January 2019 - Science News

We now know the horrifying reason sonar makes these whales beach themselves

Since the 1980s scientists have spotted a link between naval sonar systems and beaked whales seemingly killing themselves – by

The risks of advanced AI are real. We need to act before it’s too late, warn experts

Artificial intelligence can play chess, drive a car and diagnose medical issues. Examples include Google DeepMind’s AlphaGo, Tesla’s self-driving vehicles,

We just got new clues about the ‘Denisovans’, ancient humans who live on in our DNA

We know that some modern human genomes contain fragments of DNA from an ancient population of humans called Denisovans, the

Massive Study Shows the ‘Us and Them’ Division Is a Myth, Don’t Buy into It

Those of us who pay even a little bit of attention to the news would probably agree that today, the

Scientists have detected an enormous cavity growing beneath Antarctica

Antarctica is not in a good place. In the space of only decades, the continent has lost trillions of tonnes

This mighty bird deserves a medal for being dad of the year

The photo above is not depicting some ten-legged mutant bird as some of our Instagram commenters have suggested. It’s also not

Black hole jets could be fueled by strange ‘negative energy’, astronomers find

When a black hole is actively feeding, something strange can be observed: enormously powerful jets of plasma shoot from its

Scientists think they’ve finally figured out how LSD alters our consciousness

Since its discovery in 1938, the drug LSD — that’s lysergic acid diethylamide — has puzzled researchers. They knew the drug

The difference between the sexes is written into our bones, even after cremation

Long after your flesh is dust and your stories forgotten, your bones will whisper secrets about your life. Future archaeologists

This Is What Life in -40 Degrees Actually Feels Like

The fact of the matter is I don’t know exactly how cold it got at my house today. The mercury

Archaeologists have discovered a lost metropolis in South Africa

What was once thought to be a scattering of ancient stone huts on the outskirts of Johannesburg, South Africa, has

A life-threatening ‘snow squall’ just hit the US East Coast – here’s what that means

New Yorkers looking out the window this afternoon were met with a windy wall of snow. That was a “snow

Scientists have found a way to convert human brain signals directly into speech

In the first experiment of its kind, scientists have been able to translate brain signals directly into intelligible speech. It

The scientific reason Yoda is wiser than Spock

One of them is a little green gnome-like figure. The other is half-human, half-Vulcan. Both have pointy ears and considerable

It Could Take Joshua Tree National Park 300 Years to Recover From The Past 35 days

Few national parks have been hit harder by the government shutdown than Joshua Tree National Park, a nearly 800,000-acre protected

Our environment is turning these adorable birds into violent, brain-eating killers

Every spring in the Netherlands, the resident great tits (Parus major) build their nests in tree cavities, hatch their young,

Australia is so hot right now snakes are seeking refuge in the worst possible places

In Australia, snakes sometimes slither into suburban backyards and homes. When the weather gets warm, they lounge in the sun.

An unexpected new measurement of the Universe suggests we need to update our physics

For the first time, astronomers have used supermassive black holes from just after the Big Bang to measure the expansion

Here’s the real connection between the brutal polar vortex and global warming

A record-breaking cold wave is sending literal shivers down the spines of millions of Americans. Temperatures across the upper Midwest

Apple just shut down FaceTime Group Calls Due to a huge Security Flaw

Apple disabled its Group FaceTime feature in iPhones after multiple reports that users could initiate a FaceTime call and begin

Scientists invent a flexible device that converts Wi-Fi signals into electricity

We can probably all agree that charging cables are just the worst, and that we’d love to have fewer of

This experiment will run for 500 years. Now, we have the very first results

Normally, after running a five-year experiment, scientists might pat each other on the back in earnest recognition of having finally

These intricately carved drums may hold a geometric secret from the time of Stonehenge

Today, art and science are often seen as two wildly different pursuits. Historically, the pair are not always so easily

Astronomers have detected a curious object at the edge of our Solar System

For over 70 years, scientists have been predicting the existence of a certain kind of object in the outer Solar

Nobel prize winner reportedly knew about gene-edited babies months before it was announced

He Jiankui, the Chinese researcher who drew wide criticism when it emerged that he gene-edited several human babies, told an

Arctic landscapes hidden for more than 40,000 years are starting to emerge

Climate change is pulling back the curtain and exposing an Arctic landscape not seen by the Sun in 40,000 years

The polar vortex is about to bring a ‘brutal’ and ‘dangerous’ cold to parts of the US

The most severe outbreak of frigid arctic air in years is set to surge over the Upper Midwest and Great

Don’t kiss or snuggle hedgehogs, CDC researchers warn

Quite a bit of news dropped on Friday, so you may have missed a hedgehog-related alert that the Centers for Disease Control and

World’s oldest Nobel Prize winner says his new device will give clean, cheap energy

Arthur Ashkin, the world’s oldest Nobel Prize winner, favours comfort over style. When I met him in his New Jersey

Researchers say they’ve figured out why people reject science, and it’s not ignorance

One of the biggest cultural shifts in recent years is the rise of fake news – where claims with no

Earth could be crushed to the size of a soccer field by particle accelerator experiments, says astronomer

Martin Rees, a well-respected British cosmologist, made pretty bold statement late last year when it comes to particle accelerators: there’s

Meet the peculiar fruit that could soon become as common as a strawberry

The name is not appetising: it’s called the groundcherry. It’s possible you haven’t heard of this fruit, but with some

Scientists create liquid fuel that can store the Sun’s energy for up to 18 years

No matter how abundant or renewable, solar power has a thorn in its side. There is still no cheap and

We just got the best photo yet of the most distant object humanity’s ever visited

Weeks after NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft made the farthest-ever visit to an object, located more than 4 billion miles from

These ‘frozen’ alligators aren’t dead, they’re displaying a creepy survival strategy

The first time he saw them, on a freezing morning last January, George Howard thought the odd-shaped humps protruding from

Astronomers have made a breathtaking image staring deeper into space than ever before

A few years ago, the Hubble Space Telescope did something amazing: over the course of 841 orbits and hundreds of

This daily meal plan could help us sustain 10 billion people by mid-century

Feeding a global population of 10 billion – the overwhelming number we’re predicted to hit by 2050 – will be

Study reveals the types of human Twitter users most likely to spread fake news

The notion that fake news exists in its own universe turns out to be doubly true: One universe is the

Birds can see a ‘colour’ humans can’t. Now scientists have revealed this hidden world

Birds see a very different world to the one we’re familiar with, and now we can get a hint of

Exclusive: This wild paper suggests our reality is just a product of quantum mechanics

A team of theoretical physicists has a mind-bending new explanation for why our Universe is the way it is, and

Can species evolve backwards? The strange science of ‘devolution’

Is devolution possible? Two verified experts answered this question on independent fact-checking platform Metafact.io. Both answered ‘yes’. You can read one