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Working out how smart or intelligent your partner is, in any given task, is a tricky skill at the best of times. This type of intelligence to have forethought about the state of mind of others is something seen in people but not in non-human apes. It is known as “the theory of mind” and […]

In ancient times, before we really understood where diseases came from, illnesses were often blamed on some mysterious unseen malevolence in the air. Unsure of how to combat this invisible and omnipresent evil, people would turn to magic and prayer to save them, adorning themselves with charms and incantations to ward off the danger. ADVERTISEMENT […]

Come with us as we dive into a belter of an ocean mystery: a giant, unidentified object spotted by ocean explorers at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. In one sonar image (albeit it rather blurry) it looks like the Millennium Falcon from above. Perhaps most curiously of all, the team that discovered it in […]

Of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt is the only one still standing today. While archaeologists and scholars have found the sites of six of these magnificent structures, the location of one has eluded them for centuries: the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE The […]

Over the weekend, Joe Rogan, conspiracy theorists, and Elon Musk got excited about a “square structure” on Mars, photographed by the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC). ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE While everybody talked about the mysterious square, others highlighted another, perhaps more intriguing mystery found by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. That is […]

While animal rescue missions might make you think of a cat stuck in a tree, or even the zoo animals rescued from Ukraine, sometimes even the smallest creatures need some help. An ambitious amphibious project has seen tiny frogs and their tinier tadpoles brought on an 11,265-kilometer (7,000-mile) journey. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE On a […]

As hard as it is to keep a cat away from something they’ve got their sights set on, it’s worth them looking at you like they’re going to eat your eyeballs when it comes to lilies. Though beautiful, these flowers are highly toxic to cats – but why? Turns out it’s something of a mystery. […]

For decades people were puzzling over a phenomenon of mysterious origin that stretched across every continent on the globe apart from Antarctica. Residents of Earth and scientists alike had started to pay attention to vast fields of meters-high circular mounds, hillocks that have since become known as “Mima mounds” – but nobody knew what was […]

Two giant canyons on the Moon were created in less than ten minutes, according to a new study analyzing clues about their formation. The findings could impact NASA’s upcoming Artemis missions to the far side of the Moon. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE The Schrödinger Impact Basin, named for noted quantum physicist and hypothetical cat murderer […]

The results of the 28th annual mid-season Western Monarch Count have been released: only 9,119 of the butterflies were counted during the time the overwintering population is usually at its peak. This represents the second-lowest number since the count began, and a nearly 96 percent decline from the year prior. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE “The […]

This Sunday, the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles will face off in Super Bowl LIX, the most-watched sporting event in the US. Given the lack of historical ties between the USA and the Romans, it might seem strange that an iconic American event uses Roman numerals. However, there is a very understandable reason […]

In more than 30 years of monitoring, Canadian wildlife agencies never found a single dead great white shark. Then, in the course of a year, five washed up – and nobody knows why. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE The Canadian sharks join four previously found dead in US waters – all under similarly perplexing circumstances. There […]

In 2024, scientists discovered a crucial piece in the puzzle as to how it is some whale species are able to sing so spectacularly. They discovered singing whales have a special larynx that creates sound with the movement of air, sort of like our vocal cords, but in a way seen nowhere else in the […]

Just like a panting chihuahua and a hot dog, the jet stream and the Gulf Stream can be easily mixed up but are very different. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE The jet stream – or, more accurately, jet streams –  are fast-moving currents of air flowing from west to east around the globe, while the Gulf […]

The date was February 3, 1925. The Star, a daily South African newspaper, featured a story on an exciting scientific discovery – the fossilized skull of a species with a mixture of human-like and ape-like features. The anthropologist who analyzed the fossil, dubbed the Taung Child, believed it was an ancestor of modern-day humans – […]

A newly developed vaccine against a group of viruses including SARS-CoV-2 is producing promising results in mice, part of the quest to develop a universal shot against all variants of these troublesome pathogens. Using nanoparticles containing various combinations of sections of viral proteins called receptor binding domains (RBDs), scientists have been able to produce antibody […]

In scenes faintly reminiscent of Terminator 3, OpenAI has partnered with Los Alamos National Laboratory to use artificial intelligence (AI) systems to “supercharge” atomic research and strengthen US nuclear security.  ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE A significant part of the plan is to use AI-powered supercomputers to reduce the risk of nuclear war, while simultaneously helping […]

Sildenafil, most commonly known by the brand name Viagra or the “little blue pill”, is one of the most recognizable medicines we have. Originally tested as a treatment for angina, it was proving a bit of a disappointment until a number of male trial participants started reporting one very peculiar side effect. And thus, Viagra’s […]

If you live on The Internet, you’ve likely heard about carcinization: a kind of convergent evolution that’s seen a surprisingly large number of living things evolve crab-like bodies. So, are crabs peak performance? Given the meteoric rise of a species currently invading the oceans, they just might be. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE Enter: the European […]

For the first time in its history, camera traps in a Thai national park have captured some oh-so-cute footage confirming that the area is now home to a Bengal tiger with a trio of cubs in tow. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE The discovery was made in Kaeng Krachan National Park where, according to the park’s […]