News

A video showing what it would be like to stand near a nuclear bomb detonation has been widely shared on Twitter and Reddit, and it doesn’t look too pretty. The virtual reality (VR) simulation shows the point of view of someone on a beach when the bomb hits offshore, devastating the beach and surrounding vegetation […]

An unusual spate of cancer cases around a small town in Alabama has sparked an investigation by a team of geologists, medical experts, and sociologists. Through their dogged work with the local community, the researchers believe they may have found a culprit: environmental contamination of the water and soil.  The issue first came to light […]

Last week, NASA’s Juno completed its flyby of Europa providing the closest view of this celestial object in two decades. The second moon of Jupiter hides a deep ocean beneath its icy exterior and is one of the best candidates for life beyond our planet. Now NASA has released the highest resolution image of Europa […]

By combining data from the two titans of space telescopes, Hubble and JWST, astronomers have created an incredible image of two galaxies over 700 million light-years away that reveals secrets we wouldn’t have seen by using just one.    If you see a pair of galaxies in space there’s a good chance they’re interacting, but […]

The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a global alert over cough syrups made in India thought to be linked to the deaths of 66 children in The Gambia. The alert, which was published on their website, outlined four medicines – Promethazine Oral Solution, Kofexmalin Baby Cough Syrup, Makoff Baby Cough Syrup, and Magrip N […]

While questions about last week’s Nordstream gas pipeline leak continue to be unanswered, satellite images are starting to show the environmental impact of the incident. Now, the European Space Agency (ESA) has shared before-and-after satellite images of the affected portion of sea near the Danish Island of Bornholm.  On September 24, images taken by Sentinel-1 […]

The 2022 winners of the Ocean Photographer Of The Year competition have been announced, bringing to light arresting shots that demonstrate both the power, fragility, and alien nature of our oceans’ ecosystems. Hosted in by Oceanographic Magazine, the competition aims to celebrate the wildlife and organisms that keep the seas healthy while simultaneously highlighting the […]

“Shower thoughts”: a phrase now synonymous with wild but interesting ideas that only seem to arise when you’re having a shower (because you sure aren’t that creative when you’re actually trying to be). The mind seems to enter a different, more creative state when calmly having a shower, giving rise to questions you’ve never even […]

A 2,000-year-old Roman statue of Hercules has been uncovered among the ruins of the ancient Greek city of Philippi, according to the country’s Ministry of Culture and Sports. Intriguingly, the statue predates the ruins themselves by several hundred years, indicating that Roman artifacts were used to decorate public buildings long after the empire had fallen. […]

Your political views could be shaped by a parasitic infection called toxoplasmosis, a new study has found. Toxoplasma gondii is one of the world’s most common parasites, mainly contracted by humans through contact with cats that are infected, as well as by eating foods (especially lamb, pork and venison) that are contaminated with the parasite. […]

Some of the first images captured by JWST have been given a revamp with the help of data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory – and they might just be some of the prettiest pictures yet.  The newly released psychedelic images are the product of combining JWST’s infrared vision with the X-ray vision of Chandra. Not […]

A letter from the world’s first computer programmer, Ada Lovelace, to her collaborator and creator of the first digital computer, Charles Babbage, has been widely shared on Twitter, due to its relatability regarding several paragraphs begging Babbage not to mess around with her math. Polymath Charles Babbage is often hailed as the “father of computing”, […]

Forty-one Indian narrow-headed softshell turtles (Chitra indica) have become the latest arrivals at San Diego Zoo. This makes the zoo the first accredited conservation organization in North America to hatch these endangered turtles. Three of the rare turtles have been living at the zoo for more than 20 years, and while experts have been monitoring […]

NASA Astronaut Nicole Aunapu Mann has become the first Native American woman in space, as well as the first woman to command the Crew Dragon capsule. Mann launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center yesterday as part of the Crew-5 mission toward the International Space Station. Her three colleagues are NASA’s Josh Cassada, Koichi Wakata from […]

“This man has been bitten,” a doctor cries, wheeling the patient to an emergency room like he thinks he’s Doctor House. “Fetch me the anuses of 75-100 chickens, stat”. That is roughly what you could have heard if you found yourself on the anus end of an old snake bite treatment, documented in The Indian […]

An Albert Einstein plush toy has taken a flight to the International Space Station, serving as the zero-gravity indicator aboard NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 flight on Wednesday. For those unfamiliar with zero-gravity indicators, the job of figuring out when the ship has reached weightlessness is given to a small object such as a toy, bear, or […]

“Diehard birder” Stephen Gosser was wandering in the woods of Western Pennsylvania when he came across a once-in-a-lifetime observation. First, his ears picked up on the call of a scarlet tanager, an exciting find on its own, known for its blood-red plumage and striking black wings, but instead he was met with a rose-breasted grosbeak. […]

Currently, the best way to search for alien life in other star systems is by looking for biosignatures: the presence of particular molecules in the atmospheres of distant worlds. Many substances are being considered for such a role – oxygen is a prime candidate, and methane too. Work on phosphine as a possible biosignature has led […]

The fossilized brain of a 500-million-year-old worm has been discovered by researchers, opening up new insights into how brains evolved and patching up holes in the fossil records of ancient scalidophorans.   The ring-shaped structure, which the researchers interpret as the worm brain, marks the first fossilized nervous system of such a creature, made possible […]