News

Geologists have attributed age-dependent variations in the chemistry of Ethiopian volcanic rocks to rhythmic pulses like a “heartbeat” in the Afar mantle plume. The plume drives volcanic activity in the area and is leading to the breakup of the African continent. At various points around the Earth, unusually hot mantle material is rising, sometimes from […]

Moles – most of us have at least one, and let’s be honest, a lot of the time, we get so used to them that it’s easy to forget that they’re there. However, they’re worth paying attention to – but when should we do so, and how do we know when they’re a problem? What […]

Intrepid microbe hunters have discovered 20 new viruses lurking in the bat populations of the orchards of southwestern China. Along with new species of bacteria and protozoan parasites, the find has sparked concerns about the potential risks to humans, as two of the viruses are in the same genus as the deadly Hendra and Nipah […]

The Earth is predicted to increase its rotation speed in July and August, once again bucking the trend of a slower rotation over time. Though there are clear reasons for the increased rotational speed this summer, the cause of the recent increase in speed is a little puzzling to scientists. The Earth’s rotation has altered […]

Tens of millions of people in the US are still up to their necks in an intensifying heatwave. This week, a “heat dome” parked over central and eastern regions is driving possible triple-digit temperatures and oppressive humidity, set to turn half of the country into a sweltering, sauna-like oven. The Midwest and eastern US are […]

Many species are facing threats to their population sizes, from climate change and habitat loss to illegal poaching and the wildlife trade. While protections are put in place to help species, sometimes these fall short of the mark. A new study has looked at almost 10,000 bird species and come to the worrying conclusion that […]

In a world first, scientists have created mice with two fathers, capable of having offspring of their own. It’s a huge step forward for our understanding of mammalian reproduction, and could, in theory, have implications for us humans – though this is still a long way off becoming reality. Led by Yanchang Wei of Shanghai […]

LISA, the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, will be a revolutionary instrument that will allow humanity to observe gravitational waves from events we can’t track with the observatories on Earth. They are simply not big enough. For such a task, three spacecraft will be flying in perfect formation while precisely shooting lasers at each other across […]

Paracetamol. Tylenol®. Acetaminophen. Whatever you call it, chances are you’ve had it. As one of the world’s most common drugs (though we only just recently figured out how it works), we produce tons of the stuff globally, but it may surprise and disappoint you to learn that it comes from fossils fuels. What if we […]

In the history of Homo sapiens, blue eyes just showed up fashionably late. Throughout most of the species’ existence, all humans had brown eyes, until a random genetic mutation emerged over 6,000 years ago in a single prehistoric person. This trait eventually spread, giving rise to the millions of blue-eyed people in the world today. […]

At the ripe old age of ~124 years old, Henry is the oldest known crocodile in the world – and what a life he’s led. In the past few decades alone, the mature gentleman has fathered thousands upon thousands of offspring. With all those decades under his belt, Henry has amassed a gigantic size. The […]

A case report details the story of a family who lived with 2,055 brown recluse spiders in their Kansas home over the course of five and a half years. Spiders have a pretty bad reputation amongst humans for a group of species that is so good at pest control. But while most species are harmless, […]

Though our telescopes have become pretty darn good over the last century, there’s nothing quite like seeing a planet from the point of view of an approaching spaceship. In 1979, 1980, and 1981, humanity got our first brief glimpses of Saturn from close up, as Pioneer 11, Voyager 1, and Voyager 2 flew past the […]

Unlike ancient Egypt, Hawai’i, or the Inca Empire, Neolithic Ireland probably wasn’t governed by a dynasty of demi-gods who married their own siblings. This finding contradicts the narrative hastily put forward by the media in 2020 following the discovery of a rare case of incest in a 5,500-year-old passage tomb. Located in the Boyne Valley, […]

For almost 48 years, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 have traveled across the Solar System and beyond. The missions have been pivotal in our understanding of the gas giant planets of the Solar System, and later of interstellar space, becoming the first human-made objects to enter it. However, they were not the first missions designed […]

How much does a forest weigh? This sounds like a philosophical question, but we will be able to answer it soon thanks to the European Space Agency’s Biomass spacecraft. The mission possesses a special radar that can map woodland areas from space. Now, it has released its first-ever images, and they cover more than just […]

It might look like a prehistoric gummy bear, but this palm-sized figurine is an exceptional piece of art and a mysterious outlier in both time and place. The figurine was found in December 2022 near Kołobrzeg in northern Poland near the Baltic coast. Archaeologists have carefully pored over the object for a couple of years, […]

On Monday (June 23), Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rocket into low-Earth orbit from the Space Launch Complex at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The dedicated rideshare mission contained 70 payloads, including a few unusual and notable experiments, as well as human remains. Unfortunately for researchers and families of the deceased, the […]

Mercury is an odd little planet. The closest world to the Sun has some extreme surface structures, steep hills and cliffs, which have long been suspected to be the effect of the planet’s interior cooling and shrinking. However, certain features cannot be explained by shrinking alone, and a team of researchers suspects that the Sun’s […]

Who owns the Moon? If you ask a hippy or a space lawyer, the answer is pretty clear: nobody. But according to Dennis Hope, the answer is “Dennis Hope” and “anyone Dennis Hope sells the Moon to”. The latter category, according to Hope, includes presidents Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush. In 1967, […]