The regular matter that makes us, planets, stars, and galaxies is about 5 percent of the matter-energy content of the universe. The rest is made of dark matter and dark energy, though we are not sure what they are. There is also uncertainty around the regular matter, since for a long time over one-third of […]
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“The Fox That Rescued The Storm God”: 4,400-Year-Old Sumerian Tablet With Previously Unknown Myth Analyzed For First Time
A scholar has recently discovered a previously unknown Sumerian myth inscribed on a long-overlooked 4,400-year-old tablet. Although the story is incomplete, due to the tablet’s fractured nature, there is enough text to indicate an exciting narrative of a cunning fox infiltrating the netherworld in order to rescue the storm god, Ishkur. The tablet, known as […]
Why Does The Sky Turn Green When A Thunderstorm Is Brewing?
If you noticed the sky suddenly turn a vivid green, it could be nature’s way of telling you to buckle down and find shelter. A greenish sky is often associated with incoming tornadoes, and while that belief holds some truth, it’s not quite that simple. Meteorologists note that a green hue usually signals that storm […]
Africa’s Lake Bosumtwi Has Extraterrestrial Origins
Lake Bosumtwi in Ghana is no ordinary lake. If it looks a little bit out of place in the surrounding landscape, that’s because it is. It is the only natural lake in the country, formed just over 1 million years ago when a meteorite from outer space crashed into the rainforest, leaving behind a crater […]
Earth May Have Over 6 Temporary “Mini-Moons” At Any Given Time. They’re Made Of Moon
A new study has concluded that Earth’s mini-moons may not have come from the asteroid belt as we once thought, but a source far closer to home. According to the team, Earth likely has around 6.5 minimoons captured at any one time. Mini-moons are small asteroids or comets that can become captured by a planet’s […]
We Finally Know How The Brain Wakes Up – And Why It Sometimes Sucks So Much
For some of us more than others, waking up in the morning is a special kind of torture. Your alarm blares its anthem into your head; the sunlight blasts in at you through the window; you try in vain to burrow back down into your bedcovers but alas, your boss, or kids, or partner, or, […]
Leonardo Da Vinci’s Flying Machine Is Better Than Modern Drones For Noise And Power
Leonardo da Vinci was, by any metric, a genius – but he was still limited by his time. The man may have been a secret authority on anatomy, music, art, engineering, and even frickin’ paleogeography, but we wouldn’t expect him to understand the best way to, say, design an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle – that is, […]
Should You Wash Your Chicken?
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The Drunk Hypothesis: Did Booze Enable The Rise Of Human Civilization?
It’s hard to find a single common denominator that links all human societies and underpins all of our achievements as a species, but some scientists think that alcohol may be the most likely candidate. Known as the “drunk hypothesis”, this idea is based on the rationale that booze enhances social bonding and creativity, and that […]
Some Sharks Can Walk, Because Apparently One Mode Of Transportation Isn’t Enough
If you go down to the ocean today, you might just be in for a big surprise. From deep-sea disco worms to orcas giving each other kelp massages, there’s no end to what the ocean can offer. Some of the more unusual characters to be found include fish species that can walk, and one of […]
Black Olives Aren’t What You Think They Are
Love black olives but turn your nose up at the green ones? We have news for you: they’re fundamentally the same thing. In fact, some so-called “black olives” aren’t naturally different from their green comrades at all; they’ve just been artificially altered with chemicals to give them a jet-black color and milder taste. Botanically, green […]
Uranus Has A New Dance Partner Orbiting The Sun Every 113 Years – And Might Even Be In A Throuple
Between the orbits of Saturn and Neptune, there is a population of minor space bodies known as the Centaurs. There could be up to 10 million of them, but they tend to have unstable orbits due to the gravitational influences of the giant planets. Occasionally, some enter a temporary stable orbit, joining one of the […]
Ball Lightning? Video From Alberta, Canada Shows Strange Glowing Orb Moving Slowly Across A Field
A video filmed in Canada appears to show a strange glowing blue-white orb oscillating as it slowly moved across a field. Ed and Melinda Pardy, weather enthusiasts from Alberta, Canada, were attempting to look for funnel clouds after a recent storm when they spotted the highly unusual orb in a field behind their property. According […]
Listen To The Eerie Plasma Recording By Voyager 1 As It Crossed The Bow Shock Of Jupiter
Forty-six years after it was first recorded, the magnetic data collected by Voyager 1 as it sailed past Jupiter, crossing its bow shock, continues to be hauntingly beautiful. You don’t need to know anything about particles, magnetic fields, bow shocks, or anything else to appreciate the weirdness of it and how the fateful crossing shifts […]
How Should NASA Respond If We Found An Alien Technosignature?
The universe is, as you are probably already aware, pretty big. Though we have found absolute proof of life on precisely one planet (intelligent life, still uncertain), there is plenty of hope that there are intelligent beings out there in the cosmos, potentially seeking other lifeforms themselves. While the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) continues […]
First-Ever Footage Of Tooting Two-Toed Sloth Dispels Idea That Sloths Don’t Fart
There are some great animal mysteries on Planet Earth. Where do whale sharks give birth? How did the starfish become a star? How did this mystery circle form? One such mystery is related to one of the slowest creatures in the world: are sloths too slow to fart? Sloths have super slow digestion and metabolism […]
Over 86,000 Earthquakes Have Been Detected Under Yellowstone Using AI
There’s rarely a quiet moment in Yellowstone. With constantly shifting geology and ever-bubbling hot springs, this sprawling landscape across Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho is no stranger to underground activity. But according to a new study, Yellowstone Caldera may be even more active than scientists previously realized. Scientists at the University of Western Ontario, Industrial University […]
China Begins Building The World’s Largest $167 Billion Hydropower Megadam
China has broken ground on what is set to be the largest hydropower dam ever built. In size and output, the megadam will dwarf the current world record holder, the mighty Three Gorges Dam. The gigantic new structure is being built on the lower reaches of the Yarlung Tsangpo River in the Tibet Autonomous Region of […]
COVID-19 May Have Aged Our Brains, Even Before We Actually Caught The Virus
Dealing with challenging times can make us feel we’ve aged decades in just a few months. The last five years of the COVID-19 pandemic certainly qualify as challenging times for most, and a new study is suggesting that that feeling of rapid aging might be more than just a feeling. If these results are borne […]
“King Cheetah”: Hybrid, New Species, Or Mutation?
Tigers are stripy, leopards and cheetahs are spotty – that’s something many of us will have been taught as fact from an early age. But if there’s one thing we can say for sure about nature, it’s that things aren’t always as certain as they seem, and scattered across southern Africa is a rare big […]