logo
Dinosaurs once roamed Denver's City Park

Dinosaurs once roamed Denver's City Park

Axios09-07-2025
Back in the Late Cretaceous era, 67.5 million years ago, dinosaurs roamed Denver's modern-day City Park.
The intrigue: The Denver Museum of Nature & Science, on the eastern edge of the park, announced Wednesday it unexpectedly discovered a partial-bone fossil 763 feet below the surface of its parking lot.
What they did: The discovery occurred when the museum conducted a drilling test this January to see if it could tap geothermal energy and took core samples down 1,000 feet into the ground.
What they found: Museum scientists later identified the fossil as part of a vertebra from a plant-eating dinosaur, similar to a Thescelosaurus or Edmontosaurus.
What they're saying: "In my 35 years at the museum, we've never had an opportunity quite like this — to study the deep geologic layers beneath our feet with such precision," Earth sciences research associate Bob Raynolds said in a statement. "That this fossil turned up here, in City Park, is nothing short of magical."
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Singapore skies may sparkle with two meteor showers in coming weeks
Singapore skies may sparkle with two meteor showers in coming weeks

Yahoo

time5 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Singapore skies may sparkle with two meteor showers in coming weeks

SINGAPORE – Two meteor showers, including one known for its dramatic fireballs, are set to streak across Singapore's night sky in late July and mid-August if weather conditions allow. The Delta Aquariids and the Perseids, both annual occurrences, could be visible over the next few weeks, said The Observatory at Science Centre Singapore. The Delta Aquariids, which peak around July 30, originate from Comet 96P/Machholz and appear to radiate from the constellation Aquarius. The comet was discovered in 1986 by American amateur astronomer Donald Machholz, a prolific comet hunter with more than a dozen discoveries to his name. Though not known for high meteor counts, the Delta Aquariids produce a steady stream of two to five meteors per hour, flashing into view at speeds of 40km per second. Some may leave glowing trails of gas in the sky. If cloud cover obscures the meteor shower as it peaks, stargazers may still see Saturn in the east after 11pm, according to the observatory. The Perseids – one of the best and most anticipated meteor showers of the year – will peak on the nights of Aug 12 and 13. It is best viewed during the pre-dawn hours between 3am and 6.45am, says the observatory. The Perseids are known for their high activity rate and fireballs, which leave a long glowing trail of light and colour across the sky. Under ideal conditions, up to 100 meteors may be seen in an hour. However, the 2025 Perseids may be harder to spot, as moonlight from a waning gibbous moon – a bright phase between a full and half moon – could outshine the meteors. The moon will also be near the radiant point, which is the area in the sky from where the meteors appear to emerge, making them less visible, according to the observatory. Both showers return each year as the Earth passes through dusty trails left behind by ancient comets. No special equipment is needed to view the meteor showers. The best views are expected from dark, open areas such as parks, beaches or reservoirs. The observatory will not hold special viewing events for either shower, but its regular Friday night stargazing sessions will continue. These offer telescope views of stars and planets to the public. More details are available at Source: The Straits Times © SPH Media Limited. Permission required for reproduction Discover how to enjoy other premium articles here

Artist Xin Liu Gives Voice To Aging Satellites In Orbit
Artist Xin Liu Gives Voice To Aging Satellites In Orbit

