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Vortex rings are pretty cool, and electromagnetism even cooler. Now, a team of physicists have found a way to combine the two phenomena, creating the electromagnetic vortex cannon. Advertisement In fluids (which includes gases) vortex rings can be created thanks to frictional forces as a jet moves through the fluid at higher velocities than the […]

A new COVID-19 variant has recently arrived on the scene, and while it hasn’t yet risen to dominance, experts suggest that XEC could be the next big variant to watch. Advertisement 2024 has seen something of a “summer of COVID”. The virus made its presence known at several of this year’s major sporting events, including […]

New research challenges what we know of our planet’s ancient past, suggesting that a ring formed around the Earth around 466 million years ago. Not only could this hypothesis explain an unusually high period of impacts captured in the geological record, but it may have also influenced the planet’s climate. Advertisement The Earth has a […]

She might only be two months old, but viral pygmy hippo sensation Moo Deng from the Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Chonburi, Thailand has already established herself as the “It Girl” of the zoo animal world.  Advertisement Moo Deng was born on July 10 to parents Jona and Tony and introduced to her ever-growing legions […]

Sediments deposited during the time when Mars had a large ocean cover structures whose high densities have been detected in the process of gravity-mapping the planet. Their nature and cause remain a mystery, however. The same mapping process suggests that the largest volcano in the Solar System, Olympus Mons, may be getting larger still, as […]

Poison-laced weaponry may have entered the arsenal of European hunter-gatherers more than five millennia ago, say the authors of a new study. If confirmed, this finding would totally upend our understanding of Stone Age hunting, suggesting that complex armaments came into play far earlier than we thought. Advertisement At present, the earliest definitive evidence for […]

An expedition exploring the marine biodiversity off the coast of Southern California recently spotted a remarkable sea slug known as the Spanish shawl. It’s just one of a host of curious sea creatures observed so far in Oceana and Blancpain’s second ocean expedition in the region. The goal? To bolster the region’s reputation as the […]

Researchers have determined that the Great Dying, the mass extinction event that occurred 252 million years ago was likely accentuated by catastrophic “mega El Niños” that devastated ecosystems. These extreme weather events caused significant swings in the climate that killed off vast amounts of life. Advertisement The Great Dying, also known as the Permian-Triassic extinction […]

Defense systems found in all complex life (eukaryotes), including us, were likely passed down from “microbial ancestors” known as Asgard archaea billions of years ago. According to recent research, these single-celled organisms are the source of two key elements of our innate immune system: viperins and argonautes. Advertisement Asgard archaea – also called Asgardarchaeota – […]

A team at ETH Zurich is pushing the boundaries of what can be achieved with neurostimulation and neuronal recording technology thanks to the super-flexible electrode bundles they have developed. Rather than traditional electrodes, which can cause some damage to brain tissue when they are inserted, the fibers can seamlessly integrate into the web of dendritic […]

Zimbabwe’s government has announced plans to cull 200 elephants, in an effort to manage growing numbers of the animals amid an ongoing severe drought. Advertisement It’s estimated that Zimbabwe is home to nearly 100,000 African elephants (Loxodonta species), but speaking in parliament on August 11, the country’s environment minister Sithembiso Nyoni  said that was “more elephants […]

While most of us wouldn’t fancy being in the -2°C (28.4°F) water underneath Antarctica’s winter ice, for the sea-dwelling critters that usually live there, it’s positively balmy compared to the surface above. In fact, life thrives there – that is, until a so-called “finger of death” appears. Advertisement In the clip below from the BBC […]

Sleep is an essential part of our lives, a fact made all the more obvious when we end up having problems with it – and a lot of people do, with about one in three adults in the US reporting that they don’t get enough rest or sleep every day. Advertisement You can try exercising, […]

This week, a Chinese radar observed plasma bubbles over the pyramids of Giza from 8,000 kilometers (4,970 miles) away, a man spotted an unusual spherical structure while browsing Google Maps, and the world’s first eye and face transplant patient is making incredible developments one year on from surgery. Finally, we investigate if orcas really deserve […]

You ever read a study and think, “yeah, this one was personal”?  Advertisement A new paper from a trio of physicists has taken aim at that most frustrating manifestation of office diplomacy: the quest to schedule a meeting. The question at hand: how difficult is it to find a time when all participants are free? […]

A curious tale out of southeast Georgia tells of an eastern indigo snake that had been captured, only to vomit up two more snakes to the surprise of captor Matt Moore of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR). The wildlife technician continued to get more than he bargained for when one of the two […]

The moon illusion baffled the great philosophers of ancient Greece and the most brilliant minds of the Scientific Revolution – and it continues to defy a solid explanation.  Advertisement Have you ever noticed the Moon looks bigger when it’s rising or setting? This is the Moon illusion, an optical misperception that causes the moon to […]

If the name Turtle Island sounds familiar to you, this may well be why – if you’re in North America right now, it just so happens to be the very place you’re standing on. Turtle Island is the name used by some Indigenous peoples for the continent of North America (or the Earth as a […]

Remember Alvin, the world’s only giant anteater with albinism? On first glance, his distinguishing characteristic might seem to be his paler-than-usual fur. Look a little closer, however, and you’ll find that like the other rare few animals with albinism, Alvin has red eyes – but what leads to this appearance? Albinism and eyes To understand […]