Saint Malachy was the Archbishop of Armagh, to whom several miracles were attributed to in the 12th century. In 1139, Malachy went to Rome from Ireland to give an account of his affairs, when he reportedly received a strange vision about the future, including the names of 112 future Popes. His predictions are taken seriously by
Month: October 2019
The scientific community is in danger of overstepping (or may have already breached) its ethical responsibilities in a rush to study and understand the mysteries of the brain via experimentation with artificially grown substitutes, researchers warn. Mini-brains, also known as organoids, have in recent years become a hugely important resource in neuroscience and related
In a breathtaking achievement, physicists have shattered the world record for particle acceleration. In just 20 centimetres (8 inches), they have increased the acceleration of electron beams from 0 to a whopping 7.8 billion electron volts (GeV). This nearly doubles the team’s previous energy gain of 4.2 GeV over 9 centimetres, demonstrating a way
Four hundred photos. 11 minutes. That’s what it took to create this time-lapse of the Earth and stars as the International Space Station (ISS) travelled over Namibia toward the Red Sea. NASA astronaut Christina Koch captured these images. It’s obvious that the circular streaks in the sky are star-trails. But the lights on the
The Antarctic ozone hole hit its smallest annual peak on record since tracking began in 1982, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NASA announced Monday. Although we’re making progress in cutting down on the use of ozone-depleting chemicals, the milestone doesn’t mean we’ve solved the problem, the agencies cautioned. Instead, scientists attribute
The Orionids meteor shower streaks across the sky on Monday and Tuesday nights, bringing about 15 to 20 shooting stars per hour. The meteors barrel into Earth’s atmosphere with unusual speed, travelling about 148,000 mph (238,000 km/h). That means they can leave behind glowing trails of debris that shine in the sky for several
The mating call of the Brazilian white bellbird (Procnias albus) is now officially the loudest birdsong on record: averaging out at a peak of 125.4 decibels, it beats out rock concerts and chainsaws, and is way beyond the level (85 db) considered safe for human ears. While we might not consider courting loved ones
By sifting through pig faeces, scientists in Japan have discovered a new type of virus that could challenge the already complicated notions of how we categorise what viruses are, and what they can do. Unlike living organisms that fall within the three ‘domains of life’ – bacteria, archaea, and eukaryota – viruses are fundamentally
One of the most elusive and peculiar lemurs in the world has just escalated the weirdness. The animal has six digits on its hands, making it the only known primate species to sport a “pseudothumb” hiding in the wrist of each arm. Don’t mistake its hidden nature for uselessness, though. The tiny extra thumb
That’s not a glitch or an artefact – the ‘scratch’ in this beautiful image is in fact an asteroid, streaking across the field of view while the Hubble Space Telescope recently imaged the Crab Nebula. To take an image, Hubble generally has to be fixated on a patch of the sky for a period
Are we alone in the Universe? It comes down to whether intelligence is a probable outcome of natural selection, or an improbable fluke. By definition, probable events occur frequently, improbable events occur rarely – or once. Our evolutionary history shows that many key adaptations – not just intelligence, but complex animals, complex cells, photosynthesis,
At any moment, an earthquake of magnitude 6.7 or higher could ripple through California, leading infrastructure to topple, power to shut off, and buildings to collapse. Scientists expect to experience this “Big One” in their lifetimes – though they’re not sure where or when. So when researchers detected strange seismic activity along a major
In an email seen by express.co.uk someone claiming to be Mrs Trump declares that the receiver could be in line to receive $18million (£13.9million). The email subject is “Good news from Mrs Melania Trump’ though the email is written in poor English. The email begins: “I am Mrs Melania Trump.” It appears to say the US Government
NASA made history Friday morning when astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir stepped outside the International Space Station to replace a faulty battery charger. The all-female spacewalk — the first of its kind “in human history,” the agency said — began at 7:38 am Eastern time as the two American astronauts set their suits to
The sea wastes nothing. When a dead whale makes its final fall to the floor of the ocean, far from the rippling light of the Sun, its mighty carcass becomes a feast for the dwellers in the dark. Such a bounty from above creates a new ecosystem where life can thrive for decades at
From tiny snowflakes to the jagged fork of a lightning bolt, it’s not hard to find examples of fractals in the natural world. So it might come as a surprise that, until now, there have remained some places these endlessly repeating geometrical patterns have never been seen. Physicists from MIT have now provided the
