News

Almost 60,000 years ago, a massive underwater avalanche took place just off the coast of Northwest Africa. Initially, about 1.5 cubic kilometers (0.36 cubic miles) of sediments rolled down across the Agadir Canyon, one of the largest in the world. As this sediment rolled down across the 450 kilometers (280 miles) of the submarine canyon, […]

For the first time, amber fragments have been recovered from Antarctica, or, to be more specific, from an offshore sedimentary basin. The fossils mean we now have amber samples from every continent, and provide information about Antarctica’s forests, which were once home to hardy dinosaurs. Atmospheric carbon dioxide was high in the Cretaceous, making the […]

Lovers of all things colorful and sparkly are in for a treat with an unusual variety of ammonite that’s set to go to auction later this month. The “gem” of an ammonite dates back 71 million years, and comes with a curious coating of ammolite, giving it a dazzling rainbow iridescence. “A ‘Gem’ Ammonite in […]

Voyager 2’s visit to Uranus in 1986 occurred just after the planet was slammed by an exceptionally powerful solar outburst. The heightened solar wind compressed the magnetosphere. According to new research, we’ve been treating that squashed magnetic field as standard for 40 years, causing scientists to think the planet has several strange features that are […]

The US government is preparing to “pull back the curtain” on UFOs in yet another public hearing this week. Transparency is the name of the game, so the whole hearing will be freely broadcast live to the public.  The hearing – titled “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Exposing the Truth” – will take place on Capitol Hill […]

Some animals need more help than others, and wild species can be rescued and returned to the wild after being nursed back to health. In some cases, they can even be recaptured after their release if they run into additional difficulties due to close monitoring. On that point, settle in folks – it’s time for […]

Japan has a problem – there aren’t enough truck drivers to meet demand. The solution? A stretch of highway connecting Tokyo and Osaka transformed into an automated cargo transport corridor that’s been dubbed a “conveyor belt road”. The project is being spearheaded by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT), with plans to […]

One of the weirdest sea slugs known to science has been discovered at a staggering depth, swimming around right down in the Midnight Zone between 1,013 to 4,009 meters (3,323 to 13,153 feet). As well as becoming the first sea slug known to live in the deep-water column, it also uses its body like a […]

At the bottom of Buffalo Ford Lake at Yellowstone National Park, researchers have found interesting clues about the natural history of the area. Before the 1800s CE, the American bison was thriving. Estimates of buffalo numbers on the continent vary from around 30 to 60 million at the start of the century, but that quickly […]

Immense glaciers once covered the entire Earth, reaching even the equator, geologists have confirmed. The discovery that this also applied in the center of continents, where conditions would have been very dry deepens the mystery of where and how life survives. Geologists learned of the existence of recent ice ages by finding the legacy of […]

The corpse flower is one of the strangest plants on the planet, famous for the hot stench of death it unleashes when in bloom – a rare and short-lived event that lures in as many tourists as it does pollinators. Opportunities to study the mechanisms behind the odorous performance are rare, but scientists with access […]

Arguably the most impressive example of prehistoric rock art ever discovered has finally been interpreted, and the meanings behind the images are truly mind-blowing. Collaborating with Indigenous elders in the Colombian Amazon, researchers learned that the epic collection of ancient paintings alludes to a hidden spiritual dimension that shamans are able to navigate by transforming […]

Perplexing white blobs have been washing up on the shores of Newfoundland, Canada, in recent months, and one team of scientists that investigated them says that some contain a mix of synthetic rubber and industrial adhesive. The Canadian government is also doing its own testing but doesn’t seem ready to draw conclusions at this point. […]

The dollar sign may be one of the most recognized symbols in the world. More than a denotation of currency, it’s become a potent emblem of wealth, capitalism, and (in some imaginations) either freedom or greed. Its origins, however, are not so clear.  One of the most common misconceptions is that the symbol stands for […]

There is a lot that we do not know about the Sun but something quite shocking to most people is that we have never seen its poles. All our observations have been looking at the Sun face-on and from that disadvantaged view, scientists aim to work out what is going on there. The latest model […]

A neuroscientist who famously taught rats how to drive back in 2019 has explained why she did it, what we learned from it, and how those findings might relate to humans. In 2019, a study went viral for fairly obvious reasons. It involved training rats to drive little rat cars around a laboratory, earning themselves […]

Aging happens in one direction, right? We’re all slowly getting older, accumulating gray hairs and wrinkles, and there’s no going back. While it’s true that as humans we’re not getting any younger, the same can’t be said for comb jellies. When the going gets tough, these strange sea creatures have the incredibly rare ability to […]

Greenhouse gases cause global warming – it’s a fact that we’ve all seen or heard at some point, perhaps more often than usual recently with climate conferences and elections. But how exactly do they have this effect? The greenhouse effect One of the simpler ways we can answer that question is by thinking about how […]

If you’ve ever seen a behind-the-scenes snippet from a nature documentary, you’ll have witnessed the grueling life of a wildlife filmmaker. From getting stuck inside bait balls to getting leeches on your eyeball, monitoring wildlife makes for a testing existence, so what if there was an easier way? What if, say, we could give the […]

When Mount St Helens erupted in 1980, the resulting lava, ash, and debris turned the landscape barren for miles around. It was clear the land would take a long time to recover from the eruption. But one team of scientists had an idea about how they could help speed up the process; sending a few […]