On May 21, one person died and several were injured after a flight from London to Singapore was struck by severe turbulence. Though such fatalities are rare, and turbulence is usually only mildly bumpy, some scientists believe we could be seeing more of it. What is turbulence? Turbulence is a sudden, irregular change in airflow […]
Howler Monkeys Are Dropping Dead Out Of Trees In Mexico’s Heatwave
Mexico’s baking heatwave and desperate drought are so severe that they’re causing monkeys to drop dead out of trees. Worse still, temperatures are expected to climb even further in the next few weeks ahead. At least 138 howler monkeys have been found dead in the Gulf Coast state of Tabasco since May 16, according to […]
Why Does The Heart Symbol Look Nothing Like A Real Heart?
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A “Lunar Lighthouse”? For 30 Minutes, NASA Lit Up A Beacon On The Moon
NASA has successfully tested a positioning system on the Moon that will allow for the safer navigation of rovers and humans on the lunar surface. The test, conducted in February, was part of Intuitive Machine’s Odysseus mission. Called Lunar Node 1 (LN-1), the beacon was turned on for 30 total minutes and showcased how it […]
Unique Coral Found In Deep Arctic Ocean Is “Almost Certainly A New Species”
In the bitterly cold waters of the Arctic Ocean, scientists have discovered a strange and unique coral that’s “almost certainly a new species.” When you think about corals, you might imagine tropical temperatures, crystal-clear waters, and clownfish. However, corals are incredibly diverse and inhabit many different ecosystems across the planet, from the idyllic atolls of […]
Airline For Dogs Launches Its First-Ever Flight
A new airline tailored specifically for dogs is scheduled to take off for the first time. Bark Air – which allows dogs to sit on seats and roam around the cabin – will operate its maiden voyage from New York to Los Angeles today. Operated by pet company Bark, the domesticated flight (get it?) has […]
Voyager 1 Has Resumed Sending NASA Science Data, After 6-Month-Long Glitch
NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft has resumed sending back science data, six months after it began sending garbled patterns of zeroes and ones. Voyager 1 has traveled further than any human-made object, crossing the heliopause and heading into interstellar space. While doing this, it has continued to send back useful data to Earth, helping us learn […]
Portal Between New York And Dublin Reopened After Shutdown For “Inappropriate Behavior”
The “portal” between New York, USA, and Dublin, Republic of Ireland, has reopened this week, despite previously having to shut down due to “inappropriate behavior”. Earlier this month, a “portal” – really a livestream of the two locations broadcast onto two large circular screens – was launched. Advertisement “Portals are an invitation to meet people […]
Second Farm Worker Infected With H5N1 Bird Flu By Dairy Cows In USA
Bird flu has been passed from an infected dairy cow to a farm worker in Michigan, marking the second occasion that the disease has been spread in this way. This strain of virus, called H5N1, has run rampant through both wild bird and domestic poultry populations and even spread as far as the Antarctic region. […]
Iceberg Bigger Than Las Vegas Breaks Off From Antarctic Ice Shelf
We’re here to bring you some quite literally breaking news – an iceberg that’s bigger than the city of Las Vegas has broken off the Brunt Ice Shelf in Antarctica. This 380 square-kilometer (147 square-mile) chunk of ice parted ways with the shelf on the morning of May 20, after a crack that first appeared […]
Warm Seawater Is Flowing Under The “Doomsday Glacier” And It’s As Bad As It Sounds
Tidal pressures have been observed pushing (relatively) warm water under the Thwaites Glacier, exposing a much larger area of ice to warming pressure. The observations indicate a catastrophic sea level rise could be coming much sooner than almost anyone is preparing for. Rising temperatures are contributing to higher sea levels by making the existing water […]
Hundreds Of Stars Have Vanished Without A Trace. A New Study Could Explain Why
Over recent years, astronomers have investigated an unusual phenomenon: stars apparently disappearing, leaving behind few clues as to what made them vanish from our view. In 2019, the Vanishing and Appearing Sources during a Century of Observations (VASCO) project attempted to catalog how many stars have disappeared from view in the last 70 years and […]
A Mourning Mother Chimp Carries Her Dead Baby For 3 Months At Zoo
A grieving chimpanzee has been carrying around her dead baby for months at a Spanish zoo in a tragic demonstration of the species’ intelligence and social complexity. Natalia the chimp gave birth to an infant at Bioparc Valencia in early February 2024, but it died just 14 days later. Advertisement Although infant mortality is extremely […]
A 425-Million-Year-Old Predatory Worm That Moved Like An Accordion? Why Not
A remarkable fossil of a worm has been described, estimated to be around 425 million years old and marking the youngest species of its group to have been classified. The carnivorous burrowing predator was retrieved from Leintwardine in Herefordshire and has been named Radnorscolex latus by scientists at the London Natural History Museum. Radnorscolex is […]
The Mystery Of Circular Depressions Off California’s Coast Has Been Partially Solved
Circular depressions around 150 meters (500 feet) wide off the coast of Central California are quite ancient and owe their longevity to sediment flows, new research reveals. However, their original cause has yet to be discovered. The Sur Pockmark Field has puzzled oceanographers since its discovery in 1998. More than 5,000 shallow circular depressions are […]
Scientists Have Discovered A New Way To Count (And It’s Actually Really Important)
Science is great for innovation and improving our lives, but let’s face it: there are some things we’ve pretty much got down pat. You wouldn’t expect, for example, that we could improve on something like… like counting. So it may come as a surprise that a group of computer scientists have done just that: found […]
Super Rare Pacific Footballfish Washes Up On Oregon Beach – And It’s Terrifying
Beachcombers just south of Cannon Beach, Oregon, came across a Pacific footballfish (Himantoliphus sagamius) washed up on the shore. While this might look like a monster from the deep – and in fact it is – Pacific footballfish sightings and specimens are extremely rare. Seaside Aquarium shared the news on their Facebook page, writing that […]
How “Dark Extinctions” Are Silently Erasing Life On Earth
There’s something missing on our planet, but we don’t know what it is. Like trees that fall in the silence of an empty forest, entire species are vanishing with no one to witness or record their existence – or their demise. It’s a phenomenon known as “dark extinction”, and it severely undermines our ability to […]
We Now Know Exactly When Humans And Neanderthals Hooked Up
Despite disappearing around 40,000 years ago, Neanderthals continue to live on in the DNA of most modern humans. The persistence of these ancient genes indicates that our distant ancestors had a thing for stocky, big-nosed hominids, and new research has revealed exactly how these interspecies sexy times played out. It’s estimated that between 1 and […]
Supermassive Black Hole’s Spin Measured For The First Time With Destroyed Star
Tidal disruption events (TDEs) are bright releases of energy caused by a supermassive black hole having a snack. The snack in question is usually a star that got so close it was ripped apart. Part of the snack is thrown out, but the rest of the stellar plasma forms a hot accretion disk around the […]
