News

For the first time, astronomers have detected a burst of light from the smaller of two supermassive black holes (SMBH) within the blazar OJ 287. The smaller SMBH’s orbit regularly causes it to trigger outbursts in the larger SMBH’s accretion disk and the pair’s dance has drawn astronomers’ attention for decades, but this is the […]

Documented cases of parthenogenesis, often referred to as “virgin birth”, have been on the rise in recent years, and now crocodiles have joined the roster of species known to do it for the first time. With birds already being known to reproduce this way, parthenogenesis now bookends a group of vertebrates known as the archosaurs, […]

“Can you outsmart Fate and break her ancient curse?” asks Math For Love’s Dan Finkel. You can try. Here’s what you need to know: Your ancestor stole a tarot card from Fate, which would come back to bite their descendants in the ass for hundreds of years. Every 23 years, in fact, a member of […]

A pod of killer whales recently smashed the rudder of a sailing boat near Gibraltar before pursuing the vessel as it was tugged to port. The attack was one of 18 in the month of May off Spain’s southern coast, but is the first recorded instance of orcas following a boat even after damaging it. […]

A team drilling down into the oceanic crust has reached impressive depths, collecting incredible samples of mantle rock from 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) below the sea floor. The Earth’s crust, on land, is variable. On average it is about 30 kilometers (19 miles) thick, though under mountain ranges it can reach as much as 100 […]

Fossilized fats that date back over a billion years have revealed a whole community of previously unknown organisms that were shaping Earth’s ecosystems during the planet’s middle age. They were abundant in marine ecosystems, and while we don’t know what they would’ve looked like, they were considerably more complex than bacteria – something they may […]

By venturing closer to the Sun than any spacecraft before it, the Parker Solar Probe has identified the regions responsible for streams of highly energetic particles traveling orders of magnitude faster than the rest of the solar wind. The finding may improve our predictions of solar activity, allowing operators to shut down endangered grids and […]

Use it or lose it – that’s the motto when it comes to connections between neurons, AKA synapses, and we now have more insight into this process. It’s established that a frequently firing connection is strengthened, whereas lesser-used ones are “pruned” off. However, the exact molecular mechanism behind this competitive process has been unclear. Now, […]

If you have been stung by a jellyfish at the beach, you’ll know how painful and unpleasant it can be. But how best to treat jellyfish stings has been debated over the years. Is it best to use hot water or an ice pack? How about pouring on vinegar or rubbing with sand? Then there’s […]

Beneath the cobbled roads of Derinkuyu in Turkey, there lies an ancient warren of tunnels and chambers that could have once accommodated as many as 20,000 people. Burrowing more than 85 meters (280 feet) beneath the Earth’s surface and encompassing 18 levels, the Derinkuyu underground city is the world’s largest subterranean city –  or, at […]

Despite common ideas, you cannot actually walk on clouds. If you tried to do so, you would plummet straight through and just get a little wet in the process – that is, unless you’re unlucky enough to fall through a cumulonimbus cloud.  Cumulonimbus clouds are the villains of the cloud world. Characterized by towering columns […]

Once the world’s largest iceberg, A76 was an enormous beast of a berg, 170 kilometers (105.6 miles) in length and 25 kilometers (15 miles) wide, and around 4,320 square kilometers (1,667.9 square miles) in area. Soon after its calving event it broke into three smaller – but still enormous – pieces, the largest of which […]

A major damn in Russian-occupied Ukraine collapsed on Tuesday, sending a deluge of water downstream. Along with the huge economic and humanitarian cost, many experts fear it will spell long-term environmental consequences not only for Ukraine but also for neighboring countries. The incident took place on the morning of June 6 at the Kakhovka dam […]

Rock art dating back 7,000 years has been discovered by scientists flying a drone, marking one of the first times the technology has been used this way. Researchers studying the mountains surrounding Alicante were used to having to hike their way to the region’s hidden archaeological treasures, but now they’ve demonstrated that there can be an […]

Pleasuring one’s genitalia is a very widespread practice among animals, but primates (humans included) are particularly partial to a little self-love. This might be because our hands are much better suited to the act than the limbs of most other creatures, but biologists suspect there is more to it than that. A new study doesn’t […]

Apple has revealed its new iOS will use artificial intelligence (AI) to help stop autocorrect from impulsively changing swear words to tame but useless alternatives. What took so ducking long? Speaking at the WWDC 2023 event on Monday, senior vice president of software engineering at Apple Craig Federighi explained that their new autocorrect feature on […]

It’s no secret that Earth is facing an ecological crisis. For example, global wildlife populations have plummeted by 69 percent since 1970. It’s a big problem faced by the global population – but it can be easy to feel powerless when it’s often the few creating emissions, run-off, and pollution that far outweighs that of the […]

Evidence has been released suggesting that the mysterious hominin species known as Homo naledi buried their dead and left symbolic drawings above them. The implications of such a finding are revolutionary, suggesting intelligence similar to our own in a species with brains not much larger than those of chimpanzees. However, some paleontologists are cautious, arguing […]

It can be hard to know what to trust these days. With the rise of fake news and misinformation on social media, you could be forgiven for feeling unsure about content, especially when it is popular. But a new experimental study has shown that the addition of a “trust” and “distrust” button, to accompany the […]

It’s a common trope of fiction that maps from ye olde times bare the small print “here be dragons” warning of where untold dangers lie. It stems from the age-old tradition of medieval cartography to include illustrations of sea monsters and other mythological beasts on uncharted areas of maps. Truth be told, however, it’s exceptionally […]