Neanderthals in France may have been strutting around in leather clothes with matching handbags more than 100,000 years ago. OK, that’s a bit of a claim, but the discovery of a bone tool used for flaying animal carcasses does suggest that these extinct hominins were adept at skinning prey and using their hides to make […]
Why Do Power Lines Have Those Big Colorful Balls On Them?
Take a look at any overhead power lines in the US and you’ll perhaps see a number of big yellow, orange, red, or white balls gripping the wires. Some people have speculated that they are weights for the lines, weather sensors, or even surveillance systems. However, none of these guesses are correct. The rest of […]
Rare Peek Inside An Egg Sac Reveals An Adorable Developing Leopard Shark
Have you ever found a mermaid’s purse? These leathery pouches that wash up on the beach are actually the egg sacs baby sharks develop in, a process we usually only get to see from the outside. For cinematographer and shark researcher Richard Fitzpatrick, that wasn’t quite enough. The rest of this article is behind a […]
What Is A Superhabitable Planet And Have We Found Any?
Of the more 6,000 planets that have so far been discovered, most are deeply unsuited to life – at least life of the forms we are familiar with or can plausibly imagine. A substantial minority look like they might be able to support something limited, a planet of bacteria or slime molds. A handful hold […]
The Moon Will Travel Across The Sky With A Friend On Sunday. Here’s What To Know
We hope you enjoyed the Supermoon last night. The last full Moon of the year was quite splendid from our location, and it’s just one of the lovely things that will be visible in the sky this month. The next big thing is happening just this weekend. Not all of you will be early risers, […]
How Fast Does Sound Travel Across The Worlds Of The Solar System?
Imagine you were able to stand on the surface of Mars, Venus, or even Titan without the need for protective gear. Now, imagine you were speaking. Do you think you’d sound the same as on Earth? The answer is no. Sound is a mechanical wave, which means that it doesn’t travel through a pure vacuum, […]
A Wonky-Necked Giraffe In California Lived To 21 Against The Odds
The giraffe with the wonky neck sounds like a whimsical children’s book, but the story of Gemina is very much the real deal. On July 16, 1986, a giraffe was born at the San Diego Wild Animal Park. By age 1, she had traveled across the state to the Santa Barbara Zoo, where she would […]
Seal Finger: What Is This Horrible Infection That Makes Your Hand Swell Like A Balloon?
Evolution really popped off the day it made a seal. The playfulness of a dog with the attitude of a fat happy cat who occasionally gets dolphinesque zoomies. What’s not to love? Seal finger, that’s what. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content. […]
“They Usually Aren’t Second Tier”: When Wolves Adopt Pups From Rival Packs
Nature, as majestic as it is, can be extremely cruel – especially to stepchildren. Lions that take over an existing pride make infanticide the first order of business; dolphins kill off unrelated calves specifically so they can mate with the mother; heck, even in humans, a new partner is more likely than the biological parent […]
The Road To New Physics Beyond Our Knowledge Might Pass Through Neutrinos
Currently, there are 100 trillion neutrinos flowing through you. Don’t worry though; they hardly interact with matter. In those occasional interactions, captured by some of the most sophisticated experiments on Earth, there are insights into some of the most complex events in the universe. As a new paper reports, we could be getting insights into […]
Flu Season Is Revving Up – What Are The Symptoms To Look Out For?
We’ve just survived the barrage of Black Friday emails only to jump straight into the chaos of the Christmas countdown – but alas! Something’s coming to rain on your winter parade, and it’s seasonal flu. Yes, the Northern Hemisphere respiratory virus season is well underway, with flu cases across parts of Asia and Europe peaking […]
Asteroid Bennu Was Missing Just One Ingredient Needed To Kickstart Life – We just Found It
It has been just over two years since NASA’s OSIRIS-REx brought back to Earth 121 grams of precious samples collected from Asteroid Bennu. The material has already delivered incredible insights into what this space rock is made of, including all but one of the molecules needed to kickstart life as we know it on Earth. […]
Rare Core Samples Provide “Once In A Lifetime” Opportunity To Study The Giant Line That Slices Through Scotland
Scientists with the British Geological Survey (BGS) have been given a unique opportunity to study rock core samples taken from deep inside the Great Glen Fault – the United Kingdom’s largest fault zone that slices through Scotland. At around 1,000 kilometers (62.1 miles) long and 40 kilometers (24.9 miles) deep, it runs from Ireland through […]
The “Special Regions” On Mars Where It Is Forbidden To Explore, For Good Reason
NASA and the China National Space Administration (CNSA) have both landed exploratory rovers on Mars, with the aim to understand if life could, or ever has, existed on the Red Planet, our second closest neighbor. While these missions focus on interesting areas of the planet, which may once or still be host to alien life, […]
Do Animals Fall For Magic Tricks? Watch A Devastated Squirrel Monkey Prove That Yes, They Do
It’s got to be a great day as a scientist when you’re called upon to perform magic tricks for monkeys. That’s what the authors of a 2023 study found themselves doing when they used “The French Drop” as a tool for studying an animal’s capacity to anticipate another’s actions. “Magicians use intricate techniques to mislead […]
Google’s CEO Wants AI Data Centers In Space In 2027. There Is One Massive Problem
In early November, Google announced Project Suncatcher, a moonshot project that aims to create satellite constellations that work as a data center in space. The plan itself has merit, and the tech giant is not the first to have thought of it. What raised quite a few eyebrows was a comment Google CEO Sundar Pichai […]
Live Seven-Arm Octopus Spotted In The Deep Sea – Only The Fourth Time It’s Been Seen In 40 Years
It’s no secret the deep sea is home to some strange-looking animals, so might we introduce you to yet another weirdo: the seven-arm octopus, AKA “the blob octopus”. This ocean giant can weigh up to 75 kilograms (165 pounds), but despite its huge size, it’s rarely been seen alive. The rest of this article is […]
Uranus May Not Be So Weird After All – Voyager Just Caught It During An Unusual Gust Of Wind
A new study may help to solve a 39-year-old mystery, suggesting that Uranus is not so bizarre after all; Voyager 2 just imaged it during an unusual gust of solar “wind”. The iconic Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft, launched in 1977 and still going to this day, were sent with the primary objective of studying […]
“Exceptional” 5.5-Million-Light-Year-Long Cosmic Structure Appears To Be Rotating, Challenging Current Models Of The Universe
A team of researchers believe they have identified a large, rotating structure 140 million light-years away from Earth. The structure, embedded within a larger filament, appears to challenge current models of the universe. Cosmic filaments, vast, thread-like structures of gas and dark matter, are some of the largest structures known in the universe. “Astronomers theorize […]
How A Mystery Volcano Sparked The Black Death In The 14th Century
Volcanoes may have played a pivotal role in the Black Death, the bubonic plague pandemic that ravaged 14th-century Europe. The Black Death tore through Europe, as well as parts of Asia and North Africa, between 1347 and 1353 CE. Caused by the plague bacterium, Yersinia pestis, the catastrophic pandemic killed up to 60 percent of […]
