If you think of helium, you are probably thinking of party balloons and squeaky voices. That doesn’t do the element justice. It has a large number of technical and industrial applications, and is the second most common element in the universe. On Earth, though, it is pretty scarce, and the fact that it is lighter […]
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Earendel: The Most Distant Star Ever Seen Might Not Be What We Thought
Back in 2022, the Hubble space telescope appeared to have found the most distant star ever discovered. Named Earendel – morning or rising star in old English – a new paper suggests it might not be what we thought. Earendel was spotted by Hubble due to a fortunate case of gravitational lensing, where light from […]
Unique White Dwarf Heavier Than The Sun Is Hiding A Merger In Its Past
Astronomers report the finding of a unique new object that doesn’t fit with categories that were only established in the last few years. They have observed an ultra-massive white dwarf with an outer layer of hydrogen and helium, 10 billion times thinner than other white dwarfs. This object is believed to be the product of […]
Ancient Crater Lakes Rewrite Saharan Climate History, And Possibly Civilization’s Origins
Deep lakes in the Sahara lasted until more recently than previously thought, fed by an unexpected water source. The discovery indicates that some of the Sahara was a welcoming place for humans more recently than anyone had realized, painting a different picture of the region at the time the first civilizations appeared. The world’s largest […]
Rare Crystalline Gold Accounts For Just 1 Percent Of The World’s Gold, And It’s Beautiful
Gold has captivated humans for millennia, but it comes in many different forms out in the wild. Among the rarest and most peculiar is crystalline gold, which forms deep underground and maintains its original shape – crafted by the formation of cracks in Earth’s crust. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please […]
First-Of-Its-Kind Footage Shows Human Embryo Implantation In Real-Time
For the first time ever, researchers have captured a human embryo implanting in real-time, revealing new details about the surprisingly strong mechanical forces this little bundle of cells uses to burrow itself into the uterus. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content. Embryo […]
Meet Splash: The World’s First Search-And-Rescue Otter Hunting For Missing People In Florida
This is Splash – a wannabe search-and-rescue superstar training to hunt for missing people in Florida’s murky waters. Oh, and did we mention he’s an otter? The intrepid mustelid is the latest addition to the team at Peace River K9 Search and Rescue. They’ve traditionally used dogs to track the scent of missing people, but […]
New Species Of Early Human Lived Alongside The Oldest Known Homo, We Still Don’t Fully Know What Long COVID Actually Is, And Much More This Week
This week, a world-first study has found “sex reversal” is surprisingly common among wild Australian bird species, Gabon’s orange cave crocodiles appear to be evolving into a new species, and even bird songs obey Zipf’s law of abbreviation, just like all human languages. Finally, we explore just how unlucky the only person to ever be […]
New AI Model May Predict Success Of Future Fusion Experiments, Saving Money And Fuel
Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have announced that a new artificial intelligence (AI) model accurately predicted the results of a nuclear fusion experiment conducted in 2022. The model correctly assigned a probability greater than 70 percent that ignition was likely in that experiment. This outdid existing supercomputer approaches while also offering researchers a more […]
Orange Crocodiles, New Human Species, And Death By Meteorite
This week on Break It Down: The discovery of some fossilized human teeth reveals the oldest known members of our genus weren’t alone; their neighbors were a species we’ve never found before. A world-first study reveals that sex reversal is surprisingly common in wild Australian birds. A law of abbreviation that mysteriously fits all human […]
The World’s Largest Terrestrial Carnivore Has Clear Fur And Black Skin, But You Wouldn’t Know It
Polar bears have become something of an icon for the Arctic. The world’s largest land predators, they are big, they are beautiful, they are – not white, actually. Across their evolution they’ve developed some curious adaptations for life in the cold, and we don’t yet understand all of them. The rest of this article is […]
Deep-Sea Explorers Found A Sunken Whale Carcass – And Watched A Wild Banquet Unfold
On the final dive of the E/V Nautilus’ expedition season in October 2019, during a live-stream no less, researchers stumbled across a rare discovery on the seafloor. As their camera penetrated the depths of the Davidson Seamount off central California’s coast, the skeletal remains of a whale came into view, to the team’s audible excitement. […]
Does Jupiter Have A Solid Core, And If So, How Big Is It?
One of the first things anyone interested in the Solar System learns is that out beyond the asteroid belt lurk the gas giants, of which Jupiter is the largest. Does that mean that Jupiter and its peers are pure gas? Or somewhere deep within is there a solid core? Just as there’s a big difference […]
Trump’s Executive Order To Slash Environmental Regulations For Space Launches: We Look At The Risks And Realities
This week, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order called “Enabling Competition In The Commercial Space Industry” with the purpose of enabling commercial space companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin by reducing or removing environmental and other regulations, cutting red tape and allowing for more launches. The executive order called on the Secretary of Transportation […]
An Underwater Volcano Off The US Coast Is Set To Erupt in 2025, Raising Excitement And Worry
A submarine volcano off the coast of the Pacific Northwest of the US is set to blow in 2025. Seamounts like this are providing scientists with the perfect opportunity to study the evolution of early life on Earth and the potential threat of deep-sea mining – that is, unless their equipment gets frazzled in the […]
Hate Doubling Back On Yourself? Psychologists Have Described A New Bias That May Explain Why
Imagine you have an important meeting you have to attend. Maybe it’s a date, a job interview, or something else. Regardless, as you’re making your way, you find your preferred route is blocked. You’re faced with a choice: you can take a diversion that will take longer to reach your destination, or you can double […]
A New View Of The “Cosmic Grapes” Is Challenging Our Theories Of How Galaxies Form
Thanks to the natural magnification from gravitational lensing, researchers have been able to study a small galaxy from when the universe was not even 1 billion years old. They saw that it is made of many clumps. This has earned the object the nickname “Cosmic Grapes” and has also challenged some of our expectations around […]
Ann Hodges: The Only Confirmed Person To Be Hit By A Meteorite And Live
Despite the vast number of meteors that fall from our skies each year, there has only ever been one confirmed impact with a human: the poor and unfortunate Ann Hodges. It was November 30, 1953, a day like any other, when Ann decided to take a nap on her couch in the town of Oak […]
Massive Offshore Canyon Expedition Discovers Barbie Lobsters, Sea Pigs, And 40 Potential New Species
An offshore canyon that’s twice as deep as the Grand Canyon recently turned up 40 potential new-to-science species when scientists embarked on the first-ever high-tech dive to the region. Using the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s remotely operated vehicle, ROV SuBastian, the expedition was livestreamed as it captured alien-looking squids, Barbie-pink lobsters, and a sea star with […]
The Pleiades Will Dance With The Moon This Weekend
The glorious August sky continues to deliver beauty. Not only has this week seen the peak of the Perseids meteor shower, two planetary conjunctions, and a planetary alignment, but if you wake up early or stay up late this weekend, you’ll be able to see the Moon getting close to the Pleiades – by far […]