Fire, as you learn from a very young age, is as dangerous as it is hot. If you see it and you don’t have the equipment to put it out, it is best to keep your distance – but not all fires are visible under normal conditions. Hydrogen, for example, burns with a very pale […]
Weight Loss Yo-Yo Effect Could Be Explained By Fat Cell “Memories”
Fat cell “memory” could help explain why weight loss can be difficult to maintain, according to new research. In experiments using mice and samples of human fat tissue, the scientists found that epigenetic changes persist even after weight loss, in effect meaning that the cells “remember” what it was like to be at a higher […]
The Incident At Petrich: In 1925, A Soldier Chased His Dog And Started A War
Dogs like to get up to mischief, from shoving kids in the Seine to *checks notes* even sparking international conflicts. At least, that’s what is said to have happened in 1925 when an errant pooch began what has become known as the “War Of The Stray Dog” after its owner chased it over enemy lines […]
World’s Thinnest Spaghetti Is 200 Times Narrower Than A Hair
Chemists from University College London (UCL) have created the world’s thinnest spaghetti using regular flour, liquid, and an electrically charged device that can create a strand that is just 372 nanometers across – narrower than the wavelength of blue light. It is so thin, it can only be seen with an electron microscope. The nanopasta […]
Astronomers May Have Found “Cracks In The Universe” After Looking Closer At Suspicious Galaxies
A team of astrophysicists says they may have found evidence for “cosmic strings”, long-hypothesized “cracks” in the universe left over from early in its expansion. Cosmic strings were first suggested in the 1970s by theoretical physicist Tom W. B. Kibble, and later revived in the context of string theory. The one-dimensional strings, far narrower even […]
In 1908, A “Hero” Dog Kept Shoving Kids Into The Seine For Steaks
Humans learned the hard way in 1908 that sometimes classical conditioning can come back to bite you in the arse – or, as it were, shove your kids into a river. The tale goes that a “hero” dog who was rewarded with a steak for saving a drowning child decided to make it into a […]
In 1814, London Was Terrorized By A 320,000-Gallon Tsunami Of Beer
Life in the city can be dangerous, but one way you don’t expect to perish on the streets of London is by drowning, and least of all in beer. Yes, yes, , but this horrifying nightmare became reality on Monday October 17, 1814, when the city was literally flooded with beer. The disaster began at […]
See The First Ever Close-Up Picture Of A Star Outside The Milky Way
Astronomers have been studying star WOH G64 for a while. It’s a red supergiant in the galaxy next door, the Large Magellanic Cloud, and it is believed to be in the last stages before going supernova. Researchers have now broken a record by actually photographing it in detail – this had never been done before. […]
Watch First-Of-Its-Kind Footage Of “Giant” Virus Infecting Cell
We know that viruses infect cells, but what does that process actually look like? Sure, diagrams can be helpful, but there’s nothing quite like seeing the real thing. Trouble is, doing so with the kind of microscopes you get in a classroom can be pretty difficult – but in some first-of-its-kind footage, researchers have successfully […]
Cannabis Is Linked To Psychosis, But Which Comes First? New Study Questions Old Assumptions
A new study has thrown into question the link between cannabis use and the development of psychosis spectrum symptoms in adolescents – though not in the way you might be hoping for. While the association between the two factors remains solid, what is now less certain is the direction between them – in other words: […]
Highest-Resolution Images Of The Sun’s Surface Ever Revealed – And They’re Breathtaking
Solar Orbiter, a European Space Agency mission with support from NASA, has been studying the Sun like never before. It just delivered some incredible new observations of the Sun, which include the highest-resolution view of the full disk in visible light. Get ready to see our star in unprecedented detail. The spacecraft’s Polarimetric and Helioseismic […]
Why Is Tuna So High In Mercury, And How Much Tuna Is Too Much?
Nutritionally speaking, tuna is an outstanding source of nourishment, offering high-quality protein, fatty acids for heart and brain health, and essential vitamins and minerals like vitamin D, B12, and selenium. However, not to mention its huge sustainability concerns, this nutrient-loaded fish has a major downside: it’s packed with mercury, a neurotoxic heavy metal. How much […]
Four Tropical Storms Present Over Southeast Asia Simultaneously In Record-Breaking November
Satellite imaging captured four tropical storms present over Southeast Asia at the same time. The phenomenon is not something that scientists have recorded before in the month of November. On November 11, NASA’s EPIC (Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera) imager on the DSCOVR (Deep Space Climate Observatory) satellite saw something not seen in this month of […]
Growing Bones And Gut Feelings: The Latest Steps On The Quest To Map Every Human Cell
An important milestone has been reached on the journey to map every cell type in the human body. The Human Cell Atlas (HCA) project, which has been running for eight years so far, today unveiled several significant steps forward, including the best-ever map of the human gut and a unique insight into how our skeletons […]
NASA’s Curiosity Rover About To Enter “Spiderweb” Region Of Mars’ Mount Sharp
NASA’s Curiosity rover is ready to move out of the valley of Gediz Vallis and travel slow and steady for a month to a fascinating new area of great interest on Mount Sharp, a 5-kilometer (3-mile) tall mountain at the center of Gale crater. The new area has been called the boxwork, and views from […]
Lacking Company, A Dolphin In The Baltic Is Talking To Himself
The sole dolphin living in the Baltic Sea isn’t letting the lack of company silence him. Quite the opposite – he’s chatting away, emitting bursts of sounds of the type members of his species use to communicate, rather than to catch food, but with more diversity. The observations provide an insight into the psychology of […]
60,000-Year-Old Glue-Making Oven Found In Neanderthals’ Seaside Cave
At a well-known hangout of Neanderthals, archaeologists have uncovered a structure they believe was used to cook up a form of prehistoric glue. The discovery was made in Vanguard Cave, part of Gorham’s Cave complex, in the British overseas territory of Gibraltar. Located on the seafront overlooking the western Mediterranean, the caverns are thought to […]
Are We Breathing Caesar’s Last Breath And Cleopatra’s Perfume With Each Inhale?
There are a lot of numbers in science that are so big as to be mind-boggling. The number of atoms or molecules in a substance is an example of that. Physicists seem to delight in the weird and wonderful ways to convey these kinds of numbers, and one example that has been repeated for several […]
Newly Discovered Transiting Exoplanet Is The Youngest Ever Found At Under 3 Million Years Old
A planet has been found orbiting a three-million-year-old star. Better still, it transits across the star’s face from our perspective, offering opportunities to see the starlight passing through the planet’s atmosphere. The star is three times younger than any other previously observed to have a transiting planet – and since planets are thought to form […]
Linear A: One Of Europe’s First Writing Systems Remains Undeciphered To This Day
The Minoan Civilization of Crete, often hailed as Europe’s first literate society, left behind a strange writing system that continues to mystify modern scholars, remaining an unsolved enigma to this day. Sometimes regarded as the first true European civilization, the Minoan culture rose to prominence on the Greek island of Crete between 3100 to 1100 […]
