There’s no easy way to rate dog intelligence. As canine psychologist Stanley Coren wrote back in the ’90s, there’s adaptive intelligence (i.e., figuring stuff out), working intelligence (i.e. following orders), and instinctive intelligence (i.e. innate talent) – not to mention spatial intelligence, kinesthetic intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, and more. Indeed, as animal behaviourist Frans de Waal
Month: December 2017
Stargazers across the globe will focus their attention on the night skies on January 1, when the first and largest supermoon of the new year rises. The New Year’s Day supermoon, also known as the Wolf Moon, is the second in an unprecedented supermoon trio which stated o December 3 2017 and will end on
Superstring theory, which underpins some of Professor Stephen Hawking’s ground-breaking research and hunt for a Theory of Everything, is a scientific hypothetical helping pull together diverse views of the universe. But a team of scientists in the USA using the telescope known as the Very Large Array (VLA) have discovered filaments which are light-years in
A newly discovered asteroid designated 2017 YE7 flew past Earth at 0.80 LD / 0.00206 AU (~308 171 km / 191 488 miles) on December 30, 2017. This asteroid was first observed at Mt. Lemmon Survey on December 28, two days before its close approach. It belongs to the Apollo group of asteroids and has an estimated
The chemically engineered drink allows the body to burn fat without having to cut down on your favourite foods. And now San Franciso company HVMN – pronounced ‘human’ – is taking the wonder drink to the UK. The drink, Ketone Ester claims to produce the same effects as putting your body into ketosis – a
1. The speed of gravity is pretty much identical to the speed of light! This year, for the first time ever, scientists were able to photograph a collision between two neutron stars. By conducting simultaneous optical and gravitational wave observations, they were able to accurately measure the speed of gravity for the first time. 2. A
The most common New Year’s resolutions tend to be vague goals intended to “get your life together” by losing weight, eating healthier food, or exercising more. But most people don’t successfully follow through on their resolutions – largely because they’re so general and non-specific. That’s where science can help. Using specific, science-backed resolutions, you
The German physicist Albert Einstein needed complex equations to describe his theory of relativity, but 18-year-old Hillary Diane Andales of the Philippines does just fine with a pick-up truck, a few cell phones, and Usain Bolt. Andales is the winner of the 2017 Breakthrough Junior Challenge, an annual competition that calls on teenagers across the
The largest full moon of the year will rise in the late evening hours on New Year’s Day to be briefly but intensely lit up by the sun’s rays. The supermoon will be the first major astronomical event to kick off the year and will be soon followed by a combined supermoon and lunar eclipse
A series of low-pressure systems are expected to affect Ireland and the United Kingdom over the next couple of days. The first one is a rapidly strengthening Storm “Dylan,” expected to track northeastwards close to Connacht and Ulster coasts of Ireland on Saturday night and then move toward Northern Ireland and NW Scotland. Status Orange and Yellow
When is the January supermoon 2018? Stargazers heading into the new year are expecting to see not one, but two spectacular supermoons in January. The first of the two, and the largest of the year, will rise in the late evening hours on new Year’s Day – January 1. Unfortunately viewers in the Eastern hemisphere
GETTY Nostradamus 2018 predictions foretell cataclysmic wars and natural disasters Michel de Nostredame, a famed 16th century French prophet and apothecary, warned nearly 500 years ago that humanity is facing global doom. But the world will not end in one swift cataclysm, and conspiracists instead believe that Earth will suffer great natural disasters, deadly asteroids
The shock claim from a leading artificial intelligence (AI) researcher follows a surge in AI capabilities this year. Many predict 2018 may hold a big breakthrough for “transcending humanity”. Stephen Cave, who heads the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence at Cambridge, told the BBC that these developments put our capacity to live safely with AI at risk.
