Science

Scientists using two NASA telescopes have discovered a new brown dwarf believed to be the coldest of its kind. According to Space.com, a Penn State team used the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) and Spitzer Space Telescope to spot the star that sits in the fourth-closest system to our own.

A dead blue whale that is slowly rotting on the beach of the western Newfoundland community of Trout River has the community scrambling to find a way to get rid of it before it explodes. The whale’s 25-metre carcass washed into Trout River just over a week ago, and has since been pushed up against the beach.

Chinese legislators have passed the first amendments to the country’s environmental protection law in 25 years, promising greater powers for environmental authorities and harsher punishments for polluters. The amendments, which the Standing Committee of National People’s Congress passed on Thursday after two years of debate, will allow authorities to detain company bosses for 15 days if they do not complete …

Remains of about 50 mummies, including newborn babies, thought to belong to the 18th Dynasty were found in a huge tomb in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings in Luxor, Antiquities Minister Mohamed Ibrahim said Monday.

Federal wildlife officials are granting Endangered Species Act protections to three species of Sierra Nevada amphibians. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determined that two types of yellow-legged frog are endangered species, and that the Yosemite toad is threatened.

A new research programme aims to understand 3D vision in the praying mantis, the only invertebrate known to have this ability, and compare it with vision in humans. Analysing how mantises see in three dimensions could give us clues about how 3D vision evolved and lead to novel approaches in implementing 3D recognition and depth perception in computer vision and …

Officials have announced the large sand dune that trapped a 6-year-old boy under 11 feet of sand last summer will remain closed this summer and perhaps into the fall while scientists investigate the its safety, our news partner WNDU reported. Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore’s superintendent, Garry Traynham, said the decision was made after more holes were found in the Mount …

Soon, the California condor will soar throughout it’s native homeland. The northern California-based Yurok Tribe was recently granted permission to release condors bred in captivity back into their native lands of the Redwood Coast, according to The Associated Press (AP). Tribal biologist Chris West said that the first releases of the birds could come in the next one to three …

Black bear sightings throughout North Carolina are becoming more common as the bear population increases and bears expand their home range. While black bears are not inherently dangerous and are rarely aggressive toward people, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission advises caution to reduce potential conflicts.

A New York City zoo is celebrating the arrivals of two baby western lowland gorillas. They’re the first gorillas born at the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Bronx Zoo since 2006. And the newest additions make the zoo’s Congo Gorilla Forest the largest group of gorillas in North America, with 20 primates.

Coral reefs have the unusual ability to adjust their inner functions to withstand the temperature of the warming ocean 50 times faster than would be possible through natural selection.