Italian cops recover stolen da Vinci replica no one knew was missing
An important copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous “Salvator Mundi” painting is back in the hands of an Italian museum after being stolen at some point in the last year. No one knew it was missing. Police found the copy, which shows Jesus with his right hand raised in a blessing and the left holding […]
Raven ‘queen’ missing from Tower of London, feared dead
One of the iconic ravens that resides in the Tower of London is missing, and officials fear the worst. Will the tower fall, as legend warns? (Probably not.) Merlina, a female raven (Corvus corax), joined the corvid community at the tower in 2007, and has reigned since then as “the ruler of the roost,” tower representatives […]
Neptune’s bumpy childhood could reveal our solar system’s missing planets
This image was taken by Voyager 2, and features its Great Dark Spot and a bright moving spot colloquially called Scooter. (NASA/JPL/) The modern solar system spins serenely, the planets locked in seemingly eternal circles around the sun. But it wasn’t always so. This tranquility appears to have emerged only after a gladiatorial period of […]
Ripples in space-time could provide clues to missing components of the universe
An illustration of waves blending and creating a distinct new signature. Credit: Ezquiaga and Zumalácarregui There’s something a little off about our theory of the universe. Almost everything fits, but there’s a fly in the cosmic ointment, a particle of sand in the infinite sandwich. Some scientists think the culprit might be gravity—and that subtle ripples […]
Missing link in pterosaur origins discovered
Nearly nothing is known about the family tree of pterosaurs — iconic reptiles that flew alongside the dinosaurs. These now-extinct beasts appear in the fossil record with already developed wings and senses adapted for flying, with researchers having nary a clue about their immediate evolutionary history. But now, the pterosaur’s family tree has a new […]
Mystery of galaxy’s missing dark matter solved. (And it involves a thief.)
A small, mysterious galaxy 44 million light-years away is finally yielding up its secrets. Revealed last year to have a shockingly low amount of dark matter, the galaxy NGC 1052-DF4 posed a significant challenge to our models of galaxy formation. Those models yet live another day. According to new research, NGC 1052-DF4 is indeed lacking […]
New Hubble data explains missing dark matter
This image shows the sky around the ultra diffuse galaxies NGC 1052-DF4 and NGC 1052-DF2. It was created from images forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. NGC 1052-DF2 is basically invisible in this image. In 2018 an international team of researchers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and several other observatories uncovered, for the first time, […]
2 of Darwin’s famous notebooks, including iconic ‘Tree of Life’ sketch, are missing
A thief may have stolen two of Charles Darwin’s notebooks, including one containing his iconic 1837 “Tree of Life” sketch, according to Cambridge University Library in England. The books were last seen in fall 2000, when they were taken from the uber-secure Special Collections Strong Rooms at Cambridge University Library for a photo shoot. During […]
Parasitic worms offer ‘the missing link’ on the dual nature of a key immune regulator — ScienceDaily
De’Broski Herbert has a philosophy that’s guided his career researching helminths, or parasitic worms, and their interaction with their hosts’ immune systems: “Follow the worm.” “The mantra of my lab since its inception has been that parasitic worms manipulate their hosts in very interesting ways to maintain their survival,” says Herbert, an associate professor of […]
Biden’s COVID-19 response plan is missing one major component
The effectiveness of public health response to this pandemic has been seriously reduced by false information about COVID-19 prevention and treatment. (Pexels/) Public health experts greeted President-Elect Joe Biden’s Monday announcement of a COVID-19 advisory board that will help shape his policy with a sigh of relief. After months of piecemeal public health advice and […]
