Some People’s Brains Are Wrinklier Than Others, And Now We Know Why : ScienceAlert
The folds of the human brain are instantly recognizable. Snaking ridges and deep furrows give the squishy tissue inside our heads structure and the appearance of a wrinkly walnut. Into…
6-Pound ‘Monster’ Cane Toad Found in Australian Coastal Park : ScienceAlert
Australian rangers have killed an invasive “monster” cane toad discovered in the wilds of a coastal park – a warty brown specimen as long as a human arm and weighing…
Great White Sharks Are Being Scared From Their Habitat by Just 2 Predators : ScienceAlert
There is no sea creature whose name inspires terror – rightly or wrongly – as much as the great white shark. With its sleek body optimized for hunting, its sharp…
Paranormal Activity Is All in Your Head, And This Could Explain Why : ScienceAlert
Night is naturally suited for paranormal activity, with less light and sound to limit the imagination. While the relationship is still murky, new research shows an interesting link between paranormal…
Education Seems to Protect The Gut, Not Just Make You Smarter : ScienceAlert
The different parts of our bodies are intricately tied together, and good health in one area can often mean benefits in other areas too. Take, for example, a potential link…
The Night Sky Is Twice as Bright as It Was Only 8 Years Ago : ScienceAlert
As city folk sleep blanketed by the warm glow of artificial light that surrounds urban centers, stargazers feel the chill of the night sky and see all its constellations being…
Common Vaccinations Could Be One Way to Reduce The Risk of Developing Dementia : ScienceAlert
One in nine Americans ages 65 and over had Alzheimer’s disease in 2022, and countless others were indirectly affected as caregivers, health care providers and taxpayers. There is currently no…
Getting Your Nails Done Frequently Could Damage The DNA in Your Hands : ScienceAlert
Ultraviolet (UV) rays are known to cause skin cancer at high exposures, and yet very little safety research has been done on the lamps used to dry nail polish in…
We’re Getting Closer to Understanding Why Our Moment of Death Is So Peaceful : ScienceAlert
Undergoing a brush with death may sound terrifying. But people who have had a near-death experience (NDE) typically report feeling peace, comfort, and calm throughout the ordeal. Perhaps it’s the…
Echidnas Blow Bubbles of Snot to Stay Cool in The Australian Outback : ScienceAlert
On a hot day in the Australian outback, a koala hugs the cool branches of a eucalypt, while a wombat hides underground in its burrow, and a kangaroo spits on…
Record-Breaking Signal From Distant Galaxy Is Furthest of Its Kind Ever Detected : ScienceAlert
Hydrogen is a key building block of the cosmos. Whether stripped down to its charged core, or piled into a molecule, the nature of its presence can tell you a…
One Part of a Chocolate Bar Is More Important Than The Rest For That Perfect Taste : ScienceAlert
It’s not just the flavor of chocolate that titillates our senses. The smooth texture of the sweet is also a big part of what keeps us coming back for more.…
Mysteriously Deep Snow Covers The Icy Moon Enceladus, But How Did It Get There? : ScienceAlert
Saturn’s own orbiting winter wonderland, Enceladus, could be in the midst of a relative dry spell, according to new measures on the thickness of its snowdrifts by a team of…
More Time in Green Spaces Is Linked With Less Use of Prescription Drugs : ScienceAlert
Frequently spending time in green spaces like parks and gardens could help reduce prescription drug use, according to a new study from Finland. If you’re lucky enough to live next…
Unclassified Documents Say Number of UFO Reports to The Pentagon Is Soaring : ScienceAlert
A new report to Congress says the Pentagon’s task force on UFOs – now known as unidentified aerial phenomena, or UAPs – has processed more reports in the past couple…
Firing a Laser Into The Sky Can Divert Lightning, Experiment Shows : ScienceAlert
Don’t try this at home, but beaming a laser into the sky could avert lightning strikes, according to a new study from a team of scientists who experimented with the…
