Atacama rover helps NASA learn to search for life on Mars
...ogy, texture, physical and elemental properties of rocks and soils; document how life modifies its environment; characterize the geo- and biosignatures of microbial organisms and draft science protocols to support a discovery of life. Ames scientist Chris McKay is conducting a long-term ecological study of...New signs of life found at the Poles
Large colonies of micro-organisms living under rocks have been discovered in the most hostile and extre...ro-organisms thriving under quartz and translucent rocks in hot deserts because enough light gets through, we wouldn't have expected this type of colonizatio...Tiny collars fitted on youngest-ever tiger cubs
... for the cubs, which they found in a collection of rocks on the slope of a hill. The cubs, who weighed from 6.5 to nine pounds, remained calm as the researchers handled and measured them. After collecting hair and blood samples for genetic and disease analysis, Goodrich and his team fitted them with radio ...Water on Mars not easy to find, says Texas A&M researcher
...evidence of lava flows, and it appears many of the rocks on Mars are from volcanic eruptions. We have found non-volcanic rocks with Opportunity and may yet do so with Spirit," Lemmon notes. "If large bodies of water were on Mar...New England forests at greater risk from air pollution
...ichens typically live on tree trunks, branches and rocks on the forest floor, and they're well known for their sensitivity to environmental change, such as air pollution, says Susan Will-Wolf, a UW-Madison associate scientist in botany, who is involved in the project. "They're the 'canary in the mine' that...Geologists discover water cuts through rock at surprising speed
...ope that is produced when cosmic rays collide with rocks and sediments at the earth's surface. These analyses helped them gauge when the rivers abandoned their ancient beds and, consequently, exposed bare rock surfaces, known as terraces, where people climb and hike today. Knowing the age of each river ter...90 million year old dino tracks found on resort island
...izard fossils and to study the 90 million year old rocks of Hvar to learn more about the ancient environmen...ational team of scientists explored the Cretaceous rocks of Hvarwith financial assistance from the National Geographic Society's Committeefor Research and Ex...When male fish hum, females swim in, thanks to hormones, adaptable hearing
...tidal zones to reproduce. Males build nests under rocks and begin broadcasting their loud humming love calls to attract females. The researchers collected non-reproductive females, removed their ovaries and replaced them with implants to induce hormonal levels in the fish that mimic the natural spike in t...'Anti-plume' found off Pacific Coast
...e drilled 4,000 feet through volcanic rock. Basalt rocks have all of the elements required for life, Fisk pointed out, including carbon, phosphorous and nitrogen. Only water is needed to complete the formula. Dziak is able to monitor offshore activities from his laboratory at OSU's Hatfield Marine Science...Continents played key role in collapse and regeneration of Earth's early greenhouse, geologists say
...ertainty. Molecular oxygen wasn't around, indicate rocks from the era, which contain iron carbonate instead...geologic record revealed in some of Earth's oldest rocks is telling a surprising tale of collapse of that greenhouse - and its subsequent regeneration. But e...Two dinosaurs from Africa give clues to continents' split
...as found in Niger in the same 135-million-year-old rocks where Sereno's expeditions excavated the dinosaurs Jobaria and Afrovenator. The fossil is an articulated, or connected, spine of a dinosaur and represents an ancient relative of Rugops and other abelisaurids. These finds provide fresh evidence about ...Penguins ingest mollusk shells to obtain calcium for thicker eggshells
... some other birds too. "The birds that lay eggs on rocks or those that tend to lay them from great heights, like ostriches and rheas, also tend of have thicker eggshells," she said. Both female and male penguins typically fast for a week or more before eggs are laid. Both genders ingest mollusk shells befo...Discovery offers clues to origin of life
...ed is the same as on the surface of Mars. "Martian rocks would also have glass that would retain a record of life activity-we could learn a lot from them as well."...Biologist's find alters the bacteria family tree
...nology. Lipid markers, similar to fossils in the rocks in that they provide evidence of species' presence in the past, in the rock record indicate that cyanobacteria may have been present as early as 2.7 billion years ago. But, because ancient lipid research just started in 1999, this evidence is still ...UF study: Barren Siberia, of all places, may be original home to animal life
... other based on the evolution of trilobites. When rocks are formed, their magnetic minerals align to the e...lobe. Carbon dating of radioactive minerals in the rocks also revealed when they were formed. By combining the formation dates with the location data, Meert ...Oldest-known arm bone found in Pennsylvania
...oadside in north central Pennsylvania. The layered rocks along the Clinton County Road were deposited by an...od, about 365 million years ago. Enclosed in these rocks is fossil evidence of an ecosystem teeming with plant and animal life. "We found a number of i......instruments designed to measure the composition of rocks and soils. Scientists Ken Herkenhoff and Larry Soderblom are assisting with calibration of all of the MER cameras and providing software tools for analyzing the returned images and data. To see a "Sol by Sol" (Martian for "Day by Day") journal from...Want a side of algae with that? Hawaiian farmers sell seaweed by the seashore
...ld go out to the reef and yank the seaweed off the rocks or even take the whole rock, Glenn says. Ultimatel...ery tanks, algal spores are allowed to settle onto rocks or coral chips and start growing. Then those rocks or chunks of coral are given away to the farmers ...Purdue chemist 'mussels' in on secrets of natural adhesives
... that saltwater mussels use to affix themselves to rocks is a subject worth sticking to, both for its pure scientific interest and for its potential applications in medicine and industry. Jonathan Wilker and his research group have discovered that the formation of mussel adhesive requires iron, a metal tha......sified since the emplacement of ultramafic igneous rocks (2) 39 million years B.P., molecular genetics in...trates (A. lanceolata and A. ovata), two with acid rocks (A. corbassonii and A. montana), and one species is spread over both types of substrate (A. moorei)....