It would be most people’s worst nightmare. In the summer of 2021, as the UK was taking long-awaited, tentative steps out of COVID lockdown restrictions, a man in the southeastern town of Windsor was enjoying his garden when the unthinkable happened. Human waste from a passing plane was dumped, causing a veritable poonami that covered […]
Can Smiling Really Make You Happier?
As the old saying goes: you’ve got to fake it till you make it. It’s why we dress for the job we want, not the job we have; why we carry ourselves as if we’re cute (even if we think we’re so-so); and most importantly, why we put on a happy face, even when we’re […]
First Death From Brain-Eating Amoeba Infection Reported In South Korea
South Korea has reported its first ever case of, and subsequent death by, the brain-eating amoeba Naegleria fowleri. The patient, who died on December 21, had been suffering from meningitis symptoms, which were caused by the pathogen, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) confirmed Monday. In a statement, the KDCA said the patient […]
Human “Mini Brains” Observed Responding To Visual Stimuli For The First Time
For the first time, researchers have demonstrated that human brain organoids are able to form functional connections with mouse brain tissue and respond to visual stimuli. After implanting the human “mini brains” into the animals’ cortices, the study authors used a variety of imaging techniques to confirm the formation of “human-mouse synapses.” In recent years, […]
New Gadget Might Be Able To Tell You What’s Wrong With You
‘Tis the season for winter viruses. If you’ve not succumbed to the lurgy yourself, chances are you know someone who has. We’re all used to the idea of testing for COVID by now, but it’s not always easy to get hold of a test kit, and if your symptoms are mild, you might be forgiven […]
The Unfortunate Turd That Sunk A Nazi Submarine In WW2
This is the story of Captain Schlitt, a sunken submarine, and a very unfortunate bowel movement. In April 1945, just weeks away from Germany’s unconditional surrender in World War Two, a soldier’s trip to the toilet resulted in a Nazi submarine suffering a dramatic – and highly unpleasant – demise. The U-boat 1206 was cruising […]
Native Americans Are Not Who We Thought They Were, Study Suggest
A widely believed theory about the origins of Native Americans has been dealt a huge blow by a new genetic analysis of ancient teeth, implying the ancient inhabitants of what is now America were not who we thought they were. The theory, largely based on archaeological evidence found at Native American sites, claims that the […]
Scientists Have Found Something Weird Beneath Yellowstone
There’s a massive lump of liquidized, carbon-rich material hiding hundreds of kilometers beneath Yellowstone’s supervolcano and the greater Western United States area. It’s truly massive – 1.8 million square kilometers (about 700,000 square miles) in size – and it’s bubbling inside the upper region of the mantle, the region of the planet that’s a partly-molten churning mass […]
Why Do We Wake Around 3am And Dwell On Our Fears And Shortcomings?
When I wake at 3am or so, I’m prone to picking on myself. And I know I’m not the only one who does this. A friend of mine calls 3am thoughts “barbed-wire thinking”, because you can get caught in it. The thoughts are often distressing and punitive. Strikingly, these concerns vaporise in the daylight, proving […]
These Are The Most Preventable Deaths, According To A Forensic Pathologist
A TikTok video has recently gone viral, and it is of a forensic pathologist (an expert in determining the cause and manner of deaths) who explains what she thinks are the most preventable deaths. Dr Judy Melinek has had a long and extensive career in forensics and is a forensic pathologist in New Zealand. She […]
Curiously, TRAPPIST-1’s Flares Might Make Its Planets More Suitable For Life
Were it not for the stellar flares, the TRAPPIST-1 star system would look like the perfect place to hunt for life. With three rocky planets in the “habitable zone” where temperatures are right for liquid water, TRAPPIST-1’s worlds have fascinated astrobiologists since their discovery. At just 39 light years from Earth, it is also close […]
Giant “Water Battery” In The Swiss Alps Is Finally Operational
A giant “water battery” in the Swiss Alps is finally operational, 14 years after construction began. The Nant de Drance Hydropower Plant can store enough power to charge 400,000 car batteries. Until fusion (fingers crossed for the next few decades/centuries) is capable of solving all of our power needs, we have a problem to deal […]
Virovory Officially A Dietary Type As Research Discovers Protists Can Thrive On Viruses
The menu of life just grew a little as researchers have discovered that certain organisms can not only eat viruses, but thrive on them too. As a testament to the fact that life, uh, finds a way, it seems some living things have evolved to eat something that’s plastered just about everywhere – viruses. The […]
Earth Is About To See An Object Last Seen During The Time Of Neanderthals
If you look up into the sky over the next few months, you can see an object last seen when Neanderthals walked the Earth. On March 2, 2022, astronomers at the Zwicky Transient Facility discovered a comet using a wide-field survey camera. The comet is estimated to complete an orbit of the Sun once every […]
You’ll Soon Be Able To Run Holograms On Your Smartphone
In 1943, Thomas Watson, the president of IBM, famously predicted the world market for computers would top out at “maybe five” of the machines. He was wrong – you likely have more than that in your own house, let’s face it – but at the time, it made sense. After all, if computers were still […]
The World’s Oldest And Deepest Lake Is Home To Cannibalistic Fish
The world’s oldest lake can be found in southeastern Siberia where it’s believed to have existed for around 25 million years. As well as being the great great grandad of lakes, Baikal is also the deepest at 1,700 meters (5,600 feet). The impressive accolade means it’s home to around 20 percent of the world’s unfrozen […]
Researchers Can See Depression In A Brain Scan – And Treat It
Depression is a difficult illness. Not only does it make you feel like crap, but like so many primarily mental illnesses, it also comes with a bucketful of misinformation and misconceptions surrounding it. Even medical specialists, whom you’d expect to be the authorities on the matter, are stumped by some aspects of the disease – […]
The Climate Doom Is Just Getting Started, Say Experts As Emissions Soar
Despite all the talk about the need to curb our climate impact, carbon emissions from fossil fuels are set to reach a record high this year. So while 2022 may have resembled the trailer for a disaster movie, some experts believe we may have already bought a ticket for the feature film. Climate scientist Robert […]
We’ve Never Found Fire Beyond The Earth, And There’s A Reason For That
In Greek mythology, Prometheus suffered appalling torment for stealing fire from the gods. So it’s slightly ironic that those gods, or at least the planets identified with their Roman counterparts, don’t actually have any fire. That applies to Apollo too. While the Sun is often referred to as fiery, the process of fusion that provides […]
Girls With Twin Brothers Pay A Price For Sharing A Womb
When a boy and girl are conceived together, the female twin is exposed to more male hormones in the womb than when both twins are girls. This has allowed researchers to test the much-debated impact of these hormones prior to birth. They have found that there is a small, but statistically significant, negative impact on […]
