News

This week, an “alien” signal from Mars received just over a year ago has finally been decoded, with just eight confirmed individuals, polar-grizzly bear hybrids are “extremely rare”, and it turns out a trip to space could (temporarily) reverse aging. Finally, we meet (literally) the enormous and stinky corpse flower, Amorphophallus titanium. Advertisement Subscribe to […]

It’s been over four years since COVID-19 was officially declared a pandemic, and despite best efforts, the virus that causes it is still very much kicking about. That’s in large part thanks to it evolving into multiple different variants, the latest of which has been dubbed KP.3. Advertisement KP.3 is one of the FLiRT variants of […]

On a recent aerial survey off the New England coast, researchers from NOAA Fisheries made 161 whale sightings in a single day, a vast proportion of which were of the rare and endangered sei whale. Advertisement The flight took place on May 25 and saw the team cover an area south of Martha’s Vineyard and […]

With the cost of living rising, many people are switching up their supermarket habits in order to save money, particularly when it comes to vegetables. Frozen veg is often on the cheaper side, but some might believe that fresh is inherently “better” for you – so which really packs more of a nutritional punch? Advertisement […]

With the reality of climate change pushing society to consider alternatives to fossil fuels, a potential new source of renewable energy has appeared in a somewhat unusual form: algae. Advertisement A highly diverse group of organisms, algae are also photosynthetic, meaning they use sunlight, water, and carbon to produce oxygen and energy. If scientists are […]

In 1846, astronomer and mathematician Urbain Le Verrier sat down and attempted to locate a planet that had never been seen before by humans. Uranus (growing up) had been moving in unexpected ways, as predicted by the Newtonian theory of gravity. Advertisement Though the discrepancies were small, there was a difference between the observed orbit of […]

Putting together the puzzle of Earth’s history is made all the more difficult with the knowledge that pieces will inevitably be missing – or so palaeontologists thought. A team led by researchers from Stanford University has discovered a single site that records the development of life over an astonishing 120 million years. Advertisement Paleontologists’ view […]

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]. Why does pizza taste so good? – Annika, age 5, Oneonta, New York Pizza is one of the world’s most popular foods. In the U.S., 350 slices are eaten every […]

Toxic gas used in petrochemical manufacturing has been detected at levels a thousand times higher than what is considered safe in Louisiana. Advertisement The chemical in question is ethylene oxide, an extremely flammable and colorless gas with a slightly sweet smell. It has a variety of industrial uses, including the production of products like antifreeze, […]

A new potential world record has been set and achieved by an enormous, finned critter. Back in March this year, a Western Pacific Leatherback turtle left its nesting sites in the Solomon Islands and then dove 4,409 feet (1,344 meters) below the waves. Advertisement This achievement beat the previous record holder by 210 feet (64 […]

A group of experts working with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) have proposed a new definition for long COVID, in the hopes of bringing long-awaited clarity  Advertisement The previous lack of consensus when it comes to defining long COVID can be problematic in many ways, but particularly for those who experience […]

Ever put your foot in it by presuming that someone’s date was actually their sibling? It’s surprisingly easy to do, and a pretty unfortunate way of kicking off a social interaction. If you were looking for a handy guide to help prevent you making these kinds of faux pas, we’re sorry that we’ll have to […]

Rare gene variants passed down from our Neanderthal relatives have been linked to the development of autism in a new study.  Advertisement Scientists at Clemson University and Loyola University New Orleans found that rare Neanderthal variants are significantly more common in autistic people compared to non-autistic people at a population-wide level.  Advertisement These rare variants […]

There are a lot of surprisingly long-lived species out there, from the Greenland shark that can live to around 400 years old, to a clam that could have survived much longer than its 507 years if it wasn’t accidentally killed. Now, scientists have discovered the world’s oldest known marine plant, and it’s a whopping 1,400 years […]

Given that humans have a fair few body parts, it’s understandable that anatomists had to get a bit creative when it came to naming them. That being said, some of those names are downright odd – so where did they come from? Coccyx Better known as the tailbone, the coccyx is the final segment of […]

There’s something rotten in the kingdom of Great Britain. One of the smelliest plants on Earth is about to bloom in London. Not in the street, but in the tropical rainforest glasshouse of Kew Gardens, which hosts the “largest and most diverse botanical and mycological collections in the world”. Among the gems of this collection […]

Bill Gates has helped “break ground” on the development of a new next-generation nuclear reactor. The project, which is run between TerraPower and the Department of Energy, plans to build a new sodium test reactor at a site in Kemmerer, Wyoming by 2030. Advertisement The nuclear industry has been in decline in the USA for […]

“Damnatio ad bestias” were probably the three most feared Latin words in Roman times, and signaled a truly horrifying fate for those unlucky enough to be sentenced with this awful phrase. Literally meaning “condemnation to beasts”, this cruel and unusual punishment saw criminals ripped apart by wild animals for the entertainment of the general public. […]