If you’ve seen photos of the Los Angeles reservoir covered in millions of black balls, you might have wondered two things. One: what the heck are they? And two… could you swim in them? Derek from Veritasium recently answered the first question in a video that went viral, with more than 32 million views and
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Opportunity’s final message home is not much to look at on its own. If you’re old enough to remember film cameras, it looks like the final exposure on a roll of film, developed but partly missing. It’s a suitable epitaph for Opportunity’s mission. Opportunity captured this image with the left half of its PanCam, or
The origins of the Solar System’s heavy elements such as gold and platinum have been a source of great interest to astronomers. One of the most popular theories is that they were scattered into space by neutron star collisions. New research, however, has found another origin: an oft-overlooked type of star explosion, or supernova. These,
The particle known as a Majorana fermion is as mysterious and uncontrollable as it is unique. It’s the only known particle that is also its own antiparticle, and has properties that make it an alluring candidate for qubits, the basic unit of information in a quantum computer. Harnessing that potential, however, is easier said than
Late last month scientists undertook a pretty amazing feat, successfully installing five automated weather stations across the Himalayan region, including the highest weather station in the world, near the very top of Mount Everest. In a long-form feature by National Geographic writer Freddie Wilkinson, the international team explain how they battled extreme weather, record crowds
Here on Earth we’re making big plans to send the first humans to Mars, but it looks like Starfleet may have gotten there first. In the expanse of the Hellas Planitia, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has photographed a huge formation in the shape of the organisation’s famous chevron logo. “Enterprising viewers will make the discovery
Earth’s temperatures are on track to blow past the objectives set in the Paris climate agreement. Last year was the fourth warmest on record for surface temperatures and the hottest ever for oceans. A recent report from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) found that nations around the globe must implement “rapid
Thanks to the far-reaching optics of the Hubble telescope, and some smart visible-light spectral analysis, scientists have detected what looks a lot like sodium chloride – or good old table salt – on Jupiter’s moon Europa. That means the salty ocean hidden just beneath the surface of this moon could be more like Earth’s oceans
Antlia 2, the “ghost of a galaxy” orbiting the Milky Way, is a dark horse in more ways than one. Not only is it so faint it was only just discovered last year, it may now be responsible for curious ripples in the hydrogen gas that makes up the Milky Way’s outer disc. According to
Smartphone addiction does not seem like a questionable thing to believe in. It exists. Surely it does, doesn’t it? After all, there’s a Wikipedia page on it. The New York Times writes about it. There are even claims it’s killing us, that smartphones are destroying an entire generation. But while nobody is saying we should be spending
It’s really not uncommon for human babies to be born with extra fingers or toes. The mutation is called polydactyly, and around one in 500 babies has it. These extra digits are considered useless, and usually amputated not long after birth – but as new research has shown, they may not be quite so bad
A new superconducting magnet has briefly sustained an astonishing 45.5 tesla magnetic field intensity. For comparison, your flimsy fridge magnets have about 1 percent of a single tesla. The measurement, achieved by researchers at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (MagLab) at Florida State University resets the bar on what’s possible in direct current magnetic
Breast feeding can be difficult for many new mums, but it could be argued that a 29-year-old in Austria had it much worse. It wasn’t just her breasts that were swelling, sore, and producing milk – it was also her vulva. The doctors at the Obstetrics and Gynecologic Endocrinology section of the Kepler University Hospital
Carnivorous plants are known for being brutal and opportunistic predators, but an unexpected and fascinating discovery in Canada has proved especially gruesome. Described as a “WTF moment” by researchers, it appears that pitcher plants in the wetlands of Ontario are not just luring in insects and spiders. They are also regularly capturing and devouring vertebrates.
As rain deluged the Midwest this spring, commercial fisherman Ryan Bradley knew it was only a matter of time before the disaster reached him. All that water falling on all that fertilizer-enriched farmland would soon wend its way through streams and rivers into Bradley’s fishing grounds in the Gulf of Mexico, off the Mississippi coast.
