News

What have the Romans ever done for us, eh? Well, what they didn’t do was tell us exactly how to make their exceptional concrete, which continues to amaze material scientists as it stands the test of time.  Structures more than 2,000 years old don’t show the same issues that modern ones do. The secret to […]

Dalmatians are famous for their spots, but did you know that when they come into the world as puppies, all dalmatians have pure white coats? Dalmatian spots actually don’t start to develop until 10 to 14 days after birth, but the number and size of the spots are still predetermined. As a dog breed selected […]

The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy. The spiral arms do not rotate around a spherical core of stars, but a more elongated structure known as the bar. The evolution of bars is a very active field, and new observations from JWST are certain to add to it. The infrared telescope discovered two barred […]

Stunning works of art on cave walls at places like Lascaux and Chauvet are among humanity’s treasures, offering insight both into the ecology of a lost world and the talents and psychology of our ancestors. Although most famous for realistic depictions of animals, European Upper Paleolithic art also includes abstract symbols, of which at least […]

Archaeologists have discovered crocodile heads buried in an ancient necropolis. While it’s well known that ancient Egyptians were partial to mummifying obscure animals and placing them in tombs, the researchers say this is the first known case of reptile remains within the tombs of people.  In a study, an international team of researchers details the […]

Positively and negatively charged versions of the same particle have been entangled for the first time, allowing us to map the hearts of atoms more precisely and opening the doors to more powerful communication tools. The neutrons and protons that make up the nuclei of atoms are, in turn, composed of quarks. However, quarks alone […]

An international team of researchers has produced the latest projections for glacier mass loss, and it is not good news. If emissions are not curbed, mountain glaciers worldwide will lose 41 percent of their mass, which would lead to the disappearance of many small glaciers, wiping two-thirds of all glaciers from the map.  The best-case […]

There’s a lot to unpack about jeans. It might not be a starting point that’ll win you friends at a party, but from the seemingly useless tiny pockets to those random metal studs, it’s just a smorgasbord of confusing features in an otherwise simple wardrobe staple. Science has even proven that women’s jeans pockets are […]

A medieval cold case has been solved by a team of archeologists in Italy. According to their scientific sleuthing and his shattered skull, this young man was most likely killed by four sword blows to the head in what sounds like a deeply unpleasant execution.  The person was first unearthed during archaeological excavations inside the […]

Lol used to mean something. In days gone by, this staple of internet slang meant much more than an internal snigger or a brief burst of air from the nostrils. That’s why one man has invented the LOL Verifier, a device that only lets you type lol if you have actually laughed out loud. The […]

A wet nose is a staple of a good dog, ever twitching, seeking scents in the air that are invisible to the paltry human schnozz. It’s often said that a wet nose is the sign of a healthy dog, and while this is true to some extent, there’s another explanation as to why dogs’ noses […]

Fire crews were called to a dairy plant in Wisconsin to battle a buttery blaze on Monday, January 2. According to the Portage Fire Department, a fire broke out in a butter storage room at Associated Milk Producers Inc, melting it and causing it to “flow throughout the structure”. “The butter was running down like […]

In rare cases of stroke and brain damage, patients can lose their sight altogether. Disorientated and unaware of what’s happened, it can take clinicians days before they establish that the person has become blind.   But what if the patient themselves don’t know that they are blind? In extremely rare circumstances, someone that has no […]

Humans are exceptionally naked as primates go, but exactly when and why Homo sapiens decided to ditch the fur is something that’s long interested geneticists. Now, a new study has gone in search of the genetic basis of our bodily baldness and found that we actually still have the full set of genes necessary for […]

Stones skipping over water is one of the joys of holidays by lake or seaside, but it seems most of us have been doing it wrong for centuries, at least if you prefer quality of bounces over quantity. Generations of parents have taught their children different hand and arm movements, but most have agreed the […]

Edward Norton has discovered that he is directly related to Pocahontas, the Native American woman whose life and tragic run-in with European colonialism have inspired many stories.  Norton’s surprising ancestor was revealed during his recent appearance on the PBS show Finding Your Roots in which celebrities learn about their ancestral histories.  He said he was […]

Clusters of galaxies often have hundreds of members packed together in a relatively small region of the universe. But even in the dark region between these galaxies, the intracluster space, there is a faint glow. This is produced by wandering stars that don’t belong to any galaxy. How they got there is a mystery – […]

Researchers have sent information across two kilometers (1.2 miles) using sub-terahertz frequencies, the expected range for the still-developing 6G, the future generation of mobile system standards. This is the longest transmission ever achieved at these wavelengths, transmitting information at over two gigabits per second.   The deployment of 5G technology has shown that it is […]

The world’s first vaccine for honeybees has been approved in the US, designed to protect these helpful critters from American foulbrood disease caused by Paenibacillus larvae. The vaccine, which has just received approval from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), was developed by the US biotech company Dalan Animal Health. Instead of injecting the individual bees […]