Fluke Discovery of Ancient Farming Technique Could Stabilize Crop Yields : ScienceAlert
As climates around the world grow harsher and increasingly unpredictable, concerns are increasing over our world’s food security. Already, yields of staple crops like maize and wheat are dropping in…
These Massive Neutron Stars Existed For Less Than The Blink of an Eye : ScienceAlert
Not much can be accomplished in a few hundred milliseconds. Yet for the neutron stars seen in the glints of two gamma-ray bursts, it’s more than enough time to teach…
The Genius Strategy That Made OpenAI The Hottest Startup in Tech : ScienceAlert
The hottest startup in Silicon Valley right now is OpenAI, the Microsoft-backed developer of ChatGPT, a much-hyped chatbot that can write a poem, college essay, or even a line of…
This Oft-Repeated ‘Fact’ About The Moon And The Ocean Is Totally False : ScienceAlert
“We know more about the Moon than the deep sea.” This idea has been repeated for decades by scientists and science communicators, including Sir David Attenborough in the 2001 documentary…
There’s a Simple Way to Offset The Health Risks of Sitting All Day : ScienceAlert
To reduce the harmful health effects of sitting, take a 5-minute light walk every half-hour. That’s the key finding of a new study that my colleagues and I published in…
Sloths Are Stronger on Their Left Side And Scientists Have No Idea Why : ScienceAlert
Sloths are surprisingly stronger than their adorably dopey expressions suggest, which makes sense given they live their lives dangling from trees literally by their bony fingernails. Puzzlingly, in spite of…
NASA Satellite Shows How We Can Track Local CO2 Emissions From Space : ScienceAlert
In 2013, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported that atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) had reached 400 parts per million (ppm) for the first time since the…
Scientists Have Discovered Almost 1,000 Long-Hidden Maya Settlements in Guatemala : ScienceAlert
When it comes to discovering lost civilizations, it’s a pretty big find: close to 1,000 previously hidden Maya settlements have been found in northern Guatemala thanks to LIDAR (Light Detection…
Erasing Your ‘Sleep Debt’ Is Trickier Than Just Hitting Snooze on The Weekends : ScienceAlert
One-third of Americans are wracking up a debt each night that they may never be able to pay back: sleep debt. That’s where the concept of “catching up on sleep”…
Skipping Meals Could Be Much Worse For You Than We Realized : ScienceAlert
In the hustle and bustle of modern existence, it can be all too easy to skip a meal or two. You might even do it deliberately. A new study suggests…
Vegan Diets For Pets Pose Plenty of Questions, Study Finds : ScienceAlert
The impact of vegan diets on our pets’ health produces heated debate from people on both sides. But until now, we haven’t had a formal assessment of the scientific evidence.…
NASA Just Discovered a Rare Earth-Sized Planet in a Habitable Zone : ScienceAlert
When it comes to finding life outside of our Solar System, planets that closely resemble Earth seem like a good place to start. We can now welcome celestial object TOI…
‘Irish Giant’ Finally Finds Some Privacy 200 Years After Body-Snatching Incident : ScienceAlert
After more than 200 years of being on public display, the 7-foot, 7-inch (2.31-meter) tall skeleton of ‘Irish giant’ Charles Byrne is being removed as an exhibit from the Hunterian…
Fathers Have Been Older Than Mothers For 250,000 Years, Study Finds : ScienceAlert
Scientists have discovered a new way to identify the average ages when men and women reproduced throughout human evolutionary history. By studying DNA mutations in modern humans, they discovered a…
The Fall of The Amazon Could Trigger a Global Cascade of Tipping Points : ScienceAlert
Deforestation in the Amazon is nearing the point of no return, and if this ecosystem falls, it could flip from a vast carbon sink to a gushing carbon tap. Already,…
Traveling Back in Time Is Possible Inside Universes That Spin : ScienceAlert
It turns out that time travel into the past is actually relatively easy. All you need to do is make the universe rotate. The famous mathematician Kurt Gödel was a…
