News

It’s always wonderful when one of humanity’s cosmic explorers spots something unexpected. This time, is the turn of the European Space Agency’s Mars Express to get a glimpse of a rare event. The orbiting spacecraft has been studying the Red Planet for almost 20 years, and has now captured an astronomical occultation. Deimos, the smaller […]

This week, we explore the Native Land Digital interactive map, an absolute unit of a fish emerges from the murky depths, and we speak to director Marian Mohamed about her work on the new BBC documentary series The Elon Musk Show. Interactive Map Shows Which Indigenous Lands You Are Living On This week saw the […]

Nikola Tesla, famed for his work on alternating current, was one hell of an inventor, mechanical engineer and physicist. His inventions have been found to work better than expected even 100 years after he noted them down. However, nobody can be right 100 percent of the time, and Nikola Tesla had his fair share of […]

There is a widespread perception of old people having distinctive smell, expressed by less tactful children as, “grandpa smells funny”. Researchers decided to test if the scent was an intrinsic part of growing older, a product of the environment, or a trick of the mind.  Although they found the smell is mostly an effect of […]

Menthol is a weird flavor, isn’t it? Probably more of an experience than a flavor – you pop a mint in your mouth, or some minty soap under your arms (or, Darwin forbid, on your genitals), and feel that signature ice-cool freshness come over you – but have you ever wondered why that is? It […]

Humanity has been able to reach interstellar space only twice, thanks to the Voyager 1 and 2 probes, which have been traveling in space for over 45 years. During the last decade, they crossed the boundaries known as the termination shock and heliopause, the so-called edge of the Solar System where plasma originated from the […]

The world’s largest chameleon has been successfully bred at Chester Zoo in a first for the UK. The zoo welcomed to the world a fleet of tiny hatchlings with big shoes to fill. The Parson’s chameleon has the longest incubation time of any reptile in the world, cooking for around 600 days. So far just […]

Using high-speed microcinematography, researchers have revealed the hunting techniques of three species of predatory mosquito larvae – and it’s quite literally head-popping. The animal kingdom is full of weird and wonderful hunting techniques – ant-slayer spiders and parachuting octopuses anyone? However, nothing quite prepared us for the results of this new study, with larvae observed flinging […]

The fastest Internet network in the world, hosted at the United States Department of Energy, has just received an upgrade to ESnet6, which brings it to an astonishing bandwidth of 46 Terabits/s. The network will be dedicated exclusively to science, and will boost the speed at which new discoveries can be developed and communicated between […]

Podcaster Joe Rogan has interviewed a surprising guest, given that the guest has been dead for well over a decade. No, this is not us announcing in a roundabout way that zombies are a thing and it’s primarily affecting former CEOs of multinational corporations. Both voices, in fact, are generated by artificial intelligence (AI). The […]

When stars get too close to supermassive black holes, they are ripped to shreds. This is known as a tidal disruption event (TDE). The spewing out of material follows the destruction of the star. The intense gravity pulls the star apart and the material swirls around the black hole, lighting up, which we can observe. […]

Scientists have transplanted human brain cells into the brains of rats, discovering that the new neurons will grow as the rat develops and even help influence their behavior. The research has resounding implications on not just neurological research, but also the ethics of creating animal-human hybrids in this way.  The Stanford University team took lab-grown […]

Like an upgraded iPhone, the arrival of modern humans in Europe didn’t result in the immediate disappearance of the previous model, but instead heralded a period of overlap between Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis. While it’s difficult to ascertain exactly how long the two species co-existed for, new research suggests that Neanderthals may have clung […]

If you owned a Tamagotchi when you were younger, you’ve probably experienced the joys (and rigors) of pet ownership without the actual hands-on care. That included feeding, playing with and cleaning up after your virtual furry friend. And just like neglecting a living, breathing pet, going days without interacting with your Tamagotchi made it feel […]

They say mighty oaks from little acorns grow, and never has this saying been more apt than for the lifecycle of giant molas. These epic slabs for fish start out their lives like marine popcorn and grow to gargantuan sizes. Now, one specimen has become the heaviest bony fish in the world, weighing in at […]

An old painting has people asking if time travel is real, because it really, really looks like a painting from 1937 shows a Native American man staring at a smart phone while doing a “I’m sorry, I have to take this” hand gesture. The painting, titled Mr. Pynchon and the Settling of Springfield, depicts colonist […]

Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti is on her way back down to Earth but in one of her last acts as commander of the International Space Station (ISS) and sci-comm extraordinaire, she revealed how astronauts drink coffee in space. It turns out microgravity creates a bit of a problem when you try to get the coffee […]

The pandemic fuelled a rise in first-time pet owners and people adopting puppies and kittens. While even inexperienced owners expect a new puppy will need some training, people rarely think the same applies to kittens. But just like dogs, cats need support to adjust to living alongside us. Simple forms of training can be good […]

A jet of material released by the neutron star collision GW170817 is traveling at 99.97 percent of the speed of light and manages to appear as if it is breaking the laws of physics by traveling seven times faster. The jet was seen by the Hubble and Gaia space telescopes in the days shortly after […]

Picture the scene: you’re a kid, living in one of the great cities of the Mayan Classical period, and your parents shake you awake one morning. “Come on,” they tell you. “We’re going to the Midnight Terror Cave.” Doesn’t sound too inviting, does it? But don’t let the name put you off: it’s actually much […]