News

In 2016, the sea ice in Antarctica’s Weddell Sea developed an enormous hole twice the size of Wales – the country, not a pod of giant mammals. The following year it returned, but the reasons remained unknown. Now they have been explained as a result of previously understood factors and a rare form of salt […]

Amid its towering ice sheets, Antarctica conceals a fiery secret, a landscape dotted with volcanoes. Most remain dormant, inactive, or buried beneath the ice, but some speculate that as the surrounding ice melts, these sleeping giants could stir back to life. The last major melting event on Earth occurred between 12,000 and 7,000 years ago […]

As the Moon orbits the Earth, and the Earth circles the Sun, the Sun itself travels around the center of the Milky Way—rising and falling above and below the galaxy’s plane along the way. A study has suggested that this motion of our star through the galaxy potentially takes us through regions of space that […]

Every now and then, one of the robots on Mars sends back a picture of an unusual rock it has found on its journeys. After all, that’s one of the reasons we sent them there. These can range from the interesting (such as the donut-shaped rock which may not be from the planet) to the […]

High up in the tree tops of Peru live all manner of species – from red howler monkeys to tiny tamarins, these species are perfectly adapted for life above the ground. However, roads for logging are cutting up their environment, separating trees by more than a monkey’s jump. That’s where wildlife bridges come into play, […]

The largest wildfire currently burning in the US is sweeping through Arizona’s Grand Canyon National Park, scorching more than 51,000 hectares (126,000 acres) and blanketing the surrounding area in thick smoke. To make matters worse, hot, dry conditions continue to fuel the flames as ominous “fire clouds” loom overhead. The fire, named the Dragon Bravo […]

It is all happening in August! We are just days away from the peak of the Perseids, there is going to be a Black Moon later this month, and right now and for several weeks, you can see not just one but six planets in the night sky, four of which are visible to the […]

Particles known as tensor mesons are created when high-energy photons interact. These mesons have now been proposed to have a larger effect on photon behavior than previously thought, and provide a new way to test the validity of the Standard Model of particle physics. Here’s an experiment any reader can try. Take two torches into […]

Room temperature plays a surprisingly important role in determining how far apart people need to be to prevent disease transmission in a queue, a new study suggests. Consequently, the 2 meters (6 feet) apart queuing adopted during the pandemic was not always appropriate. How many lives may have been lost for lack of this information […]

Cockatoos have at least 30 dance moves they love to show off, and while not every species has been spotted making every move, some individuals combine moves in ways others don’t to create further metamoves. The purpose of the dancing is unknown, because while it may have evolved from courtship, it now occurs far more […]

There’s something funny about how sea or aquatic monsters are depicted. Think about the Loch Ness Monster, for example. How many times have you seen images or drawings showing a beastie poking its head above the water while a vertical undulating serpent-like body follows behind? This particular representation of the mythical “Nessie” is pretty illustrative […]

The oldest government computer still in operation today is over 25 billion kilometers (15.5 billion miles) from Earth, and despite well-documented issues, it still runs far better than we could expect. While you may rush out to buy the latest hardware necessary to run the latest computer games, governments and large organizations can end up […]

The miniature “Hobbit” humans of Flores Island may have come from the nearby island of Sulawesi, where researchers have discovered evidence for hominin occupation up to 1.5 million years ago. It’s currently unclear exactly which ancestral species was present on the Indonesian island at this early point in our history, but the journey from mainland […]

If you were to go strolling at night in the right part of New Zealand, you just might be blessed by a visit from one of nature’s most delectable-looking gastropods: the pickle slug. Also known as putoko ropiropi, the gherkin slug, leaf vein slug, or Athoracophorus papillatus, these slugs are famous for the little spikes […]

The Grand Canyon is undeniably a wonder of nature – and according to a new paper from a team of palaeontologists and geologists, it always has been. Half a billion years ago, long before humans were around to gape in awe or plummet to their selfie-related deaths, the canyon was apparently a hub of biodiversity […]

The Wizard of Oz got a hat tip from scientists poking around in an ancient and underwater volcano chain in the Pacific Ocean, as they discovered what looked like a “yellow brick road”. The natural brickwork was actually the result of volcanic geology which has fractured the rock in a curiously uniform way. E/V Nautilus […]

How often do you change your bed sheets? We spend nearly a third of our lives in bed, yet we often don’t treat it with the same hygiene standards as our bathrooms or kitchens. A survey reported by several outlets, including The Independent, found that nearly half of single men in the UK admitted to […]

Dark matter is a hypothetical substance that outweighs regular matter (which makes up us and everything we can see in the universe) five to one. We do not know what it is and have not confirmed its existence, but based on astrophysical observations, it is strongly believed to be a substance; the alternative is that […]

A new study has found a few odd surprises about the first molecule in the universe, suggesting our models of the early cosmos may need a little update. Shortly after the Big Bang the universe was a hot, dense soup of particles. After a few seconds, it became cool enough for the first elements to […]

Standing at 4 meters (13 feet and 2 inches) from ground to shoulder and weighing around 11 tons, “Henry” is the largest Elephant ever recorded – a true giant amongst giants. To help you get your relatively puny-sized head around this stature, he was heavier than the biggest T. rex ever unearthed and tall enough […]