Reuters Science News Summary
Following is a summary of current science news briefs.
Evidence of red blood cells seen in dinosaur fossil from Brazil
Scientists have discovered what they consider the strongest evidence yet of blood cells in a dinosaur fossil inside bone from the right leg of a medium-sized meat-eater that prowled Brazil some 115 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period. The researchers identified numerous microscopic structures in bone from the species Aratasaurus museunacionali that appear to be fossilized red blood cells. They also detected chemical evidence related to a key component of these cells — an iron-containing biomolecule called heme that is associated with hemoglobin, the protein that gives blood its red color.
NASA's Swift satellite telescope heads for fiery re-entry 22 years after launch
An aging NASA satellite telescope that a robotic spacecraft was sent to retrieve on a failed rescue mission this summer was headed for a fiery re-entry into Earth's atmosphere on Wednesday, nearly 22 years after it was launched into orbit. The Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, weighing roughly 3,200 pounds (1,452 kg), was set to tumble out of orbit and burn up in the atmosphere somewhere over the tropics, with fragments surviving re-entry unlikely to threaten populated areas, according to NASA.
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