News

A stone disk depicting an ancient Maya ball game has been unearthed at the iconic site of Chichén Itzá in southern Mexico. Known simply as ‘pelota’ (‘ball’), the sport is believed to have played a significant role in the social and political life of the Maya Empire, and archaeologists think the artifact may commemorate a […]

Despite the fact that daily or frequent prayer is a staple part of many people’s lives, our understanding of its relationship to everyday life and overall psychological wellbeing is surprisingly poor. But new research has addressed this gap and its findings are fascinating – not only do the results show that the substance of people’s […]

Around the turn of the century, a number of huge tunnels were discovered in South America. After investigation, the scientists who discovered them found that they are not made by any humans, nor geological process. Professor of geology, Heinrich Frank, spotted a strange hole embedded in a hill at a construction site as he passed […]

We all know the feeling: you’re swanning about, not a care in the world, when you carelessly smack your elbow against a door handle or countertop, that almost insignificant-seeming bump sending a disproportionately painful twinge and tingling sensation down your arm. That’s right, we’re talking about the funny bone. While you’re almost certainly familiar with the […]

Heroin, cocaine, licorice, milk. Apart from being terrible consumables to offer a guest, they all have one thing in common: you can overdose on all of them. In a case report from 2012, doctors describe how one 54-year-old man found himself in a hospital unit, after chugging an excess of cow’s milk over the course […]

About 5 billion years ago, our Sun began to turn hydrogen into helium at its core to become a fully-fledged star. This baby Sun was surrounded by a disk of material – mostly hydrogen from the nebula it formed, but also more complex molecules. Interactions in this disk produced icy and dusty grains that grew […]

Do you like frogs? Good news: Five new tree frog species have been identified on the island of New Guinea, and some have a clever (and gross) way to disguise themselves by looking rather fecal. The species are all in the Litoria genus, and “hail from hill and lower montane forest along the southern versant […]

Drunk mice have been spared the prolonged pain of a hangover thanks to a genetically engineered probiotic that expresses an enzyme capable of breaking down alcohol. While simply drinking less is another way to swerve the knock-on health effects of alcohol, it’s hoped the treatment could one day be used in humans to reduce the […]

The Earth is losing species much faster than normal, or than new ones are evolving. The rate of loss may be the fastest since the aftermath of the asteroid that ended the reign of the dinosaurs, 65 million years ago. This has led some scientists to claim we are in a mass extinction; others have […]

The US has auctioned off an enormous patch of the Gulf of Mexico for fossil fuel drilling in spite of the Biden administration’s promises to address the deepening climate crisis and wean the country off fossil fuels.  On March 29, the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) held a lease sale for oil and […]

Iron is the all-important element that makes our blood red and keeps our immune systems in tip-top shape. Now, new research into iron within the Southern Ocean has revealed a dramatic drop due to a lack of penguin poop. The Southern Ocean contains high-nutrient, low-chlorophyll areas where the growth of phytoplankton is controlled by the availability […]

An accidental discovery in the ancient town of Old Dongola, Sudan, has revealed a set of medieval Christian paintings unlike any seen before. Old Dongola, in the North of Sudan, may not look like much to the untrained eye. Nestled in the eastern Sahara Desert, it’s been completely deserted since the 19th century, when its […]

Ghostly white tendrils exploding out the rear end of a sea cucumber might look like a horrible parasite infection to the uninitiated, but those trained in the ways of Holothuriidae know it’s a trap. When under threat, sea cucumbers unleash a defensive organ that’s sacrificially ejected to repel or fatally ensnare predators. Now, new research […]

Roulette is pretty much the ideal game for people who have no clue about gambling. You choose a number or a color (no need to get complicated) and the big, pretty spinning wheel chooses a number and color at random. Casinos are fans too. When the ball lands in the zero (or one of the […]

Chowing down on raw liver has recently become the in-vogue supplement for health nuts and gym bros looking to supercharge on nutrients. You’ll perhaps be aware of Liver King, a social media personality who’s gained a vast following on the basis that he eats raw organ meat every day. What a time to be alive. […]

A new species of semi-slug has been discovered in the hot lowland forests of Ulu Temburong National Park, Brunei, with the aid of citizen scientists. In case this is the first time you’re hearing of a semi-slug, sometimes called “snugs” by mollusk researchers, these slimy babies carry the halfway-house between a slug and a snail. […]

It doesn’t seem to matter how many times astrology gets debunked – many still believe that the movements of celestial bodies billions of kilometers away can dictate events here on Earth. It may be comforting to be able to blame a planet’s backwards orbit when you have a string of bad luck, or to believe […]

During the Capitanian age 260 million years ago, the oceans suffered a drastic loss of oxygen causing, or perhaps amplifying, widespread global extinctions. Then 3 million years later the same thing happened again, sediment records reveal. The findings could explain a major point of confusion about the Permian period, a time overshadowed by its catastrophic […]

Heterosexual couples who don’t follow traditional gender roles may be more likely to experience lower relationship satisfaction, and according to a recent study, this observation could at least partially be explained by the fact that while individuals may not set much store by gender norms, they’re so ingrained in our societies that it’s difficult to […]

Woollen clothing has been around for as long as humans have been wearing clothes and sheep have been domesticated. Indeed, our distant ancestors used sheep for three things: food, clothing and shelter – wool makes good insulation and helps to keep in the warmth. The UK is still one of the largest wool producers in […]