Science

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Inside the stout fins of a fish that prowled the shallow waters of an estuary in what is now eastern Canada about 380 million years ago, scientists have found what they call the evolutionary origins of the human hand. FILE PHOTO: An artist’s reconstruction of the extinct fish Elpistostege watsoni, which lived

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A fossil unearthed in Belgium dubbed the “Wonderchicken” is providing a rare glimpse into the early evolution of modern birds at the twilight of the age of dinosaurs, right before an asteroid impact altered the course of life on Earth. Researchers on Wednesday described a partridge-sized bird named Asteriornis maastrichtensis that inhabited

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australian researchers said on Tuesday they have mapped the immune responses from one of country’s first coronavirus patients, findings that the health minister said were an important step in developing a vaccine and treatment. FILE PHOTO: The ultrastructural morphology exhibited by the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV), which was identified as the cause

BEIJING (Reuters) – A new Chinese medium-lift rocket, part of a family of launch vehicles meant to support most of China’s launch missions in future, failed on its debut flight, the official news agency Xinhua reported. The Long March 7A, a variant of the Long March 7, blasted off from the Wenchang Space Launch Center,

(Reuters) – Drugs used for treating arthritis are being tested as treatments for COVID-19, the disease caused by a new coronavirus, as researchers rush to find ways of helping patients and slowing the number of infections. FILE PHOTO: A Sanofi sign outside the French drugmaker’s Paris headquarters, October 30, 2014. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann//File Photo Sanofi and

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Valentina Tereshkova was hailed as a hero when she became the first woman in space in 1963. FILE PHOTO: Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman cosmonaut, attends a news conference in Star City outside Moscow, June 7, 2013. REUTERS/Sergei Remezov/File Photo Now 83, she has became a hate figure for some

FILE PHOTO: A full-size model of the ExoMars entry, descent and landing module, Schiaparell is seen during a press conference at the European Space Agency (ESA) Headquarters in Darmstadt, Germany October 20, 2016. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File Photo MOSCOW/BRUSSELS (Reuters) – A joint Russian-European mission to send a rover to Mars has been postponed by two years

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Scientists are marveling over the exquisitely preserved skull of what appears to be the smallest-known bird – tinier than any hummingbird – encased in 99-million-year-old amber and boasting many odd traits including jaws studded with numerous puny teeth. The skull, measuring about half an inch (14.25 mm) long, belongs to a bird

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Scientists have detected an exotic planet in another solar system where the weather forecast is always dire – a 100 percent chance of the most outrageous rain imaginable, with droplets of scaldingly hot liquid iron. The researchers said on Wednesday they used the planet-hunting ESPRESSO instrument on the European Southern Observatory’s Very

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Today’s artificial limbs can look very natural, and now an innovative process makes prosthetic hands move more naturally as well. Paul Cederna (foreground), the Robert Oneal Professor of Plastic Surgery at the University of Michigan, shifts his attention as Daniel Lyons, a resident of plastic surgery, stitches up the arm of

Kosza, the 2,5 year-old Belgian shepherd and Fuge, the 6 year-old golden retriever are seen before a test at the Ethology Department of the ELTE University in Budapest, Hungary, March 2, 2020. REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo BUDAPEST (Reuters) – Dogs have a type of infrared sensor in the tip of their nose which enables them to detect

Dr. Daylan Tzompa Sosa holds a handful of crickets at Ghent University, Belgium February 27, 2020. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir GHENT, Belgium (Reuters) – Belgian waffles may be about to become more environmentally friendly. Scientists at Ghent University in Belgium are experimenting with larva fat to replace butter in waffles, cakes and cookies, saying using grease from

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Red pandas, the bushy-tailed and russet-furred bamboo munchers that dwell in Asian high forests, are not a single species but rather two distinct ones, according to the most comprehensive genetic study to date on these endangered mammals. FILE PHOTO: A one year old Red Panda sits in the trees having only recently

(Reuters) – JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) on Tuesday largely maintained its key profit goals for the medium term, while the largest U.S. bank also raised its financial commitment for clean-energy initiatives, after years of pressure from environmental activists. FILE PHOTO: The J.P.Morgan logo is seen at Canary Wharf financial district in London, Britain, March

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Scientists have spotted in rocks from northern China what may be the oldest fossils of a green plant ever found, tiny seaweed that carpeted areas of the seafloor roughly a billion years ago and were part of a primordial revolution among life on Earth. A green seaweed fossil from China dating back

(Reuters) – Katherine Johnson, the black woman whose mathematical genius took her from a behind-the-scenes job in a segregated NASA as portrayed in the film “Hidden Figures” to a key role in sending humans to the moon, died on Monday at the age of 101, NASA said. FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Barack Obama presents the