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If pure math can teach us anything, it’s this: occasionally, your special interest might just change the world. ADVERTISEMENT For Joshua Zahl and Hong Wang, that special interest was the Kakeya conjecture. “I read a book in undergrad called A Panorama of Harmonic Analysis,” says Zahl, an associate professor in the University of British Columbia’s […]

Two of Earth’s five confirmed mass extinction events could have been caused by nearby supernova explosions stripping the planet’s ozone layer, a new study argues. Although the explanation has been proposed before, this work provides more rigorous evidence that the idea is plausible. ADVERTISEMENT The rate of animal and plant extinction has jumped well above […]

This week, scientists have put a human “language gene” into mice and found it has a profound impact on the rodents’ ability to squeak, research has found that reading science articles (like these ones) can help you stay mentally strong, and in a global mission to explore Earth’s oceans, over 850 new marine species have […]

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Ultra-processed food: it’s one of the health buzzwords of the 2020s. Lots of us are becoming more aware of the foods and ingredients that we’re putting into our bodies, and the slew of books, papers, podcasts, and TV documentaries on the topic of so-called UPFs has attracted huge attention. It’s true that a large proportion […]

One-horned rhinoceroses are the subject of a new study of the differences in appearance, behavior, and evolutionary history of the Indian rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis) and the Sundaic rhinoceros (Rhinoceros sondaicus) – and in doing so, has renamed one of the world’s rarest mammals. ADVERTISEMENT The Sundaic rhino, also called the Javan rhino, is one of […]

Finding detailed fossils of soft-bodied organisms is exceptionally rare, making each discovery a unique opportunity to fill in gaps in both the fossil record and our understanding of evolution. That’s why the 1982 description of Proteroctopus ribeti – a 165-million-year-old fossil cephalopod – was such a big day for octopus science. Over the decades that […]

Two newly discovered prehistoric pollen fossils have become the stars of a new study that explores the origins of the biodiversity seen in one of the most species-rich places on Earth – the Asian tropical rainforests. Spanning 8,000 kilometers (4,971 miles) with over 20,000 islands that are home to 50,000 plant species and 7,000 vertebrate […]

Every now and then, Kew Gardens is transformed as one of its leafy residents unfurls a great flower and fills the air with an unimaginable stench. Last year we enjoyed the remarkable bloom of Titan arum, a rare flowering event that happens only every seven years or so and smells like corpses. Now, the air […]

Quantum computing company D-Wave has claimed to have achieved “quantum supremacy” by solving a “useful, real-world problem” more efficiently with their quantum computer than a traditional one for the first time. However, not everyone is convinced by this declaration.  ADVERTISEMENT Outlining their work in a new study, the North American tech company argues their quantum […]

Once upon a time, the Grand Canyon was forged by the rushing waters of the Colorado River over millions upon millions of years. The river still snakes through the canyon, but its beauty now lies in the jaw-dropping vastness and breathtaking openness of the landscape. What if, though, we were to imagine a Grand Canyon […]

The ancient Egyptians sure loved gold, and it seems they saw human suffering as a small price to pay for the precious metal. New discoveries at a 2,300-year-old gold mine reveal that some workers may have been forced to extract the material with heavy iron shackles around their ankles, highlighting the cruelty and callousness upon […]

Back in March 2013, an unusual and tragic story emerged about a man who was swallowed by a sinkhole in Florida. No trace of the person was ever found. ADVERTISEMENT Jeff Bush, 37, was asleep when a sinkhole opened up beneath his home in Seffner, Florida. The hole – about 6 meters (20 feet) across […]

The total lunar eclipse drew millions of people’s attention to the Moon. Soon, perhaps, there will be astronauts there long enough to experience an eclipse there. Astronomy on the Moon will have both similarities and important differences to Earth. So how do pole stars fit into that, and what are the implications for navigation? ADVERTISEMENT […]

Mothra might not be real (*sighs*), but best believe nature has tried its level best to create some behe-moths of its own. There’s the Atlas moth, of course, but… oh damn, what’s that in the distance? Is it a small bird? A delightfully fluffy little alien? Nope – it’s the giant wood moth (Endoxyla cinereus), […]

Think eight hours a night is a decent amount of sleep? Best believe that’s nothing compared to some other animals – but which is the sleepiest of them all? Koalas ADVERTISEMENT The ultimate champions in conking out are most likely the koalas – these Australian icons can sleep for a whopping 18 to 22 hours […]

China is set to venture where humanity has scarcely been before: beneath the Earth’s crust, into its mantle. To achieve this aspiration, it has deployed Meng Xiang – meaning “dream”– a colossal drilling ship built to pierce through kilometers of seabed. If successful, this mission could unlock secrets of the Earth’s interior and the tectonic […]

A vaccine against norovirus, the dreaded “winter vomiting bug”, could be closer than you think: early clinical trials have returned positive results for a vaccine candidate that is taken orally as a pill. The trial targeted older adults, who are particularly at risk from severe complications from the infection that causes annual misery for so […]

There is a fairly popular idea circulating the Internet that a single gram of uranium contains about 20 billion calories, with some joking that eating it could sustain you like a turbo-charged diet supplement. But is that calorie count right, and could you actually get energy from it? ADVERTISEMENT Well, the first thing we should […]

The natural world is full of all kinds of strange phenomena, from spooky Brocken specters to  chocolate waterfalls. Now, we explain the optical illusion showing the lake that seemingly floats above the sea below.  ADVERTISEMENT At the center of a rough triangle between the top of Scotland, the east coast of Iceland, and the west […]