Supersonic air travel holds the promise to get us across the world faster, but it comes with a big and loud drawback: Sonic booms. Supersonic planes are not allowed to travel over land because the boom they create is loud and disruptive. NASA has been working for decades to design an aircraft that can avoid […]
The Quantum Cheshire Cat Effect Might Not Be Real After All
In Alice in Wonderland, the Cheshire Cat can disappear leaving only its grin behind. Physicists consider something analogous might exist in quantum mechanics when a particle can be separated from its properties, and the two travel on different paths. This quantum Cheshire cat effect explained that and other weird events like particles swapping disembodied properties. […]
Incredible Footage Of A Deep-Sea Squid Brooding Thousands Of Eggs
Parental duties in the animal kingdom cover a whole range of options, from those that lay eggs and then sacrifice a normal sleep to care for their young, to those that give birth to live young that can move about within a few hours. Most nature shows feature animals growing up and learning the ropes, […]
This Is Your Yearly Reminder That Blue Monday Is Not A Thing
A version of this article was first published in 2018 and we are pretty much resharing it as it was because the whole corporate invention of “Blue Monday” continues to be peddled as “science”, and there are only a limited number of ways to say this is bullsh*t. It’s the third week of January and […]
Number Of Americans Aged 100 Or Over Set To Quadruple Over The Next 30 Years
There once was a time when living into your 100s seemed like a pretty rare possibility – but if you happen to live in the US, you might be interested to know that your chances are on the up. Projections from the US Census Bureau (USCB) suggest that the number of American centenarians is set […]
Iceland Volcanic Eruption Sends Lava Into Local Town, Setting Houses on Fire
In the morning of Sunday, January 14, the Earth opened up again in the Reykjanes peninsula in Iceland. A new eruption took place in the active region, and this time the lava reached the town of Grindavík. After the eruption of last month, defenses were built to direct the lava flow away from the town, […]
SETI Is Checking Millions Of Stars For Signs Of Life
An expansion of the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) program means that for the first time, humanity is starting to collect a substantial sample of the radio universe for this purpose, thanks to advances in detection equipment. Despite occasional flutters of excitement, none of our scanning of the skies has turned up evidence of alien […]
Building Blocks Of Life Survive In The Sulfuric Clouds Of Venus
You wouldn’t want to be on Venus right now. Or any day really. The atmospheric pressure and temperature are so high that you would be flattened and cooked immediately. It is much more bearable in the clouds of the planet, with a tropical climate and Earth-normal temperatures – as long as you don’t mind the […]
Can Plants Get Cancer?
This article first appeared in Issue 15 of our free digital magazine CURIOUS. A 5,000-year-old bristlecone pine stands in the White Mountains of California, making it the oldest non-cloned living organism on Earth. We know the extremes of longevity can get messy in the context of animal cancers, but what about botanical species? Do plants get […]
Strange “Superstructure” In The Pacific Has Been Forming Since Dinosaurs Ruled Earth
Lying deep beneath the Pacific Ocean, an immense geological superstructure has been growing since the Cretaceous period, fuelled by an area of intraplate volcanism that’s larger than Great Britain. In a new study, geologists attempt to piece together how the so-called Melanesian Border Plateau was formed, concluding that it was formed through several different pulses […]
Is It Possible To Travel Through Time Or Do Paradoxes Get In The Way?
This article first appeared in Issue 15 of our free digital magazine CURIOUS. H.G. Wells set off an obsession with his novel The Time Machine, one whose frequent appearances in science fiction testifies to its popularity ever since. Many of the other futuristic concepts Wells and his contemporaries wrote about have long since come true, but […]
Is A Vegan Diet Really Going To Protect You From COVID-19?
The fourth anniversary of COVID-19 being declared a pandemic is almost upon us. In 2024, the availability of vaccines has made it a very different beast from the disease authorities were struggling to contain at the start of 2020. Since that time, we’ve learned much about the SARS-CoV-2 virus and its effects, but this research […]
“Geologically Impossible”: The Strange Story Of Mel’s Supposedly Bottomless Hole
On February 21, 1997, a man calling himself Mel Waters rang the late-night radio talk show “Coast to Coast with Art Bell” with a very strange story to tell. According to Waters, on his property, around 14 kilometers (9 miles) west of Ellensburg, Washington, there was a hole that seemingly had no bottom. Waters told […]
AI Overturns Claim That Every Human Fingerprint Is Unique – Maybe
Fingerprint analysis is considered an invaluable tool in forensic and security settings due to the uniqueness and permanence of the patterns. No two people have been found to share a fingerprint pattern, not even identical twins. Fingerprints are so unique, in fact, that your own fingerprints don’t even match each other. But now, new research […]
How We Almost Ended Up With A Bull’s-Eye Bar Code
Few objects in the world are more immediately recognizable than the bar code. After all, bar codes are all around us. They’re on the books we buy and the packages that land on our doorsteps. More than 6 billion bar codes are scanned every single day. They’ve become such an accepted part of our daily […]
Does Tea Or Coffee Have More Caffeine?
There’s nothing like a cup of hot brown water to start your day. For some it’s the taste, while others seek the energy boost, but does tea or coffee have more caffeine? The answer changes depending on how you do your brew, so let’s dive into it. Advertisement How much caffeine does tea have? Tea […]
New Zealand Waterfall Doubles Up As A Creche For Fur Seal Pups
This article first appeared in Issue 15 of our free digital magazine CURIOUS. Thousands of seals call Kaikōura, New Zealand, home, but when the winter weather starts to kick in come April, the Ōhau Point Seal Colony’s pups make a unique journey. They swim inland, following a stream to Ōhau Waterfall, which for one to three months […]
Two Golden Tongues Discovered In Mummies Buried In Ancient Egyptian Town
Archaeologists have unearthed two more Egyptian mummies with golden tongues at the ancient town of Oxyrhynchus, around 100 miles from Cairo. This brings the total number of specimens to 16, all of which have been recovered from this site. Oxyrhynchus, otherwise known as the “City of the Sharp-nosed Fish”, has been a veritable treasure trove […]
Humans Now Kill 80 Million Sharks A Year From Fishing – Despite Regulations
A new study of global shark fishing mortality has revealed the true extent of humanity’s negative impact on the oceans: around 80 million sharks die in fisheries each year, despite fishing regulations and bans on finning. Between 2012 and 2019 – during which time there was a tenfold increase in finning legislation – global fishing […]
Do Whales Have Hair?
Marine mammals come in all shapes and sizes, from surfboard-stealing sea otters to giant humpback whales making Fibonacci spirals. However while the former is famously cute and fluffy with thick fur, do whales have hair? We take a closer look at the skin of these ocean giants. Do All Whales Have Hair? The short answer […]
