Thirty-nine million years ago, a majestic sea potato for a whale was drifting along coastal habitats off Peru. Following the discovery of 13 vertebrae and a few ribs, researchers now estimate it may have been the heaviest animal ever to exist, topping even the gargantuan weight of living blue whales. Gigantism became a big hit […]
Graham Hancock’s Pseudoarchaeology Is “Dangerous”, Says Anthropology Professor
On the face of it, internet conspiracies may seem trivial or just something else to roll our eyes at, but underneath it all is a harsh current that is gradually eroding trust in science and established research practices. That’s the point made by Mark Aldenderfer, a professor of anthropology, archaeologist, and Deputy Editor of Science […]
Curious 300,000-Year-Old Hybrid Jawbone Has Ancient And Modern Human Characteristics
A 300,000-year-old human jawbone has been discovered in China with a curious mish-mash of traits belonging to both modern and ancient hominids. Analyzing the unique mandible, researchers say the owner of the ancient chops may have been an unknown ancestor of both modern humans and Neanderthals. The nearly complete jawbone was unearthed in Hualongdong in […]
600-Million-Year-Old Time Capsule Of Ancient Ocean Found In The Himalayas
Drops of water found inside mineral deposits are the remnants of an ocean that disappeared 600 million years ago. Remarkably, the best place to find the minerals in question is kilometers above sea level. The scientists who found them say the droplets may explain a much-debated event crucial to life as we know it. The […]
How Studying Decomposing Pigs Wrapped In Fabric Can Reveal Crime Scene Clues
Until the late 19th century, the success of criminal investigations largely hung on witness reports and (often extorted) confessions. A lack of scientific tools meant investigators needed advanced deductive reasoning abilities – and even then they’d often hit a dead end. Today, investigations demand an interdisciplinary and high-tech approach, involving experts from diverse scientific disciplines. […]
New Fluoride-Free Toothpaste Proves Just As Effective As Traditional Alternatives
Scientists have been looking to see whether a fluoride-free form of toothpaste can keep teeth healthy and happy. In a new clinical trial of almost 200 people, the newly-developed toothpaste proved to be just as effective as traditional toothpaste. Fluoride is perfectly safe in suitable doses and an excellent tool for oral hygiene. However, it […]
The Solar System May Be Over A Million Years Older Than Thought
The age of the Solar System is an important question to answer in science. It connects the celestial question of how stars and planets come to be and the more Earthly one of how life arose on our planet. New measurements of meteorites suggest that the Solar System might be slightly older than previously thought. […]
“Death By Ammonite” Shows Jurassic Fish’s Fatal Last Meal 180 Million Years On
An incredible fossil that dates back around 180 million years tells of the unfortunate demise of a bony fish that bit off more than it could chew. Inside the fossilized fish, researchers found an unusually large ammonite that shows little sign of digestion, indicating that it’s probably what killed the fish that swallowed it. To […]
Can You Get This 110-Year-Old Cambridge English Exam Question Correct?
School and university exams caused nerves and anxiety for even the most prepared of students even way back in history. A necessary part of getting a job you wanted, those wishing to become English language teachers in 1913 had to sit a very long Cambridge exam. Now, to celebrate 110 years of the Cambridge English […]
July Didn’t Just Set Global Heat Records, It Smashed Them
The combination of the northern hemisphere summer, a developing El Niño, and rising greenhouse gases made July the hottest month since records began. That’s no surprise, but the size of the jump has disturbed climate scientists. It will take a little while for all the data to be verified, but a preliminary estimate by the […]
NASA Detects Voyager 2’s “Heartbeat” But Communication Not Yet Restored
Twelve days after erroneous instructions pushed Voyager 2’s antenna 2 degrees off the line to Earth resulting in NASA losing contact with the spacecraft the first step has been made to restoring communications. Voyager 2 is now almost 20 billion kilometers from Earth (12.3 billion miles) or 18.4 light-hours. That would make communications dicey under […]
Listen To The “Innate” Twinkling Of Stars For The First Time
When we look at stars we see them “twinkle” because the atmosphere is in motion. But stars also twinkle on their own accord. Vibrations from the internal motion of the plasma that makes stars ripple through them creating variations on the surface, including variations in their brightness, which appears to make them twinkle. Now astronomers […]
NASA Accidentally Loses Contact With Voyager 2 Following Maneuver Mistake
NASA’s Voyager 2 is currently beyond the edge of the Solar System, the second furthest object humanity has ever sent into the cosmos. However, due to a software update that inadvertently pointed its antenna away from Earth, it’s no longer in touch with mission control, hopefully just temporarily. Voyager 2 is now almost 20 billion […]
Two Ancient And Very Common Materials Make Supercapacitors For Bulk Electricity Storage
Small energy storage devices have been made out of materials familiar even to the ancients: cement, water, salt, and carbon black. In the quest to break the world free of fossil fuel dependence, we’re moving faster to produce low-carbon energy than to store it for when it’s needed. As the challenge becomes clear, however, a […]
505-Million-Year-Old Jellyfish With 90 Tentacles Is Oldest Swimming Jelly In Fossil Record
Jellyfish might be famous for all the wrong reasons: stinging you on holiday and wafting through the ocean resembling a fried egg with no need for a brain or an anus. However, these funky creatures have been floating through Earth’s seas for a long long time and represent one of the earliest branches of diverse […]
JWST Spots A Galactic Question Mark Hiding In Deep Space
A background object in the latest image from JWST is certainly puzzling – and not just metaphorically. It is shaped like a giant question mark. The object is most likely a distant galaxy interacting, resulting in a shape that reminds us of a question mark. The object is a literal smudge below the focus of […]
Why The Atomic Bomb Threat Had Americans Painting Their Houses White In 1954
Painting your house white has been suggested as a way to cool down buildings and cope with heat waves, which are becoming increasingly common during the climate crisis. However, in the 1950s, Americans were being advised that keeping their homes tidy and freshly painted white could increase their chances of survival for an altogether different […]
European Dark Universe Hunter Sends Back Stunning First Pictures Of The Cosmos
Our best understanding of the universe tells us that we are only familiar with about 5 percent of everything that there is in the cosmos. That’s the matter and energy that makes us. The remaining 95 percent is invisible to us and yet to be proven experimentally. We call them dark matter and dark energy. […]
How Come Ancient Skulls Often Have Straight Teeth?
Take a look at the smile of an ancient human skull and you’ll notice that their teeth are often remarkably straight (even if a few have gone missing over the centuries). Without braces, fluoride-rich toothpaste, or wisdom tooth extractions, many prehistoric humans managed to maintain the pearly whites of a grinning Hollywood actor. So, how […]
What Does The “GPT” In ChatGPT Actually Stand For?
It’s hard to scroll through a news website and not see “ChatGPT” somewhere. Since being publicly released on November 20, 2022, the precocious chatbot has ranked 100 million monthly active users and has skyrocketed in some of Google’s most searched terms. Despite its popularity, remarkably few people can tell you what the “GPT” in ChatGPT […]
