News

The small asteroid 2023 DW could ruin Valentine’s day for a portion of North America in 23 years’ time. The chance of a collision is less than 1 percent, but despite ongoing observations have failed to drop to zero. If 2023 DW does hit, the impact would be more like an atomic bomb going off, […]

During a long flight, you may have wondered a number of things, like why flight attendants never seem to drink hot drinks, what the tiny hole in your window is for, or why the aircraft crew asks you to keep your window shades open during takeoff and landing.  Well, wonder no more. You might reasonably […]

The mission to return humans to the Moon is moving on to its next phase, NASA has announced. While reporting the current analysis of the successful uncrewed Artemis I mission, the agency revealed when the first crewed mission will take place.  Artemis I was the first test flight for NASA’s megarocket Space Launch System (SLS) and […]

The secret identity of the famous Mezcal worm has been revealed in new research that extracted DNA from bottled specimens. While there are several insects commonly eaten in Mexico, where the agave-based spirits are famous, it turns out that all of the worms sampled belonged to just a single species of moth. They say you […]

A neat new animation from Global Data has compared the sizes of 150 living and extinct animals. Measuring their length, the video includes tiny creatures like bees (1.2 centimeters/0.7 inches) all the way to huge beasts like the Supersaurus (the length of 2,833.33 bees). There are a number of surprises in there, especially seeing where […]

A mystery from the deep just got a little bit less mysterious thanks to the first scientific paper to arise from the Viking Expedition Team. While drifting through Antarctic waters, a guest snapped a picture of Stygiomedusa gigantea, commonly known as the giant phantom jellyfish. Looking a bit like an errant piece of Halloween toilet […]

When you shut your eyes in perfect darkness, the shade you see isn’t actually black, but a deep shade of gray that’s sometimes called “eigengrau.” Although the term isn’t generally used in scientific papers, it does shed some light (so to speak) on how our eyes perceive the world around us. Eigengrau translates from the […]

In an ultimately heartbreaking example of maternal monkey affection, one study has detailed the care a capuchin mother gave to her disabled baby, both before and after its eventual death. As well as allowing a glimpse into what caregiving looks like in the animal kingdom, the study provides some clues as to how such behaviors […]

A limestone sphinx bearing a cheeky grin has been unearthed in southern Egypt, the country’s Tourism and Antiquities Ministry has announced. Discovered at the Hathor Temple some 500 kilometers (310 miles) south of Cairo, the cheery relic was accompanied by a Roman-era stone slab engraved with demotic and hieroglyphic inscriptions which are yet to be […]

A comet that will make a (somewhat) close approach to the Earth in September 2024 is already creating excitement among amateur astronomers. Comets are unpredictable beasts, and a great many have proven disappointing – but C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) has many of the characteristics required to put on the best display for at least a decade. […]

Feeling sleepy in the morning is not a rare feeling – we’ve all woken up, smacked the snooze button, and gone back down for a top-up sleep. However, some people go beyond this and feel like they can’t physically get up for an hour or more after waking – this could indicate dysania.  Dysania is […]

Relativity Space’s Terran 1, the world’s first 3D-printed rocket, will be launched for the very first time on Wednesday, March 8, and you can watch the whole event being live-streamed in the video player below. If the launch is a success, it will become the largest 3D-printed object to achieve orbital flight.   Dubbed “Good Luck, […]

Scientists recently discovered a fungus-killing molecule so good at its job, it was named after everyone’s favorite Hollywood assassin Keanu Reeves. Named keanumycins, they are incredibly potent against fungi that both kill crops and infect humans, adding a new weapon to the very limited arsenal of fungicides currently available.   According to the researchers, they […]

Here’s a fun hypothetical: what would happen if everyone on the planet jumped at the exact same time? Could the Earth move, or – as legend has it – could our planet’s rotation even slow down? Unfortunately, given the insurmountable problems in choreographing the event, we cannot say for certain what would happen. However, a […]

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has delivered incredible insights into the Red Planet, often capturing intriguing images of landscapes that don’t have any earthly comparisons. As a frigid desert, Mars has its share of sandy dunes that under certain conditions create curious shapes. The latest image, captured just a few months ago, shows unusual dunes […]

If everything people had said about the music of Mozart was true, the man would be a bona fide miracle-worker. After all, listening to the guy’s tunes has been said to increase intelligence for adults, children, and fetuses alike; it can supposedly make cows produce more milk and chickens lay tastier eggs; even single-celled organisms […]

Water on Earth is believed to have been brought by comets, colliding with our fledgling planet billions of years ago. But that water did not form with the rest of the solar system. Researchers believe that it was already a component of the pre-solar nebula.   To understand the origins of water on Earth, researchers […]

What with all that’s going on [gestures generally at the world] you probably have enough to worry about, but a new experiment has looked at the catastrophic effect a hypothetical planet would have on the solar system and Earth. In our solar system, there is a big gap in size between terrestrial planets (rocky worlds, […]

The “Geological Wizard” William Buckland was arguably one of the most eccentric scientists in history. He began his career focused on rocks, minerals, and fossils, but in his spare time enjoyed some adventurous gastronomical exploration in effectively eating his way through the animal kingdom.  If reports are to be believed, that included gorging on everything […]

As comedian Spike Milligan famously quipped, “Money can’t buy you happiness – but it does bring you a more pleasant form of misery.” The first half of that, of course, is total bunk: having money can, in fact, make you much happier than not having it. But what about the rest of it? Are the super-rich […]