In order to be considered habitable, a planet needs to have liquid water. Cells, the smallest unit of life, need water to carry out their functions. For liquid water to exist, the temperature of the planet needs to be right. But how about the size of the planet? Without sufficient mass a planet won’t
Male and female mouse brains could have significant differences that reach right down to the cellular level, according to a new discovery. Based on a reading of their genetic activity, neurons in a part of the mouse nervous system responsible for aggression and mating behaviours appear to be chemically structured in subtle but distinctly different
In November 1572, a star exploded. It brightened in the night sky, until it was visible to the naked eye – a jaw-dropping phenomenon observed and documented by astronomers around the world, none more extensively than Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, for whom the supernova was eventually named. Hundreds of years later, Tycho’s supernova remnant
Record warm temperatures above Antarctica over the coming weeks are likely to bring above-average spring temperatures and below-average rainfall across large parts of New South Wales and southern Queensland. The warming began in the last week of August, when temperatures in the stratosphere high above the South Pole began rapidly heating in a phenomenon
The Egyptian government is hailing the discovery of more than 20 wooden coffins as “one of the largest and most important” archaeological finds in the past few years. The coffins were found in Assasif, a necropolis on the west bank of the Nile River. Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities tweeted images of the “intact and
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 went missing on March 8, 2014, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board. The families of those on board have been denied closure as the real story as to what happened remains a mystery. However, experts have suggested it could have been machines, not people that
As if we didn’t have enough to worry about, the vast ice sheets of Antarctica are still releasing radioactive chlorine, a new study has confirmed – the remnants of nuclear weapons tests carried out in the 1950s. The good news is that we now know it’s happening, and it could give us some useful
Nostradamus was a French astrologer, physician and foreseer, who is best known for his book “Les Propheties”, a collection of 942 poetic quatrains allegedly predicting future events published more than 500 years ago. In the years since the publication of his prophecies, Nostradamus has attracted many supporters, who credit him with having accurately predicted several major world events. Among some
The Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil’s Triangle, is a loosely defined region in the North Atlantic Ocean, where a number of aircraft and ships have disappeared. The vicinity of the Bermuda Triangle is among the most heavily travelled shipping lanes in the world, with ships frequently crossing through it for ports in the Americas, Europe and the Caribbean islands. Popular culture has
Hurricanes are one thing. Earthquakes are another. But these hazardous events aren’t mutually exclusive, and sometimes one can even feed the other. In a new study, scientists have identified what they say is a new geophysical phenomenon entirely unknown to science – a hybrid entity where powerful storms such as hurricanes trigger seismic episodes that
“That is what NASA just did – the space agency’s probe just drove past it.” This bizarre image reportedly first surfaced in 2015, but Waring maintains NASA, however, never acknowledged it. Waring claims, without foundation, how the original source for the Mars photo “disappeared” from NASA’s Curiosity website. “I had to find this today to
OpenAI, the artificial intelligence development company co-founded by Elon Musk, just built an AI-powered robot hand that can solve a Rubik’s cube by itself. After years of practicing in simulations, the robot hand is finally nimble enough to solve the puzzle about 60 percent of the time, though that number drops to 20 percent when
Exoplanets. They’re very small, and very far away. We usually have to detect them by indirect means. Direct images are rare, and not very detailed. Even working out what’s in their atmosphere is difficult. So you’d think trying to analyse their interiors would definitely be in the too-hard basket. But you’d be wrong. A
A pair of mathematicians from Australia and France have devised an alternative way to multiply numbers together, while solving an algorithmic puzzle that has perplexed some of the greatest math minds for almost half a century. For most of us, the way we multiply relatively small numbers is by remembering our times tables –
SpaceX is really kicking things into high-gear with its Starlink network. The creation of this satellite constellation is central to Elon Musk’s vision of providing high-bandwidth internet access to a global market. Deployment began in earnest back in May with the launch of the first sixty Starlink satellites, with plans to launch an additional
More than 2,600 years ago, strange red clouds over Mesopotamia drew the attention of soothsayers across the land. Their royal reports have now helped confine the date of a severe solar storm that washed over the planet. Based on readings of carbon isotopes trapped in tree rings deposited around that time, astronomers already suspected
