Diamonds gain their value from how rare they are on the surface of Earth. Just last week we learned there may be a “diamond factory” beneath our feet produced where Earth’s core meets the mantle, while diamonds in the sky turn out to be very real. From a more universal perspective, however, it looks increasingly […]
NASA Is Going To Crash A Spacecraft Into An Asteroid This Month To Deflect Its Course
NASA is about to slam a spaceship into an asteroid about the size of the Great Pyramid of Giza in an attempt to alter its course. The project, part of NASA’s Planetary Defense remit, aims to test whether the method could be used in the event of an asteroid on a collision course with Earth. […]
Astronomers May Have Found The Source Of The Milky Way’s “Fermi Cocoon”
Above and below the plane of the Milky Way lie the Fermi Bubbles, two orbs around 25,000 light-years across filled with hot gas and cosmic rays. They are a major source of gamma rays, too. Within them, there is a bright spot, the Fermi Cocoon, a mysterious feature with no clear source – until now. […]
Artemis May Not Launch Until October After Second Attempt Scrubbed
Artemis I has been postponed again due to another unexpected problem. A liquid hydrogen leak developed while loading the fuel in the core stage of NASA’s mega Moon rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), on Saturday. Third time’s a charm? NASA has already ruled out another “early September” launch attempt, so we may be looking […]
Fact Check: Are Avocados Really Named After Testicles?
A recent Tweet spreading the testicular origins of the word “avocado” garnered some attention this week, and naturally, our eyes lit up. After all, who doesn’t enjoy a novelty etymology story? Unfortunately, it seems this particular factoid is flawed. In 2016, the debunking extraordinaires over at Snopes tackled the issue from a different angle in […]
Eight-Year-Old’s Observation Leads To Major Discovery About Ant-Wasp Collaboration
Hugo Deans was just 8 years old when he noticed what he thought were seeds around an ants’ nest. Other children might have made such an observation and had nothing come of it, but Hugo’s father Andrew is a professor of entomology at Penn State University and realized Hugo had spotted something important. Further investigation […]
People Are Sharing A Trick To Deal With Tinnitus, But Does It Actually Work?
A piece of advice for how to deal with tinnitus has been widely shared on Twitter and Reddit over the past few days, with many claiming that it helped them (temporarily, at least) make the ringing noise go away. “Put your palms on your ears and thump the soft spot in the back of your […]
Seahorse Fathers Give Birth In A Unique Way, New Research Shows
In seahorses and pipefish, it is the male that gets pregnant and gives birth. Seahorse fathers incubate their developing embryos in a pouch located on their tail. The pouch is the equivalent of the uterus of female mammals. It contains a placenta, supporting the growth and development of baby seahorses. Advertisement Seahorse dads provide nutrients […]
Death In Space: Here’s What Would Happen To Our Bodies
As space travel for recreational purposes is becoming a very real possibility, there could come a time when we are travelling to other planets for holidays, or perhaps even to live. Commercial space company Blue Origin has already started sending paying customers on sub-orbital flights. And Elon Musk hopes to start a base on Mars […]
Murderous AI Robots’ Lab Rampage Conspiracy Theory Has Been Dredged Up Again
A journalist’s account of a conversation with a “whistleblower” who allegedly holds information on a lab-based massacre is currently doing the rounds on The Internet. While murderous artificial intelligence (AI) robots rising and rebelling make for great movies, there is no basis in fact for the recent allegations. The report comes from journalist and conspiracy […]
We May Know What Killed Off Australia’s Giant Extinct “Demon Ducks Of Doom”
Bones of the extinct Dromornis stirtoni, probably the largest bird that ever lived, have revealed the fatal weakness that destroyed their descendants 7 million years later – they took too long to breed. Before they died out around 50,00 years ago, Australia once hosted birds as much as four times bigger than ostriches, the largest modern […]
Infrared Light Used To Power Device Through The Air Over 30 Meters
Scientists have worked out how to use an infrared laser to charge devices at a distance. The system can deliver up to 400 milliwatts of power up to a distance of 30 meters (100 feet). That amount of power is sufficient to charge small sensors and other tech, and with developments, it could be possible […]
The Longevity Elixir Doctor Who Died “Aged 148 Years, 9 Months, 3 Weeks, And 4 Days”
A curious tombstone can be found in a graveyard in Hertfordshire, England. On it, reads “In Memory of William Mead, M.D. who departed this Life on the 28th of October 1652 aged 148 years, and 9 moths, 3 weeks and 4 days.” The extent to which it details his age might seem odd, that is, […]
Batteries Made From Crabs And Lobsters Could Be The Future Of Renewable Energy
It’s one of the weirder laws of nature: everything eventually ends up as crabs. And in this modern age, it seems nature is moving with the times – because the next thing to get crabby might just be your e-vehicle. “Rechargeable aqueous Zn [zinc] metal battery is promising for grid energy storage needs, but its […]
Incredible Remastered Apollo Moon Photos Reveal Details Like We’ve Never Seen
In a frozen vault, under lock and key at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, sit 35,000 original photos from NASA’s historic Apollo Moon missions. For the first time in 50 years, these photos have been restored, pixel by pixel, to reveal these iconic images as we’ve never seen them before. As we sit […]
Quantum Matter Is Being Studied At A Temperature 3 Billion Times Colder Than Deep Space
A team of Japanese and US physicists has pushed thousands of Ytterbium atoms to just within a billionth of a degree above absolute zero to understand how matter behaves at these extreme temperatures. The approach treats the atoms as fermions, the type of particles like electrons and protons, that cannot end up in the so-called […]
Hormone Therapy Could Boost Cognitive Function In People With Down Syndrome
A hormone injection therapy could help people with Down syndrome, as a new study found it to improve cognitive function and brain connectivity of a small group of people with the condition. The authors of the study, published in the journal Science, demonstrate the role that gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) appears to play in cognitive function […]
Scientists Uncover New Kind Of Synapse Between The “Tiny Hairs” On Brain Cells
Scientists from the Janelia Campus at Howard Hughes Medical Institute have made a surprising discovery, and it might help explain how brain cells communicate long-term changes to each other. Their findings, reported in the journal Cell, describe a new synapse between axons and primary cilia – hair-like structures present on different cell types including neurons. […]
Carbon Dioxide In 2021 Hit Concentrations Not Seen In A Million Years
The 32nd annual State of the Climate report has been released, and it is extremely troubling news. In 2021, carbon dioxide and methane reached record highs, Earth continued to warm, and sea levels continued to rise. Despite being a La Niña year, which lowers sea surface temperatures, about 57 percent of the ocean surface experienced […]
NASA’s Artemis I Will Make History This Weekend – Here’s How To Watch Live
After one scrubbed launched attempt this week, NASA’s return to the Moon is scheduled for this Saturday – and you can watch this slice of history live right here. The mission is the maiden voyage of the Space Launch System (SLS), the most powerful rocket ever built; and the Orion spacecraft, which is being tested […]
