News

Waves breaking at the mouth of Brazil’s Doce River, where it meets the Atlantic, have become the first-ever waves and part of the ocean to be given legal personhood, in a decision made by the municipal council of the nearby city of Linhares. The new law, which was first approved as a bill in June […]

A chance encounter with a deeply mysterious cephalopod known as the whip-lash squid has been captured on camera some 1,000 meters (3,281 feet) below the sea’s surface in the Tonga Trench. The video was shot last month by researchers from Minderoo-UWA Deep-Sea Research Centre and Inkfish as part of the Tonga Trench Expedition 2024. Between […]

Some species need more conservation help than others and while this can come in many forms, some species at least have the decency to look grateful in the photo ops. The spotted handfish, however, is not one of them. Despite having its genome sequenced for the very first time, in a bid to improve conservation […]

Scientists watched as a population of sea snails evolved within just a few years. Along with documenting a vivid example of “rapid evolution,” the researchers were able to successfully predict how the snails would change at the start of the 30-year experiment, suggesting that evolutionary change is not always as unpredictable as it may seem. […]

The Sahara Desert might normally be one of the driest places on Earth, but September saw the northwest of the region flood for the first time in decades, after an extratropical cyclone brought with it rare heavy rainfall. According to NASA Earth Observatory, preliminary estimates suggest parts of the Sahara in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and […]

A new ultrasensitive, soft robotic “finger” has been developed by international researchers that can conduct medical tasks, like checking for a pulse and examining patients for lumps. Although robotic hands have been developed before, this new robo-finger has the ability to mimic both the feel and function of human touch. The hope is that this […]

Conspiracy theorists appear to believe that they have uncovered some sort of giant doorway at the top of Antarctica, to go nicely with the mysterious “pyramid” they got excited about in 2016. People have discovered all sorts of oddities while browsing through Google Maps, from “aliens” and camera-hogging cats to the answer to decades-old cold […]

A population of stars more than 13 billion years old represents the original disk from which the Milky Way formed, a team of astronomers claim. By studying this population’s movements, the authors have reconstructed what they think is the shape of the proto-Milky Way, which they say is a relatively unusual starting point for galaxies […]

The world, maybe more now than ever before, runs on battery power. So many everyday things – from your watch to your car to the cellphone you’re reading this on right now – are fueled by these little containers of stored electricity, that it’s easy to take the whole situation for granted. Until, that is, […]

An animation using data from the European Space Agency (ESA) allows you to listen to a “sounded visualization” of Earth’s magnetic field being disrupted during the Laschamp event. You probably don’t worry about the Earth’s magnetic fields too much, assuming you don’t have to rely on a compass for navigation. The magnetosphere generally sits up […]

A survey of 1,000 US adults has found that 25 percent of respondents believe they could have undiagnosed attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, only 13 percent of them had spoken to a doctor about their concerns, sparking fears that incorrect self-diagnoses could be leading people towards unhelpful treatment strategies.  ADHD in adults When it comes […]

In a world first, scientists have successfully developed single-atom editing technology that can be used to maximize drug efficacy. The “dream” technology enables researchers to tweak individual atoms quickly and easily, and should help to enhance drug discovery. The breakthrough comes from a team at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), who […]

As you’re probably aware by now – particularly if you live anywhere in the vicinity of Tampa Bay – it’s hurricane season in the tropical Atlantic. And what a season it’s been so far. There have been no fewer than five hurricanes in less than two weeks – not an unusual total for the entire […]

SpaceX has achieved an impressive feat as a Super Heavy booster was caught using mechanical arms as it returned to its launchpad.  Creating rockets and launching them into space is an expensive and time-intensive business. SpaceX has been working on reusable rocket systems, landing rockets vertically on their launchpads safely for reuse. While plenty of […]

The possibility of an Io-like moon around the exoplanet WASP-49b looks increasingly likely to be right, new research shows. The possible object is suspected of being peppered with volcanoes, creating a cloud of sodium that surrounds its planet. Although there have been claims for other exomoons (moons beyond the Solar System), these are now under […]

Astigmatism – you’ve probably heard of it, you might even have it, but what actually is it? Let’s find out. What is astigmatism? You might’ve guessed already from the title (or hearing the term bandied about in an optometrist’s office), but astigmatism is an eye problem that leads those with it to have symptoms including […]

This week, the “world’s most advanced humanoid robot” had a conversation with its new buddy Azi and the footage is slightly terrifying, ultra-powerful MRI scans reveal that COVID-19 damages a major brain “control center”, and Lucy the Australopithecus may have had hands capable of using tools 3.2 million years ago. Finally, we look at how […]

We’ve all been there: you take the fast food chain apple pie out of its case, bite into it, and immediately regret every decision that ever took you to the point where you somehow forgot that these things inevitably feel hotter than the actual sun. Panicking, you blow desperately at the snack to cool it […]

There is a town in Nebraska that holds a dubious status in American history. It has a population consisting of a single person: Elsie Eiler. Welcome to Monowi, the smallest incorporated town in the United States. Although Monowi’s population is now somewhat small, it used to be considerably larger. Back in the 1930s, the tiny […]

For the first time in 35 years, the US National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has manufactured a plutonium pit for use in a nuclear weapon. Functioning as a radioactive core for nuclear weapons, the component has been declared war-ready and marks the beginning of a scaling-up initiative that will see 80 plutonium pits created per […]