Sit with your own thoughts for long enough and you’ll come up with all sorts of questions. If you banged a tuning fork in space, would it vibrate forever? Is Jurassic Park possible? Does musical genre affect the flavor of cheese? And on today’s roster: why doesn’t the water in lakes just absorb into the […]
Enormous Extinct Deer Had Even More Enormous Antlers – But We Don’t Know Why
Meet the Irish elk: an enormous extinct deer with a pair of comically large antlers to boot. The ancient behemoth’s unusual appendages, which measure a whopping 3.5 meters (11.5 feet) from tip to tip, may look impressive but we’re not exactly sure why they’re quite so big. According to one new study, their size doesn’t […]
Giant Planets Start Out As Flattened Disks Before They Become Spherical
Prior to achieving their final form, gas planets take on flattened shapes technically known as oblate spheroids, a new study has found. Although the Earth today is still classified as an oblate spheroid, thanks to slight flattening at the poles, the protoplanet stage is drastically flatter, according to newly published modelling, looking more like an […]
People Are Just Now Learning Where You’re Meant To Isolate Bananas
Some people are just learning where in the kitchen you are supposed to store bananas. In a TikTok video, user @tipperk stored bananas in four different ways, apparently used by people in real life. These included wrapping a wet paper towel around the stem (or handle, according to the “monkey method”), putting plastic wrap around […]
Small, Quiet, And Isolated Galaxy Is An “Impossible” Object
Dwarf galaxies tend to be found around larger galaxies, having formed around them. There is a small population of dwarf galaxies that is isolated and they are known for their vigorous star formation. Astronomers didn’t think that dwarf galaxies that were both isolated and had little star formation existed. Somebody must have forgotten to tell […]
AI Helps Decipher Herculaneum Scroll That Hasn’t Been Read In 2,000 Years
The organizers of the Vesuvius Challenge, which started in 2023, have now announced their grand prize winners who have successfully revealed ancient secrets hidden on petrified scrolls. The announcement not only marks the outcome of ingenious work but may also indicate an exciting new era of research. The Vesuvius Challenge was launched in March 2023 […]
These Siberian Horses Rapidly Evolved To Thrive At −70°C
The Yakut region in Northern Siberia is one of the coldest places on Earth, and yet some hardy horses can survive, even thrive, there. With their thick winter coats, squat bodies, and stubby limbs, native Yakutian horses are adorably well adapted to their frosty climes – but they also have another handy trick up their […]
380-Million-Year-Old Fanged Fish Found In One Of The World’s Oldest Lakes
One of the most remote fossil sites in all of Australia has just delivered a whopper of a new species: a predatory lobe-finned fish that was armed with large fangs and bony scales. It lived 380 million years ago at a time when the mid-Devonian had plunged the planet into a period of decreased atmospheric […]
Blue-Fin Whale Hybrids Are More Common Than We Thought. Turns Out, They Can Breed
After diving into the genomes of North Atlantic blue whales, scientists have found that the population is infused with a significant amount of hybrid DNA due to interbreeding with fin whales. Furthermore, it appears that blue whales are interbreeding with the blue-fin hybrids, adding a further twist to this genetic cocktail. In the new study, […]
The 2024 Total Eclipse Will Likely Coincide With The Solar Maximum
The last total solar eclipse over the US was pretty spectacular, as anyone who saw it will attest. Looking at the photos, it’s hard to imagine how the sight could have been improved upon in the eclipse taking place on April 8 this year. But if we are lucky and the weather is fine, we […]
Vegan Vs. Keto: How Do These Diets Alter Your Immune System?
Nutrition is always a hot topic, with people holding very strong opinions about the best diet plan to ensure long-term health. However, science is far from settled on how different diets can impact the immune system. To find out more, researchers from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) took two of today’s most popular […]
These Individuals Are More Likely To Cheat In A Relationship
Valentine’s Day is fast approaching and in amongst the romantic gestures, fancy meals, and discount chocolate boxes, it’s easy to forget that not all relationships are perfect – some people will cheat. But are there particular traits that make them do so? Are they simply walking red flags, or are there more subtle indicators that […]
Juno Captures Erupting Volcanoes On Saturn’s Moon Io In Incredible Flyby Pics
NASA’s Juno conducted its 58th close encounter with Jupiter (perijove) at the weekend and its final close flyby of Io, the innermost of Jupiter’s four Galilean moons. Io is known for the volcanic activity that marks its surface, the first active volcanoes discovered beyond Earth. The latest photos have caught some of those volcanoes erupting. […]
The Milky Way’s Magnetism Is Messier Than We Thought, Detailed Spiral Arm Mapping Reveals
Our galaxy has a weak – but immense – magnetic field that stretches across most of it. Although we know its broadest outline, the fine-scale detail is a mystery. Now, the magnetism or a small portion of has been revealed at finer resolution, revealing there is a lot more jumble to it than smooth models […]
Solar System’s First Quasi-Moon Officially Named “Zoozve” After Error On Child’s Poster
Twenty years after its discovery, asteroid and quasi-moon 2002 VE 68 has been officially renamed “Zoozve” after a strange label on his 2-year-old child’s poster of the Solar System led Radiolab host Latif Nasser to investigate further. In a widely-shared X (Twitter) thread, Nasser explained that he found a mystery moon on his child’s astronomy […]
The World May Have Already Exceeded 1.5°C Global Warming
The world has warmed more since the start of the Industrial Revolution than previously acknowledged, new evidence indicates, with the world already exceeding 1.5°C (2.7°F) above pre-industrial conditions. If so, it means the limits the world agreed on in the 2015 Paris Accord have already been exceeded. However, some climate scientists have expressed skepticism about […]
The Sun’s Poles Are About To Flip. What Will Happen When They Do?
The Sun is particularly active at the moment, unleashing powerful solar flares and causing radio blackouts on Earth. This is all part of an 11-year cycle that sees the Sun’s poles reverse. Sun activity increases and decreases in an 11-year cycle known as the Schwabe cycle. From 1826 to 1843, German amateur astronomer Heinrich Schwabe […]
First-Ever Brain Implant To Treat OCD And Epilepsy Proves “Life-Changing” For Patient
A 34-year-old woman in the US has become the first person to receive a brain implant that treats both epilepsy and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). Having been fitted with the device at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, Amber Pearson says her incessant hand-washing and anxiety about contamination have now all but vanished. Measuring […]
Tinnitus “Cures” Are Going Viral, But How Can You Tell Fact From Fiction?
When we’re diagnosed with a medical condition, often the first place we look to for information and advice is the internet. Online communities can be powerful support and advocacy networks, particularly for those with long-term health conditions. They can also provide important data that alerts medical researchers to a problem, as we saw with long […]
Mars Could Be A Haven For Bacteria That Make Humans Sick
Between its oxygen-free atmosphere, exposure to radiation, and the lack of nutrients, Mars is a hostile place for human life. However, it might not be quite so unfriendly to the microbe we bring with us – including some we’d really rather didn’t flourish too much. Three years ago, astrobiologists noted the presence of sugar in […]
