The yellow-winged bat is a vibrant species that comes in brilliant yellow, found flapping across countries in Africa. They’re one of five species of false vampire bats from the continent, but that’s not the only fake thing about them. Yellow-winged bats (Lavia frons) are around 58–80 millimeters (2.3–3.1 inches) in size with the females typically […]
NASA Just Shot A Laser At India’s Moon Lander
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter successfully shot a laser toward India’s Vikram lander on the Moon. However, this was not the first shot in a new space war but a carefully planned scientific experiment. The laser traveled about 100 kilometers (62 miles) from orbit to the surface of the Moon, hitting a target just 5 centimeters […]
Rare 75-Minute Warning Issued Before Asteroid Hit Earth’s Atmosphere Above Germany
The hunt is on to find meteorites from an object that hit the Earth’s atmosphere 100 kilometers (62 miles) west of Berlin over the weekend. Although bits of rock would be most prized, scientists are also keen to collect as many photographs of the descent of the meteor 2024BX1 as possible. Central Europeans awake at […]
Mighty Megalodon Might’ve Been Long And Slender Rather Than A Monstrous Potato
Megalodon (Otodus megalodon) just got a tentative makeover thanks to new research that has estimated its body form. The study leaned on “three critical pieces of information” that have become available in recent years, and it paints a very different picture of this enormous bloodthirsty fish. The first piece in the tryptic puzzle was the […]
What Happens To Your Liver When You Quit Alcohol
According to Greek mythology, Zeus punished Prometheus for giving fire to humans. He chained Prometheus up and set an eagle to feast on his liver. Each night, the liver grew back and each day, the eagle returned for his feast. In reality, can a liver really grow back? The liver is the largest internal organ […]
Earth Isn’t The Only Planet With Seasons, But They Can Look Wildly Different On Other Worlds
Spring, summer, fall and winter – the seasons on Earth change every few months, around the same time every year. It’s easy to take this cycle for granted here on Earth, but not every planet has a regular change in seasons. So why does Earth have regular seasons when other planets don’t? I’m an astrophysicist […]
Comet Wild 2’s Surprisingly Varied Dust Reveals Our Solar System’s Early History
NASA’s Stardust mission to Comet Wild 2 has revealed its secrets very slowly. They’re finally coming together, however, and the results are showing that the outer Solar System in its early days was not the simple place previously thought. How one comet came to have dust from widely separated parts of the early Solar System […]
This Camera Will Spend 1,000 Years Taking An Image Of The Arizona Desert
How will the world change over the next 1,000 years? Unless you happen to hold the keys to time travel or immortality, it’s a question that none of us will live to know the answer to. But in Tuscon, Arizona, an experimental philosopher has created the Millennium Camera, a device that hopes to capture it […]
Hackers Could Use The Light Sensor On Your Phone To Spy On You
People put a lot of trust in their mobile phones; we use them to make payments, do work, and jot down last night’s weird dreams (thank you Notes app). But unfortunately, they can also be used to target us, and a new study from MIT researchers has revealed how hackers could take advantage of a […]
OSIRIS-REx Remaining Asteroid Bennu Sample Revealed And Photographed In Super High-Resolution Detail
After finally removing the final two fasteners on the canister and nearly 4 months after it was dropped in the Utah desert by OSIRIS-REx, the curation team at NASA has finally revealed the remaining sample of asteroid Bennu. The last two fasteners were removed on January 10, allowing the team to complete the last steps […]
The Eye Of The Sahara Is A Geological Mystery “Staring” Into Space.
When viewed from above, the Eye of the Sahara looks just like an enormous impact crater sitting in the middle of the Sahara Desert of Mauritania. Stretching 50 kilometers (30 miles) in diameter, comprised of a series of uniform ripples, this crater-esque anomaly is in fact entirely terrestrial. This spectacular ancient geological formation was used in the 1960s by […]
Visceral Fat Around Organs Is The Real Baddie – Here’s What To Know
If we’re talking fat, the visceral type is the real baddie. Though it makes up just 10 percent of body fat, it’s implicated in a number of health concerns, including diabetes and heart disease. Here’s everything you need to know about the adipose antagonist hiding deep inside. What is visceral fat? Fat comes in a […]
Why Did A Doctor Inject Rabbits And A Dog With Bacteria After Autopsying A President?
A collection of previously unknown documents relating to a weird but important part of American history have gone to auction for the first time. The documents belonged to a physician who autopsied the body of US president William McKinley after his assassination in 1901. Following the autopsy, the doctor in question then performed a strange […]
“Feed A Cold, Starve A Fever”: What’s The Science Behind The Saying?
‘Tis the season for colds and flu, and with a hefty dose of COVID-19 and other viruses thrown into the mix, chances are you or people you know are feeling pretty rough right now. When you’re struck down with the sniffles, it’s usually not long before a well-meaning person advises you to “feed a cold, […]
Do Wind Turbines Stop Working In Freezing Temperatures?
It’s currently winter in the Northern Hemisphere, and if you’ve seen the news in the last couple of weeks, you’ll know that many countries have been plunged into freezing temperatures. As if convincing your dog to pee outside and avoiding slipping on ice wasn’t enough, some have claimed that the chilly weather can endanger our […]
Google’s Newest AI Beats All But The Best Math Olympians
It must be tough being a kid these days. Born too late to actually enjoy the internet, too early to declare yourself god-emperor of a desert wasteland run on water scarcity and guzzoline – and should you try to numb the pain with a little light math, you’ll most likely have to put up with […]
Loma Linda Blue Zone: Why Do People There Live So Much Longer?
There’s a city in California where a community of people are living longer, healthier lives than the US average. Known as Loma Linda, it was recognized as one of five shining examples of longevity across the globe, so what are they getting so right? In You Are What You Eat: A Twin Experiment, the Netflix […]
How Many Human Species Have Walked Earth? More Than You May Think
On top of Homo sapiens, at least eight other species of our genus have walked Earth: Homo habilis, Homo rudolfensis, Homo erectus, Homo antecessor, Homo heidelbergensis, Homo naledi, Homo floresiensis, and Homo neanderthalensis (Neanderthals). Plus, it’s likely in the future there will be more that are recognized or unrecognized. That’s not even mentioning Denisovans, which may be a […]
8-Year-Old’s Math Project Goes Viral With 30,000 Responses To “Why Australian Magpies Swoop”
An eight-year-old has broken new ground in two questions most Australians have pondered at some time: why do magpies swoop, and how do they pick their targets? What started out as a modest school project went viral and received tens of thousands of responses. While some of the survey’s associated questions might not be what […]
Moon Rocks Covered In Curious Dust Discovered In Gamma Swirl Region
Planetary scientists studying lunar rocks might have discovered some boulders behaving oddly. While studying some cracked boulders, they noticed that some were different from others. They believe some boulders are attracting only certain types of lunar dust, potentially due to magnetic properties. Dust on Earth is certainly not pleasant, but it is certainly better than […]
