News

You see a beetle covered in bugs. Poor thing, must be parasitized, right? Well, not necessarily. You see, a lot of animals are partial to hitchhiking in a kind of commensal interaction between species in which one animal clambers onto another so that it can benefit from being carried around. It’s called phoresy, and it’s […]

For the first time, physicists have created a “black hole bomb” in the lab, providing evidence for the “Zel’dovich effect” proposed half a century ago. The idea behind the Zel’dovich effect came from an unusual place. In 1969, British physicist and mathematician Roger Penrose suggested that energy could be extracted from black holes by lowering […]

Grappling with the aftermath of a devastating bushfire, the Australian state of Victoria has taken the controversial step of using helicopter snipers to shoot hundreds of koalas. It’s a move that officials say was a necessary evil to prevent widespread suffering, but one that has ignited political backlash and fierce public outrage. The Victorian government […]

An Associate Professor in Physics at the University of Portsmouth in the UK believes that gravity could be explained by information-reducing processes inside a computational or simulated universe. Dr Melvin Vopson has made headlines in recent years for some pretty “huge if true” suggestions about the nature of the universe, claiming to have found (tentative) […]

The US is looking to dramatically expand its efforts to churn up the seafloor in a new hunt for rare metals and critical resources. Supporters say the move could secure essential minerals and even lead to the discovery of new compounds, but environmental groups warn it will cause irreversible damage to marine ecosystems and “speed […]

A gene mutation has been identified in bed bugs for the first time, and it could explain why these little beasties are on the rise. Finding it was something of a happy accident, lurking within the last few samples urban entomologist Warren Booth was sifting through, and suggests they may have a similar resistance to […]

It was October 1963, and France was in love. With whom? A young explorer and aviatrix, named Félicette, who had just made history as one of the very first non-US, non-USSR astronauts to get out to space and come back again. It was the kind of story that seems almost perfectly designed for the silver […]

Colorectal cancer is on the rise among people under 50 in at least 27 countries. The number of cases has doubled every decade for the last 20 years and could become the leading cause of cancer-related death among young adults by 2030. Researchers have found a potentially crucial mechanism that could explain the increase: a […]

Issue 34 (May 2025) of CURIOUS is out now, bringing you science highlights for the month plus deep dives into intriguing topics, interviews, exclusives, diary dates, and explanations for some of Earth’s most perplexing natural phenomena and landscapes. Read Issue 34 of our digital magazine now by clicking below! Use the arrows to navigate or […]

It was September 1971, and teen heartthrob Donny Osmond was being rushed to hospital with a mysterious condition. Presenting as severe abdominal pain, it would under normal circumstances be an obvious case of appendicitis – but doctors had inspected the area where that organ sits, and found nothing. In a plot twist worthy of House, […]

There is a lake in the northeastern part of Kazakhstan that serves as a true testament to the Cold War’s hazardous legacy. The lake, known as Lake Chagan, is situated in the sparse, rocky landscape near the city of Semey (formerly Semipalatinsk). To a casual viewer, the lake might appear unremarkable, but its other name […]

A new study from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) – the organization most famous for their “Red List” of threatened species of animal, plant, and fungus around the world – has turned up some good news for once.  Having evaluated 48 populations of six sea turtle species around the world, and examining […]

Researchers have discovered the first giant virus in Finland. The specimen demonstrates that such huge viruses are more common in northern regions than previously thought. Viruses are tiny. Even compared to the smallest bacteria, which can be about 200 nanometers (a nanometer being one-billionth of a meter) in diameter, viruses are still teeny tiny, with […]

This week, we delve into the fossilized remains of an 113-million-year-old “hell ant” discovered in Brazil, the oldest ant known to science. We explore the peculiar case of Pope Pius XII’s embalming mishap, which led to an unexpected and explosive outcome. We examine how a solar “terminator” event may have disrupted SpaceX’s Starlink satellites, and […]

It is a truth universally acknowledged – at least, it should be – that TikTok influencers are not the best place to go for skincare and health advice. One trend that caught our eye recently, though people have been at it for quite a while, involves rubbing a banana peel on your face as an […]

The giant crocodiles that fed on large dinosaurs that strayed into Cretaceous wetlands were not closely related to modern alligators, as previously thought. In fact, they’re fairly distant from all surviving crocodilians. The discovery shows that the giant croc niche is one that has been filled multiple times in Earth’s history, with distantly related species […]

Wine has a potent place in ancient Greek culture and myth, but while it may be thought of as something reserved for the elite or divine alone, new chemical evidence shows it was drunk by common people in Troy too. Although much about the story of Troy as recorded in Homer’s Iliad is the stuff […]

This week, on Break It Down: a planet with a very rare tail is being boiled apart, the first physical evidence of a gladiator fighting a lion discovered in Britain, scientists are tattooing tardigrades (for science), what’s happening in your brain during a mind blank, the grim fashion of “bone collector” caterpillars, and five health […]

For the very first time, scientists have captured live footage of the painted swellshark (Cephaloscyllium pictum) — a super-elusive, blotchy catshark that until now had only been known from unlucky specimens hauled into Indonesian fish markets. The video (below) was filmed in November 2024 during a recent project supported by the National Geographic Society that […]

The National Science Foundation’s Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawai’i is the world’s largest solar telescope and has already taken some of the highest-resolution images of the Sun. One of its instruments has just taken its first light, and it is going to be a game-changer when it comes to studying our star. The […]