Light that traveled for more than 8.5 billion years to reach us was the last gasp of a dying star as a black hole swallowed it. Two separate teams of scientists determined that a mysterious glimmer that appeared in the sky in February 2022, named AT2022cmc, was the astrophysical jet that erupted from the massive
Month: November 2022
An ancient bone is helping scientists refine the timeline of humanity’s relationship with our best friends – the canine companions that have brightened our lives for millennia. How many millennia? Well, no one knows for sure. But precision carbon dating is helping narrow it down. A canine humerus recovered from Erralla cave in the Basque
Most species are transitory. They go extinct, branch into new species or change over time due to random mutations and environmental shifts. A typical mammalian species can be expected to exist for a million years. Modern humans, Homo sapiens, have been around for roughly 300,000 years. So what will happen if we make it to
Without strong climate action, forests on every continent will be highly flammable for at least 30 extra days per year by the end of the century – and this fire threat is far greater for some forests including the Amazon, according to our new study. Our research in Nature Communications looked at 20 years of
Used by humans as a stimulant and anesthetic for thousands of years, the drug commonly known as cocaine has been carefully shaped by species of the coca plant (Erythroxylum) over tens of millions of years in an arms race against hungry insects. Knowing just how the plants pull off this feat of chemical engineering would
Cannabis is one of the most widely used drugs in the world. While there are only a few countries where cannabis is legal for recreational use, many more countries have legalized the use of cannabis for medical reasons. Reducing pain is one of the most common reasons people report using medical cannabis. According to a
A study of 26 years’ worth of wolf behavioral data, and an analysis of the blood of 229 wolves, has shown that infection with the parasite Toxoplasma gondii makes wolves 46 times more likely to become a pack leader. The research shows that the effects of this parasite in the wild have been horrendously understudied
Some of Earth’s weirdest fungi, including types of lichen, mycorrhizal, and insect symbiotes, never quite seemed to fit in our current tree of life. But a new genetic analysis discovered that despite the extreme differences between these oddballs, they actually all belong together on an entirely new branch that parted ways with other fungi more
Archaeologists have discovered several ancient mummies in Egypt sporting gold chips where their tongues should be. The auspicious discovery was made at the Quweisna (sometimes spelled Quesna) necropolis in the central Nile Delta. Discovered in 1989, the site is thought to have been occupied during the Ptolemaic and Roman periods, which stretched from about 300
In one of the most polluted rivers in Central America, a vulnerable crocodile species is thriving despite living in waters that have become a sewer for Costa Rica’s capital, experts say. Every day, trash and wastewater from San Jose households and factories flood into the Tarcoles River, which vomits tires and plastic into the surrounding
Today, Mars is colloquially known as the ‘Red Planet’ on account of how its dry, dusty landscape is rich in iron oxide (aka. ‘rust’). In addition, the atmosphere is extremely thin and cold, and no water can exist on the surface in any form other than ice. But as the Martian landscape and other lines
It’s unclear exactly where the myth that humans need to drink eight glasses of water a day came from – but we’ve probably all heard it at some point in our lives. The evidence for this claim has largely been debunked. Past studies relied on people recalling how much water they drank, which has low
Nobody knows who she was, just that she was different: A teenage girl from over 50,000 years ago of such odd uniqueness she appeared to be a ‘hybrid’ ancestor to modern humans that scientists hadn’t seen before. Only recently, researchers have uncovered evidence she wasn’t alone. In a 2019 study analyzing the tangled mess of
Earth is about 29 percent land and 71 percent oceans. How significant is that mix for habitability? What does it tell us about exoplanet habitability? There are very few places on Earth where life doesn’t have a foothold. Multiple factors contribute to our planet’s overall habitability: abundant liquid water, plate tectonics, bulk composition, proximity to
NASA’s Orion spacecraft was placed in lunar orbit Friday, officials said, as the much-delayed Moon mission proceeded successfully. A little over a week after the spacecraft blasted off from Florida bound for the Moon, flight controllers “successfully performed a burn to insert Orion into a distant retrograde orbit,” the US space agency said on its
EMBARGO Friday 25 November 1900 GMT | Saturday 26 November 0600 AEDT Our glorious little blue marble of a planet is filled with an astonishingly diverse array of lifeforms, but some are definitely more peculiar than others. This is particularly true of the octopus, an animal so strange that it regularly invites comparisons to aliens.
