Reuters Science News Summary

Following is a summary of current science news briefs. Shake it, baby! NASA robotic lander confirms quakes on Mars

NASA's robotic InSight lander has for the first time established that Mars is seismically active, but do not call the shaking, rattling and rolling taking place on the Red Planet earthquakes. The proper term, fittingly, is marsquakes. Scientists said on Monday the InSight lander, which touched down on the planet's surface in November 2018 to begin the first mission to study the deep interior of Mars, has since detected around 450 marsquakes, most of modest strength. Katherine Johnson, NASA mathematician portrayed in 'Hidden Figures', dies at 101

Katherine Johnson, the black woman whose mathematical genius took her from a behind-the-scenes job in a segregated NASA as portrayed in the film "Hidden Figures" to a key role in sending humans to the moon, died on Monday at the age of 101, NASA said. "Our NASA family is sad to learn the news that Katherine Johnson passed away this morning at 101 years old," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine posted to Twitter. "She was an American hero and her pioneering legacy will never be forgotten." Billion-year-old Chinese seaweed is oldest green plant fossil

Scientists have spotted in rocks from northern China what may be the oldest fossils of a green plant ever found, tiny seaweed that carpeted areas of the seafloor roughly a billion years ago and were part of a primordial revolution among life on Earth. Researchers on Monday said the plant, called Proterocladus antiquus, was about the size of a rice grain and boasted numerous thin branches, thriving in shallow water while attached to the seafloor with a root-like structure.

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