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On Thursday, July 11, the second stage engine of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket failed to ignite and likely exploded about one hour after launch. It took off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County, California, carrying 20 Starlink satellites. This was supposed to be a routine launch but it led to the […]

The rise and fall of the last El Niño phase has been beautifully captured in newly released data visualizations. Ocean conditions may look peaceful in the Pacific at the moment, but big change is brewing. Advertisement El Niño is a global climate phenomenon that has impacts on weather patterns worldwide, but it all starts with […]

Redating of five fossils from southeastern Spain places these as comfortably the oldest evidence of hominids in Europe. If correct, this provides strong evidence for the claim that members of the Homo genus first reached Europe by crossing the open water between Morocco and Gibraltar, implying a level of technological sophistication previously thought to have […]

A team of astronomers has proposed a new definition of a planet ahead of the International Astronomical Union’s (IAU’s) General Assembly next month. Don’t hold your breath, Pluto fans. Advertisement As we learn more about the Solar System and beyond, our understanding of what constitutes a planet has changed. The classic example came in 2006 […]

Whale species in Earth’s oceans are some of the most majestic and captivating animals the world has to offer. From the biggest blue whale to sperm whales and everything in between, few people get the chance to appreciate these marine mammals. However, almost 60,000 beluga whales are now on the move as part of their […]

How do anesthetics stop us from perceiving the world around us? Some may knock us out by making the brain temporarily more unstable, a new study focusing on the drug propofol suggests. Advertisement Anesthesia: the word itself comes from the ancient Greek “an” (without) and “aesthesis” (sensation). Anesthesia is medically described as a combination of […]

With 200 billion trillion (ish) stars in the universe and 13.7 billion years that have elapsed since it all began, you might be wondering where all the alien civilizations are. This is the basic question behind the Fermi paradox, the tension between our suspicions of the potential for life in the universe (given planets found […]

In a quiet pocket of Mexico, archaeologists have used LiDAR imaging to reveal long-lost structures built by the Maya culture centuries ago. Among the discoveries are grand pyramids and a civic-ceremonial center, plus a subterranean structure found beneath a Maya ball court. Advertisement The recent archaeological work was carried out by Mexico’s National Institute of […]

New research shows that the Cambrian explosion, one of the most important interludes in the story of life on Earth, may have been triggered by a small increase in oxygen levels. Using datasets from an international consortium of scientists, the team show that modest changes in oxygen levels may have been enough to cause the […]

Your face is the result of thousands of years of lovemaking between multiple human species, with Neanderthals, Denisovans, and Homo sapiens being the main players in this ancient three-way romance. Because of a lack of physical evidence, however, we don’t really know how the features we’ve inherited compare to those of our extinct lovers – […]

Astronomers have spotted a neutron star whose jet is changing direction for the first time. Likened to a garden sprinkler, the jet is coming from the phenomenal object Circinus X-1, one of the brightest and best-studied objects in the X-ray sky. However, it turns out that there is a lot more to discover about this […]

A tunnel has been identified under the surface of the Moon for the first time, appropriately on the Sea of Tranquility where humans first set foot. Although this particular spot is not a likely place to build a future colony, where there is one cave there are likely to be more, boosting the prospects for […]

It has been two years since the JWST revealed its first science images and since then, the telescope has contributed massively to furthering our understanding of the universe near and far. From discovering new features in the atmosphere of Jupiter to spotting the most distant galaxies yet, JWST deserves its accolades. To mark its second […]

We don’t like saying it any more than you like hearing it, but COVID-19 has not gone away. Many of us know people who’ve recently gone down with coughs and sneezes, and you may even have asked yourself that timeless question: do I have hay fever or COVID? But what about symptoms that don’t mimic […]

A spade-toothed whale, the world’s rarest whale species, has been found washed ashore on a beach in Otago, New Zealand, one of only six specimens to have ever been documented. Advertisement While marine mammal strandings are relatively common in New Zealand – there are around 85 per year – when experts from the Department of […]

The internet was meant to be an “information superhighway” – a place where all human knowledge could be available, allowing humanity to find the truth of any situation at the touch of a button. Advertisement Instead, it’s a place where anti-vaxxers tout deworming tablets for viruses and people pretend that birds aren’t real. It’s a wild […]

A high school student has completed an ambitious project after three years of work: creating a model rocket that lands vertically. Advertisement Landing a rocket vertically is a pretty difficult task, being literal rocket science. Just ask SpaceX, who have blown up many a rocket stage in their attempts to land rocket boosters, though sometimes […]

El Niño, at its worst, can be devastating. It’s the climate phenomenon that sees the Pacific jet stream moved southwards by reduced equatorial winds, causing everything from heatwaves in Canada, to droughts in Africa, to intense storms over the west coasts of the Americas.  Advertisement Well, bad news: according to a new paper, those worst-case […]

It wouldn’t be a day ending in “y” without a tourist having a mishap at Yellowstone National Park.  Advertisement The latest snafu comes courtesy of five visitors who accidentally drove their SUV into the Semi-Centennial Geyser – a hot, acidic pond located near the park’s Roaring Mountain, between Mammoth Hot Springs and Norris Junction. The […]