Humans Actually Have an Irrational Preference For Round Numbers
Would you rather save 90 percent with a product discount, or 91.27 percent? New research suggests that our minds are wired to prefer nice, round numbers over irregular ones, even…
There’s a ‘Desert’ in The Middle of The Pacific. Here’s What Lives There
In the centre of the South Pacific, there’s a place as far away from land as anyone on Earth could ever hope to get. The ocean is different there. These…
Astronomers Finally Have Important Details on What The Centre of Our Galaxy Looks Like
The center of our very own galaxy might be one of the Universe’s most mysterious places. Astronomers have to probe through thick dust to see what’s going on there. All…
A New Study of Dead Suns Finds How Life on Earth Might Not Exist Without Them
Carbon. You might not think about it very much, but you wouldn’t be alive without it. It’s the main ingredient in organic compounds found in all living organisms on Earth,…
Astronomers Detect a Giant Galaxy Lighting Up The Universe Right After The Big Bang
About 370,000 years after the Big Bang, the Universe experienced a period that cosmologists refer to as the “Cosmic Dark Ages.” During this period, the Universe was obscured by a…
NASA Issues Two New Directives to Stop Humans Contaminating Mars And The Moon
It’s fair to say we humans haven’t done a great job of looking after our home planet, and now NASA has published updated guidelines to try and ensure that we…
Neptune’s Moons Are Caught in One of The Strangest Orbits Ever Seen
Life isn’t always easy for astrophysicists: just when they’ve figured out another aspect of the patterns of movement in our Solar System, along come two of the moons of Neptune…
Scientists Detect Earth’s Atmosphere ‘Ringing’ Like a Bell
Just as the Moon tugs at our planet’s seas, contributing to oceanic tidal waves, it also pulls at our atmosphere along with the Sun, creating waves in the sky. A…
A Major Food Chain Shift Appears to Be Happening in The Arctic Right Now
There’s a major change happening in the Arctic. Dark waters are blooming with algae, as sunlight floods spaces long obscured by sheets of ice. Over the past two decades, there’s…
The Most Powerful Gamma Ray Burst Just Corroborated General Relativity Once Again
Last year, scientists detected the most energetic gamma ray burst we’ve ever seen. A distant galaxy spat out a colossal flare in the range of a trillion electron volts (TeV),…
Scientists Are Planning How to Make a Single Authoritative List of All Species
Putting together a list of all the creatures great and small on the face of the Earth is no small task, but scientists have now put a plan together for…
Astronomers Detect Unexpected Class of Mysterious Circular Objects in Space
Although we usually have a pretty good handle on all the different kinds of blips and blobs detected by our telescopes, it would be unwise to assume we’ve seen everything…
Interstellar Travel Could Make Human Language Evolve Beyond Recognition, Study Says
It’s a captivating idea: build an interstellar ark, fill it with people, flora, and fauna of every kind, and set your course for a distant star! The concept is not…
UN Reveals Just How Much Hotter We Can Expect The Next 5 Years to Get
The annual mean global temperature is likely to be at least 1 degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels in each of the next five years, the World Meteorological Organization said Thursday.…
It Could Be Decades Before Emissions Cuts Slow Global Warming, Scientists Warn
Slashing greenhouse gas emissions would probably not yield visible results until mid-century, researchers have said, cautioning that humanity must manage its expectations in the fight against global warming. Even under…
Hundreds of Years of Tree Rings Reveal a Grim Anomaly That Began in The 20th Century
Look carefully, and tree rings can reveal quite a lot – including changes in the soil moisture that the trees are growing in. Now, scientists have collected 600 years of…
Native Americans Voyaged to Polynesia in Prehistoric Times, Genetics Suggests
The birth and development of civilisation on the Polynesian islands continues to be a source of fascination for historians, and new evidence shows that Native American visitors may well have…
Hubble Captures Photo of a Stunning ‘Fluffy’ Galaxy With an Oddly Empty Centre
NASA’s most powerful space telescope, Hubble, captured a uniquely picturesque galaxy in a photo the agency released on Thursday. The galaxy, called NGC 2775, is located 67 million light-years away…
Things Are Really Weird in The Outer Solar System, And We May Have Figured Out Why
Most of the Solar System is pretty well behaved, but in the distant reaches, out past the orbit of Neptune and far from the light of the Sun, things can…