Your Daily Science News Source from Around the Globe
Global warming is beginning to penetrate even the deepest parts of our oceans. While the surfaces of these vast bodies of water have absorbed the vast majority of human-induced warming,…
The ‘penis bone’, or the baculum, is one of the most mysterious structures in mammal biology. To this day, no one really knows what it does or why it’s gone…
The storage and transfer of information is a fundamental part of any computing system, and quantum computing systems are no different – if we’re going to benefit from the speed…
The human brain is a remarkable thing; our most complex machines are not even close to competing with our powers of higher consciousness and ingenuity. And yet, those 80 billion…
A major new milestone has just been achieved in the quest for superconductivity. For the first time, physicists have achieved the resistance-free flow of an electrical current at room temperature…
The world’s most indestructible critter just got even more indestructible. Not content with its existing abilities to survive extreme temperatures, pressures, and the airless vacuum of space, the humble yet…
Making eco-conscious choices at the shops can be tricky when we’re presented with so many options, especially when it comes to milk. Should we buy plant-based milk, or dairy? We’ve…
Old Faithful, the famed geyser in Yellowstone National Park, erupts with such captivating regularity, they named the whole gushing spring after it. Phenomenal bursts of hot water and steam –…
The world’s wealth is built on our planet’s natural ecosystems, and if those collapse, so too might our global economy, experts warn. A new insurance index from the Swiss Re…
A massive World War II bomb exploded during a delicate operation on Tuesday to defuse the five-tonne device in a channel near the Baltic Sea but no one was harmed,…
Every year, for just two short weeks in June, the forests in the southeast US host an incredible phenomenon. Swarms of thousands of male fireflies take wing into the twilight,…
The notion that people in long-term relationships start to look more like each other over time has been around for decades, and is in fact rooted in a scientific experiment…
The German Alfred Wegener Institute’s Polarstern ship returned to the port of Bremerhaven after 389 days spent drifting through the Arctic trapped in ice, allowing scientists to gather vital information…
Many people love squishing their dogs’ cuddly faces while gazing deep into their canines’ soulful eyes to try and understand what they want. But new research suggests our four-legged friends…
An international team of scientists has helped to unravel a longstanding mystery about how rare earth element deposits form underground – and sometimes seem to disappear without a trace. Rare…
An early medieval cemetery unearthed in Germany may not contain “a harem for the hereafter,” as some news outlets reported, but it’s still a remarkable find, likely holding the remains…
Nuclear power is often promoted as one of the best ways to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels to generate the electricity we need, but new research suggests that going…
If any animal understands the horrors of trench warfare, it has to be the mole. Faced with an enemy, there’s no time for pleasantries. No place to hide. Aggression is…
No matter how cute and fuzzy this critter looks, don’t touch it. This toupée-like insect is one of the most poisonous caterpillars in the US. Named the furry puss caterpillar…
When humans are on the prowl for something to eat, something in our brains appears to drive us towards junk food. This is what some scientists call ‘optimal foraging theory’,…
Einstein’s theory of special relativity gave us the speed limit of the Universe – that of light in a vacuum. But the absolute top speed of sound, through any medium,…
Picturing how our species might appear in the far future often invites wild speculation over stand-out features such as height, brain size, and skin complexion. Yet subtle shifts in our…
The ice-covered Grímsvötn volcano on Iceland produced an unusually large and powerful eruption in 2011, sending ash 20 kilometres into the atmosphere, causing the cancellation of about 900 passenger flights.…
The remains of a 1,200-year-old pagan temple to the Old Norse gods such as Thor and Odin have been discovered in Norway – a rare relic of the Viking religion…
Researchers have unveiled details of a new dinosaur species, Oksoko avarsan, which had a parrot-like beak and just two functional digits on its forearms – one fewer than its close…
Pollution off the Pacific shoreline of the remote Kamchatka peninsula has caused the mass death of marine creatures, Russian scientists said Tuesday. Locals sounded the alarm in late September as…
Cats have a reputation for standoffishness, especially compared with dogs, but if you find your feline friend a little hard to bond with, maybe you’re just not speaking their language.…
On hearing that they had been awarded a Nobel Chemistry Prize for their groundbreaking work on gene-editing Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier said they hoped it would inspire a new…
A super rare bird showing both male and female plumage has scientists in Pennsylvania counting their lucky stars. Split down the middle, with one side flaunting yellow ‘wing pits’, and…
While many of the cells that make up our bodies are essentially squishy things, they do have some internal structures that need to (mostly) keep their shape. This includes the…
Preserved brain cells have been found in the remains of a young man who died in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE. The brain cells’ structure is still…
For US astronomer Andrea Ghez, who won this year’s Nobel Physics Prize, what makes black holes so fascinating is how tricky they are to conceptualize. If she’s asked to explain…
Precariously balanced rocks are not only among the most dramatic and eye-catching sights nature has to offer, but they’re also hugely useful in determining the earthquake risk for an area.…
Megalodon was the most massive shark that ever lived, and its gargantuan girth was highly unusual even among sharks, scientists recently discovered. In fact, Megalodon’s gigantism – it’s estimated to…
If you’ve ever watched a wildlife documentary, you’re probably familiar with the scene. Just-hatched baby sea turtles, struggling free of the sand that concealed the nest to make the treacherous…
About 1,100 years ago in early medieval England, a teenage girl met a horrific end; her nose and lips were cut off with a sharp weapon, and she may have…
There are enough resources on this planet to support a population three times larger than today, and still provide a decent standard of living to all, new research has found.…
Scientists have been able to draw power from the thermal motion of graphene at room temperature, potentially giving us a clean future source of limitless energy for small devices. The…
Mirror image is a tricky thing, but it’s pretty clear when you look at words in a reflection, that mirrors flip things horizontally rather than vertically. Or, at least it…
In its 4.5 billion year history, Earth has had to run the gauntlet. Numerous catastrophes have imperilled the planet, from massive impacts, to volcanic conflagrations, to frigid episodes of snowball…
Pity the toads that encounter Asian kukri snakes in Thailand. These snakes use enlarged, knifelike teeth in their upper jaws to slash and disembowel toad prey, plunging their heads into…
From the poles to the tropics, the oceans to our cities, we’ve mapped the fluctuations in temperature that are leading to a climate crisis. But strangely, little attention has been…
As the world warms up, melting ice sheets across the globe are exposing everything from trapped methane gas to Viking remains. Now a new discovery has been made in the…
Archaeologists in Egypt said Saturday they had found 59 well-preserved and sealed wooden coffins over recent weeks that were buried more than 2,500 years ago. Opening one of the ornately…
Worse than a song stuck in your head, negative thoughts that you can’t push away can be highly detrimental to your wellbeing. Sometimes, try as we might to suppress them,…
A windowpane or a tumbler might shatter quite easily, but solid glass is actually a lot more rigid and strong than it technically should be, if we consider its molecular…
One of the greatest mysteries in our Universe is right here on our own doorstep. No, closer – it’s in every fibre of our being. At least 3.7 billion years…
We stride through our Universe with the confidence of a giant, giving little thought to the fact that reality bubbles with uncertainty. But physicists have just served up a sharp…