Forbes

time18 hours ago

  • Forbes

Artist Xin Liu Gives Voice To Aging Satellites In Orbit

Xin Liu, NOAA: A Fall Towards Home, 2025. Commissioned by Hyundai Artlab Photo Xin Liu Navigating art, science and technology, Xin Liu explores themes of memory, intimacy and the human condition in an age of machines and outer space. With a background in mechanical engineering, interaction design and media arts, her practice often involves poetic experiments that span disciplines, from wearable devices and performances to biotechnology and cosmic probes. Her latest digital artwork, 'NOAA: A Fall Towards Home', commissioned by South Korea's Hyundai Artlab, invites online viewers on a clickable journey from the point of view of three anthropomorphized satellites – NOAA-15, 18 and 19 – each imbued with their own histories, technical quirks and emotional temperaments. Influenced by the final transmissions of real decommissioned NOAA weather satellites, Liu crafted stories shaped by their actual history, flight paths and malfunctions, as they watch 'home' from afar. The first to launch and to fade, 'NOAA-15: The Quiet Elder' drifts through space like a contemplative stargazer, its aging sensors tinted with wonder as it lovingly observes earth from afar, content simply to bear witness. 'NOAA-18: The Devoted Idealist' orbits with purpose and hope, tirelessly chronicling the planet's rhythms as if each data point could prove its worth and preserve a legacy born from loss. 'NOAA-19: The Loving Custodian' is the satellite that fell and rose again, transforming fragility into devotion as it tenderly double-checks its siblings' work, watching over earth with quiet care. With this new creation, Liu turns our gaze back to earth, exploring the existential solitude and quiet observation of these aging machines as metaphors for diasporic longing, technological obsolescence and the search for connection and purpose. In this conversation, she reflects on her origins and becoming an artist. You were born in 1991 in Karamay, Xinjiang. Tell me about your background and how you became interested in art. I grew up in Karamay, Xinjiang, which is a small, remote city in northwestern China. My parents are both surgeons. When I was a kid, I really loved math, physics, chemistry. No one I knew was remotely working in the creative industry; everyone was a doctor or working on the oil fields or for the government. I never thought of the possibility of becoming an artist until very much later in life. I think it's common for children who did not grow up in big cities like Shanghai and Beijing to think that art is a luxury. I only had access to art when I went to college, and for the first time entered an art museum of any sort. I decided to study art after my undergrad. During college, I took a second degree in digital art, mostly because I was interested in gaming. And that was also when social media started to appear in China. I wanted to understand this new industry and the way self-expression was enabled through the Internet. After a couple of years learning game design and interaction design, I just got really hooked with all the possibilities in the arts and ended up applying for grad school. Xin Liu, NOAA-18: The Devoted Idealist, 2025. Commissioned by Hyundai Artlab Photo Xin Liu Studio What did you learn from your time at Rhode Island School of Design and MIT? Why did you decide to study both art and engineering, why do you view yourself not only as an artist but also as an engineer, and what role do research and experimentation play in your artworks? At Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), I had to start from scratch. I had to 100 % learn art history myself because all of my classmates and professors were way ahead of me. I spent most of my first year in the library just reading books on art history and modern and contemporary art. I remember I had this 'wow' moment with Duchamp's work. After RISD, I ended up going back to the tech field because I never saw myself going to grad school to become a professional artist; it was rather a desire to have a comprehensive education for myself. I think it's a pity nowadays that we have all these disciplines that are polishing one's knowledge and ability, but diminishing the potential of individuals to understand the world through various aspects, including technology, art, philosophy, science and even fiction. Education is the soil for my mind, for the construction of my world. I've never felt like there was a distinct separation between art and engineering. They are asking the same questions about what it means to be human in the 21st century. And how do we reconcile all the varieties of practices that take risks, make guesses, act on the edge, iterate and, ultimately, take a leap of faith to create an experiment to propose a theory and to create a piece of art? Describe to me your artistic language and philosophy. What is the most important consideration when you first start creating an artwork? Do you know exactly how it will look like when you start, or are you surprised by the end result? When I first start creating artwork, I often start with a moment that I want to achieve. I think film might be a big influence for me, as storytelling and a moment in a story that we reach is something I seek in my art: a concentration of energy and time you can capture in a sculpture, painting or installation, and slowly you sense it going through you even after you have left the exhibition. That's really what I'm looking for. I don't really know how the work will end up visually or the format of the entire work until much later on, in most cases. However, the sensation that I talked about and the moment that I tried to create do stay truthful to themselves, from the beginning to the end. Why do you choose to live and work in London? I work on probably two or three projects actively at any given moment, and probably two or three group shows every month. I moved to London because my partner's new job relocated us, but I'm also very excited to live in Europe for the first time. I grew up in China and I've studied and worked in the US for almost a decade. Europe is a new, exciting change, and I've been learning a lot already. Xin Liu and her partner Gershon Dublon capturing satellite images in Riis Beach, New York Photo Xin Liu Studio Tell me about your work with decommissioned NOAA weather satellites. This work actually started in 2020 in the midst of the pandemic. Living in New York City, I climbed to the rooftop of my Brooklyn apartment. I used a self-made antenna out of broomsticks to receive data from remote satellites. For me, in many ways, technology and innovation are like the satellites that orbit earth really far away, but that are continuously watching and taking care of us and providing access and connectivity. When I talked with the team at BMW about the IPA system and the iDrive system, I learned that the intelligence and technology are really about companionship. I immediately thought about what I did during the pandemic with the satellites because that was my only activity and entertainment during the lockdown, when I climbed to the roof and tried to connect to remote things, which were satellites that had been decommissioned for already 20 years, but that kept orbiting the earth to bring data back. Barely anyone could hear them except for amateur artists like myself. I thought how I could push further on that and how perhaps my attempt to connect could bring some emotions to them or allow for creativity. That's why I imagined a wild dance for them and the video is actually a live simulation that I wrote for the algorithm. The little squares represent vehicles that are being pushed and pulled by the planets that are represented by circles. They give these trajectories that I imagined, where they're hopefully having their own dance while watching us. What were the biggest challenges in the process of making 'NOAA', a commission by BMW first presented in Shanghai, where you were asked to propose a view on the future of AI and automobiles? There is a sound piece in the background and there's noise that is actually data from satellites in space. In the meantime, I think people see technology as providing really exciting opportunities for the future, but also as something a bit intimidating if they don't have the background or knowledge themselves. So for this piece, I tried to make an emotional connection and help people to go to a place that is a little bit farther away from this really exciting metropolitan city. The way I hope that I've managed to do that was to invite my husband to whistle a song that I really like and that's going around in this space.

Paul DeJong has a second love outside of baseball: Science
Paul DeJong has a second love outside of baseball: Science

Washington Post

timea day ago

  • Washington Post

Paul DeJong has a second love outside of baseball: Science

Washington Nationals infielder Paul DeJong always had two loves: baseball and science. Those two interests had long competed for his time, until finally they converged when he was a student at Illinois State. Every semester, DeJong, a biochemistry major in the honors program, had the opportunity to do an extra research project. One of those semesters, he took genetics and focused on sports. The project provided DeJong a better understanding of himself and how he could apply what he learned to his own life.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store