News about PaperPanda, Open Access, and Research
Adding to the anticipation of the new Disney Plus “Star Wars” live-action series, “Obi-Wan Kenobi” premiering May 25, a new companion comic book series titled “Star Wars: Obi-Wan” seeks to fill in more facets of the Jedi Master’s eventful life through his personal journals. Written by Christopher Cantwell (“Iron Man,” “Halt and Catch Fire”) … Read more
There are few bigger questions than how life first got started on Earth, but trying to put in the detective work almost 4 billion years after the event is understandably hard going for scientists. Now it looks as though we might have found another clue. New research focuses specifically on peptides, smaller versions of … Read more
Everyone wants to live longer. And we’re often told that the key to doing this is making healthier lifestyle choices, such as exercising, avoiding smoking, and not drinking too much alcohol. Studies have also shown that diet can increase lifespan. A new study has found that eating healthier could extend lifespan by six to … Read more
The bottom of the Arctic Ocean, below the permanent sea ice, is not a friendly place for life. Down there in the cold dark, nutrients and vegetation are sparse; it’s expected that any life that does manage to eke out an existence under these conditions would be likewise thin on the ground. Scientists were … Read more
Archaeologists have uncovered the largest collection of ancient Egyptian ‘notepads’ found since the beginning of the 20th century. In the long-lost city of Athribis, in central Egypt, researchers have cataloged more than 18,000 inscribed pieces of pottery, some of which seem to have been written by students. The shards of inked pottery are known … Read more
Once, there were giants. Mountain ranges that rivaled the Himalayas in height used to stretch thousands upon thousands of kilometers across the seams of merging supercontinents, billions of years in the past. Like the teeth of decrepit old gods, they’ve long been worn down to their roots by time and decay. But in those … Read more
Sweeping the ocean floor at hundreds of points throughout the world, researchers have revealed an astonishing diversity of microscopic life thriving in the deepest and darkest parts of our planet. The sediment collected at each spot was analyzed for environmental DNA (eDNA), which marine animals shed as they go about their lives. While sea … Read more
In this episode, join freelance journalist and radio producer Tasha Lemley and podcast host Lydia Chain as they unravel the story of Pervis Payne, a man with an intellectual disability sentenced to death, and the decades-long court battle to remove him from The Row. Below is the full transcript of the podcast, lightly edited for … Read more
Early chances for life on Mars might have been diminished by meteorites. A new study suggests that a period of heavy cratering on the Red Planet (and elsewhere in the solar system) persisted 30 million years longer than thought. Studies of the Late Heavy Bombardment, as this period is called, also has implications for the … Read more
The search for traces of life on distant planets will be more difficult for the world’s largest radio telescope, the Square Kilometer Array Observatory (SKAO), because of interference from SpaceX’s Starlink and other megaconstellation satellites. Also affected will be the hunt for exoplanets and the study of the most distant galaxies, Federico di Vruno, radio … Read more