A group of giraffes has been successfully relocated to Iona National Park in Angola after the species was driven out of their historical homeland in the 1990s by civil war. On July 3, 14 Angolan giraffes were loaded onto a specially-designed truck and set off on a 1,300-kilometer (over 800-mile) journey along the southwest coast […]
Bisexuality Is The Norm Among Male Rhesus Macaques
A three-year study of a semi-wild monkey colony has revealed that most male macaques engage in sexual behavior with other males, and indeed it’s more common for males to mount other males than females. Same-sex sexual activity has been reported in hundreds of animal species, repeatedly refuting the “it’s not natural” trope. However, these observations […]
Lonely People’s Brains Work Differently And Could Be Making Their Isolation Worse
Loneliness is something many of us will experience, but in the long term, it is known to have all sorts of negative impacts on health and well-being. Now, new research trying to better understand why lonely people feel the way they do has found that their brains actually appear to process the world very differently, […]
150-Million-Year-Old Mineral Lump Becomes World’s Oldest Stomach Stone
A 150-million-year-old stomach stone has become the oldest known fossil of its kind after being discovered on a beach in the UK. Shaped like a fist, it’s 59 million years older than the previous oldest-known stomach stone, having been rolling around in the gut of some animal back in the Jurassic era. Stomach stones found […]
Human Skulls Suggest Necromancy In Roman-Era Cave Near Jerusalem
A cave in the Jerusalem Hills may once have served as a local oracle where people communed with the dead in the hopes of learning about the future. Known as the Te’omim Cave, the creepy crevice is littered with human skulls and other items associated with necromancy, and is described by researchers as a possible […]
If You Find An Archaeological Artifact, Do You Get To Keep It?
Amateur metal detectorists, rock hounds, or even an average member of the public might one day be in the right place at the right time and stumble upon a historic artifact. Roman coins, battle axes, and even ancient treasure can be found across the world. But if you find such an item, should you give […]
Is It Legal To Toss Ashes Anywhere?
Scattering cremated remains, known to some as cremains, can be a great comfort when a loved one dies, as we return some part of them to the places they loved in life. However, as with just about everything in modern society, there are a few rules as to when and where it’s permitted to scatter […]
“Runner’s Diarrhea”: Why Marathon Runners Poop Themselves An Astonishing Amount
“I thought, ‘I don’t know if it’s possible to poop while running, but I will try’,” runner Tamara Torlakson said of her all-time-best run, which was only marred slightly by a mid-race bowel movement. “I didn’t want one poop to mess it all up.” Torlakson, like so many other athletes, focused on the race and […]
Is It Possible You Never Going To Die? People Are Confused By Quantum Immortality
A video going around TikTok has people confused about quantum immortality, and believing that it might mean that they will live forever. “Quantum immortality suggests that nobody ever actually dies; that consciousness never experiences death,” host of the Your One Black Friend podcast Joli Moli said on TikTok. “Instead, whenever you die in one universe […]
Incredible Space Visualization Lets You Fly By 5,000 Galaxies As Seen By JWST
Last year, scientists in the Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) program on JWST found one of the most distant galaxies ever observed. Nicknamed Maisie’s Galaxy after the daughter of one of the discoverers, its light comes to us from just 390 million years after the Big Bang – the time when galaxies were being […]
Strand Of The Cosmic Web Spotted By JWST Is Earliest Ever Found
Galaxies big and small are now peppered across the universe like the blueberries in a muffin. They are distributed in what we call the cosmic web, a much less appetizing construct. Galaxies can be quite isolated, or in small groups, or large clusters, but if you zoom out, all these groupings are connected by filaments. […]
Norway Discovers Enough Phosphate To Solve World’s Needs For 50 Years
A Norwegian mining company claims to have discovered a gargantuan deposit of phosphate rock that could power the world’s battery and solar needs for the next 50 years, potentially pushing back what was previously described as a “ticking time bomb”. Phosphate is an integral part of the global push for renewables, alongside being a key […]
Martian Dunes Reveal The End Of Its Last Ice Age
The longstanding theory that Mars is emerging from an ice age has gained support from the Zhurong rover. The rover has produced evidence of a changing wind regime at just the time the Martian glacial period is thought to have ended, leaving a recognizable signal in the dunes of Utopia Planitia. For more than 20 […]
SpaceX Under Fire As Scientists Find Evidence Starlink Satellites Are Leaking Radiation
Astronomers have offered some of the first direct proof demonstrating that Starlink satellites are interfering with deep space research, with their emissions drifting outside of their allocated bands. The evidence grows to an increasingly loud chorus from scientists condemning the thick field of communications satellites that the Musk-owned company relies on to provide global internet, […]
Expert Warns A “Priority Disease” Threatens To Spread In The UK
Cases of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) – known as one of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) nine “priority diseases” due to its severity – are threatening to arise across broader parts of Europe, with experts saying it’s ”highly likely” it will spread within the UK in the near future. CCHF is a tick-borne disease that’s […]
Shiniest Planet Ever Discovered Is The Largest Known “Mirror” In The Universe
Clouds can reflect a lot of sunlight. Earth’s clouds reflect around 30 percent of sunlight back into space while Venus, completely covered in clouds, reflects 75 percent, making it the brightest object in our night sky. Now, astronomers have found an exoplanet that is even shinier. Exoplanet LTT9779b reflects 80 percent of the starlight it […]
Creationists Claim They’ve Found The Body Of Goliath, Miss One Obvious Flaw
Being a “young Earth creationist” can’t be easy, believing the Earth is 6-12,000 years old despite all evidence to the contrary. People are often digging up evidence of life going back before 10,000 BCE, or else digging through rock that dates back hundreds of millions of years before God supposedly had a busy week of […]
How Do I Stop My Mind Racing And Get Some Sleep?
Martin turns off the light to fall asleep, but his mind quickly springs into action. Racing thoughts about work deadlines, his overdue car service, and his father’s recent surgery occupy his mind. As he struggles to fall asleep, the hours start to creep by. He becomes frustrated about how he will cope tomorrow. This is […]
How Splitting Sound Might Lead To A New Kind Of Quantum Computer
When you turn on a lamp to brighten a room, you are experiencing light energy transmitted as photons, which are small, discrete quantum packets of energy. These photons must obey the sometimes strange laws of quantum mechanics, which, for instance, dictate that photons are indivisible, but at the same time, allow a photon to be […]
What Do The Different Colours Of Mould Mean In My House?
You may be interested (or possibly horrified) to discover you ingest and inhale thousands of tiny life forms on a daily basis. The air and surfaces around you are home to multitudes of bacteria, fungi, viruses, mites, algae and protozoa. Your skin isn’t much better, with a complex ecosystem of organisms called commensals which aren’t […]