Isaac Asimov’s classic sci-fi novel Foundation tells the story of mathematician Hari Seldon and his creation of psychohistory, a futuristic discipline that combines history, sociology, and math to make predictions about the future of humanity. In a world of big data, powerful computers, and uncertain times ahead, could such an idea be possible today? Peter Turchin, […]
Extraordinary Photo Of Snake With Fish Stuck In Its Throat Hints At Bigger Problem
Snakes are famous for being able to get their jaws around just about anything, from eggs to birds and even centipedes. However, one snake in France bit off much more than it could chew, and that might be just the beginning of the story. Two extraordinary images captured by herpetologist Nicolas Fuento show a viperine […]
Piltdown Man Hoax: Mystery Of The “Missing Link” Fossils Found In 1912 England
In 1912, a British amateur archaeologist told the world he had made an important discovery in Piltdown Village, Sussex, England. According to Charles Dawson, who contacted the Natural History Museum with the information, while exploring Pleistocene gravel beds he had found an unusual human-like fragment of skull. Dawson and Arthur Smith Woodward, keeper of geology […]
Massive Eruption Covering “Half The Sun” Causes Geomagnetic Storm On Earth
An eruption that appeared to cover “over half the Sun” has been captured in videos produced by NASA and solar physicist Keith Strong. The eruption, which took place on Saturday, saw a large filament released from the Sun’s surface. Known as a coronal mass ejection (CME), electrically charged plasma was sent out from the Sun, […]
Spider Venom That Causes Big Boners Could Be A New Viagra
A new alternative to Viagra is being developed with the help of spider venom that’s prone to giving guys boners. Scientists in Brazil have been able to create a synthetic version of the vital molecule and are now looking to test it out on men with erectile dysfunction. The spider in question is Phoneutria nigriventer, […]
Now They’re Claiming The Alien Mummies Were Alive And Filled With Eggs
In an incredible achievement previously not thought possible, the story of the “mummified aliens” that have been “found” in mines in the city of Cusco, Peru, has gotten even stupider. Last week, people were baffled as journalist and UFO researcher Jaime Maussan presented the “aliens” to the Mexican congress, claiming that they were a thousand […]
Parker Solar Probe Survived A Massive Explosion From The Sun And Caught It All On Camera
Last year, the Sun burped out one of the largest releases of plasma and magnetic fields since we started watching it closely, and the Parker Solar Probe flew through it, capturing incredible observations and footage. Considering the impact events like this can have on satellites and even on Earth, its survival is a testimony to […]
Astronomers Suggest A New Way We Might Find Advanced Alien Civilizations
In 2018, the world got very excited about an unusual star. KIC 8462852, better known as Boyajian’s star or just the “alien megastructure” star, it was found to be dimming in an unusual way. As a planet orbits around a star, it blocks out a certain amount of light and causes it to dim from […]
Neanderthal Ancestry May Make People More Vulnerable To COVID-19
New research has suggested that people with genes inherited from Neanderthals were at a higher risk of falling seriously sick with COVID-19 during the first devastating surge of the pandemic in 2020. Neanderthals fell into extinction some 40,000 years ago, but their genetics still live on in today’s modern human population thanks to rampant interbreeding […]
This Is How Many Cells There Are In The Human Body
The human body has a lot going on, and as such it checks out that it would be made up of a fair few cells. From brain cells and blood cells, to skin cells and stem cells, each type is finetuned to perform a specific task, which, when combined, keep us alive and functioning. But […]
Some Meditators Can Switch Off Their Consciousness For Up To Seven Days
Meditation is known to help calm both body and mind, yet an emerging field of research suggests that some experienced meditators may be able to take things to the next level by taking a deliberate leave of absence from their senses. Describing this unique yet poorly understood phenomenon in a new paper, an international team […]
Guard Dogs Protect Sheep From Prowling Puma In First Of Its Kind Footage
A prowling puma’s late-night efforts to hunt sheep in Patagonia were foiled by the barking alarm call of guard dogs in dramatic footage captured for a new National Geographic series. In Animals Up Close, wildlife photographer, filmmaker, and presenter Bertie Gregory is on scene with a team using thermal imaging cameras to track the invading […]
Why The Location Of The World’s Tallest Tree Is A Secret
The world is full of very tall things that tourists enjoy visiting: think the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Chrysler building in New York, or the Burj Khalifa in the United Arab Emirates. But the tallest living tree in the world is one such visitor experience that you might not get to enjoy. With a […]
Skull Found In China May Be A New “Third Lineage” Of Human
Just a few years ago, archeologists in China unearthed a 300,000-year-old hominin jawbone with a curious shape not quite like modern humans, but unlike most ancient hominins seen before. Somewhat sensationally, they speculate this strange individual may be an undescribed “sister lineage” in the human family tree. The skeletal remains were discovered at Hualongdong cave […]
Breakthrough Discovery Identifies The Secret Ingredient To Pink Diamonds
Pink diamonds are rare among Earth’s precious stones, and the exact recipe to their formation has puzzled scientists. Now, a ground-breaking discovery from Western Australia’s Argyle has identified a crucial event that needs to take place for pink diamonds to form and appear near Earth’s surface, and it may make them easier to find in […]
Hidden Structure Of Iconic Supernova Seen By JWST
In February 1987, a star went supernova in the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of the small galaxies that orbit around our own galaxy, the Milky Way. It was the closest known supernova since 1604 and it has been studied with so many telescopes in so many different wavelengths. The latest taken to this task was […]
Exocontinents: How To Look For Civilizations Far More Advanced Than Earth
If we are going to find life in the universe, it makes sense to look at conditions on the only planet we know has life (you haven’t missed anything big, that’s still Earth) to see what sort of conditions to look for. One of these factors, thought to be important to the development of life, […]
What Are You Actually Looking At In This Glorious JWST Image?
JWST continues to deliver on the promise of incredible images. The latest one is of the protostellar outflows of Herbig-Haro 211. Said like that, even with the image above this text, might not tell you much. So let us put it another way: you are looking at what an extremely young and tiny star throws […]
This Week A Piece Of The Most Dangerous Asteroid Will Land In America
Almost three years after touching the surface of asteroid Bennu, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx is coming back to Earth. The spacecraft is bringing back a sample collected during that incredible encounter and is scheduled to drop its precious cargo in the Utah desert on Sunday, making it the first-ever US mission to bring a piece of an […]
2,000-Year-Old Child’s Shoe Recovered In Ancient Austrian Salt Mine
Archaeologists at an old mining site in Dürrnberg, near Salzburg, Austria, have recovered a perfectly preserved child’s shoe that is thought to be over 2,000 years old. The specimen is so well preserved that remnants of the fine materials used to lace it have also survived. Since 2001, researchers with the German Mining Museum Bochum, […]
