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Back in 2019, a diamond within a diamond was unearthed at a mine in the Sakha Republic of Siberia by the Russian mining company ALROSA. Owing to its unusual features, it was named the “Matryoshka Diamond” after Russia’s iconic stacking dolls. Inside the lentil-sized diamond, measuring just 4.8 by 4.9 by 2.8 millimeters (0.189 by […]

Archaeologists have discovered ancient ice skates made of animal bones in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous region of northwest China. Announcing the incredible find at a recent press conference, researchers said the ancient skates were created from ox and horse bones are likely to be 3,500 years old. Located at the intersection of China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan […]

A team of researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the state of Michigan, and the Ocean Exploration Trust have found and explored the wreck of the Ironton, confirming tragic reports of the ship’s demise. The Ironton, a three-masted wooden schooner that transported goods through the Great Lakes, sank in September, 1894. The larger […]

Have you ever been so shocked that all you could do was stand there – some might say with a deer in the headlights look? If you’ve ever used that phrase or witnessed a deer doing this in real life, you might find yourself asking “why do deer freeze in headlights?” Well, we’re here to […]

On December 7, 185 CE, during the Han dynasty, Chinese astronomers recorded the appearance of a “guest star” appearing in the vicinity of Alpha Centauri. “Guest star” is the name that these ancient astronomers used for luminous transient events. Today, we call them supernovas. SN 185 is the oldest recorded supernova, and now a new […]

The world’s smallest diamond thief was thwarted during a heist where an ant tried to make off with a diamond back in 2018. Though bold, the effort wasn’t terribly thought through, taking place in full view of a person working with several gemstones in full light – but we commend this tiny insect’s brazenness all […]

In the early morning of July 16, 1945, the world’s first atomic bomb detonation ripped through the dusty deserts of New Mexico, shooting an 11,500-meter (~38,000-foot) mushroom cloud into the air. Amidst the untold destruction caused by the nuclear test, known as Trinity, the explosion also created something quite remarkable: “forbidden” quasicrystals that challenge some […]

Perovskite solar cells have developed extraordinarily fast, going from a curiosity to the hottest area of solar research in the space of a few years. After overcoming a series of barriers one major problem has remained; their durability. A paper in Nature Materials reports a novel solution. It comes less than a fortnight after two […]

Ridley Scott’s Alien might have you believe that there is no sound in space. Well, there’s no human scream the average able-bodied human can hear, but sound waves move through space, shaking the plasma across the stars and even across the galaxies. Sounds are, after all, mechanical waves, so a wave moving through a medium. […]

TikTok has announced new default settings that will be added to under-18s’ accounts as part of parental guidance controls, including one that will limit their screen time to 60 minutes per day. The settings can be turned off, but will be activated by default when the update arrives.  “In the coming weeks, every account belonging […]

At 10:02 am on August 27, 1883, an island in Indonesia collapsed as tsunamis sent 46-meter (151-foot) waves tearing into the ocean as far as South Africa. It marks the moment in history that the infamous Krakatoa volcano erupted, kicking off what’s thought to have been the loudest sound ever. Krakatoa once sat midway between […]

If you’ve ever played 20 Questions, chances are you’ve come across the starting phrase: animal, vegetable, or mineral? But in which category would you put a pearl? Pearls might be the queen of gems and the gem of queens according to Grace Kelly, but what are they technically classed as? Unlike the average gemstone found […]

2023 not only marks the 20th anniversary of the Human Genome Project’s completion but also the 70th anniversary of the discovery of the structure of DNA itself. Although this is a significant year for the celebration of the biological sciences and all they have achieved since these milestone events, it is important to remember the […]

A routine archaeological excavation in Cambridgeshire, England, has uncovered a particularly gruesome and rare discovery: a comb carved from the bone of a human skull.  One of only three such examples ever discovered in the country, the “startling” find has archaeologists rethinking Iron Age community rituals in Cambridgeshire, England.  Advertisement While you might think something […]

Imagine a world where you can see the words people are speaking. We don’t mean on TV where an increased number of viewers are using subtitles to follow their favorite shows, we mean literally seeing words in the air. This phenomenon is a reality for some people and is known as ticker tape synesthesia (TTS).  […]

Children from the St. Brother André Elementary School’s Program for Gifted Learners have discovered something that NASA didn’t know, but probably should look into: EpiPens turn toxic in space. The students, aged 9-12, designed an experiment to send EpiPens to space, to test the effect of cosmic radiation on epinephrine, the hormone inside EpiPens used […]

Archaeologists have detailed the hidden corridor found deep within Khufu’s Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt by blasting it with cosmic ray muons. As explained in a new study, the researchers hope their work might shed light on the mystery of how this incredible structure was constructed. Unusual gaping voids within the pyramid were first […]

According to an estimate from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, an organisation that represents the international music industry, people around the world spend on average 20.1 hours per week listening to music, up from 18.4 hours in 2021. We have more ways to access music than at any time in history and a […]

You’ve met the darkest bird ever discovered, now it’s time to meet the brightest – a brown woodcock has been discovered with white feathers that reflect 30 percent more light than any other bird known to mankind. The dazzling display is used to communicate in low light, allowing it to be seen in the darkest […]

What if the world had no nuclear bombs? It’s a fanciful dream and one that will likely never occur now that the technology is so widespread and so integral to many nations’ territorial defense strategy – but at one point in time, it was a possibility. There was one algorithm, one method of decoding a […]