News

Billions of kilometers beyond the orbit of Saturn, there’s a population of asteroids known as the Centaurs. The biggest among them is Chariklo, a rock 250 kilometers (160 miles) across that is known for also having two thin rings. The discovery of these two rings happened thanks to a phenomenon called stellar occultation. When an […]

When people want to possess something unique it usually has to be human-made, not a piece of the Earth. After all, we live on a large planet, and if geologic forces produce a particular mineral in one spot, there’s a pretty good chance they will make it somewhere else as well. Indeed, of the 6,000 […]

Scientists say they’ve solved an “80-year-old medical mystery” by showing how a specific form of kidney damage in children, which can be fatal in babies, isn’t always caused by a gene mutation, but sometimes the gene’s shape. Known as infantile hypercalcemia type 1, the condition causes a build-up of calcium in the blood, leading to […]

If you want to spot something black and white in a huge surrounding area of things that are largely black and white then you might think you’d have more luck with that needle in the haystack. Fortunately, the team at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) have a few tricks up their sleeves.  To find penguin […]

A new study suggests that spanking children may have a detrimental impact on their social development, demonstrating a number of worsened social behaviors when compared to children from non-violent backgrounds. The research adds to a growing body of evidence that suggests physical punishment can have long-term effects on the children that last well into adulthood.  […]

Archaeologists in Egypt have reportedly found what is being hailed as the oldest mummy found in Egypt yet. The 4,300-year-old mummified remains were uncovered recently during ongoing excavations of tombs near the Step Pyramid at Saqqara, around 24 kilometers (15 miles) from Cairo. The mummified remains of a man named Hekashepes were discovered in a […]

Multi-millionaire Bryan Johnson has spent over $2 million in an attempt to de-age himself. The 45-year-old hired a team of medical professionals to help him, according to Bloomberg, “have the brain, heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, tendons, teeth, skin, hair, bladder, penis, and rectum of an 18-year-old”. So far Johnson’s team has focused on the unsurprising: […]

Viral videos that have exploded across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok claim to show a new mineral that somehow holds a charge, with users demonstrating by rubbing them together and creating sparks, as well as connecting them with wires that then appear to power an LED. The rocks were supposedly discovered in the Democratic Republic […]

There is very little chance that any of us in our lifetime will actually go into space, to experience first-hand what it’s like to be among the stars. True, Blue Origin has launched into space manned with Captain Kirk himself, taking him to where no civilian has gone before, but at a cost well beyond […]

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has snapped a picture of a new face on Mars. And this time it’s not a sphynx-like one that turns out to be a windswept hill, it’s an adorable bear… that turns out to be a filled-in crater possibly due to some volcanic activity. The image was taken by MRO’s […]

Egg prices are skyrocketing. While the cost of groceries has generally risen, the price of eggs has tripled in the US since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.  Things have heated up even further recently, with the price of a dozen eggs now costing around $4.25, compared to $1.79 last year. The situation has […]

In an article about bike theft for The Times, one computer scientist outlines how he attempted to convince the police to search for his stolen bike using math.  Bike theft is one of those crimes that doesn’t get given a lot of police attention. In Cambridge, UK, where the computer scientist lives, the police will […]

Researchers have claimed that artificial intelligence (AI) will reach the singularity within seven years, after attempting to quantify its progress.  Translation company Translated, presenting their work at an Association for Machine Translation in the Americas conference, explained that they first began testing machine translation technology in 2011. The team settled on a metric to measure […]

The HMS Titanic is arguably the most famous shipwreck of all time. Following its discovery in 1985 at an astonishing depth of 3,800 meters (12,500 feet) below sea level in the North Atlantic Ocean, visitors have flocked from all over the globe to see even a small fragment of the hull, like that currently sitting […]

Our Earth is structured sort of like an onion – it’s one layer after another. Starting from the top down, there’s the crust, which includes the surface you walk on; then farther down, the mantle, mostly solid rock; then even deeper, the outer core, made of liquid iron; and finally, the inner core, made of […]

Two ancient, funky-looking mammals, anthracotheres and entelodonts, have been the subject of a new study looking at their teeth. Anthracotheres bear some resemblance to modern-day pigs and hippos and are thought to have had a diet of fruits and foliage. Entelodonts, also known as “hell pigs”, had powerful heads, were thought to crush bones like […]

A robot that can shift between solid and liquid states has been filmed escaping from a miniature jail cell with bars too close together to allow it to leave in solid form. The creators claim they were inspired by sea cucumbers’ capacity to alter their tissue stiffness – but the scene is just a little […]

In August 1912, 4-year-old Bobby Dunbar went missing as his family took a fishing trip to nearby Swayze Lake, Louisiana.  An eight-month state-wide search for the boy ensued, and ended when police found a handyman named William Cantwell Walters, who was traveling with a boy who matched Bobby’s description. The boy, Walters insisted, was his […]

There’s been a lot of hype around air fryers recently, but for foodies like Jay Rayner, nothing beats the indulgent crisp of something that’s been fried in a deep pool of bubbling golden oil (the secret ingredient is danger). However, what’s great for our tastebuds isn’t all that good for the environment as the cooking […]

A study investigating sex and cannabis has found that cannabis users report better orgasms while high, as well as an increased libido, and sense of taste and touch. Researchers, publishing their results in a recent study, asked 811 participants aged 18 to 85 years old a number of questions relating to their sex lives and […]