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When Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE, the scolding lava, ash, and gas that poured from its entrails converted the Roman city of Pompeii into a terrifying snapshot of death and destruction. Two millennia on, researchers have finally recreated a blow-by-blow account of the disaster, revealing exactly how the eruption progressed and dragged the city’s […]

West Greenland’s lakes have undergone an alarming change. Within just a couple of years, thousands of its great blue lakes have turned brown and become dominated by a stinking gunk that pumps out carbon emissions. According to a new study, atmospheric rivers might be to blame. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE Scientists at the University of […]

Hopefully, you’ve never eaten any chunks of metal or chowed down on a coin, but you’ll no doubt have an idea of what metal tastes and smells like: musty, tangy, and sharp. We’re here to inform you that metal doesn’t actually have an innate odor; that aroma is basically a body odor.  ADVERTISEMENT GO AD […]

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LNNL) in California is now home to the fastest supercomputer in the world. Dubbed El Capitan and officially dedicated on January 9, it’s only the third exascale supercomputer in the world, and by far the fastest. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE It cost $600 million to build and it will handle […]

While there are a whole host of vitamins and minerals that are essential to our bodies being able to function properly, a critical one is iodine. Yep, that thing you used in high school to test for starch is actually good for more than just muddling through class. But are people getting enough of it? […]

In the first few hours of his second presidency, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that could pave the way for oil drilling in North Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, one of the last great wildernesses left in the US. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE Shortly after announcing the US was set to “drill, baby, […]

Have you ever looked at a bath and thought “Nah, not today!”? Well, you are not alone, as bathing has been a very up-and-down trend across history and from culture to culture. Ancient Rome’s public baths could be a grand affair, with all classes of Roman society taking frequent hot soaks. This contrasts with people […]

Imagine this scenario: You are about to undergo an important and delicate surgical procedure. You’re lying on the operating table, waiting to be anesthetized. The room is sterile and quiet. In the past, you would expect to see nurses and surgeons setting up equipment and instruments for the operation, their movements bustling around in busy […]

We all know the tallest mountain: it’s Everest, of course. Or Mauna Kea. Okay, okay, or Chimborazo. Look, maybe that’s too controversial an item of trivia – let’s aim smaller. Where’s the steepest hill? ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE It’s difficult to know for sure, since, well, not all of them have been officially logged. Perhaps […]

A spotted hyena embarked on a lengthy and unexpected journey when it traveled to southeastern Egypt, marking the first time these animals have been seen here in around 5,000 years. The hyena was traveling alone, and regrettably met its end 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) from the Sudan border when it was shot. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD […]

Around 350,000 years ago, a now-extinct volcano in southern Italy violently erupted, spewing ash high into the atmosphere and filling a nearby valley with molten pyroclastic material. As this hellish discharge cooled, a mysterious group of ancient humans went for a stroll along the newly formed volcanic terrain, leaving behind a trail of footprints in […]

A new study has re-examined the claim that the COVID-19 lockdown affected temperatures on the Moon, finding that they may have dropped a little at the Moon surface prior to the pandemic. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE COVID-19 wrought – and continues to wreak – havoc on the Earth. According to a study in 2024, its […]

The typical treatment for estrogen receptor positive (ER+) breast cancer involves surgery and years of hormone therapy that can come with an array of unpleasant side effects. However, a new drug candidate could hold the potential to eliminate the need for such a grueling process, after a study in mice found that it wiped out […]

Earth’s mantle behaves like a slow-moving fluid, but that hasn’t stopped two vast regions at its base from maintaining a separation from the rest. These continent-sized areas are hotter than the rest of the mantle – and according to new research, have maintained that status for at least half a billion years. The same areas […]

Corals might appear stationary, but different species are capable of moving more than just their branches. In a new study, the mushroom coral Cycloseris cyclolites has been recorded navigating toward light, suggesting they’ve been underestimated until now.  ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE “Not all corals are attached to the substrate; some are solitary and free-living, allowing […]

Astronomers have discovered two objects that at first looked like a well-known stage in star formation, but also have features that don’t fit that at all. Their forthcoming paper announcing the discovery carries more bewilderment than answers, proving once again we are far from having the galaxy – let alone the universe – figured out. […]

Astronomers have measured the wind speeds on a faraway world and found that they without comparison, not only to anything on Earth but also in the Solar System. Exoplanet WASP-127b is a hot Jupiter, a gas giant planet orbiting very close to its star. The system is more than 500 light-years away, and observations suggest […]

Electromagnetic chorus waves once thought to only exist close to the Earth have been found at a distance of 165,000 kilometers (102,526 miles) from us. Although that is still less than half the way to the Moon, the discovery indicates this chorus of rising-tone waves may exist far from any planet. ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE […]

A new study that set out to investigate if the risk of long COVID differed depending on sex has concluded that females are more likely to develop the condition. Understanding how illnesses affect sexes differently can be a crucial step in identifying the biological mechanisms that are making people unwell, and in turn, can highlight […]

The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), known as the “Artificial Sun”, is China’s cutting-edge fusion reactor. Over the last several years, it has consistently broken fusion records, and it can now add a new one to its collection: the longest sustained ultra-hot plasma. They kept it going for 1,066 seconds – that’s 17 minutes and […]