Good News Notes: “A team of Chinese scientists has discovered a giant new sinkhole with a forest at its bottom. The sinkhole is 630 feet (192 meters) deep, according to the Xinhua news agency, deep enough to just swallow St. Louis’ Gateway Arch. A team of speleologists and spelunkers rappelled into the sinkhole on Friday (May…
Tag: discovering
New chameleon species may be world’s smallest reptile
Good News Notes: “Scientists have discovered a tiny new species of chameleon in a patch of rainforest in northern Madagascar. This so-called nano-chameleon is about the size of a sunflower seed, fits on the tip of a finger, and may be the smallest reptile on Earth. Officially known as Brookesia nana, or B. nana for short, the new…
Discovery of new praying mantis species from the time of the dinosaurs
Good News Notes: “A McGill-led research team has identified a new species of praying mantis thanks to imprints of its fossilized wings. It lived in Labrador, in the Canadian Subarctic around 100 million years ago, during the time of the dinosaurs, in the Late Cretaceous period. The researchers believe that the fossils of the new…
Researchers discover life in deep ocean sediments at or above water’s boiling point
Good News Notes: “An international research team that included three scientists from the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography has discovered single-celled microorganisms in a location where they didn’t expect to find them. ‘Water boils on the (Earth’s) surface at 100 degrees Celsius, and we found organisms living in sediments at 120 degrees Celsius,’ said…
Planet 9 discovery gets closer as astronomers discover 139 ‘minor planets’ past Neptune
Good News Notes: “Astronomers are getting closer to discovering the elusive and mysterious Planet Nine after 139 ‘minor planets‘ were discovered past Neptune’s orbit. These objects, ones “that were not previously published,” are not officially planets or comets, but rather space objects that orbit the Sun. In total, the discovery is five percent of the trans-Neptunian object…