Here are today’s most important updates from the realm of Science and Space.
Dinosaurs once dominated Earth for millions of years before an asteroid wiped them off. They were everywhere, even in the coldest regions of the planet. A new study has revealed how dinosaurs once thrived in southern Australia, which was once a part of the polar circle, an area that today is not deemed fit for human survival. It was extremely cold and frigid, yet the dinosaurs managed to survive, as fossilised bones have shown. Two species of dinosaurs thrived in Victoria - small herbivorous ornithopods and theropods, primarily carnivorous. Primitive plants like scaly ferns, forked ferns, and other early fern species were spread on the surface. Rivers helped life thrive, both for dinosaurs and the vegetation.
A thick plume of sand and dust from the Sahara Desert is seen in these images blowing from the west coast of Africa across the Atlantic Ocean. The images were captured during multiple observations from Copernicus Sentinel-3 and Copernicus Sentinel-5P on May 7, 2025. The images show a dense, orange plume of Saharan sand over approximately 1,50,000 sq km of the eastern Atlantic Ocean. Sandstorms, which are common over the Sahara, occur when large amounts of dust particles from the desert are swept up by strong winds. They can float for days or even weeks, depending on how dry, fast and turbulent the air masses become. Saharan dust plays an important role in our ecosystem. It is a major source of minerals and nutrients for phytoplankton and for ecosystems on the other side of the world, including the Amazon rainforest.
What is it about the tropical environments that has driven their animal inhabitants to evolve such eye-catching hues? Birds tend to acquire coloured pigments — like red, orange and yellow carotenoids — through their diet and use the resulting strong coloration to attract a partner or establish dominance. Meanwhile, fish and mollusks use complex microscopic structures within their cells to bend and diffract light and thus change their color to camouflage them from predators. But whether it's on land or under the sea, tropical conditions have played a huge part in this evolved adaptation. Additionally, the production of colour requires an investment of energy — which is limited in in harsher environments such as the tundra or desert. Tropical conditions are more generous in terms of energy, the availability of food, a milder climate, which has a strong impact.
A small region of the brain, known as the ventral tegmental area (VTA), plays a key role in how we process rewards. It produces dopamine, a neuromodulator that helps predict future rewards based on contextual cues. Scientists found that dopamine-producing neurons forecast not only reward, but its timing—some fire for immediate rewards, others for future ones. This timing function of dopamine neurons has major implications. It explains why some people are better at long-term goals than others, and why others seek quick rewards. It also suggests that when motivation fails, the problem may not be with the reward itself — but with the timing of how it’s expected.
