News

Just in time for vacation season, an airport worker has revealed why passengers should avoid tying ribbons to their suitcases if they’re checking in luggage before a flight. Advertisement Many people attach colorful ribbons around the handle of their suitcase so it’s easy to spot when they’re picking up their luggage from the carousel upon […]

When astronomer Jerry Ehman noticed something unusual in the printout from Ohio State University’s radio telescope, his response became the most famous moment in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. In recent years several explanations for what became known as the “Wow! signal” have been published. However, since these contradict each other, it is fair to […]

The European Space Agency’s Mars Express has been around the Red Planet for two decades and has delivered incredible images of the Martian surface. Those images have often been turned into three-dimensional visualizations and videos, and the latest one is of a fascinating series of trenches known as Nili Fossae. Advertisement The series of concentric […]

Aliens passing as humans meet an advanced reptilian race living in a subterranean kingdom. Sounds like the script of a Mork and Mindy vs Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crossover episode, but it’s actually the contents of a fantastically speculative new paper about UFOs. Advertisement Penned by researchers from Harvard’s Human Flourishing Program and Montana Technological […]

The European Space Agency’s Gaia spacecraft is creating the most detailed map of the Milky Way. The position and motion of 1.5 billion stars are being measured, and that has revealed something pretty interesting. Some stars move in ways that can only be explained if they have come from a different galaxy. And it turns […]

Mount Everest has received its first ever drone delivery in a proof-of-concept test conducted in April this year. The incredible achievement was a first of its kind mission to use drones to deliver supplies to mountaineers. Advertisement The delivery was conducted by the technology company, DJI, in collaboration with Nepalese Airlift, the video production company […]

With razor-sharp claws, a neon blue neck, and a tall, brown helmet, Southern cassowaries are quite the sight to behold – but also an increasingly rare one, as these notoriously grumpy birds are at risk of extinction. Advertisement Southern cassowaries are generally considered to be the world’s most dangerous bird, at least in terms of […]

Creationists hate it, scientists loathe it even more, yet the “March of Progress” continues to be the defining image of human evolution.  Since its creation in the Victorian era, it’s arguably become one of the most iconic illustrations of modern science. The drawing shows a series of primates going from left to right, starting with […]

On June 5, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko became the first human to have spent 1,000 days in orbit. The space traveler had already beaten the record of longest time spent beyond Earth back in February, surpassing the record of his countryman Gennady Padalka who was in space for 878 days, 11 hours, 29 minutes, and […]

A man in Mexico has died after contracting the first lab-confirmed human infection with H5N2 bird flu. It’s unclear how the man was exposed to the virus, but this type of avian flu has previously been found in poultry in the country. The risk to the general public is still considered to be low. Advertisement […]

As well as wondering why flight attendants never seem to drink hot drinks and why airplane windows have those tiny little holes in them, you may have wondered at some point why so few pilots have beards. Advertisement While it’s not a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) policy, several big airlines do have strict policies about […]

Clinical trials of a new form of long-acting pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV, commonly known as PrEP, have launched in the US. As well as hopefully leading to a new option for HIV prevention, the trials are aiming to address an unmet need in HIV research by focusing on two populations that have often been passed […]

Who could resist an ancient elephant-like creature that roamed the Earth long before humans came onto the scene, especially after multiple Ice Age films made us fall in love with Manny.  But do you know your mammoths from your mastodons? It’s time to take a closer look at the differences between these two ancient beasts.  […]

Here’s a statistic that might surprise you: around one in five people in the US have a sexually transmitted infection at any one time. There’s nothing wrong or shameful about that – in this age of modern medicine, many are curable and all are treatable – but if you have one, you at least ought […]

The fourth test of Starship has been a success. The Starship and Super Heavy booster combo lifted off from SpaceX’s Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, at 7:50 am local time. The test was for Super Heavy to demonstrate that it could land back on Earth and for Starship to successfully reenter through the atmosphere after […]

During the mid-late Eocene epoch, 44-34 million years ago, large parts of Antarctica were ice-free, creating room for river systems now long frozen. Sediments from the Amundsen Sea came all the way from the mountain range that spans the continent, revealing there was no inland sea in between to capture them. Advertisement The world was […]

Indigenous Americans played a more active role in shaping early trans-Atlantic trade than they are given credit for. Typically, European colonizers are seen as the main drivers of these ancient exchange networks, yet a new analysis of 370-year-old glass beads indicates that Native communities were conducting their own business transactions independently of any Old World […]

The European Space Agency (ESA) has announced the detection of negative ions on the lunar surface, days after the Chinese National Space Agency’s Chang’e-6 lander placed their detection equipment on the far side of the Moon. Advertisement Chang’e-6 landed on the Moon at 22:23 UTC on June 1, before collecting samples from the lunar surface […]

Is it a snake? Is it a fish? No, it’s a northern snakehead! This bizarre creature – technically a fish, though someone should tell its face – is an invasive species capable of breathing air and slithering like its reptilian doppelganger. Last month, one was caught in Missouri by an astonished angler. Captured on May […]

In the early hours of Tuesday, the US Air Force test-fired a Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile “to provide confidence in the lethality and effectiveness of the nation’s nuclear deterrent.” Advertisement To flex their muscles, the military also released video footage (below) and images of the missile as it blazed into the sky of California, […]