Michel de Nostredame was a 16th century apothecary and seer whose many claims to fame include foretelling the rise of Adolf Hitler and Donald Trump’s presidential election. The prophet from Southern France left his mark on history in 1555 with the publication of his magnum opus, Les Propheties, which many believe holds the keys to
GETTY Meteor showers 2018: Here are the top meteor showers that will take place next year But which ones are worth your time? Here is our definite guide to all the meteor showers happening in the 2018 celestial calendar. Quadrantids Peak viewing: January 3-4 The first major meteor shower of 2018 is usually one of
The winds of change are blowing towards renewable energy, and nations are becoming increasingly more creative in how they can capitalise on the growing trend. At present, the most popular sources of renewable energy come from either solar or wind. Both, however, require tracts of land for their infrastructure. With real estate for wind farms
On January 1 – New Year’s Day – we’ll see the first supermoon of 2018. Different cultures around the world have given various names to each full moon of the year. The first full moon of the year is called the wolf moon after the idea that wolves howl at the Moon. And in
Seven planets which are all around the same size as Earth and may have atmospheres have been discovered, according to a new paper published by scientists from Harvard and Princeton. TRAPPIST-1 is a star system 39.6 light-years away and may be capable of supporting life the report states. The experts wrote: “The presence of an
Nearly half of Puerto Rico is still without power three months after Hurricane “Maria” devastated the island, officials said Friday, December 29, 2017. 45% of nearly 1.5 million customers in Puerto Rico are still without power after a Category 4 Hurricane “Maria” devastated the island on September 20. Authorities had previously reported power generation (standing
Extremely cold, dangerous temperatures will continue across much of the United States and southern Canada into next week, with heavy wintry precipitation continuing across the Pacific Northwest and Northern Rockies into Saturday, December 30. This cold blast is both severe and unusually long, one of the sharpest New Year cold blasts on record. Numerous records were
It’s well established that nuclear fusion – the reaction that powers our Sun – could be the key to unlocking clean, limitless energy here on Earth. But one of the biggest challenges of modern science is how to harness the fusion reaction so that it produces more energy than it consumes. And a new paper claims to
Construction workers in the Jiangxi province were building a school on Christmas Day when they stumbled across the perfectly preserved eggs. Experts were immediately called in to analyse the fossils who dated them back to be 130 million years old. This would mean they date back to the Cretaceous period, which lasted from 145 million
UFO author Anthony Bragalia is trying to uncover the truth about recent claims metal from UFOs was recovered during a top secret US Government UFO inquiry and stored at the premises of an aerospace billionaire in Las Vegas. Mr Bragalia has requested documents under the US Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) after Express.co.uk raised questions
Last month, Dr Josiah Zayner, a former NASA researcher and biochemist, hit the headlines after he became the first person to edit his DNA. Dr Zayner removed a protein that inhibits muscle growth in a bid to gain super strength. However, he says that tests in animals have not shown any real results until six
Hot on the heels of the Flat Earth theory comes the Hollow Earth belief, which is gaining followers. They believe that rather than being magma filled, as it is, it has a huge empty space. At the heart of the conspiracy theory is a staggering claim that NASA is concealing evidence of a huge opening
Sometimes when I exercise, I get hives on my arms or the back of my legs. It’s a bit like when I go near a horse and get an allergic reaction, but without the itchiness and inability to breathe. This puts me on the lower end of the spectrum of having “exercise-induced anaphylaxis,” or
Douglas Vakoch, the president of METI (Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence), an organisation that will send radio signals into deep space in the hope that they will get a response, says that the organisation will send out signals next year in the hope of finally making contact. However, the likes of Stephen Hawking have previously warned it
Scientists have long been intrigued by the physics near absolute zero – the temperature 0° Kelvin, or -273.15°C, where particles reach the lowest possible amount of movement – ever since this limit was theorised. Yet reaching absolute zero has been called impossible: as you continue to remove heat from a gas to cool it, the work
Octopuses are masters of camouflage, but have you ever heard of an octopus that is so good at disguising itself as another octopus that marine biologists didn’t even know it was a separate species? What scientists are now calling the “frilled giant Pacific octopus” has been right under our noses the whole time –
New activity/unrest was reported for 5 volcanoes between December 20 and 26, 2017. During the same period, ongoing activity was reported for 10 volcanoes. New activity/unrest: Agung, Bali (Indonesia) | Bezymianny, Central Kamchatka (Russia) | Kanlaon, Philippines | Klyuchevskoy, Central Kamchatka (Russia) | Pacaya, Guatemala. Ongoing activity: Aira, Kyushu (Japan) | Bagana, Bougainville (Papua New
