This week a tap dancing spider has been rediscovered in Portugal after 92 years, scientific evidence sees a conviction overturned for a mother jailed for killing her four children, and mysterious green “ghosts” appearing in Earth’s upper atmosphere have been explained. Finally, we investigate the gruesome history of tooth transplants.
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Voyager 1 Sends Back Repeating Patterns Of 1s And 0s From Interstellar Space
Voyager 1 is the second-longest operating spacecraft in human history, losing out only to Voyager 2 which launched a few weeks earlier in 1977. The spacecraft has traveled further than any human-made object, crossing the heliopause and heading into interstellar space. With such a mission, you’d expect the occasional challenge, but now there is a new problem, and it’s a frustrating one. Read the full story here
Tap Dancing Spider Lost To Science For 92 Years Rediscovered In Portugal
Rediscovering previously lost to science species is becoming a bit of a hot topic at the moment and shows no sign of slowing down. After the rediscovery of Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna, the team at Re:wild’s Search for Lost Species project are at it again, and this time they’ve found a tap dancing spider in Portugal. Read the full story here
A Previously Unknown Prehistoric “Lost World” Has Been Hiding Out On Earth
Microbial communities known as stromatolites have been found in previously unstudied lagoons in Patagonia. Fossilized stromatolites represent some of the earliest evidence for life on Earth, and while these are not the only survivors today, they resemble the fossils in ways no other known examples do. Read the full story here
Mother Jailed For Killing Her 4 Children Has Convictions Quashed Thanks To Science
After spending over two decades behind bars, Kathleen Folbigg’s convictions for killing her four children have now been quashed thanks to scientific evidence that suggested they died as a result of rare genetic conditions, not murder or manslaughter. Read the full story here
Mysterious Green Lightning “Ghosts” Of Earth’s Upper Atmosphere Have Finally Been Explained
Among the menagerie of types of glowing upper atmospheric phenomena, one has been named the “green ghost”. The first spectral imaging of one such ghost reveals the presence of iron and nickel in dust falling on the planet at the right time for electrical storms to produce an other-worldly glow. Read the full story here
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Feature of the week:
The Horrific History Of Tooth Transplants
Transplants are an amazing feat of medical science – but have you ever wondered why you never really hear about teeth from human donors being transplanted? It turns out the history of this procedure, known as a tooth allotransplant, is actually pretty gruesome. Read the full story here
More content:
Have you seen our free e-magazine, CURIOUS? Issue 17 December 2023 is out now. Check it out for exclusive interviews, book excerpts, long reads, and more.
PLUS, check out season 3 of IFLScience’s The Big Questions Podcast, so far we’ve asked:
• How Is Climate Change Affecting Polar Bear Populations?
• Why Is Space Junk Such A Big Deal?
• Can We Save A Species On The Very Brink Of Extinction?
• How Does A Quantum Computer Work And How Will They Change The World?
• What Is Space Weather And How Does It Affect Us?
• What Can Ancient Ice Tell Us About The Future?
• Are E-Fuels The Future Of Aviation?
• How Are Glaciers Changing In A Warming World?
• Are We Ready For The Next Massive Solar Flare?
Source Link: Voyager 1 Sends Repeating Message From Interstellar Space, A Prehistoric “Lost World" Has Been Hiding Out On Earth, And Much More This Week