The Freak Timing Of Our Uranus Visit May Have Misled Us For Years, The World’s Largest Coral Colony Has Been Discovered, And Much More This Week

This week, Ice Age Amazonian rock art has been interpreted and appears to depict shamans spiritually transforming into animals, a 35,000-year-old saber-toothed cub has been found mummified in permafrost, and the first amber fragments have been recovered from Antarctica, providing information about the continent’s ancient forests. Finally, we ask if animal testing is entirely necessary and where we are with other options.

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We’ve Only Been To Uranus Once And The Freak Timing May Have Misled Us For Years

Voyager 2’s visit to Uranus in 1986 occurred just after the planet was slammed by an exceptionally powerful solar outburst. The heightened solar wind compressed the magnetosphere. According to new research, we’ve been treating that squashed magnetic field as standard for 40 years, causing scientists to think the planet has several strange features that are not actually its usual state. Read the full story here

Dazzling Ice Age Amazonian Rock Art Depicts Shamans Spiritually Transforming Into Animals

Arguably the most impressive example of prehistoric rock art ever discovered has finally been interpreted, and the meanings behind the images are truly mind-blowing. Collaborating with Indigenous elders in the Colombian Amazon, researchers learned that the epic collection of ancient paintings alludes to a hidden spiritual dimension that shamans are able to navigate by transforming into animals. Read the full story here

Divers Thought They’d Found A Shipwreck, But This Giant Shadow Is Alive

The world’s largest coral colony has been discovered in the Solomon Islands, measuring a whopping 34 by 32 meters (112 by 105 feet). This thing is so huge it’s even visible from space, and yet it’s been hiding away from human eyes for around 300 years. Read the full story here

World First 35,000-Year-Old Saber-Toothed Kitten Found Mummified In Permafrost

For the first time, scientists have recovered the mummified, frozen body of a juvenile saber-toothed cat from the Arctic permafrost in Siberia. Despite being over 35,000 years old, the sub-zero temperatures have kept the specimen in a remarkable state of preservation, with its fur, head, torso, and limbs still intact. Read the full story here

First-Ever Antarctic Amber Spills Secrets Of The Continent’s Cretaceous Forests

For the first time, amber fragments have been recovered from Antarctica, or, to be more specific, from an offshore sedimentary basin. The fossils mean we now have amber samples from every continent, and provide information about Antarctica’s forests, which were once home to hardy dinosaurs. Read the full story here

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Feature of the week:

Is Animal Testing Necessary – And Where Are We On Alternatives?

Statistically speaking, you – yes, you, reading this right now – are probably not some kind of militant vegan. Chances are pretty much equally low, however, that you’re a complete psychopath – which means that you’ll probably get a bit uncomfortable if we inform you of how every year, thousands of animals are exposed to toxic and painful chemicals in increasing amounts until it eventually kills half of them. It’s called the LD50, or “lethal dose 50”, test, but is it truly necessary to keep humans safe? Or do we now have better options? Read the full story here