Getty END OF THE WORLD? We are long overdue a super volcanic eruption and a “big one” quake. According to scores of Nibiru or Planet X believers, led by Christian fundamentalist David Meade, 2017 was the year it would make a close pass of the Earth, wiping us out. So far, it looks like they
Getty Kate and Wills and the UK Government face changes an astrologer claims. Helen Sewell, who writes for journals and websites, has given a prediction of what will happen across the UK as we enter the Age of Aquarius. Mrs Sewell said the new age will probably see us transform fom the pound sterling into
The recording is between astronaut John Glenn and mission control on Earth as he orbited Earth in a space capsule on February 20 1962 as the first US astronaut to do it for an extended period. In the audio Mr Glenn, who calls himself Friendship Seven, can heard describing seeing a “brilliant blue horizon” coming
Alien truth seekers have been celebrating after the Pentagon confirmed the Defense Intelligence Agency ran a £16.5 million five year probe into UFOs called the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Programme (AATIP). The US Government had always maintained it stopped looking at the UFO phenomenon in 1969. The probe was led by former intelligence officer Luis
Large swaths of the United States and Canada are experiencing a prolonged period of extremely cold Arctic air and forecast models call for even colder air to arrive before the New Year’s Day and into the first week of 2018. Conditions will also remain favorable for continued, intense lake-effect snow around the Great Lakes, even
Astronomers are in for a celestial treat as the supermoon, the second of the so called ‘supermoon trilogy’, lights up the sky. The first in the trilogy was seen on December 3 and now stargazers are ready for the second event. And the supermoon on New Year’s Day will be the biggest and closest supermoon
Earth could be plunged into a mini Ice Age in the next few decades, but there is good news – it could override the damage done by global warming. By 2030 comes about, the temperatures on Earth could be so low that the River Thames freezes over during winter, much like in the last little
What is a supermoon? A supermoon is a new or full moon which closely coincides with the moon’s closest point to Earth in its monthly orbit – its perigee. But the new or full moon has to come within 224,000 miles of Earth to be classed as a supermoon. The full moon can appear to
When NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) sent back images of the potato shaped moon Phobos, alien enthusiasts were excited to see what looks like a small white cube on the surface of the Martian satellite. Images from MGS, which was launched in 1996, shows what appears to be an artificial monolith on Phobos. A white
Tropical Cyclone “Hilda,” the third named storm of the 2017/18 Australian region cyclone season, formed Wednesday, December 27, 2017, and hit Western Australia later that day with heavy rain and strong winds. According to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, Hilda was moving at 12 km/h (7.4 mph) almost parallel to the coast near Anna Plains
If your face goes red when drinking alcohol, you’re not alone. More than one in three people with East Asian heritage (Chinese, Japanese, and Korean) experience facial flushing when drinking beer, wine, or spirits. In Asian populations, it is due to an inherited deficiency in one of the enzymes involved in the breakdown of
Asteroid YZ4, which was not spotted by NASA until Christmas Day, will hurtle past Earth at a distance of just 139,433 miles – a stone’s throw in astronomical terms – with the Moon orbiting about 238,000 miles away from Earth. A NASA spokesman said this is the first known asteroid to flyby Earth within one
Known for its “bright fireball meteors”, the Quadrantids are considered to be one of the year’s best meteor showers with ample viewing opportunities in the Northern Hemisphere. They tend to be at their brightest for a few hours compared with other meteor showers which can peak for up to two days. When is the Quadrantid
Black holes are so weird and so mysterious, it’s possible we’re never going to unravel all their puzzles. But this new one is pretty fantastic – the first evidence that supermassive black holes at galactic cores actively shape their environments, something suspected but never before confirmed. Not just that, but they way they do
More than 50 years after they first went up, thousands of faded, obsolete FALLOUT SHELTER signs remain bolted to New York City’s buildings, pointing the way to safety bunkers that haven’t existed for decades. Now, in the first coordinated effort to remove this weathered, misleading signage, city officials are taking down these bleached and
Those in the western hemisphere will experience the supermoon on the first night of 2018 – January 1 – and those living in the Eastern hemisphere will be able to view the supermoon on January 2. This will be the same supermoon but depending on which timezone you are in, it will appear at different
French prophet Nostradamus is believed by some to have accurately predicted the rise of Napoleon and Hitler and the 9/11 Twin Towers attacks. Many researchers of the infamous prophet, who died in 1566, are also convinced he has correctly foretold the current barbaric acts being committed by ISIS in the Middle East including its bid
A juvenile freshwater crocodile that showed up in the suburbs of Melbourne in Australia’s southeast has now been claimed by a number of people who have stepped forward, each saying the animal is their pet. The 1-metre (3.2-foot) crocodile was found on a quiet street on Christmas day, chilling out on a footpath, and no
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