A woman from Alabama who was born with a rare double uterus is pregnant with two babies – one in each womb. Kelsey Hatcher, 32, found out that she had two uteruses, as well as two cervixes, when she was 17. The condition, known medically as uterus didelphys, affects around 0.3 percent of the population […]
Yet Another Town Has Reported “The Hum”, Sparking Mystery And Sleepless Nights
Residents of a town in Northern Ireland have been extra-grouchy recently due to an ongoing “hummmmmm” noise that’s been keeping them up at night. No one’s sure where the irritating noise is coming from, so the local council has brought in sonic experts to investigate the problem. The nighttime annoyance has been heard across a […]
Why Comet Erasmus Wagged Its Tail
“Comets are like cats,” David H Levy said, “They both have tails and do precisely what they want.” As co-discoverer of many comets – including Shoemaker-Levy 9, made famous for smashing into Jupiter before the eyes of the world – Levy should know. The saying is popular among astronomers watching one comet after another fail […]
Why The Future Might Not Be Where You Think It Is
Imagine the future. Where is it for you? Do you see yourself striding towards it? Perhaps it’s behind you. Maybe it’s even above you. And what about the past? Do you imagine looking over your shoulder to see it? Advertisement How you answer these questions will depend on who you are and where you come […]
Many Physicists Assume We Must Live In A Multiverse – But Their Basic Maths May Be Wrong
One of the most startling scientific discoveries of recent decades is that physics appears to be fine-tuned for life. This means that for life to be possible, certain numbers in physics had to fall within a certain, very narrow range. One of the examples of fine-tuning which has most baffled physicists is the strength of […]
Tiny Island Creates World’s First Marine Protection Area For One Of Earth’s Largest Animals
The Caribbean island of Dominica might only be small, but it’s now taken on the mighty task of protecting one of our planet’s largest animals: the sperm whale. By creating the world’s first marine protected area, the island nation hopes to simultaneously keep the giant species from harm and take advantage of its pooping habits […]
“Skeleton Lake” In The Himalayas Is Filled With Hundreds Of Ancient Humans
Roopkund Lake in the Indian Himalayas has several hundred bodies scattered around and within it, earning the nickname “Skeleton Lake”. Local tales refer to an ancient party caught in a mountain hailstorm. However, an analysis of the ages and genomes of the bones reveals something much stranger and harder to explain: the victims were separated […]
There’s A Sound Anomaly In Tulsa That Appears To Defy The Laws Of Physics
Optical illusions tend to get the lion’s share when we talk about things that make us question reality, but acoustic anomalies can be equally trippy especially if they were not designed with the intention to confuse and mystify. This is the case for the “Center of the Universe”, a peculiar phenomenon known as a sound […]
AI-Generated Faces Are Now More Realistic Than Actual Faces (If They’re White)
White faces created by artificial intelligence (AI) are now appear more “realistic” than actual human faces, according to researchers from the Australian National University (ANU). Although the participants in the new study found AI-generated white human faces more realistic than actual faces, the same was not true for images of people of color. The reason […]
US Women Live 6 Years Longer Than Men As Life Expectancy Gap Widens
The average life expectancy for women in the US is now nearly six years longer than that of men. According to new research, this gap increased from a low of 4.8 years in 2010 to 5.8 years in 2021, the largest it has been since 1996. Overall, average life expectancy in the US has dropped […]
Seal Scientists Wearing Funky Hats Discover 2-Kilometer-Deep Canyon Under Antarctica
Scientists have come up with many innovative ways to explore different parts of the Earth and beyond. From enormous space telescopes, to fancy LIDAR equipment, these technologies can teach us more about the world (and universe) we live in. Now, scientists have turned to the animal kingdom and recruited the help of some marine mammals […]
Do Plants Sleep? Yes, And One Scientist Is Trying To Anesthetise Them
Plant neurobiology is a growing field of science that explores the ways that plants may perceive their environment and alter their morphology and physiology accordingly. It’s sparked some blowback as there are others who argue that growing with style isn’t akin to cognition or consciousness, but what about unconsciousness? Plants don’t sleep in the same […]
Most Powerful Burst Of Gamma Rays Struck Earth, Disturbing Its Ionosphere
The top part of the Earth’s atmosphere, from several tens of kilometers up to well past the orbit of the International Space Station, is the ionosphere. Charged particles from the Sun hit atoms and molecules there, freeing their electrons. And now researchers have discovered that it can also be affected by an exploding star over […]
Is Quicksand Actually As Deadly As Movies Led Us To Believe?
All those Looney Tunes shows you watched as a kid were deeply deceiving. Quicksand, as it turns out, is a relatively insignificant threat to your well-being and scarcely ever appears in adult life. That said, this slurry-like solution is a real thing and certainly something that should be taken seriously. Quicksand became a common trope […]
Mystery Of Massive Star That Went Missing From The Kinman Dwarf Galaxy
Stars, to be fair to them, are pretty reliable. Look up at them one day and, assuming you have a human lifespan, you can look again some time in the future and you’ll likely still find them there, twinkling away from years to billions of years in the past. Every now and then though, astronomers […]
Dark Matter Might Be Recycled To Form A Whole Invisible Periodic Table
Our current best understanding of the universe requires the existence of an invisible substance known as dark matter. The exact nature of dark matter (or its actual existence) is still unknown, and there are multiple competing theories to explain the effect of this matter on the Universe. An exciting new one is called Recycled Dark […]
When A Scientist At A Medical Equipment Laboratory Investigated His Own Haunting
If Scooby Doo has taught us anything it’s that if you dig deep enough all ghost sightings have a rational explanation, and you shouldn’t trust hotel managers. In 1998, a group of scientists working in a laboratory at a medical equipment company began noticing strange events. One of the scientists, Vic Tandy (shortened to V.T. […]
Strange Aurora-Like Radio Emissions Spotted Emanating From A Sunspot
A long-lasting powerful radio burst emerging from the Sun in 2016 was highly circularly polarized and took place directly above a sunspot, a new study reports. The burst may shed light on possibly similar events detected on red and brown dwarf stars, although it is far weaker. On April 9, 2016, astronomers turned the Karl […]
Maya Snake Warrior’s Head Unearthed At Chichén Itzá
A stone statue of a serpent warrior’s head has been unearthed among the ruins of the iconic Maya site of Chichén Itzá in southern Mexico. Wearing a “snake helmet” and a feathered headdress, the ancient sculpture is likely to date from the Maya Late Classic period, which lasted from around 600 to 900 CE. Archaeologists […]
AI Chemist Brings Us One Step Closer To Breathing On Mars
“Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids,” sang Elton John. It is not just cold as hell, it lacks a lot of the basic necessities that humans need to survive, including oxygen to breathe. And given that we would like to get humans there at some point, and bringing stuff from Earth […]