Optical illusions work by challenging our brains to break out of their usual pattern of viewing the world, reconfiguring the way they process, predict and analyze visual stimuli. This requires intricate communication and feedback between different brain regions, and new research indicates that this process may be altered in autistic children. “When we view an […]
“Unprecedented” Model Provides Most Detailed Glimpse Yet Of Earth’s Last 100 Million Years
A new geological model, the most detailed yet, has enabled us to peer back in time over the past 100 million years of the Earth’s surface. As you might expect, a lot has changed in that time, the details of which will further our understanding of the Earth’s geophysical landscape as we know it today […]
New Findings May Explain How Bacteria Are Becoming Resistant To A Last-Resort Antibiotic
A common treatment strategy in patients with liver disease may be inadvertently leading Enterococcus faecium bacteria to develop resistance to one of the last effective antibiotics we have, according to a new preprint. The research, which is yet to be peer-reviewed, found that treating patients with rifaximin was associated with genetic mutations in E. faecium that […]
The Rarest And Most Expensive Precious Metal Isn’t Gold
It’s commonly believed that gold is one of the rarest and most expensive precious metals – but while it does rank pretty high comparatively, there is one metal that has it beat hands down both for price and rarity. The monetary worth of different metals is inconsistent, differing slightly depending on demand and access. Due […]
JWST Is Changing Our Understanding Of The Universe, But Not Destroying Cosmology Just Yet
When a new telescope – especially one like JWST – comes online, there are a lot of expectations of discovering unknowns and challenging our current understanding. The expectations are bearing some tentative fruits in the many areas of focus of the telescope, but lately, the attention has been on cosmology and how observations might be […]
Is The Future Of Humanity Transhumanism?
This article first appeared in Issue 5 of our free digital magazine CURIOUS. Transhumanism offers humans one of the loftiest goals ever proposed: through science and technology, we hold the power to turbo-charge our senses, edit out our biological frailties, meld minds with computers, and perfect our fleshy bodies to the point where we become something […]
Black Holes May Be The Source Of Mysterious Dark Energy That Makes Up Most Of The Universe
Black holes could explain a mysterious form of energy that makes up most of the universe, according to astronomers. The existence of “dark energy” has been inferred from observations of stars and galaxies, but no one has been able to explain what it is, or where it comes from. The stuff, or matter, that makes […]
How Fish Evolved To Walk – And In One Case, Turned Into Humans
When you think about human evolution, there’s a good chance you’re imagining chimpanzees exploring ancient forests or early humans daubing woolly mammoths on to cave walls. But we humans, along with bears, lizards, hummingbirds and Tyrannosaurus rex, are actually lobe-finned fish. It might sound bizarre but the evidence is in our genes, anatomy and in […]
Can Humans Learn To Hibernate?
This article first appeared in Issue 5 of our free digital magazine CURIOUS. When there’s a nip in the air and the long, cold nights are drawing in, animals sensibly get under the metaphorical covers and don’t surface until spring. So why, exactly, do humans stay awake? And – more importantly – do we really have […]
Powerful Antibiotics That Kill Superbugs Are Being Found By AI
Artificial intelligence (AI) has proved to be a useful ally in the battle against antibiotic resistance. A powerful antibiotic that’s even able to kill superbugs has been discovered thanks to a machine-learning algorithm. Researchers from MIT used a specially designed computer algorithm to sift through a vast digital archive of over 100 million chemical compounds […]
TWIS: Man Keeps 800-Year-Old Mummy As “Spiritual Girlfriend”, Students Beat NASA To Important Discovery About EpiPens, And Much More This Week
This week, a rare hybrid hummingbird is reported for the first time, cosmic rays reveal a long-lost corridor deep inside Khufu’s Great Pyramid of Giza, and we discover the ancient myths surrounding France’s mysterious Carnac stones. Man Arrested After Keeping 800-Year-Old Male Mummy As His “Spiritual Girlfriend” A man has been arrested in Peru after a […]
Snorted Tap Water May Be Blamed For Brain-Eating Amoeba Death In US
A person in Florida has died after being infected with a rare brain-eating amoeba. Health authorities suspect the person fell ill with the fatal infection after using tap water to rinse their sinuses, although they stressed that you cannot be infected by drinking tap water. The Florida Department of Health in Charlotte County announced the […]
Sweden Licenses The Killing Of Hundreds Of Lynxes Just Weeks After Largest Wolf Cull
Few people are lucky enough to see a wild lynx in Europe these days – but this privileged experience is about to become rarer as Sweden permits the hunting of this elusive cat. Just weeks after the Scandinavian country approved the largest wolf cull in modern history, Sweden’s country administrators have issued licenses to hunt […]
Oopsie! Ancient Super-Rare Relic Turns Out To Be Accidental Fake
A story out of Israel today provides a reminder that, sometimes, things really can be too good to be true. It must have felt like the find of a lifetime: a fragment of pottery, discovered serendipitously by a couple of visitors to the Tel Lachish National Park in central Israel, bearing the first-ever written evidence […]
Bread Is As Strong As Beer? Many Foods And Drinks Contain A Surprising Amount Of Alcohol
When going out for a night at the bar, most people are acutely aware of what they are drinking if they are the designated driver, ensuring they don’t go over that important drink-driving threshold. But a little-known fact is how alcoholic random foods can be, with some containing almost as much alcohol content as a […]
A Little Bit Of Narcissism Is Normal And Healthy – Here’s How To Tell When It Becomes Pathological
During former President Donald Trump’s campaign and presidency, the word narcissism became something of a buzzword. And in recent years the word has been popularized on social media and in the press. As a result, social media and other online platforms are now rife with insights, tips, stories and theories from life coaches, therapists, psychologists […]
5,000-Year-Old Skeletons Show Earliest Evidence Of Horseback Riding
The first people to master the art of horseback riding may have lived in eastern Europe around 5,000 years ago. After examining the remains of hundreds of individuals from the ancient Yamnaya culture, researchers identified signs of skeletal stress caused by equestrian activity in around 15 percent of samples. Exactly when humans first took to […]
Mystery Of “Champ”, America’s Nessie, Might Have An Incredibly Boring Solution
In terms of “promises that epically fail to deliver,” few things can beat the world of cryptids. Take Nessie, for example: is she, as promised, an unbelievably long-lived plesiosaur, somehow surviving alone in a single Scottish lake, only surfacing to tease the odd tourist every few years? Or is she, as is arguably more likely, […]
Dogs Of Chernobyl Are Now Genetically Different To Others In The World
New research has studied hundreds of the free-wheeling dogs that roam the ruins of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and found that exposure to radiation may have made them genetically distinct from other dogs elsewhere in the world. Following the Chernobyl nuclear disaster on April 26, 1986, around 120,000 people living in the surrounding area […]
2,500-Year-Old Booze Brewed Up From Recipe Found In Iron Age Burial
Bones, ancient grooming tools, even gold – these are all things you might expect to find if you go poking around an Iron Age burial site. What you might not expect to find is your new favorite tipple. But, back in 2016, archaeologists were stunned to uncover a 2,500-year-old cauldron that contained the remnants of […]
