Binge-watching TV shows, doom-scrolling on social media, excessive gaming. All these behaviors have been associated with being caught in a “dopamine trap”. But what does this mean and what is dopamine’s role in our compulsive behaviors? What is dopamine? Dopamine is one of the main signaling molecules in the brain. It is often sensationalized as […]
Something’s Been Making This Incredible Pattern For 500 Million Years And We Have No Idea What
From the sandstone cliffs of continental Europe to the depths of the Atlantic Ocean, something has been leaving its dazzlingly geometric mark since the dawn of complex life. Despite finding thousands of these perfect honeycomb-shaped fossils, however, scientists are completely baffled as to what type of creature could possibly have been producing the patterns for […]
Shadows Can “Move” Across A Surface Faster Than The Speed Of Light
Traveling faster than the speed of light in a vacuum is impossible, according to Einstein’s theory of special relativity. Advertisement Particles without mass must travel at the speed of light, while any other object cursed with mass finds that it cannot approach 299,792,458 meters per second (983,571,056 feet per second) without expending infinite amounts of […]
Titan’s Not For Surfing, Even If You Could Stand The Cold
It’s just as well a mission to Saturn’s moon Titan was confirmed this year, because the observations we have reveal the most Earth-like world we know still contains many mysteries. Just a month after evidence that waves on Titan are eroding the shorelines of its biggest lakes, a new study reports that even on its […]
Winston, One Of The World’s Oldest Male Gorillas, Has Died Aged 52
Winston, a much beloved western lowland gorilla living at San Diego Zoo Safari Park, has died at the age of 52, park officials announced on Sunday. Advertisement Believed to be one of the oldest male gorillas in the world, Winston’s passing came around seven years after staff at the zoo noticed his health beginning to […]
Climate Change Is Making Days Longer And Could Soon Exceed The Moon’s Influence
It’s far from the most important effect of a hotter world, but rising temperatures are slowing the Earth’s rotation, making the days longer. The effect is certainly small, but new research predicts that in a high emissions scenario the knock-on consequences of human activity will exert a greater influence over the rate the Earth turns […]
This Small Organ Is Very Important, But You Might Not Know Much About It
Hidden within your neck, its two lobes sandwiching your trachea, is a gland that’s only a little longer than a paperclip but has an outsized impact on the whole of your body. It’s your thyroid, and chances are you’ve never really stopped to think about it – unless you’ve experienced it going wrong, that is. […]
California Lake Closes As Officials Investigate Mass Fish Die-Off
Lake San Antonio in Monterey County, California, has been closed to the public amid investigations into the vast numbers of dead fish washing up on the lake’s shores over the course of several days. Advertisement Monterey County officials first announced a “large fish death event” in a July 6 social media post, noting that the […]
Even If You’re A Mammoth, Quicksand Can Get You
The date: 1.4 million years ago. The place: a large basin surrounded by mountains in southern Spain. An unsuspecting mammoth walks slowly over the land. Four meters (13 feet) tall and 11 tonnes heavy, she doesn’t worry too much about predators. That is, until her feet start sinking in the ground. Her huge mass compared […]
Young People Are Now So Unhappy That They’ve Changed A Fundamental Pattern Of Life
Our high school years were, many of us may have been told, the best days of our lives. But that’s no longer the case, according to a new working paper from Dartmouth University Professor David Blanchflower and colleagues – and the formerly inescapable “U curve” of well-being is now more of an uphill struggle towards […]
Watch And Listen To Gravitational Waves Arriving From Every Direction Of The Universe
Gravitational waves are perfectly suited to be turned to sound. The little chirp, the moment the collisions happen, it has already turned into little sounds. My ringtone, on the rare occasions my phone has sound, is one of those chirps. Now, the team at Audio Universe has taken the gravitational wave data to a whole […]
Gulf War Illness Breakthrough Offers Hope After Condition Perplexes Doctors For Decades
For the first time, researchers have discovered a potential explanation for Gulf War Illness (GWI), a condition that has afflicted many veterans of the 1991 Gulf War. The condition is likely caused by intense exposure to hazardous chemicals and biological agents at the time. Advertisement GWI, or sometimes Gulf War Syndrome (GWS), is a chronic, […]
Universe’s “Timekeepers” Hint At Invisible Structures Floating In The Milky Way
Pulsars are some of the best clocks in the universe, surpassed only by the most advanced timekeeping pieces we have invented. They are the product of a supernova explosion, living behind a neutron star rotating rapidly and releasing pulses of light. Those are the beats of these cosmic clocks. And they might be used to […]
What’s The Smallest Bird In The World?
Everybody loves a teeny tiny animal. I mean, c’mon, have you seen the pea-sized frog? Or the recently discovered mini deer species? Perhaps you’ve been tempted to slip a fluffy, tent-building Honduran white bat in your pocket. Well, it’s time to introduce you to another itsy-bitsy animal to squeal over: the bee hummingbird (Mellisuga helenae), […]
First Hip-Hop Song In Deep Space As NASA Sends Missy Elliott Tune To Venus
Venus has got a little more rhythm across its clouds thanks to NASA and Missy Elliott. The space agency and the artist collaborated to send an inspirational message and the lyrics to one of her songs to the planet Venus. Advertisement The song chosen was The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly). It has become the first […]
Buckle Up! Microscopic Algae Are Driving Tiny “Scooters”
Biological microorganisms are energy efficient, proliferate easily, and move autonomously. This makes them ideal sources of power for biohybrid machines. Scientists have now designed the first micromotors powered by algae. If you thought animals driving cars was impressive, get a load of this. The alga in question is called Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, a single-celled green alga. […]
NASA Wants To Send A Swarm Of “Marsbees” To The Red Planet
Exploring another planet is difficult, but NASA’s Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) has one solution that might make it a little easier: a swarm of robot bees. Advertisement NASA has already flown a robot on Mars, the Ingenuity helicopter, which sent its final message back to Earth earlier this year. The robot performed better than […]
Communication Across Different Languages Is Now As Easy As Putting In An Earbud
We have all been there – when you are trying to communicate with another person but you don’t share a common language. This can be because you are on holiday, on a video call with colleagues halfway across the world, a student in a new country, or even have in-laws who speak a different language […]
Rare SpaceX Falcon 9 Failure Leads To Grounding And Investigation
On Thursday, July 11, the second stage engine of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket failed to ignite and likely exploded about one hour after launch. It took off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County, California, carrying 20 Starlink satellites. This was supposed to be a routine launch but it led to the […]
The Rise And Fall Of El Niño Shown In Beautiful Maps By NASA
The rise and fall of the last El Niño phase has been beautifully captured in newly released data visualizations. Ocean conditions may look peaceful in the Pacific at the moment, but big change is brewing. Advertisement El Niño is a global climate phenomenon that has impacts on weather patterns worldwide, but it all starts with […]
