A person has tested positive for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (also known as MERS or MERS-CoV) in Al Ain city of Abu Dhabi, the Capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), according to the World Health Organization (WHO). As of yet, the source of the infection is unclear. The 28-year-old man was admitted to […]
Polar Vortex And Polar Jet Stream Are Facing An Earth-Changing Upset
Polar vortexes play a massive role in controlling our fate, at least in terms of the bitterly cold weather we face in the winter months. As global temperatures continue to creep up, we’re playing an increasingly dangerous game that could seriously upset this grand force of nature – the consequences of which are not totally […]
Surprise Discovery Of Older Interloper In Star-Forming Region Could Explain Earthly Mystery
A red giant star has been spotted in an unexpected location. Once the astronomers who found it got over their surprise, they realized that what has happened once could happen twice – including to us. If a star like this happened to pass quite close to the Sun at the right time, it would have […]
Psilocybin Has Outstanding Success Treating Anorexia Nervosa In First Very Small Trial
A single dose of psilocybin, taken in a safe therapeutic environment, was all it took to put four women with anorexia nervosa into remission three months later in a new study. Most other participants also said they had benefited from the treatment. Far more extensive trials are needed before the viability of the treatment can […]
2-Million-Year-Old DNA Reveals Northern Greenland Was Once Warm And Lush
The oldest fragments of DNA ever discovered have been found in the permafrost of northern Greenland, enabling scientists to paint a picture of a verdant landscape teeming with life in the distant past. Dated to at least 2 million years ago, the genetic material belonged to more than 100 different plant species and the animals […]
The Mystery Of The Wallace Line Might Finally Have Been Solved
The world is full of invisible, but very real lines, from the equator that bisects the planet, to the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. But have you heard of the Wallace Line? This imaginary line starts in the Indian Ocean, cuts between Bali and Lombok, sneaks around Borneo, and ends to the east of the […]
You Probably Have “Fake” Cinnamon In Your Cupboard
Cinnamon is synonymous with the Christmas season – in pumpkin spice lattes, dense spice cake, and gooey cinnamon rolls, it is a key staple of the cozy aesthetic that many people fantasize about. So, it may be disappointing to know that the cinnamon that you make putting into your delicious homemade treats may not be […]
Atlantic Ocean Current May Face Collapse In Just Decades, Maybe Years
The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), “the conveyor belt of the ocean” that carries warm water from the tropics northwards into the North Atlantic, is potentially facing collapse within the coming decades, according to a new study. If we keep pumping out fossil fuel emissions at the current rate, this dramatic halt could occur around […]
Antarctica’s Low-Ice Winter Should Only Happen Once Every 13 Billion Years
As the northern hemisphere suffers through a summer that is breaking heat records like the proverbial bull in a china shop, something even more extreme is happening at the other end of the world. Despite being locked in near-constant darkness, the waters off Antarctica are struggling to form ice. The event is so extreme, in […]
Spine-Like Rock Is The Latest Oddity From Mars
We should admit that often, when it comes to Mars, our pareidolia goes into override. From the famous face which turned out to be a windswept hill, to bear-looking craters, to the many many rocks spotted by rovers that look like ducks, flowers, and more, it’s fun to see all these familiar things. Well, until […]
NASA Is Waiting For A Special Delivery – From Deep Space!
In two months, the asteroid sample collected by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx will come down to Earth. On September 24, a capsule looking like something from a 60s sci-fi show will fly through the atmosphere and land in the Utah desert. The team has practiced the collection of the capsule several times, and last week they were […]
Siberia’s Vast “Gateway to Hell” Is Literally A Scar On The Planet
The Batagaika Crater, an immense fracture in the depths of the Russian Far East, was splintered open just a few decades due to defrosting and thawing permafrost. Decades on, with climate change continuing to cook up this part of the world, the literal scar on the planet is continuing to grow. The crack, widely known […]
Whose Ears Look Like That?! Why We Call Corn Cobs “Ears”
Corn is a relatively ancient crop; humans began selectively breeding its wild ancestor teosinte in Mexico over 9,000 years ago. Roughly 1,500 and 2,000 years after this, partially domesticated corn varieties continued to spread to Central and South America respectively. But as this popular crop developed, so did its etymology, and now, despite looking nothing […]
This Is Where Life Could Exist Elsewhere In The Solar System
The universe is just too big and planets too common for Earth to be the only place where life evolved. The search for life beyond our world is varied, from trying to spot the transmission of an alien civilization to looking for biosignatures on Mars. The answer to the question of whether we are alone […]
What Is An H Bomb?
Now that the highly anticipated Oppenheimer movie has been released at the cinemas, audiences are encountering the gripping scientific and ethical dilemmas posed by the invention of the atomic bomb. However, lurking in the background of this narrative was something that made even the strongest supporters of a nuclear deterrent pause for thought – the hydrogen […]
The Pacific’s Deep-Sea “Grand Canyon” Has Been Mapped In Unbelievable Detail
Off the west coast of North America, there’s a vast underwater gorge that rivals the Grand Canyon in both shape and size. Known as the Monterey Canyon, scientists have recently managed to map this submarine colossus to reveal it with never-before-seen clarity. The Monterey Canyon begins at Moss Landing in California along the middle of […]
Loch Ness Monster’s Slippery Tale Just Got A New Twist
Cryptozoology is a fantastic field of pseudoscience that allows us to debate the existence of bizarre beasts that are quite literally too good to be true. Among the most famous is the Loch Ness Monster, a slithery beast whose appearance in a few grainy photos over the years has raised eyebrows, and now gotten its […]
Ancient DNA From Neolithic Tomb Reveals The World’s Oldest Family Tree
A 5,700-year-old tomb has been found to contain five generations of one family, buried over the course of a century. The find provides unprecedented insight into kinship networks in Britain shortly after the introduction of farming – even the bodies’ placement reveals much about how society was structured at the time. The Hazleton Long Barrow contains bones and […]
1.2-Million-Year-Old DNA Extracted From Mammoth Tooth Buried In Siberian Permafrost
In 2021, ancient DNA was recovered from a 1.2-million-year-old mammoth tooth – the oldest DNA that had ever been recovered at the time. Not only did this incredible feat push the boundaries of what scientific methods are capable of, but the project also revealed a new lineage in the mammoth family. The genetic material was […]
Why Over 20,000 People Have Vanished In “The Alaska Triangle”
The over-hyped perils of the Bermuda Triangle have become the stuff of modern-day folklore. Fewer people, however, know about the so-called Alaska Triangle, said to be the location of more unsolved missing person cases than anywhere else in the world. The Alaska Triangle is a loosely defined area in the state between the three points […]