ExxonMobil Predicted The Climate Crisis 5 Decades Ago, Leaks Show : ScienceAlert
ExxonMobil – formerly known as Exxon, and one of the world’s leading oil and gas companies – had the numbers on climate change way back in 1977, according to a…
Extreme ‘Rogue Wave’ in The North Pacific Confirmed as Most Extreme on Record : ScienceAlert
In November of 2020, a freak wave came out of the blue, lifting a lonesome buoy off the coast of British Columbia 17.6 meters high (58 feet). The four-story wall…
Oceans Broke Yet Another Heat Record in 2022, Scientists Warn : ScienceAlert
Another year, another climate record broken. In 2022, an international team of scientists measured the hottest global ocean temperatures in human history. That makes 2022 the seventh year in a…
This Female Insect Pokes Out a ‘Penis’ to Penetrate The Male ‘Vagina’ : ScienceAlert
The animal world is full of delightfully odd genitals, from argonauts that detach their own sperm-bearing arm and send it off to find a female to mate with, to echidna…
Milky Way’s Most Distant Stars Found Half Way to a Neighboring Galaxy : ScienceAlert
We all know our galaxy, the Milky Way, is big. Really big. But, exactly how far out does it extend? Where are the outer limits? Astronomers aren’t exactly sure, precisely.…
Mysterious Quantum Phenomenon Lets Us Peek Inside an Atom’s Heart : ScienceAlert
Silently churning away at the heart of every atom in the Universe is a swirling wind of particles that physics yearns to understand. No probe, no microscope, and no X-ray…
This Prescription Drug Appears to Recover Lost Memories in Mice : ScienceAlert
A name on the tip of your tongue. That fuzzy feeling when the fact you learned just yesterday has floated out of reach. Recalling memories and tidbits of information can…
The Great Salt Lake Could Vanish Within Just 5 Years, Scientists Warn : ScienceAlert
If nothing is done to immediately conserve water in Utah, scientists in the United States say the Great Salt Lake as we know it will disappear in as little as…
Lab-Grown Retinas to Restore Vision Are a Step Closer to Human Trials : ScienceAlert
Scientists from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in the US have coaxed light-sensitive eye cells grown in a lab to reconnect after separation, an important step for transplantation into patients to…
The Last 8 Years Have Been The Hottest Ever Recorded on Earth : ScienceAlert
The last eight years were the warmest on record even with the cooling influence of a La Niña weather pattern since 2020, the European Union’s climate monitoring service said Tuesday.…
Study Reveals The Sad Truth of Couples Working From Home : ScienceAlert
The global pandemic has forced entire populations around the world into working from home, often bringing people into close proximity with loved ones and relatives 24/7. According to a recent…
Madagascar’s Vanishing Biodiversity Could Take Over 20 Million Years to Recover : ScienceAlert
The extinction risk to Madagascar’s mammals, including unique species like the lemur, threatens a biodiversity crisis that would take more than 20 million years to heal, scientists warned Tuesday. The…
US Approves First Vaccine For Bees Amid Global Pollinator Crisis : ScienceAlert
Commercial beekeepers in the United States will soon have access to a vaccine that could save their hives from the most devastating disease honeybees face today. The medicine was designed…
A New Test Could Help Find Hidden Viruses We’ve Never Seen Before : ScienceAlert
As the coronavirus pandemic has shown, it’s not just known viruses we’ve got to worry about: scientists and doctors also need to be looking out for new, emerging variants that…
Amazing NASA Video Squeezes Over 100 Days on The Sun Into 1 Hour : ScienceAlert
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center has released an hour-long time-lapse video that shows 133 days of the Sun’s life. The video shows the Sun’s chaotic surface, where great loops of…
Humans Still Have The Genes For a Full Coat of Fur, Scientists Discover : ScienceAlert
Fur is a defining feature of being a mammal. But bald is beautiful for several mammalian weirdos, including dolphins, mole rats, elephants, and of course, humans. Not to mention a…