KL to host ‘significant’conference on Pseudomonas
Reading Time: 5 minutesParticipants from 30 countries will convene in Kuala Lumpur in July for the Pseudomonas 2019 Conference where speakers from 12 countries will take to the podium. The conference, co-hosted by the Academic Nexus for Global Scholastic Activities (ANGSA) and the Malaysian Biotechnology Information Centre is in a large sense unique, as it is entirely devoted […]
Ice Age survivors or stranded travellers?
Reading Time: 2 minutesA new subterranean species discovered in Canada. THE discovery of a new to science species of rare and primitive arthropod from the depths of a cave that was covered by a thick ice sheet until recently is certain to raise questions. In their study, published in the open-access journal Subterranean Biology, entomologist Alberto Sendra and […]
Saturn hasn’t always had rings
Reading Time: 3 minutesONE of the last acts of NASA’s Cassini spacecraft before its death plunge into Saturn’s hydrogen and helium atmosphere was to coast between the planet and its rings and let them tug it around, essentially acting as a gravity probe. Precise measurements of Cassini’s final trajectory have now allowed scientists to make the first accurate […]
Missing link in planet evolution found
Reading Time: 2 minutesFOR the first time ever, astronomers have detected a 1.3 km radius body at the edge of the Solar System. Kilometre sized bodies like the one discovered have been predicted to exist for more than 70 years. These objects acted as an important step in the planet formation process between small initial amalgamations of dust […]
Citizen scientists discover pinhead-sized beetle in Borneo
Reading Time: 2 minutesHOW many citizen scientists does it take to discover a new species? A recent expedition to the Ulu Temburong forest in Borneo proved that you only need ten enthusiasts with no professional training, yet fueled with curiosity and passion for the outdoors, to find a new beetle the size of a pinhead in leaf litter. […]
Scientists discover how locusts switch colours in different settings
Reading Time: 2 minutesSCIENTISTS have discovered how locusts change their body colour to adapt to different environments, according to new research published in eLife. The findings, first reported on bioRxiv, reveal a novel ‘palette effect’ mechanism in locusts, whereby a red pigment complex acts as a switch to coordinate between the insects’ green and black colouring. Changes in […]
Cancer hazard in old honey
Reading Time: 2 minutesA recently concluded workshop on communicating research hosted by Malaysian Biotechnology Information Centre (Mabic) and Monash University Malaysia, found potential “science journalists” among researchers. The article published here is also a testimony of the success of the first home-grown science communication teaching module created by Mabic. The writer was given an opportunity to write popular […]
An ancient strain of plague may have led to the decline of Neolithic Europeans
Reading Time: 2 minutesA TEAM of researchers from France, Sweden, and Denmark have identified a new strain of Yersinia pestis, the bacteria that causes plague, in DNA extracted from 5,000-year-old human remains. Their analyses, publishing December 6 in the journal Cell, suggest that this strain is the closest ever identified to the genetic origin of plague. Their work […]
Astronomers discover the giant that shaped the early days of Milky Way
Reading Time: 2 minutesSOME ten billion years ago, the Milky Way merged with a large galaxy. The stars from this partner, named Gaia-Enceladus, make up most of the Milky Way’s halo and also shaped its thick disk, giving it its inflated form. A description of this mega-merger, discovered by an international team led by University of Groningen astronomer […]
New extremely distant solar system object found during hunt for Planet X
Reading Time: 3 minutesWASHINGTON DC: Carnegie’s Scott Sheppard and his colleagues–Northern Arizona University’s Chad Trujillo, and the University of Hawaii’s David Tholen–are once again redefining our Solar System’s edge. They discovered a new extremely distant object far beyond Pluto with an orbit that supports the presence of an even-farther-out, Super-Earth or larger Planet X. The newly found object, […]