News

A new type of climate regime is emerging in the Amazon rainforest as intense heat and drought continue to push the region beyond the tolerable limits for a tropical ecosystem. According to researchers, the escalating conditions have reached the point of becoming “hypertropical”, recreating an environment that hasn’t been seen anywhere on Earth for around […]

Imagine this: you’ve found yourself a lovely dinosaur egg complete with preserved embryo inside. Better yet, it’s seriously old – around 190 million years, in fact – representing one of the oldest dinosaur embryos known to science. Only problem is, how do you look inside without destroying it? A 2020 study set out to find […]

Working out how old your dog is in human years is simple, right? You just multiply their age by seven, and Bob’s your uncle, you’ve got your answer. Turns out, however, it’s not quite as simple as that. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the […]

A 2023 study weighed in on the debate as it investigated three adult skeletons found alongside five clutches of embryo-containing eggs. The discovery marked a new-to-science species of sauropodomorph named Qianlong shouhu, roughly translating to “guarding dragon”. A hat tip to the fact that this could represent the earliest known fossil evidence of adult dinosaurs […]

ME/CFS and the closely related long COVID could be caused by damage to the brainstem, according to a new scientific theory. If their new model turns out to be right, the scientists behind it suggest it could explain why these conditions affect so many systems in the body, and could help inform the search for […]

But if anywhere could escape their onslaught, it surely would be the South Pole. At least, that was the thinking of Jack Devlin, then a PhD student in entomology at the University of Kentucky, when he started investigating the situation in our planet’s most extreme continent: “I started reading about plastic’s effects on insects,” he […]

The Galileo spacecraft spotted a shape on Europa originally compared to an asterisk, but now seen more as a spider. Whatever you call it, scientists hope explaining the forces that produced this shape will help us understand the nature of Europa’s icy shell. Now some Earthly frozen lakes and experiments with liquid nitrogen might provide […]

It’s no secret that dogs used to be wolves – a once-wild species domesticated over generations until it became humanity’s best and most understanding friend. But the precise route from point A to point B has always been a mystery. Was this domestication purposeful? An accident? When, where, how did any of it happen? So far, […]

A wild Amur tigress has been filmed with five cubs in tow in the Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park. The first-of-its-kind footage has stunned wild cat experts, as these tigers typically only give birth to between one and four cubs. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or […]

December is full to the brim with parties and celebrations, but there’s one anniversary that it’s very important not to forget – the birthday of Flossie, the world’s oldest living cat. Born on December 29, 1995, Flossie was officially recognized as the world’s oldest living cat by Guinness World Records (GWR) back in November 2022, […]

Mice that can’t make vitamin C are protected against the parasitic disease schistosomiasis, and possibly similar parasites. The finding might finally explain why deep in our evolutionary journey humans lost the ability to make one of the most important molecules for our body, forcing us to depend on our food supplies, sometimes to our cost. […]

Let’s face it, 2025 hasn’t exactly been the cheeriest of years when it comes to news. But when everything seems gloomy, it helps to look for the light where you can – so let’s do that very thing by reminiscing upon some of our favorite wholesome stories from the last year. The best birthday bash […]

The subtropical waters of New Zealand’s Northland region may have had a rare treat recently, after reported sightings of what could be the rarest subspecies of the world’s smallest marine dolphin. The species in question is Hector’s dolphin (Cephalorhynchus hectori), which is split into two subspecies: the South Island Hector’s dolphin (C. h. hectori) and […]

Gaming has become a popular pastime for many people across the world at a time when the workplace has become increasingly digital. But do employers value the types of skills, knowledge, and abilities that gamers develop from this extracurricular activity? Or, to put it another way, if you list gaming on your resume, will it […]

The Surinam toad (Pipa pipa) doesn’t look like much. Flattened and brownish, you’d be forgiven for mistaking it for a squashed overripe fruit, but something remarkable happens when the time comes to reproduce. Something a lot of people find pretty horrifying. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe […]

The idea that a volcano could send the planet into a long-lasting winter might feel like something that only happened in the distant past or slightly dodgy disaster movies, but in the early 19th century, that very thing happened. The culprit? Mount Tambora, and it was responsible for the largest volcanic eruption in recorded history. […]

The very ancient super-Earth TOI-561 b must have a thick atmosphere, data from the JWST indicates, or its day side would be even hotter than it is. This represents the strongest evidence yet of a rocky planet beyond the Solar System with such a substantial atmosphere. There’s no chance of life here – at least […]

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has declared that the Christmas Island shrew (Crocidura trichura) has been moved into the Extinct category. Once common across Christmas Island, it’s not been seen for 40 years. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full […]

The occupant of one of the most lavish Paleolithic burials ever discovered may have died one of the most agonizing deaths in all of human history. Nicknamed “Il Principe” (“The Prince”), the teenage boy found inside the grave died a few days after having his face and chest ripped apart by a large predator, which […]

The manumea, also known as the tooth-billed pigeon (Didunculus strigirostris), has been sighted for the first time since 2020. The observations, made in October and November near Uafato on Samoa’s island of Upolu, took an international collaboration and Samoan local knowledge to achieve.  There’s a reason it was the Galapagos Islands that inspired Darwin’s theory of […]