Nowadays it’s more common to rely on technology to find our way, but for thousands of years, humans have been using environmental wayfinders to navigate across enormous distances. Sailors in the Marshall Islands have been known to use wave patterns as a way of navigating the Pacific Ocean; meanwhile, the Gwich’in Indigenous communities in Alaska […]
You Might Want To Ditch This Ingredient To Boost The Nutrients In Your Smoothie
Smoothies are not only a delicious fruit soup, but can also be a quick and easy way to get in some vitamins and minerals. It turns out, however, that the key to their nutrition-boosting abilities could be in the combination of fruits used – and depending on what benefit you’re looking for, bananas might be […]
The Mysterious Origins Of The Cerne Abbas Giant May Finally Be Revealed
On the hills of the English countryside in Dorset, you can find the giant chalk figure of a butt-naked man wielding a bat and a mighty erection. The origins of this figure – the Cerne Abbas Giant – have been debated for centuries, but a new study believes it might finally have the answer. There […]
Why Nobody Has Ever Found Human Remains Inside The Titanic
Over 111 years after it sank, the Titanic continues to fascinate and surprise the public. For instance, did you know that it was found by a team that was pretending to look for the wreck of the Titanic? Or that – despite what the Internet believes – it partly imploded as it sank? Or that a […]
We May Have Been Looking For The Wrong Thing In The Search For Life
If we want to find the necessary conditions for life on the surface of another planet, let alone life itself, we should stop hoping for carbon in its atmosphere, a new paper argues. Instead, it is an absence, or at least shortage, of atmospheric carbon that could be the sign we’re getting close. All life […]
Why Blue-Eyed People Are All Related
More than one in four people in the US have blue eyes. In the UK, it’s three out of every seven; in the Netherlands, it’s three out of five, and in Iceland, it’s three out of every four. Depending on where you live, it’s a very popular ocular color to have. But that’s kind of […]
Sealed-Off Cave Opened To Reveal Human Skeletons, Along With Tiger Sharks And “Blood-Sucking” Bats
You can find all kinds of cool things in caves. From pearls to softball-sized spiders, ancient human artwork, and even unicorns, there’s no telling what awaits the curious cave explorer. Nothing illustrates this fact more clearly than the surprise that greeted archaeologists in Mexico recently, when they rolled back a boulder to discover a true […]
Watch A Martian Day, From Dawn To Dusk, In This Beautiful New Timelapse
Thanks to some beautiful imagery captured by NASA’s Curiosity rover during the recent Mars solar conjunction, you can now watch the passing of a day, from sunrise to sunset, on the surface of Mars. The 25-frame video was captured from the Martian surface using Curiosity’s black-and-white Hazard-Avoidance Cameras (Hazcam) on November 8, 2023, from 5:30 […]
Dry January Might Help Reduce Your Risk Of Cancer
If one of your New Year’s resolutions happens to be staying sober, scientists at the World Health Organization’s (WHO) International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) have some good news for you: not drinking alcohol, or even just cutting back on the bevs, can reduce your risk of some cancers. There’s already evidence to suggest […]
Closest Flyby In 20 Years Provides Spectacular Images Of Jupiter’s Moon Io
Io is a world like no other, at least within the Solar System. Eruptions from 400 active volcanoes constantly turn it inside out. The Juno spacecraft has provided stunning images of this moon of Jupiter taken during its first flyby. Already, image processors, professional and amateur, are drawing out details that might be missed in […]
Magnets, Mating And Metallic Objects – Cautionary Tales From The MRI Scanner
A 57-year-old woman from Wisconsin recently sustained a rather unfortunate injury to her buttock. She had attended the hospital for an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scan and had entered the machine with a concealed firearm. The machine’s powerful magnet caused the gun to discharge. This isn’t the first time in 2023 that a firearm injury […]
Fascia: The Most Neglected Part Of Our Body Is Finally Starting To Receive Attention
We are constantly reminded about how exercise benefits our bone and muscle health or reduces fat. However, there is also a growing interest in one element of our anatomy that is often overlooked: our fascia. Fascia is a thin casing of connective tissue, mainly made of collagen – a rope-like structure that provides strength and […]
Museum Fatigue: Why Do We Feel Like Taking A Nap After Entering A Gallery?
Have you ever been wandering around the Natural History Museum in London, and just wanted to take a snooze next to Charles Darwin’s statue? Or perhaps, bumbling along the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and suddenly overcome with a wave of tiredness? Well, you may have been suffering from museum fatigue. It was […]
What Does The Universe Smell Like? Find Out More In Issue 18 Of CURIOUS – Out Now
Issue 18 (January 2024) of CURIOUS is out now, bringing you science highlights for the month plus deep dives into intriguing topics, interviews, exclusives, diary dates, and explanations for some of Earth’s most perplexing natural phenomena and landscapes. In This Issue… Advertisement OUR COVER STORY: What Does The Universe Smell Like? From cocktails to gunpowder, […]
The Color Or The Fruit: Which Word “Orange” Came First?
What came first, oranges – the plump citrus fruit – or orange – the name of the juicy red-yellow color? Perhaps surprisingly, the fruit came first. The first time the word “orange” was documented in the English language was around the late 14th century CE, when it was used to refer to the fruit, according […]
UV Nail Polish Dryers Can Damage The DNA In Your Hands
Ultraviolet (UV) nail polish dryers, typically used to cure gel manicures, could damage DNA in our hands and cause mutations, new research finds. The dryers are a common fixture of beauty salons – but despite their widespread use and the fact that some spectrums of UV rays are known to be carcinogenic, there has never been formal […]
Gasoline Has A Shelf Life, And It’s Shorter Than You Think
The gasoline in your car began its life (for want of a better term) around 360 million years ago. That’s long before even the first dinosaurs wandered the Earth; despite the popular image of the typical automobile being “fueled by exploding T. Rexes”, it’s actually ancient algae and plankton. Given how long it’s been hanging around so far, […]
Largest-Known Lithium Reserve Discovered Beneath Ancient Volcano In The US
The planet’s largest-known lithium deposit may have been found hiding beneath an ancient supervolcano along the Nevada–Oregon border in the US. Given the skyrocketing demand for lithium, this deposit could be a treasure trove – although obtaining it could come with a bunch of challenges and dangers. An estimated 20 to 40 million metric tons of […]
First Extinction Of A Marine Fish As A Result Of Human Activity Declared
The Java stingaree (Urolophus javanicus) has become the first marine fish species to go extinct as a result of human activity according to scientists at Charles Darwin University (CDU), Australia. It was declared following an update to the Red List of Threatened Species published by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in December. […]
Unexpected New COVID Symptoms Arise As JN.1 Variant Continues To Spread, OSIRIS Mission Sets Sights On “God Of Destruction” Asteroid At Crucial Time, And Much More This Week
This week we take a closer look at the “Great Wall of Mongolia”, the quest for better energy storage takes a leap forward in the form of time-bending quantum batteries, and a 150-year-old pliosaur skull is examined by Sir David Attenborough as part of a new series for the BBC. Finally, we take a look […]
