The Atmosphere of Uranus Is Literally Leaking Gas Into Space
Poor old Uranus just can’t seem to catch a break. Something already tipped the planet on its side, so its orbit is perpendicular to those of the other Solar System…
Plague Inc Develops Game Version in Which You Save The World From a Virus Pandemic
Plague Inc, a game that lets users destroy the world with a novel pathogen, has created a new version of the game, in which players can save the world from…
Quasars Can Trigger Tsunamis That Tear Across Galaxies And Snuff Out Star Formation
It’s well known that quasars are the most luminous galaxies in the Universe, spewing insane amounts of radiation across space as their supermassive black holes rapaciously devour material from a…
Earth’s Ozone Layer Is Healing, Bringing Some Good News on Global Wind Movement
The ozone layer above Antarctica has recovered so much, it’s actually stopped many worrying changes in the Southern Hemisphere’s atmosphere. If you’re looking for someone to thank, try the world…
More People Are Now in ‘Lockdown’ Than Were Alive During World War II
In a single announcement on Tuesday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi almost doubled the planet’s tally of people who have been placed under lockdown to avoid the spread of the…
A Glacier in Antarctica Has Retreated With Astonishing Speed, Threatening Collapse
The ice sheet that sits atop Earth’s deepest land canyon stands on shaky ground. A detailed mapping of Denman Glacier in East Antarctica – the most scrupulous to date –…
This Newly Identified Raptor Hunted With The Terrifying Agility of a Cheetah
A long, long time ago, in what is now the southern United States, several giant dinosaurs, including a relative of the T. rex, were once on the hunt for prey.…
Electric Cars Really Do Produce Less CO2 Pollution
Electric cars absolutely do produce less CO2 than gas guzzlers, a new study has confirmed – countering claims that carbon emissions from the manufacture of electric cars and the production…
Life Begins With Mesmerising Waves Swirling Over Microscopic Bodies, Study Reveals
As life starts, the crazy whirl begins. That’s not poetry or philosophy. It’s science. Once an egg is fertilised, billions of proteins ripple out across its surface, unleashing a dizzying…
Can You Get The Coronavirus From Receiving Parcels or Having Your Smartphone Out?
According to Google Trends, the top two most searched terms about mobile phones this week in Australia were “how to disinfect phone” and “how to clean your phone.” And the…
Lose Yourself in This Absolutely Gobsmacking Image of Valles Marineris on Mars
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) delivers once again! Using its advanced imaging instrument, the High Resolution Imaging Experiment (HiRISE) camera, the orbiter captured a breathtaking image (shown below) of the…
Squids Can Edit Their RNA in an Unprecedented Way, Scientists Discover
When it comes to squids, you just can’t keep them down. Not just because they’re slippery, but also because they have an incredible genetic editing ability – it lets them…
Scientists ‘Reset’ The Age of Stem Cells From a Supercentenarian Who Lived to 114
For the first time, scientists have reprogrammed the stem cells of a 114-year-old woman, the oldest donor to date. After first transforming cells from her blood sample into induced pluripotent…
Just Three Orbiting Black Holes Can Break Time-Reversal Symmetry, Physicists Find
Most of the laws of physics don’t care which direction time is travelling. Forwards, backwards… either way, the laws work exactly the same. Newtonian physics, general relativity – time is…
Superconductivity Has Been Discovered in Meteorites For The First Time
Scientists have found naturally occurring superconducting materials in extraterrestrial objects for the first time, discovering superconductive grains embedded inside two distinct meteorites that crash-landed on Earth. The discovery is just…
Earliest Ancestor of Many Modern Animals May Have Been Found in Australia
The earliest known ancestor of most familiar forms of animal life living on the planet today appears to have been identified in outback Australia, revealing a strange, worm-like organism that…
Astronomers Think They Just Found The Edge of The Milky Way Galaxy
When you’re right in the middle of something, it’s pretty hard to tell exactly how big it is. Like the Milky Way galaxy, for instance. We can’t exactly go take…
The Fragment of an Ancient Lost Continent Has Been Discovered Off The Coast of Canada
Scientists have uncovered a splintered remnant of Earth’s continental crust from millions of years ago, embedded in the isolated wilderness of northern Canada. Baffin Island, located in between the Canadian…
Curiosity’s New Selfie Makes Self-Isolation Seem a Lot Easier on Mars
While we’re on Earth grappling with one of the biggest pandemics in modern memory, NASA’s Curiosity rover is still pottering around Mars, probably enjoying the serenity – just as it…
It Looks Like That Interstellar Comet Came All The Way to The Solar System to Die
A comet that entered our Solar System from interstellar space may not make it out again. As it zooms away from the Sun, 2I/Borisov has been spotted spewing out material…
NASA Suspends Work on The New Moon Mission Rocket Due to Coronavirus Outbreak
NASA said it has suspended work on building and testing the rocket and capsule for its Artemis crewed mission to the Moon due to the rising number of coronavirus cases…
The Diversity of Tropical Forest Carbon Sinks Is More Complicated Than We Thought
Tropical forests are hugely important carbon sinks. We need these beautifully diverse areas to help maintain Earth’s atmosphere – and now, a new study has looked into just how much…
Scientists Find Yet Another Way to Get Qubits Working at Room Temperature
One of the key challenges of getting quantum computing working in a practical and useful way is to do with temperature – being able to put together a machine that…
This Weird Shape Might Actually Be What Our Sun’s Magnetic Bubble Looks Like
Every planet in our Solar System, including our own, is enclosed in a bubble of solar wind, emanating from our Sun at supersonic speeds. The particles making up this wind…
Butterfly Wings Have a Hidden Structure That Rivals Vantablack in Its Darkness
Butterflies have taken the colour black to an entirely new level. The scales that shingle this insect’s dark wings are nearly on par with the blackest of black coatings made…
There Are Striking Similarities in The Way Bacteria And Humans Settle Into Colonies
The way oral bacteria sets up shop in our mouths is not unlike how we humans settle into our cities, a new study has found. There’s a reason bacteria are…
Giant Freshwater Reserve Discovered Deep Under The Seabed Off New Zealand
A rare freshwater reserve has been discovered underneath the sea off the coast of the South Island of New Zealand, which could help head off future droughts and mitigate the…
Earth’s Soil Could Absorb 5.5 Billion Tonnes of CO2 Annually, if We Get It Right
Restoring and protecting the world’s soil could absorb more than 5 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide each year – roughly what the US emits annually – new research showed Monday.…
Even Tiny City Gardens Could Provide Us With Tons of Fresh Produce, UK Study Shows
If the United Kingdom put aside even a small fraction of its urban land to grow fruit and vegetables, it could quadruple the amount of food the nation produces from…
Brutally Hot Mercury Produces Ice Even Though It’s The Closest Planet to The Sun
Mercury has a reputation, one largely informed by where it exists – closer to the Sun than any other planet in the Solar System. That unforgiving proximity means Mercury gets…
The Largest Mass Migration on The Planet Happens Every Single Day, And We Never See It
At night, they rise. As the Sun disappears over the horizon, a vast movement takes place in the world’s oceans, as countless sea creatures begin the long trek upwards towards…
Scientists May Have Discovered The Shape of The Very First Proteins That Started Life
The shape of the earliest building blocks of life dating back as far as 3.5 billion years ago may have been identified, due to a new effort to envisage the…