News

Mount Sinai – a deeply sacred site in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam – is the location where Moses was given the Ten Commandments stone tablets by God, according to the Book of Exodus in the Hebrew Bible. Like many settings in the Bible, it’s thought to be based on a real place, although where exactly […]

Something strange is going on in Florida (well, stranger than usual). Critically endangered smalltooth sawfish have been spotted erratically spinning and whirling around in the Lower Florida Keys, while dozens more have died under mysterious circumstances. The situation has become so severe that the NOAA Fisheries has initiated a first-of-its-kind emergency response effort to prevent […]

As a result of concerns over the survival of owl species native to western North America, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has made a draft proposal to cull nearly half a million barred owls over the course of three decades. This plan, however, has been met with uproar by animal advocacy groups. Barred […]

Songwriters may be Under Pressure, but they just don’t get Into The Groove like they did back in the 1980s. That’s the conclusion of a new study looking at the evolution of song lyrics from 1980 to 2020, which found that while the meaningful verses created by earlier artists could sound Like A Prayer, more […]

The Barberton Greenstone Belt in South Africa contains some of the oldest exposed rocks on Earth, some over 3.6 billion years old. It also contains some layers, a bit younger than that, which have perplexed geologists as they looked like a jumble of different rocks put together. Researchers now have a proposal: That portion is […]

“Life imitates art” might be an overused cliché, but a newly discovered gecko species found among rocks in the Western Ghats in India appears to be taking the phrase quite literally. Back in April 2022, a team of researchers had set out on an expedition in the deciduous forests of the southern Western Ghats – […]

Precision time-keeping has a new record. Researchers have created a clock with an uncertainty of about 8 parts per tenth of a billionth of a billionth. This level of precision is so incredibly small that it would take the clock slightly less than three times the age of the universe to lose a single second […]

A new partnership between Re:wild and Colossal Biosciences hopes to prevent the extinction of some of the world’s rarest animals, like the critically endangered vaquita. Colossal, a de-extinction company known for wanting to bring back the mammoth, has paired up with the conservation giant – headed up by scientists and Leonardo DiCaprio – to create […]

As if we needed any more evidence of the wonder of dogs, new research is showing that some service pups may be able to add a new skill to their resumes. As well as those that sniff out serious conditions like cancer and Parkinson’s disease, some proficient pooches may be able to detect symptoms such […]

News of Japan’s Smart Lander for Investigating Moon’s (SLIM) demise are greatly exaggerated. SLIM landed on the Moon in late January, demonstrating high precision landing on another world – unfortunately, it landed a little wonky which complicated the whole operation. Still, the tech was clearly strong enough to survive the dramatic drop in temperature experienced […]

We know by now that the deep ocean is full of frankly bizarre-looking animals like Barbie pigs and funky things with tentacles, and we love it. Now deep-sea sea cucumbers are getting in on the act, with three new species discovered in the South China Sea. Five scientific expeditions from 2018-2023 were taken using the […]

There is a reason some people chase solar eclipses around the world: this is definitely not a phenomenon where if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. Instead, each solar eclipse is different, and the April 8 North American total solar eclipse will likely come with a few extra features, including an abundance of red, […]

Animals get a pretty bad rap when it comes to spreading viruses. After all, some of the most well-known infectious diseases in humans – think COVID-19, Ebola, or swine flu – are the result of viruses that naturally circulate in animals. But a new study might just salvage that reputation, with researchers having found that […]

The skulls of two baby predators found littered among a nest containing the near-complete embryo of an Oviraptor puzzled scientists when they described the find back in 1994. Why were these Velociraptor-like animals in such close association with what appeared to be the nest of its prey? The juiciest among several explanations is that it […]

There are few things we enjoy hearing of more than a rediscovered species. Since the rare Santa Marta sabrewing (Campylopterus phainopeplus), a beautiful blue and green hummingbird, was unexpectedly rediscovered in 2022 after 64 years as a lost species, researchers have been studying this striking bird to learn more about this extremely rare population. “The […]

Next time you’re bracing for a long-haul flight, spare a thought for Robert Timm and John Cook. In 1958-1959, the two pilots set the record for the world’s longest-ever flight when they flew non-stop for 64 days, 22 hours, and 19 minutes over Las Vegas, landing on February 7, 1959. In total, the journey clocked […]

Taking cannabidiol (CBD) for chronic pain is unlikely to have much of an effect, but it may at least relieve you of some of the weight in your wallet, a new study has found. After analyzing the results of existing clinical trials involving CBD, researchers found that there is simply no evidence that the compound […]

Indigenous leaders from across the Pacific have officially ratified the He Whakaputanga Moana (Declaration for the Ocean), a document that calls for whales to have legal personhood and all the rights that come with it. “The sound of our ancestor’s song has grown weaker, and her habitat is under threat, which is why we must […]

Invisibility cloaks were once the stuff of ancient myth and sci-fi, but a British start-up has been busy spending the past four years making them a reality.  Invisibility Shield Co. released their first-generation product in 2022 with much online fanfare and hype. Now, the company is looking to launch their latest second-generation shields that are […]

By far the biggest drama queens of the fruit and vegetable world are the alliums: the onions, garlic, leeks, shallots, and various bulbous cousins. Oh, they may look calm and innocent when they’re sitting pretty in the grocery store or your cupboard – but as soon as you cut into them, out come the waterworks. […]