This article first appeared in Issue 17 of our free digital magazine CURIOUS. “There came wise men from the east to Jerusalem saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.” That’s how Matthew describes the “Star of Bethlehem” […]
72 Million Years Ago, A Monstrous “Blue Dragon” Roamed The Pacific Ocean
If the idea of time traveling to the oceans of the Cretaceous has ever sounded like an appealing idea to you, you might be about to change your mind. Researchers have described a brand-new, 72-million-year-old species of mosasaur, that’s thought to have terrorized the ancient Pacific Ocean. The study describing the mosasaur came as a […]
Are No Two Snowflakes Really Alike, And If Not, Why Not?
This article first appeared in Issue 17 of our free digital magazine CURIOUS. They say no two snowflakes are alike, but, when you think about it, how could anyone possibly know that? The truth is that you can’t, for reasons we’ll dive into later, but what we can know is that your chances of getting two […]
Sharing A Birth Month With Your Mom? It’s More Likely Than You’d Think
All things being equal, you’d expect there to be about a one in twelve chance of sharing your birthday month with someone else, right? Well, not quite – at least, not if that person is your mom. “Not only did we find that women’s own season of birth influenced the seasonal patterns in the births […]
Voyager 1 Sends Repeating Message From Interstellar Space, A Prehistoric “Lost World” Has Been Hiding Out On Earth, And Much More This Week
This week a tap dancing spider has been rediscovered in Portugal after 92 years, scientific evidence sees a conviction overturned for a mother jailed for killing her four children, and mysterious green “ghosts” appearing in Earth’s upper atmosphere have been explained. Finally, we investigate the gruesome history of tooth transplants. Subscribe to the IFLScience newsletter […]
The History Of An Ancient Martian Lake Has Been Revealed By Perseverance
NASA’s Perseverance has spent over 1,000 sols – Martian days – inside Jezero Crater. The location of an ancient impact, the crater was for a time a lake with a river carrying water into it. A prominent delta has been sculpted in the rocks and it is there that the rover has been exploring. And […]
Raisins Vs Sultanas Vs Currants – Do You Know The Difference?
Depending on your point of view, raisins are either a tasty lunchbox treat, or an evil catfish just waiting to lure you into taking a bite of what you thought was a lovely chocolate chip cookie. Love them or hate them, though, you’re probably fairly confident in what a raisin actually is. But what happens […]
Alien Life On Enceladus Just Got More Likely
Saturn’s moon Enceladus has a deep ocean, with hydrothermal activity, and complex chemistry. These are excellent conditions for life to emerge, and researchers have added a bit more hope to the mix. A new analysis suggests that there might be more chemical energy within this distant moon than previously thought. Enceladus releases plumes which were […]
Early Primates’ Favorite Snacks Were Probably Soft And Sweet
What did early primates munch on to keep themselves nourished? It’s likely that their foods of choice were soft, probably including sweet fruits, says a new study on their teeth from researchers at the University of Otago, New Zealand, and Duke University, USA. The researchers looked at fossil teeth of anthropoids – an infraorder of […]
Some “Gifted” Dogs Learn The Names Of Their Favorite Toys – Is Your Dog Among Them?
Does your dog know the names of its toys? Lots of dog owners may think their precious pooch can identify their favorite toys by name, but the phenomenon is actually pretty rare. In fact, many dogs who are believed to have this ability have usually had it trained into them and they can only identify […]
2-Million-Year-Old Jawbone Shows Homo Erectus Migrated High Into The Mountains
Remains of extinct human relatives are annoyingly rare, leaving many chapters of our own evolution a mystery. However, a review of an old fossil discovered over 40 years ago has busted open an important part of the story we didn’t previously know. Paleoanthropologists have taken a second look at some ancient human remains discovered in […]
Could People Breathe The Air On Mars?
Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to [email protected]. Could people breathe on Mars? – Jack J., age 7, Alexandria, Virginia Let’s suppose you were an astronaut who just landed on the planet Mars. What would you need to […]
Record-Breaking Laser Beam Message Reaches Earth From 16 Million Kilometers Away
Earth has received a record-breaking laser-beamed message from far beyond the Moon for the first time, an achievement that could transform how spacecraft communicate. If NASA can get a message from its spacecraft from 16 million kilometers (10 million miles) away, your beau has no excuse for leaving you on read. In the farthest-ever demonstration […]
This Is The Only Sea In The World That Doesn’t Touch Any Coastlines
There is a region of the North Atlantic Ocean that is unusual – it’s a sea that has no coastlines. The Sargasso Sea is characterized by its unique boundaries defined by ocean currents rather than land. It’s also a sea characterized by its natural, and unfortunately unnatural, accumulations of algae and detritus. The Sargasso Sea: […]
The Sun Just Unleashed The Most Powerful Solar Flare Seen In 6 Years
Solar Cycle Maximum, here we come. The Sun’s activity is truly picking up steam, meaning more sunspots, coronal holes, and even solar flares. The strongest yet for the current solar cycle, Cycle 25, is an X 2.8 class flare: the strongest recorded since September 10, 2017, and about 5 to 10 percent of the strongest […]
Giant “Scars of Ice Age Floods” Can Be Seen In The US From Space
Some 10,000 to 20,000 years ago, cataclysmic floods of water tore through a portion of North America now known as Washington State. Incredibly, the scars gouged into the earth from this violent event can still be seen today, revealed by satellite images from space. As explained by NASA Earth Observatory, these satellite images were captured […]
Scientists Reconstruct Face Of Phineas Gage, Who Survived An Iron Bar Through The Brain
On September 13, 1848, railroad foreman Phineas Gage suffered one of the most horrific workplace accidents in history when an iron bar punched a hole in his skull, obliterating a significant part of his brain. Despite the wound, Gage lived for another 12-and-a-half years, remaining active and (relatively) normal throughout. For the first time, scientists […]
Hybrid Biocomputer Fuses Human Brain Tissue With Computer Chips
Scientists have fused human brain tissue to a computer chip, creating a mini cyborg in a petri dish that can perform math equations and recognize speech. Dubbed Brainoware, the system consists of brain cells artificially grown from human stem cells, which have been fostered to develop into a brain-like tissue. This mini-brain organoid is then […]
Major Vaccine Breakthrough Could Spell Hope For Treating Aggressive Breast Cancer
The results of a small clinical trial of a vaccine for an aggressive form of breast cancer have been presented at a conference, and the researchers say there’s cause for optimism. The 16 patients in the trial all received three doses of the vaccine, with the majority developing a robust immune response and no major […]
Zoo Builds A Herb Garden To Enrich Its Animals’ Lives
Zookeepers worldwide know that many of their animals appreciate herbs in the diet, or sometimes just to play with or roll in. One zoo has decided their charges will like it even better if the herbs are fresh and in season, and have built a garden of 200 types to keep them happy. Most zoos […]
