News

In February 1971, physicists working at the National Accelerator Laboratory (NAL), Illinois, were faced with a puzzle. They were testing a new state-of-the-art machine they had built. The 200-billion-electron-volt (BeV) proton synchrotron particle accelerator was not only extremely sophisticated, but it was also the largest machine in the world at the time. To say its […]

China has long been touted as a revolutionary when it comes to wind power. Earlier this year, it was reported that the country had begun construction of a wind farm using what were then hailed as the largest turbines ever seen, each with a capacity of 16 megawatts. Now, a new milestone has been reached, […]

Rats, to some, are a menace – but to others, they are an adorable cutie-pie of a pet. Scientists have now identified that a part of the rat’s brain called the periaqueductal gray (PAG) is critical for laughter and playfulness, all through tickling them.   Playing is necessary for development and forming connections in both […]

There’s nothing more badass than heading into battle with a space arrow in your quiver, and one Bronze Age dude (or lady) knew exactly how that felt. After scanning an area of Switzerland for archaeological artifacts made of meteoritic iron, researchers discovered a single arrowhead that had been forged from extraterrestrial metal. Reporting their find […]

Across the animal queendom, some species do without sex, reproducing asexually. For some wasps and lizards this is a common thing. In other cases, it’s a rare resort for a female with no males – or at least no males she considers worth her time – around. Animals in captivity astonish their keepers now and […]

If you are ever lucky enough to travel down the Peruvian Amazon, you may see a rather magical sight. Amongst all the incredible animal species that the area is home to, butterflies have been filmed doing something rather incredible: drinking the tears of the turtles that live there. Tropical entomologist and science communicator Phil Torres […]

Aliens are big news at the moment, what with the accounts of potential extraterrestrial encounters being discussed in Congress. No matter what you personally believe about the possibility of alien visitation, there is no denying the sheer amount of dodgy evidence used by some to support their existence. This has nothing to do with whether […]

Hidden below Guatemala’s lush Petén rainforest lies an ancient city not touched by humans for more than 1,000 years, but in its heyday, it was home to millions of Mesoamericans who built a sophisticated, sprawling empire. Now, for the first time, a team of international archaeologists has discovered and mapped tens of thousands of ancient […]

This week, bowhead whales were found to possibly be pregnant for up to two years making them a contender for the longest gestation in a mammal, magnetic heat waves might be able to explain why the solar corona is so much hotter than the sun’s surface, and we investigate the extremely rare medical case of […]

If you have ever seen any forensics show, we’re sure you will have seen some blood showing up in a darkened room like a deathly glow-in-the-dark art project. But, what is actually making it glow? Put yourself in the shoes of a killer. The body is now gone, but there is a suspicious pool of […]

Pop the champagne and blow out the candles, because a new baby has been born – a baby volcano, that is. On July 10, 2023, three cracks appeared at the base of a mountain in Iceland, spurting lava and gas into the air. While two of the cracks closed overnight, the remaining one has since […]

An “earthquake” was recorded by a seismologist in Seattle recently – but the culprit wasn’t the grinding of tectonic plates, oh no. It was the Shake It Off of the Swifties. The “Swift Quake” caused by Taylor Swift concerts was recorded by seismologist Jackie Caplan-Auerbach, reports CNN, and it made the 2011 “Beast Quake” of […]

“A diamond is forever.” That iconic slogan, coined for a highly successful advertising campaign in the 1940s, sold the gemstones as a symbol of eternal commitment and unity. But our new research, carried out by researchers in a variety of countries and published in Nature, suggests that diamonds may be a sign of break up […]

As the old saying goes, “curiosity killed the cat” – so it’s with abject apologies to our feline friends that we inform you of a new study, which showed curiosity could be key to boosting learning and memory. In an experiment that had participants pretending to plan an art heist, researchers at Duke University saw […]

Ancient pathogens that escape from thawing permafrost have the potential to survive in modern microbial communities, sometimes killing off their diversity and becoming the dominant strain. Further down the line, the impact of this is unforeseeable – and it’s this unpredictability that scientists are most worried about.  To reach these findings, scientists used intensely detailed […]

Every now and then on the Internet, people discover something about food that you thought everyone already knew. Hey, we’re all learning, right? Last month it was the turn of paprika and allspice, but now it’s our old friend Parmesan cheese under the spotlight. “Today years old when I found out Parmesan cheese is made […]

Indigenous Australians have long treasured Camponotus inflatus, known as honey ants or honeypot ants. The honey is valued not just for its sweet taste, but for its ability to heal wounds and sore throats. Researchers tested the golden liquid, thinking they might find something like the remarkable antimicrobial properties of Manuka honey. Instead, they found something […]

Yesterday, a US Congressional hearing gathered to hear testimony from three witnesses of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs). While Former Navy Pilot Ryan Graves and Retired US Navy commander David Fravor voiced their concern for the need for a reporting system for UAP sightings, former US Air Force intelligence officer and whistleblower David Grusch detailed accounts […]

The “Snowball Earth” event has always been mysterious, but now scientists think that a ginormous volcanic eruption could have been the cause of it.  Around 717 million years ago, there was an enormous climate catastrophe. The Earth’s temperatures plunged dramatically and glaciers enveloped the globe for 57 million years; from outer space it would have […]