Best of Science
From viruses, nuclear energy, dinosaurs, and comets to the mystery of the origins of life on Earth, here are some of the amazing stories of scientific discovery our writers have penned over the years
From viruses, nuclear energy, dinosaurs and comets to the mystery of the origins of life on Earth, here are some of the amazing stories of scientific discovery our writers have penned over the years
Revisited
No.129 Issue 1/2018
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Science of the Times Science is moving fast in China and Japan as researchers progress on discoveries ranging from new drone technologies to knowledge of ancient life. We round up six highlights from the past year
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Paleontologists say China is now the world’s leading source of pterosaur research, after hundreds of fossilised eggs, some with the embryos’ bones intact, were discovered in the far northwest of the country. The eggs of the Hamipterus tianshanensis species are well known for their fragile shells, making the discovery an absolute windfall. To date, only 10 other eggs have been uncovered, five of which are also from China. Dr Wang Xiaolin from Beijing’s Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Paleoanthropology, and Dr Alexander Kellner from Brazil’s Federal University of Rio de Janeiro discovered the fossils in Xinjiang’s Turpan-Hami Basin, the fourthlowest exposed point on Earth. Why so many eggs were found there is still a mystery, though Dr Kellner suggests pterosaurs eggs laid near riverbanks may have been preserved by floods.
Revisited
No.122 Issue 6/2016
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From the Fathoms
Spurring the origin of life on Earth
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Arunas L Radzvilavicius For nearly nine decades, science’s favourite explanation for the origin of life has been the primordial soup. This is the idea that life began from a series of chemical reactions in a warm pond on Earth’s surface, triggered by an external energy source such as a lightning strike or ultraviolet (UV) light. But recent research adds weight to an alternative idea, that life arose deep in the ocean within warm, rocky structures called hydrothermal vents. A study published this year in Nature Microbiology suggests the last common ancestor of all living cells fed on hydrogen gas in a hot, iron-rich environment, much like that within the vents. Advocates of the conventional theory have been sceptical that these findings should change our view of the origins of life. But the hydrothermal vent hypothesis, which is often described as exotic and controversial, explains how living cells evolved the ability to obtain energy, in a way that just wouldn’t have been possible in a primordial soup.