News

This week, the first “Google Maps” of an entire brain is here and you can zoom inside, mysterious “skyquakes” have been heard around the world but we’re not sure what’s causing them, and a retrofitted Cold War spy plane has shown that most tropical storms are radioactive. Finally, as it’s spooky season, we question if […]

This week on Break It Down: resurrecting Cold War spy planes to explore radioactive storms, the most detailed brain wiring diagram we’ve ever seen, mystery “skyquake” sounds have the world perplexed, plus grinning dolphins, glow-in-the-dark gemstones, and can you really feel when you’re being watched? Available on all your favorite podcast apps: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podbean, Amazon Music, and […]

Undersea investigators have located the wreck of a century-old US Navy destroyer, USS Stewart, that was lost for nearly 80 years. The wreck, once known as “The ghost ship of the Pacific”, was found off the coast of northern California 1,067 meters (3,500 feet) below the water’s surface. Advertisement USS Stewart was found within the […]

As days go, January 23 1556 was a proper stinker. According to most accounts, this fateful date saw more human lives extinguished than any other day in history, with the vast majority of these deaths occurring in the Shaanxi province of northwest China. Advertisement The culprit on this occasion was an enormous earthquake caused by […]

Beach cleaners on the Danish island of Bornholm got a shock recently, when they picked up what they initially thought could be the remains of a sea snake. That alone would have been enough to mark the day as unusual for the group, who typically pick up plastic trash and sometimes ship parts – but […]

The Psyche mission is on its way to study the metallic asteroid of the same name, and on its journey, continues to test the communication system of the future. Laser light was sent from Earth to Psyche on July 29, when the spacecraft was located 460 million kilometers (290 million miles) from our planet. Advertisement […]

If you live at the equator the Sun passes overhead twice in the year, at the equinoxes. In late June the tilt of the Earth means the Sun doesn’t get higher than 67 degrees above the horizon – which is still pretty high – and around Christmas it is the same height, but to the […]

Two male lesser flamingos have become parents for the first time, after the San Diego Zoo Safari Park same-sex duo successfully hatched a chick. The pair were well prepared for fatherhood, having been given a dummy egg to look after earlier this year. Once staff at the zoo were satisfied that they were up to […]

The idea of a pterosaur even the size of those in Jurassic Park III is terrifying enough, but now imagine one that’s 3.5 meters (11.5 feet) tall and with a wingspan longer than a London bus. We’re sorry to tell you, but that creature was real – and it may well be the largest animal ever […]

A 2-billion-year-old rock has been unearthed in South Africa – and if its advanced age wasn’t enough to knock your socks off, it’s also home to pockets of microbes that are still alive and thriving. Having been around for eons, these are the oldest examples of living microbes ever found within ancient rock. Advertisement “We […]

Welcome to the solar maximum. We do not know exactly when the peak of solar activity will be during this cycle, but we are near it and the Sun is showing it. Yesterday, we reported the release of the second most powerful flare for this cycle, and our star decided to one-up itself and release […]

Long thought to be a single species, a new study has revealed that the Chinese giant salamander might actually be up to nine different species, bringing fresh calls to ramp up protections for this critically endangered group. Advertisement This isn’t the Chinese giant salamander’s first identity crisis; back in 2019, scientists confirmed that there were […]

Some 66 million years ago, a massive asteroid slammed into Earth. The Chicxulub impactor, as it is called, famously wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs and left a huge crater at the edge of the Yucatán peninsula – but it may not have acted alone. New research has revealed that a second, smaller space rock smashed […]

Your own living room is probably the last place you’d expect to find a brand-new species of bug, but that’s exactly what happened to one ecologist from Wales, UK – except what she found turned out to be a long, long way from home. Advertisement The new species is a clearwing moth, named Carmenta brachyclados, […]

Galaxy GS-NDG-9422 might not have a catchy name or look that impressive, but it has the potential to be revolutionary in our understanding of galaxy evolution. It has an odd light signature – it seems that its gas is shining a lot brighter than its stars. This peculiar feature might open a window onto a […]

Are humans done evolving – or could settling on an alien world with an environment unlike Earth’s take us on a different evolutionary trajectory? Host Tom Hale is joined by Scott Solomon, author and professor of bioscience at Rice University, to discuss the myriad ways Homo sapiens may continue to evolve on Earth, and how […]

BepiColombo’s June 2023 flyby of Mercury put the spacecraft on the right trajectory to get in orbit around the smallest planet, and it was also a chance to test its science instruments. Even with such a brief window of time, researchers were able to get incredible insights into the planet’s magnetosphere. Advertisement Mercury’s magnetic field […]

Quantum mechanics just can’t keep from getting freaky. The latest thing is negative time, and how light going through a cloud of atoms might appear to come out before it goes in. Unfortunately, it is not a time machine – your best bet there is still a DeLorean – but a curious phenomenon with intriguing […]

From the start of next year, cannabis retailers in California will be allowed to sell fresh food and non-alcoholic drinks – and even put on a party whilst doing so – after Governor Gavin Newsom signed a “cannabis café” bill into law on September 30. Advertisement Cannabis lounges, where people can smoke and socialize, already […]

People with schizophrenia who hear voices in their head may be experiencing the results of “noisy” signaling produced by the brain’s motor system. As counterintuitive as this seems, the new discovery could be a gamechanger for scientists working on treatments for auditory hallucinations as it suggests that the target may lie outside of the auditory […]