Are you one of those people who seems to be forever spraining their ankle? To some extent, ankle sprains are part and parcel of being active. But if it’s happening again and again, here’s what may be going on – and how you can reduce your risk of recurrent ankle sprain. One sprain can lead
Chris Hemsworth, famous for his role as the god Thor in Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, has announced he will be taking a break from acting after being told he has two copies of the APOE4 gene, increasing his risk of Alzheimer’s. Having one copy of the APOE4 gene increases your risk for Alzheimer’s 2-3 times.
For just the sixth time in recorded history, astronomers managed to catch a glimpse of an asteroid before it slammed into Earth. On 19 November 2022, nearly four hours before impact, the Catalina Sky Survey discovered an asteroid named 2022 WJ1 on an inbound trajectory. A network of telescopes and scientists sprang into action, accurately
As the world warms up, vast tranches of permafrost are melting, releasing material that’s been trapped in its icy grip for years. This includes a slew of microbes that have lain dormant for hundreds of millennia in some cases. To study the emerging microbes, scientists have now revived a number of these “zombie viruses” from
Money may not grow from trees, but something even better does. In a new study led by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service, researchers found that each tree planted in a community was associated with significant reductions in non-accidental and cardiovascular mortality among humans living nearby. On top of that, the study’s authors
A newly found exoplanet just 200 light-years away could shed new light on one of planetary science’s strangest mysteries. At around 1.8 times the radius of Earth, the object named TOI-1075b ranks among the biggest examples of a super-Earth exoplanet we’ve found to date. It also sits solidly in what we call the small-planet radius
The United States Federal Drug Administration (FDA) has just approved a new treatment for a rare blood clotting disease, one with a hefty price tag. Per dose, it’ll cost US$3.5 million, making it the most expensive drug anywhere in the world. At first glance, the price is gobsmacking, but a recent analysis on the cost-effectiveness
The ripples in space-time generated by colliding black holes have taught us a lot about these enigmatic objects. These gravitational waves encode information about black holes: their masses, the shape of their inward spiral towards each other, their spins, and their orientations. From this, scientists ascertained that most of the collisions we’ve seen have been
Scientists may have just found a major new clue that could help solve the frustrating and ongoing mystery of the migraine. Using ultra-high-resolution MRI, researchers found that perivascular spaces – fluid-filled spaces around the brain’s blood vessels – are unusually enlarged in patients who experience both chronic and episodic migraine. Although the link to or
Is there anything good about volcanoes? They can be violent, dangerous, and unpredictable. For modern humans, volcanoes are mostly an inconvenience, sometimes an intriguing visual display, and occasionally deadly. But when there’s enough of them, and when they’re powerful and prolonged, they can kill the planet that hosts them. Modern-day Venus is a blistering hellscape.
Just like most parts of the human body, our eyes gradually deteriorate over time. A new study now shows how stress can accelerate this aging process, a discovery that could help us treat eye problems that develop as we get older, including the group of diseases responsible for vision loss known as glaucoma. While the
Many of us rely on GPS (Global Positioning System) to estimate travel times, find our way to new places, avoid traffic congestion, keep track of the kids, and generally avoid getting lost. But it’s not always the most reliable of systems, especially in built-up areas where it’s difficult to get a straight line of sight
The mental fog that can come with pregnancy – commonly referred to as ‘baby brain’ – isn’t merely the result of discomfort, stress, and sleepless nights: A mother’s brain really does seem to change to accommodate the new arrival. A new study by researchers from the Netherlands has uncovered strong evidence of a relationship between
Rising levels of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere could exacerbate efforts to clean up our increasingly cluttered shell of orbiting space junk. According to two new studies, the greenhouse gas has significantly contributed to the contraction of the upper atmosphere. This contraction has been hypothesized for decades; now, for the first time, it’s been actually
Fast-melting glaciers are releasing staggering amounts of bacteria into rivers and streams, which could transform icy ecosystems, scientists warn. In a study of glacial runoff from 10 sites across the Northern Hemisphere, researchers have estimated that continued global warming over the next 80 years could release hundreds of thousands of tonnes of bacteria into environments
In recent years, a growing number of scientific studies have backed an alarming hypothesis: Alzheimer’s disease isn’t just a disease, it’s an infection. While the exact mechanisms of this infection are something researchers are still trying to isolate, numerous studies suggest the deadly spread of Alzheimer’s goes way beyond what we used to think. One
