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One of the biggest environmental challenges today is to treat land that is contaminated by toxic elements from industrial activity, elements like arsenic, antimony and tungsten. But these same elements can be brought to the Earth’s surface by natural processes such as the bubbling up of hot springs. So it is valuable to understand how […]

This article first appeared in Issue 4 of our free digital magazine CURIOUS.  Few among us can resist the allure of a get-rich-quick scheme, and upon hearing that a modestly sized arachnid has “liquid gold” dripping from its tail you might find your eyes turning to dollar signs. Could it be that simply milking a few […]

The largest planet in the Solar System is now officially the local big dog when it comes to collecting moons, with a dozen new satellites confirmed to be in orbit around Jupiter. The addition of these 12 previously unknown moons brings the gas giant’s total count to 92, overtaking Saturn’s impressive stash of 83 orbiting […]

A new bill proposed by Massachusetts Democrats proposes that prisoners could be offered a choice to donate their organs or bone marrow in exchange for up to a year off their prison sentence. Prisoners currently cannot donate organs in most states, except for a few outliers in which they can donate to close family members, […]

Humans’ curiosity has seen the space industry explode in the 21st century, as thirst for adventure, discovery, and internet memes has grown. Rocket launches are now ferrying satellites into orbit, sending rovers to Mars, and even giving William Shatner a harrowing account of the overview effect. Great things have been achieved off of humans’ forays […]

“Mini brains” composed of lab-grown human cells can integrate into injured rat brains and respond to visual stimuli, a new study has reported. Previous research has shown that integration into developing brains was possible, but this new study is the first to demonstrate the use of this approach to repair a brain injury. Human brain […]

The only known filmed interview with Georges Lemaître, the Catholic priest and physicist who originally proposed the Big Bang theory back in 1931, has finally been rediscovered – nearly 60 years after it was originally aired on Belgian TV. “What a gem, this interview,” Thomas Hertog, cosmologist and professor of theoretical physics at KU Leuven, […]

Those with dreams of getting rich quick might be willing to try anything from necropants to Bitcoin but unlike the uncertain world of Internet investments, gold famously holds its value. Unfortunately just because you find the biggest nugget in history does not mean you will be set for life. Even today if you pan for […]

A new type of ice is changing our understanding of water, as scientists discovered a frozen structure that more closely mirrors the molecular arrangement of a liquid, despite being a solid. The new ice type is amorphous, to use a polite phrase, which essentially means the organization of its molecules is a mess. Something to […]

The sight of blood and gore can provoke a vastly different response from person to person – while some can binge-watch splatter films with glee, some people can’t bear the thought of the crimson life juice without fainting. Why, if we all (hopefully) have blood coursing through our bodies as we speak, is it such […]

With the radioactive capsule that recently went missing and was then found against all odds, Redditors have been sharing various stories of when people have not been so lucky, and had run-ins with radioactive materials. In one particularly distressing incident in Mexico City in 1962, a family came into prolonged exposure to a radioactive source, […]

Possibly the hardest part of being a good scientist is admitting when you’re wrong – particularly when you are very, very wrong. So full credit to Professor Gregory Retallack of the University of Oregon and team who published a paper that turned out to be wrong by a factor of more than a hundred million, […]

A Japanese zoo has solved the mystery of how a female gibbon in their care became pregnant while being kept alone in an enclosure. Before you get too carried away imagining a beautiful miracle, you should know that the answer was a glory hole. In February 2021, Momo gave birth, surprising her keepers at the […]

A mother in Brazil recently gave birth to a two-foot-tall baby weighing 16lb (7.3kg). Angerson Santos was born via caesarean section at Hospital Padre Colombo in Parintins, Amazonas State. Angerson eclipsed the heaviest baby girl on record, who was 15lb (6.8kg) when she was born in 2016, but neither come close to the heaviest baby […]

Netflix have unveiled how they plan to tackle account sharing: where people share their Netflix login details with somebody living outside of their home.  The streaming giant has planned to end password-sharing for some time, and has now updated its FAQ section, revealing how it is going to be policed. The firm, which allows sharing […]

Forty-five percent of male university students believe that they could locate the nubis on a diagram of the female reproductive system.  “The problem?” author and Vice reporter Sophia Smith Galer wrote on Twitter. “I made the nubis up.” Advertisement Smith Galer commissioned a piece of research with UK polling firm Savanta, ahead of the launch […]

A neutron star 11.400 light-years away is doomed to eventually collide with its giant companion. By the time it does, the giant will also be a neutron star, setting off an explosion that will seed the galaxy for thousands of light-years around with precious metals, known as a kilonova.  The makeup of the universe depends […]

A collaboration between the US government and military contractors have completed a milestone test of their Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC), achieving a blistering speed of Mach 5 and succeeding in all test objectives. The tests were designed to get more data on the hypersonic scramjet missile system that will form the next generation of […]

If you have one or have inspected one for long enough, you may have wondered what that seam-like structure of thicker skin is that runs from your penis, down through the center of your scrotum to your anus. “In adults and children, the penile and scrotal raphe vary in shape and thickness between individuals and […]

If you asked what’s the deepest trench on Earth, almost everyone would answer the Mariana Trench. They’d be right – at around 11,000 meters (36,000 feet), the Mariana Trench dwarfs any other oceanic trench out there. But if you asked “what is the deepest continental trench in the world?”, few would be able to answer. […]