Strange microbes called the Lokis have reignited an argument about the shape of the tree of life, one of biology’s most fundamental ways of describing the rise of life on Earth, with implications for all of us. Image: david.mclanahan
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Sauropod dinosaurs were so immense they needed four strong, pillar-like legs to support their bodies, which makes a discovery in Texas all the more bizarre. Fossil footprints found in 2007 that belonged to huge sauropods show they sometimes apparently walked on just their two forelimbs. Image: Heritage Museum of the Texas Hill Country
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Medics are facing an ethical dilemma: some of the patients seeking physician-assisted death have also expressed their wishes to donate their tissues to science to help researchers treat and cure their illnesses in future generations. Image: Ruhrfisch
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Most of the Roman occupants of Herculaneum were doomed the moment Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 C.E. Within hours, a cloud of hot volcanic ash swept down the side of the famous Italian volcano, raced over the countryside, and smothered the town, along with nearby Pompeii. Image: Martyn et al/Antiquity
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Researchers have found more evidence that our planet had a strong magnetic field 4.2 billion years ago, three-quarters of a billion years earlier than previously thought and just 350 million years after Earth formed. Image: Julie Mansy; Rory Cottrell; John Tarduno/University of Rochester
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