News

While photographing the auroras during a geomagnetic storm, Mike Lewinski caught sight of something extraordinary: a brilliant white beam of light tearing through the night sky. He was shooting from the quiet town of Crestone, Colorado, on May 16, as a moderate geomagnetic storm rippled across the Northern Hemisphere. Celestial events like this occur when […]

Welcome back to the world of differently colored animals. From 1-in-100,000 coloring found on an elk, to gorgeous white stingarees floating along the seafloor, the animal world can sure throw a spanner in the works when it comes to “typical” coloration. Now the latest creature to join the party is a diamondback rattlesnake, without the diamonds. The […]

Sand dredging off the coast of Java has recovered more than 6,000 bones, including two fragments of skulls of the early humans Homo erectus. H. erectus and the other animals found there lived on territory long since swallowed by the sea. The finds refute the idea that early humans were isolated on Indonesian islands, showing […]

In 1973, an article appeared in the journal Science, documenting one of the most notorious experiments in psychiatric history. The study would go on to make shockwaves in the media, and played its part in the reform of psychiatric diagnoses in the USA and around the world. But is it all it seems? The paper […]

White-faced capuchin monkeys on Jicarón Island have started abducting baby howler monkeys, surprised scientists report. It’s possible this behavior comes in waves, but it had not been detected in the first five years scientists intensively studied the population, and now appears to be spreading widely. The reasons are still unknown, but the authors think adolescent […]

Former US President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with an “aggressive” form of prostate cancer, according to a statement released by his office on May 18. “Last week, President Joe Biden was seen for a new finding of a prostate nodule after experiencing increasing urinary symptoms. On Friday he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, characterized […]

The future of immunizations could include “self-boosting” vaccines if an exciting new study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is anything to go by. The team is developing microparticles that slowly break down to release doses of vaccine on a timed schedule – theoretically, that means getting all the doses of a vaccine in […]

Quasars are a state when a supermassive black hole at the core of a galaxy is feeding at such a rate that it ends up spewing out more than it can chew. The material can glow so bright that it outshines the whole galaxy, and some of it can reach incredible speeds. Researchers have discovered […]

If you’ve never questioned how on Earth humanity has survived this long, just have a scroll through social media and you’ll soon come to. Not only has it revealed that people are eating sticks of butter, huffing toxic fumes, and spreading serious levels of health misinformation, but now people are shaving off their eyelashes, too […]

Orcas are apex predators of the ocean, capable of taking down a variety of species and even the occasional yacht. However, in Iceland, there are orca groups that specialize in hunting fish, in particular herring. Observations in different years have revealed juvenile pilot whale calves among these groups – so were the orcas trying to […]

Another of Colorado’s reintroduced gray wolves has died. The female wolf was reported dead in northwest Colorado on May 15, marking the seventh death among the wolves reintroduced to the state in recent years. In a short statement, Colorado Parks and Wildlife said the cause of death will not be revealed until the necropsy and […]

They might look pretty, but Callery pear trees are an invasive species in the US and have the potential to cause chaos in the local ecosystem. But perhaps worst of all, they really, really stink.  Callery pear trees, also known as Bradford pear trees, are an ornamental tree that’s been in the country for just over […]

Tattoos found on the face and arm of an ancient South American mummy are completely unlike any other known examples of ancient body art. Describing the tatts in a new study, researchers say the designs are unique not only in their composition, but also in the type of ink that was used to create them. […]

A decade ago, researchers found what was considered the best evidence for the flow of very salty water on Mars: the occasional formation of dark streaks on the sides of dunes. The possibility of water plays a huge role in the possibility of life, so for a decade, scientists have been checking, double-checking, arguing, and […]

Surgeons in the US have successfully performed the first human bladder transplant. The surgery, which was completed at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center on May 4, marks a “historic moment in medicine”, the team behind it says. Bladder transplants are already an incredibly complex procedure, hindered further by the complicated vascular structure of the pelvic […]

There’s still much to uncover about Egypt’s pyramids. For example, what lies within the massive void sealed inside the Great Pyramid of Giza 4,500 years ago? And how, exactly, were the building materials transported to the site before construction began? Let’s start with the basics: how many sides does the Great Pyramid of Giza – […]

Rubber is naturally white, so why are car tires black? According to Bridgestone, a Japanese manufacturing company, this wasn’t always the case. Car tyres used to be white but the addition of carbon black has become routine because it improves durability.  Carbon black is almost (97 percent) pure carbon. It is created during a process […]

It’s not hard to see why China’s life-size terracotta army might earn the unofficial moniker “eighth wonder of the world”. The 8,000-strong militia is a testament to exceptional craftsmanship and collaboration on a vast scale, not to mention the strength of one man’s dedication to the quest for eternal life.  The 2,200-year-old monument lies northeast […]

Paprika, and its more flavorful cousin, smoked paprika, shows up in everything from paella to paprika tea. You’d think most people would have at least a rough idea of what it’s made from. But according to a slew of recent internet revelations, that assumption would be very wrong. In a post by Australian food company […]

This week, Homo naledi – the extinct human species of Netflix fame – had hands that were partially adapted to climbing, new research has revealed. Robert F. Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, says people shouldn’t take medical advice from him, and for the first time ever, visible aurorae have been seen from the surface […]