News

The Hubble Tension is one of the most fascinating scientific debates of the last decade. Imagine having two of the most advanced conducting cutting-edge observatories to extract the expansion rate of the universe. You refine your values, collect more data, and suddenly the two observatories begin to disagree. Is one right and the other wrong? […]

The story of human evolution is far messier and less straightforward than most people think, protagonized by a procession of misfits that go against everything we think we know about how our ancestors developed. Among these prehistoric oddballs is an individual that lived in China some 300,000 years ago and that doesn’t fit into any […]

Fragments of ancient household item unidentified for 90 years after being excavated have been found to be pieces of baby rattles from 4,000-4,500 years ago. The discovery offers archaeologists a chance to learn how these implements have changed, and how they have not, in all that time Dr Mette Hald of the National Museum of […]

For the first time, a long-period radio transient Source (LPRT) has also been spotted by an X-ray telescope. That means we now have observations of this object from both ends of the electromagnetic spectrum, but not at the wavelengths in between. Despite the sources of two LPRTs recently being identified, the team that found the […]

After silently lurking for almost 50 years, a prion disease erupted in the brain of a woman in the US, triggering a rapid and severe neurological decline before taking her life. The source of the condition, it appears, was a since-discontinued hormone treatment she received decades earlier that unknowingly introduced a rogue protein into her […]

An unhealthy ocean means an unhealthy planet, and without it, we simply wouldn’t exist. That’s just a fact, but in the same breath, a healthy ocean can lead to a more resilient planet, and a better future for every living thing on Earth. The best news of all? Given the chance, the ocean can recover […]

Not everyone is happy with the probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics. The fact that particles are only statistically likely to be somewhere you expect them to be is a tough cookie to swallow. To solve this, some scientists created the Many-Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics, arguing that all the probabilistic accounts actually physically happen in […]

There’s a fair chance you’ve heard this “fact” somewhere or other: humans, apparently, share some 60 percent of our DNA with… bananas. It’s surprising, and it’s meant to be – after all, they’re so yellow, and squishy, both qualities notably rare in your average human. But hey, there’s math in it, so presumably the claim […]

Most people’s nighttime routine involves brushing their teeth, washing their face, maybe even a spot of skincare. Over the last couple of years, however, social media has introduced us to a bizarre new addition: sticking tape over your mouth. That sounds… dangerous, right? But the people who do it claim it has a wealth of […]

The animal world is full of exceptionally cute creatures, from the utterly adorable red pandas to the frankly ridiculous faces of quokkas, and who could resist the ears of a fennec fox? Cuteness isn’t just contained to the wildlife of Earth though – some domesticated breeds can hold their own just as well. Meet the […]

A new study into the legacy of the US nuclear weapons tests in the Marshall Islands has shown the impacts were significantly greater than has previously been acknowledged. The research, which was commissioned by Greenpeace and conducted by the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER), found that all atolls in the Marshall Islands received […]

There’s a new COVID-19 variant on the block, called NB.1.8.1. It’s being monitored by the World Health Organization (WHO) after cropping up in a number of countries, and now the USA has joined that list. But at the same time, there are some big changes afoot, with some of the historical recommendations around booster shots […]

SpaceX’s Starship continues to miss its goals. In a test that Elon Musk’s company called a “partial success,” Starship was able to reach orbital velocity thanks to the powerful booster – but several failures, including a fuel leak, led to a loss of altitude. It disintegrated over the Indian Ocean instead of attempting a landing […]

The launch of JWST almost three and a half years ago has opened a new window into the most distant universe. A window that revealed there are a lot more bright galaxies in the first few hundred million years of the universe than astronomers expected. The “Mirage or Miracle” survey aims to study whether these […]

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Deep within the flooded chambers of a remote Mexican cave, explorers initially mistook a glinting object for a piece of 21st-century trash. But what they had actually uncovered was something far more special: a centuries-old Mesoamerican bracelet, carefully placed atop a stalagmite as part of a mysterious fertility ritual. Squeezing through caverns barely bigger than […]

To live a longer and healthier life is a common human want. We’re constantly on the hunt for ways to boost our wellbeing, whether that’s through what we eat, that exhausting, sweat-inducing spin class, or just trying to find some kind of zen in the chaos. While reaching an old age may be partly down […]

The largest and most lavish tomb ever built in ancient Macedonia may have been designed to fill with sunlight on the winter solstice, according to a somewhat controversial new study. Believed to have been built for Alexander the Great’s dearest friend Hephaestion, the so-called Kasta monument remains the subject of much debate among historians, yet […]

Almost anything can happen when we fall asleep. Dreams can take us flying, they can see us living out our dreams, or realizing our worst nightmares. Fortunately, we stay safely in our beds while all the drama is unfolding, but why is that? Why don’t humans act out their dreams? A pivotal moment in our […]

Kids can get long COVID too, but it might not necessarily look the same as it does in adults. New data out of the US, including over 1,000 children, is showing that the symptoms of long COVID look different in those aged up to 2 years and those aged 3-5. Added to what we already […]