Members of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx curation team work with a glove box at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. The curation team will be among the first to see and handle the sample OSIRIS-REx is returning from asteroid Bennu. They are also responsible for storing and distributing the sample to science team members around the world. Most of the sample will be stored for future generations. Image credit NASA Johnson/Bill Stafford
Popularly known as the “marsupial (or metatherian) sabertooth” because its extraordinarily large upper canines, Thylacosmilus lived in South America until its extinction about 3 million years ago.
A small piece of Rhynie fossil plant with fossil fungi colonising the ends, viewed through a microscope. Image credit: Loron et al
“Many people who have the gene alteration are unaware of it. Not everyone wants to have a genetic test that looks into their future. In the long run we want to make a test available to those with Westray grandparents who want to know if they have the gene variant” Professor Zosia Miedzybrodzka, Professor of Medical Genetics at the University of Aberdeen
“Our study suggests that eating a more Mediterranean-like diet could be one strategy to help individuals lower their risk of dementia.”- Dr Oliver Shannon
“The potential benefits that are achievable when people recognise that it’s not too late to learn or re-skill was something that our charitable trust definitely wanted to get behind and we are delighted to be supporting UHI in this cause.” Iain McNeill, Witherby Publishing Group
A clinical trial to study a potential new treatment for endometriosis is set to go ahead thanks to funding made possible by a partnership between leading women’s health charity Wellbeing of Women and the Scottish Government.
“Honeybees use a ‘navigation memory’, a kind of mental map of the area that they know, to guide their search flights when they look for their hive starting in a new, unexplored area.” Dr Randolf Menzel
In the broken dinosaur shin bone, the bone fractured along annual growth rings, which are very closely spaced. This animal grew slowly for many years. Image credit: Michael D’Emic
9,500 years ago around the Mediterranean Sea, at a time before humans settled down to farm, the Peoples around that region were using the resources of the Sea much more than was previously thought.
