News

Indo-European languages are spoken by almost half of the world’s population, and while dialects as diverse as French and Bengali might seem completely unrelated, it is widely believed that they all share a common ancestor. For centuries, linguists have been arguing over the origins of this group of mother tongues, and researchers have now traced […]

Any fan of true crime shows understands the mystique surrounding psychopaths. It is not clear exactly what the appeal is, but there is certainly something fascinating about otherwise unassuming or charismatic characters – people we may live near, speak to in the office, or sit next to on the train – who turn out to […]

The family of Henrietta Lacks has reportedly reached a historic settlement with a biotech company that allegedly profited from the use of her cells, which were taken from Lacks decades ago without her consent or knowledge.  The legal action started in October 2021 when the living relatives of Henrietta Lacks filed a lawsuit against Thermo […]

Aquarists at Tennessee Aquarium were surprised to discover a new arrival waiting for them when they checked the swell shark tank last month. Swimming between its parents was a new swell shark baby. Also known as “glow sharks” because they glow under ultraviolet light, take a break and watch the little one glow as it […]

We live in paranoid times, it seems. Every day there’s a new claim on the Internet that purports to reveal secret truths, evidence of elaborate cover-ups, or general mass conspiracies that have duped us all. The latest one doing the rounds is the belief that historical footage of nuclear weapons tests is in fact fake. […]

Lunar lovers, this is your month. We are getting two Full Moons in August – a regular and a Blue Moon – and both of them will be particularly close to our planet, getting the appellative “super”. The first Supermoon is going to be tomorrow, August 1, with the following one on August 30, which […]

Some time in the first half of the first century BCE, a mystery individual was buried on a small island off the coast of England along with a unique array of grave goods. It took until 1999 for the body to be discovered, yet the presence of both a sword and a mirror – items […]

When you heat things, they expand. It’s why hot air rises and bridges sometimes buckle on very hot days. There’s an exception – crucial for much of life on Earth – for water at temperatures close to freezing, but otherwise, the pattern is close to universal. In 1895, Charles-Edouard Guillaume discovered a mixture of iron […]

A grim video shows the meticulous and deadly way orcas are attacking the largest fish in the ocean as a pod descend on a whale shark and suck out its liver. It’s not a pleasant watch but it is a fascinating and rare one, demonstrating the way in which orcas have learned to target large […]

In October 2020, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx flew down to the surface of asteroid Bennu to collect a sample of material. The spacecraft is on its way back to Earth now and it will drop the precious cargo on September 24. Bennu is the most dangerous known asteroid with a very small chance of hitting Earth in […]

Perovskite-based light emitting diodes (LEDs) could be the key to developing internet bandwidths orders of magnitude faster than what is now available, while also keeping energy consumption and cost down, researchers have claimed. Other potential applications lie in laser technology. Perovskite is a natural mineral first identified in Russia’s Ural Mountains in 1839 and composed […]

A man with quadriplegia has had partial movement and sensation restored to his hands and wrists following a first-of-its-kind clinical trial that implanted microchips into his brain. The brain implant forms an electronic bridge that uses artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to translate thoughts into actions, reconnecting the pathway between his brain and body that was […]

Giraffes mostly sleep standing up as a defence mechanism against predators, keeping them relatively safe as they sneak in a short nap. However, this isn’t possible during certain sleep stages, and the positions giraffes adopt to cope with their extraordinarily long necks are, quite frankly, hilarious. Giraffes are enormous animals topping heights of 4.8 to […]

An “astounding” and “unexpected” array of giant virus-like particles have been found lingering in the soil of Harvard Forest, Massachusetts. Not only are they abnormally large, but they’re also pretty weird, with “previously unimaginable” structures that throw into question everything we know about giant viruses and viral diversity. “The cornucopia of viral morphotypes found in […]

Washing your clothes is a pretty mundane chore, but it can be easily accomplished on Earth using detergent and a washing machine. And while hanging your clothes outside to dry can result in the best smells, keeping your space suit clean 384,400 kilometers (238,855 miles) away from the nearest washing machine – or even water […]

Surgically attaching the circulatory systems of old mice and new mice – a process called heterochronic parabiosis – seems to turn back the biological age of the older mouse. This research could be beneficial in analyzing the restorative effects of young blood in older individuals. Previous studies on mouse parabiosis have shown that it comes […]

Issue 13 (August 2023) 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. In This Issue… Advertisement OUR COVER STORY: Is Logic Flawed? Paradoxes have long posed a problem for […]

An ancient worm has wriggled back to life after 46,000 years frozen in Siberian permafrost. The tiny animals, called nematodes, were revived from a lengthy slumber, which began in the late Pleistocene some 45,839 to 47,769 years ago, radiocarbon analysis has revealed. That’s quite the catnap. As well as being impressively hardy, the microscopic critters […]

Exercise is good for your overall health and your heart in particular. Guidelines recommend that we should be doing 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous activity a week. But does it matter when you do this exercise? Should you spread it out in the week or does it lose some of the benefit if you cram it […]

In 1974, farmers stumbled across one of the most important archaeological discoveries of all time in an unassuming field in the Shaanxi province of China. While digging, they found fragments of a human figure made out of clay. This was just the tip of the iceberg. Archaeological excavations revealed the field was sitting above a […]