This Simple Gummy Bear Experiment Is The Perfect Way to Teach Complex Genetics
Say a red gummy bear has a baby with a yellow gummy bear – what percentage of red and yellow do the parents give to their children? Well, assuming gummy…
The Pandemic Has Made Dating Difficult, Even For a Rhinoceros
A lonely rhinoceros at a Bangladesh zoo is looking for new love after losing her partner seven years ago, but pandemic travel restrictions are hampering her keeper’s attempts to play…
Seagrass Is Doing Us All a Favor And Trapping Our Plastic in Balls
Underwater seagrass in coastal areas appear to trap bits of plastic in natural bundles of fibre known as ‘Neptune balls’, researchers said Thursday. With no help from humans, the swaying…
We Need to Talk About The Rapid Decline in Insects Around The World
Apocalypse or revolution? Depending on the study making headlines, insect numbers around the world are either in dramatic freefall or simply an alarming state of flux, with some species even…
If Wormholes Are Lurking in Our Universe, This Is How We Could Find Them
Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity profoundly changed our thinking about fundamental concepts in physics, such as space and time. But it also left us with some deep mysteries. One…
Scientists Surprised by Geckos Lighting Up Desert Nights With Neon-Green Sides
A desert gecko from Namibia has brilliant glow-in-the-dark markings that shine neon green by the light of the moon. The mechanism that produces its glow has never been seen before…
For The First Time, Electric Eels Have Been Seen Hunting And Zapping Prey as a Group
Electric eels appear to not be the loners we thought they were. In a small lake deep in the Amazon River basin in Brazil, scientists have for the first time…
Octopuses May Be Adapting to The Rising Acidity of Our Oceans, Study Suggests
We know that all the excess CO2 we’re pumping into the air – alongside a host of other damaging effects – is driving up the acidity of the oceans as…
For The First Time, a New State of Matter Has Been Observed in a Thread of Quantum Gas
Physicists have observed a new state of matter at work inside an elusive thread of quantum gas. The gossamer-thin strings of gas capable of binding giants sound items worthy of…
Our Forests Are on Track to Hit a Crucial Climate Tipping Point by 2050, Scientists Warn
Forests and other land ecosystems today absorb 30 percent of humanity’s CO2 pollution, but rapid global warming could transform these natural ‘sinks’ into carbon ‘sources’ within a few decades, opening…
Could We Extract Energy From a Black Hole? Scientists Propose a Wild New Plan
For decades, scientists have wrestled with a complex mystery of physics: Could the immense amounts of energy theoretically produced by rotating black holes ever be tapped by human hands? If…
Research Finds There’s More Than One Type of Curiosity. Which Do You Have?
Curiosity affects everything from our relationships to our education, but it’s not easy to pin down and put under a microscope to study. With the help of Wikipedia though, researchers…
Humanity Is Hurtling Into a ‘Ghastly Future’ It Doesn’t Comprehend, Scientists Warn
The emergency is not invisible. But that doesn’t mean we can see it. After decades of inaction and ineffective action on biodiversity decline, climate change, and pollution, civilisation stands on…
Calculations Show It’ll Be Impossible to Control a Super-Intelligent AI
The idea of artificial intelligence overthrowing humankind has been talked about for many decades, and scientists have just delivered their verdict on whether we’d be able to control a high-level…
Earliest Animal Cave Art on Record Has Been Found in Indonesia, And It’s Adorable
The oldest-known animal drawing in the world is a 45,500-year-old depiction of a hairy, warty pig on a cave wall in Indonesia, a new study finds. The mulberry colored painting,…
Dire Wolves May Have Been Lonely Survivors of an Ancient Lineage
The ancient, extinct dire wolf may have been among the lonest of the wolves – so genetically distinct from its closest wolf relative that it could no longer interbreed, forcing…