Bitcoin and the blockchain may seem like puzzling new technological concepts, but the central tenet of this cutting-edge cryptocurrency goes back way longer than you might believe. Strange as it may seem, bitcoin has a kind of bizarro historical analogue in an ancient currency system dating back hundreds of years: giant stone disks called rai,
We know humans have been using cannabis for various purposes for thousands of years, but its history as a drug has been a little harder to pin down. Now have a new point of reference: Around 2,500 years ago, the people of Central Asia were smoking psychoactive cannabis at funerals. Specifically, archaeologists have found traces
In the beginning, life was simple. Then, about half a billion years ago, biology got complicated. Identical cells shrugged off the shackles of conformity and divided up the chores between them, evolving into the first members of the animal kingdom. Exactly what this animal prototype looked like has long been the subject of debate. A
It was the year 2000 and scientists had never seen anything like it: astronomers reported evidence of “superflares” on distant stars – solar outbursts many thousands of times more energetic than typical solar flares. As researchers observed over subsequent studies, these intense eruptions were more common on young, rapidly rotating stars, and on stars exhibiting
Simultaneous heat waves scorched land areas all over the Northern Hemisphere last summer, killing hundreds and hospitalizing thousands while intensifying destructive and deadly wildfires. A study published this week in the journal Earth’s Future concludes that this heat wave epidemic “would not have occurred without human-induced climate change.” The alarming part? There are signs record-setting
If you had asked a botanist just a few years ago how many plant species have perished in modern times, their estimate would probably number fewer than 150. The most exhaustive study thus far has now quadrupled that amount. Ever since 1753, when Carl Linnaeus “the father of modern taxonomy” put together his classification of plant
Despite being grown and consumed for over two decades, there’s still a huge amount of misinformation and confusion that surrounds genetically modified (GM) foods. Researchers tell us to ignore the myths about GM foods, given the overwhelming scientific consensus that GM crops are safe to eat and deliver huge benefits in farming. While the evidence
The crust of floating ice that forms over Antarctica’s Weddell Sea every winter is home to a baffling mystery. Every now and again, a huge hole will appear, exposing the dark, icy waters below. Why do the holes appear in some years and not others? Why do they appear at all? It’s never really been
The Moon is home to one of the largest known impact craters in the Solar System. At 2,500 kilometres (1,550 miles) across, the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the Moon’s far side covers nearly a quarter of the lunar surface – and there’s something massive buried beneath it. We can’t see it from here on Earth,
A huge wolf head preserved since the last Ice Age has been found in incredible condition in Siberia, an estimated 40,000 years since being entombed in frozen wilderness. The giant head, discovered by a local man in 2018 along the shores of the Tirekhtyakh River in the Russian Republic of Sakha (aka Yakutia), measures a
Flooding swamped parts of the Southeast over the weekend, with as much as a foot of rain falling in western North Carolina. At the same time, the Mississippi River continued its long-lasting assault on communities along its banks. Near St. Louis, the crest over the weekend was the second-highest on record. Just the latest high-water
NASA just announced that it will officially allow regular citizens – not just certified astronauts – on board the International Space Station, as well as commercial and marketing activities. Tickets to the ISS won’t come cheap. NASA will be charging private companies about US$35,000 a night for use of the station’s facilities, according to The
Two months before the Apollo 11 mission landed on the Moon for the first time, another NASA capsule snuck tantalisingly close – only to become lost for decades. The Apollo 10 mission was supposed to be a “dry-run“, in which all operations except the actual lunar landing were performed. With two popular cartoon characters as the
At the turn of the 20th century, influential German psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin noticed a curious pattern among his patients. Some liked to rise early and go to bed early, while others found they were more productive if they stayed up late and slept in the next day. Drawing on years of systematic clinical research, psychological
Around 1.2 billion years ago, the biggest asteroid ever to hit the British Isles is thought to have slammed into Earth. Now, experts have identified where the exact impact point may have lain hidden this whole time. The spot in question is estimated to be about 15 to 20 kilometres (9 to 12 miles) off Enard
To sleep or to snooze? You probably know the answer, but you don’t prefer it. Most of us probably use the snooze function on our alarm clocks at some point in our lives. Just a few more minutes under the covers, a time to gather our thoughts, right? While such snoozing might seem harmless, it
