A recent article in Nature Geoscience suggests that at least one large, deep crater on Mars may once have supported an alkaline lake that was fed by water from kilometres below the planet’s surface.
This…
Earth’s oceans of liquid water make it unique in the solar system.
NASA
Earth is the only planet in our solar system with a long-term, stable supply of liquid water – essential for the formation and evolution of all organic life. But this doesn’t mean there aren’t other pockets…
Sponges and hydra, which are made of colonies of cells with a small number of cell types, have some similarities with cancer.
Biodiversity Heritage Library
Life originated on Earth about four billion years ago. Death, sex and multicellularity came along about a billion years later.
According to our new atavistic model, cancer came with multicellularity…
The “Rocknest” site has been Curiosity’s laboratory for the past few months.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems
The Curiosity rover has landed on Mars, driven around, started its scientific mission and, as of 4am today (AEDT), started reporting integrated science results.
In a news conference at the American Geophysical…
It’s long been suspected that Mercury’s poles are home to water ice. That speculation has now been confirmed.
NASA
Whenever I’m telling students or people at conferences about Mercury, I always describe it as the “heavy metal” planet. Many things on this closest planet to the sun are extreme, from its 88-Earth-day…
Three years ago we discovered water on the moon, and now we’ve worked out where it’s from.
Jason Bache
A study published in the journal Nature Geoscience last week suggests water on the moon may have come, at least in part, from the sun.
Until a few years ago the orthodox view was that the moon was bone…
When Curiosity lands on Mars next Monday, expect the social media buzz to be out of this world.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Social media is the new frontier for space exploration, shaping an age of innovative public participation in space missions.
While online communities are a-Twitter about NBC’s poor Olympic coverage, there…
Drilling could provide insights on Jupiter’s moon, Europa.
Shandchem
Late last week the Russian Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI) announced they had successfully drilled into the elusive sub-glacial Lake Vostok, a body of water lying under nearly 4km of Antarctic…
Fossils from the Pilbara could shine a light on the search for life on Mars.
tysonA
A study published in Nature Geoscience yesterday reports the discovery of 3.4 billion-year-old microbial cells in ancient sandstones in Western Australia’s Pilbara region.
Some headlines have suggested…
Microbial fossils in Western Australia hold secrets about life’s earliest evolution.
Mundoo
Welcome to If I had a blank cheque I’d … a new series in which leading researchers reveal what they could do in their discipline if money were no object.
Today we hear from Malcolm Walter, professor of…