Rising atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) is warming our climate, but it also affects plants directly. A tree planted in the 1850s will have seen its diet (in terms of atmospheric carbon dioxide) double from its early days to the middle of our century. More CO2 generally leads to higher rates of photosynthesis and less water
In the lower Ordovician period, 480 million years ago, many trilobites died strangely on the seafloor. Their fossils have recorded it: nose to bottom, in orderly lines, their long spines touching each other – as though carefully queuing, or painstakingly trekking from one location to another. Why they were so arranged has long been
Like an old time carnival show, the Paris Zoological Park’s latest attraction promises a shocking mystery. Dubbed ‘the blob’, the zoo is hoping to draw in the crowds by featuring a goo-like brainless creature with no mouth and hundreds of sexes, which displays an ability to survive – even thrive – when dissected. While
In August, an amateur astronomer detected our Solar System’s second known interstellar visitor, a comet later dubbed 2I/Borisov. Almost immediately, scientists across the globe began training their sights on the object — and now, one has used data collected by the Hubble space telescope to create a stunning video of the interstellar comet. On
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is well aware of a potentially fatal flaw in the company’s plan to use a Moon base as a refueling station, but he’s still hopeful they’ll find the carbon needed to create fuel if they dig deep enough. “Big challenge for Starship refueling on the Moon is finding sources of carbon,” he tweeted on Monday. “Probably
If we’re going to support ourselves on off-world bases then we’re going to need to find a way to grow our own food, and now we’ve got more than a Matt Damon film to suggest it’s possible – experiments run using lookalikes of Moon and Mars soil have successfully produced crops. Interestingly, the Mars-equivalent soil
Scientists have rediscovered an ancient city of the Khmer Empire, hidden for centuries by the lush jungle topography of modern-day Cambodia. Mahendraparvata, sometimes dubbed the ‘lost city of Cambodia’, was an early capital city of the Khmer Empire, a Hindu-Buddhist regime of Southeast Asia that lasted from the 9th to 15th centuries of the common
If you’ve ever studied biology, you’ll be familiar with mitochondria – the organelles often referred to as the ‘powerhouse of the cell’. And you’ll probably be aware that they’re often compared to traditional AA batteries, with each organelle operating as a single unit. But an important new study suggests they’re actually more like the
When you think of fast animals, it’s probably something like cheetahs, or greyhounds. But when measuring in body lengths per second, the arthropod world is unmatched. And now we have a new record-holder – the fastest speed ever measured in an ant. The winner is the Saharan silver ant (Cataglyphis bombycina), and the speed
If you travel to the outskirts of a town called Pulpí in Spain, you’ll find an abandoned silver mine. Descend about 50 metres (164 feet) into it, and you’ll enter a strange, shimmering room quite unlike anywhere else on Earth. This incredible natural space is the Geode of Pulpí, the closest thing in real
In recent years, cosmologists peering back to the very dawn of our Universe have discovered something peculiar. A whole bunch of supermassive black holes – in a time thought way too early for such massive objects to have formed. Exactly how they got to be so freaking huge so quickly is a heck of
Although humans might seem adaptable on Earth, outside of our perfect temperature-, gravity-, and radiation-controlled planet, we’re pretty fragile. Squishy even. So to help us deal with the harsh conditions of the rest of the Solar System, NASA has just unveiled a new and improved spacesuit that astronauts will wear to the Moon as part
NASA and the DLR are making some progress with the Mole. The Mole has been stuck for months now, and NASA/DLR have been working to get it unstuck. After removing the mole’s housing to get a better look at it with InSight’s cameras, the team came up with a plan. The team is using
We’ve just hit another major milestone in the shift towards renewables: in the third quarter of 2019, the UK generated more electricity from renewable sources than it did from fossil fuel power stations, an industry report says. If confirmed, that means the combined energy produced from wind farms, solar panels, biomass and hydropower plants
The theory of evolution by natural selection, first formulated in Darwin’s book “On the Origin of Species” in 1859, is the process by which organisms change over time as a result of changes in heritable physical or behavioural traits. Changes that allow an organism to better adapt to its environment will help it survive and have
When it comes to space, there’s a problem with our human drive to go all the places and see all the things. A big problem. It’s, well, space. It’s way too big. Even travelling at the maximum speed the Universe allows, it would take us years to reach our nearest neighbouring star. But another
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