This week, scientists toying with the afterglow of phosphor particles have been able to make succulents glow like something out of Avatar, new fossils have revealed that an ankylosaur known as Spicomellus afer was covered in enormous spikes that were fused to its bones, and, in 1978, a physicist was struck through the head by a proton beam traveling close to the speed of light and survived – a new 3D digital analysis shows how. Finally, you may have heard a lot about radioactive shrimp recently. We explore why frozen seafood glows in the dark.
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The World Map As You Know It Is Misleading – Now Africa Wants To Change That
The map of the world as you know it – the Mercator projection – isn’t totally accurate. The real size of many countries is distorted and this is often reflected in perceived power and politics. Now, Africa is leading the charge to get rid of it for good. Last week, the African Union, a continental union of 55 member states, endorsed a campaign to replace the Mercator map with an alternative map that more accurately reflects the size of Africa (just wait until you see it). Read the full story here
“It Was Really Unexpected”: Scientists Stunned By Glowing Plants, And All It Takes Is An Injection
Scientists toying with the afterglow of phosphor particles were stunned to see how uniformly they could diffuse across succulent plants when injected into their leaves. The result is a succulent that glows like something out of Avatar, lasting for hours, and is even rechargeable. When asked if the result was surprising, the study authors admitted, “It was really unexpected.” Read the full story here
The “Wow!” Signal Was Likely From An Extraterrestrial Source, And More Powerful Than We Thought
In a new attempt to narrow down what the famous “Wow!” Signal might be, a team of scientists re-analyzed decades of data from the Big Ear telescope using modern signal analysis techniques, as well as analyzing data that had previously been unpublished, producing two not-yet-peer-reviewed papers on the topic. Their findings concluded that it likely has an extraterrestrial origin after all, and may have been even more intense than previously believed. Read the full story here
“It’s Totally Wacky”: Oldest Known Ankylosaur Had A Kind Of Armor Never Seen In Any Vertebrate – Living Or Extinct
The ankylosaurs were a very impressive group of dinosaurs covered in armored plates with clubs for tails (that may have sounded like birds), but we’ve just discovered that the oldest known member of the group may have also been the most badass. New fossils have revealed that an ankylosaur known as Spicomellus afer was covered in enormous spikes that were fused to its bones, some almost a meter (3.3 feet) long. Read the full story here
A Soviet Physicist Once Survived A Proton Beam Through The Head – This Is How
In 1978, while inspecting a faulty detector inside the Soviet Union’s most powerful particle accelerator, physicist Anatoli Bugorski was struck in the head by a proton beam traveling close to the speed of light. Amazingly, Bugorski remains alive to this day, and while government secrecy prevented details of his medical assessment from being leaked, researchers have now reconstructed the path that the high-energy ray blazed through his brain. Read the full story here
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Feature of the week:
Why Does Seafood Glow In The Dark? This Curious Phenomenon Has A Teeny Tiny Explanation
Heard a lot about radioactive shrimp recently? The advent of refrigeration and freezing has meant we can now store food in our houses until we’re ready to eat it. Perishable items like prawns can sit snuggly in the dark of our freezer, waiting until it’s their time to shine – only, some of that seafood might already be glowing without you knowing. Read the full story here
More content:
Have you seen our e-magazine, CURIOUS? Issue 37, August 2025, is available now. This month, we asked, “Are There Body Parts You Can Live Without?” – check it out for exclusive interviews, book excerpts, long reads, and more.
PLUS, the We Have Questions podcast – an audio version of our coveted CURIOUS e-magazine column – continues. In episode 12, we ask, “Do Humans Have Pheromones?”
The Big Questions podcast has returned, and we’re continuing season 5 with episode 6’s big question: What Will The Fossils Of The Future Look Like?
Source Link: Africa Wants To Change Misleading World Map, The "Wow!" Signal Was Likely From An Extraterrestrial Source, And Much More This Week
