Fear is very useful for survival – but so is being able to control it. It’s wise to be scared of the unfamiliar, especially when it resembles a known threat. However, once you realize that thing lying by the door is actually just a draught excluder and not a reticulated python, you can safely set […]
Inside Ancient Herculaneum Scroll Seen For First Time Since Vesuvius Erupted 2,000 Years Ago
Researchers have successfully generated a digital image of an ancient scroll from Herculaneum that has not been seen in almost 2,000 years. The announcement was made by the Bodleian Libraries, Oxford, and the Vesuvius Challenge, which have been working to decipher three scrolls, including this one, over the last few years. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE […]
Blue Whales, One Of The Loudest Things On Earth, Are “Acoustically Invisible” To Killer Whales
Avoiding predators is one of the most important jobs for many members of the animal world. Even ocean giants like baleen whales have something to fear from killer whales, their only known natural predators. To avoid coming across killer whales, new research has revealed that some whale species might be whispering through the ocean, hoping […]
Animals’ Magnetic Senses Could Work At The Limit Of Quantum Possibility
When you consider, say, a salmon, or a pigeon, your first thought is probably not “Wow, I bet that guy is great at quantum mechanics” – and yet, that’s precisely what the evidence suggests: that these animals, among others, exploit some of the most advanced science currently understood by humans in their everyday lives – […]
Pink And White “Pastes” Sealing Ancient Egyptian Cult Worker’s Coffins Analyzed For First Time
Around 2,700 years ago in ancient Egypt, a man named Pakepu held the title of “water pourer on the west of Thebes”, responsible for managing the funerary cult in the legendary city. Upon his own death, Pakepu was placed inside a set of wooden coffins, sealed with a selection of pink and white “pastes” that […]
Argentina Says It’s Dropping Out Of The WHO, Following Trump’s Brazen Withdrawal
Argentina’s president has ordered the country to pull out of the World Health Organization (WHO), following the lead of like-minded allies in the US. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE On February 5, President Javier Milei – a self-described anarcho-capitalist nicknamed “El Loco” (the Madman) – took to social media to announce the withdrawal, citing the WHO’s […]
How This Massive Galaxy Got To Wear Nine Rings
Galaxy LEDA 1313424 is a beauty. It is 2.5 times the size of the Milky Way and has something no other galaxy has: A series of concentric rings, nine to be exact. This is more than other known galaxies, which usually have just two or three rings. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE The galaxy has been […]
Do We Actually Own Our Bodies?
Should we be allowed to charge for sex? Do we have a right to sell our organs? And is our DNA our own property? The level of autonomy we ought to have over our flesh and bones is far from clear cut, and as innovations in biotechnology continue to transform our moral and economic relationships […]
Lost Works From Ancient Greek “Great Geometer” Discovered Among Hundreds Of Islamic Texts
When it comes to chronicling the past, it seems there are basically two ways discoveries are made: either they’re the result of years of painstaking, devoted work… or they’re accidentally found in a drawer somewhere after eons of collecting dust. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE The new discovery of two scientific treatises by Apollonius, the ancient […]
The Infamous “Summerville Ghost” Of South Carolina May Have A Geological Explanation
A seismologist working at the US Geological Survey (USGS) may have solved an old mystery involving supposed hauntings in Charleston, South Carolina. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE From around the mid-20th Century CE, people have told stories of a ghost haunting the railroad track between Charleston and Summerville in South Carolina. Though there are a number […]
Stabbed, Slashed, And Bleeding: Meet The Medieval “Wound Man” With All The Injuries
He does not look overly enthusiastic as I look down on his body, but then again, I doubt anyone would be if they had every conceivable weapon of their age cutting, poking, stabbing, slicing, gouging, ripping, and shattering their body. I say “and” here, because this individual is not being assaulted by just one object […]
Goodbye Potholes? Biobased Spores Could Soon Make Self-Healing Roads A Reality
A team of scientists from King’s College London, Swansea University, and collaborators in Chile say that they have found a way to reverse cracking in bitumen, paving the way toward the sci-fi dream of self-healing roads. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE Potholes are a bit of a problem, causing damage to cars at a cost of […]
Google Ditches Pledge Not To Use AI For Weapons Or Surveillance
Google’s parent company Alphabet has redrafted its policies guiding its use of artificial intelligence (AI), doing away with a promise to never use the technology in ways “that are likely to cause overall harm”. This includes weaponizing AI as well as deploying it for surveillance purposes. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE The pledge to steer clear […]
How Concerned Do We Need To Be About Bird Flu In The US?
It’s an inescapable reality that human and non-human cases of avian influenza H5N1, or “bird flu”, have been on the up in the US. With every announcement of a new outbreak often comes fresh concern about the potential danger it poses to humans. But how concerned do we need to be? Will it start spreading […]
Sock Onions And Snail Slime: Do Any Weird Cold Remedies Actually Work?
Having a cold sucks – and so, desperate for any relief from the constant coughing and annoyingly drippy nose, people have turned to all sorts of bizarre remedies. From onions in your socks to flushing your nose out, let’s find out whether some of them really work. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE Before we get started […]
What Color Eyes, Hair, And Skin Did Neanderthals Have?
When the first complete Neanderthal genome was sequenced in 2010, the 3 billion base pairs it contained helped to fill in some of the gaps in our own species’ ancient history, revealing a wild past colored by prehistoric love affairs with our extinct relatives. As a result, all present-day populations outside Africa continue to carry […]
Man Jailed For 10 Years For Refusing To Reveal Location Of “Ship Of Gold” Treasure May Soon Be Freed
A former deep-sea treasure hunter and research scientist jailed for refusing to disclose the location of 500 missing gold coins may soon be released, after a judge ended the charge, stating he “no longer is convinced that further incarceration is likely to coerce compliance.” ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE In 1857, the SS Central America sank […]
Asteroid Bennu Has A Tiny Chance Of Hitting Earth – Which Could Start A Global Winter
Up until the recent discovery of the asteroid 2024 YR4, which at the time of writing has an estimated 1.6 percent chance of hitting us next decade, the most dangerous space rock to us was asteroid Bennu. Bennu was visited and sampled by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx and data from it is revolutionizing our understanding of the […]
Brains May Hold More Microplastics Than Livers Or Kidneys – What Does This Mean For Us?
Microplastics are everywhere, and we mean everywhere. In fact, a new study suggests there’s a chance that if you’re thinking about this statement, then the squishy wrinkled organ doing that thinking may have a worryingly abundant amount of micro- and nanoplastics in it. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE In recent years, scientists have become increasingly worried […]
Humans May Have Triggered An Entire Gesture To Disappear From Wild Chimpanzee Culture
Travel across a country and you’ll come across a vast array of dialects in humans – but what about one of our closest-living relatives, chimpanzees? A new study appears to show that they too have different “dialects” across groups, but we might also be triggering them to change. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE To find this […]
