A proposal has been published for a mission to send a spacecraft to study a future interstellar object passing through our Solar System. Although only two such objects have ever been detected with confidence, advances in surveillance systems mean that number is almost certain to shoot up very soon. Acknowledging that it will be a […]
Semen Microbiomes, Keto Diets, And IVF Advances – Here’s The Latest In Fertility Research
With the Alabama Supreme Court’s recent decision on the status of embryos raising concerns about the future of in-vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics in the state, it’s safe to say fertility is on a lot of people’s minds at the moment. According to the World Health Organization, around 1 in 6 adults around the world experience […]
Rare-Earth Elements Are Essential For Wind Turbine Magnets – Can We Recycle Them?
Overall, the turbines that provide wind-generated electricity are a great deal, environmentally speaking. They have a “payback” time – that is, the length of time taken for one turbine to provide enough clean energy to offset the pollution created by its manufacture – of less than a single year; they generate virtually zero pollution once […]
World’s Largest Deposit Of Natural Hydrogen Gas Discovered In Albanian Mine
The largest natural flow of hydrogen gas ever discovered has been detected seeping through a pool of water deep within a chromium mine in Albania. Reporting the find in a new study, researchers say the deposit could pave the way for new, cleaner ways of capturing hydrogen for use as a clean fuel. Hydrogen gas […]
This Is What Happens To The Body After Seven Days Without Food
Billions of people around the world regularly fast to lose weight or for religious reasons, yet until now the full biological implications of prolonged calorie restriction have remained poorly understood. Hungry for some proper data to get their teeth into, researchers have now analyzed the systemic changes that occur across multiple organs during long periods […]
What’s The Longest Mountain Range On Earth?
Mighty mountain ranges can be found on every continent, yet the longest continuous chain of peaks is not located on any of these seven landmasses. Instead, the world’s most extensive range lies at the bottom of the sea. Known as the mid-ocean range, this absurdly lengthy mountain chain traces the outline of the Earth’s tectonic […]
US Yosemite National Park Urges People To Vacate The Area As Soon As Possible
Visitors to California’s Yosemite National Park have been told to leave immediately with intense blizzards forecast throughout the area. Releasing a statement on Thursday, February 29, the park announced that it would be closing at midnight and would “remain closed at least through Sunday at noon (possibly later).” The sudden warning comes with an atmospheric […]
Could Tardigrades Have Colonized The Moon?
Just over five years ago, on 22 February 2019, an unmanned space probe was placed in orbit around the Moon. Named Beresheet and built by SpaceIL and Israel Aerospace Industries, it was intended to be the first private spacecraft to perform a soft landing. Among the probe’s payload were tardigrades, renowed for their ability to […]
Pre-Roman Skeletons Found Buried Alongside Dogs And Horses In Italy
Members of a pre-Roman culture in Italy were sometimes buried with animals including dogs and horses, though researchers are unable to explain why this was the case. After discovering several of these multi-species co-burials at a site in Verona, the authors of a new study speculate that the interred animals may have held some sort […]
What Is The World’s Oldest Cheese? It Depends On How You Define It
Cheese was just as popular in the ancient world as it is today – and then, just as now, its production required patience and time to mature into something tasty. However, archaeologists have found various cheeses that push the limits of what we would consider “matured”, having been preserved for centuries in various places. So […]
First Photos Of Humpback Whale Sex Are Of Two Males, NASA Hit An Asteroid So Hard It Changed Shape, And Much More This Week
This week a megalith discovered on a mountain in Peru is older than Egypt’s pyramids, a tiny 12-millimeter-long fish makes a sound comparable to a human hearing a jet plane take off, and the mighty blue whale reclaims its spot as the Earth’s heaviest animal to ever live. Finally, we discover the bizarre behind-the-scenes story […]
Watch Infamous Killer Whale Devour A Great White Shark In Under 2 Minutes
In one of the most extraordinary predation events ever witnessed, an orca has been observed annihilating a great white shark in less than two minutes. Previously, killer whales had been seen hunting the large sharks in packs, yet this is the first known instance of a single orca taking down a great white with no […]
Who Owns Antarctica?
Antarctica is the coldest, driest, and windiest place on Earth; inland, it can reach highs (no, that’s not a typo) of -30°C (-22°F) in the summer and lows of -80°C (-112°F) in the winter; it’s so remote that its permanent population is zero; and if you want to live there long-term, you may have to […]
Ultra-Processed Foods: What They Are, And What They Might Mean For Our Health
Almost everywhere you look, people are talking about ultra-processed foods. Are they bad for our health? Should we be cutting back? What actually are ultra-processed foods anyway? Nutrition research can be tricky to wade through at the best of times, so we wanted to try and cut through some of the confusion and find out […]
Bizarre Desert Fungus Named After The Monstrous Sandworms From Dune
Years of sample collection on the Hungarian steppe recently revealed four brand new species of fungi, including one that scientists say bears a striking resemblance to an infamous sci-fi monster. Its worm-like body and sandy dwelling place led the team to dub the new species Tulostoma shaihuludii, after the Shai-Hulud sandworms that feature in Frank […]
A New Genus Of Plants Has Been Discovered, And Boy Is It Strange
Looking at a fairy lantern, you might not realise it’s a plant. These ghostly white botanical specimens haunt the forest floor putting on spooky bioluminescent displays, and now we’ve got a whole new genus to add to the list. A genus is a taxonomic category that groups together species. It represents a whole group, rather […]
Why Did Dinosaurs Like T. Rex Have Such Tiny Arms?
Tyrannosaurus rex is arguably the most famous of the dinosaurs, renowned for its enormous teeth and gargantuan size, but also its comparatively teeny arms. The fearsome predator was around 12 meters (40 feet) long and yet its arms measured just 1 meter (3 feet). This ridiculous ratio wasn’t reserved solely for the king of the […]
FDA Finds Worrying Issues At Musk’s Neuralink Animal Testing Lab
Just weeks after implanting a brain chip into a human for the first time, Elon Musk’s Neuralink has reportedly landed itself in trouble with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Inspectors from the FDA visited the company’s California animal research facility in June 2023 and found numerous problems with record keeping and quality controls […]
Exclusive: We Have Collected The First-Ever Actual Pebbles From An Asteroid
Last September, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx brought back to Earth the biggest haul of asteroid material in the history of humanity. And among that, there are the largest physical fragments of an asteroid: pebbles and other small rocks from the surface of asteroid Bennu. By contrast, the Hayabusa probes that collected samples from Itokawa and Ryugu, respectively, […]
Dehydrating The Stratosphere Could Help Ease Climate Change, Scientists Suggest
Scientists have been pondering whether intentionally drying the Earth’s stratosphere could be a way to tackle the climate crisis (other than, y’know, stop burning ridiculous amounts of fossil fuels). When people talk about greenhouse gases, you probably imagine carbon dioxide and methane, two of the most problematic emissions pumped out by human industrial activity. However, […]
