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Practice, the saying goes, makes perfect. And, if you believe a common piece of wisdom, it’s a specific amount of practice: 10,000 hours. Make that threshold, the advice goes, and you will achieve expertise, no matter how low your skill level at the start. It’s an attractive idea, not least because it implies that greatness […]

For some ophiophobes, even the thought of a snake is enough to set pulses racing. But while there might be something to fear from the pythons and king cobras of the world, surely most people could be persuaded to enjoy the world’s smallest snake? Meet the Barbados threadsnake. The rest of this article is behind […]

The man who first unified China in 221 BCE was so determined to live forever that he commanded a group of alchemists to venture to a mythical mountain in search of the source of eternal youth. Evidence of this harebrained mission has now been discovered on the shore of Gyaring Lake on the Tibetan Plateau, […]

Two centuries ago, a French inventor gazed out of his window in Saint-Loup-de-Varennes and captured a defining moment in the history of science (not to mention art). As the sunlight poured down on the rooftops ahead, Nicéphore Niépce set up a peculiar contraption on his windowsill: a darkened box holding a pewter plate coated with […]

Fifteen years after launch, Japan has announced the end of the “Planet C” mission, leaving humanity with no presence around Venus. In May 2010, Japan’s Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched the “Planet C” spacecraft – also known as “Akatsuki” or the Venus Climate Orbiter – towards Earth’s “sister planet”. The early stages of the mission […]

For 20 years, National Geographic explorer and archaeologist Kathleen Martínez has been on a mission to find Cleopatra. It’s the sort of thing someone might tell you, only for you to roll your eyes and think “you and every other archaeologist,” but Martínez has been piecing together some very curious finds discovered in places that […]

From plankton to seabirds, it’s bad news for foodwebs in the Pacific and coastal environments: there are some hints that the Blob may be back for another round. Clues about the possible reemergence of the Blob – a recurring Pacific marine heatwave – can be seen in this summer’s global ocean data.  In August 2025, […]

Inaccessible environments and secretive species make discovering certain aspects of animal biology challenging. However, new research has revealed something surprising about the mating habits of leopard sharks. Never-before-seen behavior filmed in the wild has shown that in the leopard shark world, it takes more than two to tango. The rest of this article is behind […]

High energy scans or the body looking for tumors or infections could be greatly improved by adopting perovskite detectors instead of the fragile or low-resolution options currently in use, a new study reports. The process would not only make the diagnosis of health threats more accurate, but reduce exposure to radiation that can cause problems […]

Measuring 6.17 meters (20 feet and 3 inches) from snout to tail, Lolong was the largest crocodile ever caught, measured, and placed in captivity. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content. The male saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) was officially measured in November 2011, […]

A poem of praise for the famous sultan Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub (Saladin) has been misdated, a new paper argues, and refers not to an unusually close planetary conjunction but to the supernova of 1181. If the claim is correct, the poem’s words could be of scientific value to astronomers hoping to establish how […]

In the latest of many, many predictions of the end of the world, the Earth is set to end on Tuesday, September 23, 2025, according to a conspiracy theory going wild on TikTok and X.  Every now and then, someone (sometimes, but not always, Isaac Newton) suggests that the world is about to end in […]

Fast-moving objects like interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS may be planet-forming seeds, potentially helping to solve an old Solar System mystery. On July 1, 2025, astronomers spotted an object moving through the Solar System at nearly twice the velocity of previous interstellar visitors ‘Oumuamua and Comet Borisov. The object, which was confirmed to be an interstellar comet […]

Imagine yourself by a stream in Shuitangba, China, 6 million years ago. The birds are singing, the Sun is shining, and you’ve just woken up to find a wolf-sized otter sniffing your toes. That impressive beast is Siamogale melilutra, and it’s the largest known carnivore in its ecosystem. The rest of this article is behind […]

Will Ferrell’s tongue approaching white dog poop to the backing track of Tristan Und Isolde by Richard Wagner is a scene few will be able to forget after watching Step Brothers. As punishments go it’s a pretty good one chosen by the bullies victimizing Brennan and Dale, and it’s also kind of intriguing. What’s going on with white dog poop? […]

On Thursday, September 18, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) met to vote on possible changes to its recommendations to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) with respect to three different vaccines: MMRV (measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella), hepatitis B, and COVID-19. After Thursday’s meeting ended in confusion, with some key […]

If you’ve never had sex, your genetics could be partly responsible – but not as much as your physical characteristics, location, and behavior. That’s the conclusion drawn from a new study that analyzed the observable characteristics and genetics of more than 400,000 adults from the UK and Australia – though the researchers say that a […]

This week, scientists digging in Mongolia’s Gobi Desert have discovered a new species of pachycephalosaur that pushes back their emergence by 15 million years. We now have the first-ever full history of an asteroid, from its discovery to collecting its meteorites, and scientists are baffled by marine “y-larvae” whose adult form remains a mystery. Finally, […]

They say music is the language of the soul, which is fitting given a pivotal soundtrack of classical music once saved the souls of roughly 2,000 beluga whales in the Chukchi Peninsula, the easternmost peninsula of Asia. Here, in 1985, an enormous herd of beluga whales was spotted by local residents, which was no doubt a pleasing sight at […]

The 35th Ig Nobel prizes honor (or dishonor) research on the pizza preferences of lizards, the effect of garlic consumption on breast milk, and Teflon’s place in a weight loss program. Two studies on the effects of alcohol – on bats’ flying capacity and humans speaking a second language – have won aviation and peace […]