Physicists have long struggled to explain why the Universe started out with conditions suitable for life to evolve. Why do the physical laws and constants take the very specific values that allow stars, planets, and ultimately life to develop? The expansive force of the Universe, dark energy, for example, is much weaker than theory suggests
Researchers dug up two fossils belonging to ancient, flappy, and snouted arthropod relatives from what’s now a sheep field near Llandrindod Wells in Wales. At only 13 and 3 millimeters (about 0.5 and 0.1 inches), these minuscule fossils from the Ordovician period may not seem like much to look at, but their familiarity kept paleontologists
Step outside of the Milky Way for a moment and you might notice the bright disc of stars we call home has a weird warp to it. Now it seems the rest of our galaxy is also a little off-kilter. A new map of the stars above and below the galactic plane shows its galactic
Say hello to ronnagrams and quettameters: International scientists gathered in France voted on Friday for new metric prefixes to express the world’s largest and smallest measurements, prompted by an ever-growing amount of data. It marks the first time in more than three decades that new prefixes have been added to the International System of Units
Parallax is the change in an object’s relative position as seen from two different positions. Mathematically speaking, the relationship between any two observation points and a distant object can be summed up in what’s known as a parallax angle. So long as some of the information is known – such as an angle between the
A fraught United Nations (UN) summit wrapped up Sunday with a landmark deal on funding to help vulnerable countries cope with devastating climate impacts – but also anger over a failure to be more ambitious on cutting emissions. The two-week talks in Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, which at times appeared to teeter
Scientists and government representatives meeting at a conference in France voted on Friday to scrap leap seconds by 2035, the organization responsible for global timekeeping said. Similar to leap years, leap seconds have been periodically added to clocks over the last half century to make up for the difference between exact atomic time and the
A flash of light emitted by colliding neutron stars has once again upended our understanding of how the Universe works. Analysis of the short gamma-ray burst spat out as the two stars merged revealed that, rather than forming a black hole, as expected, the immediate product of the merger was a highly magnetized neutron star
Noticing somebody near you fidgeting can be distracting. Vexing. Even excruciating. But why? According to the 2021 study, the stressful sensations caused by seeing others fidget are an incredibly common psychological phenomenon, affecting as many as one in three people. Called misokinesia – meaning ‘hatred of movements’ – this strange phenomenon has been little studied
There’s a growing body of evidence that galaxies grow large by merging with other galaxies. Telescopes like the Hubble have captured dozens of interacting galaxies, including well-known ones like Arp 248. The Andromeda galaxy is the nearest large galaxy to the Milky Way, and a new study shows that our neighbor has consumed other galaxies
Scientists from the American Bird Conservancy have rediscovered a rare pheasant pigeon that has not been documented for nearly 140 years. Researchers installed camera traps on Fergusson Island, Papua New Guinea, with the results showing the rare black-naped pheasant-pigeon strutting in the images. According to the American Bird Conservancy, the pheasant-pigeon is “a large, ground-dwelling
Tardigrades are tiny, incredibly tough animals that can withstand a wide range of dangers, including many that would obliterate most other creatures known to science. Different tardigrade species have adapted to specific habitats all over the Earth, from mountains to oceans to ice sheets. Their resilience can also help them survive accidental adventures beyond the
Air pollutants kill around 7 million people every year. Much of this pollution is tiny particles suspended in the air which, when inhaled, can cause people to develop heart and lung diseases, as well as cancer. Small particles in the atmosphere also birth clouds, whether they are crystals of sea salt from the Southern Ocean
Nicknamed ‘the Blob’, a large patch of abnormally warm water covering a section of the Pacific Ocean from 2014 to 2016 behaved just like a B-grade horror movie, having a devastating impact on a wide variety of species. A new study on the Santa Barbara Channel off the Californian coast highlights how this environmental horror
The first galaxies may have formed far earlier than previously thought, according to observations from the James Webb Space Telescope that are reshaping astronomers’ understanding of the early universe. Researchers using the powerful observatory have now published papers in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters, documenting two exceptionally bright, exceptionally distant galaxies, based on data gathered
Underneath a temple in the ancient ruined city of Taposiris Magna on the Egyptian coast, archaeologists have uncovered a vast, spectacular tunnel that experts are referring to as a “geometric miracle”. During ongoing excavations and exploration of the temple, Kathleen Martinez of the University of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic and colleagues uncovered the