Science

A Sooke, B.C. family’s walk on the beach turned into a paleontology expedition when they stumbled upon a rare find: a 25-million-year-old bird fossil embedded in a slab of rock. The fossil was in good enough condition for researchers to identify the animal as a new species of a plotopterid, a long-extinct penguin or cormorant-like bird never before found in …

Researchers have discovered six new kinds of African clawed frog, boosting the number of known species by 30% and offering new avenues for research on human disease, said a study on Wednesday. “Because the African clawed frog is used as a model organism for biological research, it would be understandable to think that scientists had already pinned down the number …

An incredibly rare giant salamander was found recently near the mouth of a cave in Chongqing in southwestern China. The giant salamander is about 1.4m in length and weighs 52kg but that isn’t exceptionally big for a giant salamander, which is the largest known species of amphibian.

A forensic expert has recreated the face of Jesus Christ using state-of-the art science. Depictions of Christ predominantly show a white, clean shaven man with long, flowing blonde locks. But the reality may have been very different.

On its way up Mount Sharp, NASA’s Curiosity rover is conducting the first ever study of sand dunes on a world other than Earth. The nuclear-powered space tank is currently at a spot named “Bagnold Dunes,” which can be found on the northwestern flank of Mount Sharp inside the Gale Crater that’s been Curiosity’s home since it arrived on August …

The melting of glaciers caused by the world’s rising temperatures appears to be causing a slight slowing of the Earth’s rotation in another illustration of the far-reaching impact of global climate change, researchers said on Friday. Researchers are studying past changes in sea level in order to make accurate future predictions of this consequence of climate change, and they’re looking …

A new $7 million XPRIZE challenge has been launched today which looks to boost development of technology for unmanned deep ocean exploration. “Our oceans cover two-thirds of our planet’s surface and are a crucial global source of food, energy, economic security, and even the air we breathe, yet 95 percent of the deep sea remains a mystery to us,” Peter …

A full moon will light up the night sky on Christmas for the first time since 1977, a NASA spokesperson told ABC News. It will be the last full moon of the year, and will be most visible at 6:11 a.m. Eastern, ABC reports, so plan festivities accordingly.

Researchers from MIT, New York University and the University of Toronto have created a computer model that passes a “visual Turing test,” a breakthrough in artificial intelligence research. The work, which appears in the latest issue of the journal Science, marks a significant advance in the field – one that dramatically shortens the time it takes computers to “learn” new …

Mystery solved? Bright spots seen by Dawn spacecraft on dwarf planet Ceres are likely salt deposits, say Scientists. Researchers have suggested that the mysterious, glowing areas are being caused by a kind of salt on the surface. The patches were left behind when the water-ice turned into vapour and left the planet at some point in the past, and then …

THE world’s first litter of IVF puppies has been born, prompting hope animal species can be saved from extinction. The breakthrough, described in a study published online Dec. 9 in the journal Public Library of Science ONE, opens the door for conserving endangered canid species, using gene-editing technologies to eradicate heritable diseases in dogs and for study of genetic diseases. …