Whenever scientists announce an upcoming close encounter with an asteroid, certain corners of the internet light up like the synaptic rush that accompanies a meth binge, with panicky headlines shouted straight from the brain stem. But never mind that. We’re not that corner of the internet. We’re sober, yo! The fact of the matter is,
For nearly 20 years, scientists have debated the viability of an EM Drive, a hypothetical type of engine that could propel a spacecraft without the need for any fuel. If that sounds too good to be true, that’s because it probably is – a working EM Drive would literally break one of the foundational laws
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos says there’s a very simple reason his other company, Blue Origin, is working on a giant lunar lander to make moon travel as easy as an aeroplane flight: Humanity’s very survival relies on colonizing space, starting with the moon. So he told attendees during his time on stage Thursday at Amazon’s
Mountains are some of the mightiest geographic features on our planet, and no two ranges are the same. Some have soaring peaks, ragged ridges, and deep ravines, while others gently roll away in wavy hills and wide valleys. No matter where they appear, or even how, their branched structures share a universal similarity, and that
How much of your chocolate buying is based on taste, and how much is based on the shininess of its wrapping? A new study backs up what we’ve long suspected – the way chocolate is packaged creates a stronger emotional pull than what it actually tastes like. And while the chocolate we buy in the
Meteorologists in Southern California got a strange surprise on Tuesday night when they spotted a huge blob on the National Weather Service radar. Appearing to be about 130 by 130 kilometres (80 miles), it was moving southward over San Bernardino County. “It was very strange because it was a relatively clear day and we weren’t
New research has revealed a previously unknown source of magnetism deep within our planet’s stupidly hot, squishy layers. Far from being magnetically dead, some of Earth’s mantle might have pockets of iron oxide (Fe2O3) with enough magnetic pull to have a real effect. A research team made up of scientists from around the globe has
On 25 May 2019, a strange, double-asteroid (1999 KW4) flew past Earth at a distance and speed that is likely to make a lot of people nervous. As always, there was no danger, since the asteroid passed Earth at a minimum distance of 5.2 million km (3.23 million miles), over 15 times greater than the
Imagine being a jellyfish just swimming along, minding your own business, when suddenly you’re taken for a nauseating ride in a wildly spinning vortex. This is exactly what happened to a poor creature in Spain, and photographer Victor Devalles managed to capture every moment of it. In fact, Devalles is the one who sort of,
On average, 8.8 million tons of plastic enters the ocean every year. The maximum amount could be closer to 14 million tons – about the weight of 2 million elephants. Most plastics take hundreds of years to break down. And even then, they just splinter into very small pieces called microplastics, which will likely never
The dragonfish is a top predator at the bottom of the sea. A bioluminescent lure on its head and spots on its belly beckon prey, like a lantern draws in moths. The rest of its body, as long as a pencil and almost as slender, is an inky black that blends in with water deeper
As a rule, your brain’s activity doesn’t influence the physiological development of your sex cells. In simpler terms: What you ‘think’ can’t be inherited. But now it looks like we may need to rethink this rule for at least one species. The activity of nematode neurons has been shown to influence the foraging behaviour of
A colossal magnetic field stretching between two clusters of galaxies has been observed for the first time. Roughly a billion light-years away, the ‘bridge’ of radio-emitting plasma spans 10 million light-years, following a filament in the mysterious cosmic web that connects the Universe. The space between clusters of galaxies isn’t completely dark and empty. Long
The most remote location on Earth has many names: It’s called Point Nemo (Latin for ‘no one’) and the Oceanic Pole of Inaccessibility. Most precisely, its exact coordinates are 48 degrees 52.6 minutes south latitude and 123 degrees 23.6 minutes west longitude. The spot is about 2,250 km (1,400 miles) from any spot of land
Humans have spread microplastics to virtually every ecosystem on the planet, from the deepest chasms in the sea to the most remote wilderness on land. Today, there is nowhere left to hide, and each year, we humans receive a hearty dose of our own medicine. From what little we know about microplastics in air, food and water, Canadian
Feathers are not simply the domain of birds, nor did they arise solely for flight. New research on China’s rich fossil record suggests instead that these structures arose 100 million years before birds, and maybe even before dinosaurs themselves. The breakthrough came late last year, when researchers were studying two new fossilised pterosaurs in China.
How far can the human body be pushed? It’s a question you might ask yourself on a 5K run, or an early morning gym session, but a new study says there is a definite limit to human endurance – beyond which our bodies start breaking down. For long-term levels of exertion, that limit is burning
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