The astronomical object Dracula’s Chivito has more than a cool name; it contains more material for forming planets than any other disk we’ve ever seen. In fact, it’s got about twice as many ingredients as the nearest counterpart we have found. Advertisement Officially known as IRAS 23077+6707, this disk makes the one from which the […]
Recent Research Overstated How Much Women Hunt In Foraging Societies, Study Argues
Recent years have seen some studies challenge the assumed gender roles of hunter-gatherer societies, arguing that women are often integral to hunting and aren’t solely berry-picking gatherers. However, a new study was weighed into the debate and suggested that some of this research may have overblown their claims. Advertisement Last year, an influential study looked at […]
Using Stones And Sticks Helps Capuchin Monkeys Find Underground Food
In the animal world the search for food can be one of life’s biggest struggles. Whether chasing down prey, carefully setting traps, or lying in wait, the creatures of Earth have come up with a multitude of ways to get their dinner. Now, research has looked closely at bearded capuchins and found they’ve taken to […]
People Appear To Believe Old Potatoes Release Deadly “Solanine Gas”
Some people are claiming that potatoes – given enough time – can release noxious solanine gas, posing health risks to anyone in close proximity. But is this actually the case? In a widely-shared recent post, one X (Twitter) user posted an image of their sister’s bedroom, explaining that the 8-year-old had taken to storing potatoes […]
What’s The Fastest Animal In The Ocean?
Billfish – saltwater predators armed with prominent pointy bills – are typically considered to be the fastest swimmers in the oceans. The speediest species of all are thought to be the sailfish (Istiophorus). They do have stiff competition though; the bluefin tuna is a serious threat to their throne. Advertisement Sailfish are beautifully adapted for […]
Biggest Solar Flare In 2 Decades Released By The Sun, Causing Blackouts
Solar Cycle 25 is certainly not as tame as the previous one. The Sun’s activity is reaching its peak and we have been seeing solar storms, coronal mass ejections, and geomagnetic storms of an intensity unseen in years. And now the Sun has released its strongest solar flare yet for this cycle. Advertisement It was […]
The First Warm-Blooded Dinosaurs Probably Evolved 180 Million Years Ago
The ability to regulate body temperature internally, rather than relying on the Sun, may have first appeared among dinosaurs around 180 million years ago, coinciding with an extreme climatic period. Advertisement Dinosaurs were originally thought to have been cold-blooded creatures. Their name means “terrible lizard” after all, and lizards need to bask on rocks to […]
People With HIV Can Donate Sperm And Eggs In The UK Under New Law Change
People with HIV living in the UK who have an undetectable viral load will be able to donate eggs and sperm to known recipients under a new change to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act. This important change, that follows the scientific consensus, comes as part of broader changes to improve in-vitro fertilization (IVF) services […]
How Do Supercontinents Form And Break Up?
The surface of the Earth is not static. Throughout its history, landmasses have come and gone, their parts drifting and shifting into one configuration or another. Sometimes land has been well-distributed, but at others it has all come together to form vast conglomerations called supercontinents, which themselves eventually break up. But what causes these enormous […]
Anendophasia: How Not Having An Inner Monologue Could Affect Verbal Memory
Not everyone has an inner monologue – it turns out that between 5 and 10 percent of the population don’t experience near-constant internal dialogue with themselves. According to new research, this group may find certain problem-solving tasks more difficult, particularly those involving verbal memory. Advertisement Lack of an inner voice, or anendophasia as it’s been […]
World-First Fossil Of A 155-Million-Year-Old Brittle Star Mid-Cloning Itself
A 155-million-year-old brittle star fossil has been declared a remarkable and “incredibly rare find” by a team of scientists. The beautiful specimen is remarkably intact, and preserves a delicate moment in which the individual was completing the process of cloning itself. Where do baby brittle stars come from? It’s an unusual question with a curious […]
What Does “SOS” Mean? It Doesn’t Stand For “Save Our Ship”
It’s often said that “SOS” – the distress signal put out by troubled ships at sea – means “Save Our Souls” or “Save Our Ship”, but that’s not strictly true. Advertisement When the “SOS” distress signal was first developed in the early 20th century, it was chosen simply because it had a distinctive Morse code […]
Our Galaxy’s Neighborhood Seems More Crowded Than Expected – This Might Be A Big Problem
Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is surrounded by smaller galaxies. The precise number is difficult to estimate – the galaxies are small and dim, and they end up blending with the background objects and foreground stars. Theory suggests that there should be a lot more dwarf galaxies around the Milky Way than we see. But […]
What’s Happening With The Y Chromosome?
The human Y chromosome isn’t what it used to be – long gone are the days when it used to be the same size as its pal, X. It’s now much smaller, but is it set to disappear entirely? And if so, what would happen? Advertisement The human Y chromosome: an overview Most humans have […]
Earth’s Biggest Volcano Was Briefly Usurped By A Deep Sea Imposter
In 2013, geologists claimed they had confirmed the existence of the “largest single volcano” ever discovered on planet Earth: a geological monster named Tamu Massif. Located below the Pacific Ocean about 1,609 kilometers (1,000 miles) east of Japan, the deepsea giant spans an area of over 310,000 square kilometers (120,000 square miles) – that’s larger […]
In Conway’s Game Of Life, Strange Patterns (And Spaceships) Emerge From Simple Rules
In 1970, British mathematician John Horton Conway created a zero-player videogame, dubbed “Conway’s Game of Life”. Advertisement The game takes place on a grid of squares, and the only input a user can have is setting the initial state, making it a far cry from Far Cry. The user sets the starting state of the […]
New Brain Implant Translates Imagined Speech In Real Time With Best Accuracy Yet
A new tool developed by bioengineers at Caltech has been shown to be the best yet at translating brain signals generated from internal speech. While it has only been tested in two patients so far, with further development the technology could allow people who are unable to speak to communicate using only their thoughts. Advertisement […]
What Happens If You Fly Over An Earthquake?
Have you ever wondered what would happen if you were on a commercial flight flying far above the ground when a massive earthquake struck? Surely you would be too high to experience anything, right? Well, it depends on a few things. Advertisement Earthquakes and the air It might seem unlikely, but depending on the situation, […]
Athletic, Speedy, And Heavily Armored: Meet The Cuban Crocodile
Crocodiles and alligators might be some of Earth’s oldest species, but that doesn’t mean they are immune to the problems faced by modern-day reptiles. The Cuban crocodile is a critically endangered species and is thought to have the smallest range of all the crocodilians. Where do Cuban crocodiles live? The Cuban crocodile (Crocodylus rhombifer) used […]
Not Only The Hottest On Record, Summer 2023 Was Hottest For 2,000 Years
The Northern Hemisphere’s summer was a scorcher, pushed off the charts by a combination of global heating and El Niño. Given the much higher baseline today, and how exceptional it was, some people speculated last summer may have been the hottest for 100,000 years, if not longer. That’s not a claim that can currently be […]
