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As summer ends and authorities begin to roll out preparations for this year’s respiratory virus season, health officials in the US have announced that households across the country will be offered free COVID-19 tests in the coming fall and winter. Advertisement In a CDC press briefing on August 23, Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response […]

Tracks of near-identical dinosaur prints have been found across two continents, demonstrating how the dinosaurs that made them 120 million years ago were among the last to be able to complete their journey. That’s because this was when the supercontinent Gondwana broke off from Pangea, severing the geological connection. The prints were discovered in Brazil […]

Almost a year since its launch and eight months since landing on the Moon, Japan’s SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) mission is officially over. The Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) confirmed the decision in a press statement on August 26. SLIM was last heard from in late April but survived much longer than its intended […]

Whirlpools appear when fast-flowing water interacts with other currents or obstacles. Faced with a worthy opponent, the water begins to swirl in a downward spiral, creating a vortex capable of sucking in objects – or animals – that happen to be nearby. Advertisement Some whirlpools are small and brief while others can be enormous and […]

The apparent crisis in our models of the universe – caused by impossibly large galaxies soon after the Big Bang – may be no crisis at all, according to a new study. The authors conclude the galaxies in question are not as large as has been estimated. If this work is correct, the JWST has […]

The job of ruling over ancient Egypt was largely thought of as a man’s work, yet one woman had the proverbial balls to break with tradition and reign supreme during the 15th century BCE. Her name was Hatshepsut, and while the achievements of her 21 years in power place her among Egypt’s greatest pharaohs, a […]

Fish having teeth is a bit disconcerting to say the least. I mean, have you seen a pacu? There’s one species, however, that takes its chompers to the absolute extreme. No, not the great white shark. We’re talking about Sloane’s viperfish (Chauliodus sloani), aka the deep-sea demon from your nightmares, and its massive gnashers. Advertisement […]

The former head of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), Peter Bridgewater, believes the organization has become a “zombie” institution that should be disbanded, along with any other wildlife protection conventions that complete their work. Advertisement The IWC was formed in 1946 when the International Commission for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW) was signed. This was […]

The first mission of the Polaris Program, called Polaris Dawn, will fly tomorrow from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This is a commercial mission, but it is not a simple joyride into space – it will conduct scientific research and break a few records in its five days or so in orbit. Advertisement The mission […]

Officials from the CDC have advised healthcare providers and the public to stay alert for the highly contagious respiratory virus, parvovirus B19, as cases appear to be increasing across the US. So, what is there to know about it?  What is parvovirus B19? Parvovirus B19 is a small, seasonal virus that only infects humans (it’s […]

Issue 26 (September 2024) of CURIOUS is out now, bringing you science highlights for the month plus deep dives into intriguing topics, interviews, exclusives, diary dates, and explanations for some of Earth’s most perplexing natural phenomena and landscapes. Read Issue 26 of our digital magazine now by clicking below! Use the arrows to navigate or […]

There are many features on a car that have a clear purpose (even if it seems like some people don’t know what the stick on the side of the steering wheel is for), but spend enough time in one and you’ll notice things that have no obvious explanation. What’s that weird thing on the dashboard? […]

The island of Sark, which sits in the English Channel, is well-known for its quirks; you’re more likely to see someone there riding a horse than driving, thanks to a ban on cars. It has one unique trait that stands out, above the rest, however – back in 2011, it became the world’s first-ever Dark […]

We’ve all experienced a headache at some point, and no doubt many of us have googled our symptoms and concluded our death was imminent. Thankfully, while they might be unpleasant, most headaches aren’t so nefarious – but why do we get them in the first place?  Advertisement There are so many different types of headache […]

Park officials from Joshua Tree National Park in California have had to close parts of the grounds to visitors as a safety precaution, after a need for water brought a whole bunch of bees into the area. Advertisement The temporary closure was announced by the park earlier this week on Instagram, and applies to the […]

The first light free to move through the universe is what we now call the cosmic microwave background, emitted 380,000 years after the Big Bang. Before then, photons – the particles of light – were constantly interacting with matter, so we can’t use light to see what happened back then. But gravitational waves were already moving freely, […]

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to [email protected]. Advertisement Could we use volcanoes to make electricity? – Lawrence, age 7, Dublin, California Turning red-hot lava from an active volcano into electricity would be dangerous and unreliable. Volcanoes don’t […]

This week, the massive aurora-sparking solar storm we experienced this spring has given Earth a new ring, human trials for a universal flu vaccine may begin in 1-3 years after success in ferrets, and we investigate why the Rift Valley may not be the cradle of humankind. Finally, we explain how you use supermassive black […]

If you could be any cephalopod, which would you be? Perhaps a jellyfish-riding paper nautilus, or maybe even an adorable deep-sea dumbo? No doubt those are excellent choices, but we think we’ve found a strong new contender: the small and stripy sea-dwelling dumpling that is the striped pyjama squid (Sepioloidea lineolate). Advertisement What’s in a […]