The world’s thinnest hologram could soon be integrated into smartphones
We are closer than ever to producing holograms that’ll make your inner Star Wars nerd hyperventilate into a brown paper bag. In the latest iteration of holographic technology, scientists have…
Your brain is trying to show you the future – and it might save your life
Our brains are pretty good at filling in the blanks when it comes to our sense of perception – often to the point we have a mental movie of an…
The Dakota Access Pipeline has sprung two leaks – and it hasn’t even started operating yet
It didn’t take long for detractors of the Dakota Access Pipeline to have their fears met, with reports surfacing that the facility sprung two leaks in March, leaking more than…
Star Wars turns 40, and it still inspires our real-life space junkies
It was 40 years ago today, on 25 May 1977, that Star Wars first burst onto cinema screens, and from that time the world changed for the better. Star Wars…
Turns out, snakes can hunt in packs, so let’s just all move to Antarctica
If you ever had the misfortune of being hunted by a snake, in spite of everything, you could consider yourself lucky – at least it’s not an entire nest of…
18 Science Facts We Didn’t Know at The Start of 2017
1. Lungs don’t just facilitate respiration – they also make blood. Mammalian lungs produce more than 10 million platelets (tiny blood cells) per hour, which equates to the majority of…
We need a “cunning idea” to make time travel a scientific reality
Literature professor Simon John James and physicist Richard Bower were both involved in curating the exhibition, Time Machines – the past, the future, and how stories take us there. Their…
A new and unusual force in the Universe just got even stranger
New research has expanded on the discovery of a strange phenomenon called blackbody force, showing that the effect of radiation on particles surrounding massive objects can be magnified by the…
“Godlike” Artificial intelligence just officially beat the world’s #1 Go player
By the end of this week, it’s a good bet that the world’s best player of the ancient Chinese board game Go will no longer be a human being. The…
A new type of planetary object has been proposed – and it could explain Earth’s origin
Scientists have proposed that an unknown type of planetary object has been lurking in our Universe this whole time, and it might have even given rise to Earth as we…
Watch the terrifying moment a wild sea lion yanks a girl into the water
The first part of a now-viral video shows a sea lion swimming near a dock in Steveston, a seaside community on Canada’s western coast. The sound of cameras clicking can…
China just extracted gas from ‘flammable ice’, and it could lead to a brand new energy source
For the first time, Chinese engineers have successfully extracted natural gas from icy deposits beneath the South China Sea. Just last year, China’s government announced that geologists had found new…
Scientists have figured out how Everest’s ‘superhuman’ Sherpas overcome hypoxia
The physiology of Himalayan Sherpas has evolved over thousands of years to help them become virtually superhuman mountain climbers, nimbly guiding and assisting others who seek to ascend the extreme…
Naked singularities can actually exist in a three-dimensional Universe, physicists predict
For the first time, physicists have demonstrated that a universe like ours with three spatial dimensions could actually host a naked singularity – an event so intense, the laws of…
These healthy space pups were born from sperm that spent 9 months in orbit
Mouse sperm that spent more than nine months in orbit have been used to produce a litter of healthy mice, giving hope that mammalian reproduction in space colonies could one…
For the first time ever, women in their 30s are having more babies than 20-somethings
For the first time in human history, American women in their 30s are having more babies than women in their 20s, with the average age of first-time mothers sitting at…
Scientists have found a way to photograph people through walls using Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi can pass through walls. This fact is easy to take for granted, yet it’s the reason we can surf the web using a wireless router located in another room.…
The world’s best dark matter detector just delivered its first results
Three years after construction started, the most sensitive dark matter detector ever built has served up its first set of results – and it’s working just as its makers intended.…
The origins of the human spine might have just been found in a 3.3-million-year-old fossil
Recent analysis of a 3.3-million-year-old hominin fossil found back in 2000 has provided researchers with the most complete spinal column of any early human relative – and gives us a…
Scientists have identified 40 new genes linked to intelligence
Scientists have discovered 40 new genes that appear to be linked to intelligence, and the find could help neurologists understand how the human brain develops key functions associated with thinking.…
The oldest hominins could have lived in Europe, not Africa, claims new study
A new examination of two 7.2 million-year-old fossils from southern Europe suggests that humans split off from the great apes several hundred thousand years earlier than we thought. Thanks to…
Researchers have used proteins to create the strongest organic acid ever
Researchers have created the strongest organic acid ever – and the team thinks it could revolutionise how we analyse proteins. The strongest acid on record is fluoroantimonic acid – it’s…
Scientists have stabilised a one-dimensional metallic material in a world-first experiment
Researchers have constructed the world’s thinnest metallic nanowire, creating a stable string of the chemical element tellurium, that measures just one atom thick. The team behind the nanowire says the…
Gravitational waves are permanently warping the fabric of space-time
Researchers have proposed a method for detecting exotic events in physics by looking for the scars they leave behind on the fabric of space. By identifying how objects like cosmic…