed molecular probes to search for 353 specific genes found in the nucleus of all angiosperms. “The nuclear genome is huge,” Baker says. “So we needed to focus on a specific set of genes.”

Researchers have so far sequenced the genes of 9,506 species of flowering plants, primarily using specimens from collections and public databases around the world. This represents nearly all known angiosperm families and approximately 8,000 of the 13,400 recorded genera.Some of the specimens collected in the analysis are more than 200 years old; Arenaria globifloraand many Guadalupe Island olives (Espererea Palmeri).

By comparing the similarities in the gene sequences of different flowering plants, researchers were able to figure out where they fit on the tree of life.

Baker says this is the most comprehensive survey of angiosperms to date. “We often liken it to the periodic table of elements,” he says. “It's the basic framework for life.”

angiosperm tree of life

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Angiosperms emerged about 140 million years ago and have rapidly flourished, overtaking flowerless gymnosperms to become the world's dominant plant species. The sudden appearance of the diversity of flowering plants in the fossil record has baffled scientists for the past few centuries, and Charles Darwin called it “a hideous mystery.”

Now, the Tree of Life confirms that about 80 percent of the major flowering plant lineages that still exist today were part of this early boom in angiosperm diversity. “We can't say we've solved this 'damn mystery,' but at least we can say it really does exist,” Baker said.

The tree of life also highlights a further surge in diversity that occurred around 40 million years ago, possibly caused by a drop in global temperatures at the time.

In the future, he says, the Tree of Life could also help in the search for plants with pharmaceutical properties for new drugs. Ilia Leech, another member of Cue's team. It also helps scientists identify new species and assess which species are most vulnerable to climate change.

“This is the latest and greatest evolutionary framework for conducting new research that approaches the mechanisms that have allowed flowering plants to take over the world,” he says. ryan falk at Mississippi State University.

topic:

Source: www.newscientist.com

Arabica Coffee Genome Sequenced at Chromosome Scale by Scientists

Posted on by
Reply

researchers Genomica Application Laboratory and elsewhere are releasing improved genome assemblies. Arabica coffee (arabica coffee tree)a hybrid of coffee tree and robusta coffee (Coffea genus) contributes to approximately 60% of the world's coffee production.

arabica coffee tree. Image credit: Fadil Askar.

arabica coffee tree derived from interbreeding between modern ancestors Coffea genus and another closely related coffee species, coffee tree.

As a result of this hybridization, arabica coffee treeflavor and its large and complex genome pose challenges to breeding and genetic research.

Some partial genome assemblies arabica coffee tree is currently available, but the mechanisms that generate its genetic diversity are unknown.

Researchers Michele Morgante and Gabriele Di Gaspero and their colleagues at the Istituto di Genomica Appplicata used the latest sequencing technology to generate a more complete genome assembly. arabica coffee treeallowing detailed analysis of its chromosomal structure.

Analysis of the genome, including previously inaccessible regions such as around centromeres, revealed differences in genome structure, function, and evolution contributed by the two ancestral species, particularly in genes involved in caffeine biosynthesis. found.

For this study, they also analyzed the genomes of 174 samples collected from different species within Earth. coffee genus and found a very low level of genetic diversity within it. arabica coffee tree.

Diversity found to be increasing in some regions arabica coffee tree Varieties of specific genomic regions due to two different sources of variation: chromosomal abnormalities and gene segments provided by so-called Timor hybrids. Arabica coffee x Canephora coffee tree A hybrid from East Timor.

This hybrid is the parent line for many modern varieties that combine disease resistance traits. Coffea genus And its unique flavor is arabica coffee tree.

The authors argue that genetic diversity arabica coffee tree Essential for commercial success, this discovery could help develop new coffee varieties with desirable traits, such as disease resistance or different flavor profiles.

“Resequence data from large accession sets reveal low intraspecific diversity at the center of species origin. arabica coffee tree” the authors write in their paper.

“Across a limited number of genomic regions, the diversity of some cultivated genotypes has increased to levels similar to that observed in one of the ancestral species. Coffea genusThis is probably the result of introgression derived from Timor hybrids. ”

“We also found that in addition to very few early exchanges between homologous chromosomes, there are many recent chromosomal abnormalities such as aneuploidies, deletions, duplications, and exchanges.”

“These phenomena are still polymorphic in the germplasm and may be the root cause of genetic variation in such low-variability species.”

of paper Published in this week's magazine nature communications.

_____

S. Scalabrine other. 2024.Chromosome-scale assembly reveals chromosomal abnormalities and exchanges that generate genetic diversity arabica coffee tree germ plasm. Nat Commune 15,463; doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-44449-8

Source: www.sci.news

Indian teenager creates ground-breaking device with potential to revolutionize dementia care on a global scale

Posted on by
Reply

IDuring the blissful summer that Hemesh Chadarabada spent with his grandmother in 2018, they watched endless movies and ate her grandmother's chicken biryani. Late one evening, while Chadaravada, then 12, was sitting alone in front of the television, Jayasree got up in her nightgown and went to her home in Guntur, southern India, to make her a cup of tea. Ta.

After returning to her bedroom, Chadarabada went into the kitchen and noticed that her grandmother, then 63, had left the gas on.

“She was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, and I was still in shock. What would have happened if I hadn't been there?” Chadaravada says.

Chadarabada shows her grandmother the prototype of the device. Photo: Handout

Chadaravada knows that Jayasree is not only a loving grandmother but also a dynamic and successful woman with a high-profile career as a civil servant who interacted with Telangana's top politicians and policy makers. Ta.

But Alzheimer's disease changed her forever. “She would wake up at 3 or 4 in the morning and she would go outside thinking she was on the train,” he says.

During that happy summer, Chadarabada, a self-confessed geek from Hyderabad who loves robotics, decided he wanted to invent a device to help people like his grandmother.

Now 17 years old, Chadarabada is ready to start building a device to detect falls and wandering in Alzheimer's patients, something that is not possible with currently available devices.

Light and compact, Alpha Monitor can be worn as a badge or armband and sounds an alarm when the wearer begins to move, alerting caregivers if the patient falls or wanders.

Skip past newsletter promotions

Most similar devices work over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, so if a person moves outside of the frequency's restricted range, they lose connectivity and, with it, monitoring. However, Alpha Monitor Lolait uses.

Chadarabada taught himself by watching YouTube videos about robotics and electronics and developed 20 prototypes.

Understanding the needs of Alzheimer's disease (Alzheimer's disease in India) patients Estimated 8.8 million people), spent time at a day center run by the Alzheimer's Disease Related Disorders Association of India.